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Spoilers Starship Design in Star Trek: Picard

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Alot of the bridge designs from that "Art of Star Trek" were actually really interesting. I remember pouring over those images back in the 90's and just imaging what "could have been".

Kinda surprised some of these designs haven't been recycled into some of the newer series.

I could easily see the image I posted being some distant future Federation Starship.
 
As a fan of the 1980's esthetics, in only a slightly ironic way, there is a small part of me that kinda likes it.
I always liked it. I think it nails what TNG was trying to do.

They ended up adding those additional side seats by Riker/Picard/Troi to the actual bridge set, those always looked cheaply tacked on, it would have been better if something better integrated was there from the start.

The comic was a great implementation of the idea.
 
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I also really liked this idea, which was intermediate between the giant original bridge concept and what we ended up getting. The couches wrapping around the forward consoles make more sense here, and we can see the origins of the Enterprise-D's famous horseshoe.

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One idea from these concepts that should have absolutely carried over into the final design was the bridge being part of a self-contained "command complex" containing its own transporter room and docking port facilities.
 
On an absolutely unrelated to Picard, but related to these bridge concepts, I've rediscovered this Bridge design.
STU2g14.jpeg

I can't help but think this would be perfect for a Romulan War era Daedalus, or something similar. Has an almost submarine like feel. Give it some NX-01 computer consoles and put it smack dab in the middle of a Daedalus' sphere.

Perfect.
 
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On an absolutely unrelated to Picard, but related to these bridge concepts, I've rediscovered this Bridge design.
STU2g14.jpeg

I can't help but think this would be perfect for a Romulan War era Daedalus, or something similar. Has an almost submarine like feel. Give it some NX-01 computer consoles and put it smack dab in the middle of a Daedalus' sphere.

Perfect.

I think this was the defiant bridge concept
 
would have been nice to see a couple of Sovereigns in the background though. In my head-canon most of the soveriegns were patrolling the edges of federation space, a show of power and possibly intimidation to mitigate against other alpha and beta quadrant races taking advantage of the federations situation during the war.

I never go to deep into headcanon.
But I always had this idea that with the E-E being launced in 2372, maybe only a few Sovereigns were build. Like with the Galaxy class in late 2350's/early 2360's. With the war looming, Starfleet decided to focus more on smaller ships and prepping decommissioned older ships for battle instead of trying to build ships that take a while. I mean, a ship the size of a Sovereign or Galaxy class isn't build in a couple of months. Using all your spacedocks at most of your shipyards to quickly refit Miranda's and Excelsiors that are sitting in depots makes a lot of sense.

And despite some fans claiming that sources say that the Sovereign was designed to be a battleship..... Nope. All those sources are fan sources or non-canon sources. Sure it has some big ass weapons. But so does the Galaxy class, and that's a dedicated explorer. To me, the Sovereign is basically the Excelsior of the late 24th century; Starfleet's newest in long range exploration ships.
 
That's what I always assumed too.

Right? I mean, it's all non-canon (fuck, I hate canon anyway) but it's been suggested that the first Galaxy class was already going through trails during the late 2350's. That her design process was a long and hard road. I know it's all fan-stuff, but the idea that the Sovereign project started in 2365, incorporating lessons learned from the Galay project, was something I liked. Construction on the Sovereign begins in 2368 or something, have her go through trails around 2370. More are starting construction around 2369/2370.

By the time it's 2373, there's maybe three or four actually on active duty, a couple of spaceframes half underway. The war starts, material on personal are pushed towards refitting and repairing excisting ships, taking ships out of mothballs.
The war ends, 2376 begins... More Sovereigns can begin production. By the time it's 2379 (Star Trek Nemesis), their could be more than a dozen.
 
But is it possible that in 2401 there are no Galaxy-class starships in Fleet service? Okay I understand that there is Ross-class, Galaxy-class successor.

But without Galaxy-class? It is hard to believe. Imagine Generations refit Galaxy-class with 25th century okudagrams/Lcars colors, with removed carpets and with Titan lightning. It would fell modern even in 2401.
 
Yeah but the constellation class was commissioned in 2326 according to the plaque. The battle of MAXIA was 2355 so by then the uniforms would have been TNG era.

Maybe the last plaque was destroyed in another gruesome battle with the Ferengi!

I always see head-Canon as a way to rationalise canon information or any contradiction. The lack of Sovvies during the Dominion could have equally been that there weren't many built by that point. I have a vivid imagination so it's fun to speculate.
 
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And despite some fans claiming that sources say that the Sovereign was designed to be a battleship..... Nope. All those sources are fan sources or non-canon sources. Sure it has some big ass weapons. But so does the Galaxy class, and that's a dedicated explorer. To me, the Sovereign is basically the Excelsior of the late 24th century; Starfleet's newest in long range exploration ships.

Worf says in TNG: "Heart of Glory": "When relieved of its bulk, the Enterprise becomes an exceptional weapon." So my headcanon for the Sovereign-class is that it's what you'd get if you designed a Galaxy-class stardrive section to be a fully independent starship in its own right. Fast, powerful, lean, high-endurance, long-range.
 
I never go to deep into headcanon.
But I always had this idea that with the E-E being launced in 2372, maybe only a few Sovereigns were build. Like with the Galaxy class in late 2350's/early 2360's. With the war looming, Starfleet decided to focus more on smaller ships and prepping decommissioned older ships for battle instead of trying to build ships that take a while. I mean, a ship the size of a Sovereign or Galaxy class isn't build in a couple of months. Using all your spacedocks at most of your shipyards to quickly refit Miranda's and Excelsiors that are sitting in depots makes a lot of sense.

And despite some fans claiming that sources say that the Sovereign was designed to be a battleship..... Nope. All those sources are fan sources or non-canon sources. Sure it has some big ass weapons. But so does the Galaxy class, and that's a dedicated explorer. To me, the Sovereign is basically the Excelsior of the late 24th century; Starfleet's newest in long range exploration ships.
The only thing we have to go on are what the show runners and designers have said and we have observed.
It’s obvious that the Sovereigns were designed to be more combat capable, leaner and meaner than the Galaxy class, etc. They were intended to fight the Borg

They have no families on board, no civilians, etc.

Calling the Sovereign a battleship is a bit much, but they’re definitely less friendly than the Galaxy class
 
The one detail that kills that bridge for me is the couches right in front of the stations. I can see having loungey seating in there somewhere, but people with jobs to do don't need looky-loos literally sitting a foot or two in front of them. Lotsa room for people to kick back off to the sides or on that balcony. Give the people who are actually doing something their space.

It's just so obnoxious. Really, all this open space and this guy has to sit right in front of me?

I take it you haven't seen the bridge of the Liberator from Blake's 7? Pretty much a similar concept done about ten years before TNG.
 
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