Designer Talks Decorating The Enterprise Set

Jim Mees, the Enterprise set decorator spoke to Zap2it about the challenges of creating the look of the newest Trek series.

As a prequel to a show set in a future that's still hundreds of years off, building the sets for Enterprise had the potential to be confusing. "Both Next Generation and Voyager took place in the 24th century and this new show Enterprise is a prequel to the original show Star Trek that was shot in the '60s but took place in the future to what we are doing now," Mees explained. "Does this all make sense? This new show is to take place 100 years from today."

"Since all of the Voyager sets were sensor touch - with no dials, buttons or levers - we have added all of these items to this set with an edge. Remember, we are going back in time."

The focus of any starship bridge is the Captain's chair. "We took an existing form, which was actually a boat seat, like a submarine chair. We added an articulating arm with a built-in monitor. From the chair, the captain can see and speak to all on the bridge/set. The seat slides from side-to-side to manage all the controls and for the camera to shoot beyond the captain without the captain/actor having to get out of his seat."

More from Jim Mees including several design sketches from the Enterprise set, are available in the original report at Zap2It.

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