I can recall SeaQuest being called Blub Trek.. As for this ship, while the design is nice and SF looking the size has never made any sense to me, to me it seems like it should be enormous to be able to work. If it is such a primitive and old ship, that probably means no replicators, the size of your main hull would make it able to stay out for a week or two at most, you want to go out for a few months the hull would have to be the size of a Typhoon missile sub *, is that bad? Of course not, same with propulsion, warp drive uses warp coils, the older they are the less pure the material is so probably in this case it would take a set of huge rings to be able to create a warp field at all, will it be bad if it is as large or even larger than a Constitution class ship? Of course not, it won't even be bad if it is much larger, give yourself some breathing room to include epic design stuff! because I do like the practical style you've got there. Feel free to ignore, just throwing in some euro cents, I do like the bridge chairs, will protect the crew from exploding consoles and falling redshirts in any case. (*slight exageration.)
I think you make some excellent points. And it's an issue I've debated with myself endlessly. Even with the ship the same length as a Constitution class (my mental Constitution class is scaled to the Hanger Deck so slightly larger), the actual volume of a Declaration Class would be MUCH smaller. so even though dimension-wise it would be comparable, the ship would still be much smaller. That's mainly because the rings are so big. On the other hand if a Constitution pulled up along side a Declaration class I want it to be obviously smaller. The means that, because of the proportions, the main area is TINY! As I've been modelling the Enviropod I realize I need to lower the crew compliment. Currently it's 73. I will probably lower it a bit more than that. I was planning and storing food, water, and other cargo in the neck. But now that's too small. So I'm going to have to mbe creative in where I put stuff. Also I may end up scaling the ship up just a bit more.
You could always borrow the protein re-sequencer from ENT. It could be a piece of technology the Vulcanians share with UESPA. Thinking of the size matter, even if the Declaration- and Constitution-Classes were both the same length the design of the former would always make it look smaller (even with the giant rings), the Connie would look 'bulky' in comparison to her.
I think this ship was designed to make Trek artists get a monumental headache.. Yes, I agree on the fact that the actual volume of the ship is really not all that much if you would take away the rings. Maybe another thing to look at is the Promelian battlecruiser, it is rather primitive but at 600 meters about as long as a Galaxy class ship so really old might not always mean really small. Also if you look at something like the Klingon D7 ot K't'inga they also have a long neck, rather small crew area and at the other end of the neck fuel and engineering, because of the shape and having nacelles the engineering hull looks smaller but the rings are mostly open space.
I've been thinking of something similar, though I might call it a "Nutrition Reclamation System." My ideas for the food system would be prepackaged "space meals," like space MREs. There will also be food 3D printers, these would be similar the Kirk-era food slots. Though the output would be a weak imitation of real food. While it would be easy to print things like bread, egss, or ground beef, it would be much more print lettuce, or broccoli. This system could be fed by the Nutrition Reclamation System and/or onboard ingredients tanks. Another alternative is that the NRS could output a standardized nutrition product like the crackers in the Dr. Who episode "Gridlock." Lastly, there may be a small garden and/or storage system for authentic food items. This would be used sparingly to spice up food created using the other systems. For example, some real vegetables to add to a soup made for the entire crew. I've actually been growing microgreens at home and maybe some sort of microgreen garden would be a great source of real food for the crew. I think, though, that if the Declaration class is the same length as the Constitution, the Declaration is still wider becasue of the rings. That's probably what is throwing it off. I agree that size doesn't dictate technological level. Yet, having the Declaration Class larger than the Constitution Class in any dimension just feels off to me. Amen, to that! Yes, if the rings were gone it would really just be a stick in space. You could probably scale it way longer than the Constitution and it would still look tiny. But the damn huge rings throw it all off. If I do end up scaling it up I'll probably go no larger than 2/3s the length of the Constitution. I also won't scale up the shuttles, becasue I'm so over that. Some additional thoughts, I'm considering putting the cargo in the tapered area where the main module transitions to the neck. Or I am somewhat partial of re purposing the mission module into a cargo module. The idea would be that they could be prepackaged with everything the ship needs. Then upon return home a spent one could be ejected and a new one attached. For additional range, a second one could be attached onto the other side of the ship. I kind of like this idea becasue it helps make sense of the asymmetry of that round ball being on only one side of the ship. Also about using technology from the Vulcanians. In my version the Vulcanians and humans are friendly with each other. None of this "the Vulcans helds us back" crap. Though Vulcanians and humans are about the same level technologically except for warp drive which is where Humans have the advantage. I don't remember if I mention this in my writeup but I'm squinting at canon here and having Vulcanians with warp drive in their mythical past, but it become a lost technology. It was Cochrane who discovered warp drive and humanity that brought it to the local intelligent species. The Vulcanian ship in First Contact will be the landing module of a relativistic ship. This puts humanity at a distinct advantage and become a dominant force in the local star systems and then later the Federation. As for other classic Treknologies, most will be of alien origin. Artificial gravity will be discovered after reverse engineering a flying belt discovered in a Slaver Stasis box as per TAS episode "The Slaver Weapon." Transporters and energy shields will be alien technology that is discovered and reverse engineered. Lasers, the predecessor to Phasers(not the same as modern LASERs), will be developed by humans or a collaboration with allied species. Though, they wont make an appearance until later during the Romulan war and as mentioned in my write up they will require large power packs.
Or there is the word of Book: A man can live on packaged food from here 'til Judgment Day if he's got enough rosemary. The food might not be hugely appealing to most, but with plenty of seasoning and flourish then reconstituted protein could be halfway passable
Here is my take. Early warp ships were slow--so sleep chambers normally thought of being on sublight vessels were used: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/nasa-s-osiris-rex-mission-will-have-a-map-for-that These things are really more runabouts than ships--but later, smaller nacelles only on the living compartment--and you get the Rio Grande I have this idea in my mind that it was this ringship that the Kelvins took back to Andromeda--their crewmen filling the small empty spaces as cubes. I can also see some ring shaped catapult giving ringships a boost.
Even at 4x the speed of light it would take one years to reach Alpha Centauri. I'm sure some of those old DY-100s from the 90's got some good use. Cash strapped 2060's earth probably was able to use some of these old sleeper ships with a few mods.
Maybe you could do it the other way around, you're thinking of a alternate universe anyway so why not make this ship the "Constitution" of that universe, pretend that nacelles and so on never were developed, as the" hero ship" she can be as large, as small and as old or modern as you see fit.
I've actually been pondering a hard scifi version of Star Trek. My criteria being keep as much of the show intact as possible, but tweak it to be hard scifi. Some of my sketches for the the Enterprise involve the ring shapes. So I have though somewhat of what you are proposing. Though for this ship, I'm not considering it to be an alternate timeline/universe. For me this is the Enterprise prequel that takes place in THE Star Trek timeline prior to ST, TNG, DSN, and VOY. And while it is a different style, being harder scifi, I think it can still play well with the other series.
This ship is an Enterprise canonically. I always felt that it was far older than the TOS Ent. When Ent Came out...I adjusted my timeline a bit by placing her as the first warpship Enterprise...Thus making her lineage as such (this includes sub-classes/minor and major refits and I did not include alternate universe Ents, so no Dreadnought Gal or the 3 JJverse Ents): HMS Enterprise (arguably...lol) CV Enterprise CVN Enterprise OV Enterprise UEV Enterprise (IMO, the first warp capable Enterprise. Was the first test-bed to use the Vulcan Annular Warp Drive Configuration...Project was run concurrently to other warp projects of the time and probably had a speed of Warp 2-3 ) NX Enterprise (Archer's) NX Refit Enterprise (proposed model refit with secondary hull) Constitution Enterprise (April's and possibly Pike's) Constitution Enterprise (Kirk's) Constitution Refit Enterprise (Decker's, Kirk's, and Spock's) Constitution Refit-A Enterprise (Kirk's) Excelsior Refit Enterprise (Harriman's) Ambassador Enterprise (Garrett's) Galaxy Enterprise (Picard's, Riker's and Jelicho's) Galaxy Enterprise (Picard's) Sovereign Enterprise (Picard's) Sovereign Enterprise (Picard's ST: Nemesis variant) Universe Enterprise-J
I'm pretty sure a lot of people have adjusted their timeline like this. And even my interpretation of the ship could in some ways fit this timeline. Since it lacks a lot of the common Treknologies you could fairly easily place it before the NX-01. However, for me, when Enterprise came out I didn't adjust my timeline. So mine doesn't include the NX-01 (original or refit) nor the Enterprise J. though, speaking of warp speeds, I need to come up with a speed for this ship. But first I will give my postulated history of warp drive. I divide "warp" into three different systems. The first, Space Warp, was developed by Zephram Cochrane. This system was used through 2063 - 2240ish. It's systems saw several iterations including the dual nacelle, split ring, and ring shapes. However, Space Warp had sever limitations, namely the "Time Barrier." I don't really know for sure what the time barrier it at this point, though my current postulation is that it is a certain point when time dilation starts to have an effect even in subspace. So you can push past it but you start to experience weird time effects. I don't know if I'll stick with that explanation or not, but it sounds sciency enough to be true. The second system was Time Warp, This was developed in the 2240's as a way to break the Time Barrier. The Constitution Class was equipped with Time Warp Engines. This is why you hear Captain Pike calling out for "time warp, factor 7." The third system was Trans Warp. This system was developed in the 2280's and tested with the U.S.S Excelsior. This system was a complete success and was integrated into star ships moving forward. The "warp" drive of the Enterprise-D for example was an iteration of this Trans Warp system. Now, while all of these systems did have special names, they were all colloquially called "warp drive" at some point. This is why Pike says "Time Warp," while Kirk just says "Warp." Also why Picard just says "warp." At that point there's no reason to specify that it is "Transwarp," becasue it already become standard. For my purposes each of these Warp systems will have its own scale. Originally the Space Warp scale would just be the number times the speed of light. Warp 1 = 1xc Warp 5 = 5xc Warp 23 = 23xc However, by the time of the Enterprise we're probable dealing in the hundreds of times the speed of light. And shouting out: "Initiate space warp three hundred fifty six times c," is quite a mouthful. So I'm thinking that the Enterprise will use a metric system. This would involve multiplying the number by the speed of light times ten. Warp 1 = 1 (deca)c = 1 x 10 x c Warp 25.6 = 25.6 (deca)c = 25.6 x 10 x c I need to come up with some catchy way of stating it though. "Initiate Space Warp: 14.5 dc." Meh, I'm not sure yet.
Here are some logo concepts I came up with: Spoiler: And Music To Go With Them Though, I didn't come up with the music. 1 2 3 4 5 6
I'd have to say #2 would be my first choice. I like #3 as well except for the 'S' though, it just looks a little odd compared to the other letters.
I'm drawn to #4 - although, it may just be that pointy N that suckered me in...? Otherwise, I'm another fan of #2.
I used everyone's favorite number 2 and created this: There are somethings I don't like about this font, so I'm going to create a custom font that will be similar to this one. I'll post it and see how you all like it. Edit: Here's another one with a bit more 80's vibe. Or maybe that's just because I've been watching too much Stranger Things.