Star Trek: 10 Things You Didn't Know About The Borg
8. Spandex Zombies
Star Trek: The Next Generation season two costume designer Durinda Rice Wood, working in close collaboration with the make-up department, was given only two weeks to take her Borg outfits from design to reality for the drones' inaugural appearance in Q Who.
In creating the look, as she described it in Star Trek: The Next Generation 365, Wood wanted to break away from the "streamlined, stainless steel concept of 'scary,''' taking inspiration from the work of Swiss artist H.R. Giger, famous for his 'biomechanical' designs and, not least, for designing the Xenomorph from Alien. As for the practical side of things, Wood created a system of various different moulds and tubes that could be attached using Velcro (thank you, T'Mir) to a base suit made of a fabric called 'popcorn spandex,' allowing for a degree of individuality in the Borg's mostly uniform appearance.
The task of devising the Borg makeup for Q Who went to makeup artist Michael Westmore. Westmore stated in The Next Generation 365 that in order to convince the audience that the Borg were beyond reason or negotiation, he gave the drones a "zombie-like pallor," one that looked like "the life [had] been leached out of them." Westmore (and his son) were also largely behind the changes made to the Borg's appearance in Star Trek: First Contact, starting with removing the helmets.
The subject of some speculation, and although direct inspiration is not suggested, Star Trek: The Next Generation — The Continuing Mission does point out that the Borg drone look was equally "reminiscent of […] the cybernetic, laser-eyed Lord Dread from the 1987 syndicated series Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future."