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Borg Queen's Costume and Make-up

PAGE 1

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Introduction

The Borg Queen first appeared in [Star Trek: First Contact]. That film established, not only that the Borg Collective was ruled by a Queen, but several important facts about her such as the basic method of the assembly of her body, and the general appearance of that body. The Borg Queen was first seen in [Star Trek: Voyager] in [#109 and #110 Dark Frontier]. Star Trek production convention is that anything major that is introduced in a film is not shown in a television series until the film has been released (this can be seen in the phaser rifle upgrades and the Standard Extra-Vehicular Work Garment first seen in [Star Trek: Insurrection] and later in [Star Trek: Deep Space 9] and [Star Trek: Voyager]. What [Star Trek: Voyager] does feature, however, is greater detail about the assembly of the Borg Queen's body: in [#109 and #110 Dark Frontier] we see the components of the body being assembled before the Queen's head and spinal column are dropped into it, and in [#146 and #147 Unimatrix Zero] we see the whole process of assembly starting with the head and spinal column in their storage place in the ceiling of the Borg Queen's lair.

This page covers the initial concepts that led to the Borg Queen as seen in [Star Trek: First Contact]. In that film, the Borg Queen is played by Alice Krige. She reprised her role in [#171 and #172 Endgame] but was not available for [#109 and #110 Dark Frontier]. Susanna Thompson played the Borg Queen in [#109 and #110 Dark Frontier] and [#146 and #147 Unimatrix Zero].

Assembling the Borg Queen

One of the most memorable shot in [Star Trek: First Contact] is the scene in which the Borg Queen's head floats down from the shadows, supported by two cables, before dropping into her waiting body. Clamps extend from her cybernetic chest and latch into the flesh around her shoulders, pulling everything together. Finally, she sighs, relishing the sensation of physicality. Once you have seen the movie, it is difficult to imagine it happening any other way, but when Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga wrote the film they had no idea how impressive the scene would be. In fact, in early versions of the script, the Queen's body did not snap together but instead she floated above Data and Picard, suspended by dozens of cables.

The task of translating this image to the film screen was given to Herman Zimmerman's art department. One of the first people Herman asked to look at the effect (and the Queen herself) was illustrator Ricardo Delgado. The idea that the Borg were a unified people with a single, female leader made him think of the ancient Egyptians, and his drawings of the Borg Queen were a combination of the Egyptian ruler Nefertiti and the bride of Frankenstein from the Universal horror movie. In the version of the script that Ricardo saw, the Queen had a body with no legs. This image sparked an instant response and he suggested that the absent legs could be waiting for her on the ground. He says his initial thumbnail sketches were inspired by a childhood memory.

Ricardo Delgado: "I remember one time when I was a kid I found this grasshopper leg. There was just this weird alien quality to seeing this beautiful piece of nature sitting there. It really stayed with me, and I thought it would be neat to have these two beautiful female legs just folded up almost looking like grasshopper legs. They don't have any energy until the Queen needs them. They'd come to life in a sensuous way and attach themselves to the woman."

He produced some drawings showing several different possibilities for how Queen's body could be brought down to her waiting legs. In one concept, the Queen would have scuttled down the wall on spider's legs before exchanging them for their human counterparts. In others, she was brought down from the ceiling by an enormous, organic throne or a caterpillar-like appendage.

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He also produced drawings without an assembly sequence, showing different ways the Queen's body could float, as described in the script. Some of these drawings showed her with a sickle or a large sphere instead of legs. In his favourite drawing, the Queen looks like a malevolent champagne glass with a sharp metallic spike in place of her legs.

Eventually, Rick Berman, Brannon Braga and Ron Moore decided that the Queen's body would be assembled, but not in the way Delgado had suggested. Instead of her torso snapping into her legs, her head and shoulders would be lowered into a waiting body. The next pass at the assembly sequence was taken by a different illustrator, John Eaves. His very mechanical drawings provided a stark contrast to Delgado's organic approach.

But the producers still did not feel the right effect or look had been gained, so they brought in Alex Jaeger of Industrial Light & Magic.

Alex Jaeger: "They opened it up and asked me if I had suggestions. I came up with a few, in one which she's got the sort of mechanical stuff coming off the back of her head. I imagined her having a seductive face but having all this spiky mechanical stuff coming off of her. She's really beautiful, but you can't touch her because you'll hurt yourself. I guess they kind cued off some of that for the final design."
He based his design on a tattoo he found in a magazine. The face is that of Marianne Heath, an ILM member of staff.

Thanks to Eos Development for the page set Skywriter.