Why is the K'Tinga Class Different from a D7?

The Klingon Defense Force has had several ships in its service since its creation in the 23rd century. Starfleet vessels were a match for these battlecruisers and the D7 design translated into the K'Tinga class. These even made it into the Dominion War.

Chapters
00:00 Real Origins
01:28 Klingon Design
03:02 Origins
04:14 Specifications
06:09 Later Service

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This Video is for critical purposes with commentary.

Outro Animation made by @icarogabriel17

[Shinyspddmn]

The Klingons are the definition of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"

[Derek-mgle]

An entire video series breaking down how the Klingon empire handles not just exploration, but engineering, medical, etc. would be interesting.

[Ozraptor]

The Klingons loved the K'T'inga so much that they were using them back in 2151, well over a century before they entered production (STE 1x05)

[MAZE]

It's crazy to think about, but the tech transfer between the Klingon and Romulans only happened because someone dropped, and severely damaged the Romulan bird of prey model, so they had to say Romulans now using Klingon design.

[WUZLE]

The K'tinga is intuitively the upgrade for the D-7 just as the Constitution refit was the upgrade for Connies. And obviously the reason the poor Klingons got stuck with old designs was that new ship models were crazy expensive to make. That's why we were saddled with the "Klingon" BoP for twenty years as the only Klingon ship we usually saw.

[therizinosaurus]

They could have just saved a confusion by just saying the D-7 was the Federation designation while K'tinga was the Klingon name. Why would the klingons us Earth letters and numbers making the name of a class of vessel

[thebearonhighwayone]

I love the K'Tinga. Every since my mom bought me the model in 1991 for Christmas. I just fell in love with it. So classic.

[АлександрКостин-фв]

Ah, the Klingon's Excelsior, first saw it on the DS9 and while at first it didn't really strike me as impressive, but I did grow to love it, just like Excelsior.

[dynamojoeful]

I recall something (possibly from an DS9 episode) about late K'tinga class ships often had the most successful Klingon captains assigned to them, it was like a special honour to recognise their performance and experience, so into the TNG/DS9 era if encountering a K'tinga then should be even more wary as it would likely have a formidable crew.

[casbot]

The Klingons apparently have one bonus when it comes to exploration - they often send out more than _one ship by itself._
If the Enterprise had had two other Starfleet ships with it in formation throughout its journeys, it would have had a much easier time of it.

The Klingons have also sent out D-7/Katinga/Vor'cha's with a smaller Bird of Prey or two as escort and screening vessels.

Starfleet doesn't need to send 3 Constitutions or Excelsiors or Galaxys, together etc.
They should, however, have a few smaller specialised ships accompanying every ship of the line.
[About the size niche of the Saber class, a 40ish crew ship, able to keep up with the Ship of the Line. Being landing capable would be a nice bonus as well]

Not only for potential combat situations, but just to help out whenever a weird space phenomenon of the week cripples or traps the main ship.

[jeffgaboury]

Interestingly, the term "K'Tinga" dates to the Star Trek - TMP novelization, where they are described as "nearly" as powerful as the refitted Enterprise.
It's so awesome that the amazing Matt Jeffries design for the original series lived on for so long afterwards. Great video again, as always. I'm always excited to see a new video up.

[t.o.]

I do appreciate how you appreciate "rule of cool" flourishes like the bird markings on this and romulan craft

[MadBeausuff]

To me, this ship, K'Tinga, D7, whatever, was the ultimate battleship. I just looked awesome.

[protogenxl]

The Melodic Horn introduced with the K't'inga-class would later be installed on all Klingon spacecraft.

[nightrunnerxm]

Gotta love the sheer irony of a warrior society that loves a good fight and expanded it's empire through warfare and conquest calling it's military a "defense force."

[stevieturner]

Thank you Rick.
My Dad bought me a hot wheels one of these when I really little.

Thank you again for another informative video.

[LordTalax]

I like the artwork on the forward torpedo launcher.

[Fransens]

Jesus fuckin' CHRIST!
How *DO* you make these ingame models look so good?!
I swear, some of your camera flyby shots of the K'Tinga are downright nerdgasm levels of eye-candy!
I mean look at this! 01:37

[daltonyoung]

I would be very interested in the variations of Klingon exploration in compared to Starfleet’s

[Marinealver]

I always thought of the D7 to be just the Federation Designation for Klingon warships, much like how NATO gave their own designations to Soviet ship classes.