Subject: BORG ship scoop
From: [email-masked] (PINJOURNAL)
Date: 15 May 1996 08:39:19 -0400
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball

Paul Harvey must be sending out particularly strong waves lately: 
Two pinball stories have had new and interesting light shed on them in the
past few days.  One, concerning a 1972 Bally game, is to be revealed in a
near-future issue of the pinGame journal.  The other, discovered but a few
hours ago, will be shared with rgp at this time.  
	Being a Star Trek fan I own all three pingames related to that
show and have
wondered, as many other rgpers have, why the Borg ship in ST:TNG looks
like it does. I read the most recent posts today while in a particularly
Star Trek mood after watching Star Trek: Voyager last night, followed by a
tape of  Star Trek: Deep Space Nine from Sunday, and finishing just in
time to catch a re-run of  Star Trek: The Next Generation. 
	Every Star Trek fan knows that the Borg hand out their brand of
destruction from a massive ship shaped like a cube.  The pingame featured
a much different, multi-sectioned affair, which apparently made a limited
appearance in the show.  Why was this ship used?  What happened to the
cube?  
	An attempt to put this subject to rest prompted a call to Wms
Pinball Art Director, Greg Freres.  The following was paraphrased from a
mini-interview conducted this afternoon.
	The Borg ship started out as the familiar cube.  Ideas were flying
because this was to be the center piece of the game.  The discussions
centered around a number of questions:  Would it be spinning?  Would balls
be shot into it ... or out of it ... or both?   Would it actually explode
into pieces that would be put back together with wires attached to the
fragments?  Greg told me it was his impression that non-trekkors, who
didn't know how powerful the Borg was, would not be impressed with the
"menacing" look of a three or four inch square ship.  
	It was about this time that Paramount called and told the design
team about the big, exciting season finale that was going to feature a new
and different Borg ship.  Steve Ritchie immediately wanted to know if the
design change was permanent and was told something like, "Maybe, but
there's going to be a new one in this episode, it's really going to be
cool, and we think you should use it."  

"Ok, great, send us tape and still photos."
"We don't have tape and still photos."
"Ok, send us plans and drawings."
"We don't have plans and drawings ... we only have some sketches ... we're
only building it as we speak."
	Greg started with sketches and later some photos of someone
holding a rough model.  He gave the distinct feeling that Williams was
building the ship at the same time  Paramount was!  The design team never
saw tape of the ship before it was built making it difficult to
approximate the "look" as the viewer would see it.
	The backglass of the game shows the whole ship, of which only the
top half made it to the playfield.  Also on the glass there is a floating
Borg face, done before Greg saw the finale promo featuring a similar
floating face.  Knowing he was right about that vision, he felt confident
the art department did the best they could in representing an element of
the show that they really had never seen completed.  
	Greg settled down to watch the Borg episode and see the ship in
action for the first time.  He noticed a Borg emblem on the ship.  Game
production was set to begin soon so the next day, he made a quick drawing
and the red decal on the game ship was born.
	Everyone knows the standard Borg ship and everyone knows about the
Borg ship used on the pinball machine.  But now you know how it all began,
and now you know ... the r e s t of the story.

Jim Schelberg
pinGame journal