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Alonzo Drek,   also referred to by final full title Ultimate Supreme Executive Chairman Drek,  is the main antagonist in Ratchet & Clank, as well as its 2016 re-imagined game and the movie. He was the chairman of Drek Industries and dictator of the blarg, who destroyed planets in the Solana Galaxy in order to use their pieces to create a new homeworld after Orxon became inhospitable.

Drek commanded large blarg forces that would attack several planets and defeat his adversaries, his most formidable being Clank, a defect from his factory on Quartu that fled to stop him, and Ratchet, Clank's companion. Drek became the first, yet pivotal, villain that Ratchet and Clank defeated.

In the 2016 game and movie, Drek has a slightly different personality and a different voice actor, though his motivations and most of his story are otherwise identical. He also has different allies, including lieutenant Victor Von Ion, assistant Zed, and scientist Dr. Nefarious.

History[]

Pre-Ratchet & Clank[]

Drek was born on Orxon, an industrialized planet in the Shadow Sector of the Solana Galaxy. At some point, due to overpopulation and pollution by Drek Industries,  the planet became uninhabitable. Drek then planned to construct an entirely new planet using the best pieces of other planets in the galaxy. Though he told the blarg and the rest of the galaxy that this was a solution to build them a new home,  he was actually motivated by profit and planned to pollute the next planet and restart the entire process.[1] Drek also hired galactic celebrity Captain Qwark to be the highly paid spokesperson for his new planet. 

One of Drek's earliest targets was Novalis, which he targeted for its renowned sewer systems among other reasons. 

Ratchet & Clank[]

File:Drek's plan 1.png

Drek giving his broadcast to Novalis.

On Quartu, Clank viewed an infobot that revealed Drek's plans to extract a portion of Novalis, which would then destroy the planet. Clank fled Quartu and crash-landed on Veldin, where Drek ordered his troops to destroy him. When Clank was instead recovered by Ratchet and left for Novalis, Drek ordered Qwark to eliminate them before they presented a larger threat, and he also posted "Wanted" posters of the two around the galaxy.

File:Yes, quite lovely..png

Drek looking at the current state of his new planet.

Meanwhile, the Novalis chairman Agnogg Buckwash protested Drek's attack on the planet, and Drek only recommended that the inhabitants flee the planet before dismissing the chairman's protests. Later, Drek ordered his Robot Lieutenant to extract a large portion of trees from the forest planet Eudora, that way they could be used for his new world. After the lieutenant completed this task, albeit barely, Drek requested that he stay on the world and destroy the remaining trees. Drek also ordered blarg bombing attacks on Batalia, toxic dumping into the waters of Pokitaru, and began preparing an attack on Oltanis from his Gemlik Base, located on its orbiting moon. His intent here was stealing the city's power generators.  While still building his new planet, Drek needed to place it in the perfect orbit, though he had found this orbit was, unbeknownst to Ratchet and Clank, occupied by Veldin, leading him to pursue ways to destroy the planet, beginning with the invention of the PlanetBuster Maximus missile on Hoven.

File:Back so soon?.png

Drek menacing Qwark over his failure.

When Qwark's plan to defeat Ratchet and Clank by luring them into a trap failed, Drek scolded him and demanded he listen to his specific orders from then on, or he would lose his endorsement deal. After Ratchet and Clank destroyed the PlanetBuster, Drek then ordered Qwark to intercept and shoot down the two at Gemlik Base using his starfighter, believing Qwark was "too washed up for ground combat." After Qwark's defeat, Drek demanded one of his scientists to come up with a new, foolproof plan to destroy Veldin. This eventually led the scientists to develop the Deplanetizer. Meanwhile, Drek ordered his most elite troops, the blarg elite commandos, to attack Kalebo III and eliminate Ratchet and Clank, and he also demanded they destroy Gadgetron with them if they had to.

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Drek revealing his new planet and the Deplanetizer.
Drek's encounter with Ratchet and Clank.

Eventually, Drek placed the Deplanetizer above the surface of Veldin, though he brought his mech suit, the Ultra Supreme Executive Chairman Drek-Mech, and a large army of blarg to battle against Ratchet and Clank if they would try to stop him. With Clank transformed into Giant Clank, the two fought Drek in a quick battle until Drek used his mech to revert Clank to his original form. The two then fought him over several canyons leading to the Deplanetizer, where he revealed to them that he did not really care about creating a new home for the blarg and was motivated solely by profits, as he would repeat the same process, polluting his new planet to allow him to profit from doing it again. In one last round, Ratchet and Clank destroyed Drek's mech, causing it to get lodged within one of the slots in the Deplanetizer. Drek attempted to eject his suit and ended up being blasted off to crash land on his new planet. With the laser facing towards Drek's world, Ratchet and Clank took the opportunity to destroy it and finish off Drek for good.

Re-imagined[]

Non-canon warning: This article or section contains non-canonical information that is not considered to be an official part of the series and should not be considered part of its overall storyline.

File:Drek with Zed and Victor Ion.png

Drek with Victor and Zed.

In Qwark's retelling of events and the holo-film, Chairman Alonzo Drek has a similar story. After his father's company Drek Industries overpolluted the blarg homeworld of Quartu, Drek began building a new homeworld, known as New Quartu. To achieve this, he used the Deplanetizer, a space station that could destroy planets with a powerful laser. He then sent out robots to harvest pieces from other planets and use them for New Quartu. Drek destroyed unpopulated planets, including Tenemule, leading him to draw the attention of the Galactic Rangers. Victor Von Ion protested that he would not be able to stop the Rangers without any forces of his own, leading Drek to enlist his head scientist Dr. Nefarious to create an army of warbots on a factory on Quartu that would be used to attack Kerwan and destroy the Rangers. One of these warbots happened to be Clank, the defect whom Drek sent Victor Von Ion after to destroy, though Clank managed to escape and crash-landed on Veldin.

File:Nefarious and Drek.png

Drek and Nefarious in a meeting.

When Drek's army attacked Kerwan, it was thwarted by Ratchet and Clank, who destroyed the Class G Dreadship and stopped the invasion. In a meeting called following the failure, Nefarious suggested that Drek convince Captain Qwark to betray the other Rangers, believing Qwark's ego made him the weak link of the group and could be exploited. Drek sent his forces on other missions throughout the galaxy, including a mission to destroy the surface-to-space ion cannon on Batalia to allow for safe passage for blarg harvesters, and sending hydroharvesters to extract the water on Pokitaru. Later, the Galactic Rangers attacked Quartu to find Drek. Though none of the Rangers located him, Drek managed to corner Qwark, at which point he and other blarg convinced Qwark to betray the Rangers, playing on his jealousy of Ratchet, and promised not to harm the other Rangers if Qwark struck a deal with him.

File:Drek giving orders.png

Drek issuing orders to his troops.

Drek escaped Quartu, though his assistant Zed was captured. Having already destroyed five planets, Drek's next target was Novalis, the first populated planet he would destroy. When the Rangers attacked the Deplanetizer to stop him, Qwark sabotaged the mission and abandoned the others, flying towards the Deplanetizer himself. Drek then ordered his forces to destroy the Rangers as soon as Qwark was no longer looking, and Victor Von Ion went after Clank, though he was destroyed in the process. Ratchet, unaware of Qwark's betrayal, followed him, only for Drek to apprehend him with a Mag-Net Launcher and eject him. Though Novalis had been evacuated, Drek still destroyed the homes of its inhabitants. Next, as convinced by Dr. Nefarious, Drek was set to use the Deplanetizer on Umbris, a planet with an unstable core that would take the nearby dwarf star with it.

File:Drek as a sheep.png

Drek transformed into a sheep by Nefarious.

While en route to Umbris, Drek was confronted by Qwark about the destruction of Novalis and his forces attacking the Rangers. Drek attempted to sweet talk Qwark while ushering him away, only for Nefarious to arrive and send him out. Nefarious then transformed Drek into a sheep using a Sheepinator and shoved him into a shuttle, ejecting him out to New Quartu. When the Rangers redirected the Deplanetizer to destroy New Quartu instead of Umbris, Drek was killed in the destruction.

Legacy[]

After Drek's defeat, the blarg did not threaten the galaxy again. Orxon became featured as a campaign in DreadZone.

An unlockable paint job for the Star Explorer in both Going Commando and Up Your Arsenal was named "Drek's Black Heart". It was primarily black with red streaks.

Drek appeared in Ratchet's Dreamtime sequence in Size Matters. He also appeared on screens in the IRIS Supercomputer in Tools of Destruction. In Into the Nexus, he was also featured in the Hall of Villainy within the Intergalactic Museum of History in Meridian City, located within the Polaris Galaxy.

Characteristics[]

Appearance[]

Drek was a short blarg who was smaller than most characters and had a paler complexion than most blarg. Wearing a business suit at all times, he had a large, pointy head with small hair tied into an elegant topknot and large eyebrows with light blue eyes. In the re-imagined appearance, his head was larger, and his eyes had pupils instead.

Personality[]

Drek was a cunning, intelligent, manipulative, and charismatic blarg who would sweet-talk characters to get what he wanted. When that failed, he would instead resort to brute force, using his blarg and robotic forces for intimidation. Drek was extremely callous and motivated by greed, having a lack of empathy for his victims, subordinates, and those who lost their homes while he destroyed planets. However, he never forgot his mother's birthday. 

Drek had a professional, business-like demeanor and was far more competent than the company he kept. Drek demanded a great deal of respect from others and had a short temper when dealing with the incompetence of his subordinates. Though he would become frustrated with his subordinates and with setbacks in his plans, Drek nonetheless remained confident throughout and harbored a certain sadistic sense of humor.

Throughout the original release, Drek changed his title. His initial title is simply "Chairman Drek". Later, it is expanded to "Executive Chairman Drek",  to "Supreme Executive Chairman Drek",  and finally to "Ultimate Supreme Executive Chairman Drek". 

In the re-imagined appearance, Drek has a similar personality, though he has more of a sense of humor. He is more easily manipulated by Dr. Nefarious, who makes many of his decisions for him.

Equipment[]

File:Ultra Supreme Executive Chairman Drek-Mech render.png

Drek's Mech-suit.

In the original release, Chairman Drek made use of the Ultra Supreme Executive Chairman Drek-Mech to fight Ratchet and Clank on Veldin. The suit was capable of flight, firing lasers, throwing bombs, and releasing Dark Gadge-Bots to attack the duo.

In the re-imagined release, Drek would travel around on a hovering scooter.

Behind the scenes[]

File:Drek This!.png

"Drek This!", an obtainable trophy featuring Drek. Obtained by defeating Drek in his mech.

Chairman Drek was inspired by the environment surrounding Insomniac Games' offices while they were working at Universal Studios. The staff surrounding them, which Insomniac employees often assumed to be movie executives, inspired Drek's design as a corporate villain.[2] The manual also compares Drek to a "movie producer with a mean streak". 

Drek, in the final release of the original Ratchet & Clank, is voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson, who at the time was most notable for voicing Captain Gantu in Lilo & Stitch. Richardson also voices the Commando and Qwark's bouncer in Ratchet & Clank. Prior to the release of Ratchet & Clank, recorded footage of Drek features an entirely different voice actor.[3]

In the 2016 Ratchet & Clank movie, Drek is voiced by Paul Giamatti, a well-known Hollywood actor. In the game, some of Drek's cutscenes are also voiced by Giamatti, though the in-game dialogue is voiced by Eric Bauza.

Drek appears as a multiplayer skin in Full Frontal Assault.

Drek's mech appeared as a large enemy in the PlayStation Home firing range space (past), although it did not appear that Drek was piloting it.

References[]

  1. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named So it has come to this
  2. Devs Play S2E02 · "Ratchet & Clank" with Ted Price and Tim Schafer published by DoubleFineProd on December 21, 2015 on YouTube. Accessed February 14, 2018.
  3. Ratchet & Clank E3 Demo Differences (@11:14) published by RC Lombax on December 21, 2015 on YouTube. Accessed September 3, 2017.
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