On the skids.
It was during my tenure at Foundation Imaging as part of the Voyager VFX team. I remember Rob Bonchune came to me with an assignment. Our producers wanted some design ideas for a new Borg Cube… a battle-cube. “Rob! It’s a cube!” I laughed. “That’s like being asked to restyle a basketball!” As much as we enjoy having a laugh at the expense of our masters, it does make you stop and think. I figured that I couldn’t go too wrong, you know what I mean?
Remember Spock on “Spitting Image” with the Rubik’s Cube?
What do you do with a cube? You can armor it. The Borg had just had their collective asses handed to them by Species 8472, so I’d design a flak jacket for a Borg cube. Personally I felt adding anything to the cube that gave it personality was a mistake. I happened to love the idea that the design said absolutely nothing about them, while at the same time, everything. “Doug,” said Rob..”You’re the only guy here who wields a pencil, and the bosses are looking for a few sketches, so have at it!”
UPN
My one joke was the Borg pyramid. I mean think about it. First we had the Borg cube, then the sphere from “First Contact”, and now the pyramid! It’s the UPN logo!
Not as good as wrapped in bacon.
(Above) The sketch ok’d by the high command. As you can imagine, doodleing it up didn’t take that long, and before you knew it, Koji, who sat behind me, was putting the finishing touches on the CG model.
The Borg Pyramid was a cute idea, but it would have to look like a 4-sided die (three triangle ’sides’ and the ‘base’ triangle)- Platonic Ideal Solids.
It’s true what you say about the original Cube design, but the final addition of the armor plates splits that hair nicely.
Oh- and Borg_04 isn’t visable.
The word you’re looking for is “tetrahedron” — a regular solid with four triangular faces.
I wonder if anybody’s ever used the Borg as a teaching aid in geometry?
“Today, class, we’ll examine that most deadly of Borg vessels … the Borg Dodecahedron!”
I was so bad at math, anything would have helped me, including the Borg.
Neat sketches. I personally like the design of the second one the best.
Hey, no need to reinvent the wheel when you can just make it better, right?
A borgified UPN intro to Voyager would have been fun! UPN…::shudders::
Did the pyramid make a cameo in “Come What May?”
You’re right, Matt!
The Borg pyramid also featured in the games Star Trek: Armada and Armada 2.
P.S. any Britons here should probably have a look at this:
http://www.nothingbritish.com/
It might be fun to see what comes out of Doug’s head if asked to reinvent the wheel.
Borgified intro…would have been great, at least for the Borg eps.
Is it a coincidence that the pyramid looks a bit like a dalek?
That first one looks like what I would have thought of first as a Borg reaction to a threat…overcompensation. But the chosen version keeps more of the original look (and nice green glow) with enough difference to note. Good job making a seemingly tough assignment look so easy.
Nice Doug. It’s funny that the Borg keeps to simple shapes.
My favorite Borg joke is the Federation tractoring a Borg Sphere into the mouth of the Doomsday Machine.
All we need is the Borg to advance to the next level of the Tesseract of Doom!
Wasn’t Borg vs. Doomsday Machine the TV Guide log line of an early TNG novel? One of Peter David’s perhaps?
“Vendetta” – http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Vendetta
The basic premise was that the Doomsday Machine of TOS was a prototype designed to fight the Borg by some unknown and presumably now-lost species.
Have to agree with that less is more with the Borg. The amour plating sorta make the Borg look small and toy-like.
Though given the orders from above, it was a great result.
So what does the redesigned basketball look like?
Cool skecthes, Doug!
Yeah. I’d kinda like to see a re-designed basket ball.
For being the only guy wielding a pencil, you sure made fine use of it. Excellent work Doug!
Frank
I like the second version more than what was OK’d. I agree that it has a kind of overcompensation that makes it stand apart a lot more than the regular TacCube does. Nice work anyway ^_^
Nice stuff, dude. Very. Who knew a cube be be so much… cubier (is that eveen a word)?
Now, I coulda swore when I peeked in here Sunday, there were some screen-caps of the cube…???
I mean, that’s a crazy-nurnified mesh. How long for Koji to crank the thing out, eh?
Thanks, Doug!
LLP,
deg
There is one more post down from last Sunday…the one with the caps. I know, right? TONS of fun posts on Sunday!!!
Okay that didn’t make much sense…There is another post below this one on the home page from last Sunday. The first one of the day, and it has the caps you saw.
Better?
Yeah, but luckily, deg speak dea. I got yer drift the first time round, thanks nonetheless and twice, Sweetie.
LLP,
deg