Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is one of my favorite Trek films. It’s a great finale for the original crew and it’s both well done and also not at the same time (I could do a whole thread on the numerous continuity errors within the film, but I digress). One thing I’ve always wondered is why the galley in the Enterprise is so beat up in the scene where the senior crew debates the use of a phaser as part of the crime against the Klingon Chancellor.
So…. Why is the galley so beat up?
(from wikipedia)
Director Nicholas Meyer wanted the Enterprise to feel grittier and more realistic for Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991), but realizing that vision was limited by the need to use existing sets. Cinematographer Hiro Narita changed the clean, bright look of the bridge from The Final Frontier by lighting it differently in The Undiscovered Country.
My interpretation has always been that the enterprise is getting pretty run down by that point and the wear is starting to show - we see this wear happen to plenty of other Federation stations (DS9, Starbase 80, etc.) so it makes sense that in the lore such a venerable ship would be starting to show it's age.
Because its the finale for the original crew. It's meant to look older.
That's a good question. I found this on Memory Alpha:
A desperate scramble among the creative staff ensued to trim as much as possible of the budget as possible; the entire prologue was (albeit painfully) scrapped, scenes were trimmed, all planned set construction for new starship interiors was abandoned (though a new Kronos One corridor set did get build ultimately), the planned live-action shoots in Alaska for the Rura Penthe scenes were scrapped as were plans for new studio models and other visual effects elements. Starship sets were to be entirely recycled from Star Trek: The Next Generation, which was concurrently in production, but was slated for its summer hiatus, when filming of The Undiscovered Country was planned to start, and only existing studio models were to be used.
I'm guessing this set was simply not built to hold up under feature film-level resolution.
Edit: elsewhere on the page, it says the galley was a redress of Troi's office.
One of the plot points in "Undiscovered Country" is that the crew were coasting out the last three months until their retirement, when the Klingon crisis happens.
So it makes sense to me that the set team tried to make the ship look worn in and ready for some time off.
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