Spoilers Starship Design in Star Trek: Picard
- Thread starter pst
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Can't put the shit back in the horse. It's out there now and, yes, I would think it should be used. In fact, I suspect that it IS being used, but its exposition as an SOP tech installed in all new ship builds simply doesn't serve the overall story, so it's simply not mentioned. It is merely assumed that the PIC ships are more advanced (and we don't really need to assume anything because Riker said this of the Zheng-He, for example) and not get into the technobabble of it - thankfully. Rios mentioned that the new Stargazer had Borg tech installed in it - this was to serve a specific purpose to the story, pre-explaining how it will allow Borg Queen 2.0 a back door into Starfleet's systems. I mean, holy shit, who didn't see THAT one coming as soon as the big Borg Spider appeared out of its wormhole-subspace-rift thingy?? It was mentioned for that reason alone!
I suspect all SF ships have that new tech built-in to them. The writers just never saw a story-telling need to mention it.
I suspect all SF ships have that new tech built-in to them. The writers just never saw a story-telling need to mention it.
Only on Voyager, it can easily be stripped and classified.
I think the novels had transphasic torpedoes eventually distributed to the fleet. But I think only because of the massive Borg invasion? I don't recall. I also don't recall what happened to the deployable armour.
The TNG novel Greater Than the Sum, set in the First Splinter timeline, explains the armor was impractical because it interfered with heat dissipation. The torpedoes are moving through different phases (think Devidian phase shift), allowing to by-pass shields. (Like avoiding your boss in the office building by taking the lift one level up, walking across the floor, and taking the next level down again to reach your cubicle). Anyway, they're reserved as last-resort weapon so that the Borg simply adapt from overuse.
But how did it play out in the prime timeline?
In STO, nearly every Intrepid-class derived ships can deploy ablative armor, including the Intrepid-class warship but excluding the Janeway class. It renders the ship nearly invulnerable to damage but can only be maintained for 1 minute due to energy requirements. Transphasic torps are common in the 2410s and not a superweapon anymore.
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Reminded me, Thomas mentioned picking ships appropriate to the timeframe, so it's a shame it was too early to see this little fella:
Dak Phoenix designed a similar looking Saber class of ship.
This could have been said to have been 25th century version variant of the Saber class.
Both Dak Phoenix and this version look VERY well done if you ask me.
The Da Vinci is a 25th Century variant of the Sabre.
It says 'Da Vinci Class'... so its a Da Vinci Class of starships... not Sabre (by the description).
Oh...like the Soyuz and Miranda variants? Or Saladin and Ptolemy?
Sorry I was thinking in STO terms.
Yes in-universe it is a separate class, inspired by the Sabre class.
See, that's my problem.
Why create a separate class of ship for a design that looks like an upgraded original?
Why not just call it a 25th century Sabre class which was upgraded?
I mean, it would be the same as calling Excelsior upgrade to the secondary hull as a separate class of ships, or even the Connie refit (from TOS to TMP) a completely different class (and we know that they are not)
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The Sombra class in SNW is virtually identical to the Enterprise and the mid-23rd century Constitution-class starships. Even outside games they do this sort of thing.
Star Trek has been doing this for a while. Minor modifications result in whole new class names.
It was a bit more evident fron TNG forward starting with the Soyuz class (even though its a Miranda class ship).
But prior to this, we haven't had THAT many small changes to a design resulting in a new class of ships... because its utterly absurd.
The main issue stem from real life writers who classify these ships as completely different classes even though they have no real reason to be.
It is absurd. I recall being quite confused by the Ptolemy and the Saladin in the technical manual but managed to survive (it was harrowing though. Songs and tales will be told by bards years and centuries later
) Yet it will continue on because Trek likes it.
It had some pretty big modifications from the Miranda.
I wouldn't say 'big'.
The base hull was Miranda. Same saucer, nacelles and raised sections on the saucer for the most part... main thing that was different was the lack of arc with the torpedo pod which was on the regular Miranda variant and some other bits and bobs.
Like I said, should have just said it was upgraded Miranda class.
The question, of course, is what makes a ship a variant of a certain class, and what makes it a completely different class? Starfleet seems to treat this quite arbitrarily. The TOS Enterprise and the TMP refit are both Constitution class ships, despite looking nothing alike. The Enterprise-B is the same class as the Excelsior even with its add-on parts, yet the Soyuz isn't the same class as the Miranda even though it's basically the same situation. The three-nacelled-with-phaser-cannon AGT Enterprise-D is still a Galaxy class starship, and not a new class. The Sombra class and the Discotution are visually identical, but some different colored markings make it a whole different class? And we are introduced to the awesome new Sagan class Stargazer in PIC season 2, but in season 3 we see a ship that's visually identical but only has two nacelles instead of four, and it's also a completely different class rather than just a variant.
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That's a nice vid.
