Sovereign class variants?

[cwl]

The Constitution and Miranda class ships clearly were designed using a common theme.

The same can clearly be said of the Galaxy and Nebula class ships.

So what about the Sovereign class?

As the flagship successor to the Galaxy class do you think starfleet would use the same saucer and nacelle design in a design variant?

 

[Vanyel]

If they are any, I hope they tried something different than the under-slung nacelles used by Mirandas and Nebula's. Maybe more of an upside down version in the compact Nebula fashion.

Have the saucer right side up, the Engineering section shortened and above the saucer with a slight neck to allow the deflector ample room to avoid the bridge and shorter wept back pylons for the nacelles.

 

[C.E. Evans]

A sister design to the Sovereign-class probably would consist of a similar saucer and ventrally-positioned nacelles but also with a special dorsal-mounted pod that could vary from ship to ship depending on its mission.

 

[Vanyel]

A sister design to the Sovereign-class probably would consist of a similar saucer and ventrally-positioned nacelles but also with a special dorsal-mounted pod that could vary from ship to ship depending on its mission.

You're right, but that's so overdone. But then again is the basic design of every Enterprise.

 

[The Wormhole]

Isn't basically what ships like the Akira or Steamrunner class are?

 

[cwl]

The Akira/Steamrunner doesn't look very similar to the Sovvy.

 

[antiquityscion]

I think the closest thing would be the Luna Class, like Riker's Titan. But I think they are significantly smaller than the Sovereigns If memory serves, I think it is bigger than an Intreped, but smaller than the Sovereign: like the half way point...

 

[Mr Silver]

Intrepid and Nova class ships follow a similar design too. I agree that the Sovereign and Luna class ships are in the same class as well.

The Ambassador class shares similar design principles with the Excelsior and Galaxy class starships. This was the intention though in order to bridge the gap between them. The Constellation class seems to be based on both the Miranda and Excelsior class starships too.

 

[RAMA]

Well probably in variants yes, but the design has already been used for the "official" Titan class, the Aventine and even the Enterprise F for the STO game.



RAMA

 

[Matt4511]

The Sovereign-class appeared to follow very quickly after the Galaxy, given what we know about about how often Starfleet seems to upgrade its ship classes (rarely). I've often thought that perhaps the Sovereign-class was out of sequence, hurried into service because the Federation needed a hard-hitting capital ship to compete with the Borg and Dominion.

If it was indeed designed simply to give the Federation the premier combat vessel in the astropolitical region, it might not have any variants, and might be superseded by a new capital ship class (with a full family of variants) in 10-15 years from first entering service.

Totally made all that up, though, so take it for what it's worth.

 

[Vanyel]

I thought the official version Luna class, and thus the Titan - Luna being our moon and Titan being a moon of Saturn, making a tradition of Luna class ships being named after moons - was done by contest, and the ship with the weapons/sensor pod was the official design.

 

[ngc7293]

There is this: http://www.scifi-meshes.com/gallery...itle=daisho-at-the-dock28recovered-29&cat=501

It sort of looks like the saucer of a Sovereign, the back end of a Miranda and a big mission pod from a Nebula.
Or it could be something entirely different. As variants go, this is the kind of thing a lot of people like, IMHO.

 

[Dukhat]

The Constitution and Miranda class ships clearly were designed using a common theme.

The same can clearly be said of the Galaxy and Nebula class ships.

So what about the Sovereign class?

As the flagship successor to the Galaxy class do you think starfleet would use the same saucer and nacelle design in a design variant?

Almost definitely. As can be seen by past history, almost all capital ships have variants:

1. Constitution = Miranda, Constellation, Hermes/Saladin, Ptolemy, "Jupp."

2. Excelsior = Curry/Raging Queen, Centaur, "Hutzel."

3. Ambassador = ? (possibly the Apollo, Antares, Hokule'a and Wambundu classes, based on their registries)

4. Galaxy = Nebula, Freedom, BoBW kitbashes, possible future "All Good Things..." Ent-D-type.

I thought the official version Luna class, and thus the Titan - Luna being our moon and Titan being a moon of Saturn, making a tradition of Luna class ships being named after moons - was done by contest, and the ship with the weapons/sensor pod was the official design.

It was done by contest. It was Pocket Books that came up with the idea that the "Titan" was named after Saturn's moon, and hence became a smaller ship. However, in "Star Trek: Nemesis" I got the distinct impression that Riker's new ship was called the Titan because the name implied a huge, powerful ship, even larger than the Enterprise-E...because we all know Riker wouldn't have finally accepted command if the ship wasn't at least as powerful, if not more so, than the Enterprise, don't we?

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

There's the Ronin class, with what look like shuttlebays on the sides of the primary hull.

 

[Trelane]

I'd check shipschematics.net for the necessary Sovereign-Class variant images. There was a ton of them in RPG's in the 1990's.

Here's one image I think you'll ~love~.

http://fc06.deviantart.com/fs37/i/2008/241/c/5/Discovery_Class_Design_Evoluti_by_madeinjapan1988.jpg

There's also the Utopia-Class, a Sovereign-Class with no secondary hull & nacelles placed above and below a tacked-on engineering section @ Trekmania.

Kitbashed "Stargazer-Class", a 4-nacelled variant arranged a-la the Constellation-Class.

http://users.sisna.com/roguewing1/schematics/trek-fed-fan-mine/stargazer.gif

Royal Sovereign-Class

http://users.sisna.com/roguewing1/schematics/trek-fed-fan-mine/royalsovereign.gif

Intimidator-Class (tri-nacelled Sovereign-Class dreadnaught, formerly of Bravo Fleet)

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y258/alfaforce5/vendetta/intimidator/intim1.jpg

http://ussvendetta.expeditionfleet.net/sms/skins/new_vendetta/images/layout-2b.jpg

Andromeda-Class (Royal Sovereign-Class Refit)
Defiant-Class "Captain's Yacht"
http://www.shipschematics.net/startrek/images/federation/commandship_andromeda.jpg

Valhalla-Class a.k.a. Helsinki-Class
http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/7306/valhallaverseship1os1.png

 

[Timo]

Fat chance.

The Sovereign-class appeared to follow very quickly after the Galaxy, given what we know about about how often Starfleet seems to upgrade its ship classes (rarely). I've often thought that perhaps the Sovereign-class was out of sequence, hurried into service because the Federation needed a hard-hitting capital ship to compete with the Borg and Dominion.

It might simply be that the Sovereign is not intended to replace or succeed the Galaxy, but instead is intended to replace/succeed some older vessel - say, the Excelsior, which it greatly resembles.

Just because Picard moved from a Galaxy to a Sovereign doesn't mean squat about which class is supposed to follow which. Picard might just as well have been assigned to an Intrepid or a Miranda, and that wouldn't have made those "successors" of the Galaxy class, or even successors of the E-D.

Sisko moved from Danube to Defiant, too...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[cwl]

The profile of the Sovereign class does resemble the Excelsior a bit. The Excelsior class despite several refits was very old by the 2370s so it is logical that Starfleet were thinking about retiring the Excelsiors and the Sovereign class does have some advantages over the Galaxy class in terms of being a flagship.

Aside from being a more modern design with newer technology compared to the Galaxy (which Galaxy refits could probably match with the correct upgrades) the Sovereign class is smaller, sleeker and more manouverable than the Galaxy class. Which would prove very useful in combat against the Borg as it would be harder to target the Sovereign class than the Galaxy class. Clearly it would be difficult to avoid incoming fire in a Galaxy class.

 

[Timo]

I'm not sure the Galaxy class will be giving up its flagship status any time soon. Certainly there's no proof that the Sovereign would be the inheritor.

Several sources erroneously claim that the NCC-1701-E would be the new Federation Flagship. However, none of the movies featuring that ship support such a claim.

For all we know, moving from the E-D to the E-E was a step down in Picard's career. Which would not be completely surprising, considering how the end of the E-D is somewhat ignominious, and how the first movie featuring the E-E indicated that Picard was in Starfleet disfavor and (along with his ship) all but banished...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[David cgc]

For First Contact, John Eaves did a design for the Miranda-equivalent of the Sovereign, to be Admiral Hayes' ship when it seen in earlier versions of the script. At the end of the design process, the producers started getting cold feet and wanted to see some more alternate designs, just to be absolutely sure they'd made the right call, so Eaves wrote "U.S.S. Enterprise" on the sketches and sent them over, since the other ship had been cut before he had the chance to show the designs to anyone.

Here's a page of sketches.

 

[Timo]

Also, it would appear that Sovereign was the inspiration for the canon Nova and Prometheus classes, at least insofar as it provided them with a warp engine "look". Those could well be counted as "Sovereign variants", the way the New Orleans would be a Galaxy variant, even though they don't represent the same size range and (for that reason and others) don't fit the same mission class or "ship type", either.

Timo Saloniemi