20 Things You Didn't Know About Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
5. Doesn't Everything Look A Little Familiar?
Money was tight while making Star Trek VI, perhaps moreso than any previous production. Shatner, Nimoy, and Meyer all agreed to lower salaries simply to get the film made, while there was a hard and fast rule before production began: the budget could not, by even one dollar, exceed that of Star Trek V.
The budget for The Final Frontier had ended up at $33million. That film's negative reception almost killed the chance of another Original Series outing, but the head of Paramount Studios, Frank Mancusco, was a fan, and didn't want their stories to end on a low note. So, how to save money?
Star Trek VI was in production at the same time as The Next Generation. Many of the sets were lifted wholesale from the series. The Transporter Room, most of the corridors, the Main Engineering set, and the Observation Lounge were all recycled. In fact, with the Lounge doubling as the executive dining hall, the resulted in a change in The Next Generation as well.
A torpedo tears through the set, blasting out the ornate wall. In the series, the wall switched from the gold Enterprise models to a more drab, grey background, with no explanation on-screen as to why. These adjustments allowed Star Trek VI's budget to settle at $27million, bringing it well under the bar.