This ship is basically a runabout duct-taped onto two photon torpedos with a reverse-engineered Romulan singularity drive (and by 'reverse-engineered' I mean more than half of it was invented whole cloth with a lot of Human ducttape, Tellarite swearing, Andorian doubt, and Vulcan suppressed resigned sighs).
@@Aragorn7884 In a vacuum yes but when you are traveling past the speed of light dust particles are going to seem closer together but there is also a deflector that would push that aside, also this ship travels in atmosphere as well so it is going to need the aerodynamic structure but in space not so much since there is no air.
Incidentally, he mentions it doesn't have recreation, but it does have a holodeck (which among other things was used repeatedly to simulate a bridge for the Kobayashi Maru simulation).
I got this ship two days ago in Star Trek Online... and i am absolutely in love with her. I think a quote from Voyager sums her perfectly "She may not be as big as a Galaxy-class, but she's quick and smart." Extreme Emphasis on "QUICK" lol
They feel more like custom built science and explorer ships. Old earth explorers may have used large ships, but in sci-fi large ships tend to scream warship.
@GrandInfernoElite But not in Star Trek though, large just mean is more focus on deep space exploration. It's those medium and small one we need to watch out for. They're the one with the fangs
@@Predator42ID The Titan-A is a science cruiser. The fact that they converted it to be the new Enterprise-G speaks volumes of Starfleet's desire to return to its exploration roots. They only seem militaristic because they know just how much more dangerous it is out there thanks to USS Voyager, so they now fly softly again, but carry very big sticks (quantum torpedoes and type-xii phasers being standard that used to be only on ships designed to fight the Borg).
I feel like the Protostar is actually a long-range stealth bomber dressed up to look like a scout or diplomatic vessel. Look at how it's small and difficult to track despite its insane power output, and how it's got multiple torpedo launchers even though that's very rare on Starfleet ships that are that small. I think as a design it's the Federation's strategic response to the Dominion War, able to directly counterattack an enemy home world in any part of the galaxy within a couple of days.
I think one of my favourite parts of Star Trek is that is the Federation wanted to, they could conquer the galaxy. Thankfully they are peaceful and dedicated to their enlightened goals that this does not occur. A federation science vessel is a match for a battlecruiser of most other nations. Imagine being a Klingon and having to cope that your state of the art warships are on par with fucking diplomatic transports!
I think starfleet learned it's lesson in making it's whole fleet pure explorer ships thanks to the dominion war. Without shields, federation ships never lasted long, and their weapons seemed to favor precision and versatility over power. Now their ships have the weapons and armor to go toe-to-toe with any threat while still staying true to their explorer roots.
you have to remember, those explorer vessels held, at various times, the romulans, klingons, the dominion, and even the borg, at bay. a galaxy class cruiser had upwards of 14 phaser banks and 2-4 photon torpedo launchers (depending on which source you go by). that is not a light loadout.
The entire ship was effectively a holodeck, I wonder why the crew quarters weren't just holographic so the crew could have anything they like in their alloted personal space and communal areas. It's not like the Protostar was short on energy with two warp cores, it would be great to have a fully customisable ship with largely invulnerable holographic security personnel and medical staff.
yeee, while the Holodeck is a great storytelling device it still runs on power and given of how often there is a poweroutage on a Starship in distress, it isn't great to have all your furniture disapear in the state of emergency. In Reality i would also say that it also cost to much energy but that was only a issue for a few VOY Episodes
@@enisra_bowman I think that Picard also solved the Holodeck thing with the separate, incompatible power systems because it makes sense as a place to congregate the crew and handle a LOT of things. Hell, with the EMH, it also adds another location where you can deal with things outside of sickbay in a mass casualty or similar situation
I'm shocked at the scale of the Protostar being, at least presumably, smaller than the Defiant class. Makes sense considering it's race car inspirations, but what little I've managed to watch of this show gave me the impression that it was closer in scale to the Constitution class with a more current gen ship profile. Still a really cool ship class and I hope we haven't seen the last of them.
The show has scaling all over the place for dramatic effect, but from what we see of the interior it definitely seems suited to the 20 people listed for the crew. One small mess hall, an engineering space that's positively cramped by post-TNG standards, etc. I think it's just a bit deceptively arranged because it's stretched out compared to the Defiant and so much of it is actually taken up by the enclosed protowarp machinery.
@@leepky Glad to hear I wasn't alone in confusing the ship's scale. Still, it's cool to see Starfleet create a prototype ship that's basically three warp/protostar cores and a steering console. Sounds like something Tom Paris would try to make.
@@kaitlyn__L Well that'd be cool if it's ever confirmed. Would definitely track with his love of fast vehicles (not to mention the possible captain proton reference). Here's hoping Prodigy season 2 gets out of limbo soon.
@@wolfpack_104 I definitely hope it gets confirmed! As to the scale, as stated in the video if we scale it based on the bridge it can’t be smaller than the Defiant. Personally I interpret the main body of the ship as being roughly Defiant sized (but with less internal space, since the rim is one deck thick instead of 3) with all the engines hanging off the back.
I just realized what the Protostar class reminded me of: The Warp Delta from Enterprise! The big arrowhead wedge. The two extremely short narrow pylons with the path of propulsion going just above and just outside the main saucer. Built for a crew of 30. Few niceties since it was a propulsion and tech bed. Smooth underside and fore hiding the unaerodynamic experimental tech platform in the back. And if you squint a little, it even has a Duotronic take on that big dome covered bridge giving panoramic views from the dorsal side. That tested Warp 2, this tests quantum slipstream, still proud little testbeds.
This ship is the answer to questions i had back in the 90s about Starfleet developing a rival drive comparable to the Romulan's quantum singularity reactor. Which is why i always found it ridiculous that the Fleet in discovery's Future would still be using Anti Matter in most of its ships. If Starfleet wishes to explore beyond the Galactic Barrier, they can't keeping using Anti-matter reactors.
I love that little ship (instantly thought of Worf and Riker in First Contact when I typed that…Riker saying ”tough little ship” to Worf who replies “little!”) Anyway, I love the design, it’s sleek and would be a great emergency response ship for the Federation.
They're not official ones, I tend to find schematics (Star Trek online promotional view pf the protostar class in this case) where I can then create my own stencils with those as reference in photoshop
I'm still trying to figure out the timeline with the fall of Romulus, but the Protostar Drive seems like something that would come out of several Romulan engineers working with Starfleet to design something, as it seems to be a far better option than the singularity drives that the RSE uses while being something that would utilize a lot of their tech fed through a Federation filter.
4,000 Lightyears in a few minutes? Damn makes the timeframe for Voyagers journey back from the Delta Quadrant seem ridiculous. With the Protostar they could cover that in a couple of days
With the Right SetUp, you can easily get over Warp 204 while the Protowarp is activce, get a Cooldown of unter 20 Secopnds, and a Turnrate, that's way better than in Normal Warp
Looks like a next generation Nova-class replacement as a planetary survey vessel. Fill it with a bunch of scientists and move on to the next star system to chart it.
Voyager was faster, but could only keep up her top speed for a short time before stuff broke. Protostar can do warp 9.97 for as long as it wants. So even without their super-drive, Protostar would still win.
@@singletona082 I'm also thinking that Romulans were involved since the contained protostar seems oddly similar to the Romulan contained singularity thing
I always had specific theory how protostar drive worked. Basic emphasis, was Protostar was an experimental attempt by Federation and Starfleet to make a safer version of Romulan singularity engine core. But wanted a system they could potentially destroy, unlike a singularity they couldn't shutdown. Thus keeping anyone from stealing it. The drive core functions like an artificial star, likely harvested high energy protomatter held in artificial gravity chamber like pre burner in fusion reactor. The baby star is fed a steady diet of gravitons and tachyons. The system when engaged it is fed warp energy, which catalyzes the reaction producing enormous volumes of tachyons and displaces subspace, the radiative flux of the baby star, whose new gravitons are gravitationally attracted to adjacent stars. The big engines exhibit huge subspace driver coil designs, which helps to mitigate more ships mass than conventional subspace displacement systems. In much the same way the Enterprise D rode thru the distortion wave of the subspace damaged sector of harkaras.
I really like the design of the protostar, it is a far more logical step in starship design than the Pizza Cutter seen in STD, that thing had a literal jump drive before Starfleet had even built the transwarp drive for the Excelcior class, and it clearly didn't fit in the timeline where it was, the Protostar however does. I hope we get to see more of it in Prodigy season 2. It's a shame we never got an offical speed calculation for the protodrive, i personally recon it's about 1000ly/mn. Imagine if Voyager had that drive, they would have been back at earth in just over an hour, or at most, a _day._
Hopefully we get to see _Prodigy_ season two. Paramount seems to be trying to forget the show ever existed, much less has a full season ready (or nearly ready) to release.
i would say, that the Protostar is not a Courier, Scout or anything but more a pure testbed Prototyped, like the Turbinia or the Sea Shadow or the NX-Prototypes, only with longer travel distances in mind and to test a totally new propulsion system, while the Excelsior is more a ship like the Nautilus or the Nuclear Merchant Ships like Savannah or Otto Hahn
another awesome video sir i enjoy it a lot how many crew can the ship carry in your opinnion and also the exposed bridge desing like and acrylic cover its just mesmerizing
@@GrandInfernoElite Because the aesthetic of Orville is clearly and self admittedly, by the creator, inspired by Star Trek, and the Intrepid class popularized the triangular primary hull style of Federation ships which the Orville emulates.
@@drksideofthewal having the same basic shape isn't a ripoff, that's inspiration, if that. Otherwise the borg sphere would be a ripoff of the death star
Only a crew of 20? At least half are engineers then, bridge crew of 6 (captain, first officer, helm/navigation in one, communications officer then a chief science officer and tactical officer), 3 science officers (since regular missions to the Delta Quadrant would require a heavy science compliment), 2 medical officers then the ship's Chief Engineer and their department of 8 engineers to maintain the warp cores and protostar drive
Duty shifts with such a small crew have got to be a nightmare. Assuming three eight-hour shifts, and a roughly even split, you've got no more than seven people on duty at any one time, which seems impractical. More likely the delta and gamma shifts have a caretaker staff of four, and would wake the rest of the crew as the need arose.
I think Nickelodeon have heavily underestimated the size of the Protostar There is plenty of on-screen evidence to support this. We've got exterior footage of Janeway visible on the bridge of the Protostar as viewed from outside the ship, footage comparing Dal to Admiral Janeway, and footage of Dal walking along the edge windows of the saucer. A 139 meter long ship would mean the bridge canopy would be at most 2.2 meters high at its tallest section. Rok-Tahk is 8ft tall, she would have to duck to enter any part of the bridge If you measure the length of the bridge compared to Janeway and the characters you get a ship that is much bigger, comparable to Voyager or NCC-1701 The ship is 312 meters long
I did not realize this thing was so tiny. Never going to watch the show, so STO was the first time I saw her alongside other ships, and in the internal docks of ESD. I don't know why I assumed she was the size of the Sovereign or something similar, but now it seems even smaller than a Miranda.
indeed though that made no sense why Cryptic would put this ship in the infinity lockbox instead of putting it in the requisitions store i mean COMMON damnit i mean seriously? Cyptic?
I haven't seen the show yet, but I really like this ship for its size and efficiency in terms of minimal crew requirements. A ship with a smaller crew means you can build many more of these and send dedicated hand-picked specialists to go out and survey targeted areas all over the galaxy all at the same time. Starfleet Intelligence would be forced to work overtime going over so much new data!
I absolutely love this type of video. I screenshot (yeah for TH-cam) the last schematic in the video and then convert it into a wallpaper for my computer. Including this one, I now have 17 of them.
Project ship series Nova class was suspended in the past. The new version, uss Equinox class ship, are lost into Delta quadrant after a big jump. USS Voyager find, fight and destroy uss Equinox. This is the beginning of the new TV series, the uss Protostar ship..? The birth of the new era for Nova class project..? Mmmmm.... I don't know.... but very interesting...!
What is the protostar core exactly? Is it an actual young star held in a compressed space field like the TARDIS? Or is it some kind of mini-star made with proto-matter?
I really dig the windowed hallways along the saucer and the open canopy bridge. I'm going to get the ship in STO when I can and look forward to getting my hands on her ample nacelles, to paraphrase a famous engineer.
This gotta be one of my favourite new ship in recent Treks. I like how small it is, very nimble and the design itself still feels in line with the current timeline and technology while also referencing lots of the past designs. Looking at 32-century Discovery, it felt too sharp and alien tech but I guess for that long of a period gap who knows what forced them to change Still, I love some small yet fast ship, definitely my type and Protostar have all the goodness of being very trek-y in a fresh new way.
@@Timeward76 Klingon ships have a similar design to ships from Avatar or Horizont Event. In front, the crew section separated from the engines by a long neck, because the engines are radioactive.
Ironically, this is actually one of the few places where I think it works, because on a ship that small and so heavily devoted to engines, anything that gets through the shield and hull at all is going to be a mission kill anyway.
I gotta wonder what happened to this class by the Discovery future era. Obviously IRL production didn’t know about the class getting greenlit or budget wise they don’t have a model to work from (same reason no California classes I think). But the protostar class sounds like something that could survive the burn. …or possibly be a bigger than normal explosion during the event. Unsure. But it feels like technology they would try to recreate. Unless season 2 has reasons why it might be abandoned.
It's possible that production of the ship wasn't scalable. Presumably they needed to harvest a protostar every time they built one, and the demands of keeping it gravitationally confined must have been significant. Plus when it blows up it can disrupt entire systems.
"Realistic?" That's arguable. "Heroic?" Without a doubt. As John Paul Jones once said, "I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast, for I intend to go in harm's way." And the USS Protostar goes REALLY, REALLY FAST.
Whenever I see Trek comments sections filled with people complaining that things "aren't realistic", I have to wonder: have they ever *watched* Star Trek?
This was a kool original design it is great the show was good the end was fitting.. it grew on me the characters were good and i came to care about them. And that says a lot about the writers great job
"The Delta Quadrant. I can't believe I'm back in the Delta Quadrant. Three times before this place almost killed me. I swore I'd never give it another chance to finish the job."
They could fit it out to have more of the crew amenities that were generally the norm of the Fleet by reducing said crew to around 10 plus Holo stand-ins. In so doing, it could serve as either really big Runabouts or as Corvettes. Another use, depending on the size of the Mothership, would make these ships into well appointed Captain's Yachts.
Two things: 1) Starfleet must have been *very* confident in the drive if they sent it straight back out to the Delta quadrant 2) I swear if I was put in charge of trek the first thing I would do is sort out all the scaling issues once and for all. They already spend a lot of time on ship design, and long term the design of the ships end up being quite important to the shows. It would take considerably more effort but I would just physically map out the ship's layout at the correct scale in a 3D model. If we were fortunate enough to get at least a mockup of a filming set for the ship then I'd use that to inform tweaks to the design before it was finished but if you design it with filming in mind in the first place it shouldn't be an issue. Oh and I still find it really odd how Starfleet is using completely exposed bridges with either a single wall or actual windows, and how this isn't more of a plot point. I don't know if it is or not in Prodigy but I hope that the tech required a physical window to be there because of something the proto warp stuff does, it's a big missed opportunity if not
The protostar would be very good as a rapid response vehicle. However, allow it to focus on a specific specialization; and be modular. Maybe allow all that energy from the protostar warp core to be transitioned into weapons. That would allow it to go service Frontline craft in times of war. Or, have it be a space ambulance of sorts. Allowing it to be outfitted with a lot of medical bays instead of crew quarters. I feel like those would be the best uses of the craft.
I got to Warp 261,57 - still missing the Buff from a Duty-Officer-Mission(The Antimatter-Leaks-Drilll), that needs to be a Critical Success to give me an additional 25% Bonus to Sector-Speed. But that Warp 261,57 requires 2 Other Players, to Assign me the Federations "Grand Diplomatic Immunity" and "Assign Raiding Party" on me got me to that Speed with a Timed Buff. Without that, My current Proto-Warp is at Warp 204,32. Oh, and the Green Duty-Officer that gives you a Cooldown on Transwarp of 100% or even Better the one Purple that gives you a Transwarp-Cooldown of 200%, will both also reduce the Cooldown of the Protowarp.
"It's not really an 'exploration' vessel...." Of course not. When you cover 4,000 lightyears in a single hop lasting minutes, you don't NEED it to be a traditional starfleet 'exploration' vessel. You point it at an area, tell the crew: 'go look around that spot for a month', and let it go. A month later, it pops back to Federation space for some R&R.
She's definitely a tough little ship. Didn't realise she was half the size of an Intrepid though, that's pretty damn heavy when you think about potential combat. Odd Starfleet would make such a small ship with the capability it has but at the same time, Starfleet ships have plot armour
I think the in universe excuse is that the ship would basically run from any possible threat it encounters. Considering it’s first mission was to be a second contact ship for the delta quadrant I bet the idea was to simply be a blockade runner to bring supplies and diplomats to worlds that are too far or too dangerous for most ships.
Most likely its just a quick response ship, at the end of the season 2 finale they mention its a science vessel. Most likley then, its mission is to get in and record dangerous or quick events and collect data, then get out. Then again, we have to remember that Stafleet *never designs warships*, but, after the Dominion war would do things like "lets build a medical vessel and arm it to the teeth, so its like a warship, but because we stuck more then the normal amount of sick bays we can call it a medical vessel". So they found ways around the "we never make warships" mentality.
Can you imagine a ship that is a skeletal system and its made of various holodeck technologies for its OUTSIDE shape/composition/components... With enough energy and safety redundancies.. it to change it to whatever it wants
@@RBAWintrow well I was just thinking of the protostar containment is that unstable in long-term operations why not use a slightly smaller Singularity core that runs at lower power but longer?
I think in Star Trek the Romulan singularity core is something like a Soviet nuclear reactor. Yes, it has a lot of power, but I wouldn't try to turn it off :))
My take is that the protostar can produce more energy in short bursts than any other known core power source can, including the singularity core. The singularity core's power output is probably limited by the size of the singularity itself. To reach the power output of the protostar a singularity would likely be too large to keep contained. One phaser blast hitting the hull and _sluuuurrrrrp_ the whole ship implodes as it's sucked into the singularity.
Make the ship 10% larger to add compherts and a bigger medical bay. With that, it should be a decent explorer while keeping its speed. I also think you could only get 15-25% larger without structural redesigns.
Just a heads up that the subtitles/transcript appears to include a lot of script that was cut from the final video. May want to remove those bits so that the subtitles are synced properly with the video. 🖖
I just realized how few truly compromise designs there are in Star Trek. They always have at least a bit of everything. I want to see a sphere that cannot do anything but fly and NOT DIE or something.
From the way the "protostar drive" is described here, it seems like the closest star trek drive technology to the far more generic and light-on-detail "quantum drive" powering the "planetary union" ships in "The Orville", the core of which at least visually looks a bit like a captured and massively shrunk star. I wonder which came first: Was the protostar drive concept thought of before the Orville was?
man i love the design of the protostar also #save startrek prodigy i always belived the dauntless was a mother ships and the protostar was a scout ship they would send out first to make contact and then the dauntless would arrive later
Some starships have big engines
This big engine has a starship
"Someone had to drive the engine, and we needed them to survive... so."
So it's to engines what the A-10 Warthog is to guns.
OMG I'm laughing so damn hard right now so simple of a statement and it's the funniest and completely right on time!!
Basically. Ship built to give the engine a purpose.
indeed that Big engine look in my eyes was one inspired in the JJverse/Kelvin Timeline era by Ryan church if im not mistaken?
This ship is basically a runabout duct-taped onto two photon torpedos with a reverse-engineered Romulan singularity drive (and by 'reverse-engineered' I mean more than half of it was invented whole cloth with a lot of Human ducttape, Tellarite swearing, Andorian doubt, and Vulcan suppressed resigned sighs).
Sorry man, but a thumbs up isn't enough to convey how much I enjoyed your flawless description.
Carry on.
A ship with 3 nacelles and 3 cores built into the star drive section, also built with an arrow shaped saucer, this ship was built for speed.
The arrow shape doesn't matter, there's no air in space
@@Aragorn7884 Except it can go in atmosphere...
@@Aragorn7884 but there is that thing with warp bubble geometry where narrow profile seemingly helps a lot.
@@Aragorn7884 In a vacuum yes but when you are traveling past the speed of light dust particles are going to seem closer together but there is also a deflector that would push that aside, also this ship travels in atmosphere as well so it is going to need the aerodynamic structure but in space not so much since there is no air.
The arrow shape does matter, as its stated that the ship's geometry DOES influence slipstream drive
Stunning ship. Really hope Prodigy gets saved.
Netflix picked it up
@@YukonWillehNetflix?
Really?
I think the Protostar is so fast you don't need all the comforts of home. You can just leave, or be relieved, and come back later.
Incidentally, he mentions it doesn't have recreation, but it does have a holodeck (which among other things was used repeatedly to simulate a bridge for the Kobayashi Maru simulation).
I really hope they release the second season. It'd be a horrible shame if this great series isn't continued
I got this ship two days ago in Star Trek Online... and i am absolutely in love with her.
I think a quote from Voyager sums her perfectly
"She may not be as big as a Galaxy-class, but she's quick and smart."
Extreme Emphasis on "QUICK" lol
I do like the smaller vessels. They feel more real in a way then the giant juggernaut vessels.
They feel more like custom built science and explorer ships. Old earth explorers may have used large ships, but in sci-fi large ships tend to scream warship.
@GrandInfernoElite But not in Star Trek though, large just mean is more focus on deep space exploration. It's those medium and small one we need to watch out for. They're the one with the fangs
@@Predator42ID The Titan-A is a science cruiser. The fact that they converted it to be the new Enterprise-G speaks volumes of Starfleet's desire to return to its exploration roots. They only seem militaristic because they know just how much more dangerous it is out there thanks to USS Voyager, so they now fly softly again, but carry very big sticks (quantum torpedoes and type-xii phasers being standard that used to be only on ships designed to fight the Borg).
I like giant ships but prefer them not to perform "evasive manoeuvres" or be shaped any more aerodynamically than a small city.
I feel like the Protostar is actually a long-range stealth bomber dressed up to look like a scout or diplomatic vessel. Look at how it's small and difficult to track despite its insane power output, and how it's got multiple torpedo launchers even though that's very rare on Starfleet ships that are that small. I think as a design it's the Federation's strategic response to the Dominion War, able to directly counterattack an enemy home world in any part of the galaxy within a couple of days.
And then there's the part where even if you find it, you don't dare shoot if anything you care about is in the same star system.
I think one of my favourite parts of Star Trek is that is the Federation wanted to, they could conquer the galaxy. Thankfully they are peaceful and dedicated to their enlightened goals that this does not occur.
A federation science vessel is a match for a battlecruiser of most other nations. Imagine being a Klingon and having to cope that your state of the art warships are on par with fucking diplomatic transports!
I think starfleet learned it's lesson in making it's whole fleet pure explorer ships thanks to the dominion war. Without shields, federation ships never lasted long, and their weapons seemed to favor precision and versatility over power. Now their ships have the weapons and armor to go toe-to-toe with any threat while still staying true to their explorer roots.
you have to remember, those explorer vessels held, at various times, the romulans, klingons, the dominion, and even the borg, at bay. a galaxy class cruiser had upwards of 14 phaser banks and 2-4 photon torpedo launchers (depending on which source you go by). that is not a light loadout.
Nahh, it's just a high speed scientific survey scout vessel that could double as a long range hyper velocity bomber if anyone cared to.
The entire ship was effectively a holodeck, I wonder why the crew quarters weren't just holographic so the crew could have anything they like in their alloted personal space and communal areas. It's not like the Protostar was short on energy with two warp cores, it would be great to have a fully customisable ship with largely invulnerable holographic security personnel and medical staff.
yeee, while the Holodeck is a great storytelling device it still runs on power and given of how often there is a poweroutage on a Starship in distress, it isn't great to have all your furniture disapear in the state of emergency. In Reality i would also say that it also cost to much energy but that was only a issue for a few VOY Episodes
Personally I wouldn't want to be sleeping and have my bed and cabin suddenly disappear because of a glitch in the holodeck... 😂
@Penfolduk001 "wow, what an interesting bedroom you have. What's that unusual couch over there for?"
"...safety protocols off..."
Have you seen how often the holodeck tries to kill people? I wouldn't want one for a bedroom.
@@enisra_bowman I think that Picard also solved the Holodeck thing with the separate, incompatible power systems because it makes sense as a place to congregate the crew and handle a LOT of things.
Hell, with the EMH, it also adds another location where you can deal with things outside of sickbay in a mass casualty or similar situation
I'm shocked at the scale of the Protostar being, at least presumably, smaller than the Defiant class. Makes sense considering it's race car inspirations, but what little I've managed to watch of this show gave me the impression that it was closer in scale to the Constitution class with a more current gen ship profile. Still a really cool ship class and I hope we haven't seen the last of them.
The show has scaling all over the place for dramatic effect, but from what we see of the interior it definitely seems suited to the 20 people listed for the crew. One small mess hall, an engineering space that's positively cramped by post-TNG standards, etc. I think it's just a bit deceptively arranged because it's stretched out compared to the Defiant and so much of it is actually taken up by the enclosed protowarp machinery.
@@leepky Glad to hear I wasn't alone in confusing the ship's scale. Still, it's cool to see Starfleet create a prototype ship that's basically three warp/protostar cores and a steering console. Sounds like something Tom Paris would try to make.
@@wolfpack_104people have been headcanoning Paris as the lead designer since the show came out, this is also what I think until they say otherwise!
@@kaitlyn__L Well that'd be cool if it's ever confirmed. Would definitely track with his love of fast vehicles (not to mention the possible captain proton reference). Here's hoping Prodigy season 2 gets out of limbo soon.
@@wolfpack_104 I definitely hope it gets confirmed! As to the scale, as stated in the video if we scale it based on the bridge it can’t be smaller than the Defiant. Personally I interpret the main body of the ship as being roughly Defiant sized (but with less internal space, since the rim is one deck thick instead of 3) with all the engines hanging off the back.
I just realized what the Protostar class reminded me of: The Warp Delta from Enterprise!
The big arrowhead wedge. The two extremely short narrow pylons with the path of propulsion going just above and just outside the main saucer. Built for a crew of 30. Few niceties since it was a propulsion and tech bed. Smooth underside and fore hiding the unaerodynamic experimental tech platform in the back. And if you squint a little, it even has a Duotronic take on that big dome covered bridge giving panoramic views from the dorsal side.
That tested Warp 2, this tests quantum slipstream, still proud little testbeds.
This ship is the answer to questions i had back in the 90s about Starfleet developing a rival drive comparable to the Romulan's quantum singularity reactor. Which is why i always found it ridiculous that the Fleet in discovery's Future would still be using Anti Matter in most of its ships. If Starfleet wishes to explore beyond the Galactic Barrier, they can't keeping using Anti-matter reactors.
I love that little ship (instantly thought of Worf and Riker in First Contact when I typed that…Riker saying ”tough little ship” to Worf who replies “little!”) Anyway, I love the design, it’s sleek and would be a great emergency response ship for the Federation.
It really is an exquisite little ship.
I definitely got some Flight of the Navigator vibes when shots featured the exterior forward hull.
It's not just very unique, it's very, very unique. Not just a bit unique, or half unique.
Somewhat unique
🤔
Rather quite extremely unique.
Semi unique
@@travelswithsi8932 of all the unique things, it’s the mostest
Question: Where do you find your official schematic vector images of the ships?
spacedock
They're not official ones, I tend to find schematics (Star Trek online promotional view pf the protostar class in this case) where I can then create my own stencils with those as reference in photoshop
@@CertifiablyIngame Thank you! I'm about to email you from my WizKids address. Just curious about possible future collabs. Thanks!
I always thought it's dome shaped hull reminded me of Max from Flight of the Navigator. Without the Warp Nacelles obviously.
I'm still trying to figure out the timeline with the fall of Romulus, but the Protostar Drive seems like something that would come out of several Romulan engineers working with Starfleet to design something, as it seems to be a far better option than the singularity drives that the RSE uses while being something that would utilize a lot of their tech fed through a Federation filter.
the way the STO Model has parts where you can actually look into an interior - so nice
4,000 Lightyears in a few minutes? Damn makes the timeframe for Voyagers journey back from the Delta Quadrant seem ridiculous. With the Protostar they could cover that in a couple of days
Well it was a Tom Paris project.
That's why it was built, it was constructed and spearheaded by Voyager crewmembers.
With the Right SetUp, you can easily get over Warp 204 while the Protowarp is activce, get a Cooldown of unter 20 Secopnds, and a Turnrate, that's way better than in Normal Warp
Looks like a next generation Nova-class replacement as a planetary survey vessel. Fill it with a bunch of scientists and move on to the next star system to chart it.
Nova is bigger. I say it more of a Raven class replacement.
Ludicrous Speed go!
Voyager was faster, but could only keep up her top speed for a short time before stuff broke. Protostar can do warp 9.97 for as long as it wants. So even without their super-drive, Protostar would still win.
Wanna be Belana and Tom were part of the design team?
@@singletona082 I'm also thinking that Romulans were involved since the contained protostar seems oddly similar to the Romulan contained singularity thing
@@AzraelThanatos That is an interesting idea.
I always had specific theory how protostar drive worked.
Basic emphasis, was Protostar was an experimental attempt by Federation and Starfleet to make a safer version of Romulan singularity engine core. But wanted a system they could potentially destroy, unlike a singularity they couldn't shutdown. Thus keeping anyone from stealing it.
The drive core functions like an artificial star, likely harvested high energy protomatter held in artificial gravity chamber like pre burner in fusion reactor. The baby star is fed a steady diet of gravitons and tachyons.
The system when engaged it is fed warp energy, which catalyzes the reaction producing enormous volumes of tachyons and displaces subspace, the radiative flux of the baby star, whose new gravitons are gravitationally attracted to adjacent stars. The big engines exhibit huge subspace driver coil designs, which helps to mitigate more ships mass than conventional subspace displacement systems. In much the same way the Enterprise D rode thru the distortion wave of the subspace damaged sector of harkaras.
According to Star Trek: Prodigy producer and screenwriter Aaron Waltke, the ship's NX registry is derived from his birthday of 8 August 1984.
It's my favorite ship in all of Star Trek. I want one!
I really like the design of the protostar, it is a far more logical step in starship design than the Pizza Cutter seen in STD, that thing had a literal jump drive before Starfleet had even built the transwarp drive for the Excelcior class, and it clearly didn't fit in the timeline where it was, the Protostar however does. I hope we get to see more of it in Prodigy season 2. It's a shame we never got an offical speed calculation for the protodrive, i personally recon it's about 1000ly/mn. Imagine if Voyager had that drive, they would have been back at earth in just over an hour, or at most, a _day._
Hopefully we get to see _Prodigy_ season two. Paramount seems to be trying to forget the show ever existed, much less has a full season ready (or nearly ready) to release.
It's certainly a beautiful starship... 😏
Wonderful and detailed breakdown of the Protostar I can't wait for season 2 of Star Trek Prodigy.
Now this one deserves the title of "one little ship"
i would say, that the Protostar is not a Courier, Scout or anything but more a pure testbed Prototyped, like the Turbinia or the Sea Shadow or the NX-Prototypes, only with longer travel distances in mind and to test a totally new propulsion system, while the Excelsior is more a ship like the Nautilus or the Nuclear Merchant Ships like Savannah or Otto Hahn
another awesome video sir i enjoy it a lot how many crew can the ship carry in your opinnion and also the exposed bridge desing like and acrylic cover its just mesmerizing
Beautiful ship, closest thing in Star Trek to the Normandy
I get more of an Orville feel
@@GrandInfernoElite
Orville is a ripoff of the Intrepid class, so yeah
@@drksideofthewal how? Because they're both exploratory ships?
@@GrandInfernoElite
Because the aesthetic of Orville is clearly and self admittedly, by the creator, inspired by Star Trek, and the Intrepid class popularized the triangular primary hull style of Federation ships which the Orville emulates.
@@drksideofthewal having the same basic shape isn't a ripoff, that's inspiration, if that. Otherwise the borg sphere would be a ripoff of the death star
hope we get to see it again, regardless of if prodigy continues or not
Only a crew of 20? At least half are engineers then, bridge crew of 6 (captain, first officer, helm/navigation in one, communications officer then a chief science officer and tactical officer), 3 science officers (since regular missions to the Delta Quadrant would require a heavy science compliment), 2 medical officers then the ship's Chief Engineer and their department of 8 engineers to maintain the warp cores and protostar drive
Duty shifts with such a small crew have got to be a nightmare. Assuming three eight-hour shifts, and a roughly even split, you've got no more than seven people on duty at any one time, which seems impractical. More likely the delta and gamma shifts have a caretaker staff of four, and would wake the rest of the crew as the need arose.
I think Nickelodeon have heavily underestimated the size of the Protostar
There is plenty of on-screen evidence to support this. We've got exterior footage of Janeway visible on the bridge of the Protostar as viewed from outside the ship, footage comparing Dal to Admiral Janeway, and footage of Dal walking along the edge windows of the saucer.
A 139 meter long ship would mean the bridge canopy would be at most 2.2 meters high at its tallest section. Rok-Tahk is 8ft tall, she would have to duck to enter any part of the bridge
If you measure the length of the bridge compared to Janeway and the characters you get a ship that is much bigger, comparable to Voyager or NCC-1701
The ship is 312 meters long
I love the Protostar-class.
I did not realize this thing was so tiny. Never going to watch the show, so STO was the first time I saw her alongside other ships, and in the internal docks of ESD.
I don't know why I assumed she was the size of the Sovereign or something similar, but now it seems even smaller than a Miranda.
indeed though that made no sense why Cryptic would put this ship in the infinity lockbox instead of putting it in the requisitions store i mean COMMON damnit i mean seriously? Cyptic?
@@FLAME4564 Yes, that honestly makes me mad.
I haven't seen the show yet, but I really like this ship for its size and efficiency in terms of minimal crew requirements. A ship with a smaller crew means you can build many more of these and send dedicated hand-picked specialists to go out and survey targeted areas all over the galaxy all at the same time. Starfleet Intelligence would be forced to work overtime going over so much new data!
I know Eaglemoss have gone out of business; boy do I wish they released a model of one of these!
i so badly need a deckplan of this ship. Its just soo good. Starfleet finally using all its tech.
I absolutely love this type of video. I screenshot (yeah for TH-cam) the last schematic in the video and then convert it into a wallpaper for my computer. Including this one, I now have 17 of them.
Man, here's hoping Prodigy comes back soon!
It's the concept of a 3D printer but in space and with a big honking engine strapped on.
Project ship series Nova class was suspended in the past.
The new version, uss Equinox class ship, are lost into Delta quadrant after a big jump.
USS Voyager find, fight and destroy uss Equinox.
This is the beginning of the new TV series, the uss Protostar ship..?
The birth of the new era for Nova class project..?
Mmmmm.... I don't know.... but very interesting...!
What is the protostar core exactly? Is it an actual young star held in a compressed space field like the TARDIS? Or is it some kind of mini-star made with proto-matter?
I really dig the windowed hallways along the saucer and the open canopy bridge. I'm going to get the ship in STO when I can and look forward to getting my hands on her ample nacelles, to paraphrase a famous engineer.
This gotta be one of my favourite new ship in recent Treks.
I like how small it is, very nimble and the design itself still feels in line with the current timeline and technology while also referencing lots of the past designs. Looking at 32-century Discovery, it felt too sharp and alien tech but I guess for that long of a period gap who knows what forced them to change
Still, I love some small yet fast ship, definitely my type and Protostar have all the goodness of being very trek-y in a fresh new way.
Star fleet corps of engineers must really hate bridge crews. How else can you explain putting it in such an exposed place?
Generally speaking, once the shields go down it really doesn’t matter where the bridge is. Most fights end in warp core breach.
Talk to the designers of the D7 and Katinga battlecruisers first.
@@Timeward76 Klingon ships have a similar design to ships from Avatar or Horizont Event. In front, the crew section separated from the engines by a long neck, because the engines are radioactive.
Protostar is not a warship, does not need strong armor. She has a super efficient shield and structural integrity field.
Ironically, this is actually one of the few places where I think it works, because on a ship that small and so heavily devoted to engines, anything that gets through the shield and hull at all is going to be a mission kill anyway.
Its a super-fast Nova. Awesome looking ship, though. I would love to see more of it.
I gotta wonder what happened to this class by the Discovery future era.
Obviously IRL production didn’t know about the class getting greenlit or budget wise they don’t have a model to work from (same reason no California classes I think).
But the protostar class sounds like something that could survive the burn. …or possibly be a bigger than normal explosion during the event. Unsure. But it feels like technology they would try to recreate. Unless season 2 has reasons why it might be abandoned.
Such as I dunno BEING PREGNANT WITH A BABY STAR like imagine everytime these types of ships got old enough they blow up and make a new star system
It's possible that production of the ship wasn't scalable. Presumably they needed to harvest a protostar every time they built one, and the demands of keeping it gravitationally confined must have been significant. Plus when it blows up it can disrupt entire systems.
I love those smaller "personal" ships in StarTrek. It feels more realistic to me I would say.
Less mass helps especially when a vehicle is traveling very fast.
"Realistic?" That's arguable. "Heroic?" Without a doubt. As John Paul Jones once said, "I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast, for I intend to go in harm's way." And the USS Protostar goes REALLY, REALLY FAST.
the protostar drive is basically just a warp version of a NOx injector on a drag racer.
Odd for sure but I like that you present these things as if they were actually real.
Thanks for yet anothet awesome ship breakdown, brother Ric!
While i have no love for Prodigy, i will admit that this ship is rather pleasing to look at.
This little ship is easily my favourite design of the "new" trek era
This would be a great design for scouts to accompany universe class ships.
Whenever I see Trek comments sections filled with people complaining that things "aren't realistic", I have to wonder: have they ever *watched* Star Trek?
I like the Protostar more than the defiant. There' I said it. I hope any future Defiant looks more like it than the DS9 Defiant.
Reminds me a bit of the Nova class... specifically the Rhode Island variant.
Its warp core reminds me of the black hole used by the Romulans.
This was a kool original design it is great the show was good the end was fitting.. it grew on me the characters were good and i came to care about them. And that says a lot about the writers great job
Didn't realize until this breakdown, but its seems to be a Shiny Nova class. And, I'm not saying that's a bad thing. I've always liked the Nova.
"The Delta Quadrant. I can't believe I'm back in the Delta Quadrant. Three times before this place almost killed me. I swore I'd never give it another chance to finish the job."
Starfleet should have included _Voyagers_ Galifreyan based shuttlebay technology.
They could fit it out to have more of the crew amenities that were generally the norm of the Fleet by reducing said crew to around 10 plus Holo stand-ins. In so doing, it could serve as either really big Runabouts or as Corvettes. Another use, depending on the size of the Mothership, would make these ships into well appointed Captain's Yachts.
I actually didn't like it in the first half of season 1, but it actually is an extremely cool ship with an awesome ascetic.
Beautiful little ship. My new favorite.
Two things: 1) Starfleet must have been *very* confident in the drive if they sent it straight back out to the Delta quadrant
2) I swear if I was put in charge of trek the first thing I would do is sort out all the scaling issues once and for all. They already spend a lot of time on ship design, and long term the design of the ships end up being quite important to the shows. It would take considerably more effort but I would just physically map out the ship's layout at the correct scale in a 3D model. If we were fortunate enough to get at least a mockup of a filming set for the ship then I'd use that to inform tweaks to the design before it was finished but if you design it with filming in mind in the first place it shouldn't be an issue.
Oh and I still find it really odd how Starfleet is using completely exposed bridges with either a single wall or actual windows, and how this isn't more of a plot point. I don't know if it is or not in Prodigy but I hope that the tech required a physical window to be there because of something the proto warp stuff does, it's a big missed opportunity if not
With a drive like this one could make the trip to the Andromeda galaxy in 625 jumps.
The protostar would be very good as a rapid response vehicle. However, allow it to focus on a specific specialization; and be modular. Maybe allow all that energy from the protostar warp core to be transitioned into weapons. That would allow it to go service Frontline craft in times of war. Or, have it be a space ambulance of sorts. Allowing it to be outfitted with a lot of medical bays instead of crew quarters.
I feel like those would be the best uses of the craft.
I got to Warp 261,57 - still missing the Buff from a Duty-Officer-Mission(The Antimatter-Leaks-Drilll), that needs to be a Critical Success to give me an additional 25% Bonus to Sector-Speed.
But that Warp 261,57 requires 2 Other Players, to Assign me the Federations "Grand Diplomatic Immunity" and "Assign Raiding Party" on me got me to that Speed with a Timed Buff.
Without that, My current Proto-Warp is at Warp 204,32.
Oh, and the Green Duty-Officer that gives you a Cooldown on Transwarp of 100% or even Better the one Purple that gives you a Transwarp-Cooldown of 200%, will both also reduce the Cooldown of the Protowarp.
It's so new you can still see people welding on it in some areas
"Does your ship have large engines?"
"Nahh. This engine have a ship."
Hope this series gets saved. It maybe for kids but as far as Star Trek goes it is the best I have scene of the new Trek.
I like the little ship, its really interesting.
"It's not really an 'exploration' vessel...."
Of course not. When you cover 4,000 lightyears in a single hop lasting minutes, you don't NEED it to be a traditional starfleet 'exploration' vessel. You point it at an area, tell the crew: 'go look around that spot for a month', and let it go.
A month later, it pops back to Federation space for some R&R.
She's definitely a tough little ship. Didn't realise she was half the size of an Intrepid though, that's pretty damn heavy when you think about potential combat. Odd Starfleet would make such a small ship with the capability it has but at the same time, Starfleet ships have plot armour
I think the in universe excuse is that the ship would basically run from any possible threat it encounters. Considering it’s first mission was to be a second contact ship for the delta quadrant I bet the idea was to simply be a blockade runner to bring supplies and diplomats to worlds that are too far or too dangerous for most ships.
Most likely its just a quick response ship, at the end of the season 2 finale they mention its a science vessel. Most likley then, its mission is to get in and record dangerous or quick events and collect data, then get out.
Then again, we have to remember that Stafleet *never designs warships*, but, after the Dominion war would do things like "lets build a medical vessel and arm it to the teeth, so its like a warship, but because we stuck more then the normal amount of sick bays we can call it a medical vessel". So they found ways around the "we never make warships" mentality.
@@AngelEmfrbl I suppose even as a science vessel, being a trial platform for weapons also falls under that
What’s different about this ship is the placement of the shuttle bays on the starboard and port bow of the saucer.
I wish eaglemoss was still in business. This would have been a cool figure to own.
Can you imagine a ship that is a skeletal system and its made of various holodeck technologies for its OUTSIDE shape/composition/components...
With enough energy and safety redundancies.. it to change it to whatever it wants
What's with all the sparking navigation lights?
if anybody plays star trek online, this ship is the fastest ship in the game and its alot of fun to fly
kind of surprised you didn't draw comparison to the romulan's artificial quantum singularity drive
I'm still wondering why they didn't build one with a Romulan style singularity core to power the drive.
It may be that it takes a great deal of infrastructure to manufacture Romulan style Singularity cores and it's not worth the effort for one ship.
@@RBAWintrow well I was just thinking of the protostar containment is that unstable in long-term operations why not use a slightly smaller Singularity core that runs at lower power but longer?
I think in Star Trek the Romulan singularity core is something like a Soviet nuclear reactor. Yes, it has a lot of power, but I wouldn't try to turn it off :))
@@tomasr. Well maybe not a repurposed Romulan drive but a singularity core would be an interesting second option for the Protostar drive.
My take is that the protostar can produce more energy in short bursts than any other known core power source can, including the singularity core.
The singularity core's power output is probably limited by the size of the singularity itself. To reach the power output of the protostar a singularity would likely be too large to keep contained. One phaser blast hitting the hull and _sluuuurrrrrp_ the whole ship implodes as it's sucked into the singularity.
Another amazing video
Make the ship 10% larger to add compherts and a bigger medical bay. With that, it should be a decent explorer while keeping its speed.
I also think you could only get 15-25% larger without structural redesigns.
Interesting little ship
Are the impulse engines at the tips of the nacelles or are they tucked in under the third nacelle behind the shuttle bay?
So the proto-engine was like nitrous bottle in a car used for "adding speed"?
Honestly that's a pretty great analogy, especially as concept/high speed cars were stated as part of its inspirations.
A starship with a NOS kit 😅
Just a heads up that the subtitles/transcript appears to include a lot of script that was cut from the final video. May want to remove those bits so that the subtitles are synced properly with the video. 🖖
Indeed. Interesting, but hard to follow.
I just realized how few truly compromise designs there are in Star Trek. They always have at least a bit of everything. I want to see a sphere that cannot do anything but fly and NOT DIE or something.
Wait they are going to turn something this small into a "ship of the line" of battle?
id love to get this ship as an account wide unlock with the bridge and stuff for STO
From the way the "protostar drive" is described here, it seems like the closest star trek drive technology to the far more generic and light-on-detail "quantum drive" powering the "planetary union" ships in "The Orville", the core of which at least visually looks a bit like a captured and massively shrunk star.
I wonder which came first: Was the protostar drive concept thought of before the Orville was?
man i love the design of the protostar also #save startrek prodigy i always belived the dauntless was a mother ships and the protostar was a scout ship they would send out first to make contact and then the dauntless would arrive later