BEHIND-THE-SCENES : [#146 & 147 UNIMATRIX ZERO]

SETS

[#146 and #147 Unimatrix Zero] contains two spectacular new sets: Unimatrix Zero itself, which took the form of a lush forest, and the Central Plexus aboard a Borg tactical cube which is the destination for the Voyager away team, mentioned in Part One and seen in Part Two.

Richard James, production designer the environment of Unimatrix Zero, [#146 and #147 Unimatrix Zero]

Richard James: The Borg cyberspace is very much in contrast to the Borg cube and sphere. This is a space supposedly for all types of beings and the writers called for a forest-type setting. Green sets can be very complex, because you can't truck in enormous trees; you can't cross the city with them and they can't be brought onto the stage. You have to bring in trunks and then you attach the limbs and then you attach greenery to the limbs, and so it's very very labour-intense. Also the set had to be struck (dismantled) over our hiatus, and then reset, so we had to do it twice! It wasn't an exact duplication even though it was done very closely. The cyberspace - the forest - was supposedly large so we just needed a series of spaces.

Allan Kroeker, director: I loved the forest, but not after three days! By then it really stank. One day we actually did 40 shots in that forest. For Part One we did a total of almost 90 shots and by that time Marvin (Marvin Rush, director of photography) and I were scratching our heads and sahing: "I recognise this leaf!" But it was a very very 'do-able' forest, and it's quite beautiful. Of course, a lot of that had to do with Marv's lighting.

Richard James: I think it was lacking in the sense that there was no activity going on. I felt they need to have a bar or table tennis!

Brannon Braga, executive producer

Brannon Braga: In concept the forest works because it's the antithesis of Borg mechanisation. It's organic, the weather changes, it's a more fluid, organic environment. But in the end it's just a forest, and the extras looked kind of silly walking around with nothing to do. Fortunately the character work distracts from that, but it was the one aspect of the show I wish we had done a little bit different. When the Borg invaded it got better, it got cool.

An unforeseen problem was that Jeri Ryan broke her foot just before the filming of Part One. Richard James had to keep that in mnd when he designed the set.

Richard James:: We mounded up for shrubbery and so forth but we had to keep the paths flat.

[#146 and #147 Unimatrix Zero]

Allan Kroeker, director: We used every trick we could think of to make Jeri walk! Except in one scene, every time you see her walking, she's not walking. We used a terrific stunt double, who from a distance looks like Jeri. The other scene was a kind of walk-and-talk Steadicam shot in the forest. She's using a cane, but you can't tell. We also tried using a dolly with her and the guest star sitting on it. The camera was on it too, and they had to simulate a little bit of movement. But it was extremely tricky and we were a little self-conscious about the technique and afraid that it wouldn't work, so we scrapped it.

in the Central Plexus, [#146 and #147 Unimatrix Zero]

The Plexus was Richard James' main task for Part Two. Richard James: It's the brain, the centre, of the cube. In the script they had called for a panel behind a bulkhead, but I thought it made sense that the control of the Borg Collective would be inside an area that in our ship would be the warp core, so I thought in terms of a central core. The set was constructed so it looked like the shaft went up and down in both directions and I did a cube to pick up on the shape of the Borg cube.

Richard James: I think everybody was very pleased with the set. They wanted something very sleek and very reflective, so it was very different from your normal Borg look. We gave it plenty of angles and I purposesly put all of the reflective areas on the outside of the wall so that they didn't mirror back and forth, and the camera wouldn't see itself in the reflection. It was a fun set to do: a nice challenge.