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

DESIGNING THE BORG TACTICAL CUBE

Doug Drexler

The following words in this font style are by Doug Drexler, who designed the Borg tactical cube. In [#146 and #147 Unimatrix Zero], a Voyager away team consisting of Janeway, Torres and Tuvok infiltrate this Borg space vessel, which is of a design not seen in [Star Trek Voyager] or indeed other Star Trek before or since. Other words are edited from the ST:M article.

When it was time to design the tactical cube for the show's art department had already left for the between Seasons holiday known as "hiatus", so the job was given to Foundation Imaging whose staff includes Doug Drexler. He started work alongside Dick Smith, whom ST:M describes as "legendary", and subsequently won an Oscar for his work on the film 'Dick Tracy'. He worked in the make-up department of [TNG] as a prosthetics make-up artist. When [DS9] commenced, he transferred to its scenic art department of [DS9], and worked there for several years before moving to Foundation Imaging to work as a computer modeller.

Borg tactical cube; star background by Janet

I'm the only guy on the [Star Trek Voyager] team at Foundation who is is a sketcher. If Rick Sternbach (senior illustrator on the [Star Trek Voyager] staff) is too busy, or the art department has left on hiatus, Rob Bonchune or Mojo will ask me to bash out ideas. This was the case when I worked in the [DS9] art department as well. If John Eaves was busy I would pinch-hit. I enjoy designing, but I think that I wouldn't want to be the lead illustrator. It's a tough job. This way I get to dabble. When Rob told me that they wanted a new type of Borg cube I was kind of amused. After all, a cube is a cube, right?

the Borg tactical cube, like ordinary Borg cubes, dwarfs USS Voyager, [#146 and #147 Unimatrix Zero]

With the difficult brief in mind, Doug Drexler produced several rough sketches. He says experience has taught him that this is the best way to work. I like to give the producers a bunch of sketched concepts to look at rather than work one idea into an illustrative masterpiece. It's a misdirection of energy. If the idea doesn't sell as a sketch, the concept probably isn't strong enough.

The script didn't give Doug much help; as he remembers, it simply called for a "battle cube", which implied that it had to more threatening than the standard cube.

Doug Drexler

Ya gotta love that! I tried adding a lot of sharp pointy masts, spears, and antennas. As a joke I even drew one up that was a pyramid. You know, the UPN symbol - a square, a ball, and a triangle. So far, Borg ship design has been a cube and a ball. The pyramid (triangle) would have completed the thing with tongue planted firmly in cheek. I knew the powers-that-be wanted a cube, but I couldn't resist.

Borg tactical cube

Doug describes the drawing that was chosen as basically "a Borg cube wearing a flak jacket!" Having designed the ship, he handed it on to his friend Koji Kuramura, who built the final model. Koji sits right behind me. As he worked, he'd call me over for a look-see and I'd put in my two-cents' worth. If he needed clarification or more detailed sketched I would kick a few out for him. Most of the detailing was added at this stage.

You'll notice that my sketches are done in rather broad strokes. They're all there in the model. It's crazy to try to spell out all the mega-nooks and hyper-crannies of a Borg contrivance.

magazine/book picture sources ST:M, Encyclopaedia