 The Klingon Bird of Prey 's cloaking device required a new effect . The original concept featured the layers of the ship forming up from the inside out , requiring a series of overlaid elements filmed with an Oxberry animation camera . ILM decided the effect appeared too " animated @-@ looking " , and defied common sense : " if there was a fanfare to <unk> , everyone would know the Klingons were coming and blow them out of the sky before they could even finish materializing , " Ralston said . The supervisor decided on subtlety , throwing color separations out of sync to create a blurry ripple effect . While simple , the sequence was more effective than the elaborate planned scene . Effects such as the destruction of the merchant ship were created using projected explosions , a technique perfected during the production of Return of the Jedi . Simulated zero @-@ gravity explosions were filmed and reflected onto a card using the same motion control program used for the models . The result was an explosion that moved with the model . 
