Você está essencialmente correto. Houve várias tentativas de explicar a inconsistência no design da ponte Bird-of-Prey , de qual o mais comum está em Memória Alfa :
Due to their age and variety of configurations, the main bridge design for Birds-of-Prey included numerous variations.
Isso se deve em parte ao fato de que:
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.
Mas a preocupação imediata com o projeto da ponte era dinheiro. Leonard Nimoy dirige ambos Star Trek III: A Busca por Spock e Star Trek IV: O Lar de Viagem , e foi restringido pelas finanças durante as filmagens do primeiro:
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.
O design usado em Star Trek IV: O Lar da Viagem , foi o que Nimoy queria, e com o orçamento superior do último filme ele, junto com o cenógrafo Jack T. Collis, conseguiu um design preferido.
Houve uma tentativa de reconverter a mudança na configuração da ponte entre os filmes como devido a um novo ajuste no 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.
Este retcon não faz sentido, entretanto, quando se percebe que este design também é usado em outras aves de rapina durante o curso de TNG e DS9 , incluindo uma versão ligeiramente melhorada no filme Star Trek: Generations .