Enterprise is a military vessel, and having spent a year aboard a destroyer, I cannot overemphasize the importance of keeping everything spotless and painted. It's not just military anal thinking, or busywork to keep the crew out of mischief (although that certainly does play a role!). It's essential for morale. In cramped, crowded quarters, the slightest trace of dirt or litter has a profound subliminal impact. Besides, keeping the appearance and layout and stowage identical may pay real dividends in the confusion of action. When a busy passageway deck is swabbed three times a day, and waxed every day, missing just one waxing due to an unscheduled drill suddenly becomes obvious. The place looks like a shit-house. (Colorful naval terminolgy!)

It's one of the things you never notice until it's missing. When I saw pictures of the interior of Mir, I was appalled. Of course, it may be a bit harder to indoctrinate highly trained and motivated engineers in simple hygiene than it is to bully teenagers into doing it, but the fact remains: how did they ever find anything? The neatness of the Enterprise's spaces seemed perfectly realistic to me, what was obviously phony was that no one ever seemed to be cleaning or painting.