Star Trek: Picard
Spoilers Starship Design in Star Trek: Picard
- Thread starter pst
- Start date
It’s unreasonable to think that a series named after a character would focus on the character and not the ships.
You know like that BBC show TARDIS
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Gonzo
Guest
I see the newer designs to be exactly that, its not just about the designs it could also be about how they are built as well that has been significantly improved which may not be possible with older designs.
Another major factor could be crew size, you want to be able to operate and maintain the ship with as small a number of crew as possible that can get the required tasks done, which then frees up space for cargo, guests and dignitaries, specialist crew and specialised functions, the newer designs will be based around that idea, older upgraded designs simply wont be as efficient in that regard,.
Its the age old argument, is it better to have lots of smaller ships (more attacks but low damage) or fewer larger multi role ships (fewer attacks but high damage), the simple answer is you need a mix of both depending on the enemy at the time.
Lots of smaller ships is ideal if you are doing a lot of scouting or if you will be going up against a larger slower ships, but only if your weapons have enough punch to actually do them harm and can avoid incoming fire, which is directly dependent on the amount of power those ships can generate.
Registry numbers aren't quite the be all end all some would like them to be, in fact its possible that some ships could even be given new registries after being brought out of mothballs.
I don't think you could do that, the Excelsior class isn't large enough to fit those systems as they are designed for much larger vessels, the size of the platform has a major effect on the size of antimatter generator that can be installed which limits the maximum amount of power available at any one time, that has a knock on effect to everything else, especially phaser punch, shield resilience and maximum cruise speed.
The Intrepid class power generation ability would be far below that of the Galaxy class, when a ship is considered to be more powerful its not just a matter of weapons and shields, its also an indicator of its ability to generate power, project that power against the enemy and move itself to where it needs to be as fast as possible.
There will always be a limiting factor somewhere in the chain, more often than not it will be either structural integrity (speed) or available space (power generation) that will end up being the limiter.
As we saw with the Defiant its all about getting the balance right, being able to outfight anything you cant outrun and outrun anything you cant outfight, ultimately a well balanced ship will generally perform better.
I do like the Klingon approach, find something that works and stick to it, upgraded (as much as possible) D7's and K'Tingas for the basic stuff, upgraded and new BoP's for scouting and patrol, core fleets of Vorcha's and Negh'vars for rapid reaction and projection of force, for the record I love the BoP's, Vorcha's and Negh'Vars design.
We could see Excelsior ships but after the Dominion War I would think many of them would have been lost in the fight, as they are perfect for use in Destroyer screens and that role has a high rate of attrition protecting the larger more valuable ships that can hit harder, at the end of the day its better to lose an Excelsior class than a Nebula class.
I doubt we would see them in the private sector because they would be overkill, it would be like a private individual running an aircraft carrier with 1000's of crew when it just isn't necessary, efficiency and value matter as well and don't forget maintenance costs.
Its one of the reasons why I consider an Odyssey class to be a natural evolution of all of the above, Starfleet needs a true heavy weight to rival the Warbirds and Jem'Hadar Battleships that have been encountered, a larger ship means it can have the latest and most powerful antimatter generators, that then allows for the most powerful experimental weapons, shields and engines to be fitted, such as slipstream drives and transwarp coils.
EDIT: That escalated quickly didn't it.
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Gonzo
Guest
We may not see the weapons and armor as they do kind of break the game board a bit, it would make the Klingon and Romulan ships no threat at all.
I suspect we could see the slipstream drive though and possibly transwarp.
Yes, it is a character driven series. I mean weird as in unique for Trek , not weird bad.
We know the Excelsior's were around until at least 2379 as USS Hood was part of Battle Group Omega which was en route to rendezvous with the Enterprise and take on the Scimitar
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Gonzo
Guest
It is possible but as time passes it becomes less so.
I am sure some survived the war but I just cant see Starfleet building new ones when they could build the latest designs instead.
The human adventure is just beginning...I read that somewhere.
The last time we saw actual Starfleet vessels chronologically and IRL in the 24th century prime universe was in "Endgame," with Voyager, 2 Galaxy class ships, 2 Defiant class ships, an Excelsior, a Nebula (the U.S.S. Bonchune), and a Prometheus. Also, the Enterprise-E in Nemesis, obviously. And that was over 20 years before PIC.
I envision that since the supernova crisis happened only a few years after Nemesis, that Starfleet devoted its resources to building the rescue fleet rather than building more ships of the line, and once that rescue fleet was destroyed, there just wasn't enough of the remaining ships to be able to take over. However, because they haven't shown any Federation starships as of 2399, we have no idea about the status of Starfleet, or heck, what a new Starfleet vessel even looks like. We don't even know if Starfleet has even built any new ships since 2386.
Yeah, like the real-life Russian Soyuz spacecraft, the frame has essentially stayed the same but the interior tech has been upgraded over time. But as with that example too, there's only so much interior upgrading that can be done before it's time to design an entirely new ship. And since Starfleet already possesses multiple newer classes than the Excelsior, eventually its time would have come. I don't see them making any more newbuild Excelsiors now.
The CGI Hood had its NCC-42296 registry number (ironic, since its first appearance in Encounter at Farpoint had a much lower NCC-2541 registry), and the CGI Valley Forge had a registry of NCC-43305.
I think it would be more a matter of whoever is in charge of the PIC VFX department/head ship designer wanting to recreate that ship as a brand-new CGI model. I'm not seeing that happening. I'm seeing those people or that person wanting to make their own designs.
Agreed.
Is any of that integral to the story? If not, we ain't gonna see it.
The next episode has the La Sirena on its way to Deep Space 12, so there's a possibility that not only will we see a new Federation space station, we may even see some new ships docked there.
They were also being used as active-duty shuttles in 2386, so either between 2386 and 2399 someone decided to retire this already-long-lived shuttle design, or they were meant to be newer than they appeared.
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I'll put down money that they don't actually get there.
You had to go and ruin my day, didn't you?
It's my thing.
My daddy is to old for Star Trek. I'm a first-generation TOS Trekkie!This isn't your daddy's Star Trek.
We never saw Deep Space 5. Just sayin'.
We never saw Deep Space 5. Just sayin'.
But I sure as hell watched Babylon 5 when it was on air and on DVD (Which I bought the whole collection).
In that case, then this isn't your Trek anymore.
True; I was just specifically pondering on the role of the war in the purging of older types, and saying that apparently it played none.
I like that - the supernova could coincide with a sort of "synchronized block obsolescence" wherein ships artificially kept active during the war, as well as ships built shortly before the war but worn down by it, would all be in dire need of replacement. After the Mars incident, the whole fleet might have to be built anew, there no longer being other options, so it would actually be true that no resources could be spared for a second evacuation fleet.
...Or what Starfleet's current role is. Might be Picard is being more literal than we think when ranting about it no longer being his Fleet. Might be locals have taken over the defense and law enforcement tasks. Might be there has been outsourcing, to Klingons or whatnot. Might be exploration has been halted, or colonization has.
Timo Saloniemi
It's a fair suspicion to have.
We see a silhouette of the U.S.S. Ibn Majid NCC-78710 on Rio's suitcase. She looks like a Sovereign Class but more bulkier. I wonder if we're going to see the actual ship?
75710
