# What color was Data (Star Trek)?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-color-was-data-star-trek/490534
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [March 24, 2009, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-color-was-data-star-trek/490534 "2009-03-24T00:58:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2009, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-color-was-data-star-trek/490534/1 "2009-03-24T00:58:57Z")
My wife and I have had a consistent disagreement about Data’s color. I have always thought he was green and she has always stated that he was white. I have to admit, there are times that his skin looks white, but other times it is quite clear to me that he is green. Was his make-up even a consistent color?
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### Author:  [@The\_Batman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Batman)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2009, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-color-was-data-star-trek/490534/2 "2009-03-24T01:03:52Z")
I always thought he was silvery-white. He does seem to get darker and ‘greener’ as the show went on.
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### Author:  [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2009, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-color-was-data-star-trek/490534/3 "2009-03-24T01:05:27Z")
I would have said “make-up white.” It was a sort of deathly pallour in all the episodes I watched.
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### Author:  [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2009, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-color-was-data-star-trek/490534/4 "2009-03-24T01:24:16Z")
I guess I wonder then if his make-up was consistent.
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### Author:  [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2009, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-color-was-data-star-trek/490534/5 "2009-03-24T01:28:13Z")
I’d say that his skin was a light gray, but his uniform and eyes made him look a little greenish yellow in most light.
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### Author:  [@motomoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/motomoon)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2009, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-color-was-data-star-trek/490534/6 "2009-03-24T01:28:55Z")
I remember hearing Brent Spiner talk about the make-up, IIRC it was “lots and lots of gold makeup”.
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### Author:  [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2009, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-color-was-data-star-trek/490534/7 "2009-03-24T01:33:31Z")
Pale yellow.
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### Author:  [@Terraplane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terraplane)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2009, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-color-was-data-star-trek/490534/8 "2009-03-24T02:01:22Z")
Yellow or white, usually a jaundiced mix of the two. I never noticed a green tint at all. I think I’ve seen less than half of the series though, and most of the ones I missed were in the second half of its run, so it could have been in those later episodes.
Or I could just be misremembering, it’s been a while.
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### Author:  [@jkusters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jkusters)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2009, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-color-was-data-star-trek/490534/9 "2009-03-24T02:07:47Z")
My understanding was that he was a pale gold color to match the gold color of his eyes.
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### Author:  [@Amp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amp)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2009, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-color-was-data-star-trek/490534/10 "2009-03-24T02:07:47Z")
It’s that color you find in your kid’s diaper after they eat strained peas and squash.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2009, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-color-was-data-star-trek/490534/11 "2009-03-24T02:24:07Z")
Pale yellowish-white.
Often, though, he’s crouching in front of an electronic display of some sort, and the bluish-green light from the display makes his skin look greenish as well.
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### Author:  [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2009, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-color-was-data-star-trek/490534/12 "2009-03-24T02:29:56Z")
I had heard in an interview that the makeup is gold, which worked great for some of the pilot’s outdoor scenes. Apparently, though, they could never get the studio lighting to have the same effect on the makeup, and his skin wound up looking that pasty yellow/gray/green color most of the time.
I’ll see if I can find a link.
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### Author:  [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2009, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-color-was-data-star-trek/490534/13 "2009-03-24T02:35:42Z")
Wasn’t Data originally supposed to have a blue uniform, but it clashed with the makeup so badly they switched to yellow?
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### Author:  [@The\_Batman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Batman)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2009, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-color-was-data-star-trek/490534/14 "2009-03-24T03:08:07Z")
If that ever happened, it was never showed. He wore a yellow suit since the pilot.
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### Author:  [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2009, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-color-was-data-star-trek/490534/15 "2009-03-24T03:18:22Z")
Yes, Data was the Spock equivalent and was meant to wear blue, but he looked better in gold so they made him the Operations Manager. Picard and Riker, on the other hand, looked better in red, so they switched the command and operations colors.
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### Author:  [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2009, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-color-was-data-star-trek/490534/16 "2009-03-24T03:20:29Z")
If I had to call it one color he would have been yellow. More accurately, I’d say very pale yellow with a sort of silver clear coat.
Frankly, I never understood the uniform colors on TNG. In the first season, Geordi and Worf both wore red. After that, Geordi got promoted and was transferred to engineering, and wore yellow… and Worf was promoted, but remained tactical officer… and also switched to yellow.
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### Author:  [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2009, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-color-was-data-star-trek/490534/17 "2009-03-24T03:55:45Z")
What do ya’ mean, there’s a system?
Yar was Head of Security, an Operations Department head, and thus wore Gold. Worf started as a “relief flight control and tactical officer”. He was technically in the Command Department, being essentially the 3rd shift command officer and seconding in tactical during All-Hands engagements. When he was promoted to Head of Security, that put him in Yar’s old job, thus the change of departments and change of uniform.
> **[Worf](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worf)**
>
> Worf, son of Mogh is a fictional character in the Star Trek franchise, portrayed by actor Michael Dorn. He appears in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG), seasons four through seven of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9) and the third and final season of Star Trek: Picard, as well as the feature films Star Trek Generations (1994), Star Trek: First Contact (1996), Star Trek: Insurrection (1998), and Star Trek: Nemesis (2002).
> Worf is the first Klingon main character to appe...
Data was mostly golden. I believe there are even lines in the episodes to that extent. They wanted something different than green, to offset him from Spock. Set lighting and film does weird things to colors. I know a guy who built a mockup of TOS captain’s chair and Nav console, and painted it all with the colors used by the studio. In person, it looks off, but on TV cameras it is exactly like the set. So he says, anyway. I haven’t actually seen it.
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### Author:  [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2009, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-color-was-data-star-trek/490534/18 "2009-03-24T05:05:56Z")
I’ve always considered him a golden pistachio.
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### Author:  [@Uncle\_Brother\_Walker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncle_Brother_Walker)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2009, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-color-was-data-star-trek/490534/19 "2009-03-24T05:23:24Z")
Data was baby-shit brown (just kidding!)
I always thought Data was gold. Later, through the seasons, they toned it down a bit. But at the beginning he looked like a $5 hooker from Reno. Later, and even in the movies, at least the makeup wasn’t 3 cm thick.
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### Author:  [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2009, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-color-was-data-star-trek/490534/20 "2009-03-24T08:40:17Z")
Yellow.
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