Norway-Class Appreciation

I'm not sure why, but I love the design and look of the Norway-Class. But most people seem to list it as one of the ugliest ships about.

Am I alone in this?

 

Personally of the First Contact Four, the Akira is my favourite, closely followed by the Steamrunner.

I never liked the Norway class.

 

I'll give a thumbs-up for the Norway.

I never got a sense of it until I found a really nice mod for KA. After seeing it in 3D, from all perspectives and angles, in motion, I can dig it. It's a swell ship. Still looks like an old-time iron or spade, but I like it anyway.

It's really similar in form to Akira, with different hull shapes. Not bad at all.

I have all four of the ships in KA mods. It really helps to get a good understanding of how the ships look and move (aside from the all-too brief glimpses in FC).

I'd rate the Akira as my favorite, cuz it really is good anyway. Norway is second, and then Saber and Steamrunner last.

 

[LEFT]Sorry, but I can't agree with you about the Norway. It's one of my least favorite Starfleet ships (actually I don't like any of the FC ships, but that's an argument for another topic...)

The mesh for the Norway class was actually not even finished when it was used in FC. Also, the underside of the ship was just an undignified mish-mash of the Defiant mesh. But the main reason I don't like it is simply because it's a very boring design (and when one sees the concept art of the other ships that could have been used, there are far better designs than the Norway. The Zandura and the Criterion springs to mind...)
[/LEFT]

 

^ Never heard of those two -- got any links to the concept designs?

Cheers,
-CM-

 

I like the Norway-class, it has a cool atypical Trek look to it. If I was in Starfleet, it'd be one of the ships I'd like to command.

 

Boring? To the contrary, I'm rather intrigued by the unique features. The variable geometry of the nacelles, for one.

It's perhaps not obvious from the first glance, but the way the pylons loop around the nacelles; the prominent rails along the nacelle surfaces; and the nine "notches" for the nacelles, with round "plasma conduit openings" atop, certainly look suggestive enough. Apparently, the nacelles are intended to slide back and forth between nine possible positions.

Why should that be? Probably the artists themselves didn't know. But one might speculate that the booms from which the pylons angle down are in fact rails, intended to hold heavy loads in between. And the positioning of the nacelles might need to be adjusted according to the load carried.

There were many ST:FC designs we never saw before, and only saw afterwards in DS9 adventures directly relating to warfare. It would make sense, then, to think of the Norway and also the Steamrunner and Saber as pure warships, useless in the peacetime adventures of the other spinoff shows and for that reason never seen before even though their registries suggest they are old designs dating back several decades.

Now, what sort of warships would these be, with very few weapons emplacements in evidence? Well, the Steamrunner has a truly humungous shuttlebay door, plus various other openings, fitting for a planetary assault carrier. And those pieces of planetary assault hardware that won't fit aboard the carrier might well travel aboard a Norway... It's the amphibious attack ships ITRW that look the most exotic among the warships, too.

Timo Saloniemi

 

Luckily that role was then filled by the Nova-Class. The Zandura is not an attractive ship.

 

Yeah, and I kinda hate the Criterion as well.

But I do like the Norway. I'm curious about the nacelles as well.

--Alex

 

Ditto. Timo's interpretation of the Norway's sliding nacelles is rather neat.

 

I stand by what I wrote.

Voyager had those too (if that's even what they are on the Norway...and quite frankly, the nacelles and pylons look pretty fixed to me). Big deal. And it's not as if we were even given an explanation in the show as to their purpose.

 

Looks to me as though they might could run forwards and backwards on tracks.

Now why that would a difference I'm not sure. But then, Voyager's did that too and I'm not sure how that would make a difference either.

--Alex

 

A further analogy to amphibious warfare: "floating dock" type landing ships flood their dock areas by taking aboard extra ballast water and thus sinking deeper. Nacelle repositioning might not be an exact analogy (although one might speculate that the deployment of warp-powered landing craft calls for "warp submersion" analogous to the water submersion of the LPDs), but it may be an inspiration.

I like the Zandura quite a bit - it's sort of like a heavy Saber, with the increase in propulsive muscle matched by a decrease in armaments. Although phaser strips and the like might have been added later on in the process; the otherwise detailed bow quarter view deliberately omits certain detail such as the bridge area...

Timo Saloniemi

 

I kind of like the Norway m'self. Looks like a tiny Battlestar.

 

Looking up Norway class on Mem Alpha, I got pictures that don't look like the ones linked to earlier in this thread. Here's what mem Alpha has...

 

Yep, that's the one. Here's some schemas:

 

That's because Unicron wasn't posting links to pics of the Norway. They were concept art of other ships.

And the pic you posted is the only known pic of the Norway Class CGI model (and probably the only one ever, since the original mesh was lost). Again, IMHO a thoroughly uninteresting design.

 

It isn't lost necessarily. All we know is that the model wasn't converted to LightWave along with the other FC ships, so it never had a chance to become widely available in the CG libraries of Foundation/Muse/Eden employees. Perhaps Larry Nemecek has access to the model or knows someone who does, given the views in the Fact Files. Maybe Alex Jaeger knows who built it originally. I wouldn't be surprised if someone were to research the subject eventually.

 

I mentioned upthread that I've got a Norway mod for KA, which I believe was made using Lightwave. As far as a model for use in-game like KA, the Norway exists as CGI. (I've got screencaps but I didn't post them).

I'm sure there are other fan-made CGI models, which ppl on this board know can equal or surpass "official" ST visuals. So yeah, I wouldn't write off the Norway either.