Du är i princip rätt. Det har gjorts flera försök att förklara inkonsekvensen i Bird-of-Prey brokonstruktion, av som den vanligaste är på Memory Alpha :
Due to their age and variety of configurations, the main bridge design for Birds-of-Prey included numerous variations.
Detta beror delvis på det faktum att:
This [Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home's] bridge set was rebuilt several times, intermittently kept in storage, and underwent minor changes for each reuse.
Men omedelbar oro med brokonstruktionen var pengar. Leonard Nimoy leder både Star Trek III: Sökningen efter Spock och Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home och begränsades av finanserna under filmningen av den tidigare:
According to director Leonard Nimoy, the set that would eventually be used for this bridge was originally in another movie as somewhere else and, when subsequently asked if the still-standing set would work as the Klingon bridge, he – under considerable financial constraints – felt pressured to answer positively. He also thought that – if there was enough money to redress the set as the Klingon bridge – the film's production crew could make the set look effective. After the bridge was consequently reconstructed as the Klingon bridge, Nimoy found the set to be very cramped, difficult, tight and limited in scope but he ultimately came to believe that the film's production team had managed to make it work.
The set was top-lit, which helped to hide the prosthetics of actors portraying the Klingons and make the applications believable. The film's production crew also tried to keep it dark, to give the bridge an ominous feeling.
Designen som användes i Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home , var den enda Nimoy önskade, och med den senare filmens överlägsna budget kunde han tillsammans med setdesigneren Jack T. Collis uppnå en design är både föredragen.
Det har gjorts ett försök att ompröva ändringen i brokonfigurationen mellan filmerna på grund av att en återpassning på Vulcan:
It is possible that the differences in this ship's two bridge designs were the result of the reconstruction and repair of the ship during its three-month stay on Vulcan, in order to give the ship a more Starfleet feel. In reality, the change of bridge set was due to the fact that an entirely new set had to be constructed for Star Trek IV, following the demolishing of the Klingon bridge from Star Trek III. In addition, it was felt that the extra expense of building an all-new set was worthwhile, due to the fact that the Klingon ship would, in Star Trek IV, be featured to a much greater extent than it had been in the previous film. Leonard Nimoy found the new Klingon bridge set to be lavish by comparison with the previous one.
Denna retcon är dock inte meningsfull när man inser att denna design också används på andra Birds-of-Prey under TNG och DS9 , inklusive en lite ombyggd version i filmen Star Trek: Generations .