Intrepid class VS a galaxy class, which was more powerful and advanced

[kent]

This is a debate i like.

The Intrepid class starship....how powerful was it, and if it went up against a galaxy what would happen?

Or for that matter, what if it went up against other genre's of sci-fi?? What would happen then??

Discuss....

[Timo]

Judging by the performance of these ships against "impartial" targets, the Intrepid would quickly lose: she had trouble with ancient Klingon battle cruisers and medium-sized asteroids, which the E-D shrugged off easily enough.

And if either of the ships ventured to an alternate scifi realm, they would simply stall for the lack of pseudophysics that allow for warp drives and phaser beams.

Timo Saloniemi

[Bonzo the Fifth]

Timo wrote:

---

Judging by the performance of these ships against "impartial" targets, the Intrepid would quickly lose: she had trouble with ancient Klingon battle cruisers and medium-sized asteroids, which the E-D shrugged off easily enough.

And if either of the ships ventured to an alternate scifi realm, they would simply stall for the lack of pseudophysics that allow for warp drives and phaser beams.

Timo Saloniemi

As opposed to the magibabble that is turbolasers and hyperdrive?

Sorry, couldn't help it... :-P

[Bonzo the Fifth]

More seriously, though... I think it's a simple matter of specs and mission statement. The Galaxy Class seems to have been a showcase model for Starfleet... essentially, the best of everything they had at the time in a embodiment of what I think can be safely called the Golden Age of the Federation (The time that roughly corresponds to the period between the Khitomer accords post ST:VI and the Wolf 359 incident, as it seems the Federation has been a bit of a decline from that point onward). As far as I'm given to know, these ships are continued to be maintained as such, with the latest in everything (within reason) installed on those vessels. The Intrepid class is a different animal, namely a science and research vessel, with a de-emphasis on weapons and tactical systems, a substantial size reduction and an overabundance of sensors and computing capacity. This makes it all the more bewildering that a vessel like that not only made it back from the Delta Quadrant, but, for much of it's journey, was considered one of the most powerful vessels in that area (excepting the Borg, of course) by it's denizens.

So tactically, hands down, the Galaxy Class.

[TheHungarian]

The interpid class ship is a less powerful scout like ship. It's meant more for recon missions or transport missions, although obviously they are proficient in battle.

Galaxy class starships and the beastly mammoth warships that carry large crew compliments, which I would guess could be used for a ground assault during war, and they are far more heavily armed.

[VulcanGuy]

TheHungarian wrote:

---

Galaxy class starships and the beastly mammoth warships that carry large crew compliments, which I would guess could be used for a ground assault during war, and they are far more heavily armed.

What warships does the federation have? The most powerful ship I've seen was the Promethius but that was for deep space missions, not really a warship.

[Odo's_Bucket]

That's like asking which would win, a Ticonderoga class cruiser or a Nimitz class carrier. Gee, I wonder. http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1266/...1248d785_o.jpg

[zaphodbrx99]

Actually, the Intrepid class would win easy. It could survive a mission against a heavily armed cube ( Unimatrix zero ) whereas the Enterprise was scared stiff ( Q Who ) . Of course TNG Borg and Voyager Borg are very different, so you couldn't call it impartial..

[JNG]

A Galaxy-class ship is larger and more powerful than an Intrepid-class ship. Both are capable of carrying out missions to defend the Federation, and clever tactics could always alter the outcome, but by the numbers, the Galaxy-class ship is superior. Ships of the Intrepid class, however, are a slightly more recent design and probably have a higher warp speed, at least in the short term.

Bonzo the Fifth wrote:

---

The Intrepid class is a different animal, namely a science and research vessel, with a de-emphasis on weapons and tactical systems, a substantial size reduction and an overabundance of sensors and computing capacity.

I don't know of any evidence supporting this idea. It was sent into a physically dangerous area to capture Maquis, and Janeway strongly contrasts its capabilities with those of Equinox, which is much more along the lines you describe. The ship's designer stated that it was an Explorer, although probably the smallest of its kind; this category sits at the top of the classification system, and also includes Galaxy-class ships. (In fact, his article on the genesis of the Intrepid class suggests the armament was chosen for equivalency to that of the Galaxy class. The equivalency probably refers to type rather than number.)

zaphodbrx99 wrote:

---

Actually, the Intrepid class would win easy. It could survive a mission against a heavily armed cube ( Unimatrix zero ) whereas the Enterprise was scared stiff ( Q Who ) .

Seems obvious this would have much more to do with the intel to which Voyager had access. With someone like Seven of Nine on board providing detailed inside technical data about the Borg systems, it is only reasonable they'd have a better chance. In ST: First Contact, for example, Picard is able to provide similar insight to notable effect.

It's worth noting that the cube in "Q Who?" was notably larger than the tactical cube from "Unimatrix Zero." (The latter appears the same size as the other cubes that appeared on Star Trek: Voyager.)

We must be careful not to use Voyager-specific incidents to evaluate all examples of the class. Voyager suffered somewhat for the lack of regular supplies, maintenance and upgrades that she'd have received in the Federation, but she also had some modifications and information that gave her advantages in certain situations. For trying to learn about baseline performance of a ship of that class, her adventures aren't much to go on; we're mainly left with some comments from the pilot and backstage information.

[Rii]

Odo's_Bucket wrote:

---

That's like asking which would win, a Ticonderoga class cruiser or a Nimitz class carrier. Gee, I wonder. http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1266/...1248d785_o.jpg

Knock Nevis laughs at your puny carriers!

[Lashmore]

www.ditl.org has the most accurate strength indices of each ship class. His mathematics in figuring them out are the msot I have seen includign canon and backstage sources to find a medium.

In a level playing field one on one battle, Galaxy would wipe the floor with an Intrepid rather easily.

As for show specific examples, voyager got upgrades, it did have brog upgrades to shields prior to endgame I beleive, Seven of Nine insituted many upgrades to voyager using her Borginess and that crappy catsuit which amde her body look much better than it really was.

This discussion is not Voyager vs Enteprise D, its base Galaxy class vs base intrepid.

Galaxy class wins in virtually everything except speed, agility and computer power.

Agility will have little factor fighting against a galaxies 360 degree firing arc for its STRONGER phaser arrays, that and torpedoes can home in on moving targets.

[Timo]

That's like asking which would win, a Ticonderoga class cruiser or a Nimitz class carrier. Gee, I wonder.

Well, considering that a Nimitz's only hope of defense against the likes of Ticonderoga is having another Ticonderoga ride shotgun for her - whereas a Ticonderoga is specifically designed to stop what a Nimitz can throw at her...

Frankly, it would be nice to know what Starfleet intended the Galaxy and the Intrepid to do, respectively. But both seem to be jacks-of-all-trades. Except that the bigger ship may actually be an ace-of-all-trades instead...

Galaxy class wins in virtually everything except speed, agility and computer power.

Dunno about the latter point. While assorted giga- and teraquads are thrown about in dialogue, there's never an estimate on the total computing power of either ship. And one would suppose that a bigger computer would have more power, and a bigger ship would hold a bigger computer.

Timo Saloniemi

[Lashmore]

Galaxy relies soley on isolinear technology, intrepid incorporates Bioneural gel packs to increase the flow of computer information hence computer response time.

Galaxy does not have these ice-gel packs one has in their freezer in the 21st century for when you bump your head, intrepid incorporates these props.

Hence the intrepid has a more efficient computer system in at least running speed.

[Timo]

But we don't know which would win out, a small computer with a few gel-packs and a few isolinear chips, or a large one with a gadawful number of isolinear chips. Perhaps the Intrepid is just barely on par with Galaxy after the unfair advantage of gel-packs is factored in?

And to be sure, we don't even known that the gel-packs would be better than the isolinear chips. We just know that the Voyager has the gel-packs, and that she is a new ship. Perhaps the packs are cheaper and thus preferred, even though inferior otherwise? The technobabble at Memory Alpha isn't canonically supported...

Timo Saloniemi

[Lashmore]

I never use memory alpha, or beta, I find them poor resources.

But to use more clean examples. Think of how within less than ten years, you compare the computer revolution of early 1990's to the late 1990's, the same could have happened between the galaxy and intrepid....it's viable that the intrepids computer core is a slimmed down upgrade fo the galaxy. Virtually everything on the intrepid computer wise seemed to agree to that fact.

On another note, mass has little meaning in space, so a smaller warp core and nacelles dealing more speed? That suggests, another evolution in advancing technology.

Still overall, in battle Galaxy is more a hard hitter than an Intrepid. An Intrepid is an advanced scout/explorer and science vessel.