The Cardassians () are a fictional extraterrestrial species in the American science fiction franchise Star Trek. They were devised in 1991 for the series Star Trek: The Next Generation before being used in the subsequent series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager. The writers of The Next Generation introduced the Cardassians for the fourth season episode "The Wounded" as new antagonists for the crew of the USS Enterprise-D to interact with on personal level, as the Borg lacked personality or individuality, hindering interpersonal drama. In the series, set in the 24th century, the Cardassians are presented as living under a military government controlling the Cardassian Union, an interstellar empire occupying other planets, most notably Bajor. When Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was launched in 1993, its writers set its events in the vicinity of Bajor in the aftermath of the Cardassian occupation. The Cardassians grew into major antagonists throughout the series, with several recurring characters developed, including Elim Garak (Andrew Robinson) and Gul Dukat (Marc Alaimo). Design The design of the Cardassians was undertaken by The Next Generations costume designer Bob Blackman and makeup designer Michael Westmore. They sought to give the species a "snakelike" appearance. Cardassians have grayish-white skin, ridges on either side of the neck, and a spoon-shaped structure on the forehead. Westmore was inspired by an abstract painting he had seen in a Ventura Boulevard store of a wide-shouldered woman with what looked like a spoon on her forehead. Rick Sternbach designed the Cardassian spaceship in "The Wounded". He initially proposed a pod-shaped vessel, before replacing it with a design resembling a scorpion, then one based on the ankh symbol. Sternbach later noted that "The Galor class started with an Egyptian ankh, given how [the Cardassians] were like the Pharaohs to the Bajoran slaves, but you don't really see the basic shape unless you look straight down on the vessel. The little disruptor pyramids were a bit more obvious, as were the 'temple' type structures on the ship's backbone, and the sandy yellow shades." Ed Miarecki and Tom Hudson built the model used in "The Wounded" from Sternbach's design. In the episode, Cardassian weapons fired a pink discharge, changed to amber in later episodes. Production designer Herman Zimmerman worked on the Cardassian architecture depicted on the shows. His concept had some Art Deco influence, and was based on geometric patterns. Some motifs were ellipses, angles