How would other starship classes have fared in the Delta Quadrant?

[Infern0]

In comparrison to the Intrepid class of voyager.

There are obviously many different classes of starship within starfleet.

Galaxy or Soverign Class

These ships are larger than the intrepid, with considerably more personel, I belive they are more powerful than the Intrepid, so in combat situations they probably would fare better, however they have the issue of resources and presenting a bigger target to some species.

Defiant Class

More powerful than the intrepid, but not equiped for long range exploring or journeys, I wonder how it would need to adapt to survive in this situation

Excelsior class

Less powerful and less advanced than the intrepid, but with simmilar crew numbers, how would it cope?

Miranda, Oberth vessels

Very lowly powered science vessels with small crews, would it have any chance of making it home?

 

[Admiral Shran]

A Galaxy of Sovereign class ship would easily fair better. They're more powerful and more comfortable.

A Defiant class ship simply wouldn't make it. The crew would go insane without any form of recreation.

An Exclesior class ship would probably be on an even playing field with an Intrepid.

A Miranda or Oberth class ship could probably only survive the journey if they took the path that the USS Equinox did.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

Excelsior class

Less powerful and less advanced than the intrepid, but with simmilar crew numbers, how would it cope?

As far as I'm aware Excelsior's have crews of over 500 (the DS9 tech specs books says 750, but to me that's far too many for a ship it's size), and if it had the U.S.S. Lakota upgrades (which whooped the Defiant's ass) then I would say they could have made it home alright.

A Galaxy of Sovereign class ship would easily fair better. They're more powerful and more comfortable.

Plus they would have a more experienced Captain in command, someone who didn't go to Red Alert almost every single week.

I would question if an Oberth would have survived the journey to the Delta Quadrant in the first place . The Equinox did an alright job, though they were a brand new science ship.

 

[SilentP]

Well the Galaxy would definitely fared a lot better, they were originally designed with the abilty to go solo 15 years straight, hence the expanded facilities for recreation and families on board.

 

[USS Triumphant]

I think you're missing the most important part of the equation - speed. The crew didn't know about and couldn't have been counting on such things as Kes becoming a superbeing or interference from the future. As far as I know, only the Intrepid-class had the speed needed to think they could get home within the lifetimes of some of the crew.

I think if I was the captain of any of those other ships, I would have found a civilization that was relatively safe and friendly for my crew to ally with, put on my ambassador's cap, and gone to building relationships with civilizations on behalf of the Federation for when the technology was available for them to actually make full contact.

 

[The_Baroness]

In the case of the Galaxy Class, having the crews families on board would probably make them want to get home less urgently, they've left no-one behind but Starfleet. They might take the chance to explore more fully.

 

[Smellincoffee]

On the other hand, I wonder if the large Sovereigns and Galaxy-class ships would have been able to survive disasters in which Voyager's small size was an advantage.

 

[Yevetha]

I could easily see a situation in which the Starfleet ship loses an irreplacable component and they might have to buy or steal a commonly used alien ship.

 

[Gary7]

I also agree that the Galaxy and Sovereign class ships have some advantages over the Intrepid class. Certainly they can carry more cargo and provide more living space to be utilized. Although the Intrepid has more advances and is faster, it's not faster by a huge difference (just under warp 10, versus warp 8 with a Galaxy/Sovereign). But as SmellinCoffee pointed out, the Intrepid's smaller size and ability to land on a planet surface gives it a special advantage, which could make for a critical deciding factor. I imagine that a larger vessel would attract more unwanted attention--a ship of such size would be a more tempting target for aliens looking to dominate a lone ship.

There's also the question of whether the modifications made on Voyager would be possible on the other classes, given the lack of bio-neural gel packs for systems management. Plus, the more advanced hull composition may be more durable for surviving the stresses of various modifications (like quantum slipstream drive).

Overall, despite the fact that Voyager is a smaller ship in comparison to the Enterprise, I think I'd stick with it.

I think if I was the captain of any of those other ships, I would have found a civilization that was relatively safe and friendly for my crew to ally with, put on my ambassador's cap, and gone to building relationships with civilizations on behalf of the Federation for when the technology was available for them to actually make full contact.

I had wondered about this at various points during Voyager, when they found a fairly compatible species on a near Earth like Class-M planet... especially when they got to the point of encountering Borg space, seeing how vast it is. Wouldn't it be prudent to turn back and settle down somewhere, creating a new remote Federation colony? But... it did seem like the crew was prepared to endure the risks involved with getting home. Forcing them to stay may have caused a lot of social problems. Perhaps large groups would break off and go elsewhere. Or even a mutiny, where Janeway, Chakotay and Tuvok are marooned on a Class-M planet while the remaining crew takes the ship to continue the voyage home.

 

[Mr Silver]

Sovereign Class would have had the best chance. Its not as big as the Galaxy Class but has considerably more firepower and defences. Its also designed with speed in mind therefore, it can reach speeds close to that of Voyager. IIRC, Sovereign class was designed with a crew of 800 in mind.

 

[Avon]

a galaxy class would actually have room for all those shuttles

 

[USS Triumphant]

Although the Intrepid has more advances and is faster, it's not faster by a huge difference (just under warp 10, versus warp 8 with a Galaxy/Sovereign).

Intrepid-class cruising speed is Warp 9.975+. Sovereign-class has no canonical speeds listed, but Memory Beta lists it as being the same as the Intrepid. Galaxy-class cruising speed is Warp 9.2.

The real speed increases on a gradient up the Warp scale, so a Galaxy-class would have taken about 300 years to get home (if my rough math is correct). A Sovereign-class would take about the same length of time as an Intrepid-class.

 

[Mr Silver]

The Sovereign is bound to be able to reach higher speeds than the Galaxy. If a Galaxy class can do 9.2 for an hour or so before any refits or upgrades, then I'm pretty sure the Sovereign can do close to the Intrepid for extended periods.

 

[Infern0]

Although the Intrepid has more advances and is faster, it's not faster by a huge difference (just under warp 10, versus warp 8 with a Galaxy/Sovereign).

Intrepid-class cruising speed is Warp 9.975+. Sovereign-class has no canonical speeds listed, but Memory Beta lists it as being the same as the Intrepid. Galaxy-class cruising speed is Warp 9.2.

The real speed increases on a gradient up the Warp scale, so a Galaxy-class would have taken about 300 years to get home (if my rough math is correct). A Sovereign-class would take about the same length of time as an Intrepid-class.

Also since the soverign is a later model to the intrepid it would be safe to say that the gell packs would have been incorperated wouldnt it?

 

[Gary7]

^ Ah, very good point. I should have realized that. Well, the main problem is that the Sovereign class ships have been seen only in the movies, which means not much time spent on showing details of their technology. Probably a safe assumption that they have the bio-neural gel packs. So yeah, I'll change my vote: Sovereign all the way.

 

[Phily B]

I assume a Galaxy class could match Voyager for speed, or at least only go a bit slower. They were obviously refitted with new weapons for the Dominion War, and wouldn't make much sense to have them still struggling to keep up warp 9.

 

[ngc7293]

The intrepid class was the ideal ship to put in the Delta quadrant because it was a science ship (or as DITL calls it 'light explorer') it was never meant to be so far from home. The Miranda or Nova would have troubles too because of their light duty; the Miranda mostly because of its age.

Ships designed for exploration like the Nebula, Galaxy and Sovereign would do fine in the Delta quadrant. Anyone who thinks differently is thinking the Captains will use the same strategies that Janeway used to get home, but they won't.

Don't forget, Janeway knew she was in it for the long haul but she got lots of breaks that eventually got her home faster. Chances are other ships captains would get the same breaks.

No one mentioned a Constitution class or even a Constellation class ship. There is also variations of the Excelsior class. These ships all have older tech on them. Even without the benifits of Intrepid class speed they would likely run into those plot twists that would send their ships closer to home. How would they fair in the Delta quadrant?

I think they would do well because each one would have updates to their systems, they just wouldn't have gel packs.

 

[Xerxes1979]

Voyager would not win the race home by any stretch of the imagination.

Just because a ship is cable of higher maxium warp does not mean it has the endurance to do so.

Warp efficiency decreases at the same time total energy requirements rise as a result of higher warp factors.

The TNG tech manual states the Galaxies had a three year supply of anti-matter under normal operations. Well if normal is warp 6 then warp 9 is exponentially more hungry of fuel.

Does anyone seriously believe that the Intrepid class was built with larger fuel tanks than a Galaxy? I sure don't given the chronic fuel shortages we were shown

Also whatever happened to culmative warp coil damage? The Enterprise-D needed a major overhaul after BOBW.

The numbers are there. I am just too lazy to make the spreadsheet. Voyager zipping home at warp 9+ is pure fantasy.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Yeah, I think generally most Federation starships normally travel at warp 6 and reserve higher warp speeds for emergencies. At warp 6, it would have taken the Voyager (or any other ship) around 180 years to get home. Janeway's statement that it would take 70 years at maximum warp to do that was more to demonstrate just how gorram far away they were, IMO.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Really, every starship in Trek is exactly the same. They sprout shuttles, shuttlebays and decks whenever the story requires it (see: Defiant, Voyager). So none of that matters in the slightest.

It's the commander and crew that make the difference.