Why no actual saucer shape ships?

[Candleicious Ghost]

Starfleet ships have saucer sections but no actual ships that have a saucer type shape. Has there been anything like that in the history of Trek? I could imagine something like that not necessarily as a warp ship but something with an impulse drive where you didn't need light speed but could move around the solar system but the shape and look, I just like saucers and wish there was some kind of ship that the Federation had using that aesthetic.

 

[publiusr]

That waited until Discovery’s trip to the far future.

I don’t know exactly where to put pure saucer craft.

Visually, they (in Trek) would suggest sublight with no nacelles—which gives ships muscle in my eyes.

Then too— a pure, unadorned saucer also speaks of sophistication. Klaatu’s seems more advanced than Jupiter 2 for that reason alone.

In Star Wars: Rebels, Hondo has ancient saucers that initially looked jarring compared to everything else.

The Vree from Babylon 5 are (outside CE3K itself of course) the closest to the typical saucers the mainstream is familiar with…yet we finally see an Earth judge sentence a “Grey” over abductions…so even clunky Earth Force must have some similar level of basic sci-fi tech?

Or was this a case of voluntary surrender?
Dunno.

In Battle Beyond the Stars, I thought the glowing Nestor saucer would make short work of John Saxon’s battlewagon.

C-57D doesn’t look as impressive as the Refit from TMP, But the E-D saucer couldn’t get airborne after its slide-out in Generations.

Saucers always have me scratching my head as to where to rank them.

I might not be the only one flummoxed as to where to put saucer-only craft.

 

[Candleicious Ghost]

Visually, they (in Trek) would suggest sublight with no nacelles—which gives ships muscle in my eyes.

Saucer shaped ships could be alright for traveling inside our solar system. You would only need impulse drive for that as impulse is fast enough.

 

[Species517]

The Magee class sort of matches what you’re thinking about

Magee class

The Magee class was a type of 23rd century Federation science vessel in use during the 2250s. At least two ships of this class remained in service through the 2380s. The Magee-class was introduced sometime prior to 2256. One ship of this class, the USS Shran, participated in the Battle of the...

memory-alpha.fandom.com

 

[137th Gebirg]

There was a saucer-shaped ship in the Qualor II scrap yard whose origins has eluded ship enthusiasts such as myself for years. It’s cool-looking, and not necessarily Starfleet (there was at least one K’t’inga there as well), and a big mystery.

 

[Q'OrnamentalDeqor]

The 1701-D saucer is the only one I recall that might qualify as a pure saucer, but it never did have warp drive with the usual in-universe reasons (nacelles, deflector dish, et al). "The Apple" from TOS did suggest the saucer could separate (impulse drive being on the saucer)... it's an interesting aesthetic, but often overused in sci-fi (especially at the time), which reminds me:

Am wondering if this might help, for the original historical context and why a pure saucer was going to be avoided so they went for more artsy designs and that might be why "just an actual saucer" was generally not used(?):

Designing the First Enterprise — Forgotten Trek

When Matt Jefferies set about creating the iconic starship in 1964, he had little to go by except Gene Roddenberry's vision.

forgottentrek.com

I thought, ‘What the hell is warp drive?’ But I gathered that this ship had to have powerful engines — extremely powerful. To me, that meant that they had to be designed away from the body. Boy, I tried a lot of ideas. I wanted to stay away from the flying saucer shape. The ball or sphere, as you’ll see in some of the sketches, was my idea, but I ended up with the saucer after all. Gene would come in to look over what I was doing and say, ‘I don’t like this,’ or, ‘This looks good.’ If Gene liked it, he’d ask the boss [Herbert Solow] and if the boss liked it, then I’d work on that idea for a while.

For the hull, I didn’t really want a saucer because of the term flying saucer and the best pressure vessel of course is a ball, so I started playing with that. But the bulk got in the way and the ball just didn’t work. I flattened it out and I guess we wound up with a saucer! I did it in color on a black matt board, and by the time I finished I thought we really had something.

The unconventional designs can be cool if they "look right"...

The Magee class sort of matches what you’re thinking about

Magee class

The Magee class was a type of 23rd century Federation science vessel in use during the 2250s. At least two ships of this class remained in service through the 2380s. The Magee-class was introduced sometime prior to 2256. One ship of this class, the USS Shran, participated in the Battle of the...

memory-alpha.fandom.com

OMG, it's a Cylon ship!

 

[Candleicious Ghost]

There was a saucer-shaped ship in the Qualor II scrap yard whose origins has eluded ship enthusiasts such as myself for years. It’s cool-looking, and not necessarily Starfleet (there was at least one K’t’inga there as well), and a big mystery.

Could that be one of the unnamed Miranda class ships? It's mentioned in the link you quoted.

I always like to think of the Miranda as a saucer that just happens to have nacelles

 

[137th Gebirg]

Apologies - MA doesn't seem to have a good pic of the ship I'm talking about. Found one on TrekCore and cranked up the contrast:

While there are a bunch of Mirandas in the yard, this one is definitely not one of those. It looks vaguely Starfleet, but missing visible engines and other obvious visual cues. The VFX team threw a bunch of stuff in these shots. Most of the stock footage and ships from Wolf 359 were in here, including the Excelsior study models, the Planet of the Titans and Phase II models and a bunch of other kit bashes. This one really kind of stands out in its design, with no apparent provenance. It doesn't seem to be a model repurposed from V, Close Encounters or Batteries Not Included (all using saucer-shaped filming miniatures). It's bugged me for years and I really wish we could find out more about it.

 

[Candleicious Ghost]

Apologies - MA doesn't seem to have a good pic of the ship I'm talking about. Found one on TrekCore and cranked up the contrast:

While there are a bunch of Mirandas in the yard, this one is definitely not one of those. It looks vaguely Starfleet, but missing visible engines and other obvious visual cues. The VFX team threw a bunch of stuff in these shots. Most of the stock footage and ships from Wolf 359 were in here, including the Excelsior study models, the Planet of the Titans and Phase II models and a bunch of other kit bashes. This one really kind of stands out in its design, with no apparent provenance. It doesn't seem to be a model repurposed from V, Close Encounters or Batteries Not Included (all using saucer-shaped filming miniatures). It's bugged me for years and I really wish we could find out more about it.

Ok that one really does look interesting and it's not a Miranda

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

How about a Captain's Yacht from a Galaxy-class?

 

[137th Gebirg]

While never seen officially on-screen, Probert's yacht was supposed to look a lot smoother and oval. The object above is definitely more greebled, and appears to be more circular (and a lot bigger).

This was a painting, done by Probert himself for the 2010 Ships of the Line calendar, that shows what the dorsal view was supposed to look like:

 

[DarrenTR1970]

Speaking of saucers, here's a video regarding the C57D from 'Forbidden Planet'.

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[King Bob!]

Apologies - MA doesn't seem to have a good pic of the ship I'm talking about. Found one on TrekCore and cranked up the contrast:

While there are a bunch of Mirandas in the yard, this one is definitely not one of those. It looks vaguely Starfleet, but missing visible engines and other obvious visual cues. The VFX team threw a bunch of stuff in these shots. Most of the stock footage and ships from Wolf 359 were in here, including the Excelsior study models, the Planet of the Titans and Phase II models and a bunch of other kit bashes. This one really kind of stands out in its design, with no apparent provenance. It doesn't seem to be a model repurposed from V, Close Encounters or Batteries Not Included (all using saucer-shaped filming miniatures). It's bugged me for years and I really wish we could find out more about it.

Maybe something from Planet of the Titans?

 

[1001001]

Starship stuff goes in Trek Tech.

Moving now.

 

[137th Gebirg]

Maybe something from Planet of the Titans?

It's possible. Aside from the various Enterprise study models, I'm not aware of any other documented concept designs that were made for that project.

 

[Dukhat]

Apologies - MA doesn't seem to have a good pic of the ship I'm talking about. Found one on TrekCore and cranked up the contrast:

While there are a bunch of Mirandas in the yard, this one is definitely not one of those. It looks vaguely Starfleet, but missing visible engines and other obvious visual cues. The VFX team threw a bunch of stuff in these shots. Most of the stock footage and ships from Wolf 359 were in here, including the Excelsior study models, the Planet of the Titans and Phase II models and a bunch of other kit bashes. This one really kind of stands out in its design, with no apparent provenance. It doesn't seem to be a model repurposed from V, Close Encounters or Batteries Not Included (all using saucer-shaped filming miniatures). It's bugged me for years and I really wish we could find out more about it.

I once emailed Michael Okuda about this object many years ago. He seemed to think it was something left over from the V TV series. It does vaguely resemble a Visitor mothership, but there are other details that don't quite match up.

 

[137th Gebirg]

I once thought it was the Particle Beam Triax, but IIRC, that one was more triangular in overall shape than circular. The generic motherships were a lot smoother than the object at Qualor II and didn’t have the hard vertical edge around its circumference. It’s been a long-running mystery. I hope it turns up on an auction block someday out of someone’s long-lost collection and hasn’t been frisbee’d into a trash can back in the 90’s. That would be sad…

 

[thribs]

I assume to get away from the cliché 1950's spaceship design.

 

[RichMerk]

The only other saucer-like ship I can think of is the Kzin police ship from TAS Slaver Weapon.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

While never seen officially on-screen, Probert's yacht was supposed to look a lot smoother and oval. The object above is definitely more greebled, and appears to be more circular (and a lot bigger).

This was a painting, done by Probert himself for the 2010 Ships of the Line calendar, that shows what the dorsal view was supposed to look like:
View attachment 50962

I wish we could seen this on screen.

That would've been sweet.