Spoilers Starship Design in Star Trek: Picard

[Tomalak]

I’m not sure they are still in active service. The Venture was replaced with a Sovereign class and obviously the Syracuse was taken out of service for one reason or another. USS Galaxy herself was still around as of Nemesis, but that was twenty years ago.

The Ross class seems to have replaced the Galaxy.

 

[valkyrie013]

Todays aircraft carriers have a 50 year life span.
I understand some ships, its not the time, its the mileage.

Even in trek ships, you have scheduled maintenance and refits.
I would say every 5 years there is a "refit" ( the correct version of it..) of after a 5 year mission, or with ships near home, scheduled time.
This includes repairing and replacing worn parts, even today lots of parts have "Hours" on them, and once there close or passed those hours, they need to be replaced or fixed. So above standard daily maintenance. Larger parts, some upgrades if available, but pretty light stuff, maybe 1-3 months. Then back out the door.

Every 10 years theres a major refit, more indepth than a 5 year, replacing parts, upgrades etc. say 3-6 months, depending whats being replaced.

and you keep going until parts of the ship that can't be replaced, or would be more maintenance intensive than building a new one, basically "Totaling" the ship. Even then you would move the ship off of front line service to 2nd line, or given to federation members for the "Home" fleets.

So 40 years is NOT a lot of time,

Also.. look at the TOS enterprise in Disco and SNW, it has gotten shredded a number of times, no talk of decommissioning her. even when a big chuck of the saucer was blown away or most hull panels were crumpled when they flew near the black hole. Hell there was an episode of a special panel on the hull that was the ONLY one that was original..

 

[fireproof78]

I’m not sure they are still in active service. The Venture was replaced with a Sovereign class and obviously the Syracuse was taken out of service for one reason or another. USS Galaxy herself was still around as of Nemesis, but that was twenty years ago.

The Ross class seems to have replaced the Galaxy.

I imagine the whole war thing had an impact too

 

[Racefuel]

Its entirely possible a lot of Galaxy class ships were lost in the Dominion War. We didn't see any lost on screen, but they were involved in every major action we did see.

 

[Space Socialist]

Drexler purposely designed the NX-01 to look less advance than TOS.

The exposed machinery and parts, non-flush hull panelling, visible rivets etc. were all things he thought made it look less advance that the TOS Connie.

I think he did a remarkable job given the job he was commissioned to do, basically to modify the existing Akira class design to look like it long predated every Starfleet vessel we’d seen onscreen to that point. I understand that the studio was never going to allow the Daedalus or anything as ‘dorky’ looking to be the lead spaceship in their expensive new television show.

 

[Tuskin38]

I think he did a remarkable job given the job he was commissioned to do, basically to modify the existing Akira class design to look like it long predated every Starfleet vessel we’d seen onscreen to that point. I understand that the studio was never going to allow the Daedalus or anything as ‘dorky’ looking to be the lead spaceship in their expensive new television show.

Yeah they wanted something ‘familiar’ to audiences.

I’ve never played it, but my buddy did when it first started - I recall his complaint being, “It’s ‘Star Trek’, I want to explore some planets, not have space battles.” Not sure if it’s changed much, but that was enough for me to lose interest. However, I am glad they partnered with GamePrint, because I do like that aspect.

The problem is exploration and negotiation doesn’t make money. Pew pew does. Being a F2P mmo they need to cater to the people who will give the most money so they can stay afloat.
The game does have some well written stories between the pew pew sequencers.

 

[137th Gebirg]

Its entirely possible a lot of Galaxy class ships were lost in the Dominion War. We didn't see any lost on screen, but they were involved in every major action we did see.

Yeah we did - USS Odyssey (DS9, "The Jem'Hadar").

 

[Racefuel]

Yeah we did - USS Odyssey (DS9, "The Jem'Hadar").

IN THE WAR

 

[Stuart Wilson]

I would assume that there should be Galaxies still in service as of 2401. They were still under construction during the Dominion War in the Early 2070s so there should be some under 30 years old, hardly old for a Starship, the TNG Tech manual suggested they could last a century. A modern Destroyer lasts 40+ years.
The only rationale is if they no longer have a place in the modern fleet, Perhaps following the war the rate of technological change (wars do have a tendency to speed this up) coupled with the likelihood that due to the need for lots of ships in wartime smaller and more combat capable designs were favoured for construction (we see a lot of Sovereigns in Picard) may have resulted in them being bypassed for upgrades, especially when designs like the Ross emerged to do the same role. Like how after WWII most pre-war ships were taken out of US Navy and Royal Navy service in favour of newer ones.
You build a lot of ships to fight a war. When it's over and you don't need as many you might as well just use the newer ones.
I'd still like to imagine there were some Galaxies kicking about in the fleet, perhaps further away from the core of the Federation (they can't have really concentrated all of Starfleet in one place for Frontier Day).
Be nice to see one if Legacy happens.

 

[valkyrie013]

I havent seen any new technology that they couldn't equip on a galaxy class during a refit.
Bio neural gelpacks? easily be incorperated.
New sensors, again, easily incorperated.
New engines? Not really needed, can go above warp 9, not every ship needs to go 9.975.. when most of the time your cruising at warp 7.
Nothing screams that the Galaxy class is useless. Its an older design.. so?

Plus with the destruction on Utopia, wouldn't you lengthen the life of ships? not scrap them for parts??

 

[fireproof78]

Like how after WWII most pre-war ships were taken out of US Navy and Royal Navy service in favour of newer ones.

That's how I see Starfleet going. Starfleet seems to like tinkering with ship designs, and so newer frames were pushed in to service and some were kept and some were retired after the war. Also, whatever losses during the war could include fleet personnel more familiar with the Galaxy design work, as well as shipyard losses from the war and then the Synth attack.

There's multiple attrition factors that all stack up for Starfleet to move towards not continuing on with older frame styles.

 

[Tomalak]

The main argument for retiring them is that the original mission profile no longer existed. Perhaps Starfleet decided that lengthy exploration missions with a large complement of civilians was no longer a good use of resources.

Once you take that away, does the Galaxy class still have a place in a peacetime fleet? There are presumably more modern and efficient ways to do all the things we saw during TNG - patrolling the neutral zone, ferrying ambassadors, arbitrating disputes.

Perhaps the Galaxy isn't a B-52 or an aircraft carrier, it's Concorde. Taken out of service due to high operating costs and small returns, and some high profile disasters.

 

[cooleddie74]

Its entirely possible a lot of Galaxy class ships were lost in the Dominion War. We didn't see any lost on screen, but they were involved in every major action we did see.

My guess is there were heavy losses in most starship classes, especially the ones with more firepower that could prove the most practical on the frontlines.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I just think it was a case that there weren't that many Galaxy-class starships to begin with. I mean, those things are huge--you could build two or more smaller starships for the price of one of them. Even in a supposed post-scarcity society, there will still be the issue of a practical use of resources--it may be better to have a larger number of smaller ships that could be deployed over a larger area. Galaxy-class ships may have been intended to be like mobile starbases or Federation embassies, but that may be simply their unique role in the fleet and so they may not have been built in very large numbers. Even if there was only about a dozen of them in service at any given time, space being as big as it is, it may have become increasingly rare to see one by the time of PIC as they are often deployed far away these days.

Maybe an argument can be made that the Sovereign-class was developed as a more "economical" Galaxy-class that could be built in slightly larger numbers, That doesn't mean that the Galaxy-class was a failure, just that the Sovereign-class was "cheaper" to build and perhaps more of them could be built.

 

[137th Gebirg]

IN THE WAR

No need to yell. Completely unnecessary and rude.

Was that not the first shot fired by Dominion forces and a blatant act of war against the Federation, resulting in hundreds of lives lost during a combat engagement?

 

[David cgc]

I just think it was a case that there weren't that many Galaxy-class starships to begin with. I mean, those things are huge--you could build two or more smaller starships for the price of one of them. Even in a supposed post-scarcity society, there will still be the issue of a practical use of resources--it may be better to have a larger number of smaller ships that could be deployed over a larger area. Galaxy-class ships may have been intended to be like mobile starbases or Federation embassies, but that may be simply their unique role in the fleet and so they may not have been built in very large numbers. Even if there was only about a dozen of them in service at any given time, space being as big as it is, it may have become increasingly rare to see one by the time of PIC as they are often deployed far away these days.

Maybe an argument can be made that the Sovereign-class was developed as a more "economical" Galaxy-class that could be built in slightly larger numbers, That doesn't mean that the Galaxy-class was a failure, just that the Sovereign-class was "cheaper" to build and perhaps more of them could be built.

That's pretty much my take, except replace "Sovereign" with "Ross." The Galaxies were too useful close to home to actually fulfill their intended mission, so the shipwrights that developed the Sovereign were commissioned to make a Galaxy-class knock-off that would be less expensive and expansive, but still suitable for the "local" Galaxy-class duties, freeing the actual Galaxies to go on their ten-year missions.

 

[Racefuel]

No need to yell. Completely unnecessary and rude.

Was that not the first shot fired by Dominion forces and a blatant act of war against the Federation, resulting in hundreds of lives lost during a combat engagement?

It wasn't the war though. The war began with the non-aggression pact between Bajor and the Dominion and the attack on DS9.
That would be like saying that the incursion of the Defiant into Dominion space in "The Search" was also the war.

 

[137th Gebirg]

It wasn't the war though. The war began with the non-aggression pact between Bajor and the Dominion and the attack on DS9.
That would be like saying that the incursion of the Defiant into Dominion space in "The Search" was also the war.

Since "The Search" happened immediately after "The Jem'Hadar", then yes, Starfleet would be on a war-footing at this point. It had gone hot and you can't put the shit back in the horse once first blood is spilled. Sure, there was a short cool-down period when the two powers were sizing each other up and moving their pieces on the board, but the die was fully cast at that juncture.

As for when the war officially started, was there ever a formal declaration of war between the two powers? Such a political maneuver usually happens after a kinetic military engagement where lives are lost. From Memory Alpha:

Following initial Alpha Quadrant expeditions into the Gamma Quadrant, rumors began to filter through of a ruthless race of conquerors known only as "The Dominion". In 2370, first contact was officially made between the Federation and the Dominion, when the Jem'Hadar destroyed the Starfleet vessel USS Odyssey. A state of cold war rapidly developed thereafter between several of the Alpha Quadrant's major powers and the Dominion. A Dominion invasion was widely regarded as inevitable, as the Founders were driven by a xenophobic need to exert absolute authority over all other civilizations.

I personally draw the line in the sand at the first kinetic engagement and loss of life when it comes to the exact point when a war starts. The United States entered into a state of war with Japan upon the attack at Pearl Harbor on Dec 7 1941. However, by the logic you stated, the official "war" didn't begin until its declaration by Congress a day later on Dec 8, even though we were forced into a hot war footing only 24 hours before. Did the lives of those lost at Pearl somehow mean less than those who died after war was declared? And since no other war since WWII was officially declared by Congress, does this mean that Korea, Vietnam, Gulf Wars I & II, Afghanistan, etc., didn't exist either? Not important enough? The hundreds of thousands who died in all those conflicts are irrelevant because those weren't "real wars" by conventional definition?

Sorry, but this gets into a realm of pedantry that is desperately (and weakly) grasping at defending the original premise to support the (objectively incorrect) fact that no Galaxy-class ships were destroyed on-screen during the war. Such a position simplistically and blatantly ignores the dynamics involved in the conditions of international armed conflict.

 

[Dukhat]

I think the Galaxy class just wasn't new enough to be 'networked' like the more contemporary ships seen in seasons 2 & 3. The oldest ships we see still in active service are the Akira and Defiant classes (and a Steamrunner & a Nova are mentioned), all of which most likely came after the Galaxy class production-wise.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

I think the Galaxy class just wasn't new enough to be 'networked' like the more contemporary ships seen in seasons 2 & 3. The oldest ships we see still in active service are the Akira and Defiant classes (and a Steamrunner & a Nova are mentioned), all of which most likely came after the Galaxy class production-wise.

Even the older, but not retired, ships were probably retrofitted. It's probably all code and a little hardware.