Spacedock type The " Spacedock " - type was a space station and starbase design in use , by Starfleet and the , during the late 23rd and 24th centuries . Technical information . The " Spacedock " - type had a massive layout that was designed to harbor numerous starship s inside its upper , mushroom - formed section . The interior docking bay could be accessed by four pairs of large space doors evenly spaced along the outer hull . Each set of space doors was located directly between two of the docking structures located inside . One of these pairs of space doors was wide enough to allow passage of a vessel , while another could allow the passage of a vessel . Passage through the outer doors and docking was handled by a dedicated docking control facility . The center of the internal docking space featured a column - like structure with three berths allowing a starship to dock on either side , i . e . , six in total . Crew facilites such as lounges within this column - like structure had large windows , offering panoramic views of the spacedock ' s interior . ( ; ; ) " Spacedock " - type stations were capable of major starship refit s as well as repairs and could also serve as personnel hubs for crew rotations ( ) . Appendices . Background information . The number and orientation of the space doors was displayed on panels used in the control booth for . The panels in question were sold at the " It ' s A Wrap ! " sale and auction . Design origins . The " Spacedock " - type was designed by and Nilo Rodis at Industrial Light & Magic . They took their cue from the story outline for . Carson later recalled , " " I was trying to work out how we could make this space station interesting , and I thought , ' What if it is so big that the " Enterprise " actually goes into it ? ' I did a drawing of a space station that was big enough . It was a bit clunky , but Nilo took that and in his typical fashion turned it into a really wonderful design . So we presented this idea . " " ( ) In one concept sketch , a progenitor of the final " Spacedock " - type has an " NC " registry prefix and exhibits the mushroom - like aspect of the eventual style . The latter element developed from Nilo Rodis maintaining that the dock have a unique look , intentionally varying the facility ' s design from the results of ILM ' s recent work on the franchise . " " We pitched a whole bunch of design ideas to Harve [ Bennett ] and Leonard [ Nimoy ] , " " said Rodis . " " I wanted to make sure it had nothing whatsoever to do with ' Star Wars ' , so it was more reality - based in its own " Star Trek " way . " " ( ) Owing to its distinctive appearance , this type of space station actually was , behind the scenes , nicknamed " mushroom " . ( " Penny Juday , TNG Season 2 DVD special feature " Inside Starfleet Archives , Penny Juday , Star Trek Coordinator " " ) As David Carson originally conceived of the dock , the facility was meant to rotate as it proceeded on its orbit , which meant that vessels maneuvering into the space station would have to synchronize their motion with the dock . A couple of early drawings that Carson illustrated of the station , such as of the " Enterprise " entering Spacedock , were designed to show how this docking system would look in storyboards . ( ) In fact , storyboards were used to fully plan " Star Trek III " s docking sequence . Having been granted approval for the concept of the " Spacedock " - type ' s internal docking bay , David Carson and Nilo Rodis were also called upon to work out how the interior should look . Rather than having the " Enterprise " seem little while interacting with the spacedock , the dock itself obviously had to look massive , though Carson and Rodis found it challenging to achieve the latter instead of the former . In fact , Rodis was highly devoted to solving this issue . ( ) The idea of the Spacedock having a large group of windows , through which the " Enterprise " could be seen docking , partly solved the difficulty regarding perspective , the presence of people providing a reference point for scale . The notion of the windows was devised by David Carson after realizing that , when he and Nilo Rodis flew down to Los Angeles , they could see their plane from the terminal just before they boarded the aircraft . ( ) Since not all the shots featuring the Spacedock could include individuals , the dock still had to appear gigantic in comparison with the associated starships themselves . " " Because there was no architectural detail on the inside , I needed an element that defined how big this space was , " " explained Nilo Rodis . " " The only way I could really give you the sense of distance was by establishing some kind of perspective . We could do that vertically , but we also needed to do it between them with beams or columns of light . " " The inclusion of the lights also added a sense of grandeur that was somewhat appropriate to the feel of the motion picture shots , and emphasized the largeness of not only the spacedock but also the ships . Rodis noted , " " Without that element it just wasn ' t magic . " " ( ) Models , sets , and reappearances . As the process of designing the " Spacedock " - type ' s exterior neared completion , ILM created a handful of study models for the dock , showing several alternative configurations in preparation for the construction of the final studio model . " " There were four or five study models , " " remembered supervising model - maker Steve Gawley . " " The one that we finalized actually used design elements from several of the five study mock ups . It was a question of taking the top of this one , and the bottom of that one . " " ( ) Refining the Spacedock ' s details progressed with advice from the producers . For instance , the dock underwent numerous modifications during the course of one particular day , while suggestions were offered by Leonard Nimoy , Harve Bennett and Ralph Winter , " Star Trek III " s associate producer . ( " The Making of the Trek Films " , 3rd ed . , p . 53 ) " " During one meeting , in particular , we had a space station that was getting pretty close , but they wanted a few things changed , " " said effects supervisor Kenneth Ralston . " " So we took it over to [ modelmaker ] Bill George , and half an hour later he came back with the changes . Then we talked about it again and changed it some more . " " ( " Cinefex " , No . 18 , p . 43 ) The full - scale studio model for the " Spacedock " - type ' s exterior was built at ILM . ( " Cinefex " , No . 18 , p . 51 ) To represent the interior of the Earth Spacedock , a large thirty - foot miniature was constructed and used . " " That was an elaborate electronic feat with all the neon and the working doors , " " Ken Ralston recalled . " " There was kind of an interesting weird soft light in there , and I was so specific about the colour I wanted to achieve inside that space dock . I went round and round on it for a long time , and then fought with the lab to print it correctly . " " ( ) In " Star Trek III " , the Spacedock lounge was actually a set constructed on a live - action bluescreen stage at ILM . ( " Cinefex " , No . 18 , p . 51 ) The lounge had to be filmed there , at ILM ' s Marin County headquarters , as it was the only place with a big enough bluescreen , which the set was arranged in front of . " " We had the biggest bluescreen ever built , " " commented effects cameraman Scott Farrar . " " It was created for the speeder bike chase and Jabba ' s barge in ' Return of the Jedi ' . It was enormous . " " ( ) Harve Bennett and Leonard Nimoy traveled to Marin County to participate in the shooting of the lounge scenes . With only the bottom halves of the room ' s window frames having been constructed on the set , a matte painting was later used to visually extend them . The contents of the windows , footage of the interior docking bay , was additionally composited into the shots of the lounge . Ken Ralston was extremely pleased with the finalized footage , happily referring to it as " tremendous . " He commented , " " You get all this scope and scale that doesn ' t occur most of the time , and we could only do a shot like that because of the very large blue screen we have here at ILM . " " ( " Cinefex " , No . 18 , p . 52 ) On the other hand , Ken Ralston was initially dissatisfied with the color scheme used inside the Spacedock , shocked to see it while attending a premiere of " Star Trek III " with an audience that included Leonard Nimoy and Harve Bennett . " " The print came up and it was all pea soup green ! " " Ralston exclaimed . " " I was furious ! [ . . . ] It wasn ' t a big deal , but I was so used to fighting for one specific look that when it went off to the green side it was like , ' Man ! ' I thought it hurt the look , but the others didn ' t care at that point – they were happy it was over ! " " ( ) The original miniature for the Earth Spacedock ' s interior docking bay from " Star Trek III " was destroyed after the end of filming . The model was reassembled for " Star Trek IV " , complete with its huge network of fiber optic lights . ( " " , p . 123 ) Despite being rebuilt , the miniature closely resembled its original counterpart . ( text commentary , " " DVD ) It was still twenty feet in diameter . Jeff Mann , " Star Trek III " model maker , described the rebuilding of the docking bay model as a " major undertaking " and went to say , " " We had wanted to use stock footage of the interior of the space dock from " Star Trek III " . We hoped that we could take some of the old effects elements from that scene and composite them with some new movement , but nothing worked quite right , so we had to refurbish and rebuild it . It was an expensive undertaking . " " ( " The Making of the Trek Films " , 3rd ed . , p . 69 ) The set for Spacedock ' s control booth from " Star Trek III " was reused for " Star Trek IV " . The panels on the set had new control graphics , however , mainly because earlier panel graphics had deteriorated while in storage since the previous movie . ( text commentary , " " DVD ) It was ILM who composited the footage filmed on this set together with the background of the docking bay . ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 17 , No . 3 / 4 , p . 47 ) Depicting the Earth Spacedock in ( both an exterior view of the facility , as well as a shot of the station ' s docking bay ) involved re - composites of stock footage from the previous film . ( text commentary , " " DVD ) For a shot wherein the " Enterprise " s senior officers approach Spacedock from Earth in , visual effects artists at ILM invested much contemplation on how to magnificently demonstrate the Spacedock . " " We really wanted to open the film up [ at that point ] and show the grandeur of space , " " explained effects art director William George . " " Immediately I thought of " 2001 " – in particular , the docking sequence between the " Orion " space clipper and the double - wheeled Space Station One . I also got the bug in my mind to do an angle on the spacedock that hadn ' t been done before . I looked at the model from all angles , and eventually ended up lying down on the ground to look up at it before I realized that was the perfect shot – it hadn ' t been seen before , plus it was the natural angle of approach if you were coming up from Earth . " " ( " Cinefex " , No . 49 , p . 48 ) By the time " Star Trek VI " entered production , the set for Spacedock ' s interior docking bay no longer existed . Since all that was deemed necessary for the film was a first - person perspective shot of the spacedoors and the immediately surrounding wall area while the " Enterprise " departed the facility , a pie - shaped miniature was built to show these elements of the spacedock . This model included miniature lights to represent the space station ' s moving approach lights . Model maker Charles Wiley examined the miniature on stage , immediately before it was filmed . ( " Cinefex " , No . 49 , pp . 48 & 49 ) Footage of the Earth Spacedock was reused more than once in , with the USS " Enterprise " - D simply superimposed over the motion picture " Enterprise " , even though the former starship was intended to be considerably larger than the latter vessel . For these TNG appearances , Andrew Probert wanted the " Spacedock " - type to be used differently than in the movies . " " Going into the Spacedock was ludicrous , and I was fighting tooth and nail to get them to not do that , " " Probert stated . " " The producers simply shrugged their shoulders and said , ' Well , we ' ll say it ' s a bigger Spacedock , ' but that logic really didn ' t work for me . The system that I proposed was that the " Enterprise " to be serviced and docked on the existing space station ' s exterior , because it has an umbrella - like rim – a mushroom head , if you will – under which the " Enterprise " could have been docked by connecting the dorsal replenishment systems , but . . . there ' s a lot of things that sort of fell by the wayside , and it is what it is . " " Probert even drew a sketch , dated , to show his proposed docking method , before his suggestion was declined . The inclusion of the " Spacedock " - type ' s interior docking bay in TNG was done with the use of a matte painting that Probert also illustrated . A photographic matte was added to the shot , in order to show crew members walking through a gangway tunnel . ( " The Art of Star Trek " , p . 84 ) The enclosure around Drafting Room 5 at Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards , as seen in , was also quite similar to the interior of this type of spacedock . The exterior model of the " Spacedock " - type ended up in storage at Paramount , under the aegis of Penny Juday . ( " TNG Season 2 DVD " - special feature : " Inside Starfleet Archives , Penny Juday , Star Trek Coordinator " ) Apocrypha . According to the novelization of " " , the " Spacedock " - type space doors were actually " radiation - shield doors " and the facility is described as allowing people to work outside the enclosed ships without exposing them to the radiation of space .