DESIGNING VOYAGER'S CORRIDORS

Where possible designer Richard James created rooms, corridors entrances, turbolifts and other spaces leading directly into or out of a primary set. This provides maximum flexibility for a director in deciding camera shots, and adds to the viewer's sense not only of the size of the ship but also of direction - we can "follow" a character as she or he moves from, say, the bridge, directly into the briefing room, or from a corridor directly into a transporter room. It gives the impression that each set is a contiguous part of a larger whole: it is to a large degree but not completely - layout of Stage 8 layout of Stage 9. The same philosophy was applied to the messhall, ready room, crew quarters, hangar deck, holodeck and ship's corridors.

Wendy Drapanas: "TNG's Enterprise was like a battleship. Voyager is more like a destroyer - swift, fast, good killing power, with newer, more updated technology. We extended the corridors so we have a longer 'walking, talking' corridor area for filming as opposed to the Enterprise. We don't have to fake it as much on Voyager as we did the corridor shots on the Enterprise. This gives the ship a longer look. Richard James also gave it more of the gray look, which brings it down in size a bit and gives it that cruiser/destroyer look."

Below: Experience on [Star Trek: The Next Generation] made Richard James make some changes and design improvements into USS Voyager's sets. Corridors, for example, are better lit and easier to film in.

Source: Poe

Below: part of the finished corridor look.

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Below: part of the finished corridor look; red alert status is signalled by the narrow, lit panels.

[Author, Author]

Compare Voyager's corridor with
one from [Star Trek: The Original Series] and one from [Star Trek: The Next Generation]