Stargate: Horizon | The Journey Continues

Horizon Exterior

The Vorian Deep Space Station Horizon

A word from the executive producer:

Well, it's certainly taken us a while, but it's been finally unveiled: the official design and look of Horizon, perhaps the most important design of the series, as the station certainly is one of the stars of the show. The one thing that I always knew was important when it came to the question of what Horizon would look like, was that it needed to be a design that was unique and easily recognizable. By that I mean, you should be able to look at it from far away, or only very briefly, and immediately be able to tell that that's Horizon.

There's been a couple of attempts in the past by various designers to create a look for the station, but this time it all fell into place. Cindy Clark, who's actually one of the writers on the show, was kind enough to put in the time and efforts to work out a design, based on some unfinished CG pictures by Nicholas Hall, who also created the pictures of the gate room that you see below. I was very grateful to finally have someone with the drawing skills to work out some possible looks, the patience to take notes just to head off and create some new sketches, and the enthusiasm of wanting to see it through to the end. So this is it, ladies and gentlemen, this is what our space station looks like.

Now bear in mind that this is merely the concept drawing. Some more details will become more easily recognizable in the CG version. And probably the most obvious thing that will be easier to see is that the station is huge; we opted for keeping the windows in the drawing the way they are now, but in reality there's many more levels than you could tell from this picture.

A couple of words on the logic behind the design: from the start it was always clear that the station would be divided into three major sections. That being the upper central core (or the control tower, as we like to say), the launch bay/docking ramp platform, and the lower central core. The lower central core is the living area. That's where all the quarters are located. The top of the lower central core is the main deck area; it's the section right on top and in the center of the platform. Or in other words, the section on which the control tower is sitting. So inside of that area you'll find Christine's lab, the main archeological lab, Daniel's office, Grant's office, Zach's office, Chuck's, Tom's lab, the observation lounge, etc.

The infirmary is located on the same level as the main deck, but it's not directly connected to the main deck. And it has no windows, so you wouldn't see it from the outside. The launch bay/docking ramp platform, as the name would give away, contains various launch bays. And the docking ramps are located on each of those tower like sections on the outside, as well as on the outer parts of the actual platform, right underneath those towers.

And the upper central core contains various science labs and storage bays, and all the way on the top you'll, of course, find the briefing room and the commander's office, underneath which the gate room/control room are located. And that's only the section all the way on the top; not in any of those areas where you see windows on the drawing.

There you go. This is what a Vorian space station looks like. To all of us it's a great deal to finally have the station's design worked out, as it plays such a crucial role in the series. After all, the show is called Stargate: Horizon. Now, finally we'll all be picturing the same image whenever we see those establishing shots in the scripts.

Alex Rubit (October 2007)