The Galaxy Class is a perfect diplomatic vessel. It serves as a representation of the Federation. It's a ship that says "this is who we are. Explorers. Researches. Engineers. Families. And also armed to the teeth."
I love the idea of Starfleet finishing up the Galaxy Class and then going, "Crap, this thing is an absolutely OP destructive beast. How do we keep the entire galaxy from seeing it as an unofficial act of war?" "Ummmmm, kindergartens, violin concertos, and a bar and grill?"
Welp I assume that them adding a large civilian population made most people think “there heavily armed to protect them” The cardasisns will believe that because of their family first culture. Klingons will accept it due to protecting your clan. And romulans well they had there own military variant so they didn’t much cared. The ferangi would have seen this as a large mobile trade colony and as such would say “good idea protecting the trade assets”
My head cannon is that the Glaxy class war re-fits would have been total combat monsters. They had tons of room for extra shield generators, auxiliary power generators, extra phaser banks, Redundant EPS conduit runs, extra torpedo launchers and all the space needed for ammunition. Hell they could have fit extra thrusters for manoeuvrability, extra structural field emitters and ablative armour with the mass saved from not having swimming pools and Anbo-jyutsu rings.
Given the Galaxy-X design of All Good Things I think it's clear all those sleek First Contact ships can still learn a thing or two from the Galaxy class. Quantity is a quality all its own after all.
The idea of these being mobile starbases is true. They had the facilities and in a pinch could easily make more sick bays and living quarters for say troop movements. Once the war was over I could see them becoming ships for a whole sector with it's own admiral coordinating on board. The whole idea of families on the ship makes some sense in a time of peace. They had to rethink that once the Borg were made known of
In canon, the Galaxy X refit still didn't use all the space, it was a rush job that still had a of its Saucer volume not utilised. What would have been terrifying is if it was fitted with a bunch of extra torpedo launchers and the extra space just racks and racks of thousands of photon torpedoes in magazines. It could just rain massive salvos of torpedoes - a few dozen photons hitting a single capital ship could take care of it.
The Hotel in space approach to the Galaxy class was almost genius in terms of narrative design considering how a large portion of Next Generation's stories were more character focused and even had Slice of Life elements. It feels like being home whenever I watch an episode of Next Gen, and the aesthetic of the ship sets mirror that perfectly
It's also a great way to keep your crew on really long missions from going insane. When you read about long voyages or deployments in RL, boredom, getting sick of your co-workers, mental health issues, morale, and chronic loneliness frequently come up. I can speak from experience that even just having quarters of your own does wonders on morale and sanity. Cracking down on discipline only goes so far until you've got a mutiny on hand.
As much flak as I know the Galaxy-Class gets for being a "Hotel in Space", I think it works! The Galaxy Class doesn't strike me as the ship you'd send out to engage the Borg with, nor does it strike me as the type to undergo scouting missions, or even scientific ones. The Galaxy Class gives me the vibe of... well, an ambassador ship. It's a diplomatic envoy, the ship you send out to make First Contact, or convince foreign dignitaries of how wonderful life in the UFP is. It's a cruise ship, but with less focus on entertainment and more focus on political relations. HOWEVER, in emergency times of war, when "omg we need as many ships for the War!" is a priority, then it makes sense to retrofit these ships to become command or logistical ships. Hell, maybe even refit them for emergency cargo transport! That's something that happened IRL during WW1 - passenger liners like the Lusitania were retrofit to become merchant cruisers. The Lusitania was sunk because the German U-boat thought it was one of these merchant haulers, when in reality it was serving as a passenger cruise liner.
You know the older I get the more I appreciate the design of the galaxy class, as a kid I thought it looked really silly, but it's grown on me so much.
same for me as a kid i thought it looks stupid. also the uniforms in S1 of TNG. but - after a few years - oh boy i douldn't tell how much she had growing on me, especially now where i'm 43. this is a star ship of the mighty galaxy class, this is the USS Enterprise NCC1701D, this is a ship where, when ever it appeared on the screen, you feel you coming home. due to her abillities and her technology but also due to her captain and her crew, this ship was (and still remain today as) a shining beacon of hope in the darkness of space. "let's make sure history never forgets the name .... ENTERPRISE!"
Some other little known facts: The main bridge has its own Shield Emitter, a fusion power generator, its own Subspace communications, and its own life support systems. It was also designed to act as a lifepod for the command crew on the bridge in case of an emergency. It could jettison from the main ship and could connect up with other life pods in a lattice to be a central nexus that supplies power and life support for the other pods. They had planned for this for a few episodes but budget issues stopped them from doing it on the show. This also explains why it appears to only take days to redesign the bridge in between some episodes, its because they don't, they simple remove the bridge unit and put a new one in.
@@mem1701movies one cool thing that I recently learned was from the set, each station had power and control connection behind them so the set crew could hot swap them as needed between episodes and even durning a few episodes being filmed. Looking at the viewscreen the wall to the right had 3 slots behind the wall panel and to the left that wall had 2. This kinda works for in universe as well as a great design that would allow new stations to be added mid mission.
As a commanding officer, you knew that you had arrived when offered command of a Galaxy. In the eyes of Starfleet, you were going places. Basically a Starfleet cruise ship that has all of the space and amenities one could possibly need. Plus your family can tag along too so that they could also understand just exactly how tense you felt as you rode into battle. I always liked how despite being dimensionally similar in saucer volume, the Nebulas appeared much more spartan than the galaxies did. In the same manner as buying an entry spec car and noticing that your dashboard doesn’t have as many switches and a smaller screen than if you’d ticked the options boxes.
I had a fellow Trekkie coworker who had been a theater student. One acting teacher was Leah Brahms actress Susan Gibney. He found a set of Enterprise D “Blueprints” and had her sign them.
If you look at the blueprints of this class ship, you’ll quickly see that we know very little about the Galaxy class. One thing is that it carried dolphins to aid in space navigation which is something never explored or mentioned. There were also many more lounges than just 10 forward that sat along the rim of the saucer section. There were many areas that were simply vacant rooms designed to be turned into things as needed during its deep space missions. There was so much more to explore about the Enterprise-D, that I was surprised they simply abandoned it during TNG’s movie phase. By all rights, the Galaxy Class would still be the flagship class if all newer technologies were installed into it as time went on, because this class ship was deliberately designed to be upgraded as new things were invented.
If I could choose any starship to cruise the galaxy, I would choose the Galaxy in a heartbeat. It is literally designed with the idea that the passengers onboard may never get off the ship, so they brought all the comforts with them. My only stipulation would be for it to be kitted out with Post-Dominion War weapons systems.
And what happened to them at the Spanish Armada, so some serious strengths but weaknesses depending on the situation. Great historical analogy by the way.
The Sovereign was built for war, I like calling the Galaxy class the Federation's most heavily armed cruise ship 😆 But I do like the design of the Galaxy class more. It looks like the ultimate diplomatic starship. But if I had to take a canon ship into combat, it would be the Prometheus or the Sovereign.
My favourite class of starship in Trek. When a Galaxy Class comes over the horizon, you know you're safe. You know you're home. (So long as you're not in an episode of DS9!)
STO has a mission where you get to experience this. You are sent to investigate in a shuttle a Romulan science installation, that you discover has a Borg Sphere in it. Of course your shuttles presence is detected and you have to escape the installation, enemies chasing after you and when you get out in the installation, the cavalry is waiting in a form of Galaxy that makes short work of the enemy ships.
A neat idea for a star trek series could be a Voyager-esque show about the Civilians aboard a Galaxy Class attempting to reestablish contact with the federation after the Starfleet Crew is killed by some sort of phenomenon. It wouldn't even need to go anywhere: exploring the ship and learning how to repair it's systems and navigate it from aft to stern could be fascinating in itself.
Peak Federation. Sleek and powerful. A statement to the friends and foes a like. Like watching a superhero arriving at a disaster and you just know, that everything is going to be ok.
The Galaxy Class is like a battleship heavy equipped with Luxury liner rooms, bars and many other things, it is also built like a mini airport in its aft section, especially witnessing the main shuttle bay in that virtual tour of the Enterprise D.
My head canon is that the loss of their status as the top-of-the-line ship of the Federation to ships like Sovereign-class has been a boon for the Galaxy-class after the Dominion war. Free from the curse of being the flagships, the ship is now free to embark on what the original designer has envisioned : a long-range exploratory vessel that can operate independently in uncharted territory for years. The new post-war batches of Galaxy-class, unofficially designated by some as "Galaxy-II" to denote upgrade derive from advancement on ships like Sovereign-class, form the core of the revitalized exploratory branch of Starfleet, which were massively curtailed following the Wolf-359 disaster and the following Dominion war, and launch the Federation into a new golden age of exploration.
Its an elegant sculpture of a ship. There was a design linage that culminated with the galaxy class and then oddly abruptly changed sadly. I miss Andy Proberts work on Star Trek.
Also the Sovereign wasn't a direct successor to that lineage. The Sovereign is the Excelsior's direct offspring. A younger cousin if you will. What do you think of the Ross class?
@@benn454 I think it's more design aesthetic from individual minds on the show rather than a deliberate in-universe reaction from the Federation, sadly.
During The Dominion War, It Was Used As A Carrier, Home To Wings Of Peregrine-Class Attack Fighters. They Added Pilot Birthing, Maintenance Shops, Briefing Rooms, And Armories For Fighter Weapons In Place Of Some Of The Civilian Facilities They Removed
I've still always had the notion that the idea of the Galaxy-class ship was to start making the Federation a truly spacefaring civilization, and the armaments and other capabilities were there *because* it's basically taking a college town to space and it darn well better be protected from various known and unknown potential threats. Being a good battlewagon without all the 'town' stuff just came in handy. :)
I would have loved a scene filmed on location on the street at some outdoor cafe with townhouses or whatever around, where some random episode dialogue happens...and you pan out and you realize you are still in the ship and all that is contained in some multideck structure as an indoor recreation area.
@Tin Watchman while possible, it's most likely easier to build ships specifically designed for combat than trying to make a current ship fit that roll.
Same here, the standard saucer section is a massive target, drop that and you lose 2 phasers and a torpedo launcher that can't get used when joined anyway. A small saucer section, I would say a little larger than the separation plane itself, with auxiliary reactors and a nebula style weapons pod mounted on top would reduce the overall profile and give the ship a load more torpedoes and launchers to fight with. A skeletalised saucer could be set up as a fighter carrier for mass attacks, maybe even carrying a bunch of small ships like the Defiant instead. A broadside torpedo boat, have a load of nebula weapons pods on a spinal mount, stick them on gimbals so they can rotate to point port or starboard and you have a small head on profile that can run almost straight at an enemy formation to unload a few dozen torpedoes as it passes. The spine can also have a phaser lance if you really want to go nuts. The possibilities are as varied as you can imagine, but starfleet are on the back foot and not exactly used to war.
More likely, they would have just modified the saucer so that it could house a division of MACOS or Space Marines or whatever ground combat forces the Federation used. Imagine trying to fight 10,000 or so space Marines after they were beamed into your capital city. Between the oversized shuttle bays to carry fighters and landing attack craft if needed, and the large cargo transports that could put down a tank, this ship would make an excellent mobile Army or Marine base. With the added bonus that few local defense force ships could deal with it being in orbit.
Im always torn on my "favorite" star trek ship, while I think the sovereign is beautiful and sleek, the Galaxy is the one i grew up watching, and i think I will always have a HUGE soft spot for her. Im hoping to see more Galaxy class models done in Picard S3, in some way or another, as showing that ship with modern CG make it look amazing.
Ah yes, the infamous warp capable hotel in space! Glad you mentioned the design's temperamental warp core that made this flagship a glass cannon in TNG and according to its writers, the easiest way to apply tension to the plot! 😆
The Galaxy Class' deflector shield systems were so much more advanced than previous designs that it was probably assumed there was no real need to make its internal systems more robust. Part of that little arrogance problem Q alluded to.
@@Lennis01 that would make sense, but i think you are giving the writers too much credit. Just like the chief of security having his behind handed to him on almost every occasion, it's probably just another overused plot device 😒
The biggest thing that always bothered me about the Galaxy class was, as mentioned, the lack of warp capability of the saucer on separation. If the idea is to drop the saucer before going into an overly dangerous situation - and Starfleet had the impression that this would happen a lot more often than it did - it feels an oversight (to me) that they wouldn't stick a smaller core in there. Just enough to give the saucer warp one to gtfo if needed. We see with the Nova class that a ten to twenty deck core isn't really needed...though maybe its a mass relation thing, idk. But yeah, giving the saucer at least a /little/ warp, as a treat :) , would not have gone amiss.
I was always perplexed why the Galaxy class in the Dominion War was running around with the saucer attached. Why weren’t they just deploying the star drive sections and saving the saucer resources to produce more star drive units?
Because the tactical doctrine for Galaxy class ships shifted from the original 'fast line ship' stardrive section to using the whole ship as a fleet command vessel/ artillery ship. Most of the comms equipment and sensor suites were in the saucer, as is the biggest phaser array. By not including saucer separation and all the internal civilian spaces they could also cut down on build time and stuff the bulkheads where labs and lounges should have been with extra armour, ammunition. Shield generators and more.
Some more lore; The Galaxy class was the first starship series in the federation to use isolinear chips of all sorts for it's warp core processes, enabling it to reach and hold high warp speeds.
This ship IS the perfect ship for a TV series. Because of its civilian aspects, you can think of the people serving on the ship akin to modern military families that have their families living on-base... and it would cause the captain to be FAR MORE diplomatic than he should be because every battle is likely to kill civilians via ship damage.
This is still my favorite enterprise. This is the one I grew up on. Its still so beautiful to me. Just a small city with defensive capabilities flying through space LOL. Just a gorgeous ship.
Just a beautiful design. I grew up with it, so naturally I'm a fan, but I always felt that, by accident mind you, Paramount or who ever designed this, made a true piece of art. And also rather fitting that it presents the Federation at the height of their hubris. Anyway, have a like and see you next time
The idea of family's being on board always suggested to me that the original belief behind Galaxy class starships were extra long deep space missions, between 10 to 15 years outside of Federation space. Perhaps that was Starfleet's eventual goal for the class, that was until their first encounters with the Borg, and later the Dominion.
the "uprated" Galaxy Class of the Dominion War had a faster warp drive (9.9) additional phaser arrays and two additional torpedo tubes. it's also likely they more fully utilised the saucer section fusion generators and impulse engines the uprated Galaxy Class was certainly increased capability.
This is an excellent overview of this ship class! I think knowing how big this ship really was sets a bizarre feeling seeing tng episodes because I never quite felt it's scale as I assume the show's creators really wanted to convey, but small ish tv show budgets only allow so much, and they did a fantastic job with what they had. Great video!
This ship and the Romulan Warbird ... I still remember thinking that they will merged together with the saucer section went inside the Warbird massive gap to create a super ship. And together they'll fight the enemy. Years later, I see that there are several others who thinks the same. I saw a fan art strip comic where the two ships merge in a Megazord-esque transformation style 😅
@ 10:49 if memory serves there is actually a 3rd photo torpedo launcher that was in the saucer section, but would only be clear for firing after a saucer separation. (edited for spelling mistake)
If this were the real world but with all the same technology, we'd have ditched all the windows and gutted the entire interior living space in favor of a massive holodeck. Then simulate a general holographic command and living center that mimics a virtual adjunct to Starfleet headquarters. All ships would just be an extension of the Earth base and would allow a separation of ship assignment from the reality of the inside of the ship. Essentially, you would be living on Earth but would be able to visit a "building" that was the bridge, or the shuttle bay. Mobile emitters would allow crew members to participate in landing party expeditions if they were on another ship or on Earth physically. Every crew member would have their own bubble of holodeck space and everything (including other crew members) would be simulated from inputs from the other crew members' bubbles. Meaning no more passing of transmittable disease, and even a central location for bridge functions. Since the subsystems would manage where you physically were in the holodeck layout, you could always have the crew close to wherever the subsystem would think you need to visit (shuttle bay, engineering, etc.) Wherever you go, there you are, so to speak. Let the ship manage crew relocation ultra fast via either transporters or using holodeck forcefield tech. Could move the people around pretty quickly without them even knowing. Good for fast evacuation or separations. Even the escape pods could have holo-emitters so in the event of an emergency, they would still be able to perform their normal duties until contact was lost with the ship. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't mind doing my work on my back deck in the sunshine on an actual planet in a house. 🙂Why sit in a box (crew quarters) or fight over limited holodecks? (Since everyone is in a holodeck, they would all have the option at all times to visit a holodeck whenever they wanted to). It would technically allow for long duration missions to become permanent ones as social interactions and where you live would be entirely software defined. Getting relocated for relationships would not effect your duties. Just where your physical body would be.
Video just about Warp Drive on Galaxy would be wondrous, if we could understand how it works with Manual also, including "where comes warp plasma if annihilation gives radiation? - from PDT that did not annihilated?" and entire Start Up, Warp Factors and energies for each, cooling and shielding working Orchestry would be fair and awesome. Currently I am learning that from the Manual and Krauss Star Trek physics to get it well ;)
I don't know if anyone else's commented on this but I'm hammering the nail home during the domain War the Galaxy class starship was serving as a Frontline battleship but before that it was about my eyes anyway
What I always thought was take advantage of the modular nature of the detachable saucer section. Have a saucer that was effectively a battlestation or weapons platform - nothing else, no crew except for maintenance access, minimal life support (or uses drive sections life support) ect. It's fitted to a Galaxy's secondary hull when needed, swapping out the 'nice' friendly peacetime hull, and relying on the battle bridge, warp core and shields (although it may have extra shielding and armour, along with fusion reactors or even another warp core) ect of the drive section. And then it just rains down massive long range barrages of photons at range, sort of like a souped up version of the homewold missile destroyer. Imagine a fleet manoeuvre where as an opening salvo hundreds of photons rain down on the enemy fleet as they approach for engagement. And while fitting it with an arsenal of phasers is tempting and useful, it's still just one ship with one set of shields and can be destroyed as such, if you can withstand the fire. At close range it would be priority target number one of the enemy fleet, and it needs the power for all the extra phasers (secondary reactors?). Still some more phasers would be handy for missile defense and eliminating fighters and corvettes, say double the number of phasers wouldn't tax the systems too much. Using it as a missile truck/artillery barrage is a better use of it's abilities. The saucer could hold thousands of photon torpedoes (not quantum torpedoes, they are 'expensive' and in limited supply, and space is not an issue) and dozens of launchers for simultaneous launch of large salvos. Plus the massive computer systems of the Galaxy could handle the processing of all that targeting information. It could have similar firepower to DS9 (which had 5000 photon torpedoes), but in a mobile package. It could also be disguised to look like a regular saucer section to sensors, with dampening fields hiding the arsenal if the extra expense was warranted in peacetime. If expecting trouble (say going to Romulan space on a piece of unconfirmed intelligence) it could be swapped into the drive section and potential adversaries would never know what they were facing. Or just keep them in reserve in Federation facilities without the extra build requirements of *Q-ship systems in case of a hot war. Also since they are just a standard hull design without a warp core, navigation, sensors or other complicated components they are easy to build. Since the same saucer is used for the Nebula class saucer Starfleet obviously has mass production for it. *Q-ships were used in WW2, it was a freighter turned into a gunboat with hidden rapid fire cannons behind panels ect. It was designed to sucker submarines into surfacing to use their deck guns to destroy lone unarmed ships instead of wasting expensive, limited torpedoes. As soon as the sub surfaced and before the deck gun could be manned the panels fell away and the sub was sunk before they could react.
For such a big powerful ship class it sure couldn't take much of a punch to start with. I'm sure the Borg threat and Dominion War changed that in later ship builds but the early Galaxy class ships had a glass jaw imo. Don't get me wrong i loved the Enterprise D but it all ways seemed to me it and its sisters ships were more of a fancy luxury liner then any thing else.
The Odyssey was a pre-war Galaxy and seemed to take many hits without shields before they were destroyed by a suicide run. The destruction of the Enterprise-D is down to infiltration by the Duras and some poor command choices by Riker, not a fault of the Galaxy frame itself.
For decades now, I've rated the Federation Galaxy Class starship as literally the most beautiful man-made object ever designed for the purpose of causing human beings to change location in all of fiction. And no design shown since then has even begun to rival the masterpiece. I would like to have one, with a phased cloak so that I can casually park it inside of the moon to evade any reasonable concern of 21st century mankind catching wise through direct observation of near-Earth space. And then with that out of the way I'd have to figure out how to marshal such an instrument to covertly (and hopefully constructively) ease worldwide poverty because that's muh prime directive. Gazing at the stars and sipping exotic drinks in the holodeck or transporting to vacation anywhere I'd like would probably also happen but only during off-hours. :S
Great, very informative video about my absolute favorite ship in Star Trek. Thanks a lot, Rick! Just one thing: You refer to the D's bulk bringing down its top speed. Maybe within an atmosphere, somewhere. But, space is big and empty, so...
Lots of channels make much ado about the Galaxy's short comings. The trek stories needed to introduce weaknesses necessary for drama, but it was the "best ship yet" for its era. It was a step forward.
One little detail you got slightly wrong, in the Star Trek the Next Generation Technical Manual, written by Rick Sternbach and Michael Okuda, it was revealed that the galaxy class ship had 3 photon torpedo launchers, though we never saw the third in the show. The third launcher was mounted in the Saucer section, but could only be used when the Star Drive section was separated. Once separation was complete, the launcher would drop from it's stored location, into the main turbo shaft connecting the Main Bridge with the Battle Bridge, facing aft, and could fire torpedoes aft of the Saucer. I suppose the theory being to discourage hostiles from chasing the Saucer as it attempted to evade whatever hostile might have caused the need to separate in the first place.
I've long been intrigued by the idea of multiple variant saucers being the best way of refitting the class. In particular, mini starbase and carrier saucers could be interesting tools in Starfleet's chest.
I like the thought process that the galaxy class of the dominion war were seen as a variant class in their own right as the galaxy titan class because they were set up with all weapons and shield systems built out to their best combat abilities and because if the extra unused volume when civilian were not installed, they carried large numbers of ground troops fighters and acted as command ships
Loving your videos Rick! Been watching through them again, I love the detailed information you give. I’m debating what my favourite ship is, for a long while it was the Intrepid class but after watching your videos again there are couple of new contenders for my top spot, the Galaxy class and Steamrunner class…..sorry Rick no Excelsior class in my top picks 😂
+3:58 What are those blue bits behind the Transporter emitters - to the immediate sides of the main Shuttlebay hatch ? I've never noticed them let alone lit up like that before. ( I don't mean the ones below the hatch)
I always loved that they had a Bolian barber on board. The irony of a bald alien species cutting hair is just so star trek to me. I wouldn't doubt it if Roddenberry himself mandated it from the beginning. I could just imagine imagine "oh, we're gonna have a barber shop on board and make the barber a bald blue alien."
I can imagine the Glaxy Class and the Texas Class (if done a bit smaller and less falty) could very well be very effective in constructing fully operational outposts. Just imagine the Sorcer secction being detached in order to land on a plannet as a fully operational base with additional structures being provided by the Texas class. Since the Galaxy Class has two bridges I would say if the one in the body would actually be the main tachtical bridge and the body being equipped with some propper defence mechanisms and put it on the helm of at least two Texas class ships with predetermined flight patters after being detached. The sorcer secction would have more of anti air weapponry and ground forces as well as the main medical and research ficilitys as well as housing. This would bring two things 1. A fully operational base with all the equipment and comodetys needed to house the reserchers for more long term projects and can ve retrived when the Mission is over to be used in other places 2.A planetary defence force squadron orbiting the planet as the first contact with attacking enemy forces. Even if they couldn't defeat them it would certainly buy enough time for the sorces secction on the ground hail for help and or get away.
Honestly that's brilliant. Having bespoke Function Spaces that the ship can just fill with furniture that can be replicated on demand, or specialized material and technologies that might be delivered as required?
The way it was described the Galaxy Class sounds like a combination of an Aircraft Carrier with a luxury liner as described by Captain DeSoto of the U.S.S. Hood from the Season 3 episode 'Tin Man' and a Battleship with how heavily armed these ships were armed with 14 type 10 phaser arrays and 2 photon torpedo launchers one forward and one aft and a high capacity shield grid with a warp core capable of generating 12.5 billion GigaWatts of power.
i can imagine a purpose built battleship version with ablative armor. the extra space used for troop transport, medical facilities and act as a carrier.
I would not be surprised if a Galaxy class refit for war was more powerful than a Sovereign. The Sovereign might be newer and built with more advanced technology in mind, but the Galaxy had more volume to work with and could have been more powerful if less efficient. So much available space for additional weapons, generators and armour.
If I remember my TNG technical manual correctly there was a third torpedo launcher in the saucer section somewhere near the rubber ducky room. Although I might me misremembering that. Excellent overview of the galaxy class, thank you 🖖🏽
I would have used a bunch of that extra space and added another warp core to the saucer. Put a whole bunch more weapons and such on both and you have one heck of a battle ship. Put everything on it from the all good things future with that extra warp core lol
The galaxy class ships, and the fleet in general, were really beefed up due to Wolf 359 and the Dominion war. Which, in my opinion, showed their full potential. And the "All good things" was what you could call a dreadnought.
Mm.. you are such a massive nerd... I love it. Oh a video several hours long on the Galaxy class alone. Sign me up! That's what weekends are for. Just saying. Keep up the excellent work!
I loved the Galaxy class. It was definitely an exploration ship even though it was armed to the teeth (how well that offensive capability was depended on the episode). I never understood why they'd send the saucer section into battle during the Dominion War. Seemed like building a ship 2/3 bigger for a few more phaser banks was a bit much.
Yeah I think it fell into some episodic writing traps regarding hyping drama where it seemed like its phasers could do nothing and it's warp core was actually suffering from some suicidal intent.
The saucer section was where most of that empty internal volume to presumably used to store torpedoes, and fighters spare parts, etc. They basically left out the civilian facilities and turned that into giant support depots not just for itself but the other ships that it was supporting as well (as mentioned during the dominion war they were used as mobile command battlecruisers and with that much available space they would also make great mobile resupply points for Akira and steamrunner class starships that were designed for war not long term deployment.)
I would just rotate them into the civilian operations of starfleet. Use them for core world travel and the like. Since they are outdated now after the dominion war etc.
@@braddl9442 With their massive size, being on the borders supporting exploration, science, and colony development is their only real use. Heck it's strange folks want to bury them in the Picard era of all times when we have a canon (at least in one universe) version of the Galaxy that does fine going up against the biggest threats of that era. Heck, they aren't even outdated IN the Dominion War, where we don't see a single Galaxy outside the Odyssey lost in the entire conflict.
I think a new version of a city ship could be fun for a new series. But with all civilian and non essentials on the saucer and ACTUALLY USE IT! "We are heading to the natural zone. Separate the saucer and leave the civilians here are the starbase"
I remember when TNG was released, I am not a boomer but the forgotten gen. I went with a friend to the local nerd shop, Forbidden Planet, because he wanted a shield if he didn't like the new Enterprise. When we got there it was hanging from the ceiling of the shop and he said "I like it" that's when I had to be his shield, surprisingly as he thought I would be needed if he said he hated it. Others there responded with "it's a space whale/expletive ugly/how expletive stupid are you to like it" and so on and so forth. So he raised shields and hid behind me and for my own sake so as not to get banned I will not say what I said to the geeks, notice the change in wording, by the way. It was not that popular amongst Trekkies when it was released, it took time for that to happen.
I always thought the galaxy class would be very intimidating to have over your city. That huge saucer. Or just intimidating in general. Looks so alien, like it could just mess you up. And it could
The Galaxy Class is a perfect diplomatic vessel. It serves as a representation of the Federation. It's a ship that says "this is who we are. Explorers. Researches. Engineers. Families. And also armed to the teeth."
It's like a giant dog, that can either be nice, or not nice. Your choice.
And when Barclay had a flu, it can turn the whole population, including the families into prehistoric monsters.
I love the idea of Starfleet finishing up the Galaxy Class and then going, "Crap, this thing is an absolutely OP destructive beast. How do we keep the entire galaxy from seeing it as an unofficial act of war?"
"Ummmmm, kindergartens, violin concertos, and a bar and grill?"
Welp I assume that them adding a large civilian population made most people think “there heavily armed to protect them”
The cardasisns will believe that because of their family first culture.
Klingons will accept it due to protecting your clan.
And romulans well they had there own military variant so they didn’t much cared. The ferangi would have seen this as a large mobile trade colony and as such would say “good idea protecting the trade assets”
Don't forget give it a warp core that wants to explode every time someone sneeze at it.
My head cannon is that the Glaxy class war re-fits would have been total combat monsters. They had tons of room for extra shield generators, auxiliary power generators, extra phaser banks, Redundant EPS conduit runs, extra torpedo launchers and all the space needed for ammunition. Hell they could have fit extra thrusters for manoeuvrability, extra structural field emitters and ablative armour with the mass saved from not having swimming pools and Anbo-jyutsu rings.
Given the Galaxy-X design of All Good Things I think it's clear all those sleek First Contact ships can still learn a thing or two from the Galaxy class. Quantity is a quality all its own after all.
The galaxy class ships were really beefed up during the Dominion war. Imo, their full potential was finally realized.
That is what happened. Semi finished hulls where filled with weapons and shields. They where used in wings to anchor battle lines or as line breakers.
The idea of these being mobile starbases is true. They had the facilities and in a pinch could easily make more sick bays and living quarters for say troop movements. Once the war was over I could see them becoming ships for a whole sector with it's own admiral coordinating on board. The whole idea of families on the ship makes some sense in a time of peace. They had to rethink that once the Borg were made known of
In canon, the Galaxy X refit still didn't use all the space, it was a rush job that still had a of its Saucer volume not utilised.
What would have been terrifying is if it was fitted with a bunch of extra torpedo launchers and the extra space just racks and racks of thousands of photon torpedoes in magazines.
It could just rain massive salvos of torpedoes - a few dozen photons hitting a single capital ship could take care of it.
The Hotel in space approach to the Galaxy class was almost genius in terms of narrative design considering how a large portion of Next Generation's stories were more character focused and even had Slice of Life elements.
It feels like being home whenever I watch an episode of Next Gen, and the aesthetic of the ship sets mirror that perfectly
It's also a great way to keep your crew on really long missions from going insane. When you read about long voyages or deployments in RL, boredom, getting sick of your co-workers, mental health issues, morale, and chronic loneliness frequently come up. I can speak from experience that even just having quarters of your own does wonders on morale and sanity. Cracking down on discipline only goes so far until you've got a mutiny on hand.
Ditto.
Exactly! This ship feels the most livable of all of them
As much flak as I know the Galaxy-Class gets for being a "Hotel in Space", I think it works!
The Galaxy Class doesn't strike me as the ship you'd send out to engage the Borg with, nor does it strike me as the type to undergo scouting missions, or even scientific ones. The Galaxy Class gives me the vibe of... well, an ambassador ship. It's a diplomatic envoy, the ship you send out to make First Contact, or convince foreign dignitaries of how wonderful life in the UFP is. It's a cruise ship, but with less focus on entertainment and more focus on political relations.
HOWEVER, in emergency times of war, when "omg we need as many ships for the War!" is a priority, then it makes sense to retrofit these ships to become command or logistical ships. Hell, maybe even refit them for emergency cargo transport! That's something that happened IRL during WW1 - passenger liners like the Lusitania were retrofit to become merchant cruisers. The Lusitania was sunk because the German U-boat thought it was one of these merchant haulers, when in reality it was serving as a passenger cruise liner.
I still think it looks like a rubber duck in space, though...
You know the older I get the more I appreciate the design of the galaxy class, as a kid I thought it looked really silly, but it's grown on me so much.
I had that same experience too😮
same for me
as a kid i thought it looks stupid. also the uniforms in S1 of TNG. but - after a few years - oh boy i douldn't tell how much she had growing on me, especially now where i'm 43.
this is a star ship of the mighty galaxy class, this is the USS Enterprise NCC1701D, this is a ship where, when ever it appeared on the screen, you feel you coming home. due to her abillities and her technology but also due to her captain and her crew, this ship was (and still remain today as) a shining beacon of hope in the darkness of space.
"let's make sure history never forgets the name ....
ENTERPRISE!"
I thought it was silly as well … now I love the design
Some other little known facts:
The main bridge has its own Shield Emitter, a fusion power generator, its own Subspace communications, and its own life support systems. It was also designed to act as a lifepod for the command crew on the bridge in case of an emergency. It could jettison from the main ship and could connect up with other life pods in a lattice to be a central nexus that supplies power and life support for the other pods. They had planned for this for a few episodes but budget issues stopped them from doing it on the show.
This also explains why it appears to only take days to redesign the bridge in between some episodes, its because they don't, they simple remove the bridge unit and put a new one in.
Too bad it couldn't protect the Yamato
@@AshuraH well the Yamato has a massive design flaw, luckily the same flaw didn't hit the Enterprise till much later. They called the flaw "Plot".
@@jacara1981 it was that alien probe not a design flaw
@@mem1701movies one cool thing that I recently learned was from the set, each station had power and control connection behind them so the set crew could hot swap them as needed between episodes and even durning a few episodes being filmed. Looking at the viewscreen the wall to the right had 3 slots behind the wall panel and to the left that wall had 2.
This kinda works for in universe as well as a great design that would allow new stations to be added mid mission.
@@AshuraHshots fired...
As a commanding officer, you knew that you had arrived when offered command of a Galaxy. In the eyes of Starfleet, you were going places.
Basically a Starfleet cruise ship that has all of the space and amenities one could possibly need. Plus your family can tag along too so that they could also understand just exactly how tense you felt as you rode into battle.
I always liked how despite being dimensionally similar in saucer volume, the Nebulas appeared much more spartan than the galaxies did. In the same manner as buying an entry spec car and noticing that your dashboard doesn’t have as many switches and a smaller screen than if you’d ticked the options boxes.
I had a fellow Trekkie coworker who had been a theater student. One acting teacher was Leah Brahms actress Susan Gibney. He found a set of Enterprise D “Blueprints” and had her sign them.
From the hand of the master.
thats awesome
Talk about something to frame on a wall.
Does he have the blueprints at home?
Doooope.
If you look at the blueprints of this class ship, you’ll quickly see that we know very little about the Galaxy class. One thing is that it carried dolphins to aid in space navigation which is something never explored or mentioned. There were also many more lounges than just 10 forward that sat along the rim of the saucer section. There were many areas that were simply vacant rooms designed to be turned into things as needed during its deep space missions. There was so much more to explore about the Enterprise-D, that I was surprised they simply abandoned it during TNG’s movie phase. By all rights, the Galaxy Class would still be the flagship class if all newer technologies were installed into it as time went on, because this class ship was deliberately designed to be upgraded as new things were invented.
I would love a tv series, probably not set in the star trek universe, where exploring a ship is the story.
Those details would only appeal to die hard fans. I doubt if casual Trek fans would want to go that deep into the lore.
I like the idea of the captain of a ship allowing civilians to use the empty space for morale purposes. 10 Forward and the like.
Well since Starfleet is big on how it's "not a military force" --- everything is for civilian use, technically
It's not the captain that decided that. The UFP decided to allow it.
The Galaxy class could hold the mother all of go-cart tracks in the spare 35% volume.
Did we ever really see unattended civilians in 10Forward though?
@@benjo_5 I disagree. Starfleet is still considered service. Just not a militaristic one.
If I could choose any starship to cruise the galaxy, I would choose the Galaxy in a heartbeat. It is literally designed with the idea that the passengers onboard may never get off the ship, so they brought all the comforts with them. My only stipulation would be for it to be kitted out with Post-Dominion War weapons systems.
The combination of combat, functionally and comfort makes me think of the old spanish galeons; which basically were renaissance castles at sea.
And what happened to them at the Spanish Armada, so some serious strengths but weaknesses depending on the situation. Great historical analogy by the way.
The most beautiful of the Enterprises - elegant design, superb engineering and went way before her time.
Respectfully I think the sovereign class is much better looking
The Sovereign was built for war, I like calling the Galaxy class the Federation's most heavily armed cruise ship 😆
But I do like the design of the Galaxy class more. It looks like the ultimate diplomatic starship. But if I had to take a canon ship into combat, it would be the Prometheus or the Sovereign.
The Galaxy is a Fencer, the Sovereign a Brawler
I know that's subjective, but i find the galaxy design ugly. Something about that flat squashed secondary hull just doesn't vibe with me.
Sovereign and odyssey have my joint as the most beautiful design of a enterprise
I LOVE the Galaxy class ship. It's the most beautiful starship in Trek.
My favourite class of starship in Trek. When a Galaxy Class comes over the horizon, you know you're safe. You know you're home.
(So long as you're not in an episode of DS9!)
Yeah, all those ships seen in DS9 had the explodiun upgraded hulls like the war canoe Uss Grissom.
Not surprising that one of the first ships in Sector 001 to greet Voyager was a Galaxy Class
@@RobertWilke😂😂😂
Except for the little issue where the whole thing blows up if you so much as sneeze on the port nacelle.
STO has a mission where you get to experience this. You are sent to investigate in a shuttle a Romulan science installation, that you discover has a Borg Sphere in it. Of course your shuttles presence is detected and you have to escape the installation, enemies chasing after you and when you get out in the installation, the cavalry is waiting in a form of Galaxy that makes short work of the enemy ships.
A neat idea for a star trek series could be a Voyager-esque show about the Civilians aboard a Galaxy Class attempting to reestablish contact with the federation after the Starfleet Crew is killed by some sort of phenomenon. It wouldn't even need to go anywhere: exploring the ship and learning how to repair it's systems and navigate it from aft to stern could be fascinating in itself.
Or even set it on the Enterprise J, which is just crazily huge. An designed to go to other galaxies.
Peak Federation.
Sleek and powerful. A statement to the friends and foes a like.
Like watching a superhero arriving at a disaster and you just know, that everything is going to be ok.
The Galaxy Class is like a battleship heavy equipped with Luxury liner rooms, bars and many other things, it is also built like a mini airport in its aft section, especially witnessing the main shuttle bay in that virtual tour of the Enterprise D.
My head canon is that the loss of their status as the top-of-the-line ship of the Federation to ships like Sovereign-class has been a boon for the Galaxy-class after the Dominion war. Free from the curse of being the flagships, the ship is now free to embark on what the original designer has envisioned : a long-range exploratory vessel that can operate independently in uncharted territory for years.
The new post-war batches of Galaxy-class, unofficially designated by some as "Galaxy-II" to denote upgrade derive from advancement on ships like Sovereign-class, form the core of the revitalized exploratory branch of Starfleet, which were massively curtailed following the Wolf-359 disaster and the following Dominion war, and launch the Federation into a new golden age of exploration.
Its an elegant sculpture of a ship. There was a design linage that culminated with the galaxy class and then oddly abruptly changed sadly. I miss Andy Proberts work on Star Trek.
Thank the Borg and the Dominion. Starfleet got a nasty wakeup call and decided to trim the fat so to speak with the Sovereign.
Also the Sovereign wasn't a direct successor to that lineage. The Sovereign is the Excelsior's direct offspring. A younger cousin if you will. What do you think of the Ross class?
@@benn454 I think it's more design aesthetic from individual minds on the show rather than a deliberate in-universe reaction from the Federation, sadly.
Do you realize how good you've become at making these?
I bought the published deckplans years ago when they came out. The Galaxy-class shuttle bay was so huge that it could’ve served as a fighter carrier.
The main hanger wasn't much smaller than a Defiant class. 😅
During The Dominion War, It Was Used As A Carrier, Home To Wings Of Peregrine-Class Attack Fighters. They Added Pilot Birthing, Maintenance Shops, Briefing Rooms, And Armories For Fighter Weapons In Place Of Some Of The Civilian Facilities They Removed
I've still always had the notion that the idea of the Galaxy-class ship was to start making the Federation a truly spacefaring civilization, and the armaments and other capabilities were there *because* it's basically taking a college town to space and it darn well better be protected from various known and unknown potential threats. Being a good battlewagon without all the 'town' stuff just came in handy. :)
I would have loved a scene filmed on location on the street at some outdoor cafe with townhouses or whatever around, where some random episode dialogue happens...and you pan out and you realize you are still in the ship and all that is contained in some multideck structure as an indoor recreation area.
This is actually my favourite Enterprise. Awesome episode.
I always thought that when a war started they could ditch the saucer and dock on a battle section with more shields and weapons..
Mission specific saucers would make it truly modular.
The ships shields and weapons are actually more powerful with the saucer connected and its Reactors are used to supplement the weapons and shields.
@Tin Watchman while possible, it's most likely easier to build ships specifically designed for combat than trying to make a current ship fit that roll.
Same here, the standard saucer section is a massive target, drop that and you lose 2 phasers and a torpedo launcher that can't get used when joined anyway.
A small saucer section, I would say a little larger than the separation plane itself, with auxiliary reactors and a nebula style weapons pod mounted on top would reduce the overall profile and give the ship a load more torpedoes and launchers to fight with.
A skeletalised saucer could be set up as a fighter carrier for mass attacks, maybe even carrying a bunch of small ships like the Defiant instead.
A broadside torpedo boat, have a load of nebula weapons pods on a spinal mount, stick them on gimbals so they can rotate to point port or starboard and you have a small head on profile that can run almost straight at an enemy formation to unload a few dozen torpedoes as it passes. The spine can also have a phaser lance if you really want to go nuts.
The possibilities are as varied as you can imagine, but starfleet are on the back foot and not exactly used to war.
More likely, they would have just modified the saucer so that it could house a division of MACOS or Space Marines or whatever ground combat forces the Federation used. Imagine trying to fight 10,000 or so space Marines after they were beamed into your capital city. Between the oversized shuttle bays to carry fighters and landing attack craft if needed, and the large cargo transports that could put down a tank, this ship would make an excellent mobile Army or Marine base. With the added bonus that few local defense force ships could deal with it being in orbit.
Please make more of these videos featuring the Galaxy Class. I love this ship and have for 30 odd years.
She is a beautiful powerhouse of a ship! My favourite 😊
Awesome video once again Rick!
Im always torn on my "favorite" star trek ship, while I think the sovereign is beautiful and sleek, the Galaxy is the one i grew up watching, and i think I will always have a HUGE soft spot for her. Im hoping to see more Galaxy class models done in Picard S3, in some way or another, as showing that ship with modern CG make it look amazing.
Various sizes and configurations made some sense for the saucer
Ah yes, the infamous warp capable hotel in space! Glad you mentioned the design's temperamental warp core that made this flagship a glass cannon in TNG and according to its writers, the easiest way to apply tension to the plot! 😆
The Galaxy Class' deflector shield systems were so much more advanced than previous designs that it was probably assumed there was no real need to make its internal systems more robust. Part of that little arrogance problem Q alluded to.
@@Lennis01 that would make sense, but i think you are giving the writers too much credit. Just like the chief of security having his behind handed to him on almost every occasion, it's probably just another overused plot device 😒
The biggest thing that always bothered me about the Galaxy class was, as mentioned, the lack of warp capability of the saucer on separation. If the idea is to drop the saucer before going into an overly dangerous situation - and Starfleet had the impression that this would happen a lot more often than it did - it feels an oversight (to me) that they wouldn't stick a smaller core in there. Just enough to give the saucer warp one to gtfo if needed. We see with the Nova class that a ten to twenty deck core isn't really needed...though maybe its a mass relation thing, idk. But yeah, giving the saucer at least a /little/ warp, as a treat :) , would not have gone amiss.
I was always perplexed why the Galaxy class in the Dominion War was running around with the saucer attached. Why weren’t they just deploying the star drive sections and saving the saucer resources to produce more star drive units?
Because the tactical doctrine for Galaxy class ships shifted from the original 'fast line ship' stardrive section to using the whole ship as a fleet command vessel/ artillery ship.
Most of the comms equipment and sensor suites were in the saucer, as is the biggest phaser array. By not including saucer separation and all the internal civilian spaces they could also cut down on build time and stuff the bulkheads where labs and lounges should have been with extra armour, ammunition. Shield generators and more.
This is my favorite class ship. Defiant class second, sovereign third.
Some more lore; The Galaxy class was the first starship series in the federation to use isolinear chips of all sorts for it's warp core processes, enabling it to reach and hold high warp speeds.
Perfect video for end of the week; thanks for making it a good
This ship IS the perfect ship for a TV series. Because of its civilian aspects, you can think of the people serving on the ship akin to modern military families that have their families living on-base... and it would cause the captain to be FAR MORE diplomatic than he should be because every battle is likely to kill civilians via ship damage.
"COOLANT LEAK!! We got a coolant leak here!"- Every Galaxy-class Chief Engineer ever.
This is still my favorite enterprise. This is the one I grew up on. Its still so beautiful to me. Just a small city with defensive capabilities flying through space LOL. Just a gorgeous ship.
12:02 that's a really good line
Just a beautiful design. I grew up with it, so naturally I'm a fan, but I always felt that, by accident mind you, Paramount or who ever designed this, made a true piece of art. And also rather fitting that it presents the Federation at the height of their hubris.
Anyway, have a like and see you next time
The idea of family's being on board always suggested to me that the original belief behind Galaxy class starships were extra long deep space missions, between 10 to 15 years outside of Federation space. Perhaps that was Starfleet's eventual goal for the class, that was until their first encounters with the Borg, and later the Dominion.
@7:52 A tactical holodeck sounds a lot like what the Minbari had in Babylon 5
the "uprated" Galaxy Class of the Dominion War had a faster warp drive (9.9) additional phaser arrays and two additional torpedo tubes. it's also likely they more fully utilised the saucer section fusion generators and impulse engines
the uprated Galaxy Class was certainly increased capability.
Truly appreciate your channel! Watching All your starship reviews/lore videos thanks for your work and the information sir. 😊
My favorite class ship. It’s just so cool. Lots and lots of room and built for exploring but it can defend itself.
This is an excellent overview of this ship class! I think knowing how big this ship really was sets a bizarre feeling seeing tng episodes because I never quite felt it's scale as I assume the show's creators really wanted to convey, but small ish tv show budgets only allow so much, and they did a fantastic job with what they had.
Great video!
This is an incredible video. Finally got the info I wanted about this awesome ship.
This ship and the Romulan Warbird ... I still remember thinking that they will merged together with the saucer section went inside the Warbird massive gap to create a super ship. And together they'll fight the enemy. Years later, I see that there are several others who thinks the same. I saw a fan art strip comic where the two ships merge in a Megazord-esque transformation style 😅
Go go Starfleet trekkers, you mighty warping Starfleet trekkers...!
@@lordirish3054 😂😂😂
when I first saw the Galaxy, I thought what a "Love Boat"..but I was a fan of the show
@ 10:49 if memory serves there is actually a 3rd photo torpedo launcher that was in the saucer section, but would only be clear for firing after a saucer separation. (edited for spelling mistake)
Thank you for making a playlist about this ship & the Akira & luna class etc, love all your videos, Rick
Keep up the awesome work!
If this were the real world but with all the same technology, we'd have ditched all the windows and gutted the entire interior living space in favor of a massive holodeck. Then simulate a general holographic command and living center that mimics a virtual adjunct to Starfleet headquarters. All ships would just be an extension of the Earth base and would allow a separation of ship assignment from the reality of the inside of the ship. Essentially, you would be living on Earth but would be able to visit a "building" that was the bridge, or the shuttle bay. Mobile emitters would allow crew members to participate in landing party expeditions if they were on another ship or on Earth physically. Every crew member would have their own bubble of holodeck space and everything (including other crew members) would be simulated from inputs from the other crew members' bubbles. Meaning no more passing of transmittable disease, and even a central location for bridge functions. Since the subsystems would manage where you physically were in the holodeck layout, you could always have the crew close to wherever the subsystem would think you need to visit (shuttle bay, engineering, etc.) Wherever you go, there you are, so to speak.
Let the ship manage crew relocation ultra fast via either transporters or using holodeck forcefield tech. Could move the people around pretty quickly without them even knowing. Good for fast evacuation or separations. Even the escape pods could have holo-emitters so in the event of an emergency, they would still be able to perform their normal duties until contact was lost with the ship. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't mind doing my work on my back deck in the sunshine on an actual planet in a house. 🙂Why sit in a box (crew quarters) or fight over limited holodecks? (Since everyone is in a holodeck, they would all have the option at all times to visit a holodeck whenever they wanted to). It would technically allow for long duration missions to become permanent ones as social interactions and where you live would be entirely software defined. Getting relocated for relationships would not effect your duties. Just where your physical body would be.
Video just about Warp Drive on Galaxy would be wondrous, if we could understand how it works with Manual also, including "where comes warp plasma if annihilation gives radiation? - from PDT that did not annihilated?" and entire Start Up, Warp Factors and energies for each, cooling and shielding working Orchestry would be fair and awesome. Currently I am learning that from the Manual and Krauss Star Trek physics to get it well ;)
I don't know if anyone else's commented on this but I'm hammering the nail home during the domain War the Galaxy class starship was serving as a Frontline battleship but before that it was about my eyes anyway
Yes, it may take hours. We eagerly await that video!!!!
STILL my favorite starship class!
She’s a beauty!
What I always thought was take advantage of the modular nature of the detachable saucer section. Have a saucer that was effectively a battlestation or weapons platform - nothing else, no crew except for maintenance access, minimal life support (or uses drive sections life support) ect. It's fitted to a Galaxy's secondary hull when needed, swapping out the 'nice' friendly peacetime hull, and relying on the battle bridge, warp core and shields (although it may have extra shielding and armour, along with fusion reactors or even another warp core) ect of the drive section. And then it just rains down massive long range barrages of photons at range, sort of like a souped up version of the homewold missile destroyer. Imagine a fleet manoeuvre where as an opening salvo hundreds of photons rain down on the enemy fleet as they approach for engagement.
And while fitting it with an arsenal of phasers is tempting and useful, it's still just one ship with one set of shields and can be destroyed as such, if you can withstand the fire. At close range it would be priority target number one of the enemy fleet, and it needs the power for all the extra phasers (secondary reactors?). Still some more phasers would be handy for missile defense and eliminating fighters and corvettes, say double the number of phasers wouldn't tax the systems too much.
Using it as a missile truck/artillery barrage is a better use of it's abilities. The saucer could hold thousands of photon torpedoes (not quantum torpedoes, they are 'expensive' and in limited supply, and space is not an issue) and dozens of launchers for simultaneous launch of large salvos. Plus the massive computer systems of the Galaxy could handle the processing of all that targeting information.
It could have similar firepower to DS9 (which had 5000 photon torpedoes), but in a mobile package.
It could also be disguised to look like a regular saucer section to sensors, with dampening fields hiding the arsenal if the extra expense was warranted in peacetime. If expecting trouble (say going to Romulan space on a piece of unconfirmed intelligence) it could be swapped into the drive section and potential adversaries would never know what they were facing.
Or just keep them in reserve in Federation facilities without the extra build requirements of *Q-ship systems in case of a hot war. Also since they are just a standard hull design without a warp core, navigation, sensors or other complicated components they are easy to build. Since the same saucer is used for the Nebula class saucer Starfleet obviously has mass production for it.
*Q-ships were used in WW2, it was a freighter turned into a gunboat with hidden rapid fire cannons behind panels ect. It was designed to sucker submarines into surfacing to use their deck guns to destroy lone unarmed ships instead of wasting expensive, limited torpedoes. As soon as the sub surfaced and before the deck gun could be manned the panels fell away and the sub was sunk before they could react.
Wow, that had to take some work. Great Job.
What a beautiful starship
For such a big powerful ship class it sure couldn't take much of a punch to start with. I'm sure the Borg threat and Dominion War changed that in later ship builds but the early Galaxy class ships had a glass jaw imo. Don't get me wrong i loved the Enterprise D but it all ways seemed to me it and its sisters ships were more of a fancy luxury liner then any thing else.
The Odyssey was a pre-war Galaxy and seemed to take many hits without shields before they were destroyed by a suicide run.
The destruction of the Enterprise-D is down to infiltration by the Duras and some poor command choices by Riker, not a fault of the Galaxy frame itself.
For decades now, I've rated the Federation Galaxy Class starship as literally the most beautiful man-made object ever designed for the purpose of causing human beings to change location in all of fiction. And no design shown since then has even begun to rival the masterpiece.
I would like to have one, with a phased cloak so that I can casually park it inside of the moon to evade any reasonable concern of 21st century mankind catching wise through direct observation of near-Earth space. And then with that out of the way I'd have to figure out how to marshal such an instrument to covertly (and hopefully constructively) ease worldwide poverty because that's muh prime directive. Gazing at the stars and sipping exotic drinks in the holodeck or transporting to vacation anywhere I'd like would probably also happen but only during off-hours. :S
Great, very informative video about my absolute favorite ship in Star Trek. Thanks a lot, Rick!
Just one thing: You refer to the D's bulk bringing down its top speed. Maybe within an atmosphere, somewhere. But, space is big and empty, so...
Lots of channels make much ado about the Galaxy's short comings. The trek stories needed to introduce weaknesses necessary for drama, but it was the "best ship yet" for its era. It was a step forward.
One little detail you got slightly wrong, in the Star Trek the Next Generation Technical Manual, written by Rick Sternbach and Michael Okuda, it was revealed that the galaxy class ship had 3 photon torpedo launchers, though we never saw the third in the show. The third launcher was mounted in the Saucer section, but could only be used when the Star Drive section was separated. Once separation was complete, the launcher would drop from it's stored location, into the main turbo shaft connecting the Main Bridge with the Battle Bridge, facing aft, and could fire torpedoes aft of the Saucer. I suppose the theory being to discourage hostiles from chasing the Saucer as it attempted to evade whatever hostile might have caused the need to separate in the first place.
a hundred year lifetime... Starfleet's B-52!
At the time that was held by the Excelsior class.
@@RobertWilke Now that I think about it, the Oberth's longevity comes to mind.
Love the galaxy class
I've long been intrigued by the idea of multiple variant saucers being the best way of refitting the class. In particular, mini starbase and carrier saucers could be interesting tools in Starfleet's chest.
The Galaxy Class Ship will always be my Favourite.
I like the thought process that the galaxy class of the dominion war were seen as a variant class in their own right as the galaxy titan class because they were set up with all weapons and shield systems built out to their best combat abilities and because if the extra unused volume when civilian were not installed, they carried large numbers of ground troops fighters and acted as command ships
Loving your videos Rick! Been watching through them again, I love the detailed information you give. I’m debating what my favourite ship is, for a long while it was the Intrepid class but after watching your videos again there are couple of new contenders for my top spot, the Galaxy class and Steamrunner class…..sorry Rick no Excelsior class in my top picks 😂
My fav. ship after the legendary Constitution.
+3:58 What are those blue bits behind the Transporter emitters - to the immediate sides of the main Shuttlebay hatch ?
I've never noticed them let alone lit up like that before. ( I don't mean the ones below the hatch)
They are Starfleet insignias I think
Just had a thought a Galaxy class "War Saucer" for ships going into known battle zones like the Dominion war.
Imagine if a galaxy class was stranded in the delta quadrant instead of Voyager?
The future galaxy-x from all good things was my favorite variant.
Mark Felton meets Star Trek :-)
I always loved that they had a Bolian barber on board. The irony of a bald alien species cutting hair is just so star trek to me. I wouldn't doubt it if Roddenberry himself mandated it from the beginning. I could just imagine imagine "oh, we're gonna have a barber shop on board and make the barber a bald blue alien."
I can imagine the Glaxy Class and the Texas Class (if done a bit smaller and less falty) could very well be very effective in constructing fully operational outposts.
Just imagine the Sorcer secction being detached in order to land on a plannet as a fully operational base with additional structures being provided by the Texas class.
Since the Galaxy Class has two bridges I would say if the one in the body would actually be the main tachtical bridge and the body being equipped with some propper defence mechanisms and put it on the helm of at least two Texas class ships with predetermined flight patters after being detached.
The sorcer secction would have more of anti air weapponry and ground forces as well as the main medical and research ficilitys as well as housing.
This would bring two things
1. A fully operational base with all the equipment and comodetys needed to house the reserchers for more long term projects and can ve retrived when the Mission is over to be used in other places
2.A planetary defence force squadron orbiting the planet as the first contact with attacking enemy forces.
Even if they couldn't defeat them it would certainly buy enough time for the sorces secction on the ground hail for help and or get away.
Honestly that's brilliant. Having bespoke Function Spaces that the ship can just fill with furniture that can be replicated on demand, or specialized material and technologies that might be delivered as required?
The way it was described the Galaxy Class sounds like a combination of an Aircraft Carrier with a luxury liner as described by Captain DeSoto of the U.S.S. Hood from the Season 3 episode 'Tin Man' and a Battleship with how heavily armed these ships were armed with 14 type 10 phaser arrays and 2 photon torpedo launchers one forward and one aft and a high capacity shield grid with a warp core capable of generating 12.5 billion GigaWatts of power.
That was sooooo rad dude!
i can imagine a purpose built battleship version with ablative armor. the extra space used for troop transport, medical facilities and act as a carrier.
Basically a combo of the Yesterday's Enterprise Ent-D and the Dominion War refits. Would be a good warship.
I would not be surprised if a Galaxy class refit for war was more powerful than a Sovereign. The Sovereign might be newer and built with more advanced technology in mind, but the Galaxy had more volume to work with and could have been more powerful if less efficient. So much available space for additional weapons, generators and armour.
And every random ship of the week is a threat to it
If I remember my TNG technical manual correctly there was a third torpedo launcher in the saucer section somewhere near the rubber ducky room. Although I might me misremembering that.
Excellent overview of the galaxy class, thank you 🖖🏽
Should be in the notch of the saucer that the cobra head latches onto facing aft.
@@andiholman2543 I knew I hadn’t imagined that!
@@cha02psc I’ve seen a few sources erroneously declare that Galaxies have only two but you’re quite right, there are three.
I would have used a bunch of that extra space and added another warp core to the saucer. Put a whole bunch more weapons and such on both and you have one heck of a battle ship. Put everything on it from the all good things future with that extra warp core lol
The galaxy class ships, and the fleet in general, were really beefed up due to Wolf 359 and the Dominion war. Which, in my opinion, showed their full potential. And the "All good things" was what you could call a dreadnought.
@@dougsmith6262 okay so I would make it a dreadnought lol.
Mm.. you are such a massive nerd... I love it. Oh a video several hours long on the Galaxy class alone. Sign me up! That's what weekends are for. Just saying. Keep up the excellent work!
The firepower of a dreadnought, the armour of a frigate, the range of a cruiser, the facilities of a cruise liner.
As I recall many Galaxy class ships were also fighter carriers during the war.
I loved the Galaxy class. It was definitely an exploration ship even though it was armed to the teeth (how well that offensive capability was depended on the episode). I never understood why they'd send the saucer section into battle during the Dominion War. Seemed like building a ship 2/3 bigger for a few more phaser banks was a bit much.
Yeah I think it fell into some episodic writing traps regarding hyping drama where it seemed like its phasers could do nothing and it's warp core was actually suffering from some suicidal intent.
@@rubaiyat300 Yeah, sometimes it seemed like the warpcore would breach if someone looked at it wrong and othertimes it seemed to be all powerful.
The saucer section was where most of that empty internal volume to presumably used to store torpedoes, and fighters spare parts, etc. They basically left out the civilian facilities and turned that into giant support depots not just for itself but the other ships that it was supporting as well (as mentioned during the dominion war they were used as mobile command battlecruisers and with that much available space they would also make great mobile resupply points for Akira and steamrunner class starships that were designed for war not long term deployment.)
Last great explorer of the Golden age. Future generations would marvel at the ideas it represented… and how quickly they passed into history.
The Galaxy Class was just a huge flex 💪.
The Flying Hotel. How I love the Galaxy class.
I would just rotate them into the civilian operations of starfleet. Use them for core world travel and the like. Since they are outdated now after the dominion war etc.
@@braddl9442 With their massive size, being on the borders supporting exploration, science, and colony development is their only real use. Heck it's strange folks want to bury them in the Picard era of all times when we have a canon (at least in one universe) version of the Galaxy that does fine going up against the biggest threats of that era. Heck, they aren't even outdated IN the Dominion War, where we don't see a single Galaxy outside the Odyssey lost in the entire conflict.
I think a new version of a city ship could be fun for a new series. But with all civilian and non essentials on the saucer and ACTUALLY USE IT! "We are heading to the natural zone. Separate the saucer and leave the civilians here are the starbase"
I remember when TNG was released, I am not a boomer but the forgotten gen. I went with a friend to the local nerd shop, Forbidden Planet, because he wanted a shield if he didn't like the new Enterprise. When we got there it was hanging from the ceiling of the shop and he said "I like it" that's when I had to be his shield, surprisingly as he thought I would be needed if he said he hated it. Others there responded with "it's a space whale/expletive ugly/how expletive stupid are you to like it" and so on and so forth. So he raised shields and hid behind me and for my own sake so as not to get banned I will not say what I said to the geeks, notice the change in wording, by the way.
It was not that popular amongst Trekkies when it was released, it took time for that to happen.
The Cadillac Escalade ESV Platinum Model of interstellar space. Still my favorite Star Trek ship.
Used to have the technical manual. Knew every page by heart
That's what I always thought. The Galaxy class has so much room, it's like a Starbase.
And it 's good to put lots of weaponry in the spare space.
Galaxy II’s were totally upgraded monsters for sure.... with all that space and warp power!!? Oh joy.
I always thought the galaxy class would be very intimidating to have over your city. That huge saucer. Or just intimidating in general. Looks so alien, like it could just mess you up. And it could
So true.
But because of them sending an untrained family in to deep space.
We got 7 of 9.
Great and informitive vid. Thanks Rick.