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

For two of Star Trek III's most memorable sequences, the script required interior shots of Spacedock featuring the Enterprise and the Excelsior.

The models weren't made so that the interior and the two ships were all on scale. Infact all the shots of the 8 foot Enterprise and brand new 10 foot Excelsior involved compositing images together to get the scale right.

They did build a section of the interior measuring some 20 feet across with the exterior model measuring in at 6 feet from top to bottom. The central docking structure was one element while the curved wall of the vast bay was the second. The magazine for the Eaglemoss special goes into detail about this, noting that the exterior wall was covered in photocopies of the patterning to save time and money. It would only ever be seen from a distance and no-one in 1983 had even considered the possibility of 4K.

The beams of light firing up into the docking chamber were created by Fresnel lamps placed outside. The production team also needed fans to stop the photocopied interior detail from getting too warm and peeling due to those very same lamps. To create an even more unique look, a faint smoke haze was used with multiple takes overlaid to create the desired atmosphere and enhance the lighting beams.

The model was also reversible so that if you walked "outside" it represented the exterior of Spacedock complete with motorised doors. The big win here was that more detailed shots could be filmed that could not be achieved on the smaller 6 foot miniature.