Oftentimes, writers will incorporate what are known as "bottle episodes" into seasons to save money. Bottle episodes are those where the settings are limited to usually one or two areas, and there are few, if any, guest stars. Director Winrich Kolbe began his prolific career with Star Trek directing one of those episodes. In Star Trek: The Next Generations's "Where Silence Has Lease," the crew of the Enterprise faced off against Nagilum, which was essentially a large face in space, and it didn't offer Kolbe much wiggle room when it came to directing.
According to Giant Freakin' Robot, Kolbe hated his directorial debut because most of it took place on the bridge of the Enterprise, a place most fans dream about. But Kolbe thought it was "intriguing" the first time he stepped on it, but then it became "an utter crashing bore" to him because it had nothing but "tan walls and a few twinkling lights."
Kolbe went on to say that shooting this particular episode was "murder" and shooting "that long on the bridge was the worst experience I've ever had." It's certainly hard for us to imagine, though, that anyone would find the Enterprise boring.
We certainly can't put ourselves in Kolbe's shoes. Maybe we might get bored after spending seven or hour twelve to fifteen hour days on the Enterprise bridge. Maybe. We know it's a different place when we see it versus when the scenes are being filmed, but there are fans that have turned their basements and/or other rooms into their homes to replicas of the bridge. Year after year people pay for the Star Trek: The Original Series Set Tour in Ticonderoga, NY, and fans flock to Youtube to watch virtual tours of the Enterprise from Star Trek: The Next Generation so this is definitely something difficult for us to fathom.
This first experience didn't stop Kolbe from continuing to direct Star Trek episodes, and he went on to direct forty-eight episodes across various series, including the brilliant The Next Generation finale "All Good Things."