Tuesday 09 March 2010

Designing the Officers’ lounge

The rear portion of the refit Enterprise’s Deck 2 features a high-ceilinged Officers’ Lounge, noteworthy for its four large windows. It was only seen from the inside once, in the Star Trek: The Motion Picture scene showing Spock’s shuttle on approach, yet as evident from early Andrew Probert drawings a subsequent scene was at some point planned to have taken place in the same room—the scene in which Kirk, Spock and McCoy confer was originally planned to be filmed in a new briefing room set, but, according to Shane Johnson, “because the [...] film ran so badly overbudget the room was never built. The briefing room scene was re-written for an “officers’ lounge”, and a set was created somewhat hastily using existing “rec deck” components.” Andrew Probert rationalized the scene by suggesting that the small lounge could actually be a secluded area within the larger Officers’ Lounge. Mr. Scott’s Guide to the Enterprise adopted that approach.

While the layout of the remainder of the deck remains unknown, Mr. Scott’s Guide suggests that the superstructure has two decks, with a security level on Deck 2, and the Officers’ Mess and Lounge occupying most of Deck 3 with a circular kitchen placed at its center, which was seen in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. The forward end of the superstructure features a series of details on the outer hull which have not been officially identified. Franz Joseph’s deck plans for the original Enterprise placed science labs in the front section of Deck 2, suggesting that these may be sensor pallets.

Officers’ quarters

While several on-screen sources plainly state that the officers’ quarters are on Deck 5, in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock Chekov identifies Spock’s quarters as being located on “C Deck”. However, in The Wrath of Khan, Kirk boarded the turbolift on “E Deck”, suggesting Deck 5 to be the location of his cabin. Mr. Scott’s Guide also places the officers’ “staterooms” on this deck—an assessment that is supported by the appearance of the corridor outside of Lieutenant Ilia’s quarters on Deck 5, as shown in The Motion Picture, which feature red layers of padding. David Kimble’s cut-away drawing of the refit Enterprise also depicts Deck 5 as the sole deck with red-padded corridors.

 

N. Ottens
24 July 2007
Lasted updated: 24 October 2008

Sources for this article include:
• Johnson, S., Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise (1987)
• Probert, A., Probert Designs
• Schmidt, D., U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701A Deck Plans (1992)
• Taylor, G., “Shane Johnson interview,” Trekplace (1999-2001)
• Screencaptures courtesy of Trekcore.