What if Voyager was a different class of ship?

[DarthTimon]

Inspired by @Checker222's thread here, I was wondering how the events of VOY transpire if Voyager herself was a different class of vessel? It's probably fair to suggest that if she were a Galaxy class ship, or an Akira, or a Nebula, or anything bigger with more resources, that she handles the likes of the Kazon with more ease. I mean, Voyager's biggest problem with the Kazon was when having to face them in numbers, a larger, more powerful ship might not be so vulnerable.

I'm trying to think if a larger ship might actually be at any sort of disadvantage, the only thing I can think of is that a bigger ship might attract more attention, but let's face it, Voyager was attracting attention regardless.

If she's a Defiant class vessel, she would certainly have the firepower to overcome most initial obstacles, but such a small crew, in such a confined space, with little room for a hydroponics bay, and none of the amenities that an Intrepid class ship has. Might the crew go a bit stir-crazy in those circumstances?

 

[F. King Daniel]

The ship's always as large as the plot needs it to be (see: Voyager's TARDIS-like shuttlebay, and where the hell were they stowing Neelix's ship for seven seasons?), so it would make no real difference whatsoever.

 

[Checker222]

Inspired by @Checker222's thread here, I was wondering how the events of VOY transpire if Voyager herself was a different class of vessel? It's probably fair to suggest that if she were a Galaxy class ship, or an Akira, or a Nebula, or anything bigger with more resources, that she handles the likes of the Kazon with more ease. I mean, Voyager's biggest problem with the Kazon was when having to face them in numbers, a larger, more powerful ship might not be so vulnerable.

I'm trying to think if a larger ship might actually be at any sort of disadvantage, the only thing I can think of is that a bigger ship might attract more attention, but let's face it, Voyager was attracting attention regardless.

If she's a Defiant class vessel, she would certainly have the firepower to overcome most initial obstacles, but such a small crew, in such a confined space, with little room for a hydroponics bay, and none of the amenities that an Intrepid class ship has. Might the crew go a bit stir-crazy in those circumstances?

It's somewhat ironic that Voyager's situation could maybe have been handled more robustly by a Galaxy-class ship* whereas many of Enterprise's missions could have been handled by an Intrepid.





*Maybe not, as Voyager was a much smaller ship with smaller requirements, while still rivaling many ships in the region. A Galaxy-class ship might have eventually required more resources than Voyager, possibly having a lower cruising speed.

 

[Pumpkin Bread]

Voyager's chief advantage, sheer speed, was largely ignored. This question didn't make it into my Voyager Writer quiz, but here it is:

Kazon ships have a top speed of about Warp 5. What should Voyager do if they encounter one?
A. Fly away at Warp 9 (about 8 times faster)
B. Fly away at Warp 8 (about 5 times faster)
C. Fly away at Warp 7 (about 3.5 times faster)
D. Fight with them: damaging Voyager, losing irreplaceable crew, wasting supposedly irreplaceable torpedoes, and causing unnecessary loss of life among the Kazon.

 

[Boo-khat!]

The ship's always as large as the plot needs it to be (see: Voyager's TARDIS-like shuttlebay, and where the hell were they stowing Neelix's ship for seven seasons?), so it would make no real difference whatsoever.

This. No matter what type of ship Voyager was would have made practically no difference. After the first few seasons, they had largely given up trying to make it seem like Voyager was in any kind of realistically 'lost' situation (i.e. fuel running out, food and supplies running out, crew becoming stir crazy, needing to preserve resources and weapons, etc.) It was just life as normal with people romping around on holodeck adventures and miraculously never running out of shuttles. And the ship getting the shit blown out of it every episode? Reset with a pristine ship by the start of the next. That's why VOY works better as Picard's Nexus fantasy.

 

[Romulan_spy]

Bigger ships also have bigger crews which require more resources and energy to maintain. So the demands would be higher. It should also be noted that the Galaxy class had a lower max warp speed than the Intrepid class. So if Voyager were say a Galaxy class hip, it would take longer to get home on a pure warp speed. On the flip side, a larger ship like the Galaxy class might have survived being pulled into the DQ by the Array with less damage since it is a bigger, sturdier ship. The Galaxy Class also was designed to support a large crew with families on long expeditions far from a home base. So I think it would have done better than Voyager. It would have survived with less damage, have more power and more space for crew, science, holodecks, engineering and resources etc...

I don't think the Defiant class would fare well. It is not meant for long trips. It would have struggled similar to the Equinox.

 

[Boo-khat!]

I don't think crew size was ever an issue.

 

[Pumpkin Bread]

Since Voyager's crew were basically androids, I guess not.