Klingon 'Warbird'

[cwl]

I love the look of the Klingon 'Warbirds' seen in the kobayashi Maru simulation. IMO it's the most menacing looking Klingon ship seen in Star Trek.

Agree or disagree?

The D7/ Ktinga are classics but this expands on and improves the look. The ships seem more real and more menacing.

 

[F. King Daniel]

They look virtually identical to the TOS ones me. It took the pics in the art book to see the differences - the stronger neck, the extra weapons, the slightly different details (including tiny windows indicating they probably made it bigger)

I thought it was a really nice nod to TOS - they even kept the original grey colouring.

So, yeah, a really nice update of my favourite Klingon ship.

 

[Hythlodeus]

I never noticed they were different...

 

[cwl]

I should imagine the Klingon Warbird is pretty large, given that starfleet ships are a lot bigger in the abrams universe.

 

[Dukhat]

I should imagine the Klingon Warbird is pretty large, given that starfleet ships are a lot bigger in the abrams universe.

Why? The Kelvin (and presumably her sister ships) were from the prime universe. That didn't seem to result in any change in the size of the TOS D7's.

And since the Klingon ships shown in the KM simulation weren't given any mention of size, there's no reason to think they were any larger or smaller than a standard D7 or K'T'inga.

 

[CaptainJack]

I have always pictured that the ships were larger for all "trek". I just dont think we'd ever build a little ship as small as the TOS Enterprise. I like to picture them at about 2-3 times the size. like Thor says, " Thats more like it!!!"

 

[F. King Daniel]

I should imagine the Klingon Warbird is pretty large, given that starfleet ships are a lot bigger in the abrams universe.

Why? The Kelvin (and presumably her sister ships) were from the prime universe. That didn't seem to result in any change in the size of the TOS D7's.

And since the Klingon ships shown in the KM simulation weren't given any mention of size, there's no reason to think they were any larger or smaller than a standard D7 or K'T'inga.

There's a small pic of the CG model in Star Trek: The Art of the Film. The microscopic windows, in three rows along the neck (and more on the command section), indicate a far larger ship than the TOS D7.

Remember also that in the TNG era, we see a massively scaled-up bird of prey, so there's a precedent for this kind of thing among Klingon ships.

 

[cwl]

also I'm pretty sure the Abrams Universe starfleet ships are a lot bigger than that in normal Star Trek. the Enterprise is bigger than a Sovereign class!

a 220 metre Klingon Warbird would not look very intimidating in a show down with the 700 metre Enterprise.

 

[F. King Daniel]

also I'm pretty sure the Abrams Universe starfleet ships are a lot bigger than that in normal Star Trek. the Enterprise is bigger than a Sovereign class!

a 220 metre Klingon Warbird would not look very intimidating in a show down with the 700 metre Enterprise.

The universes were one until Nero started changing things in 2233, so those large Kelvin-type ships are part of the TOS/TNG/DS9/VOY past as well.

But also remember that Trek always resizes ships to whatever looks good at the time. In Voyager's "Flashback", we see a D7 that's a similar size to Sulu's Excelsior - made bigger for the very reason you mention.

 

[cwl]

Very true about the re-sizing. the Klingon bird of prey varies from 100-500 metres depending on the foe.

But what we see on screen is canon. so the Klingons clearly have a habit of upscaling hulls by quite some margin.

 

[Yevetha]

They should have changed the warbirds look.

 

[cwl]

They should have changed the warbirds look.

Why? it's a classic design that looks awesome.

 

[DrBashir]

Klingon ships should be massive. I'd love to have a scene with a Klingon similar to the opening of Star Wars with the Star Destroyer. Not as large but substancially bigger than Starfleet vessels.

 

[Herbert1]

The wings on the bridge tower looked silly.

 

[F. King Daniel]

They looked submarine-y. A crude if effective visual metaphor for a ship with a cloaking device.

 

[cwl]

Klingon ships should be massive. I'd love to have a scene with a Klingon similar to the opening of Star Wars with the Star Destroyer. Not as large but substancially bigger than Starfleet vessels.

with the new enterprise over 700m long who knows what the klingons will be.

 

[DrBashir]

Twice the size would be about right, put it at an even 1 km.

 

[Cyke101]

As much as I like the basic design of the traditional Klingon Bird of Prey (from TSFS - on), it started to annoy me that it became their trademark ship, even after hero ships kept growing and multiplying. Hell, when the ship made its debut Kruge said the Enterprise already outgunned her 12-to-1, and in Generations the villains outright said they were no match for the E-D. Assuming a standard fight, just how does that ever create tension for our heroes, except through manufactured and contrived methods? And then we saw the same ship five movies in a row (blah blah, different size, blah blah, different configuration -- it's still the same ship, dammit), in addition to TNG/DS9, the latter being guilty of blowing them up with one torpedo at times.

So in essence, I'd be mighty fine with Klingon warbirds that can be half the size, equal to, or larger than the JJPrise, as long as they're not overused and there's a good amount of dramatic tension. A good ol' fashioned space battle would be nice for sure, but don't drag out crutches of plot convenience for a supposedly-"fearsome" ship.

 

[CaptainJack]

Im curious, does anyone know what the internal useable volume is for the TOS Enterprise? And what would that be equivalent to with our modern naval warships? a Frigate? a Destroyer? or a Carrier?

 

[DrBashir]

According to http://www.st-v-sw.net/STSWvolumetrics2.html The TOS Enterprise is about 211,248 m³. That's the total voulme of the whole ship including the nacelles and pylons.