Let's talk starship classes!

My friends and I recently challenged each other to list our top five starship classes and were surprised by how different our opinions were despite being generally in agreement with what we like about the various series.

Personally it was hard for me to make a definitive “top five” but here are some I rank highly in no particular order:

  • TOS-era constitution
  • Refit constitution
  • Discovery-era Bird of Prey (OG is good too obv but I love the HR Geiger-esque weirdness)
  • D’Kora class Ferengi ship
  • Not canon, but I love the original “Long-boi” Discovery design. It gives off some very cool art-deco retro-futurism vibes. Not very classically “trek” but I love it nonetheless!

I am curious to see what c/StarTrek thinks!

USSBurritoTruck,
@USSBurritoTruck@startrek.website avatar

5 Olympic-class
4 Parliament-class
3 Centaur-class
2 D’Deridex-class Romulan Warbird
1 TOS Romulan Bird-of-Prey (the updated version seen in PIC and SNW is also great)

I also want to give an honourable mention to the Niagara-class, which is a three nacelle abomination. When I started running my Star Trek Adventures game, I choose the Niagara-class because I wanted something relatively unique which still that communicated to the players they weren’t in a top of the line, prestigious ship. It’s been just over two years since we started playing the adventures of the USS Dauntless (yes, I know, but it’s not that Dauntless), and the ship has really grown on me.

Corgana,
@Corgana@startrek.website avatar

On my best days I can tolerate the presence of a one nacelle ship, maybe even a four nacelle ship. But I’ll be dead in the cold cold ground before I recognize the legitimacy of a THREE nacelle ship.

alexmorse,
@alexmorse@mastodon.social avatar

@Corgana @USSBurritoTruck those are the bad timelines

USSBurritoTruck,
@USSBurritoTruck@startrek.website avatar

I’m sorry, but it sounds to me as though you’re saying a one nacelle ship is more tolerable than a four nacelle ship, and I just can’t take anything seriously after that.

At least with four nacelles you can understand how they’re generating the warp field between them, but one? Does it have two sets of warp coils inside the single nacelle? All Starships are beautiful in Gene’s eyes, but I believe there are some he chooses not to look upon.

Corgana,
@Corgana@startrek.website avatar

You’re absolutely right. I can tolerate four nacelle ships as long as they keep it in the bedroom. Single nacelle ships belong in jail.

Jaccident,

There are so many but the beauts are the beauts.

  1. Ambassador class
  2. Defiant class
  3. D’Deridex class
  4. Excelsior class
  5. Jem Hadar Battlecruiser
wingsfortheirsmiles, (edited )
  1. Akira, a slick updated take on the Miranda imo! In my head canon this took over from that and the Excelsior class as the workhorse of the fleet.
  2. Species 8472 bio shop, still remember my original reaction of being blown away. Love that the profile reminds me of a missile
  3. Prometheus, though The Doc/Voyager crew were the heroes it was cool to see an ultra militaristic Starfleet vessel. Multi vector assault mode!
  4. Constitution: what can I say, I love a ship with 4 nacelles! Like the Excelsior, not very elegant from the top but it grabbed my attention as a kid.
  5. Nebula: the module on the top always intrigued me, I love that it’s use can be changed to suit the current mission or role.
Corgana,
@Corgana@startrek.website avatar

Constitution class has only two nacelles, did you mean Stargazer?

wingsfortheirsmiles,

Oop yup, meant Constellation class

ValueSubtracted,
@ValueSubtracted@startrek.website avatar

Literally how the Constellation class got its name.

The Stargazer was originally a Constitution II-class starship and would have reused the refit USS Enterprise model from the first four Star Trek films. However, it was decided after the episode was filmed to change it from a “Constitution-class” starship to the similar sounding “Constellation-class” cruiser. This was so that when LeVar Burton dubbed over the line, the new dialogue would closely match his lip movements on screen. Wesley Crusher says the ship class when making his announcement on the bridge; his lips also appear to say “Constitution”. Data also mentions the ship’s class by name when reading from the dedication plaque, but his back is turned to the camera; when he says “Constellation” the closed captions say “Constitution.”

wingsfortheirsmiles,

Ah, nice bit of trivia there

Mwallerby,
@Mwallerby@startrek.website avatar

1 - Sovereign

John Eaves just crushed it with the Ent-E

Then in no particular order, SNW Enterprise, Excelsior, NX-refit, and Parliament (USS Vancouver from LD)

Basilisk,

In no particular order:

Steamrunner Miranda D’Deridex Magee Constitution

digger,
@digger@lemmy.ca avatar

I love the Steamrunner class. I wish we got to see it more.

shnizmuffin,
@shnizmuffin@lemmy.inbutts.lol avatar
  • Ambassador-class (USS Enterprise C)
  • Galaxy-class (USS … Yamato)
  • Kelvin-type (USS Kelvin)
  • Constellation-class (USS Stargazer)
  • Somerville-class (USS Somerville)
Corgana,
@Corgana@startrek.website avatar

Man, I don’t think I could disagree with a list more than this one 😅

(Jk all ships are beautiful in Gene’s creation)

shnizmuffin,
@shnizmuffin@lemmy.inbutts.lol avatar

Not a fan of kitbashing, huh?

Corgana,
@Corgana@startrek.website avatar

I like all ships but anything other than two nacelles is an affront to the Great Bird of the Galaxy

Osa-Eris-Xero512,

I've always been a fan of the canon interpretation that anything other than the two nacelle pattern was because someone needed to compensate for something in the workload. Battleships (Federation-class variants, Galaxy-X) have 3 so one can get chopped off and they can keep on trucking, quads rotate through them to even wear/allow 'sprinting' for longer, singletons being 2 nacelles in a trenchcoat for cost/maintenance reasons (which explains why they're often proportionally oversized), etc.

Corgana,
@Corgana@startrek.website avatar

never heard this one actually but I really like it!

alexmorse,
@alexmorse@mastodon.social avatar

@Corgana

  1. refit constitution
  2. excelsior
  3. k'tinga
  4. luna
  5. constitution 3 (1701-grandpa)
valen,
@valen@lemmy.world avatar
  • Danube class runabout
  • Refit Constitution (NCC-1701A)
  • Whatever the Reliant was from ST2:WOK.

I want a runabout!

VindictiveJudge,

I want a runabout!

It’s like an RV, but with warp and replicators. What’s not to like?

HubertManne,
@HubertManne@kbin.social avatar

given the drone ships in game have crew and they have the holo emmitters I would go with one of them instead.

VindictiveJudge,

The Excelsior-class is one of my favorites. A bit wonky from a top-down view, but gorgeous from every other angle.

The Sovereign-class continues the general aesthetic of the Excelsior, but for the TNG-era design style and fixing the problem with high angle views.

The Valdore-type warbird from Nemesis is probably the best thing about that movie.

The Klingon D4 from Into Darkness is similarly one of the better things from that movie.

The NX-class Refit is also just shockingly pretty. Makes the original look incomplete.

Not canon, but I love the original “Long-boi” Discovery design. It gives off some very cool art-deco retro-futurism vibes. Not very classically “trek” but I love it nonetheless!

That is the canon design for the Discovery before the far future refit it got.

Corgana,
@Corgana@startrek.website avatar

The Klingon D4 from Into Darkness is similarly one of the better things from that movie.

Yes I agree! Good one

Corgana, (edited )
@Corgana@startrek.website avatar

That is the canon design for the Discovery before the far future refit it got.

I thought that was this one, no?

https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/007/645/302/large/andrew-gavrilov-discovery-top-00000.jpg?1507576291

Why did I think the other version was never on-screen?

EDIT: I have been informed the above image is fanart.

VindictiveJudge,

Something to consider with those two images is that they’re different angles. Your first image is of the underside of the ship, while the second is the top of the ship.

Also, the texturing and nacelles are different between the two, but the body and saucer seem to be structurally the same. Still a long-boi even with the slightly shorter nacelles.

ValueSubtracted,
@ValueSubtracted@startrek.website avatar

An actual top 5 list is likely to be fluid from moment to moment, but right now I’m going to give some love to the small, functional ships that don’t get a lot of attention.

  • Danube class runabout
  • Nova class
  • Raven-type
  • Intrepid class (okay this one gets plenty of love)
  • Yeager-type (you know you love it)
Corgana,
@Corgana@startrek.website avatar

I like that you mentioned Raven-type, I agree they did a good job with that one.

apprehensively_human,
  1. SNW Constitution
  2. Constitution Refit
  3. Sovereign
  4. Luna
  5. Miranda

I’ve flip-flopped a lot over the years about which are my favourites, some runners up include Defiant, Excelsior, Danube, NX Refit and Intrepid.

Corgana,
@Corgana@startrek.website avatar

Soverign is really good, I remember thinking how cool it looked the first time we see it in First Contact.

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