I doubt 20th Century prosthetic make up would past muster out in the real world away from studio lighting and camera work.
I admit, it does look like he's surgically altered every time he returned to the planet/holodeck. However, I think what was happening was that his hood was meant to have covered his Klingon differences but It was poorly depicted. I don't recall Crusher saying even once that they were altering his appearance. (I could be wrong though as it's been a while since I've seen that episode and it is pretty forgettable...) Yeah, I do sort of address that in my next paragraph, although not in any great depth. I do comment that 20th century makeup tech wouldn't pass muster when used covertly. For Star Trek: The Next Generation's era, I always think of Alan Rickman's Dr Lazarus makeup in Galaxy Quest. As Alexander Dane gets more and more sweaty and stressed, the makeup starts to disintegrate and peel away. I'm pretty sure that Michael Dorn or Ethan Phillips or Tim Russ, etc, would be in the same position if their makeup was left on for long periods of time - that's why their makeup needed to be touched up all the time. There's no chance that their majeup could be used for working undercover, but compare that makeup with the makeup of Star Trek Beyond, or Suicide Squad, or Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 (Kurt Russell's 'young' appearance was apparently 100% makeup with no CGI, amazingly). If makeup technology has come along that much in 20-30 years, what would it be like in another 300-400 years?
We indeed never see Worf's forehead change in "Homeward". What does change is his nose, a back-and-forth procedure that does appear to require medical intervention. I mean, it appears to require that because we initially see Worf at Sickbay, lying down and wearing a forehead device. The device may well be there to make the nose job painless rather than to do anything to his handsome head ridges. But we could also argue it's there to help alleviate his sudden bout of migraine, and neither Crusher nor her Sickbay have anything at all to do with the simple makeup job that changes the appearance of Worf's nose. What's a bit more disturbing is that Worf's "fake" facial hair, worn planetside and on the holodeck, lacks the long whiskers of his everyday moustache. Are we to assume that Worf shaves his proud natural decorations and then has to apply falsies to restore his normal looks? Or can the genuine Fu Manchu spikes be reattached to what remains of his upper lip insulation? Timo Saloniemi
Granted the hoodie hides the forehead, but his Klingon brow is gone too, so it seems safe to assume the surgical forehead rig removed the whole dern turtleshell: http://tng.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/s7/7x13/homeward037.jpg And I doubt this headgear could cover his massive klingon cranium: http://tng.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/s7/7x13/homeward253.jpg Still, the back-and-forth was laughable. Alter him for the mission, leave it that way until he's done with the mission.
Just a thought. Initially when they went down to the planet, the alterations could have been done surgically. Then, after Nikolai surprised Worf by beaming up the planet's inhabitants to the holodeck, could the alterations to Worf be holographic only? After all, do we see him leave or enter the holodeck at all?
Wait guys, don't they just have to keep re-infecting Worf with the Augment Virus from ENT? As I recall, results were pretty quick.
The one and only time when Crusher demonstrates medical knowledge in excess of that of her colleagues? (To wit, Bashir, which is actually pretty impressive.) Timo Saloniemi
How about when Picard and Data disguised themselves as Romulans. They must have used make-up, as they did it while aboard a klingon ship. Picard "Alright Data, I'll do yours then you do mine." Data "Perhaps we should ask one of the klingons for assistance."
They probably did. After all, Klingons do a top-notch job at surgical alteration, too - just look at Arne Darvin. Timo Saloniemi
Doctor Crusher asked Data if his ears came off. He said no. Therefore they had to use makeup on them.
...Apparently, Data was lying out of vanity or irrational angst. http://tng.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x13/datalore_hd_116.jpg What we see Data hold here is identical to his own noggin, save for an opposite-handness phase discriminating amplifier. That is, "Time's Arrow" establishes Lore being a mental southpaw as the distinguishing feature between the two heads - surely detachable ears would be a better marker if they really were a Lore-only feature? In any case, when Crusher speaks of the ears or the foreheads, she uses the word "prosthetic". Semantically, then, whatever Picard and Data do to themselves aboard that Klingon ship, with or without help, is the same thing that Bashir does to Sisko for "Apocalypse Rising". Never mind surgical or cosmetic, it's "prosthetic" in either case. Timo Saloniemi
Time's Arrow should have been Data's last episode. Everybody knows you should quit when you're ahead.
They'd need access to the Augment embreoes or living donors. As those are all dead in the Prime Universe and in the freezer in the Kelvin, no donors. Although...consider that the Genesis Planet was made from the torpedo, the nebula, the Reliant and *dun dun dun* Augment DNA. Everything on the Genesis Planet is Augmented, including Prime Spock. Spoiler Nah, that would all have been vapourised, but it was an interesting thought, no?
Maybe they did it for real then as they knew they were going to be beamed off the holodeck...? Or at least some superficial alteration that would pass muster on a temporary basis.