My 6-year-old brain thought that it was like a tumor or something
This gives Kryten vibes.
TNG’s costume department had a lot of…interesting ideas.
What episode is that?
TNG, “The Wounded.” First appearance of the Cardassians. I don’t remember if that weird headgear ever made a second appearance.
I’m pretty sure it never showed up again! This was also the only episode they pronounced kanar as kaynar instead of kuhnar. I’d have to look through the episode to be sure, but I think the Cardassian phasers were also a different color than the orange they were in later appearances.
It’s always interesting to see how they change things as they see what works. It does make me wonder what the original pronunciation of kanar was though. Did the actor read it wrong, or did they change it!
In fact, the script specified that it be pronounced “KAY-nar”: https://www.st-minutiae.com/resources/scripts/186.txt So that must have been forgotten/changed at some point, or maybe it is the auditory equivalent of “whisky” vs. “whiskey”.