Display MoreStar Trek: The Next Generation introduced the Borg, a race of horrifying cyborgs, during its second season. The series used the Borg sparingly, but always with spectacular effect. Their enormous, seemingly impossible to defeat cube-shaped spacecraft quickly became a familiar element of the pop culture of the early 1990s.
In 1995, tensions between the developers at Origin Systems and their parent company at Electronic Arts began to increase. Though Electronic Arts' deep pockets were now funding some of the most expensive and cutting edge work in the industry, they were also drawing back on the independence that Origin had enjoyed under the first years of their stewardship. Structurally and creatively, the studio was being absorbed into the corporation. One of Origin's artists captured the mood in a single image: a parody of the original Electronic Arts logo rendered as though it was made up of oppressive Borg spaceships from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Developers printed the graphic on t-shirts alongside the Borg's catch phrase: "resistance is futile."
What they didn't know was how well this shirt would predict the near future. The artwork rendered Electronic Arts' old logo, a trio of shapes, as a Borg cube, sphere and pyramid. At the time, the Borg cube was their familiar spacecraft and the other two were part of the joke. But while the Wing Commander IV team was putting the finishing touches on their masterpiece, the creatives behind the next Star Trek movie were designing a real Borg sphere! The Borg sphere premiered in Star Trek: First Contact to much acclaim.
As it turns out, they would go on to consider a Borg pyramid, too! Television series Star Trek Voyager would soon call for the design of a heavier "tactical" Borg ship. Legendary Star Trek artist Doug Drexler made the same connection as the jokesters at Origin and pitched a triangular Borg ship that played on UPN's similar logo. The powers that be didn't go for the idea and instead selected a reinforced cube… but they came so close to making the shirt seem even less clever!
Of course, Privateer 2: The Darkening, itself soon to be a major part of Origin's culture crisis, would have a very different but equally interesting take on the Borg:
