(Above) Square but hip.
Since we took a squint at the Borg Tac Cube last weekend, it seems only fair that we round things off with this follow up featuring the original. I can’t look at this design without drawing a line to the Fesarius in the TOS episode “The Corbomite Maneuver”. Simple yet audacious, I’ll never forget the first time (in snowy black and white no less) I saw it dwarf the Enterprise. The Fesarious served the same purpose as the Borg… a reality check for the sometimes overly self assured Federation.
(Below) As you might expect, if you have one side you’ve got all sides of the Borg cube. I remember we once tried to sell Paramount merchandising the idea of gift wrapping paper with this pattern on it. A fleet of Borg Cubes under the tree during the holiday? That would have been rockin’!
Screencaps coutesy Jörg.
Thanks for another great update.
That thing must have been a real pain to render.
Did you guys build your own model or inherit one from First Contact and take it from there?
FC was a real model, it was only 30″ wide, according to the new ILM featurette that’s included in the TNG Blu-ray boxed set.
Strange. Thought there was a CG model for distance shots out there as well.
There aren’t any distance shots of it, outside of the thing blowing up. And they used a whole bunch of little borg cubes for the pyro shots, so it and the borg sphere were strictly physically built, not CG at all.
Looking at the cube, I think that this indeed shows that surface detail can make a difference. What would otherwise be nothing more than a cube suddenly looks interesting, menacing, somehow alien…..
Cheers
Thorsten
Addendum:
And, after seeing some scale model attempts, it just isn’t enough to simply stick sprues to a cube. There is more to a convincing cube.
Cheers
Thorsten
I’m surprised the licensing people didn’t go for the Borg gift-wrapping paper. There was a period of time when there seemed to be no limit to what Paramount was willing to put the Star Trek logo on.
Great comparison, DD, of the Borg cube with the Fesarious sphere. Somehow my feeble brain had never put them together, but obviously enormous geometric shapes in outer space make an impression. Its too bad we never saw the First Federation again. I wonder if Dave Bailey ever came back, or if he settled down with some nice Firster and had a family of Balok-lings. Perhaps he had a daughter who grew up to be a famous singer named Tranya Trucker?
Sorry. That was bad.
It’s ironic, that one of the most simple shaped ships in Trek is also one of the most difficult to draw in detail
Its definatly one of the most frightening ships in Sci-fi (although Voyager ruined it somewhat), I remember before Voyager really abused them I’d feel a pit in my stomach when I saw one on screen!
Another classic example of selling the idea of advanced technology beyond anything the Federation could understand; no discernable engines or bridge or weapons arrays etc.
A simple idea brilliantly executed.
By the way, if anybody from Paramount is reading this, I’d love some Borg cube wrapping paper!
Unless there were several base VOY cubes, this one would’ve been built by Emile Edwin Smith (http://www.cg-fx.com/), who was at Foundation Imaging back then. He posted the following at comp.graphics.apps.lightwave:
“Well, when I built the new cube for Voyager I based everything off image maps and then modeled around them. To make it real simple I had an underlying cube that was mapped with an image. I then took the main image that I had created into modeler and started building on it. Basically it was large areas of chunkiness raised above the inner cube with many of the detailed areas of the map modeled on these areas. I also interconnected the pieces with tubes and added edge pieces to make it look more dimensional and 3d on the edges.”
(http://groups.google.com/group/comp.graphics.apps.lightwave/msg/089a0449433a508d?hl=en)
Put me down for a few rolls of that wrapping paper!
Barrie, you said it well, “…selling the idea of advanced technology beyond anything the Federation could understand; no discernable engines or bridge or weapons arrays etc.”
The sheer size and the fact that it was beyond our understanding gave it that formidable feel. The massive, simple shape gave it a blunt force feel as opposed to a precision instrument…made for bowling over whole civilizations in a single blow with concern for the individuals. Just my take on this inspired vessel and it’s owners. And now I’m going to have to watch the TOS eps with the cube again because it’s been a very long time.
Oops, that’s withOUT concern for the individuals.
Cubes in TOS? Those blinking buoys?
Long time indeed, dea, as the Fesarius (no “o” BTW, Doug) was a series of conjoined spheres, eh. It’s sheer size is what Doug is referring to, I would think. I believe is was much larger than any Borg vessel to boot.
I am build the Fesarius to square off with my TOS.5.2 E, as I always thought that was one of thee mostly compelling images in Trek VFX.
Tarnya, anyone?
As to this cube beauty, she is that, and thanks Doug for featuring her here.
LLP,
deg
Yeah, and that Borg-sphere wrapping-paper would have been a hoot and a hit in my whole family, eh.
LLP,
deg
Heh! I know I saw it a LONG time ago and thought I must be going crazy because I really didn’t remember a cube, which brought to my mind that it must be close to 20 years since I’ve seen some of the episodes!!
When I’m done with Enterprise again, I’ll start up with TOS…it’s a long time overdue!
Just wanted to add that I think it’s pretty obvious that I haven’t seen some of the series and movies nearly as many times (or in slow mo or frame by frame) like many denizens here, but I love Trek, too!!
I’ve been attending school here at Drexfiles since March and am receiving the best Trekucation I could possibly ask for!
Thanks Doug and everyone here who shares knowledge and opinions freely. I owe ya…but not enought to pay tuition! HA!
All Trek is great, dea, IMO, but ya gotta start with (or at least go back and revisit) the basics and foundations. Man, what I would give to see TOS with fresh or even semi-fresh eyes!
Still, I do enjoy it nonetheless (over and over), as I still watch an eps. of TOS or TOS-R about once a week.
LLP,
deg
The Cube, the far most ominious starship ever deviced. Wonder how much of a challenge it would be to map the insides?
Also, makes me wonder after all these years how much power it uses to keep the atmosphere inside.
You raise a very interesting point about the atmosphere inside a Borg cube, Scott. In the film First Contact, when we see Borg making modifications to the exterior of the Ent-E’s deflector dish, they aren’t wearing any kind of atmospheric containment suits (i.e. space suits) which indicates that the Borg don’t need to breathe. Or at the very least their implants somehow manage to sustain them in the vacuum of space. But earlier, during “The Best of Both Worlds” when TNG was on TV, the Enterprise away team beamed over to the Borg cube and it obviously had a breathable atmosphere because none of our heroes suffocated.
So, why would the Borg need to have an atmosphere generated aboard their own ships when they could obviously survive without one? Of course, the real world answer is because the TV show was shot well before the film and the Enterprise crew needed to be able to breathe while on the Borg ship. The scenes from First Contact were concocted much later and unwittingly created another fun Star Trek Nitpick. Anyone care to devise a scenario that solves this conundrum?
Let´s give it a try to explain it story-wise:
Sometimes the Borg capture their victims and assimilate them aboard the Cube (all TNG Borg episodes, the Borg computer game, several VOY episodes).
Not a great move to have their victims suffocate before they can be adapted, right?
Still doesn´t explain what happens with aliens who require a different atmosphere mix.
As for the deflector dish scene: Their “healthy” skin tone probably has something to do with it.
Simple. A Borg’s ability to survive in a vacuum is meant for emergency or special use only. Perhaps only a percentage of Borg drones are actually outfitted to work in a vacuum, depending upon what their duties are.
Borg ships have life support because 1) unassimilated people and partially-assimilated Borg drones normally don’t have the ability to survive in a lack of atmosphere; 2) it saves wear and tear on the drones to make use of an atmosphere whenever possible (better heat dissipation, for example); 3) as some of the technology they’ve assimilated comes from species that use an atmosphere, said technology works best in an atmosphere for whatever reason.
Heya Doug great post! Do you have any pics of the physical model cube from First Contact? There are so few decent pics of that wonderful creation prior to its sell off at the ‘06 Christies auction. The CG model above looks like an amalgamation of both the movie and TV TNG cubes.
Did you see those in the FC Sketchbook?
Yup saw the two of them, they do not show the contrast that well if there are more would enjoy.
I found another post by Emile Edwin Smith, where he says that his VOY cube was different than the one from FC (earlier in the discussion, he also mentions that it was built for “Unity”):
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.startrek.current/msg/334263b5fcc57779?hl=en
Who would have thought that a basic shape such as a cube could inspire such fear in the hearts of Starfleet officers and non-coms across the quadrant! I will never forget the first time I saw the Borg cube in “Q Who” how it just hung there looming over the Enterprise like this sort of floating fortress. Then it started to carve up the Enterprise like a Thanksgiving turkey. Creepy!
Borg wrapping paper?? That would have been awesome! It would have gone perfectly with my Borg cube tree ornament!
Cubes? what cubes?;)
cube3
Hey Drex any chance of a higher rez version of the ortho view?:P could really use it
Done!
Hey Drex any chance of a higher rez version of the ortho view?:P could really use it
Oops…forgot to say great post! Looking forward to your next one.
hey! all the sides of the cube are completely identical!
Darn, I would have loved some of that wrapping paper. I love the Borg and their ships. Star Wars had the Death Star but we’ll always have the Cube!
Sure looks different dead-on without the green lighting
Love the Borg cube when it first appeared. There is literally no face to talk to.
I saw TNG before TOS, so when I saw the Fesarius, I was thinking… Borg…
Unless there were several base VOY cubes, this one would’ve been built by Emile Edwin Smith (http://www.cg-fx.com/), who was at Foundation Imaging back then. He posted the following at comp.graphics.apps.lightwave:
This is my understanding 2.
Thanks for the note. It’s interesting that he didn’t simply reproduce the FC cube in CGI or merely modify it slightly. I wonder if there was a technical reason for using the mix of TNG and FC textures or whether it was an artistic choice, in order to make it different and provide some continuity with TNG. I definitely prefer this direction, since it gives us a third type of cube and more continuity with TNG-era designs, which were essentially abandoned after the FC redesign of the Borg.