How Star Trek Recreated The Enterprise D Bridge For Picard
The team behind Star Trek: Picard went to painstaking lengths to make sure that the rebuild of the Enterprise D bridge was exactly like the original.
Although building spacecraft has become an increasingly popular endeavor, it is no doubt that the construction of these machines is a monumental feat. Even replicas like those used in classic series like Star Wars and Star Trek often take painstaking hours to get right. According to an article from Collider, the series Star Trek: Picard had to rebuild the iconic bridge of the Enterprise D bridge from scratch when it made a surprise reappearance in one of the show’s most recent episodes.
In Star Trek: Picard‘s third season and ninth episode “Võx.”, LeVar Burton’s Geordi La Forge reveals that he has created a restored version of the Enterprise D bridge, and the crew, including Patrick Stewart’s iconic Jean-Luc Picard, returns to the bridge for the first time in decades.
Showrunner Terry Matalas explained the process and reactions to the show’s recreation of the Enterprise D bridge. He related that they had to build “every square inch of it, as exact as it was” and that they started building from the moment that they knew there would be a third season. The showrunner went so far as to retrieve archival voice clips of the late voice of the ship’s computer Majel Barrett to increase the authenticity of the scene.
One of the challenges was getting the crew of actors who have been friends for decades and eager to reminisce and converse with one another to speed through shooting the necessary footage in only two days. “The second we walked on the bridge, we didn’t have a lot of time to look around and smell the roses. So, it was, ‘Alright, everybody, let’s have our quick moment.’” The showrunner says that it was “undeniably incredible” and a “legendary moment” for him both as a director and a fan to see them interacting with the Enterprise’s bridge once more.
Star Trek: Picard began airing in 2020 and is the eighth Star Trek series in the Star Trek Universe. The series focuses on Patrick Stewart’s Jean-Luc Picard as he embarks on new adventures, face old adversaries, and saves the future of the galaxy. The character was first introduced in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, which bridged the gap between older and newer generations of the Star Trek franchise.
In the current third season, Picard reunites with the former command crew of the USS Enterprise when a new enemy begins hunting them one by one. The third season reunited Stewart with his old Star Trek: The Next Generation cast members LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Jonathan Frakes, Gates McFadden, and Marina Sirtis.
Star Trek is one of the seminal science fiction franchises in movies and television. After its original run, the franchise spurred a number of related television and film spinoffs and cemented the legacies of actors like William Shatner, Patrick Stewart, LeVar Burton, Leonard Nimoy, and Nichelle Nichols as fan favorites and some of the most recognizable faces in science fiction history. More recently, the series has bolstered the careers of notable actors like Zachary Quinto, Chris Pine, and Rebecca Romijn.
Star Trek’s Enterprise bridge is one of the most recognizable aspects of a spacecraft in science fiction history. The distinctive saucer-like shape of the starship‘s primary hull, the iconic bridge interior, and its two warp engines give it an iconic and instantly recognizable appeal that many other franchises can only hope to replicate.
