Alonzo Drek

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 in the Solana Galaxy in order to find pieces for his new planet, and defeat his adversaries. His most formidable adversaries were Clank, a defect from his own factory on Quartu that fled to stop Drek, and Ratchet, Clank's companion. Drek became the first villain that Ratchet and Clank defeated.

In the 2016 game and movie, Alonzo 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 his lieutenant Victor Von Ion, the assistant Zed, and scientist Dr. Nefarious.

Pre-Ratchet & Clank
Drek was born on Orxon, an industrialized planet in the Shadow Sector. 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 Solana Galaxy, seeing an opportunity to profit from the new planet as he was paid for every square inch. Drek also hired galactic celebrity Captain Qwark to be the highly paid spokesperson for his new planet, who would serve as Drek's muscle.

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

Ratchet & Clank
On a robot factory on Quartu, a defect, who would be known as Clank, viewed an infobot with Drek's plans to extract a portion of Novalis, which would destroy the planet. Clank fled Quartu and crash landed on Veldin, where Drek ordered that he was destroyed. When Clank was instead recovered by Ratchet and left for Novalis, Drek ordered Qwark to eliminate them before they presented a larger threat, and posted "Wanted" posters for the two around the galaxy.

Afterwards, the Novalis chairman Abner 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, Chairman Drek later ordered his Robot Lieutenant, to extract a large portion of trees from the forest planet Eudora to be used for his new world. After the lieutenant completed his order of trees, albeit barely, Drek requested the lieutenant stay on the world and not return to base, in order to destroy the remaining trees. Drek also ordered blarg bombing attacks on planet Batalia, toxic dumping into the waters on planet Pokitaru, and began preparing to attack planet Oltanis from his Gemlik Base located on the moon orbiting it. While still completing his new planet, Drek needed to place it in the perfect orbit, though he had found this orbit was occupied by planet Veldin. This led Drek to pursue ways to destroy the new planet, beginning with building the PlanetBuster Maximus missile on Hoven.

When Captain Qwark's plans to defeat Ratchet and Clank by luring them into a trap failed, Drek scolded him and demanded he listen to Drek's specific orders from then on or lose his endorsement deal. After Ratchet and Clank destroyed the PlanetBuster Maximus, Drek then ordered Qwark to intercept and shoot down the two at Gemlik Base using his own starfighter, believing Qwark was "too washed up for ground combat". The two instead defeated Qwark over the Gemlik Base, leading Drek to demand 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 Guard, to attack planet Kalebo III in order to eliminate Ratchet and Clank, demanding they destroy Gadgetron with them if they must.

Eventually, Drek took the Deplanetizer to Veldin, though he brought his mech suit, the Ultra Supreme Executive Chairman Drek-Mech, and a large army of blarg, to battle in the event that Ratchet and Clank stop him. The two fought him, with Clank in Giant Clank form, and after a quick battle, Drek reverted Clank to his smaller form. The two then fought him over several canyons leading to the Deplanetizer, where he told them that he didn't 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. Ratchet and Clank destroyed his mech, leading him to eject his suit and be blasted off to crash land on his new planet. With the Deplanetizer's lasers now facing towards it, Ratchet and Clank destroyed Drek's new planet, killing Drek with it.

Re-imagined
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 which destroyed planets with a laser, then sent out robots to harvest pieces of the planet and use them for New Quartu. Drek destroyed unpopulated planets, including planet Tenemule, leading him to draw the attention of the Galactic Rangers. Victor Von Ion protested that he wouldn't 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 to destroy the Rangers. One of these warbots was a defect, Clank, whom Drek sent Victor Von Ion to destroy, though Clank escaped and crash landed on Veldin.

When Drek's army attacked Kerwan, it was thwarted by Ratchet and Clank, who destroyed the warship 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 planet 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.

Drek escaped Quartu, though his assistant Zed was captured. Having already destroyed five planets, Drek's next target was planet 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 to attack Clank, though Victor 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 had still destroyed the homes of its inhabitants. Next, as convinced by Dr. Nefarious, Drek was set to use the Deplanetizer on planet Umbris, a planet with an unstable core which would take the nearby dwarf star with it.

After a memorial for Victor Von Ion, and while traveling 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 used the Sheepinator to transform Drek into a sheep, 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 destroyed with it.

Legacy
After Drek's defeat, the blarg did not threaten the galaxy again. Planet 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 in the Intergalactic Museum of History on in Meridian City, in the Polaris Galaxy.

Appearance
Drek was a short blarg who was smaller than most characters, and had a paler complexion than most blarg. He wore 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 an intelligent, manipulative blarg who would sweet talk characters to get what he wants. When he could not, he would instead resort to brute force, using his blarg forces for intimidation. Drek was extremely callous, and motivated by greed, having a lack of empathy for his victims, subordinates, and for those who lost their homes while he destroyed planets. Drek 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
In the original release, Chairman Drek made use of the Ultra Supreme Executive Chairman Drek-Mech to fight Ratchet and Clank over planet Veldin. The suit was capable of flight, fired lasers, releasing bombs, and Dark Gadge-Bots at foes.

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

Behind the scenes
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. 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 & Stich. Richardson also voiced 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.

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 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.