Star Trek: 10 Secrets Of The Enterprise A You Need To Know

The USS Enterprise of Star Trek: The Original Series was an impressive model in its day but it not nearly as detailed as audiences would come to expect from science fiction movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey and Star Wars. For its debut in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, enormous attention to detail was put into the design and execution of the refit Enterprise filming miniature: Proper hull paneling, hatches, windows, signage, even floodlights were included in the model. In effect, the production designers of TMP treated the refit Enterprise like a real ship.

Both a result of the increased budget and the greater amount of realism applied to the ship, the workings of the Enterprise's 23rd century technology was also considered. Lights were added to the ship's warp field grilles (something Gene Roddenberry had always wanted for TOS' filming model) and the bronze satellite dish-like deflector was replaced with a color changing spotlight.

In Star Trek: The Motion Picture only, this spotlight deflector dish changed color from a dull glow, to a subtle amber, to a brilliant blue depending on the ship's activity. According to one of the ship's designers, Andrew Probert, the deflector dish responded to the level of power the ship was using and would be at its brightest when the Enterprise was at warp.

Ultimately, the lighting effect was applied inconsistently in The Motion Picture and then never used again in subsequent movies – the amber glowing deflector dish only appeared in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan in reused footage from the previous film.