The head makeup artist on “First Contact” was longtime “Star Trek” designer Michael Westmore. For the Borg in “First Contact,” Westmore altered the low-fi robotic seen on the Borg on “Star Trek: The Net Generation” and added more veins and blotches to their skin, giving them a sweatier, more animalistic texture.

Throughout “First Contact,” Data loses more and more of his android skin, and has it replaced with human skin. Even part of his face is replaced. The exposed android components on Data’s arm, however, needed to be made from blinking lights, actual computer parts, and other tchotchkes one might find at an old Radio Shack. While gluing said computer parts down within Spiner’s prosthetic, MacKinnon made a sad, sticky mistake that left him incapacitated for a few hours. Yes, he glued himself to himself. As he recalled to THR:

“Michael Westmore asked me to work on Data’s arm. It’s a little flap of skin. We’re gluing wires from one side to the other and I’m squeezing the bottle of two ounces of super glue and it’s not coming out. All of a sudden I squeeze hard and the whole bottle explodes on my arm. The super glue sets quick. My arm is attached to my chest. It’s kind of smoking, because it makes super glue go faster. Now my arm’s burning. I finished my makeup with one hand and it takes me two hours to get out of the super glue.”

The glue, mind you, wasn’t meant to affix the arm appliance to Spiner’s arm; there are safe makeup adhesives for that. It was only to fix components inside the prosthetic. Regardless, MacKinnon had his arm stuck to his chest for a while. Good thing he was wearing a shirt.