Spoilers Starship Design in Star Trek: Picard

[Dukhat]

Wasn’t it mentioned or implied in ‘Nepenthe’ that Riker had commanded several ships after the Titan before he finally retired? Why was there a need to have a link to Nemesis? Couldn’t they have just made it his last ship instead of his first? That way there would have been no need for the convoluted mess that was the Titan-A. They could have then renamed whatever generic ship name they gave it to the Ent-G and all would be right with the world (or at least marginally better than what they did.)

Which to me would make me extremely excited for Legacy (if it happens) because the implication would be that they're exploring again, rather than hanging round waiting for an arc to hit them in the face.

But they’re doing that exact thing on a show they’re already producing where the lead ship is also named the Enterprise.

 

[HotRod]

Firstly, every other Enterprise so far was the pinnacle of Starfleet engineering.

The Enterprise-A was hardly the pinnacle of Starfleet engineering. The base model design was 40 years old and the refit was over a decade.

 

[Spike730]

The Enterprise-A was hardly the pinnacle of Starfleet engineering. The base model design was 40 years old and the refit was over a decade.

Yes, but a Constitution was replaced with a Constitution. So that was a period of stagnation.

 

[TimeIsAPredator]

Firstly, every other Enterprise so far was the pinnacle of Starfleet engineering. With the G they spent an entire season telling us what a rustbucket she is. So no progression here.

Secondly, we have the botched up and contrived background story of the refit. Was it just some raw materials or more as dialogue suggests when Picard referes to her as Riker's old command.

Thirdly, it doesn't make much sense that Starfleet thought NCC-80102 did something so impressive that its successor deserved a prefix, yet has no qualms erasing the name and registry.

Fourthly, I'm not a fan of "Class Roman Numeral" designations.

And lastly, minimal effort was made to bring the 23rd century Shangri La class to the 25th century so it looks oddly out of place.

So, basically everything about this ship just doesn't work out. It's the biggest mistake they made this season IMO.

Outside of the fact the A was not the pinnacle I agree with all the other paragraphs.

 

[Racefuel]

In 2286 when the A was launched or rechristened from whatever she was before..be it the Yorktown or Ti-ho or whatever..the Constitution Class were the top of the line. Excelsior was still experimental and wouldn't enter normal fleet service for another two years (2288)

 

[Spike730]

Well I think there's place between the Constitution (2245) and the Excelsior class (228x) for at least one other big capital ship class. Or maybe that failed too and made the Constitution refit a better option.

 

[Tomalak]

Well yes, the Constitution II.

Or the Federation-class if you like!

 

[KirkusOveractus]

Well I think there's place between the Constitution (2245) and the Excelsior class (228x) for at least one other big capital ship class. Or maybe that failed too and made the Constitution refit a better option.

Wasn't the Constitution refit that capital ship class before Excelsior class? In TSFS Excelsior was experimental and the only real ship with full capabilities (exploration, defense, diplomatic, etc.) we saw was the refit Connie.

 

[HotRod]

Wasn't the Constitution refit that capital ship class before Excelsior class? In TSFS Excelsior was experimental and the only real ship with full capabilities (exploration, defense, diplomatic, etc.) we saw was the refit Connie.

The Miranda class seemed capable.

 

[HotRod]

Plus, love it or hate it, we can't forget that Discovery showed us more then a few classes of Starship we didn't previously know about.

We saw ships like the Nimitz, Cardenas and Hoover classes that were of a significant size and also seemed to be of a newer type as they lacked the design traits of the Kelvin, carried by several of the other ships

 

[Racefuel]

The Miranda class seemed capable.

The Miranda was, IIRC, conceived in script notes as a smaller, slightly less capable ship than the Constitution for things like ..well..what we saw Reliant doing

 

[Macintosh]

The Miranda was, IIRC, conceived in script notes as a smaller, slightly less capable ship than the Constitution for things like ..well..what we saw Reliant doing

Which is ironic because it has a less fragile hull design, much better shuttlebay facilities, and somewhat greater armament than a Constitution-class... and for a "less capable ship" it certainly seems to have stuck around for a LOOOONG time.

 

[Space Socialist]

I said this in another thread, but it’d have made more sense if they’d had slung a third nacelle and some saucer greeblies on the museum piece Ent-D and made that the ‘current’ Enterprise than renaming a 150 years out of date Constitution class ship…

 

[HotRod]

Which is ironic because it has a less fragile hull design, much better shuttlebay facilities, and somewhat greater armament than a Constitution-class... and for a "less capable ship" it certainly seems to have stuck around for a LOOOONG time.

Didn't someone do the math and it showed that a Miranda has even has more internal volume then a Constitution?

 

[Macintosh]

Didn't someone do the math and it showed that a Miranda even has more internal volume then a Constitution?

Not quite – 235,000m³ for a Constitution refit, 218,000m³ for a Miranda with a Reliant-style roll bar. But that's like 8% difference. An original TOS Constitution is 212,000m² which is where this confusion likely originated.

 

[Saul]

Firstly, every other Enterprise so far was the pinnacle of Starfleet engineering. With the G they spent an entire season telling us what a rustbucket she is. So no progression here.

I don't see what's wrong with going in a different direction and shaking up this concept. We've had plenty of over powered super duper Enterprises.

By the end of season 3 I'm OK with it because what's on the inside is what counts. We now have a ship with a crew of offspring from TNG, Seven is the Captain and is gonna say things like "To boldly go where no one has gone before".

 

[HotRod]

well..what we saw Reliant doing

What we saw was a Miranda class starship being involved in a Top Secret operation, while The Enterprise was relegated to being a training ship.

I mean, if you really start to look at things, by the 2280's the Constitution was definitely not much of a "Front line Starship".

There had to be something between the Constitution and the Excelsior that was meant to "awe and inspire".

 

[Racefuel]

Yeah it would make sense...but as we apparently have decided...No Screen, No Canon

 

[fireproof78]

What we saw was a Miranda class starship being involved in a Top Secret operation, while The Enterprise was relegated to being a training ship.

I mean, if you really start to look at things, by the 2280's the Constitution was definitely not much of a "Front line Starship".

There had to be something between the Constitution and the Excelsior that was meant to "awe and inspire".

I would imagine they had a couple of projects in development as a show of force to the Klingons.

 

[Racefuel]

Veering into speculation and imagination aka headcanon..

Enterprise, being a rebuild into the Constitution II type, had some limitations that new builds did not. Perhaps her spaceframe wasn't as optimized, or her power generation systems were not as capable, less optimally arranged internal spaces or such.

Perhaps the earlier Constitutions that were rebuilt into "Refits" were, by 2285, long in the tooth and less capable than new builds that came along, IE the Yorktown theory.