Designing The Motion Picture’s Officers’ Lounge

Andrew Probert gave the rear of the refit Enterprise superstructure four large windows. It was only glimpsed from the inside once, when Spock’s shuttle approaches the ship in The Motion Picture. But this is where Kirk, McCoy and Spock were meant to have their discussion.

Lora (then Shane) Johnson writes in Mr Scott’s Guide to the Enterprise that the reason the scene was filmed in a smaller room is because The Motion Picture had already run over budget.

“The briefing room scene was rewritten for an ‘officers’ lounge’,” Johnson told Greg Tyler of Trekplace, “and a set was created somewhat hastily using existing ‘rec deck’ components” for $19,000. (For comparison: the recreation deck cost $252,000 and engineering $100,000, according to figures by construction coordinator Gene Kelley, which Susan Sackett and Gene Roddenberry reported in their The Making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Probert rationalized the change by suggesting the space could be a secluded area within a larger officers’ lounge. Johnson copied his floor plan in Mr Scott’s Guide to the Enterprise.

The 2001 Director’s Edition of The Motion Picture replaced what had been a black screen behind Spock with a view of the starboard nacelle. That would put the room in the back of the saucer section, although this may also, of course, have been a projection.

The 2022 Blue-ray version of The Director’s Edition retroactively canonized Probert’s suggestion by digitally removing the walls and screens and putting in the four large windows.

In canon, the layout of the rest of B and C Decks is unknown. Mr Scott’s Guide places security facilities on B Deck. Its C Deck is entirely composed of an officers’ mess and lounge surrounding a kitchen.

So is C Deck in David Schmidt’s U.S.S Enterprise NCC-1701A Deck Plans, which can be browsed at Cygnus-X1.Ne. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country would reveal a kitchen, but not perfectly circular to match Schmidt’s floor plan. Johnson’s floor plan could still work in-universe, since the “A” was after all a new ship.