I would assume that if for some reason the Borg has appeared during Star Trek The Original Series, they would appear quite different. The budge for TOS was very low compared to Star Trek today, so I would assume the Borg wouldn't have all those "High Tech" implants. Most of the aliens in TOS that were encountered by the Enterprise looked human as well, so perhaps a TOS version of the Borg would look like a regular person with a couple of flexible tubes? Obviously some flexibility is allowed due to the Talosians from the first pilot, but what about facial constructs? Maybe just the eye laser and that's it I'd assume. The borg exokeleton would likely just be a cheap plastic torso covering. What do y'all think?
What do you think a Borg Drone would look like in TOS?
- Thread starter Astrostars2025
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Trek guest actors in maybe surprising roles
In tonight's (3-24-67) Time Tunnel, Michael Ansara is... a silvery... plant... guy. This show is really stupid. This looks like how TOS might have done the Borg if they'd come up with concept then! Of course, Cybermen in Dr Who first appeared in "The Tenth Planet" serial in 1966. This Time...
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The original Cybermen design is great! But I somehow doubt TOS would've gone that route. TOS often went for aliens that looked like humans and sets that looked straight out of Earth from the 1960s or earlier. Classic Doctor Who, despite having the budget of 1 pound, took greater risks with creating truly alien sets and alien-looking species.
Probably would've had a very robotic voice as opposed to the monotone one from TNG. I think all of TOS computer/robotic characters (not counting human-looking adroids) talked liked stereotypical, stilted robots.
Also a funny hat. They liked funny hat aliens in TOS.
Great question…. And I totally LOVE this idea! This would have been super cool!
Take this guy, tell him to act robotic, and add a few pulsing mini-lightbulbs to his uniform?
Assuming they thought of it, other than what's hinted at in "I, Mudd" and "What Are Little Girls Made Of", which is definitely closer to "perfection" that the Borg ever were? Would TOS even think of a species striving for perfection but not realizing its own mistakes, hence the look the Borg on screen had compared to the sleek and slinky TOS androids?
"Lost in Space" had some fun with some tubing, flowerpots, springs, dishes, fishbowls and things, but not too much and I'm sure the props were recycled. But it was all painted the same silvery color, too.
But Trek always seemed to do people in skin-tight sweatpants and/or shower curtains, with bits of tape drives or cardboard with some resistors poked on surely? Apart from the Romulans, Andorians and Tellerites, few species in the 60s had anything other than skin paint. Every android species had perfected the human form and citing immortality. The closest we got was in "I, Mudd" where putting a human brain in an android body had been discussed, but they are not the Borg as TNG perfected beautifully with its use of radiator coils, aquarium fish tubing, board game bits (e.g. "Mouse Trap").
"Lost in Space" had some fun with some tubing, flowerpots, springs, dishes, fishbowls and things, but not too much and I'm sure the props were recycled. But it was all painted the same silvery color, too.
But Trek always seemed to do people in skin-tight sweatpants and/or shower curtains, with bits of tape drives or cardboard with some resistors poked on surely? Apart from the Romulans, Andorians and Tellerites, few species in the 60s had anything other than skin paint. Every android species had perfected the human form and citing immortality. The closest we got was in "I, Mudd" where putting a human brain in an android body had been discussed, but they are not the Borg as TNG perfected beautifully with its use of radiator coils, aquarium fish tubing, board game bits (e.g. "Mouse Trap").
Nice.
Plus, the chest unit could house the battery powerful enough needed to make it light up and blink. Actually, the TNG Borg didn't have any lighting - save for Locutus.
You could work with that. Take copper face paint and paint a printed circuit board on their face and hands. then run copper ribbon around the black leotard.
Possibly, but the Borg's defining characteristics are external mechanical parts. TOS has done Data style androids several times.
First thing that comes to mind is that the Six Million Dollar Man was a few years away after TOS. So was the idea of a human with mechanical/electronic parts—a cyborg—a common enough idea in the 1960s? Of course, the Steve Austin type cyborg is meant to still look fully human while the Borg were not at all concerned with that. Mind you melding the organic with the mechanical/electronic was a concept back in the day. “Spock’s Brain” was an extension of a Mudd like android where a living brain was meant to run and regulate machinery. Strictly speaking everybody does that only we use our bodies to interact with our machines and devices rather than having our brains directly connected to the machine or device.
So strictly speaking a TOS Borg might be conceived as a race that captured humanoids to “improve” them with artificial parts. Problem with that is it seems to make more sense to just build Ruk like androids because even a Mudd like android with a humanoid brain put into it might be more challenging to “programme.”
When I look at the concept this way it makes me think the TNG concept of the Borg might not really make much sense at all.
So strictly speaking a TOS Borg might be conceived as a race that captured humanoids to “improve” them with artificial parts. Problem with that is it seems to make more sense to just build Ruk like androids because even a Mudd like android with a humanoid brain put into it might be more challenging to “programme.”
When I look at the concept this way it makes me think the TNG concept of the Borg might not really make much sense at all.
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