Spoilers NCC-1701-A (alternate timeline) Capabilities Wish List

[AJE]

Now that there have been 3 movies worth of discovery and technological advancement since the Kelvin timeline USS Enterprise was built, I made a list of all the technological capabilities the new Enterprise should have gained from the various things Starfleet has encountered so far. They are organized based on the movie and ship/device/etc that these capabilities first appeared in. If anyone has anything else to add to the potential capabilities, feel free to do so.

From the USS Vengeance (this technology would have to be miniaturized to enable it to fit on a starship without robbing it of the room needed for exploration and science equipment):

• Long-Range stealth torpedoes (already carried by the Enterprise, but still originally designed for the Vengeance)
• Extensive physical armor plating, including the retractable armor plating for the deflector dish (this should ideally be thick enough to prevent Krall swarm ships from penetrating the armor and damaging the ship in the first place)
• Much improved structural integrity (Vengeance crash landed because of an internal detonation of 72 torpedoes, but her hull was not breached)
• Swivel-mounted torpedo launcher banks (more versatile than fixed launchers)
• Advanced rapid-fire phasers (those things were devastating) that can be fired while at warp
• Multiple combat drones equipped with phasers and torpedo launchers of their own, as well as ramming abilities. Depending on how many are carried, the Vengeance (and Enterprise) could possibly create their own mini version of the Krall swarm.
• Warp engines with "three times the speed" (according to Khan) of the Enterprise
• Automated ship systems allowing a single person to operate the entire ship alone
• Transporters capable of site-to-site transport of large numbers of people or objects simultaneously (Vengeance could transport all 72 torpedoes at once from Enterprise's hangar to its own)
• Countermeasures to prevent unauthorized transwarp beaming (the Vengeance was confirmed to have this capability by a screenwriter, and it had to have one for several actions to make sense)
• (possibly, not really necessary) Larger size, in order to carry much larger numbers of crew, equipment, smaller ships, drone factories (see below), etc.

From the Ancient civilization discovered by Krall:

• Combat/mining/utility drones augmenting the crew for many tasks. They are much more expendable in combat than crew (and Starfleet goes through a lot of those), and replacements could be manufactured on board the ship if it has enough room for a plant like that.
• Swarm ships replacing the Kelvin/Escape Pods. While carrying a large number in the hangar bay is impossible due to space limitations, they seem to be ideal replacements for the Kelvin pods carried by ships for emergencies. They are only slightly larger than Kelvin pods when docked, carry at least 2 people instead of 1, have warp capability, much better speed, durability, and agility, and can double as boarding/ramming craft. 1 or 2 of the larger, more capable "3-pronged" swarm ships that Krall personally flew (I suspect they control the other ships) could be reserved for the Captain and key officers.

 

[NaughtyTrekkie]

I guess you don't remember none of the long list of film and episodes where they discover a new, incredible technology and then forget it

 

[Kemaiku]

She has the same visible weapon placements and crew quarters (visible through the open hull) as the 1701, a full crew compliment and the usual phasers and one prominent torpedo launcher.

 

[AJE]

I guess you don't remember none of the long list of film and episodes where they discover a new, incredible technology and then forget it

Yeah, I haven't really seen any of the older film or TV shows yet, so if that's true, then maybe the alternate universe will be the place where that inconsistency finally gets fixed.

She has the same visible weapon placements and crew quarters (visible through the open hull) as the 1701, a full crew compliment and the usual phasers and one prominent torpedo launcher.

Well, I suppose that probably the swivel torpedo launchers, but I the automation could still be there, it would just be for use in an emergency. I think the other tech could still be in there too, as it wouldn't change the external appearance.

 

[AJE]

Well, I suppose that probably the swivel torpedo launchers, but I the automation could still be there, it would just be for use in an emergency. I think the other tech could still be in there too, as it wouldn't change the external appearance.

Whoops, I meant to say that that probably prevents the possibility of the Enterprise having swivel torpedo launchers.

 

[BillJ]

Sushi bar.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Sushi bar.

No. No. The Sushi bar is only on the Ares-class ships.

 

[Go-Captain]

Long-Range stealth torpedoes (already carried by the Enterprise, but still originally designed for the Vengeance)

The utility of the stealth torpedoes is questionable as a strategic weapon given transwarp beaming being vastly superior. Better effects can be had by beaming warheads alone. However, given a beam proof target, then the torpedoes do make sense. They also make sense as a first strike weapon in a tactical situation, say a ship is coming to your system at warp, send a bunch of those torpedoes their way, or vice versa.

• Extensive physical armor plating, including the retractable armor plating for the deflector dish (this should ideally be thick enough to prevent Krall swarm ships from penetrating the armor and damaging the ship in the first place)
• Much improved structural integrity (Vengeance crash landed because of an internal detonation of 72 torpedoes, but her hull was not breached)

Armor only really extends from the swarm ships. The dish having mechanical armor makes sense only for it, as a sensor is usually a sensitive, somewhat fragile item. For the rest of the hull mechanical armor makes no sense.

We also that Starfleet hulls going as far back as the Franklin are extremely robust. The Franklin plows through geological formations like it was designed for it. The Enterprise saucer survived an uncontrolled crash and was later flipped over, but didn't collapse under its own weight and barely took damage from those particular events. The Vengeance did a hand stand on impact with San Fran, but didn't seem to take damage from the event. Yet, the swarm was like hot knives through butter.

• Swivel-mounted torpedo launcher banks (more versatile than fixed launchers)

The Kelvin had those and I agree they make sense. Then again, the Enterprise has 72 torpedo tubes along its sides and since torpedoes can turn in flight, those tubes are less like Age of Sail broadsides and more like well spread out VLS launchers. Too bad they were forgotten, likely purposefully ignored, for Beyond.

Countermeasures to prevent unauthorized transwarp beaming (the Vengeance was confirmed to have this capability by a screenwriter, and it had to have one for several actions to make sense)

I figure any normal beaming countermeasure would work against transwarp beaming. It really should be a matter of course to have a second beaming defense along with shields.

Combat/mining/utility drones augmenting the crew for many tasks. They are much more expendable in combat than crew (and Starfleet goes through a lot of those), and replacements could be manufactured on board the ship if it has enough room for a plant like that.

Adding androids to the crew would be neat, especially if the alien android technology prove stable enough.

Swarm ships replacing the Kelvin/Escape Pods. While carrying a large number in the hangar bay is impossible due to space limitations, they seem to be ideal replacements for the Kelvin pods carried by ships for emergencies. They are only slightly larger than Kelvin pods when docked, carry at least 2 people instead of 1, have warp capability, much better speed, durability, and agility, and can double as boarding/ramming craft. 1 or 2 of the larger, more capable "3-pronged" swarm ships that Krall personally flew (I suspect they control the other ships) could be reserved for the Captain and key officers.

The swarm ships are really the key to improved armor. Where nothing conventional damages Starfleet hulls, those ships do a stellar job of it. The swarm ships should represent a tremendous structural improvement. However, given how they died so easily to phaser fire, they are not necessarily a useful upgrade for most conventional combat situations in Star Trek.

The swarm ships are also a lot bigger than the small Starfleet escape pods. If the warp drive really is small enough, then it could make for a far superior escape pod, but it is questionable. What it might net is a vastly improved shuttle.

The swarm ships do seem to have great sub light engines, so that might be an across the board improvement. But, it might just be a matter of their small size with large engines.

 

[AJE]

I just remembered about 2 more things that I meant to add to the list:

• Stealth combat mode from the Vengeance
• Jaylah's cloaking system (presumably only works while the ship is stationary) from the Franklin. (It seems Jaylah was a master at holograhpics and if she could make what she did with practically ancient technology and scraps, I wouldn't be surprised to see her invent holodecks or cloaking devices that work while moving with what she would access to at Starfleet.)

Does the Federation have treaty-enforced bans on cloaking devices during the TOS era?

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Now that there have been 3 movies worth of discovery and technological advancement since the Kelvin timeline USS Enterprise was built, I made a list of all the technological capabilities the new Enterprise should have gained from the various things Starfleet has encountered so far. They are organized based on the movie and ship/device/etc that these capabilities first appeared in. If anyone has anything else to add to the potential capabilities, feel free to do so.

From the USS Vengeance (this technology would have to be miniaturized to enable it to fit on a starship without robbing it of the room needed for exploration and science equipment):

• Long-Range stealth torpedoes (already carried by the Enterprise, but still originally designed for the Vengeance)
• Extensive physical armor plating, including the retractable armor plating for the deflector dish (this should ideally be thick enough to prevent Krall swarm ships from penetrating the armor and damaging the ship in the first place)
• Much improved structural integrity (Vengeance crash landed because of an internal detonation of 72 torpedoes, but her hull was not breached)
• Swivel-mounted torpedo launcher banks (more versatile than fixed launchers)
• Advanced rapid-fire phasers (those things were devastating) that can be fired while at warp
• Multiple combat drones equipped with phasers and torpedo launchers of their own, as well as ramming abilities. Depending on how many are carried, the Vengeance (and Enterprise) could possibly create their own mini version of the Krall swarm.
• Warp engines with "three times the speed" (according to Khan) of the Enterprise
• Automated ship systems allowing a single person to operate the entire ship alone
• Transporters capable of site-to-site transport of large numbers of people or objects simultaneously (Vengeance could transport all 72 torpedoes at once from Enterprise's hangar to its own)
• Countermeasures to prevent unauthorized transwarp beaming (the Vengeance was confirmed to have this capability by a screenwriter, and it had to have one for several actions to make sense)
• (possibly, not really necessary) Larger size, in order to carry much larger numbers of crew, equipment, smaller ships, drone factories (see below), etc.

From the Ancient civilization discovered by Krall:

• Combat/mining/utility drones augmenting the crew for many tasks. They are much more expendable in combat than crew (and Starfleet goes through a lot of those), and replacements could be manufactured on board the ship if it has enough room for a plant like that.
• Swarm ships replacing the Kelvin/Escape Pods. While carrying a large number in the hangar bay is impossible due to space limitations, they seem to be ideal replacements for the Kelvin pods carried by ships for emergencies. They are only slightly larger than Kelvin pods when docked, carry at least 2 people instead of 1, have warp capability, much better speed, durability, and agility, and can double as boarding/ramming craft. 1 or 2 of the larger, more capable "3-pronged" swarm ships that Krall personally flew (I suspect they control the other ships) could be reserved for the Captain and key officers.

I wasn't gonna get involved with this fanboi thread, but I gotta ask:

Why does this entire wishlist consist of WEAPON SYSTEMS? The Enterprise already has plenty of those. It's an exploration ship, where's the exploration equipment?

How about:
- A deep-core drilling rig inspired by the Narada for quickly tunneling into and excavating the cores of asteroids
- Heavy Lifter shuttlecraft -- something like a sikorski skycrane only with a tractor beam and enough muscle to lift a small starship into orbit.
- High capacity tractor beam: with its own beefy-looking pop out turret and enough power to grab and firmly hold an object up to six times the Enterprise's mass.
- Teleoperated robot probes: Enterprise-D had one and dammit, it's still a good idea!
- Non-sentient android redshirts: SERIOUSLY! They don't have to be THAT smart, they just have to carry stuff, follow simple instructions and killed/eaten/melted/smashed before anyone important. Like a normal redshirt, only we care slightly less.
- Submersibles (or at least diving suits)
- Gliders and/or UAVs
- Relay satellites and/or surveillance satellites
- Base camps: deployable tents, mobile labs, portable shield generators, etc
- Portable surface-to-orbit launch gear (the kind of thing you can attach to a space suit) as part of a crew survival package
- Personal forcefields, TAS style
- The Bowling Alley

I know, it's all summer blockbusters and we like to shoot stuff, but we can have FUN too while we're out here, right?

 

[F. King Daniel]

Floating holographic screens, like in the Yorktown command centre.

A holodeck, since it's well within their technical capabilities.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Floating holographic screens, like in the Yorktown command centre.

I seriously feel like the Enterprise was SUPPOSED to have those in the first place, which is what all those barcode scanners and even the swingarm light thing on the helm console were meant to be (they would have drawn the screens in post production) but for whatever reason the idea didn't get carried forward. Those same features are present in the concept art for the Kelvin bridge but also never used.

But yeah, 100% this.

 

[AJE]

I wasn't gonna get involved with this fanboi thread, but I gotta ask:

Why does this entire wishlist consist of WEAPON SYSTEMS? The Enterprise already has plenty of those. It's an exploration ship, where's the exploration equipment?

How about:
- A deep-core drilling rig inspired by the Narada for quickly tunneling into and excavating the cores of asteroids
- Heavy Lifter shuttlecraft -- something like a sikorski skycrane only with a tractor beam and enough muscle to lift a small starship into orbit.
- High capacity tractor beam: with its own beefy-looking pop out turret and enough power to grab and firmly hold an object up to six times the Enterprise's mass.
- Teleoperated robot probes: Enterprise-D had one and dammit, it's still a good idea!
- Non-sentient android redshirts: SERIOUSLY! They don't have to be THAT smart, they just have to carry stuff, follow simple instructions and killed/eaten/melted/smashed before anyone important. Like a normal redshirt, only we care slightly less.
- Submersibles (or at least diving suits)
- Gliders and/or UAVs
- Relay satellites and/or surveillance satellites
- Base camps: deployable tents, mobile labs, portable shield generators, etc
- Portable surface-to-orbit launch gear (the kind of thing you can attach to a space suit) as part of a crew survival package
- Personal forcefields, TAS style
- The Bowling Alley

I know, it's all summer blockbusters and we like to shoot stuff, but we can have FUN too while we're out here, right?

The reason the Vengeance section of the wishlist contains so many weapon systems is that's where the Vengeance had technological advantages over the Enterprise (that's really all the Vengeance was designed for anyway), so those are the technologies that could be used to improve on a new Enterprise. If you look at the improvements that are possible from Krall's ancient alien mining technology, there's much more civilian technologies available (though the list of improvements from that stuff isn't too big) to use.

Still, your list has some pretty good ideas, and if they've been shown in the Kelvin timeline films then I have no problem including them. Some (like the androids reverse-engineered from Krall's alien models) are already on the list, a few are somewhat redundant (you don't need submarines when the Enterprise itself can do that), but the rest of them have a lot of merit to them (assuming the technology exists for them at that point).

Floating holographic screens, like in the Yorktown command centre.

A holodeck, since it's well within their technical capabilities.

Jaylah should be more than capable of making one of those, so I included it later on (unfortunately I can't edit my original post so I have to make a separate post).

 

[starburst]

- The Bowling Alley

This I feel is the one TOS reference we are missing now, seeing the infamous bowling alley!

I'm with you they can keep adding more weapons to the ship as she's a ship of peaceful exploration not a gun boat (but a ship which can defend herself, supposedly, from most traditional threats). I agree with the idea of controllable scientific probes, drones or UAV type craft... probably doesn't fit the universe but I have always wanted to see something like the WSKRS from SeaQuest DSV.

I seriously feel like the Enterprise was SUPPOSED to have those in the first place, which is what all those barcode scanners and even the swingarm light thing on the helm console were meant to be (they would have drawn the screens in post production) but for whatever reason the idea didn't get carried forward. Those same features are present in the concept art for the Kelvin bridge but also never used.

But yeah, 100% this.

Not 100% but I am sure during certain bridge scenes those displays to the sides of the Captains chair had 3D looking displays.

I think if we get a Star Trek 4 we will see a ship which largely can do what the 1701 can do just better and faster for the most part. If you simplify it (alot) the capabilities of the 1701-E are the same as Kirk's 1701 just more powerful, faster engines, more efficient shields and weapons (yes she has a few more but largely they are the same as the 1701), better computers and sensors etc etc.

 

[drt]

Then again, the Enterprise has 72 torpedo tubes along its sides and since torpedoes can turn in flight, those tubes are less like Age of Sail broadsides and more like well spread out VLS launchers. Too bad they were forgotten, likely purposefully ignored, for Beyond.

I had the impression that the tube Scotty shot himself out of was one of the side tubes.

 

[Captain of the USS Averof]

I'll be happy if she withstands 10-15 minutes of battle without crashing and burning. She is supposed to be the "flagship" of Starfleet, not "the little ship that could(n't)."

 

[Kemaiku]

- Submersibles (or at least diving suits)
- Gliders and/or UAVs
- Relay satellites and/or surveillance satellites

1. Basically the TAS Aqua Shuttle
2. SG-1 using their UAV's was one of the better uses of the gate, Enterprise using them would be interesting too
3. We saw in TOS-R the old Enterprise could manufacture and place a lot of small probes, I assume the new ship could too, and one of the reasons for the broadside tubes was multipurpose deployment.

Other things I'd like to see are high end labs for the science crew, some advanced form of arboritum with GM crops for extended journeys, the manufacturing/replication sector (Kirk mentioned in Squire of Gothos the old 1701 had machine shops) a lower vehicle maintenance bay.

Maybe the one in Into Darkness was a repair/shop for patching up or kit building them.

A holography suite, in the computer core control room, specialists with different uniforms working on the OS as the ship is in flight.

The sports and recreational facilities in general, lounges and other downtime amenities for the general crew.

Zero-G training and recreation unit, for redshirts and maybe theraputic use.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

The reason the Vengeance section of the wishlist contains so many weapon systems is that's where the Vengeance had technological advantages over the Enterprise

So what? Enterprise still DEFEATED the Vengeance, so those advantages ended up not being all that useful in the end.

Plus, most of Starfleet's scientific equipment -- and more importantly, KNOWLEDGE -- becomes far deadlier than its weapons even in the thick of a firefight. It remains a truism in Star Trek that most dangerous person on the bridge at any given time is the science officer.

Some (like the androids reverse-engineered from Krall's alien models) are already on the list

Why bother using Krall's drones? They could just start a mass production run of Science Officer 0718. That's going to be a lot more useful on away teams than what is essentially a robotic Spartan with a cannon attached to his arm.

 

[BillJ]

So what? Enterprise still DEFEATED the Vengeance, so those advantages ended up not being all that useful in the end.

Not really. Not even close. They had someone on board, and then went aboard and commandeered the ship. Toe-to-toe, the Enterprise never stood a chance.

 

[Kemaiku]

And that's the Federation you'd like to see?