20 Things You Didn't Know About Star Trek III: The Search For Spock (1984)
11. Romulan Bird Of Prey
One of the most enduring designs of any starship in all of Star Trek has been the Klingon Bird-of-Prey, designed by Nilo Rodis and David Carson for The Search For Spock. It is probably the most recognizable vessel in the franchise, outside of the original Enterprise and perhaps the Enterprise-D.
The script had called for the Romulans to be the antagonists, rather than the Klingons. The ship was designed thusly, with a swooping design for the wings, and a red feather pattern underneath - both designs were to evoke the Romulan Bird-of-Prey from the original series.
However, after Leonard Nimoy decided to change the villains to the more well-known Klingons, Harve Bennett explained why they decided to stick with the ship's design. He said that thanks to the episode The Enterprise Incident, which showed Romulans using Klingon ships, they simply understood that this was another case of the two powers sharing technology. At a pinch, he said, it could even have been a group of Klingons who had stolen this vessel from the Romulans.
This reason, solid at the time, no longer works in the canon, thanks to the addition of the 22nd century Klingon Bird-of-Prey that appeared in Star Trek: Enterprise.