Star Trek: 10 Secrets About Spacedock One You Need To Know

Spacedock One made its first appearance in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. It served as the new base, replacing the orbital drydock that had been seen in both previous films.

At a size of three miles in diameter, Spacedock could house a variety of starships up to and including the Excelsior Class as well as the odd concept model docked just in the corner to fill a space. It would be the first in a line of stations designed to dwarf the hero ships of the franchise and was imagined by future Generations director David Carson and Nilo Rodis-Jamero. The concept from Carson was to make the station look massive rather than the Enterprise look small and his way to achieve this, according to the Eaglemoss Starships Collection, was to include interior windows. He was inspired by watching planes arrive at Los Angeles airport. This helped to replace the original plan to dock the Enterprise externally.

That three-mile diameter also, when it first appeared, made this the largest space-bound Starfleet structure to have graced the screen. Adding to that scale, the original model was filled with neon tubes and then had its external plating layer etched with hundreds of holes to give the impression of tiny windows across the surface. This in turn meant that Spacedock had to be cooled with compressed air while being filmed to keep the heat down.

Though, in terms of size, it has since been surpassed by such stations as Starbase 74 and Yorktown, from Star Trek Beyond, Spacedock One remains one of the earliest, most striking, examples of Starfleet design - evidenced by its enduring use.