If voyager was a Galaxy class star ship???

[GalaxyClass1701]

If Voyager had been a Galaxy Class starship would they have had an easier time in the Delta Quadrant?

We saw what it was like for a lesser Nova class ship to be lost and it was much more difficult for that ship.

The Galaxy Class ship would have made for a much easier trip imo.

1. It is much stronger than the Intrepid class and most ships in the Delta quadrant.

 

[Udat]

Yes but the point of the series was mean`t to show the struggle of a smaller ship.

 

[T.D. Possum]

If you're asking based on canon, it doesn't matter. Any ship will do OK if it's unbreakable and has an infinite supply of photon torpedoes, shuttlecraft, etc, as Voyager evidently did.

If you're asking based on common sense . . . I'd actually have to think about it. Both classes have pros and cons. Probably I'd say Galaxy, though.

 

[Dukhat]

The Galaxy Class ship would have made for a much easier trip imo.

What makes you say that? The Intrepid class Voyager seemed to give its crew the easiest trip imaginable, what with getting blown to pieces at the end of each episode, but being in pristine condition at the beginning of the next one. Not to mention that they had so much energy to waste that anyone could even indulge in holodeck fantasies while being stuck in the middle of nowhere. Plus what the poster above me mentioned about magically created weapons and shuttles. Hell, even their uniforms were still clean and pressed after seven years.

Why would anyone even want to go back to Earth with such a magical ship?

 

[Withers]

^ Seriously. I never saw that it was particularly difficult for the crew of Voyager to be stranded in the Delta Quadrant. They had "replicator rations" but that's pretty much the only inconvenience I saw regularly (even then it's not as if there weren't plenty to go around.) So, if Voyager had been Galaxy class, it would probably have just looked a lot more like the late 80's and early 90's on board.

If there were a way to reduce the peril on this show making Voyager a Galaxy class would be a sure fire way. They might as well just have 42 minutes of cut scenes of the ship going back and forth across the screen.

-Withers-​

 

[Lor'Vela]

I'd imagine the scriptwriters would just as easily find dangers posed to the Galaxy class just as much as the Intrepid faced. The only difference I could envision is that you needn't worry about shuttle, torpedo, power reserves and crew count as the Galaxy class has an extensive supply.

To be honest, I prefer each series having its own unique class of ship, otherwise it would just be a knock off a previous series. Perhaps a ship comparable to a Galaxy class instead? Perhaps an Akira class?

 

[indolover]

hell yes it would. Intrepid-class ships were not tactically sound, at least not compared with a Galaxy, Sovereign or certainly Defiant-class. it's kind of like a tiny frigate up against an aircraft carrier in the US Navy, there's not much tactical comparison.

i think part of the premise of Voyager was the have them stuck far away from home, and in a less powerful ship, so making them more vulnerable.

 

[GalaxyClass1701]

hell yes it would. Intrepid-class ships were not tactically sound, at least not compared with a Galaxy, Sovereign or certainly Defiant-class. it's kind of like a tiny frigate up against an aircraft carrier in the US Navy, there's not much tactical comparison.

i think part of the premise of Voyager was the have them stuck far away from home, and in a less powerful ship, so making them more vulnerable.

On the other hand the Galaxy is much larger and has way more personel. So it would use a lot more resources a lott faster son they would have to restock a lot faster so all of the ship might not be opperational.

 

[Michael]

There's only one single thing that would have been different if the Voyager was a Galaxy class ship. And that's the special effects depicting the ship.

 

[Withers]

There's only one single thing that would have been different if the Voyager was a Galaxy class ship. And that's the special effects depicting the ship.

I love your on-going refusal to discuss things in-universe (twice now the way they were intended.) It certainly adds the... acerbity these threads would otherwise be missing.

-Withers-​

 

[Michael]

I love your on-going refusal to discuss things in-universe (twice now the way they were intended.) It certainly adds the... acerbity these threads would otherwise be missing.

I'm glad you like it, because there's a whole lot more where this comes from.

No, seriously, I guess I just don't see the point in discussing these kind of things, because in the end most of the Trek Tech questions add up to 'it's magic' anyway. No-one can ever be right about things like this, which, at least for me, kind of defeats the whole purpose of a discussion. I really don't want to spoil the fun of other people talking about such things, but I keep wondering why anyone would think there's actually a point to it. But my remark wasn't meant that serious anyway.

However, I do wonder why you are singling out me, when I was nowhere near the first in this thread to address the question from a production point of view. (You were not talking about the late 2380's and early 2390's upthread, were you?)

 

[Crewman47]

Wouldn't one of the difference be the damaged and casulaties sustained in the first episode? Voyager had 144 crewman and lost around 30 of them and suffered from quite a bit of extensive internal damage, they also managed by supplementing the lost crew with those from the Maquis ship.

A Galaxy has a crew of around 800 plus 200 civilians and is much larger meaning that traversing the Badlands would be a totally different story, but if they changed the way that they get into the DQ then even the way the Caretaker took hem in would've caused a lot more internal damage and may cause structural support damage between the saucer and neck. For the crew even if most of the non-essential crew managed to get to the internal spaces of the saucer then they'd probably be okay but I still think that at least 100 crewman, mainly Engineering section crewman, would still likely get killed in the journey.

It would be something to think about had the Voyager be a Galaxy but I like to also think what it'd be like if it'd had been a Sovereign or Akira.

 

[Finn]

Judging from the size of most ships we saw in the Delta Quadrant, the Galaxy probably would have been seen as more of a threat. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.

In one of the old photoshop threads in the Gen Trek forum, I photoshopped a picture of a Galaxy class starship fighting several Kazon ships.

 

[T.D. Possum]

No, seriously, I guess I just don't see the point in discussing these kind of things, because in the end most of the Trek Tech questions add up to 'it's magic' anyway. No-one can ever be right about things like this, which, at least for me, kind of defeats the whole purpose of a discussion. I really don't want to spoil the fun of other people talking about such things, but I keep wondering why anyone would think there's actually a point to it. But my remark wasn't meant that serious anyway.

I enjoy both types of discussion. Looking at the question from a "it's just a TV show" point of view, I maintain that the trip back from the DQ would have been more or less the same in any class starship.

It's fun to use my imagination and think about the question from a "if it was real" perspective, too. And in that spirit:

The Intrepid Class had several advantages over the Galaxy Class. Some of them didn't seem to make much difference. The bioneural circuitry was supposed to make the computer more powerful and efficient, however, it seems that the gelpacks failed too easily to really make the additional computation power an important advantage.

The Intrepid's cruising speed was Warp 9.75. The Galaxy could only maintain that speed for . . . um, my technical manual is in the other room, but I think it was 12 hours. So, clearly, the Intrepid has the advantage when it comes to speed, but when you're that far from home, it's a long trip, anway, so again, I'll say this advantage is not overly important.

Intrepids were also supposed to be more manueverable. Again, not a huge advantage in this situation.

The only factor that might make me seriously consider an Intrepid over a Galaxy is the difference in the warp cores. I may be wrong on some of this, having only watched up to Season 4 thus far, but if I recall correctly, the Intrepid had a Type 7 warp core, which allowed the dilithium to recrystalize in the reaction chamber. Isn't that supposed to mean the Intrepids can use the same hunk of dilithium indefinitely? Or at least for a much longer period of time than ships with earlier model warp cores? Well, how rare is dilithium? If it's hard to come by, I'd want to be on a ship that doesn't need much. If it's pretty easy to replace, IMHO, forget the Intrepids and give me a big ol' Galaxy.

Galaxies had more weapons, more shuttles, and more people (which would reduce the psychological issues of dealing with the same small group day in and day out, and would also increase the skill/knowledge pool of the crew). True, having more crew means you'd have to get more supplies, but you'd have more extra stuff lying around to trade and more people to work if you decided to trade labor for materials. You'd also have more people to put to work on the farm in the cargo bay or etc.

PLUS the Galaxy class ready room had an option to install a fish tank.

 

[Withers]

However, I do wonder why you are singling out me, when I was nowhere near the first in this thread to address the question from a production point of view. (You were not talking about the late 2380's and early 2390's upthread, were you?)

Well, I made reference to the in-universe ramifications before pointing out that it wouldn't have made a lot of difference in Voyager's case. Your remark just reminded me of what you said in the DS9-Quantum torpedoes thread. I mean... if it had been a Galaxy class, in-universe, there would have been differences... in this case they just wouldn't have been significant and or noteworthy.

Discussion of such hypothetical situations are largely for entertainment purposes and are, after all, like 80% of what keeps topics going a decade plus after the end of a series.

-Withers-​

 

[exodus]

If Voyager had been a Galaxy Class starship would they have had an easier time in the Delta Quadrant?

We saw what it was like for a lesser Nova class ship to be lost and it was much more difficult for that ship.

The Galaxy Class ship would have made for a much easier trip imo.

1. It is much stronger than the Intrepid class and most ships in the Delta quadrant.

I'm going to say "No".

An Intripid class ship was built to be semi-self sustaining and designed for deep space exploration. So Voyager did(too the extreme) exactly what it was designed for.

Besides, a Galaxy class ship can't land on a planets surface like Voyager. How was a ship that size going to get repaired and re-stocked with supplies if there are very few space docks in the Delta Q.?

Plus, a Galaxy class has a slower warp drive than Voyager.(No bio-nurial gel packs) It would have taken them a longer trip to get home.
A Galaxy Class wouldn't be fast enough to out run Species 8472 the way we saw Voyager do.

 

[T.D. Possum]

Besides, a Galaxy class ship can't land on a planets surface like Voyager. How was a ship that size going to get repaired and re-stocked with supplies if there are very few space docks in the Delta Q.?

If I was the captain, I would try to avoid landing the ship for a trade mission. I don't want the aliens seeing all my fancy stuff. I want to trade them junk and not have them slobbering over my high tech doodads. In fact, I wouldn't even beam down if I could help it. I'd just use shuttles.

Repairs are more problematic, though. In fact, I can imagine some hypothetical scenarios in which I'm stuck in the DQ with my hull breached Galaxy class and you're happily on your way home in your Intrepid.

A Galaxy Class wouldn't be fast enough to out run Species 8472 the way we saw Voyager do.

How long was Voyager running at high warp? A Galaxy might have made it, depending on how long they'd have to run the engines all out.

 

[SchwEnt]

I think it would make a big difference if the Voyager has been Galaxy class, in one respect at least...

In TNG Tech Manual, the Galaxy class and it's mission capabilities were described.
It's called GALAXY class for a reason, really intended to go out into the galaxy at length. I recall something about extended missions, upwards of twenty years at a stretch...hence the massive size and families aboard. It was intended to go out and stay out there, exploring and self-sufficient evidently. (Yes, this isn't really the way it was portrayed in TNG series anyway).

But if this is how the Galaxy class could operate on its own, yeah...much better at handling a Voyager-type situation than an Intrepid class.

 

[Dukhat]

One of the original premises of Voyager was that the ship was going to be the "Mercury class," a much older and much larger vessel, a veteran of the Cardassian wars that was going to be put out to pasture after the mission to find Chakotay's ship. It was actually going to have less amenities than newer ships like the Enterprise-D. However, that all changed with the idea of making the ship brand-new and smaller. Does the former description of the ship remind anyone of anything?

 

[C.E. Evans]

Personally, I don't think it would have mattered much if the Voyager was a Galaxy-class starship. Both the Galaxy- and Intrepid-classes are well-armed, multipurpose deep-space designs, with the only real difference being the Galaxy-class being several times bigger.

I don't think any Federation starship design is intended to spend years and years out there without any support. They're not that self-sufficient, at least they haven't been shown that onscreen anyway. If nothing else, they'll run out of fuel after a few years, so they can only go so far out there at any given time. Ideally, an exploration starship probably doesn't stray too far from the edge of Federation space, periodically returning to a starbase or member world to refuel, restock supplies, repair any damage, and rotate crews before heading out on another probe into uncharted/unexplored space. IMO, a multi-year deep-space exploration mission may involve dozens if not hundreds of sorties into unexplored territory, but the ship always returns back to Federation space at the end of each one.

I think in many ways, the Voyager was lucky as hell to go seven years without any Starfleet support, but then probably quite a few unseen stories was about the Voyager getting support from various Delta Quadrant civilizations as she made her way home...