10 Times Star Trek Reused Props To Cut Corners
9. Romulan Warbird Becomes Mazarite Vessels
Andrew Probert designed the D'deridex class Romulan Warbird for Star Trek: The Next Generation's season one finale, The Neutral Zone. While the ship would go through a couple of revisions, including one version where the wings were positioned vertically rather than horizontally, the final ship is one of the most recognizable vessels in the franchise.
The bird-like wingspan that sits above and below the nacelles is almost triangular with rounded corners. Oddly enough, this design turned up in Enterprise's first-season episode Fallen Hero. This was not simply a case of resuing a ship wholesale, like the Tellerite ship, as Doug Drexler discussed at one point.
He described speaking to Rob Bonchune, who was working in the art department on the show, who answered that it wasn't reuse of the Warbird. Dan Curry, the head of the art department, pulled the top off an AMT model of the ship and ordered the team to design a new ship from the ground up, using that piece. Both men agreed that it was a bizarre decision, with the design far too obvious. It would appear again in Enterprise in the third-season episode Damage.