Star Trek: 10 Secrets About Spacedock One You Need To Know
6. Afterlife
The Search for Spock is the only time that the extensive central dock and the 20 foot wall section would be used as both were destroyed after filming wrapped. This meant that for the unveiling of the Enterprise-A in The Voyage Home as well as shots in The Undiscovered Country, a new and less intricate interior was built. That recreated interior would also be used for the sequence in which Spacedock is shown losing power when approached by the Whale Probe in The Voyage Home. The control room area was still in existence for that latter sequence, composited with new shots of the interior. Star Trek V would rely purely on reusing existing footage for the sequences in Spacedock.
The scale miniature of the exterior would return for Star Trek III, IV and VI as well as TNG. The sequences filmed for 11001001 would be the only ones created for that series and would then be reused for all future encounters. That first season episode of TNG would also include a new docking port that would be reused for one other episode.
This was a side shot matte painting was created by Enterprise-D designer Andrew Probert and then augmented with tiny people walking across the gangway for scale. Its second appearance would come in season four's Remember Me, this time as the docking port in Starbase 133, though this was all archive footage.