Star Trek: 10 Secrets Of Strange New Worlds' Enterprise You Need To Know

Faced with the same mandate as the artists designing the new Enterprise's exterior, production designer Tamara Deverell worked to faithfully recreate the iconic interiors from Star Trek: The Original Series, reflect Star Trek: Discovery's modern aesthetic, and address the expanded scale of the updated design.

According to Deverell, Alex Kurtzman suggested that a corridor could be added around the perimeter of the bridge to align it more closely with Discovery's massive bridge set:

We started with the same size as the original Enterprise and, of course, we enlarged it by adding a back hallway. Some of the parameters of the original size... the step down, the placement of the captain's chair, where the consoles were, where Uhura was, where Spock was, all the main characters, we kept that general layout, much more so than some of the other Enterprises we've seen.

While Deverell worked hard to maintain a strong connection to the 1960s TOS bridge, the new Enterprise bridge was actually an opportunity to experiment with construction techniques not usually employed in television production:

We were bringing in the Discovery feel, but also using materials and methods of building it that were new to us, like metal powder coating — metal pieces that are powder-coated create a really rich color and strong basis to build the set. We experimented with it on the Enterprise, and I think we’re going to use it more in Star Trek. It looks more like a ship than just using wood and plaster.

According Olatunde Osunsanmi, who directed two episodes in which the Enterprise's bridge featured heavily:

Automotive finishes have, like, seven layers of paint. Well, this had seven layers of powder-coat. It has this really interesting shine that set it apart from all our other sets, which was appropriate because it's the Enterprise. It just look magical in the right ways.