Data's appearance

[mendelin]

Are there any explanations, why Data's (and his brothers) skin is pearly-white and his eyes are golden-yellow? But his mother and Lal has normal skin and eyes color.

 

[2takesfrakes]

As I recall, Lal decided her appearance, on her own, when she had a gender-neutral body that Data gave her. I haven't watched this in so long, but I remember that body being golden, even more so than Data's, to start. But Data and Lore had the choice made for them, before they were even activated.

 

[Tosk]

Data and Lore are less human looking so that the colonists didn't get all weird about it. And Frakes is right about Lal deciding her own appearance. Julianna-Bot looks human because she was made to pass as one.

 

[Lance]

Data and Lore are less human looking so that the colonists didn't get all weird about it. And Frakes is right about Lal deciding her own appearance. Julianna-Bot looks human because she was made to pass as one.

This. Yeah, the colonists were funny about how 'human' Soong's androids were becoming, so basically he deliberately designed the B4-Lore-Data model to be less realistic/human. At least outwardly.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

Sometimes I wish he had been blue.

 

[Timo]

Yeah, the colonists were funny about how 'human' Soong's androids were becoming, so basically he deliberately designed the B4-Lore-Data model to be less realistic/human. At least outwardly.

..One wonders whether B4 fits into the pattern at all, or whether he's another in the series of Romulan efforts to create copies of Starfleet personnel.

Soong made three prototypes plus Lore plus Data as far as his wife knew. Did they all look the same? "Juliana Tainer" said the colonists balked at Data's nude body, but this might have been simply because Data was the first exhibitionist in the series, not because his body (or Lore's) would have been more anatomically correct than those of the prototypes. And it's difficult to imagine Soong building anything looking unlike himself! Although he did copy his wife, and may have built dozens of 'em droids for all we know.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[JesterFace]

It wouldn't have been spacey enough to have an android that looks exactly like a human on the show.

 

[OtherGene]

When the first images of the crew of TNG appeared in the, gulp, late 1980s I mistakenly thought Data was some sort of new alien and La Forge was a cyborg. And because of his crap hair I didn't recognise Worf as a Klingon at first.

 

[Triskelion]

Data wasn't sufficiently human enough, behaviorally, and making him flesh tone would have plunged him into the Uncanny Valley. So in his case it makes sense to give him a more artificial appearance.

I'm not sure about Lore, though. I would hazard a guess that it was Soong's vanity - creating something that was, for all intents and purposes, an artificial human - and being so convincing that he gave it neon skin so as to garner more passing attention for his achievement.