If there's one thing that Star Trek can do well, it's counting those pennies to make a saving.
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00:11To anyone watching, particularly those who have worked in any production or in film or
00:16stage or television, you will understand the importance of keeping costs down. Why blow a
00:20ton of money on the backgrounds when it's the writing and the acting that should be taking
00:24centre stage, correct? Well, sometimes it really is worth dropping a few extra euros. Wait,
00:31did Sean write this? Sometimes it really is worth dropping a few extra pennies on the surrounding
00:37actors so that frankly they don't stand out so much. And let's spare a thought for the production
00:41teams behind these examples. There is, to be fair, a lot of very savvy examples of how they cleverly
00:46reuse bits and then there's one where they just kind of plonk it in a different direction. But
00:50I can't judge though. I've been using this same green screen since 2018. I'm Marcus Bronzi,
00:57this is Trek Culture and this is 10 times they reused sets in Star Trek and hope you would not notice.
01:05Number 10, 10 forward slash the president's office. The cheek, the gore, the gumption,
01:11the audacity to think us the audience would not notice. I mean, they even left the diagonal panelling on
01:15the walls. But anyway, to be fair, we bloody love it here at the Trek Culture Towers because 10 forward,
01:20is one of our favourite spots. I mean, it was introduced in the Next Generation second season,
01:25serving as the base for the lovely Guinan. This was Roddenberry's answer to an old west saloon,
01:30although far less piano playing and more synthahole, which would also serve as a function room when the
01:35situation called for it. I mean, I think we all remember Riker hitting that trombone a few times in
01:40there. It was a large standing set, so it made sense to try and get as much use out of it as possible.
01:45Therefore, when the undiscovered country, oh yeah, you'll see that film on this list again,
01:50went into production, 10 forward was quickly adopted by the theatrical production.
01:55The space setting was swapped out for Paris and the bright sunshine flowed onto the president's table.
02:01In the scenes featuring the discussion of Kirk and McCoy's arrest, this was the setting of the large
02:05office, which Starfleet and Federation representatives gather to watch the show trial.
02:10It's also where we catch an early glimpse of the beloved René Auberjonois, depending on which
02:14version of the film you're watching.
02:16Number 9. La Sirena
02:18Slash The Shrike
02:20Star Trek Picard's third season served as a bit of a soft reboot to the series,
02:24one which had been largely fractured as it was.
02:27The first and second season saw much of the starship action aboard La Sirena,
02:31which was Cristobor Rios's unregistered freighter.
02:34La Sirena would appear, albeit briefly, in the third season, now under the command of Raffi Musica.
02:39The entire cargo section of La Sirena appeared several more times throughout the series.
02:44Captain Vodick obviously had a thing for Rios and Musica's ship,
02:47but she borrowed the cargo section to transform it into the bridge of her vessel, the Shrike.
02:52While the transformation is fairly extensive, there is some positivity to this.
02:55The third season of the show clears many of the characters from the first two seasons,
02:59but this inclusion of La Sirena could in a way be seen as retaining a little bit of Rios,
03:04even if the Shrike is desperately trying to kill our heroes.
03:08Number eight, St. Clair slash Fairhaven.
03:12Star Trek Voyager's fourth season was enormous in terms of scope.
03:16It opened with the concluding part of Scorpion before barrelling forward into the year of hell,
03:22which was quite literally a year of hell.
03:24Other episodes like Prey saw a large amount of digital work being realised,
03:28so the killing game may not have been met with the same enthusiasm granted to other scripts,
03:33but it was a big one. The Hirogen were going to take control of Voyager, forcing everyone
03:38into holographic deathmatches. The first part opens with Janeway taking on a Klingon dagger to the
03:43chest before suddenly appearing in a French village. This village of St. Clair was filmed on Universal
03:49Studios' European Street or Little Europe set, which actually offered the cast and crew a chance to
03:53get away from stage work and get to shoot on location. Roxanne Dawson and Jerry Ryan were both very
03:58glad for a change of scenery. When it came to Fairhaven in the show's sixth season, the crew once again
04:04returned to Universal Studios, the sets were redressed, though the same physical buildings
04:09were used in both. As an Irishman writing this article, however, if I was an Irishman, however,
04:18the reuse of sets would be the least of Fairhaven's issues.
04:21Number seven, Enterprise E Shuttle slash Runabout Cockpit.
04:25Our recent list on the secrets of the Runabout has covered the multiple times that this durable
04:30little ship has been used in Star Trek. It was reconstructed for Deep Space Nine,
04:34which needed additional support craft to allow the station's crew to actually trek through the stars.
04:38While the Runabout itself would appear in many episodes of the series, it would also pop up in
04:42both The Next Generation and Voyager, as well as an animated appearance in Lower Decks.
04:47Star Trek Insurrection was released between Deep Space Nine's sixth and seventh seasons.
04:52The Enterprise E Shuttle, along with the captain's yacht and the mission scout ship,
04:56all saw materials carried over from the Runabout set.
04:58The Shuttle is perhaps the most noticeable, as the layout is almost identical to the older ship.
05:03There's even a transporter directly behind the pilot and co-pilot seats,
05:07though the colouring is slightly different in the theatrical version.
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06:16Number 6, Enterprise D Engineering slash Enterprise A Engineering.
06:23Look, sharing sets between ongoing productions just makes sense,
06:27from both a financial standpoint but also an aesthetic one.
06:30Though the stories may be set in differing points of history,
06:33Star Trek has attempted to keep something of a uniform look between Federation starships.
06:37Star Trek IV, the undiscovered country, borrows rather heavily from the next generation.
06:42So much so that there are three separate entries from the film in this list here.
06:47Here, there is the fact that the main engineering set is borrowed wholesale from Enterprise D.
06:52Nicholas Meyer does use the space in a clever way though.
06:55Rather than filming the core itself as it would be seen in the next generation,
06:59he aims the camera from the core looking down on Scotty and the rest of the team.
07:03Number 5, Voyager's sickbay slash Enterprise E sickbay.
07:08When it came to introducing a new starship for the fourth live action Star Trek series,
07:12Star Trek Voyager updated some of the designs on the interiors of the Starfleet vessel.
07:17The bridge and the engineering sets were revamped, modernized and made to look as futuristic
07:22as mid-90s would allow it.
07:23The sickbay set, complete with yellow glowing walls and a new bio bed and an office for the chief medical
07:29officer, was constructed and proved to be so popular that the production team on Star Trek First
07:33Contact said, wait, we're going to be borrowing that for the Enterprise E.
07:38First Contact was in production between Voyager's second and third season, so the sets were just
07:42standing there, not making the production team any money, so they redressed them, repainted them,
07:45but they kept them structurally intact so that when the series began production again,
07:50they literally transformed them back.
07:52Robert Picardo makes a cameo in First Contact as the Enterprise's emergency medical hologram, so
07:57one would argue that the team borrowed everything from that stranded ship, including the holograms.
08:02Number four, Enterprise Bridge slash Valdor Bridge.
08:07Director Stuart Baird may have been named many things by Star Trek fans, but we must say this for
08:12the man, he knew how to get the most out of his props and sets. Star Trek Nemesis arrived in 2002
08:18and Voyager had wrapped production, so this meant that sets like Sickbay were no longer available to
08:23borrow and thus they had to be built from scratch. Baird ordered the construction of a new bridge set
08:27for the Enterprise E. This differed from all previous iterations because it was built on gimbal,
08:32that shook when needed, which mean the crew could realistically lurch upon weapons fire. I mean,
08:38up until this point, they simply would move themselves while the camera was shaken. With such
08:41an expensive set having been built, Baird wasn't about to waste a penny of it. He had it redesigned
08:45and redressed to serve as the bridge of the Romulan warbird Valdor, in a very similar move to the
08:49Wrath of Khan. Other examples of hidden redressing were those freestanding consoles on the Riemann Bridge,
08:56nicked from the old Deep Space Nine lockers as they were Cardassian in design.
09:00Number three, Observation Lounge slash Dining Room. This is one of the more obvious set redresses on
09:06this list, although it is still not the only one to feature in the next generation and undiscovered
09:11country. With the series in full swing at the time of the sixth film's production, it made complete
09:16sense that there would be a lot of crossing over, which also sets the stage for the evolution of the
09:21Enterprise lineage. Though of course the Observation Lounge was constructed for the next generation,
09:25the redress and transformation to turn it into Enterprise A's dining room was a brilliant and
09:30very simple move. Where else would the party dine in such style on a starship? Surely the mess hall
09:36would be a bit cramped and Kirkshead Courts were already depicted as being a far cry from the luxury
09:42of Captain Pike's stateroom. If there was one regretful part of that set share, it would be the
09:46destruction of that lovely dining room. I mean, the portraits adorning the walls,
09:50including the great Sarek himself, obliterated by a torpedo from General Chang's bird of prey.
09:56But at least we were able to put the wall panelling back together again for Picard's next sit down
10:00briefing. Number two, Federation HQ slash the courtroom. Once the USS Discovery warped into the future,
10:08Starfleet had to adapt to a new 32nd century setting. Therefore, once the ship arrives at Federation
10:13headquarters, the crew and the audience are treated to an astonishing sight. The ship could break into
10:18several smaller support craft to aid in evacuation, as was shown in Coming Home. The interior of the
10:24vessel was distinctly circular in structure, often comprising of rings around a central hollow space.
10:29The look was so distinctive, however, that when it shows up in strange new worlds,
10:33it is immediately recognisable. The courtroom at Starfleet headquarters,
10:37in which Una's trial takes place, is the redress of this set. Much like several other entries on this
10:43list, the general shape is what gives it away immediately, though perhaps the biggest clue
10:48is the large circular space in the middle of the room. This, having served as a stellar map in
10:52Discovery, is now only there to keep witness and prosecution as far away from the judges as possible.
10:58Despite its recognisable look, it was still fun to see where the USS Federation took its inspiration from.
11:04Number one, Enterprise Bridge slash Reliant Bridge.
11:08In a way, this is the ultimate example of hiding something in plain sight.
11:12Director Nicholas Meyer joined the Star Trek family with Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan.
11:16The stakes were high. Admiral Kirk and the rest of the crew began to feel quite old,
11:20and from the depths of space, a madman sought revenge.
11:24However, this madman wasn't just mad, they were cost conscious.
11:27First, it would appear as the simulation room during the Kobayashi Maru test.
11:31Then, it would appear as itself when Lieutenant Savick commanded it out a dry dock.
11:35Then, of course, it would serve as the Enterprise Bridge for the rest of the film.
11:38The bridge also served as the main bridge of the USS Reliant, commanded by Khan Noonien Singh himself.
11:44As the hero and villain of the film famously never ever met face to face,
11:47this was a clever way to get around the recycling of the set.
11:50As an audience, we're paying far more attention to the performances being given,
11:54rather than the deck plating underneath these actors' feet.
11:57Well played, team.
12:00Well played.
12:00So, there you have it. 10 times Star Trek have reused sets and hoped you wouldn't notice.
12:06But we did. We noticed, didn't we? Huh?
12:08Any others you can think of?
12:10Chuck them in the comments below.
12:11And, of course, make sure you like and subscribe.
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12:19I am on all social medias, at Marcus Bronzy, M-A-R-C-U-S-B-R-O-N-Z-Y.
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12:30Until next time, peace.