New Unnamed Discovery Ship Analysis

[Philip Guyott]

Trekyards has released a couple of great videos overt the last couple of weeks about we know so far about the currently unnamed Federation starship seen in the trailer for Star Trek Discovery. Whilst we presume the ship will be the Shenzhou this has yet to be confirmed.

Video released 31 January 2017

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Video released 18 February 2017

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[Philip Guyott]

They say they got the size numbers from an inside source which seems to suggest that the unnamed Federation ship is almost twice the length of the USS Discovery and TOS USS Enterprise.

If the dimensions are accurate could we potentially be looking at a ship from the future.

What do you think?

 

[The Impaler]

I can only say I hope those dimensions are wrong. Just because something's bigger doesn't make it better.

 

[INACTIVEUSS Einstein]

Irrelevant of the rest of the discussion, that's a beautiful picture - pure starship porn - look how they are different in the way a Mercury capsule is from an Apollo capsule - its great.

Bonus image: The USS Discovery

 

[Kemaiku]

I for one, welcome our new supersized starship overlords.

 

[Kevin Wolff]

Before seeing this, I figured with all the time that has passed coupled with the look of Discovery herself, that they were redesigning Star Trek from the ground up. But this ship is clearly NX derived, and I doubt it was just an unintentional side effect of having ENT's designer, Eaves, working on this show. Interesting how this more modern ship has a DISH deflector like the Connie Ent of this era (barring redesign) but the DSC has the "digital" dish like the refit forward.

Could the Discovery be a concept prototype? Like the cars designed in the 1950's and early 1960/s that never went into production and even then looked not necessarily ahead of, but out of their time. Maybe they didn't advertise this, or rebranded it NCC-1031 from its original NX designation.

 

[BillJ]

Abrams haters everywhere cry out in terror...

 

[INACTIVEUSS Einstein]

Just to give a little perspective:

1). In recent times (i.e. since the Star Trek: Encyclopedia in the 90s), it has generally been accepted that ships got larger with each era.

2). However, in many of the old books and stuff (for example the first Rihannsu novel), there were huge Dreadnaught class vessels with saucer-sections that dwarfed a Constituion class ship when flying in formation.

So this might represent a return to that kind of pre-1990s thinking.

It was noted by a lot of people that the JJ Abrams Kelvin reality already tended to draw on pre-Okuda stuff like the older Tech Manual of Franz Joseph. The Kelvin for example resembles the old Saladin-class, rather than following the more set-in-stone post-90s idea that ships need two nacelles. In general the Kelvin era ships with their prominent saucers and tubes look pleasingly like TOS or Franz Joseph designs.

The Shenzhou might therefore just be a Dreadnaught.

The issues with the size of the Kelvin-verse ships was more complex and controversial, since it involved the re-design of established ships such as the Constitution class to be much larger, which brought in some additional issues to do with scaling, crews, etc - so actually this is less controversial in a way, if it does turn out to be a Dreadnaught - although it would still cast the Constitution class in a less formidable light, which I know may worry some.

 

[Kemaiku]

It's starting to look like the 1701 was the midget of her era, all the ships we've seen that are ships of the line in that era (Kelvin, Discovery, Shenzou) are all larger than her.

 

[INACTIVEUSS Einstein]

It's starting to look like the 1701 was the midget of her era, all the ships we've seen that are ships of the line in that era (Kelvin, Discovery, Shenzou) are all larger than her.

Its hard to say whether Star Trek follows Navy-style size classes like Star Wars, but she is beginning to look less like a Battle Cruiser/Heavy Cruiser, and more like a Light Cruiser or Destroyer. The impression I think most of us had, was that being a "flagship" in Star Trek VI, and being sent on important missions like "Balance of Terror", the Constitution-class represented the best the Federation had.

But maybe ships in Star Trek are more like NASA vehicles - size would not necessarily correspond to importance. Perhaps a connie can wipe the floor with a Shenzhou-type.

 

[Kevin Wolff]

I like the idea of the ships varying in size, but they should explain it just a little. Battleships and Carriers, Colony transport, etc. They should also show the downsides of ships that large. Maybe they require smaller, more maneuverable escort ships (like Disc and maybe the Connie).

I hope they will add a real sense of scale. That's what Star Wars does well. They make a triangle look ominous among other smaller triangles.

 

[Kemaiku]

Uuuuugh, no more explaining, please.

 

[BillJ]

Its hard to say whether Star Trek follows Navy-style size classes like Star Wars, but she is beginning to look less like a Battle Cruiser/Heavy Cruiser, and more like a Light Cruiser or Destroyer. The impression I think most of us had, was that being a "flagship" in Star Trek VI, and being sent on important missions like "Balance of Terror", the Constitution-class represented the best the Federation had.

I don't think we should necessarily equate biggest with best.

 

[a thousand-yard stare]

Comparing the ships of all eras, the 'engines' of the mystery ship appear to be oversized for the hull.
If the wireframe ship has an analogue to naval vessels it would be to a class of very large vessels with a boilerage above what was needed for a balanced design.
Maybe a Carrier, as one of the commentators pointed out, or a Battlecruiser.
Battlecruisers (or 'Fleet Scout Cruisers') tended to be as big or bigger than the contemporary Dreadnoughts of their generation as the designers tried for more speed .
The culmination would have been Lexington and Saratoga at 44,000 tons and 180,000 shp.
Those designs were changed to become Carriers.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Here's a quick comparison of the Discovery (which I suspect is much larger than the Trekyards guys think), what is presumably the USS Shenzhou and the ships of the Kelvin Timeline:

 

[INACTIVEUSS Einstein]

Another nice pic ^

Comparing the ships of all eras, the 'engines' of the mystery ship appear to be oversized for the hull.
If the wireframe ship has an analogue to naval vessels it would be to a class of very large vessels with a boilerage above what was needed for a balanced design.
Maybe a Carrier, as one of the commentators pointed out, or a Battlecruiser.
Battlecruisers (or 'Fleet Scout Cruisers') tended to be as big or bigger than the contemporary Dreadnoughts of their generation as the designers tried for more speed .
The culmination would have been Lexington and Saratoga at 44,000 tons and 180,000 shp.
Those designs were changed to become Carriers.

The problem is the Klingon's classified the NCC-1701 as a Battle Cruiser in Star Trek II, and the Federation classes it as a Heavy Cruiser.

 

[Andru]

The nacelles on the rendered ship are much longer than those of the wire-frame.

Frankly while the rendering is nice it's not very accurate and it's detailed according to an arbitrary scale that the wire-frame drawing doesn't provide. The bridge, the windows, the hangar bays, all those details can't be seen on the wire-frame drawing and therefore it's very hard to determine the actual size of the ship.

 

[Tuskin38]

The nacelles on the rendered ship are much longer than those of the wire-frame.

You're right, but not by much

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

The problem is the Klingon's classified the NCC-1701 as a Battle Cruiser in Star Trek II, and the Federation classes it as a Heavy Cruiser.

Klingons would call pretty much any starship a "battle cruiser", regardless of whether it actually was one.

 

[Philip Guyott]

The nacelles on the rendered ship are much longer than those of the wire-frame.

Frankly while the rendering is nice it's not very accurate and it's detailed according to an arbitrary scale that the wire-frame drawing doesn't provide. The bridge, the windows, the hangar bays, all those details can't be seen on the wire-frame drawing and therefore it's very hard to determine the actual size of the ship.

The rendering actually presumes that it is a fairly small ship, and you are right that it is only speculative. However the size of the ship was not extrapolated from the render or the wire frame. The Trekyards guys claim they got the actual measurements from one of the designers attached to Star Trek Discovery. If the measurements are correct the the render will need to be redone.