Running Refits

[James H]

I was wondering if anyone's interested in creating a list of changes to hero ships that were made during the shows' runs. Upgrades and redesigns that must have been carried out during the ships' missions. And maybe some speculation as to why these changes were deemed necessary and what benefits they added. I'm not so much talking about small aesthetic additions to sets - the walls of Ten Forward changing tiles, etc - but bigger changes to ships, such as ...

The extra level of the Engineering deck in TOS

The direct turbolift from Enterprise D Engineering which later turned into a Jefferies tube junction

The curbed corridor beside the Enterprise D warp core which disappeared after the first episodes and later reappeared in Generations

 

[Deks]

The ENT-D Bridge underwent interior changes until it culminated in inclusion of extra work stations right beside each walls in ST: Generations movie (the layout of which was very similar to the Sovereign class bridge).

Other than that, we know of the ENT-B getting an extra section to its secondary hull which was part of the Excelsior class refit.

EDIT: There's also the NX-01 which underwent changes to the interior bridge color scheme on certain sections, inclusion of what seemed to be power conduits (also on the bridge) and from what we know, more phase cannons, photonic torpedoes and stronger hull plating.

If you recall, the NX-01 was supposed to be originally outfitted with 3 phase canons, which didn't happen because they were rushed out of drydock to take Klaang back to Quonos, so the crew managed to innovate and install 2 phase cannons in just a couple of days.
The ship was also upgraded with stronger hull plating and a lot more phase cannons before being sent to the Expanse (a similar refit followed in early season 4 where weapons and hull were improved). Oh and, its Warp drive underwent upgrades so that by Season 4 it was able to achieve and sustain Warp 5 (up until around Season 3, it was limited to about 4.5).

 

[Deks]

Voyager had its own version of upgrades during its time in the Delta Quadrant, though there was nothing 'officially' stated for some of them.

The Enarans shared their power conservation technology with VOY.

It was noted that when VOY was partially assimilated by the Borg in 'Scorpion', for a brief period, it had hull armor. The power systems on a given deck worked better - but otherwise, they had to remove majority of other Borg technology because it was impeding the ship's Warp drive (which meant losing the Borg armor, but nothing was mentioned about the power systems).

A permanent upgrade to VOY was inclusion of an Astrometrics lab which was a merger of SF and Borg technology.

We also had examples of the crew studying various phenomena in the DQ, so those probably helped.

Phasers had little or no effect on Hirogen monotanium hull plating when the ship first encountered the Hirogen... however, in the later seasons (when that future Borg Drone 'one' was accidentally born and enhanced the ship's shields and weapons, followed by VOY's communication with Starfleet in which VOY sent all its logs, etc. back to Starfleet) the Hirogen ships were no longer much of a threat to VOY (from a tactical point of view).

Oh and, the ship underwent a massive refit in Season 7 'Nightingale' where various systems were repaired, replaced, and upgraded - this I think is usually known as a 'major overhaul' which under regular circumstances would probably be done once every 4 or 5 years.

EDIT: In Season 7 episode 'Void' (I think that's what its called), VOY received technology which tripled their replicator efficiency and was able to feed 500 people a day using half the power it took them a few days before (this was while being inside the Void that drained their power reserves at a 10x higher rate than what they'd usually use).

 

[James H]

The ENT-D Bridge underwent interior changes until it culminated in inclusion of extra work stations right beside each walls in ST: Generations movie (the layout of which was very similar to the Sovereign class bridge).

Other than that, we know of the ENT-B getting an extra section to its secondary hull which was part of the Excelsior class refit.

EDIT: There's also the NX-01 which underwent changes to the interior bridge color scheme on certain sections, inclusion of what seemed to be power conduits (also on the bridge) and from what we know, more phase cannons, photonic torpedoes and stronger hull plating.

If you recall, the NX-01 was supposed to be originally outfitted with 3 phase canons, which didn't happen because they were rushed out of drydock to take Klaang back to Quonos, so the crew managed to innovate and install 2 phase cannons in just a couple of days.
The ship was also upgraded with stronger hull plating and a lot more phase cannons before being sent to the Expanse (a similar refit followed in early season 4 where weapons and hull were improved). Oh and, its Warp drive underwent upgrades so that by Season 4 it was able to achieve and sustain Warp 5 (up until around Season 3, it was limited to about 4.5).

Great shouts on those changes. The Generations bridge re-design is a nice intermediary step towards the Sovereign Class, and makes sense with your idea of a 'major overhaul' happening every few years.

The Excelsior class refit is really nice too - and interesting that most of the TNG-era Excelsiors were still pre-refit models. It makes me wonder if the ENT-B had a specific mission requirement that suited an almost-unique redesign.

I think the movie-era ENT is also a good case study. The changes to Engineering between the first and second movies (the addition of the Intermix chamber) feels consistent with overhauls every few years, and still feels like part of the same ship