What was the best Starfleet Ship Design ?

[RAMA]

I can understand why people pick the first Enterprise and refit but I still think a whole series of starships from STNG are better, if less recognizable. I mentioned some of them before but here are a few others:

The beautiful E-C again:

Nebula

And Akira from STFC:

I think these are more graceful than the original, and feel more solid .

 

[hmbnimbus]

The Defiant, IMO.

Just purely because it was a fairly solid mass i.e. no big nacelles to easily pick off and actually looked military in its design.

Yes, I know Starfleet's mission is mainly exploration but some of their ships just look too fragile in their conception.

 

[Anthony Sabre]

My favorite ship classes have always been Excelsior, Ambassador, Akira and Defiant.

 

[AlboOfBorg]

Honestly the Galaxy-class is my fave, but that's probably because that's the one I grew up with.

 

[PhoenixIreland]

Im reading the new frontier now, and I know the Ambassador class gets destroyed I think at the end of the book Im reading, and man I cannot wait.

I never liked the design, and I can't picture the inside of it when Im reading since we only saw the bridge (and that was a stripped down version of the Ent-D battle bridge set and was crap looking)

 

[Sululu]

I'm surprised that my ranking is the same as the general consensus on the board!

1. Constitution Refit
2. Sovereign
3. Excelsior

I guess we're suckers for the classic old-school designs

 

[Krieg1981]

Top three......

1. Constitution class refit
2. Ambassador class
3. Constellation class

Old school rules!

 

[mr.peany]

Im a sucker for the Akira and Soverign class.

And I want to own my very own Danube class runabout!! Those things were cool.

 

[btopping]

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[asdf1]

My favourite ships are the Nova class and the Intrepid.

I'd also love the NX if they gave it a refit up to 24th Century standards.

 

[Rex Racer]

Ambassador-class, without question.

 

[Red Ranger]

I have a fondness for the Dreadnought starship shown in the ST Technical Manual, and featured in the only Diane Carey novel I like, Dreadnought, myself. And while I'm not a fan of the Galaxy-class, if you think about its numerous transporters, holodecks, and other facilities, it's well-designed for a long-range vessel. And I agree Defiant is well-designed from the standpoint of presenting a smaller cross-section of a target. -- RR

 

[Krieg1981]

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

My favorite Starfleet ships are:

1) Constitution Class
Elegant in it's deceptive simplicity. Balanced in form and function. An elegant vessel, for a less civilized age. People may harp on it's "WEAK THIN NECK OMG" and "TOOTHPICK NACELLE PYLONS LAWLZ". But in a world where weapons make nukes look like firecrackers, armor is rendered a very moot point.

2) Constitution Refit
Swooping space deco lines give the Constitution an apperance of speed and presence. Just as iconic, and just as classic as the original.

3) Galaxy Class
The Galaxy is without a doubt one of the most elegant ship designs in Trek. It fills up a screen beautifully, giving a very good sense of immense scale, power and technology.

4) Akira Class
I'm a sucker for this design. I've always liked the Miranda, an my favorite WWII warplane has always been the P-38, so it was a match made in heaven. And it's refreshingly unconventional for a Starfleet design.

 

[LutherSloan]

My personal favorites:

-Constitution refit
-Excelsior
-Sovereign
-Prometheus
-Future USS Enterprise-D (All Good Things)
-Akira

 

[Saul]

Constitution class original and Akira class.

 

[ShinRa Actual]

Constitution refit always has that nostalgic grace to it...but I've always been partial to the Excelsior design.

I do wish the Cheyenne and New Orleans and other BoBW ships got more/better screentime. For kitbashes, they were a great deal better than some of the things that showed up on DS9 (The maquis/intrepid bastard that was hovering around every episode, for instance...)

 

[prometheuspan]

by what criteria are you judging?
Aesthetic? Nastalgic? Actual engineering viability?

The best ship design would have to be a four nacelle design that wouldn't
have the ship flying in circles. I happen to favor the prometheus. No reason.

 

[Icy_Penguigo]

Top five! In order of likey-ness:

1. Original Connie. Timeless. Graceful. Believable. Revolutionary. Unmatched.

2. Galaxy-Class. I can't put it better than the Herkimer Battle Jitney () did:

The Galaxy is without a doubt one of the most elegant ship designs in Trek. It fills up a screen beautifully, giving a very good sense of immense scale, power and technology.

3. Ambassador-Class. A wonderful successor to the lineage of the Connie which also does a great job of indicating the direction future Starfleet ships would take. I would have loved to see a series based around one of these beauties.

4. Defiant-Class. It really looks like a Starfleet warship to me. Fast, solidly-built, heavily-armed. Small, and thus easier to produce than bigger ships. A real spitfire.

5. Excelsior-class. "My friends, the 'Great Experiment,' Excelsior." It really looked the part. Truly, a next generation Starfleet ship.

Also, I have to give a shout out to the D7. It's not a Starfleet vessel, but its beauty and elegance are second only to the original Connie.

 

[Nedersong]

Well, people will almost always like best the first ship they saw. There are many great startship designs in Star Trek, and overall, i think i like their designs better than Star Wars.

i've always preferred symmetry in ship designs without pointy things. For example, I don't like all the pointy things in the Marine's ship in Aliens. Ugh.