This year, 2365, was our first year decorating the USS Enterprise-D Public Affairs Lounge for Halloween. Our staff chose a theme centered around history, so the lounge took on a dungeon-like appearance. Our new holowalls were programmed to show dark stone blocks; the lights were dimmed and reset to a red/blue format; and candles, vines, and branches were brought in to complete the look. Other Halloween decor was scattered throughout the room, including a rather creepy totem near the door to the corridor (seen above).
We actually hosted a costume party for the crew in the lounge, and put out cookies, donuts, and other baked goods as refreshments. The cookies were baked by Petty Officer Knight (in the adjacent lounge kitchen), and the other baked goods came from the bakery on deck 10.
In the photo above, you'll see some of this year's decor. The black curtains, behind the refreshment tables, were put up to hide the lounge's large wall screen, and the Baby Yoda figure, on the table, was lent from my personal collection. He usually sits on a shelf in my office.
This photo shows the decorated lounge, looking to port. Here, you can see the simulated stone walls, and some of the candles. The pumpkins on the far counter are not real, but fit nicely into this setting. The table pyramids were reset to warmer colors, to match the Holloween decor. They are usually blue when the lounge is undecorated.
In this photo, you can see the exterior wall of the PAO lounge. The black curtains are covering up the exterior windows. Those curtains are standard; we often keep them closed. In this setting, however, they work well with the darkened theme, as well as the table candles in front of the bulkhead pillars. The round carpets under the tables are part of the decor. We have a few different colors in storage.
Our staff did a great job on the decor this year. Lieutenant (JG) Kensington coordinated the design, with holowall design selection by Petty Officer Granderson. The lounge decorations were, in fact, such a big hit with those who attended the party last night, that we will likely make this an annual event.
-Lieutenant Sam Archer