Spoilers Starship Design in Star Trek: Picard

[Tomalak]

I'd like to think there are still some Galaxy class ships out there performing the original mission that the Enterprise-D and her sisters never really got to carry out during the TNG era.

The Olympia may well have been a Constitution class ship operating on a deep-space mission as late as 2371, so it's possible that otherwise obsolete designs are still of use on the frontier.

It's somewhat counter-intuitive, as you'd think newer designs would be at the forefront of exploration. But logically if a ship is embarking on a five or ten-year mission, it'll be five or ten years out of date by the time it returns home.

 

[Stuart Wilson]

It's somewhat counter-intuitive, as you'd think newer designs would be at the forefront of exploration. But logically if a ship is embarking on a five or ten-year mission, it'll be five or ten years out of date by the time it returns home.

On the contrary, it makes more sense to use an established design. It's well understood by those operating it, any design defects have long since been identified and fixed, and most of the races they meet are either way more advanced or, way less advanced so the latest tech isn't going to matter much, and you're not out there to go into battle anyway. Also it means that the more advanced ships are closer to home to deal with the existing threats. You can always upgrade the sensors and laboratories with new tech so the science stuff is up-to-date.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Let's say you have three Galaxy-class ships, totally identical, and send them all out on separate ten-year exploration missions. By the time they return, each one could have different sensor capabilities, computer upgrades, warp engine performance, tactical system outputs, and even some new shipboard faculties that were implemented by their individual crews during the course of their missions. When Voyager returned from her seven years in the Delta Quadrant, she really wasn't a standard Intrepid-class ship anymore, IMO.

 

[Racefuel]

Let's say you have three Galaxy-class ships, totally identical, and send them all out on separate ten-year exploration missions. By the time they return, each one could have different sensor capabilities, computer upgrades, warp engine performance, tactical system outputs, and even some new shipboard faculties that were implemented by their individual crews during the course of their missions. When Voyager returned from her seven years in the Delta Quadrant, she really wasn't a standard Intrepid-class ship anymore, IMO.

Which is partly why shes likely in the museum

 

[Saul]

It wasn't Berman, it was Berman's bosses.

Are you sure? Staff working on the show said it was one of the producers and it was Herman Zimmerman who talked them out of it. Lets not forget he was perfectly fine putting the k'tinga class in Enterprise and got roundly scolded by his bosses for doing so.

 

[Macintosh]

FACT!
It's just too simple. Boxy right angles, circular circles, boring from all sides.

Although I much prefer the original concept I do like the on-screen version of the Ambassador. She's like a stocky bulldog version of a Constitution-class. I like the simplicity of the lines, and the retro cylindrical secondary hull is cool. Rather than being an intermediate step between the Excelsior and the Galaxy it looks like an intermediate step between the Constitution and the Galaxy, ignoring the Excelsior design lineage almost completely. I do struggle when it comes to those bulky out-of-proportion nacelles and awkwardly right-angled pylons though.

I quite like this reinterpretation by @Hunter-G since it finesses some of the ungainly aspects of the on-screen version while still being recognisably the same ship.

 

[fireproof78]

Although I much prefer the original concept I do like the on-screen version of the Ambassador. She's like a stocky bulldog version of a Constitution-class. I like the simplicity of the lines, and the retro cylindrical secondary hull is cool. Rather than being an intermediate step between the Excelsior and the Galaxy it looks like an intermediate step between the Constitution and the Galaxy, ignoring the Excelsior design lineage almost completely. I do struggle when it comes to those bulky out-of-proportion nacelles and awkwardly right-angled pylons though.

I quite like this reinterpretation by @Hunter-G since it finesses some of the ungainly aspects of the on-screen version while still being recognisably the same ship.

Nacelles look better but that saucer remains ugly.

 

[Macintosh]

It's somewhat counter-intuitive, as you'd think newer designs would be at the forefront of exploration. But logically if a ship is embarking on a five or ten-year mission, it'll be five or ten years out of date by the time it returns home.

On the contrary, it makes more sense to use an established design. It's well understood by those operating it, any design defects have long since been identified and fixed, and most of the races they meet are either way more advanced or, way less advanced so the latest tech isn't going to matter much, and you're not out there to go into battle anyway. Also it means that the more advanced ships are closer to home to deal with the existing threats. You can always upgrade the sensors and laboratories with new tech so the science stuff is up-to-date.

We see this with actual space travel and exploration today. The hardware we send out is often generations behind what we're used to using day-to-day, precisely because it's had time to be refined, had every bug checked and accounted for or fixed, and is available in a physically more robust form – because you don't want to have to try switching your space probe off and on again when it's several million kilometres away. The space shuttles used flight computers based on IBM's System/360 mainframes dating from 1967 right up until they were decommissioned in 2011, with only a minor upgrade in the mid-90s to replace the original magnetic core memory with semiconductor memory. Perseverance, the most recent NASA rover sent to Mars, has a PowerPC 750 CPU – the same type of CPU that was featured in Apple's original iMac released in 1998. Reliability and repairability wins above all else.

 

[Tuskin38]

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[Dukhat]

Are you sure? Staff working on the show said it was one of the producers and it was Herman Zimmerman who talked them out of it. Lets not forget he was perfectly fine putting the k'tinga class in Enterprise and got roundly scolded by his bosses for doing so.

All we know is that Drexler himself stated on his now-defunct blog that ‘the producers’ wanted the Akira class exactly as how it looked in FC. He obviously didn’t want to name specific names, but I assumed he was talking about Berman. Why would UPN care what the ship looked like?

And I doubt anyone was ‘roundly scolded’ for the K’T’inga in ENT, considering it was Berman’s dislike of the lights on the CGI model of the D4 concept model which caused this to happen in the first place.

 

[drt]

All we know is that Drexler himself stated on his now-defunct blog that ‘the producers’ wanted the Akira class exactly as how it looked in FC. He obviously didn’t want to name specific names, but I assumed he was talking about Berman. Why would UPN care what the ship looked like?

If there had been any direction from UPN it would have been to make the NX-01 look like an "Enterprise", not some barely glimpsed ship from a five year old movie.

 

[Saul]

And I doubt anyone was ‘roundly scolded’ for the K’T’inga in ENT, considering it was Berman’s dislike of the lights on the CGI model of the D4 concept model which caused this to happen in the first place.

Nope, Berman got heat from bosses above for using the K'Tinga and told staff afterwards that "I never ever want to see that ship again". His dislike of the lights on the D4 was mainly because it didn't have enough of them in his opinion. But the reality is that he had already decided to use the K'Tinga class for budgetary reasons. The art department did the D4 for free because they didn't want the K'Tinga onscreen.
This story is discussed by Rob Bonchune on Trekyards (Trekyard haters, don't derail the discussion please.)

Why would UPN care what the ship looked like?

Exactly. They would be clueless about it.

 

[HotRod]

Trekyard haters, don't derail the discussion please

 

[Tuskin38]

Memory-alpha has a bunch of quotes and BTS info on the design
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/D4_class_(concept)#Design

And I doubt anyone was ‘roundly scolded’ for the K’T’inga in ENT, considering it was Berman’s dislike of the lights on the CGI model of the D4 concept model which caused this to happen in the first place.

Yeah, the producers wanted 'more windows' on the D4.

 

[valkyrie013]

Your reach a certain point where technology doesn't progress rapidly.
Between Enterprise and TOS, yes, there was many leaps in technology that probably dictated that ships didn't stay in service for long, or maybe were rolled out in different "Blocks" where a ship made 5 years after the initial ship were outfitted with the newest tech.
But the plateauing started in Tos and lasted to Tng, had new designs out but tried and true designs like the Connie and Excelsior trudged on for decades. They may have even been constructing excelsiors in the 2340's, maybe block 70 versions that were equal technology wise to ambasadors.
For galaxy class, I'm sure Galaxy #12 was more advanced than galaxy #2 Enterprise. While the early galaxy's may have been decommisioned, the latter galaxy's are probably out there doing there jobs.

as said earlier, the Galaxy specs are still quite serviceable in early 25th century technology wise, there was no big quantum leaps of tech that would have made her a relic.

 

[Dukhat]

Nope, Berman got heat from bosses above for using the K'Tinga and told staff afterwards that "I never ever want to see that ship again". His dislike of the lights on the D4 was mainly because it didn't have enough of them in his opinion. But the reality is that he had already decided to use the K'Tinga class for budgetary reasons. The art department did the D4 for free because they didn't want the K'Tinga onscreen.
This story is discussed by Rob Bonchune on Trekyards (Trekyard haters, don't derail the discussion please.)


Exactly. They would be clueless about it.

Maybe I’m not understanding you, but you seem to be contradicting yourself. First you say that Berman’s ‘bosses’ (who would be UPN) scolded him for using the K’T’inga, but then you agree with me that UPN wouldn’t have cared about the design of the ships.

I know the interview you mention, and I recall it differently. The designer was asked by Berman to make a new ship, which they spent countless hours on and didn’t get paid for it, only to have Berman say he didn’t like the windows, and to use the K’T’inga instead.

 

[Tuskin38]

Some MSDs/cutaways
https://twitter.com/DaveBlass/status/1654107067425193984

 

[fireproof78]

Some MSDs/cutaways
https://twitter.com/DaveBlass/status/1654107067425193984

The Constitution-III has a different connection from the two hulls that I realized. Kind of like it.

 

[Racefuel]

in terms of deck count at least it's really not smaller than a sovereign class either in terms of deck count, shorter for sure because the nacelles aren't the size of an OG constitution class lol.

It seems she's really not as small as people thought

 

[Saul]

Maybe I’m not understanding you, but you seem to be contradicting yourself. First you say that Berman’s ‘bosses’ (who would be UPN) scolded him for using the K’T’inga, but then you agree with me that UPN wouldn’t have cared about the design of the ships.

There was fan backlash over it which the bosses heard about apparently.

I know the interview you mention, and I recall it differently. The designer was asked by Berman to make a new ship, which they spent countless hours on and didn’t get paid for it, only to have Berman say he didn’t like the windows, and to use the K’T’inga instead.

Just out of curiourity I rewatched the interview and it seems like the K'Tinga was the plan. The designers went ahead and did the D4 (they even did the shots of the D4 for the episode, crazy) but it was shot down by Berman who wanted more windows, the designers firmly said no to doing any more work on it.