The Borg... design

[CaptainJack]

I am a big fan of the first borg design used in BOBw and the earlier episode where Q flung the Enterprise across the galaxy to meet the borg.
I was never to happy with the more solid looking Cubes used after that.
I have noticed that if you google gas pipes and natural gas factories you can find alot of pipes and industrial looking stuff that looks almost exactly like the Borg texture from BOBw's. Only problem is its not the proper color.
Has anyone ever used some images like what Im describing to photoshop a high-resolution, highly detailed borg cube?

 

[Methos]

never tried, but i understand what you mean... the Borg did loose something in their design over time... not saying it was better or worse, it just changed and evolved...

They got pretty severely depowered as well, the Borg in TNG were a major threat and pretty scary, they pretty much became the Delta Quadrant's bitch in Voyager sadly

M

 

[Gary7]

The topic has been debated to death a few times, but there wasn't much about the details of appearance. I think you make a good point. The Borg are utilitarian and don't seem to have any real "style" or aesthetic. After all, Borg humanoid components are just stuck on wherever convenient, resulting lots of tubes and all other kinds of unsightly bits on them.

The cube is a terrific design in keeping with the same intention. It's totally utilitarian and not aesthetic. The surface should be just raw conduits and other elements that are easily accessed and serviceable. Wide smooth sheets of bulkhead make for more work involved with service. Without shields, such a surface is a bit more vulnerable, but the Borg anticipates that nobody is strong enough to knock out their shields.

 

[CaptainJack]

To me this stuff looks exactly like the outside of a Borg cube...

 

[CaptainMatt]

I am a big fan of the first borg design used in BOBw and the earlier episode where Q flung the Enterprise across the galaxy to meet the borg.
I was never to happy with the more solid looking Cubes used after that.
I have noticed that if you google gas pipes and natural gas factories you can find alot of pipes and industrial looking stuff that looks almost exactly like the Borg texture from BOBw's. Only problem is its not the proper color.
Has anyone ever used some images like what Im describing to photoshop a high-resolution, highly detailed borg cube?

Simply put, the Borg must have *adapted* to the newer look in subsequent episodes.

 

[CaptainJack]

Im not really asking why they changed. I understand the real world reason. Im just asking if anyone ever had made a "fan made" version using photoshop and images similar to what I posted.
To me, that is how they should have looked in every incarnation. It's more of a bad ass look, more industrial and dirty.
I thought the smoother, blockier version used in the movie was too clean and didnt really have that nasty quality.

 

[CaptainMatt]

ah my mistake.

 

[Holdfast]

The topic has been debated to death a few times, but there wasn't much about the details of appearance. I think you make a good point. The Borg are utilitarian and don't seem to have any real "style" or aesthetic. After all, Borg humanoid components are just stuck on wherever convenient, resulting lots of tubes and all other kinds of unsightly bits on them.

The cube is a terrific design in keeping with the same intention. It's totally utilitarian and not aesthetic. The surface should be just raw conduits and other elements that are easily accessed and serviceable. Wide smooth sheets of bulkhead make for more work involved with service. Without shields, such a surface is a bit more vulnerable, but the Borg anticipates that nobody is strong enough to knock out their shields.

I agree that in principle that the Borg design is generally best when focused on a utilitarian look. I also love the Cube design.

However, there is a bit of an intellectual conflict in those two sentences. Choosing to make your ships a regular geometric shape isn't a particularly utilitarian choice. There's no reason for choosing to make your ships look like a cube (or sphere, or indeed, any regular shape). A purely utilitarian design would have no reason to obey any geometrical regularity (assuming we don't fanwank up some kind of reason that their tech doesn't work on irregular objects).

IRL, the cube aesthetic is quite reminiscent of Brutalist architecture, carrying some of the sociopolitical subtext of such buildings. I don't think that's an accidental design choice of those who worked on the show, esp. given the way Borg "society" is written.

In universe, while the interior and exterior appear utilitarian, the underlying addiction to geometric order in the layout is revealing of something about Borg culture. Perhaps it reveals their mathematical/cybernetic nature. Another workaround would be to suggest that over time, the Borg have found that the brutalist symbology of the cube shape is useful in intimidating lesser species to accept that resistance is indeed futile, whereas a purely utilitarian design might seem less intimidating.

 

[CaptainJack]

I have always liked the pipes and tubing look. I also think it works well to think that the tubes and circuitry are almost alive and self repairing. That it could almost grow itself organically...

 

[CaptainJack]

How would one go about creating a 3ds or maya version of a borg cube? I know it would be complicated but can you just make a cube and then just add a mesh onto it?