Are the other Galaxy-class starships really that powerful and prestigious?

[Lance]

Yeah I could buy that. Perhaps with differing areas of expertise.

Hero ship: Invincible, bar special events like movies or season-ending cliffhangers.


Ship of identical make and model to hero ship: Doomed. Always.


TOS was worst for it. "Oh no, that planet-eating tube sock/weird area of insanity space/that killer space virus/evil computer/whatever has spelled doom for a ship identical to Enterprise, what chance do our heroes stand against such a force of evil?"

There's a difference between a hero ship having 'invincibility armour' (or whatever it is TVTROPES calls it :P) and it being shown to be untouchable. There are occasions when the Enterprise and her crew are shown to be vulnerable, not simply charging through the galaxy facing all threats with no risk at all. That it actually survives these encounters is sometimes in spite of itself.

 

[USS Belmont]

So I guess Yamato and Odyssey were made to be Galaxy-class to showcase what could have happened to our heroes, or more specifically, the Enterprise. In other unnamed instances, they are just used as brutes in combat...

I guess we are lucky to have seen other Galaxy-class ships at all. They have only shown us one other Intrepid-class ship...

 

[C.E. Evans]

So I guess Yamato and Odyssey were made to be Galaxy-class to showcase what could have happened to our heroes, or more specifically, the Enterprise. In other unnamed instances, they are just used as brutes in combat...

I guess we are lucky to have seen other Galaxy-class ships at all. They have only shown us one other Intrepid-class ship...

It may be because the Intrepid-class was still a relatively new design at the time and not many of them were built yet.

 

[Arpy]

It may be because the Intrepid-class was still a relatively new design at the time and not many of them were built yet.

It's actually because the Intrepid Class was a complete failure. -- The Finest in Fanboy Logic

 

[C.E. Evans]

Fanboy Logic

What a contradiction in terms.

 

[USS Belmont]

It may be because the Intrepid-class was still a relatively new design at the time and not many of them were built yet.

The other reason is that Voyager is in the Delta Quadrant. There is never a real need to present a scenario of "what may have happened to our heroes" by using a different ship of the same class.