A MACO Starship: The Freedom Class

The Freedom class was created around a decade before the NX class and was the first ship to reach warp 4, however it seems external to the Warp 5 project and the eventual Enterprise. Starfleet still created this vessel in both the Kelvin and Prime timelines, so let's take a look at its history and stats.

00:00 Introduction
00:51 Real Origins
02:29 Starfleet Origins
04:43 Specifications
06:25 The MACOs
07:25 Conclusion

Star Trek Online developed by Cryptic Studios and Perfect World.
Star Trek Picard/Strange New Worlds/Lower Decks/Enterprise/Voyager/Deep Space Nine/Discovery and The Next Generation are all owned by Paramount Pictures/CBS and distributed by CBS.
Star Trek Beyond is distributed by Paramount Pictures.
This Video is for critical purposes with commentary.

[CertifiablyIngame]

Trekyards video on the Freedom Class with interview with Sean Hargreaves:

[darkwulf]

I love this ship class, along with the NX-refit model. The Freedom-class makes me think of a pre-federation Defiant, being a tiny tough as nails little ship that won't quit.

[JohnDoe-gzs]

Just wanted to throw this out there, your videos are great 10-20 minute breaks from life.

[Tommy_The_Gun]

Franklin is one of my favourite start trek ships (definitely top 3, with The Raven and Runabouts). Seriously, it should be a hero ship. Small ships like this give a great opportunity for a show in which we can see the entire crew of the ship (Rocinante from Expanse or Serenity from Firefly for example). Also, the design is very well thought out. Small, compact and yet very practical & flexible.

[maybetoby]

This ship was my favorite aspect of the movie.

[whyjnot]

A tiny addition: As stated the ship USS Franklin was named after Frank Lin. Due to this, you can actually see a slightly larger space between the K and L in FRANKLIN on the plaque shown in the film, than is used in the rest of the spacing between letters of the same word.

Personally I always thought this was a great little detail.

[KnightsWithoutATable]

I really like the look of this ship. It has good lines while also having that chunkiness that an older design should have.

[TheGameGetterKuzuri]

I love this little ship! Right up there with the Daedalus and intrepid for me. I love the fill-in vessels for the unknown eras in Star Trek.

[Timeward]

you summed up the excelsior beautifully. It does the job, and it refuses to stop. Out of all experimental and innovative ships starfleet ever made, the excelsior class is one of THE most reliable designs they ever made.

[daviddyster]

I hope we see a Freedom Class in the Starfleet Museum in a show some day.

[icosaphilia]

Perhaps the warp systems upgrades were prioritised to the ships with the least advanced systems first, assisting b oth in propulsion and increased energy budget for upgrading their tactical systems. This class may simply have been deemed to be good enough as is or at the end of the queue and never reached.

[TobyDeshane]

'Beyond' did so much right; shame they cut the film franchise off just as it was finding itself. Even if that fourth film ever materializes, I doubt it'll capture that same special something this film found.

[jadynduropan]

I hope we get an episode or two on the prime timeline's version of Star Trek Beyond. Maybe a SNW special or something like that.

[jokerz]

I always thought there was a possibility it was developed after the NX Class.

Basically Starfleet's version of a Liberty Ship during the Romulan War. Something easier to build and could be mass produced vs the more labor consuming builds of the NX Class. But it couldn't handle the Warp 5 engine so it had its own Warp 4 which made it faster than most Starfleet Ships.

[neto]

Ive been waiting for your breakdown of the freedom class forever, thank you so much!!!

[RamielNagisa]

I like the little Franklin. Part of that is it’s just a great little ship, part of it is that it’s much easier to build in Space Engineers and use as a personal ship to hop around and explore.

[golgarisoul]

And here I was expecting the ship that showed up in the Lower Decks s4 finale to get a vid next time you uploaded. I am pleasantly surprised! Loved seeing this ship in Beyond and good vid.

[originaluddite]

My favourite ship from the alternate movies. On the other hand, that space base from Beyond is ridiculous.

One thing I was noticing with the curved negative space behind the saucer is that, if it was permanently crash-landed, that would form a rather nice amphitheater for the survivors or their descendants, in a kinder story they then experienced.

[Mr.Adkins]

I could see all the other classes being created while the warp 5 core was being developed and each class was improved from advancements that were discovered while trying to achieve warp 5 and the freedom class had a warp 4 core design that was smaller but wasn't able to get past warp 4 and the space was made too small for further upgrades.

[CrazyNights]

A rugged and tough little ship. Would love to see a series about the formation of the federation with classes like these flying around.