Jonathan Frakes says he was fortunate to play a human on Star Trek: The Next Generation

Star Trek has had numerous alien races onboard its series and in its movies, and some of the actors portraying these characters require more time in the make-up chair than others. Jonathan Frakes, who played Commander Riker on Star Trek: The Next Generation acknowledged at a ComicBook fundraiser that he was fortunate to play a human on the show as it saved him a lot of time. [via Looper}

When the day of filming was over, Frakes and Patrick Stewart [Captain Picard] could head out for a drink while both Michael Dorn [Worf] and Brent Spiner [Data] were stuck in the makeup chairs getting prosthetics removed and gold paint washed off. Then there were the women who had to get their wigs off. Frakes pointed out that people playing aliens had to arrive on set at least four hours earlier and stay at least an hour and a half later after everyone else was done with their time on set.

"I have nothing but respect and no envy for the people who wear the rubber heads in our company."

- Jonathan Frakes

But it wasn't all bad, according to John Billingsley, who portrayed Dr. Phlox on Star Trek: Enterprise. According to him, the actors who had to spend extra time because of makeup and/or prosthetics were compensated for their time. For Billingsley, there was the added plus of being number seven on the callsheet which meant he didn't have to come in every day.

"I will say, I was the rubber head, but I was number seven on the call sheet. I sang a little song called, [to the tune of 'Day-O' by Harry Belafonte], 'Day off, day off, day off, day off, and the checks still come. I used to sing it to the human beings because that made up for the fact that I wore the rubber head. I didn't have to come in every day."

- John Billingsley

As difficult as the makeup process sounds, it wouldn't be Star Trek without some aliens. Thank goodness there were and are actors still willing to spend the extra time to get ready to play their part on Star Trek.