Starfleet Design of 2402

Starfleet in the 25th century has a variety of different starship designs ranging in origins. From the Sovereign classes still in use, to the reinvention of classic Star Trek ships like the Constitution Mark 3, the fleet is the most varied one we have seen yet.

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.
This Video is for critical purposes with commentary.

[jlewis]

Rick: "My favorite ship design is the Excelsior!"
Me: YAY!
Rick: "Which was designed before I was born."
Me: ...you didn't need to call me out like that.

[eDDyL]

What annoys me about STO is that you make a TOS character and you get hyped to Roam around that era and relive those classic moments till your shop explodes and you get transported to the future

[amazedsatsuma]

I would argue that most 6th generations having a brighter hulls has a similar reason you gave to nostalgia ships existing...to send the message of "happy days are here again" for the Federation following the Dominion War

[ColeHalford]

I see a connection with older vehicles and the old Starships. Old cars can be more modified easier just like old ships, while new cars cannot be modified easily. Definitely love the looks of older Starships.

[keit]

Anyone else finding the listing from 10:35 onwards hilarious "one-legged galaxy three legged galaxy flat galaxy flat galaxy balancing a saucer etc) 😂

[maybetoby]

I love the white and black color scheme of STO ships.

[TheDeadlyKind]

Head Cannon time: after the destruction of Utopia Planetia, Starfleet HEAVILY invested in decentralizing the bulk of their ship building out side the Sol system, even encouraging further iterations on design from member worlds, thus you get a wider breadth of designs. I already have head canon that says that some of the wonkier kit bashes are Telleraties, Andorians and other core member worlds doing their thang with designs and technology. Also not having all your important stuff in one solar system makes way more sense, doesn't it? Like I'd stop making Earth the capital of the UFP, its always targeted.

[wrorchestra]

Starfleet lost so many ships during the Dominion War, it makes sense that when they began to rebuild, they would create new designed ships with technology and advances developed during that conflict fully integrated into them.

[stormycatmink]

One thing I've been thinking a lot about in general is what happens when a military can build and design ships so well, the outward shape becomes a matter of whim and desire more than form following function, as drives most real world examples (at least to some degree). But when you get so good at the engineering that the outward design and shape has no bearing on the functional capability, it begins to open the door to the idea that you could design ships purely for nostalgic reasons, for example. It means the driving force behind the look and feel of a fleet is no longer based entirely on the engineering limitations or just optimizations of the time.

For example, our rockets all look roughly the same (long tall cylinders with pointy noses) because that is the most efficient way to build them, and we're so tightly limited on power to weight and fuel ratios, that we can't afford any deviation from the most optimal shape, to address any other needs (such as aesthetics or even other functional considerations, like gliding for landings. The Space Shuttles were fairly big exceptions to this, with so much effort put into making that shape work regardless of the cost it incurred). Likewise large ships are all long and narrow, and low to the water because to make a boat that's a tall spire or a pancake runs into engineering challenges.

But, what if those engineering challenges didn't exist, and your vehicles could be whatever shape you want? What drives the design style now? Do you make ships to look like older generations to foster a sense of pride in past accomplishments? Do you fashion them after predatory birds to identify with your race, as the Romulans do? It's an interesting thought. I would expect even more diversity than what we're seeing with the Federation of the 2400s.

[Kreachie]

I believe that the Picard era designs and STO White & Blues were designed at the same time but for different reasons.

I think the White & Blues, or 6th Generation designs were designed mainly for Slipstrean travel and long-distance exploration as most had multiple deflectors, while the Evolutions were designed for local or “just beyond” Federation Space, they’re Likely slipstream equipped aswell but their drives probably aren’t as advanced as the 6th generation ones and can only probably do hops between a few dozen lightyears while the 6th Gen can hop between hundreds, if not Thousands before needing to rest.

I believe that them both being together is the result of two different design philosophies their design teams had, The 6th Gen I believe is based on Decommissioned Hulls with vastly upgraded and the most Advanced state-of-the-art tech bolted on, while the Evolutions are based on New designs but using the older 5th gen tech. In Picard, While the Odyssey looks it? It’s actually a 5th Gen ship, or more accurately an “Evolution”, not a 6th Gen design, although the design did pioneer some systems that would be used in the next generation, in its onscreen form it looks antiquated compared to ships like the Sutherland and Gagarin.

[elevatorcait]

personally I really like the design language of the sto ships with the white and black look. There are lots of interesting ways you could explain how they got there in universe but ultimately to me it's a creative evolution of starfleet design language

[IN-tmmw]

I've always seen 6th Gen designs as a better integration of slipstream technology being distributed fleetwide. I got annoyed that in cannon the Federation is still limited by the warp barrier, despite the fact that they gathered so many new tech to surpass it and possibly explore beyond the galactic barrier.

[daveczaro]

I've liked the notion that they would have 4 distinct types of ships in the evolving eras that defined their purpose: the wide saucer long range support / engineering / explorer (galaxy/nebula -> ross), the science specific ones (oberth -> pasteur -> nova) with shapes designed to fit the specific task, the elongated bow ships for combat and command (sovereign, odyssey), and the multimission cruiser (constitution, excelsior, obena, luna, akira) as a classic nod. Throw in a weird unique mission specific trend-bucker like the Defiant, Dauntless, or the Typhon and that kinda sums up Starfleet design doctrine. That said, these guys have to eventually make Starfleet evolve into the Universe Class style ships. Who knows?

[JDSleeper]

I really love this era of Starfleet ships. And I also love how they've included so many ships from STO into canon now. I have a 3D model of the Reliant class, the USS McFly NCC-1985.

[berthulf]

I think you're right on the money with this breakdown, though I'd name them:
reliable / refined / r&d / renaissance.

[TheCaptainJA]

Absolutely awesome, Rick! This is the most perfect way to put 25th century starships and StarFleet design into proper perspective! Excellent job!

[a-blivvy-yus]

I really love a variety of Star Trek ship designs (not even just Federation ships) throughout the generations of the shows/movies/games/etc. and new takes on old designs are always something I'll welcome seeing more of.

[hawkstringfellow]

Galaxy and sovereign classes are my favorite ship designs i have the ds9 technical manual and the enterprise D technical manual great detail

[markmarano]

I'd love to hear your take on some of the weirder original STO designs!

[alanmcmillian]

Some of the 6th Gen stuff could be classified as Legacy ships: The Reliant and Sutherland classes were STO reskins of famous ships from the Miranda and Nebula lines.