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

VISUAL EFFECTS

Mitch Suskin, visual effects supervisor: [#146 and #147 Unimatrix Zero] had some really great shots in it. If we hadn't already done some of them and received an Emmy for it last season, we would probably submit it this year. Behind-the-scenes: Emmy Awards

Regarding the sequence showing the Borg Queen's body being assembled, which begins the story, Mitch Suskin was surprised to be asked for this because it had already been seen in [#109 and #110 Dark Frontier].

[Unimatrix Zero, Part One]

Mitch Suskin: The real challenge that Rick Berman threw down to us was: "Give me some reason for doing this again." They didn't want to use stock elements from [#109 and #110 Dark Frontier] and we created an entirely new sequence to give the audience a new taste of it. We shot it a little different this time, so we see where the Queen is before she comes down. We already had CG models of the Queen's body and head, but all of the background plates are new, and all of the footage of the actress, Susanna Thompson, is new. In the end, we played it with dialogue throughout, so she's talking the whole time. She is much more active. We used a CG head in two shots; both of them we don't see her mouth. One of the shots we switched to a CG head, because we were going to shoot a plate for it, but we ran out of time; it's over her shoulder so you can't tell.

[#146 and #147 Unimatrix Zero]

There is also a wider shot where she's floating toward her body - we always intended to use a CG head for that one. If you look, you'll notice that the tubes that are carrying her are very discreetly dressed so as just to obscure her jawline. That was because we didn't want to get into lipsync.

Altogether this would be the third time that something of the Borg Queen's body's assembly has been seen in Star Trek. The [#109 and #110 Dark Frontier] sequence develops the scene in [Star Trek VIII: First Contact] in which the Borg Queen's head, shoulders and spinal column are placed down into her body.

[Star Trek VIII: First Contact]

Mitch Suskin: We also have a new style of Borg cube - a heavily armed, heavily fortified tactical cube that was created for this show. Behind-the-scenes [#146 and #147 Unimatrix Zero]: Designing the Borg tactical cube

Mitch Suskin: There's one matte painting of Unimatrix Zero itself, that gives you the idea that it's this pastoral beautiful resort somewhere. Behind-the-scenes [#146 and #147 Unimatrix Zero]: Sets

a Borg drone (re-)assimilates an inhabitant of the cyberspace, [#146 and #147 Unimatrix Zero]

Mitch Suskin: We also had quite a number of shots of Borg injecting people with tubules. We have quite a number of shots of people coming and going from Unimatrix Zero, which is a variation on the hologram zimmer*. We wanted to tie it into something the audience already knew. I think we actually came up with some really neat shots of Voyager attacking the cube, while our crew is trying to sneak into transporter range with the Delta Flyer and, of course, we get to see three of our crewmembers assimilated at the end (at the end of Part One).

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a Borg drone enters cyberspace to hunt for errant drones, [#146 and #147 Unimatrix Zero]

Dan Curry, visual effects producer: When the Borg would attempt to go into the virtual place to retrieve drones that were trying to regain their individuality, in order to defend themselves from the attacking drones, they had to use things at home.

Dan Curry, visual effects producer: So I made this model of a booby trap so we could make a full-size one on stage, based on how Roman siege weapons worked and also some traps I saw when I was in south-east Asia.

Dan Curry, visual effects producer: And so when a drone would walk along and trip this wire, it would then knock them back into the Borg Queen's lair.