Kruge’s Bird-of-Prey was a Klingon B’rel class Bird-of-Prey in service with the Klingon Imperial Fleet in the late 23rd century.  In 2285, it was captained by Commander Kruge, who had convinced its crew to pursue the acquisition of the Genesis Device technology from the Federation for the Klingon Empire.  After entering Federation space and arriving under cloak to the Genesis planet, it inadvertently destroyed the Federation science vessel U.S.S. Grissom in an attempt to disable her. It later engaged in a confrontation with the U.S.S. Enterprise, in which the bulk of Kruge’s crew were killed when Captain James T. Kirk lured them onto the battle-damaged Enterprise, which was subsequently destroyed via self-destruct by order of Kirk.  After the death of Kruge on the Genesis Planet, Kirk and his crew commandeered the ship to transport the regenerated body of Captain Spock to Mount Selaya on Vulcan, where his katra - or “living spirit” - was successfully reunited with his body.  The vessel was later renamed H.M.S. Bounty by Kirk’s crew before its voyage home to Earth.

Kruge’s Klingon Bird-of-Prey | Deck 5 (2285)

The bridge of Kruge’s Bird-of-Prey was circular in shape, with the command chair on a raised, central platform, providing the commanding officer with both visual access to the small main viewer at eye level and supervision of the crew stations in front of him in a half-circle recessed pit.  This series of five connected stations with three display monitors included the helm, navigator, and gunner’s consoles.  A set of steps with metallic handrails to either side of the raised platform provided access in and out of the lower pit.  Behind the command chair, flanking the single set of curved double-doors, were two additional stations.  Each of these stations had a small data port for recording incoming transmissions onto a removable data tape, and also had the ability to detect, track, and identify vessels in proximity to the Bird-of-Prey. 

Ship Model (Physical)

As portrayed in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (Film, 1984)

The Klingon B’rel class Bird-of-Prey was originally conceived as a Romulan ship; an early script for Star Trek III: The Search for Spock featuring Romulans as the villains instead of Klingons, explaining why the ship is called a “Bird-of-Prey” and had a painted red “feather” pattern on the underside of its wings, similar to Romulan Bird-of-Prey seen in Star Trek: The Original Series.  When the villains of the film were changed from Romulans to Klingons, the script contained details of the Klingon commander having stolen the ship from the Romulans, but this was dropped from the final script. The Klingon Bird-of-Prey studio model was designed by Nilo Rodis and David Carson of Industrial Light & Magic.  Director Leonard Nimoy was involved in selecting the design concepts of the class and Bill George built the prototype model for this vessel.  The model would go on to be used in several future Star Trek productions to represent nearly thirty different Klingon Birds-of-Prey.

Bridge Set (Physical)

As portrayed in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (Film, 1984)

The bridge set of the Klingon Bird-of-Prey seen in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock was a redress of the aft half of the Enterprise torpedo bay set seen elsewhere in the film and heavily featured in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, that set itself being a redress of the Klingon battle cruiser bridge originally built for Star Trek: The Motion Picture.  Director Leonard Nimoy, under considerable budget constraints, was pressured to use this set instead of building a new one.  The set was top-lit to help hide the prosthetics of the actors portraying the Klingons, and included adequate room beneath the command chair for ILM Visual Effects Supervisor Ken Ralston to operate the hand puppet used as Kruge’s pet monster dog.  For this bridge’s appearance in the next film, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, an entirely new set was designed and built that was much more in line with the darker, grimy aesthetic of the original Klingon bridge seen in The Motion Picture.