What Classification was the uss voyager?

[Infern0]

I thought it was some kind of science vessel. But it seems awfully over powered for a science ship, so i was wondering what excactly is the intrepid classes purpose in starfleet?

 

[kv1at3485]

She belonged to the coveted category of "hero ship", which grants deuxexmachinum and plotdevicium powers.

 

[Candlelight]

"Exploration".

 

[Infern0]

I just always thought she was overpowered, to me she seems like a new version of the constitution class whereas the soverign is the new excelsior

 

[spoonunseptium]

I always thought of Voyager as being, like, a prototype of the new superships Starfleet was going for. You know, like how modern car companies come out with fancy cars that you could practically live in- for the sole sake of technological advancement and convenience.


I mean, 4 centuries later Starfleet is traveling through time. Voyager is just another advancment.


and yes, deux ex machina was the new ONSTAR.

 

[Jefferies]

I always thought the Intrepid Class wasan exploration type multi-purpose vessel, quite capable of longer deep space missions, when properly staffed and equipped. It always feelt like the little sister of the Galaxy Class to me.

 

[c0rnedfr0g]

well, since they wore the 'class b' grunt uniforms, i always assumed the intrepid class was used for mechanical operations within starfleet

 

[Jefferies]

well, since they wore the 'class b' grunt uniforms, i always assumed the intrepid class was used for mechanical operations within starfleet

I think by the time Voyager launched, the type B had become type A and the old type A was only used in really fancy places like Star Fleet Command Headquaters. Remember in Generations, which took place before Voyager, they had this weird transition between the two uniform styles.

 

[TheRealNaveed]

In The Caretaker I think they said she was a Scout ship. By size and speed, she fits that description... so yeah, Voyager was drastically overpowered when it came to some of the plotlines, especially with the Borg. She shouldn't have been able to go up against a Cube or a Sphere or whatnot when, in all reality, she probably couldn't go head-to-head with a Galaxy for two minutes.

 

[Praetor]

I like to think that the Intrepid class reflected a shift in Starfleet doctrine away from building a few bigger and bigger ships into a large amount of small ships.

 

[JNG]

Rich Sternbach said that the word he used internally for her concept was "troubleshooter." Within the starship classification system (Explorer ---> Cruiser ---> Cargo Carrier ---> Tanker ---> Surveyor ---> Scout), he said she was "an Explorer, though probably the smallest of her kind." Scout is at the opposite end of the classification system, so she's way too big and multipurpose to be one of those.

Mr. Sternbach wrote an in-universe article for Star Trek: The Magazine about the class of ship, and here's a relevant short excerpt:

Among the ship types outlined in preliminary Starfleet requirement briefs was a fast, powerful, 'troubleshooter' vessel, initially listed as Planform SV-65. This ship concept, created in basic form by the combined structures groups from Earth Station McKinley and the Utopia Planitia Yards, would need to maintain a low-cruise warp factor of 7.75 for 16 days, a high-cruise warp of 9.25 for 2.25 days, and a dash-cruise speed of warp 9.975 for 12.65 hours. It would support a crew of 223, would have swappable interior pressurized modules, and would mount defensive weaponry at least equal to the Galaxy-class phasers and photon torpedoes. A wide variety of primary mission types for the new ship - from threat-force point interception and large battle group support to covert intelligence gathering - was pared down to space defensive combat to protect Starfleet and Federation assets, and continued scientific exploration during patrol intervals (C. Forrester, ASDB Journal 05Nov2361).

Things changed a bit by the finalized specs, as they nearly always do, but this outlines what the aims were.

In terms of what they said out loud on the show, we don't have tons to go on, but it's obvious it's a long-range vessel with significant multimission capability. I have never understood why some people thought it was some fragile science vessel or something, considering the very first mission we saw it on was a pursuit of hostiles in the dangerous Badlands; the onscreen comparisons with Equinox clarified that further.

 

[Timo]

Onscreen, they never said anything that could be construed as a "type designation" or "mission class".

Rick's "(Light) Explorer" sounds just fine, and is about as definite as backstage evidence can ever get. OTOH, the DS9 Tech Manual identified a couple of ships nearly identical to the Intrepid class as "Light Cruisers", which is also fine with me. After all, the TNG era folks continued to refer to the similarly small Constellation class as a Cruiser, even when Heavy Cruiser in the 24th century referred to behemoths like the Ambassador class.

Those two choices, (small) Explorer and Light Cruiser, are the only ones that the then-Paramount has pitched in our direction. Neither of them is an official onscreen factoid, though, so we could always invent our own designations if we feel the need.

Timo Saloniemi