Is one of the strengths of Star Trek that it�s really coherent?

Yes, I think you need a philosophy of design for every culture that you create. It may not be much. When we wanted to delve into what Cardassians would like and dislike and what they looked like, what we had to go on was Bob Blackman�s Cardassian costume, done for one of the episodes of The Next Generation. Also Mike Westmore�s wonderful Cardassian make-up put an exoskeleton on the outside of the humanoid form. All those bumps, and the Cardassian shows his skeletal framework very, very shallowly under the skin.

So we made the station following those kinds of lines. It was really a very collaborative effort in that sense.