Discovery Size Argument™ thread

[Galaxy]

It looks like the Discovery was scaled to have the saucer rim and inner saucer diameter almost exactly match that of the classic Enterprise.

It would make sense that the spore drive technology occupies a lot of space, however they already mentioned refitting spore drive technology to other ships so...

 

[jaime]

They would slap donuts round the saucers and throw big TMP nacelles on everything. And spend a year sorting out corridors for the spore drive flip flop toss.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

...These are the ships we’re discussing...

The Qugh is the only one we've seen on screen in a combat capacity, and it looks like a hyper-evolved D5. The other two look like -- and probably are -- civilian ships, and I doubt they've made an on screen appearance yet.

 

[pst]

Honestly? It doesn't seem that hard to me.

i’m sure i’m not alone in finding the veqhlargh class to be the only one of these to really resemble a klingon starship.

as for the bird of prey from star trek into darkness: discovery should’ve used a design more like that than the death glider from stargate.

 

[Captain of the USS Averof]

The Qugh is the only one we've seen on screen in a combat capacity, and it looks like a hyper-evolved D5.

You obviously must be talking about different ships than the rest of us because...

this is the Qugh from DSC,

and this is the D5 from ENT...

they are in no way, shape or form even remotely similar!

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

What we've seen are leftover Hur'q ships

 

[Mytran]

I think we're at a point that maybe the older ships need to be resized instead of the Discovery era ships simpy being to big. I'm honesty not seeing a problem with the sizes and I've always felt if you are building ships that can travel the stars and you have the resources why are you bothering to make them small and cramped? I understand why the NX class might be seeing as they were among the first ships. I get why you'd do that for a TV show because budget, sets, etc. Even before Discovery I felt ships and stations should have been bigger and likely would be bigger then what we see on TV. This is why I never had an issue with the Kelvin films and the sizes of ships and stations there. It made sense given the size of people, crew sizes, etc.

The official sizes of starships are usually too small compared to what is depicted on screen, but not to the extent that the Discovery ships appear to be. The TOS Enterprise rounds out at 1,250 feet and this still can give way to a comparable size for the refit (allowing for the visible and known size of the airlocks). The Excelsior should exceed 2,000 feet based on the number of decks and Bridge module (see this thread).
This increase of around a third makes the Discovery a little less gigantic compared to the rest of the fleet, but as a mere science vessel it would still be more at home in the Kelvinverse IMO

 

[The Librarian]

I don't see any reason that a "mere science vessel" would be smaller than an exploration ship or gunship. Science labs would take up a lot of volume if you want to do more than just scan things, especially if you're planning to haul around a lot of samples. The Constitution may represent a similar level of tactical abilities condensed into a smaller package, but with just enough lab space to do initial exploration and surveys. Good for running into the unknown to look things over (and small enough to be expendable) but not so great if you want to do an in-depth investigation of a planet or solar system over many weeks.

 

[Mytran]

I suppose I had in mind The Grissom when I referred to The Discovery as a "mere" science ship. Your points about the extra voolume are well made and I suppose Grissom could just be an outlier in that regard. However, Discovery certainly seems to pack a punch similar to the best "gunships" of its day, plus be just as fast or manoeuvrable

 

[Ronald Held]

Might depend upon the mission of a science vessel.. is it one that follows up on discovery made, by doing an in depth survey, or is it a long range vessel out for years. The first might be Oberth, the second Crossfield?

 

[Tuskin38]

My theory is the Crossfield class was meant for local space, not unknown region exploration

 

[Prax]

 

[Tuskin38]

The Shenzhou is 423 meters.

 

[Timo]

The bit that jars about "a science vessel being big" is the engines. Why should those of a Crossfield be easily thrice the size of those of a known contemporary warship?

Of course, the TOS hero ship may have been an exceptionally slow starship for her times, this conveyed to us through her minuscule engines. We never learned otherwise, really - her "speed records" stem from alien tampering, after all.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

The Discovery nacelles could be replacements that allow use of the spore drive and needed to be longer for that tech.

 

[Mytran]

Of course, the TOS hero ship may have been an exceptionally slow starship for her times, this conveyed to us through her minuscule engines. We never learned otherwise, really - her "speed records" stem from alien tampering, after all.
Timo Saloniemi

Except for that time she went 22 parsecs in a matter of a few hours; that was pretty quick!
(Arena)

 

[Gonzo]

From the Eaglemoss Official Starships collection magazine, the USS Shenzhou is 423m and the Discovery is 750.5 meters long.

Looks like that art from ages ago was right. And this must make the Klingon sarcophagus ship Narada-sized.

Sounds about right, those nacelles make up at least a 3rd if that length alone.

I wouldn't say Narada sized as that vessel is enormous, more like the Vengeance or a D'Deridex Romulan Bird of Prey.

 

[Gonzo]

The Shenzhou is 423 meters.

Must admit the Shenzou didn't look that big when we saw its outside when Voq went for the generator but that was based on the Discovery being somewhat shorter, I put it at about 600m or so if I remember correctly.

Still I am fine with it, if that's its size then so be it, must have been the angle I was viewing it at.

 

[Tuskin38]

Sounds about right, those nacelles make up at least a 3rd if that length alone.

I wouldn't say Narada sized, more like the Vengeance or a D'Deridex Romulan Bird of Prey.

The vengeance is around 1.4 KM long

The D’Deridex is around 1KM, so close

 

[Gonzo]

Just a thought: If anyone thought the continuity of Federation starship size evolution meant more to these people than the entire look of the Klingon race or changing the Bird of Prey and D7 battlecruisers into something closer to Death Gliders and Destiny from the Stargate franchise, you needed a reality check.

Yeah, they weren't afraid to mess with the iconic Klingon ships, that pretty much means anything is possible, I do wonder what they will do with the Constitution class if we see one.

If the Shenzou is 450m then I would expect many of the ships like the Europa that we saw to be bigger, based on this I am expecting a larger Constitution class, how much larger remains to be seen.

It's a knock-on effect, the Shenzou and Discovery are at the very top end of size predictions so I do expect that to affect the Constitution class and all the ships across the fleet.