Enterprise-D Spacedock concept art

Footage from Star Trek III was reused in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “11001001” to represent an enormous spacedock. The Enterprise-D was simply superimposed over the motion-picture Enterprise — implying this facility was at least twice the size of the Earth Spacedock seen in the movies.

Andrew Probert, who was the show’s senior illustrator at the time, hated it.

Probert told Trekplace‘s Greg Taylor in 2005:


Probert produced a matte painting for the docked Enterprise-D. A photographic matte was added to the shot in order to show people walking through a gangway tunnel.


Was it just the doors that were the problem, or was the interior of spacedock not big enough to accommodate the Enterprise-D? The drawing of it docked outside makes it look like it could easily fit inside, so we could conceivably retcon there being a second, larger set of doors on the other side of the station.

At least I understand the practical, financial reasons for doing this, as opposed to doubling the size of the original Enterprise for the 2009 reboot for no reason other than they wanted to make it seem more impressive.

I think it’s mainly the doors and the shot of the Enterprise-D flying in being exactly the same as in the movies. For the doors to be the same size relative to the rest of the station it’d have to be so much bigger to get the wider Enterprise-D in. In the movies we’ve seen several ships inside spacedock together (Enterprise/-A/Excelsior/Miranda) so there’s definately room for a Galaxy class, obviously just not with as much room to manoeuvre. If they’d have modified the entry shot to show a bigger door on the outside, it wouldn’t have been problem I don’t think.

BTW the doors were already a problem in Star Trek III, as the stolen Enterprise exits the Spacedock pursued by the wider Excelsior, but both mange to get though a door that was shown to be just wider than Enterprise.

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