Your favourite TrekLit ships?

[F. King Daniel]

Forget the characters – Star Trek thrives on cool spaceships.

*weeps*

*commiserates*

Honestly, I couldn't care less about the ship designs. I see them on screen, then I like something visually dynamic and interesting to follow through the space battles, but on the page... nah.

I've never had a particularly visual imagination though; I can read a whole series about a character and be fascinated by their personality and actions without really ever having a mental image. Same is true with ships. Even with the Titan on the cover, when it describes the Titan doing something, I don't tend to take the mental effort to visualize it specifically.

Perhaps I'm odd in this way.

My comment was meant to be tongue-in-cheek.

But I'm big on visualization - up until Transformers my "brain fx" were far better than any movie or TV show. Nowadays it's about even.

Any chance of Christopher, David R George III or any of the other authors with their ships mentioned here getting artistic? They don't have to be masterpieces - line drawings in MS paint would do (or scanned-in back-of-napkin-in-biro scribbles), just to give us rough shapes.

Or maybe other people here posting pics of what they think these mystery ships should look like?

 

[JD]

You question reminds of something I've been meaning to ask for a while: are the illustrations of the IKS Gorkon online anywhere? I do plan on reading the series, but I was just curious to see the pics before hand to get a better idea of what she looked like.

 

[William Leisner]

You question reminds of something I've been meaning to ask for a while: are the illustrations of the IKS Gorkon online anywhere? I do plan on reading the series, but I was just curious to see the pics before hand to get a better idea of what she looked like.

One of the books -- I believe The Brave and the Bold, Book 2 -- has schematics.

 

[JD]

Yeah, that's what I was asking about. I was hoping to find out if I could see them sooner, but I can wait till I get my hands on the book.

 

[Angstromdweller]

Personally, i'd like to see pictures of the USS Universe from DRG3's Serpents Among the Ruins, and Cleopatra's Needle, the civilian ship that Picard used in Christopher Bennett's The Buried Age.

I imagined Cleo's Needle as looking kind of like the rocketships in '50s movies like Destination Moon -- really long and sleek and cylindrical, fairly simple in design.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ge26NPjJ99U&feature=PlayList&p=9BCC2AE37BBF9533&index=0&playnext=1
I think the ship seen in this video from about 2.00 would be a good start at least. It probably isn't sleek and simple enough as is to fit the description, but I really like the basic design. Redesign it a bit and it could be a ship that is a combination of classic Starfleet and a Vulcan ring-ship.

 

[Christopher]

Well, Needle is a civilian ship, so there's no reason why it would resemble Starfleet designs, beyond form following function -- though as we've seen, form following function doesn't seem to be much of an impediment on ship design in the Trekverse.

 

[Clawhammer]

Well, Needle is a civilian ship, so there's no reason why it would resemble Starfleet designs, beyond form following function -- though as we've seen, form following function doesn't seem to be much of an impediment on ship design in the Trekverse.

How large would this ship be?

 

[Julio Angel Ortiz]

Hands down, the Luna-class.

 

[Rush Limborg]

Near the end of Federation, there's a scene with an all-new, super-futuristic Enterprise. I would've loved to have seen what that one looks like.

I often imagine it to be the Enterprise-J seen briefly in "Enterprise"--and which appeared in one of the "Ships of the Line" callenders.

That is one...sexy...ship!


Still...my all-time fav would have to be Aventine. A real beauty, that one--Ezri should be proud!

 

[Geoff Thorne]

It's all about TITAN.

 

[Christopher]

Well, Needle is a civilian ship, so there's no reason why it would resemble Starfleet designs, beyond form following function -- though as we've seen, form following function doesn't seem to be much of an impediment on ship design in the Trekverse.

How large would this ship be?

Not very. Just enough for a dozen-ish people in close quarters, their research equipment, powerful engines (by civilian standards), sensors, and other essentials. At a guess, maybe 3-4 times the size of a runabout.

 

[Clawhammer]

Not very. Just enough for a dozen-ish people in close quarters, their research equipment, powerful engines (by civilian standards), sensors, and other essentials. At a guess, maybe 3-4 times the size of a runabout.

If I had the time this would make a nice project, would it be able to land?

 

[Rush Limborg]

Not very. Just enough for a dozen-ish people in close quarters, their research equipment, powerful engines (by civilian standards), sensors, and other essentials. At a guess, maybe 3-4 times the size of a runabout.

If I had the time this would make a nice project, would it be able to land?

That small? Probably--but it'd need landing gear that pops out, or something....

 

[Julio Angel Ortiz]

It's all about TITAN.

Clearly, Geoff is my brother from another mother.

 

[captcalhoun]

Near the end of Federation, there's a scene with an all-new, super-futuristic Enterprise. I would've loved to have seen what that one looks like.

I often imagine it to be the Enterprise-J seen briefly in "Enterprise"--and which appeared in one of the "Ships of the Line" callenders.

That is one...sexy...ship!


Still...my all-time fav would have to be Aventine. A real beauty, that one--Ezri should be proud!

no way, that Enterprise was from way too far in the future to be the J. it'd be more like the Enterprise V or something.

 

[Christopher]

Not very. Just enough for a dozen-ish people in close quarters, their research equipment, powerful engines (by civilian standards), sensors, and other essentials. At a guess, maybe 3-4 times the size of a runabout.

If I had the time this would make a nice project, would it be able to land?

I don't know. I depicted it as remaining in orbit. It probably could land if it needed to, but generally wouldn't.

Relevant passages from The Buried Age:

While Langford worked to recruit the personnel, Picard saw about hiring a suitable ship. With university backing, he arranged with Centauri III’s leading civilian spacecraft firm to provide a custom vessel, high-powered for maximum warp speed (considerably less than Starfleet’s fastest, but excellent for a civilian ship). Since the crew would be only a dozen or so, life-support needs were reduced, increasing the power available for velocity. The ship would also be sleek and narrow, like the rocketships of old, presenting a minimal cross section to oncoming space debris and radiation and reducing the power requirements for navigational deflection. For a Starfleet vessel, designed with the possibility of combat in mind, such a design was impractical since enemies could approach from any direction. But this craft was built purely for moving forward as fast as possible.

The ship has a "compact bridge -- little more than a cockpit, really." The bridge has a door that can be locked from the inside. There is a "compact science lab" and a "compact lounge" (I sense a theme). I refer to a transporter stage but not a transporter room; given that the transporter gets a good deal of use as an archaeological tool, the transporter stage might be part of the lab facilities. The ceilings aren't especially high, adequate for humans but too low for the taller Caldonian member of the crew.

How big was Cousteau's Calypso? That might be a good analogy. Hmm, Wikipedia puts it at 42 meters long, 3 decks, with a crew capacity of 27. I don't think Cleo's Needle needs to be that large, since the crew is half that.

Hmm, thinking it over, I'd guess the Needle might have two decks -- assuming something roughly cylindrical with room for chambers on either side of a narrow central corridor, two decks seems right for giving it a height comparable to its width. Since it's pretty narrow, a length around 40-45 meters might be about right -- that's a little over twice the length of a runabout, but a runabout's only got one deck (plus the warp core on top).

 

[Stevil2001]

When reading The Buried Age, I always picture this flying through space!

Which is dumb, but what can you do?

 

[JB2005]

I always had an image of the NX-Alpha...

 

[Clawhammer]

Thank you for the additional information Christopher!
It would be quite a challenge to fit that kind of design into the 2360's.

 

[JB2005]

^ It was a big decade