"Second contact" missions are honestly the best thing Lower Decks has added to the lore. Someone's gotta come back and keep tabs on all those newly discovered civilizations!
Honestly! Its seriously a wonder they haven't been added to the lore sooner. The concept makes way, way too much sense. Like, prior to Lower Decks I'm pretty sure a lot of fans kinda just assumed Starfleet didn't make much of an effort to make sure their newly discovered civilizations are still okay after leaving.
@@StarRider587 there is little reason for most Trek stories to feature second contact, or whatever they used to call it in novels etc. The whole premise of calling it Second Contact is a joke, that would never have happened on a serious Trek show, except perhaps as a quip from someone like Riker.
Pretty sure the concept of second contact was established way before just not really shown. At least don't pretend this rick and morty side gag show is some trailblazer.
@@bipolarminddroppings And thus you get such situations as nobody ever checking up on Ceti Alpha V after Kirk marooned the "young supermen" there. And look how that turned out.
Maybe the caiforna class only got the strap on phonton lunchers after the battle of wolf 359. As far as being warp 8 being maxiun that seems low to be red line maxium pussing the limits would have a hard time keeping up with the fleet which was running at maxium emerancy fleet speed of warp 9.6. The only ship class designed to be able tp run at wapr 9.6 at all was defiant class which even maxed out pushing the red line defiant maxed out at warp 9.2. Even when dsn first got defiant it was limited to warp 8 maxiun redline because of shaking problems
I noticed in Star Trek Online you'll often hear an authority figure say something about assigning their finest ships, finest officers, finest researchers, finest warriors, etc. to a task. It made me wonder what the rest of fleet was doing. Now I know - they're assigned to Cali class ships!
Even in show it's implied a few times that Cali class is basically the bottom rung of ships actually getting sent out places. Their captains aren't invited to official captain functions and a Starbase was the only place mariner could be demoted to, implying even those Nova classes running orbital defense duty have higher status.
@@spaceengineeringempire4086 Oberth is largely a science vessel for studying strange things, and they still felt the need to call one to wolf 359 and the battle of sector 001. I know it has an fan reputation for being made of explodium, but it's clearly more important than a California stuck doing 2nd contact missions. I mean, they aren't testing illegal cloaking devices on the edge of federation space in California classes.
This is a great breakdown of a really cool ship. This is a concept that not many sci-fi franchises really bother to address - logistics is really important to have following in the wake of your combat and/or exploration vessels.
In the Dominion War, a lot of Cali-class ships were probably moving around just behind the front lines - Fast logistics ships were undoubtedly in constant demand.
@@katherineberger6329That's a great example of where they'd have been involved in events we saw on screen, but unlikely to have been visible becaues of the perspective we were given!
6:48 actually in the Season 3 Finale "The Stars At Night" when Captain Freeman asks Chief Engineer Billups for Full Throttle, he says that he doesn't know how much the struts can take; i have a feeling that during the California Class's development, they found out that if they went above Warp 8 for too long the Stardrive section would start to "Outrun" the Saucer section and put too much stress on the support struts that attach the Saucer section to the warp nacelles (mainly at the Nacelle joints, but sometimes at the saucer joints) and this stress would eventually rip the Saucer section off of them and backflip it into the stardrive and destroy the ship. (and as proven by the Pakleds in the Season One Finale "No Small Parts" a California Class's Nacelles can be VERY Easily ripped from the ship with enough physical force) and rather than completely redesigning the ship from scratch to fix this design flaw, they decided since the Cali Class isn't a front line ship that they will issue a "Never Exceed" speed restriction to their captains, First Officers, and Chief Engineers.
Its a cost effective design, that is the nature of a NAVY auxiliary ship. It can get the jobs done, while like you said freeing up ships that dont need to do the work they do. I can imagine that Starfleet actually has tons of ship lines like this. I imagine the Andorians, Telerites and Vulcans would prob spin off a few and name them after cites on their planets as well just to get jobs done in their local space zones.
reliability would be THE reason that it has such a big/powerful warp core while having a relatively low top speed. Running a higher powered core at a lower rating should mean that it needs less refueling, less maintenance, and a longer period between overhauls.
@@LostMercenary99 it's constant refits would turn the kitbash to a proper ship without ruining it's original silhouette. It would be a red dwarf style of ship.
In retrospect the California class is simply the full realization of the Miranda class. The Miranda had multiple prototypes before it, and while the Nebula class would eventually become the poster ship for that kind of design, I like to think the California class was an offshoot of the Miranda and nebula as a more low end vessel, much like the Miranda was, rather than using the Galaxy class components the nebula used.
It's the replacement of the Miranda class. As the Miranda's got superseded from being top of the line, they were increasingly relegated to background support roles. However, eventually, they started getting too old to be kept in service, and that's what probably spurred the creation of the California's as a purpose built support ship to handle all of the support tasks around the Federation when the Mirandas retired.
Not really, The Miranda is still a good ship and ship design. You are reaching to make sense for this shi to be a thing. The Miranda is a older ship yes, however she is still a great workhorse and can be refitted easily for any role. She should have been the ship in this series not some monstrosity that is meant to be funny looking to go with a comedy show that is TLDs. Don't get me wrong it's a good show but let's face it, it's not supposed to be taken seriously. I like it because it tries to stick to canon lore and a likable cast. The show focuses on everyone and not just one individual. I wish STDis had the same formula as TLDs actually feels like a trek show that could easily fit in along side tng
The California class ship: All the replicators serve nothing but Kale recipes, Daily Yoga is mandatory, and the rest of the day is spent on a Spring Break Holideck program. 😂
Texas-class. They were automated, AI controlled drone ships. They were super short lived and were axed because they overprioritized mission efficiency to a fault, failing to scan planets for life forms and violating the Prime Directive. Also, the class was built on faulty AI programming and they turned against its creator and Starfleet.
I get "why" it was made, but also don't get "why" it was made. I still think a Miranda class would have fit all these requirements perfectly, both in meta and in actual story. Especially considering how the Feds were just throwing a Mirandas away (basically) in the dominion war. I'd assume at the point of the show that they'd be up to their necks in excess Mirandas that could perform these roles, if not better.
The California-class strikes me as purposely designed to be cheap to crank out a large fleet of 2nd/3rd line vessels: No swooping lines, lots of near 90° angles, flash planes and cylinders, very geometric. A warp core from some other class that's easy to build our they had lots of spares on hand That rather exposed saucer hull Cheap to fit out, minimal armament, no family facilities Low crew complement and no families make it cheap to staff, which can make it smaller overall, also makes it cheap I think the low speed is a consequence of the simple design, there seems to be a concept of "warp dynamics" in the lore. Like, top speed is power × efficiency ÷ size Galaxy class is powerful and somewhat efficient Sovereign class is powerful and very efficient Voyager class is less powerful but very efficient Cally class is less powerful and very inefficient. Hence warp 8.
@tomhenry897 going by memory alpha it ranges from 200 to 430, again depending on the Era. Refits no doubt changed the crew complement. Still very close to the California Class.
"Suggesting not all starships need illustrious legacies of names." Says someone who's royal navy had warship classes named "Towne" and "Flower." Heh....not every ship can be named Audacious or Warspite.
I'd probably beg to differ as the warp core is more so easy to shoot for an easy explosion. Plus, its weak stick design holding the main saucer makes it for an even easier shoot detach. The ship from everything. over all design flaws on combat basically screams. Kill me in more options.
I don't belive from a in-universe prespective that this ship was meant to be a combat ship, the way the for torpedos are on there says they were add just to satisfy some admirals request.
There was somthin off with the windows in season 1, almost the where a texture separate from the model and needed to be applied with every new shot, causing them to shift positions randomly. It seems like they fixed that in the newer seasons.
@@omegaprime9794 Season had apperntly encountered rushed development on the ship scale front so they did the best until more funding and time could be obtained for later seasons cleverly hidden as a major refit.
A lower warp speed because the class wasn't designed for speed but for utility, makes a lot of sense. Like sea going tugs in modern day, powerful engines but their speed isn't as fast as the engine power would suggest it should be, yet they can tow vessels many times their size at relatively high speeds. So the California class could easily tow a vessel or station larger than itself and at a respectable warp speed too, I bet, with enough power for stronger tractor beams and such.
so basically a space tractor, all that grunt to pull whatever is needed, like when they pulled a ENORMOUS generation ship whit just 2 Cali class ships, the Cerritos and Merced, just shows that they can pull big things
Respectively I've always chuckled to the use of the word "speed". Warp technically is not speed but just what it implies. Unless a ships design has a limited function in use, I don't see how warp "speed" would be relevant to a star ships design. Unless the core it's self was designed just so for what levels are needed for said ship.
I don't know what you're on about. Speed is the time it takes to do something, in this case get from point a to point b. You can indeed measure speed from warp.
@@Usa_mikek It's down to a number of factors the California's warp bubble would be huge almost spherical and create a lot of "subspace drag" if they stretched the pylong back more like a Steamrunner it would be quicker. I can't think of any advantage to stacking the ship so tall as that, but it's not the only ship that is unusually tall, but the term as aerodynamic as a brick comes to mind. I think the whole thing ends up looking a little Hydrofoil like to me.
I mean I don't recall anyone saying it was a 'bad' ship, just that it was an ugly one. I can love the ship and still not like the look. It DOES 'look' like a tugboat/utility vessel though.
I don't like it. It wasteful, getting rid of the secondary hull and building the engineering section either into the saucer or directly attaching it to the bottom of saucer section if they just have to have a secondary hull is still better option. The warp nacelles then could be moved further away and the pylons shortened a bit. The ship would still be bare bones while removing the vulnerability it has.
They are basically the escort/tug boats of the fleet, not taken seriously but are a critical and vital asset that keeps the entire organization from collapsing. I love em and i love the Cerritos and all the California ships :D
Kind of sums up the show. The whole cast are all brilliant in their own right. All very skilled and on any other ship would still be outshined by others. Yet, on this "Meh" ship. Their exploits and duties make them feel important. Maybe not doing first contact or exploring strange new worlds. Or on the Frontline kicking ass (or ass kicked). They are providing the background roll that everyone forgets about. And Lower Decks just adds layers to the Alpha Lore of Star Trek kind of needed. Cause only a handful of series had only episodes exploring this kind of thing. It maybe Meh, but it is honest work.
A possible reason as to why California Class ships have such oversized warp cores is perhaps instead of designing a specific warp core for the Cali class, they took an existing warp core that belonged to another class and adapted the Cali class to use it. Then all they would have to do is place a sort of governor on the warp core to prevent it from using its full power, as this could cause damage (as we saw in the season 3 finale). This would save a lot of time and work that would be required to design a custom warp core. Also, with the Cali class being built with utility in mind, this larger warp core would give them plenty of energy for intensive tasks, like towing other vessels.
It closely matches the TNG warp core, just with the white orb around the reaction chamber removed so we see more of the coolant guts. (Edit: haha it’s actually a silver orb in TNG, clearly my DS9-first brain shows through here) And since the video compared against the Defiant, the Defiant core also closely matched the TNG one but instead built the white orb into the floor and bent a lot of the plasma and coolant injection tubes around like a snake to fit. Two different approaches which achieve similar aims
makes sense. one of the biggest time sinks in setting up modern nuclear power plants is designing the reactor. this is kinda the whole appeal of small modular reactors - design it well once, then plug one in where you need power.
It also makes for a great real-world training bed for engineers that might end up on those larger, more frontline ships while still maintaining a purpose outside of just a trainer.
For me, this brings to the mind the original IBM PC. From what I understand, when IBM designed their first PC they didn't use custom-made parts. Instead, they just took off-the-shelf parts and put them together to make a computer.
The reason that Excelsiors and Mirandas couldn't just be used for all the support task is that Starfleet would have lost a lot of their older second teir ships during the Dominion War. They didn't have enough old ships left for the job.
yeah, this makes sense. The Dominion War really increased the attrition rate of the Mirandas and Excelsiors, not just from combat but also just due to being pushed hard and probably not prioritized for repairs and maintenance as much as the newer more combat capable ships.
_"First contact is a delicate, high-stakes operation of diplomacy, one must be ready for anything when humanity is interacting with an alien race for the first time."_ _"But we don't do that."_ _"Our specialty is second contact, still pretty important, We get paperwork signed, make sure we spell the name of the planet right, get to know all the good places to eat..."_ Brad Boimler. USS Cerritos. 😹
Honestly something I really appreciate about Lower Decks and by extension this class is that they show that even the really exciting world of space exploration and discovery can be very boring at times. Sure, you've got your first contacts, your contact with godlike entities, your wars, your intelligence gathering... but then you've got people that need to clean up afterwards and not just leave when things quieten down. You have to perform on your commitments. This is perfect for comedy, of course, but you could never show it in serious media, which is why we haven't really seen it in over fifty years of Star Trek.
It blows my mind that Lower Decks has added the most coherent lore from the NuTrek series. And that as a series it constantly points out or tries to resolve plot holes created by other shoes. I realise it's for laughs, but that's the thing. Instead of causing more weirdness like tardigrade flown teleporting ships or alternate timeline borg. Which is what I actually expected from a comedy. It goes out of it's way to resolve some ofthese issues, as best it can, even if it's resolved in a goofy way, it's cleaning up the mess of other series.
in other words, the writers and artists are willing to put their money where their mouths are and show their love of star trek, not just talk about it. Some of the other production teams have seemed far less ready to show.
I like how, intentionally or not, the Cali class looks like it came straight from the FASA era of Trek where they kinda just took Enterprise bits and threw them together (looking at you Freedom, Loknar, and Decker-class).
I thought that the warp core was especially strong not to make the cali class ships fast, but strong. They're more of a tow truck or a tug boat than a racing car.... I read somewhere that's actually why their name is facing back instead of to the front, so that it's readable from the ship that's being towed.
There's also the fact that most feddie tech can be made to work better just by pumping more power into it. Maybe the oversized warp core was used to make up for the other resource and part limitations imposed by the ship's design budget, account for having less of everything by making it all work just a touch better or something like that.
The other ships may have the bells and whistles, but the Cali has the charm. It's like the difference between just buying a sports car and having a lovingly repaired old banger that you've brought back into it's prime. You're always going to feel more attached to the old banger.
Always goes to show that Roddenberry's insistence that Starfleet ships should all share resemblance doesn't restrict creative artists in any way. Just a simple notion of attaching the nacelles and not the secondary hull to the main saucer is so subtle yet so distinct.
The California class starship was one of the reasons I was initially hesitant to watch Lower Decks, but just like how the show has grown on me, so did the ship as well. And your video just makes it even better.
I was the same way. Really, wasn't so much the ship though. I kind of like ugly ships. All because in STO, I own the Jupiter-Class Federation Carrier. She ain't pretty. Almost looks like a Space Whale. But I like her. The real reason I was unsure I'd like the series was the humor. And well...I watched some clips of some episodes. And my tone changed. Thus went to watch the series. I really need to get down to watching all of Season 3. Just been too busy.
@@ReddwarfIV Ugly, but I want one. If it was in STO. I would buy it. Though, I am not much of a Cruiser captain. I am very much a big ship Dreadnought or Carrier captain, lol. But, I'd buy it.
The California class is basically the Toyota Camry of the federation it's not going to stand out but it's definitely going to get you where you need to go and could definitely take a lot of mileage.
The Toyota Hilux of starships. Hell, with that oversized warp core you could probably strap some ludicrously oversized weapons to it and make it into a space technical.
Overpowered warp core allows the ship to have more power for actions like towing, power transfer beams, and other engineering style operations. Unlike other ships which divert warp power for speed, this ship diverted it for torque. It was the Clydesdale to the enterprises thoroughbred, allowing the ship to brute force things with its engines that other ships might not.
I love the Callie class, such a workhorse. It's grown on me so much I put it in my top five "hero" ships. It's distinctive, awkward and a bit ungainly. That's why I love it. It's an "Everyman ship"
I've always thought the California Class looked like a design predecessor to the Steamrunner Class, from before whatever engineering breakthrough was necessary to safely run the nacelles through the saucer section.
I'm assuming that was another lesson learned from The Defiant class - not needing open space between nacelles (even if it might still be better in most circumstances).
@@phillippatryndal4255 Ah but there is open space between the nacelles, the underside of the Defiant class shows that the nacelles are exposed to each other.
Oberth: Blows up if you look at it funny. Cali: Takes one of the most hellacious beatings a starship has ever dished out on screen, is repaired in weeks.
I dig the California class and their design. They very much look like they fit the very roll they were built to fit. Simplicity, ease of manufacture and maintenance are key things when doing, well, basically long haul truck work. The California class may not go out to uncharted space (on purpose) but they do need the ability to cruise at warp for long periods and be repaired in the field because 2nd contact still often happens out at the edges of Federation space. That over powered warp core can be their biggest strength on the fact it should need little maintenance itself as it never really has to be pushed hard. And having good, strong shielding is important in a ship not really meant to pick a fight, but hopefully take some blows till help arrives.
@@sokagofferenginar8669 That is true, but any ships pushing the bounds of Federation Space tend to be much better armed, armored and shielded. Ironically enough, any ships pushing the frontier tend to be closer to the ragged edge of their capabilities, needing more maintenance in field.
I've heard a theory that the reason the Calis are so aesthetically minimalistic and more cramped/overpopulated with communal bunks compared to other ships is that it served as essentially a troop transport like the WW2 Liberty Ships during the Dominion War, with shipyards churning out a design based on available spare parts and whatever design could press ships into service the fastest.
That would make sense if I remember correctly the shipyards were literally pumping out ships with the easiest and simplest designs to maximise output, so instead of a galaxy every 5 years they would have 10 defiants in a month. That would explain the basic design along with the workhorses of the fleet that are not over a hundred years old serving as troop ships during the war
I like the visible step showing the decks, and the Torpedo blisters. Those are interesting ideas. I also like the extra thick saucer. & the hull accent colour idea.
@@originaluddite They literally just cut-and-paste the saucer for the Neo-Constitution from the refit version. Even the window placements are exactly the same. Such a lazy design...
The C student of starship classes Fun fact: the overpowered warp core can generate additional internal shielding so crew can get past the nacelles to other areas of the ship without being irradiated
@@martinjrgensen8234 yeah i dont see the hate for Mirandas, they're chunky no-nonsense ships unlike Oberth witch is some weirdly undersized super-shuttle with a surfboard thing attached to the bottom because they forgot to add space for luggage.
@@confuseatronica my headcanon is that eventually they started running out of Mirandas to use for support roles and built the California class as a cheap ship made to do the same thing as they'd been using Mirandas for
I didn't like it at first but once I saw the tone of the show I grew to love it. It's perfect for Lower Decks. I even bought the XL Eaglemoss (RIP) model.
@@Venslor Yeah, sucks, even used or broken models are going for 3x the new price. And no one does anything remotely close to as good as their original quality.
@@Venslordepending on your country there’s remaining-stock reseller options. A few ships are way marked-up but a few are only like 150% price. Of course you have to be watching the site and act quickly when something comes up
The California Class is basically Starfleet’s replacement for the Miranda Class. They’ll be carrying out “second contact”missions, Starbase resupplying duties, etc…
The Californias are the Toyota pickups of the TNG era. Cheap, tough, get it done, but no glitz or glam to be found. Probably still has a hand crank for the windows.
You left out the most important detail, hopefully because you thought everyone knew about it already. The name for each Cali class was printed on the REAR of the saucer section, similar to tug boats.
I like the California class, but it's just the latest point in a very annoying line in star trek lore; the naming of ships There are hundreds of federation member planets, but every ship is just named after an earth thing, from mytths like the Titans, to rivers on Tellus, to ships like the Enterprise, to cities in California Vulkan is a fully developed language, and you can't even come up with Vulkan ship names for starfleet vessels?
Also, it's been 200 years since the inception of the Federation. Plenty of history / fan recognized canon to celebrate with the ships names. I can see using alien names can be problematic for viewers, you want a marketable name. But something in canon the viewers know would work like a charm. In a sense Star Trek's ship naming convention is as if the US named their capital William The Conqueror instead of Washington.
It's probably due to a starfleet originating as a Pre-Federation Earth organization, and as a result, probably having a "bias" when naming classes and starships, it also doesn't help that starfleet in large portion is still seemingly made up of mostly human personnel, at least 60% or more.
Looking on Memory Alpha for non-Earth names… there _are_ a few examples of Starfleet ships with them, but with one or two exceptions they all seem to be names of non-human characters established in earlier series/movies, and it is all in names of specific ships, not ship classes.
As someone who lives in Riverside, CA, I was thrilled when I heard my city now had a ship named after it in Star Trek. Hearing it on screen made me fist pump the air so much. Three cheers for the California class!
My American Grandparents (who fun fact: are Star Trek fans themselves) live in Cerritos! I’m personally waiting for a U.S.S. Pomona or U.S.S. La Puente to be added to the roster of California Classes!
@@magicpokey4922until that episode where the entire fleet of California classes teamed up to take down one Texas class, betting against a California class was a very safe bet as that was the first time we ever saw a Cali survive combat without being bailed out by another class of ship or resorting to a boarding action.
@@jessamynpratt5068 by ejecting it's warp core while they were in hot pursuit, something they could only do because of the circumstances making Cerritos a high value target(which is also why the fleet action went so well) . Even then, that's like saying an Oberth can take out any ship because it has a self destruct system or you could just throw an absurd number at the target. .
@@peterhans3791 It's actually because the California had an incredibly useful component that the Texas lacked. A crew. You may laugh, but the multiple perspectives and genuine team aboard a California was able to come up with an innovative solution that a single minded advanced AI couldn't think of. Call me a romantic, but not everything about a ship is obvious from its stat sheet. The Texas Class didn't have friends to come and back it up other than a couple carbon copies of itself. It didn't have a caring Orion ensign to call it out when it forgot what it was there for. It didn't have an experienced and crazy Bajoran guerilla to propose stupid plans. It certainly didn't make a place special enough for even the people it hurt to still come back and save it. Star Fleet ships with the biggest photon torpedo bays and the fastest warp drives, but no weird diverse community to support them are dead in the water. That's why the California beat the Texas.
Well, the design probably *is* still a touch ungainly, but I do feel like someone missed their chance to make these a bit more like a TNG-era Ptolemy-class that can carry big modules of stuff or people, or even trains of such. Feels like if that deflector/engine pod was a bit higher or lower they'd slot right in. Maybe still could.
If it makes you feel better, Star Trek Online has been including a California class in seemingly every fleet action featured in missions lately. Usually noticeable in cutscenes.
personally i thought it was a mobile shipyard. in-between the saucer and the warp core they would repair ships. even extend the space to work on bigger ships.
I have the Cali class in star trek online and i love it, it handles very well and way tougher than you think, i fitted consoles to repair teammates or multi tractorbeam the enemies...and terraforming gas is nasty suprise if used well, awesome non hero ship!
The STO description for the Cali class is great: 'They aren't the fastest in the fleet, nor the toughest, nor even the prettiest by the opinion of most, but the California-class still has it where it counts... what exactly "it" is can be difficult to define. Or locate.'
I think the deflector dish and nacelles are from a Steamrunner. They just flipped the section upside down and extended the nacelles out with minimal plating and attached a saucer section to it. This way they can use already constructed parts with very little new fabrication like the Yeager class.
Actually a ship like the California would be needed you can't always use your flagship or long range ships to do the grunt work you have to have ships designed to do follow up work move supplies and people and do all the little things to keep both the Federation and Starfleet moving ❤️❤️❤️❤️
As someone who has family in California, there is just something about this class that resonates with me, and I yearn for the day. The writers of Lower Decks names a Cali ship for Sonoma County.
Gives me Y wing from the OT start wars vibes "workhorse of the fleet, it's not fast but it'll get the job done, she's got tough shielding, which is good because you'll be going nowhere fast"
I think another reason the top speed isn't great was mentioned as the nacelle pylons aren't strong to hold onto the saucer at full output - might also be a good setup for another great 'fly her apart' moment =D
Legitimately my favorite federation starships to date. Something about its workhorse and "blue collar" vibe made me almost instantly fall in love with it. Hell, I fell in love with it faster than most of the ship classes they've decided to slap the name "Enterprise" on. Nothing against the Enterprises, but I think this is a much needed change of pace.
Didn't they have unusually strong tractor systems? Because they were expected to tow heavy stuff around, like other ships, meteorites, parts of construction sites? I thought that was why their warp core was so strong, to fuel those. Or am i just being mandela effected right now?
Aside from its flying saucer sitting on a saw horse look, the biggest problem that I have with the California's design is the placement of Engineering. So not only do you have to ride the turbo-lift down those skinny support pylons, but you have to walk through corridors that run inside of the warp nacelles. That are supposed to be so dangerously radioactive that they're held away from the ship's habitable sections on those spindly pylons that can break so easily.
I figured the turboshafts were heavily shielded and the lifts dropped you off inside the secondary hull proper. We’ve never seen corridors inside the nacelles, at best a small control room at the front (in TNG and SNW)
@@kaitlyn__L I always thought that having control rooms in the nacelles was crazy for exactly the same reason. That's what Engineering is for. And from what I recall of the one in TNG, the only thing separating you from being instantly disintegrated in a stream of extremely high-energy plasma was a semi-permeable force field that you could just walk through. Utter madness.
@@1TW1-m5i A similar suggestion having been given for the Oberth class. It would work...unless there's a power outage. Or the ship is smack dab in one of any number of those conditions where transporters go all wonky.
@@KenoshiAkai the idea they were permanently manned in that TNG episode is really silly. But the episode does show a large door which comes down, much like the shuttlebays, and I’m pretty sure he had to turn off the forcefield rather than being allowed through it. I liked that the one in SNW by contrast was only occasionally used, and had a very thick transparent aluminium (plexiglass) window just like there is around the dilithium reaction chamber in the Engineering set. Which was a nice progression imo from the whole-nacelle “catwalk” in Enterprise, where they had to be totally shut down to even go into the small room at the front and of course were also not usually manned. No way anyone’s jumping into the plasma stream in either of those designs!
Although I hated the nacelle-mounted engineering section from the start, I must admit that your description of the Cali class changed my view of the Cerritos and her sister ships. Despite being ugly 😋 it really seems to be a perfectly useful ship.
The California Class is to Starfleet what Alfred is to Batman. I confess. I didn't expect something done in the spirit of pure comedy to turn out so well. There is no glamour, there is no recognition for the work done by the California class ships and crews and yet, their misadventures and tedious routine prove to be as interesting to me as a mission done by Interprise, DS9 or Voyager. And sometimes, they show that they owe nothing in excellence to crews or missions of great importance even if they seem clumsy. They can do it, even though they are mostly average people. They often remind me of Lieutenant Barclay. Capable but underrated both because of his personality and because he's surrounded by highly qualified people who make him just a push of buttons in the corner of the room.
I see it as a Turtle of ships. Yes its slow, but it steady and just keeps moving to get the job done. Personally I think the reason that its warp core can't get it going faster is because of 2 things. 1) Because of the shape of the ship and relation of the warp nacelles to the saucer the Warp bubble geometry is probably an issue. 2) Starfleet just didn't bother to improve it. Its to small and weak for it to be a front line ship, and its not going to be rushing off for emergencies.
Easy to build, easy to maintance, and carry day-to-day jobs of the Federation while other shinny exploritory crusier get the spotlight. WW2 Liberty class of the 24th century Federation What not to admire the little guys?
I love these renderings, of the Cali class. Also, just to point out from dialogue and my thoughts of its capabilities. ... re max warp speed.. just that the limiting factor in achieving higher speeds seems to the the struts, connecting the star drive to the saucer. Though it did seem like it was straining to maintain warp 9... it could be that the structural integrity field generators wmay have been pushed beyond their max and causing turbulence in the warp plasma... and creating the electrical phenomenon, as seen in the season 3 finale. I would guess that if the structural integrity could be maintained safely, I bet the Cali class could do warp 9.2-9.4. Just my head canon and theory. 🙂 Thanks as always for your great video, Ric. 🤠🖖
the cali is SURPRISNGLY good in Sar Trek Online. despite its size, it's incredibly durable. it actually makes for a great beam boat, but i like to full impulse into a group of enemies and release terraforming emulsion while vomiting beams everywhere
I like and appreciate seeing the auxiliary ships that do the behind the scenes work that makes a big organization like Starfleet work. Our existing terrestrial Navy has all sorts of auxiliary craft for all sorts of specialized roles, and it totally follows that Star Fleet would have those same kinds of specialized auxiliary craft needs too! Good video on this understated ship!
I know there's likely not much info on it on top of being from the Kelvin universe, but can you take a look at the Aegis from bridge crew? she's become a personal favorite of me and my friends and doesn't get much mention these days.
I love Star Trek Lower Deck and enjoyed the video. The California class is perfectly "fine" because it's not suppose to be special, just do the job and move onto the next job.
I picture an episode where a second contact asks “Cerritos? What does a Cerritos taste like” “It’s a ship not a food” And then later on in the episode a massive creature tries to take a bite out of the Cerritos.
Back in the days of Those Old Scientists, they used to assign Constitution-class ships to such basic tasks as ferrying grain or checking on mining outposts. Now they can just send a California-class out there, and keep the big fancy hero ships out on the frontier to do big fancy hero things.
mabye they juat put in an older warp core and overcharged it, so it could only push 8 or 9? like for example they just yoink an old Excelsior core and tune it up balls to the wall?
I know this isn't a Star Trek ship, but I was wondering if you might make a video on the C-57D from The Forbidden Planet at some point and, if possible (just for a little fun), how this ship could have hypothetically worked in a Star Trek setting if The Forbidden Planet had been set the Star Trek Universe..?
The issue i have with most of these federation ships is that they always put the nessels so FAR from the base of the ship. I guess its for safety incase it explodes… and for repairing the coils easier. But it just widens the shields and requires the crew to be more mindful of the additional length.
I still think the secondery hull should have been joined to the primary hull with a piece in the middle. Would love to see it get another upgrade and getting a connecting section addded then.
"Second contact" missions are honestly the best thing Lower Decks has added to the lore. Someone's gotta come back and keep tabs on all those newly discovered civilizations!
Honestly! Its seriously a wonder they haven't been added to the lore sooner. The concept makes way, way too much sense. Like, prior to Lower Decks I'm pretty sure a lot of fans kinda just assumed Starfleet didn't make much of an effort to make sure their newly discovered civilizations are still okay after leaving.
You mean officially called that. It has been a thing in the comics for decades.
@@StarRider587 there is little reason for most Trek stories to feature second contact, or whatever they used to call it in novels etc.
The whole premise of calling it Second Contact is a joke, that would never have happened on a serious Trek show, except perhaps as a quip from someone like Riker.
Pretty sure the concept of second contact was established way before just not really shown. At least don't pretend this rick and morty side gag show is some trailblazer.
@@bipolarminddroppings And thus you get such situations as nobody ever checking up on Ceti Alpha V after Kirk marooned the "young supermen" there. And look how that turned out.
I love how combat is so far away from the ship's purpose that the torpedo tubes look like they were slapped on as an afterthought.
The engineers were like "oh right, this utility ship might actually have to fight sometimes"
@@JohnPeacekeeper”Wait we have to launch a probe? Ummm get the duct tape”
They look like the weapons equivalent of pop-up headlights.
Maybe the caiforna class only got the strap on phonton lunchers after the battle of wolf 359. As far as being warp 8 being maxiun that seems low to be red line maxium pussing the limits would have a hard time keeping up with the fleet which was running at maxium emerancy fleet speed of warp 9.6. The only ship class designed to be able tp run at wapr 9.6 at all was defiant class which even maxed out pushing the red line defiant maxed out at warp 9.2. Even when dsn first got defiant it was limited to warp 8 maxiun redline because of shaking problems
The entire ship is just one big kitbash that violates so many principles of Starfleet ship design.
I noticed in Star Trek Online you'll often hear an authority figure say something about assigning their finest ships, finest officers, finest researchers, finest warriors, etc. to a task. It made me wonder what the rest of fleet was doing. Now I know - they're assigned to Cali class ships!
Even in show it's implied a few times that Cali class is basically the bottom rung of ships actually getting sent out places. Their captains aren't invited to official captain functions and a Starbase was the only place mariner could be demoted to, implying even those Nova classes running orbital defense duty have higher status.
@@peterhans3791 . I mean the oberth class still exist so I suspect a cali class is higher than that.
@@spaceengineeringempire4086 Oberth is largely a science vessel for studying strange things, and they still felt the need to call one to wolf 359 and the battle of sector 001. I know it has an fan reputation for being made of explodium, but it's clearly more important than a California stuck doing 2nd contact missions. I mean, they aren't testing illegal cloaking devices on the edge of federation space in California classes.
@@peterhans3791Or they are, and the California classes do it better.
The California Class may not be much to look at but she's got it when it counts. I would be proud to captain a vessel such as this.
She can also make .5 past lightspeed. Wait, wrong fanchise... 😄
When i first saw it i wasn't a fan but 3 seasons going on 4 with lower decks and i've fallen in love with this coffee table of a ship
9:39. "Coast by and get the job done on time." Story of my life.
This is a great breakdown of a really cool ship. This is a concept that not many sci-fi franchises really bother to address - logistics is really important to have following in the wake of your combat and/or exploration vessels.
In the Dominion War, a lot of Cali-class ships were probably moving around just behind the front lines - Fast logistics ships were undoubtedly in constant demand.
@@katherineberger6329That's a great example of where they'd have been involved in events we saw on screen, but unlikely to have been visible becaues of the perspective we were given!
you do such an impressive job of explaining the design and features of ship classes that really make no sense at all. nice work
6:48 actually in the Season 3 Finale "The Stars At Night" when Captain Freeman asks Chief Engineer Billups for Full Throttle, he says that he doesn't know how much the struts can take; i have a feeling that during the California Class's development, they found out that if they went above Warp 8 for too long the Stardrive section would start to "Outrun" the Saucer section and put too much stress on the support struts that attach the Saucer section to the warp nacelles (mainly at the Nacelle joints, but sometimes at the saucer joints) and this stress would eventually rip the Saucer section off of them and backflip it into the stardrive and destroy the ship. (and as proven by the Pakleds in the Season One Finale "No Small Parts" a California Class's Nacelles can be VERY Easily ripped from the ship with enough physical force) and rather than completely redesigning the ship from scratch to fix this design flaw, they decided since the Cali Class isn't a front line ship that they will issue a "Never Exceed" speed restriction to their captains, First Officers, and Chief Engineers.
"A perfectly fine ship that does not stand out in any respect." The perfect ship class for Lower Decks.
Its a cost effective design, that is the nature of a NAVY auxiliary ship. It can get the jobs done, while like you said freeing up ships that dont need to do the work they do. I can imagine that Starfleet actually has tons of ship lines like this. I imagine the Andorians, Telerites and Vulcans would prob spin off a few and name them after cites on their planets as well just to get jobs done in their local space zones.
Yeah my headcanon has always been that once a civilisation joins the Federation they repurpose their existing ships for this kind of local work
Can you imagine killing your way to a promotion to being captain of... a Klingon Ammunition Support Ship?
reliability would be THE reason that it has such a big/powerful warp core while having a relatively low top speed. Running a higher powered core at a lower rating should mean that it needs less refueling, less maintenance, and a longer period between overhauls.
The hero ship should have been a Yeager class though.
What kind of monster are you?
The Yeager better not get stuck in the Delta Quadrant
@@LostMercenary99 it's constant refits would turn the kitbash to a proper ship without ruining it's original silhouette. It would be a red dwarf style of ship.
They painted a Miranda class with TNG colours,flip it upside down and Bullpuped it
Love how you constantly seemed unsure of what to say about this ship and being at a loss of words so often.
California Class development mission patch motto: "'Good enough' is perfect."
When the California class was first revealed I hated it. But over time I grew to love the plucky starship class.
"To carefully go where others have gone before!"
In retrospect the California class is simply the full realization of the Miranda class. The Miranda had multiple prototypes before it, and while the Nebula class would eventually become the poster ship for that kind of design, I like to think the California class was an offshoot of the Miranda and nebula as a more low end vessel, much like the Miranda was, rather than using the Galaxy class components the nebula used.
It's the replacement of the Miranda class. As the Miranda's got superseded from being top of the line, they were increasingly relegated to background support roles. However, eventually, they started getting too old to be kept in service, and that's what probably spurred the creation of the California's as a purpose built support ship to handle all of the support tasks around the Federation when the Mirandas retired.
@@patrickwilkinson7351makes sense! Honestly the Cali is a pretty suitable successor. Not quite high end ship, but robust enough to take a hit!
Not really,
The Miranda is still a good ship and ship design.
You are reaching to make sense for this shi to be a thing.
The Miranda is a older ship yes, however she is still a great workhorse and can be refitted easily for any role.
She should have been the ship in this series not some monstrosity that is meant to be funny looking to go with a comedy show that is TLDs.
Don't get me wrong it's a good show but let's face it, it's not supposed to be taken seriously.
I like it because it tries to stick to canon lore and a likable cast.
The show focuses on everyone and not just one individual.
I wish STDis had the same formula as TLDs actually feels like a trek show that could easily fit in along side tng
The California class ship: All the replicators serve nothing but Kale recipes, Daily Yoga is mandatory, and the rest of the day is spent on a Spring Break Holideck program. 😂
I remember an episode of the Lower Decks where a successor to the California Class was introduced too.
Texas-class. They were automated, AI controlled drone ships. They were super short lived and were axed because they overprioritized mission efficiency to a fault, failing to scan planets for life forms and violating the Prime Directive.
Also, the class was built on faulty AI programming and they turned against its creator and Starfleet.
@@StarRider587And later on, unfinished Texas-class were converted into crewed ships, which were hella spartan
I love the California class, and I hope we get a plastic model kit of it like they do in the show!
Little surprised these things don’t get attacked a lot. You’d think the work horse of the fleet would be an easy target.
I get "why" it was made, but also don't get "why" it was made. I still think a Miranda class would have fit all these requirements perfectly, both in meta and in actual story. Especially considering how the Feds were just throwing a Mirandas away (basically) in the dominion war. I'd assume at the point of the show that they'd be up to their necks in excess Mirandas that could perform these roles, if not better.
I agree!
I think of the California warp core as being…torquey, vs fast.
I love Below Decks - it shows the day to day mundane stuff
I still think it looks better upside-down .
😊👍💪👊🍻
Bullpup Miranda
The California-class strikes me as purposely designed to be cheap to crank out a large fleet of 2nd/3rd line vessels:
No swooping lines, lots of near 90° angles, flash planes and cylinders, very geometric.
A warp core from some other class that's easy to build our they had lots of spares on hand
That rather exposed saucer hull
Cheap to fit out, minimal armament, no family facilities
Low crew complement and no families make it cheap to staff, which can make it smaller overall, also makes it cheap
I think the low speed is a consequence of the simple design, there seems to be a concept of "warp dynamics" in the lore.
Like, top speed is
power × efficiency ÷ size
Galaxy class is powerful and somewhat efficient
Sovereign class is powerful and very efficient
Voyager class is less powerful but very efficient
Cally class is less powerful and very inefficient.
Hence warp 8.
The first USS Enterprise had a crew compliment of about 300 depending on the crew era, kind of neat callback.
Kirk talked about 400+
@tomhenry897 going by memory alpha it ranges from 200 to 430, again depending on the Era. Refits no doubt changed the crew complement. Still very close to the California Class.
"Suggesting not all starships need illustrious legacies of names."
Says someone who's royal navy had warship classes named "Towne" and "Flower."
Heh....not every ship can be named Audacious or Warspite.
I'd probably beg to differ as the warp core is more so easy to shoot for an easy explosion. Plus, its weak stick design holding the main saucer makes it for an even easier shoot detach. The ship from everything. over all design flaws on combat basically screams. Kill me in more options.
I don't belive from a in-universe prespective that this ship was meant to be a combat ship, the way the for torpedos are on there says they were add just to satisfy some admirals request.
It looks a lot better on this video than it does on lower decks.
There was somthin off with the windows in season 1, almost the where a texture separate from the model and needed to be applied with every new shot, causing them to shift positions randomly.
It seems like they fixed that in the newer seasons.
DAMMIT. I didn't know I needed this but just one "live action" shot of the Cerritos in SNW would have been perfect.
@@omegaprime9794 Season had apperntly encountered rushed development on the ship scale front so they did the best until more funding and time could be obtained for later seasons cleverly hidden as a major refit.
Shouldnt it be surf board shaped?
A lower warp speed because the class wasn't designed for speed but for utility, makes a lot of sense. Like sea going tugs in modern day, powerful engines but their speed isn't as fast as the engine power would suggest it should be, yet they can tow vessels many times their size at relatively high speeds. So the California class could easily tow a vessel or station larger than itself and at a respectable warp speed too, I bet, with enough power for stronger tractor beams and such.
so basically a space tractor, all that grunt to pull whatever is needed, like when they pulled a ENORMOUS generation ship whit just 2 Cali class ships, the Cerritos and Merced, just shows that they can pull big things
Respectively I've always chuckled to the use of the word "speed". Warp technically is not speed but just what it implies. Unless a ships design has a limited function in use, I don't see how warp "speed" would be relevant to a star ships design. Unless the core it's self was designed just so for what levels are needed for said ship.
Also deflector placement actually make sense in case of a tug. You could attach there containers, like in Prometheus.
I don't know what you're on about. Speed is the time it takes to do something, in this case get from point a to point b. You can indeed measure speed from warp.
@@Usa_mikek It's down to a number of factors the California's warp bubble would be huge almost spherical and create a lot of "subspace drag" if they stretched the pylong back more like a Steamrunner it would be quicker. I can't think of any advantage to stacking the ship so tall as that, but it's not the only ship that is unusually tall, but the term as aerodynamic as a brick comes to mind.
I think the whole thing ends up looking a little Hydrofoil like to me.
The California is the epitome of "boring, yet practical." As unsexy as it is, i have to give props to the little starship class that could.
I mean I don't recall anyone saying it was a 'bad' ship, just that it was an ugly one. I can love the ship and still not like the look. It DOES 'look' like a tugboat/utility vessel though.
@@captin3149which is largely what it is.
Navies are full of such ships. You hear about all the battleships. But not often about the minelayers or other auxiliary ships.
It’s design language is perfect for the theme of the show
I don't like it.
It wasteful, getting rid of the secondary hull and building the engineering section either into the saucer or directly attaching it to the bottom of saucer section if they just have to have a secondary hull is still better option.
The warp nacelles then could be moved further away and the pylons shortened a bit.
The ship would still be bare bones while removing the vulnerability it has.
They are basically the escort/tug boats of the fleet, not taken seriously but are a critical and vital asset that keeps the entire organization from collapsing. I love em and i love the Cerritos and all the California ships :D
Yeah its an Auxiliary ship. Minelayers, Hospital ships, Armed transports, Tugboats, Repair ships, Survey ships, are all in the navy.
This. The class just reminds me so much of naval tender ships.
Love the Cali Class for its ultimate "meh" factor.
Kind of sums up the show. The whole cast are all brilliant in their own right. All very skilled and on any other ship would still be outshined by others. Yet, on this "Meh" ship. Their exploits and duties make them feel important. Maybe not doing first contact or exploring strange new worlds. Or on the Frontline kicking ass (or ass kicked). They are providing the background roll that everyone forgets about. And Lower Decks just adds layers to the Alpha Lore of Star Trek kind of needed. Cause only a handful of series had only episodes exploring this kind of thing.
It maybe Meh, but it is honest work.
You're goddamn right❤❤😂!!!!
Honestly I adore the look it still has that federation design language but it is so much more
It’s ugly cool, but I irrationally hate the nacelles being so offset. Do they not require a center of gravity ?
A possible reason as to why California Class ships have such oversized warp cores is perhaps instead of designing a specific warp core for the Cali class, they took an existing warp core that belonged to another class and adapted the Cali class to use it. Then all they would have to do is place a sort of governor on the warp core to prevent it from using its full power, as this could cause damage (as we saw in the season 3 finale). This would save a lot of time and work that would be required to design a custom warp core. Also, with the Cali class being built with utility in mind, this larger warp core would give them plenty of energy for intensive tasks, like towing other vessels.
I would almost thing that engine core is modular and swappable.
It closely matches the TNG warp core, just with the white orb around the reaction chamber removed so we see more of the coolant guts. (Edit: haha it’s actually a silver orb in TNG, clearly my DS9-first brain shows through here)
And since the video compared against the Defiant, the Defiant core also closely matched the TNG one but instead built the white orb into the floor and bent a lot of the plasma and coolant injection tubes around like a snake to fit. Two different approaches which achieve similar aims
makes sense. one of the biggest time sinks in setting up modern nuclear power plants is designing the reactor. this is kinda the whole appeal of small modular reactors - design it well once, then plug one in where you need power.
It also makes for a great real-world training bed for engineers that might end up on those larger, more frontline ships while still maintaining a purpose outside of just a trainer.
For me, this brings to the mind the original IBM PC. From what I understand, when IBM designed their first PC they didn't use custom-made parts. Instead, they just took off-the-shelf parts and put them together to make a computer.
Still better than being assigned to the Oberth Class
How dare you talk bad about the amazing oberths! 😠 😡
😱
🤣
Because you're gonna die because of some unexplained anomaly or a grandiose science project.
I can agree with this.
@@FuzzyBunnyofInle to be fair, just cause you die doesn't mean you stay dead.
The reason that Excelsiors and Mirandas couldn't just be used for all the support task is that Starfleet would have lost a lot of their older second teir ships during the Dominion War.
They didn't have enough old ships left for the job.
yeah, this makes sense. The Dominion War really increased the attrition rate of the Mirandas and Excelsiors, not just from combat but also just due to being pushed hard and probably not prioritized for repairs and maintenance as much as the newer more combat capable ships.
Plus, you assume all pre-Galaxy designs had to adhere to the Warp 5 speed limit.
sending second tier ships into war with an advanced enemy is dumb as fuck.
@@nomercyinc6783 Well that is what happens when you spend years having peace and not realizing that your neighbours might not share your views.
_"First contact is a delicate, high-stakes operation of diplomacy, one must be ready for anything when humanity is interacting with an alien race for the first time."_
_"But we don't do that."_
_"Our specialty is second contact, still pretty important, We get paperwork signed, make sure we spell the name of the planet right, get to know all the good places to eat..."_
Brad Boimler. USS Cerritos. 😹
Apologise for either the enterprise or the Titan basically apologising for Riker
Honestly something I really appreciate about Lower Decks and by extension this class is that they show that even the really exciting world of space exploration and discovery can be very boring at times. Sure, you've got your first contacts, your contact with godlike entities, your wars, your intelligence gathering... but then you've got people that need to clean up afterwards and not just leave when things quieten down. You have to perform on your commitments.
This is perfect for comedy, of course, but you could never show it in serious media, which is why we haven't really seen it in over fifty years of Star Trek.
It blows my mind that Lower Decks has added the most coherent lore from the NuTrek series. And that as a series it constantly points out or tries to resolve plot holes created by other shoes. I realise it's for laughs, but that's the thing. Instead of causing more weirdness like tardigrade flown teleporting ships or alternate timeline borg. Which is what I actually expected from a comedy. It goes out of it's way to resolve some ofthese issues, as best it can, even if it's resolved in a goofy way, it's cleaning up the mess of other series.
in other words, the writers and artists are willing to put their money where their mouths are and show their love of star trek, not just talk about it. Some of the other production teams have seemed far less ready to show.
I like how, intentionally or not, the Cali class looks like it came straight from the FASA era of Trek where they kinda just took Enterprise bits and threw them together (looking at you Freedom, Loknar, and Decker-class).
I thought that the warp core was especially strong not to make the cali class ships fast, but strong. They're more of a tow truck or a tug boat than a racing car.... I read somewhere that's actually why their name is facing back instead of to the front, so that it's readable from the ship that's being towed.
Considering the size of that generation ship from Season One that two Calis could tow, that seems to track!
Like a diesel truck 😊
There's also the fact that most feddie tech can be made to work better just by pumping more power into it. Maybe the oversized warp core was used to make up for the other resource and part limitations imposed by the ship's design budget, account for having less of everything by making it all work just a touch better or something like that.
The other ships may have the bells and whistles, but the Cali has the charm. It's like the difference between just buying a sports car and having a lovingly repaired old banger that you've brought back into it's prime. You're always going to feel more attached to the old banger.
beater. not banger.
@@nomercyinc6783 no.
Always goes to show that Roddenberry's insistence that Starfleet ships should all share resemblance doesn't restrict creative artists in any way. Just a simple notion of attaching the nacelles and not the secondary hull to the main saucer is so subtle yet so distinct.
It Also Shows a Design language that is quite coherent and screams hey this vessel is Star fleet
Maybe it’s big warp core is to help with tugging. As it’s need to extend the warp field over a much larger vessel.
Pretty much this, they show 2 of them easily towing a generation ship that a galaxy would struggle to budge.
The California class starship was one of the reasons I was initially hesitant to watch Lower Decks, but just like how the show has grown on me, so did the ship as well. And your video just makes it even better.
The girl isn't pretty but she can work.
I was the same way. Really, wasn't so much the ship though. I kind of like ugly ships. All because in STO, I own the Jupiter-Class Federation Carrier. She ain't pretty. Almost looks like a Space Whale. But I like her.
The real reason I was unsure I'd like the series was the humor. And well...I watched some clips of some episodes. And my tone changed. Thus went to watch the series. I really need to get down to watching all of Season 3. Just been too busy.
@@QardoThoughts on the _Yeager_ class?
@@ReddwarfIV Ugly, but I want one. If it was in STO. I would buy it. Though, I am not much of a Cruiser captain. I am very much a big ship Dreadnought or Carrier captain, lol. But, I'd buy it.
And if you mess with one, the whole class will arrive and rain down pain on you.
The California class is basically the Toyota Camry of the federation it's not going to stand out but it's definitely going to get you where you need to go and could definitely take a lot of mileage.
Or maybe the Prius. Kind of awkward looking, lots of cargo capacity.
You can imagine the marquis having a few, hanging out the back with the Star Trek version of AK-47s.
Sprinter van
Toyota Hilux, I would think. Just look at what Top Gear had to do to destroy one. I wonder if it could be the Starfleet version of a Technical?
The Toyota Hilux of starships. Hell, with that oversized warp core you could probably strap some ludicrously oversized weapons to it and make it into a space technical.
Overpowered warp core allows the ship to have more power for actions like towing, power transfer beams, and other engineering style operations.
Unlike other ships which divert warp power for speed, this ship diverted it for torque. It was the Clydesdale to the enterprises thoroughbred, allowing the ship to brute force things with its engines that other ships might not.
I love the Callie class, such a workhorse. It's grown on me so much I put it in my top five "hero" ships. It's distinctive, awkward and a bit ungainly. That's why I love it. It's an "Everyman ship"
I've always thought the California Class looked like a design predecessor to the Steamrunner Class, from before whatever engineering breakthrough was necessary to safely run the nacelles through the saucer section.
I'm assuming that was another lesson learned from The Defiant class - not needing open space between nacelles (even if it might still be better in most circumstances).
@@phillippatryndal4255 Ah but there is open space between the nacelles, the underside of the Defiant class shows that the nacelles are exposed to each other.
@@sumus11as indeed they are in the Steamrunner at the back. But both also extend into the primary hull rather than being on separate pylons :)
I mean does it really matter? Not like it’s a defensive vulnerability. If the shields go down the ship can be completely exploded in short order.
I would still rather serve on a California than a Oberth anyday
Or God behold a Deadalus
@@viridian8258 I'd even take a Daedalus over a 24th century Freedom-class, though
Oberth: Blows up if you look at it funny.
Cali: Takes one of the most hellacious beatings a starship has ever dished out on screen, is repaired in weeks.
I dig the California class and their design. They very much look like they fit the very roll they were built to fit. Simplicity, ease of manufacture and maintenance are key things when doing, well, basically long haul truck work. The California class may not go out to uncharted space (on purpose) but they do need the ability to cruise at warp for long periods and be repaired in the field because 2nd contact still often happens out at the edges of Federation space. That over powered warp core can be their biggest strength on the fact it should need little maintenance itself as it never really has to be pushed hard. And having good, strong shielding is important in a ship not really meant to pick a fight, but hopefully take some blows till help arrives.
Cheap and good enough beats state of the art for many many things.
Technically most Federation ships are not meant to pick fights they just fight back when someone else does
@@sokagofferenginar8669 That is true, but any ships pushing the bounds of Federation Space tend to be much better armed, armored and shielded. Ironically enough, any ships pushing the frontier tend to be closer to the ragged edge of their capabilities, needing more maintenance in field.
I've heard a theory that the reason the Calis are so aesthetically minimalistic and more cramped/overpopulated with communal bunks compared to other ships is that it served as essentially a troop transport like the WW2 Liberty Ships during the Dominion War, with shipyards churning out a design based on available spare parts and whatever design could press ships into service the fastest.
That would make sense if I remember correctly the shipyards were literally pumping out ships with the easiest and simplest designs to maximise output, so instead of a galaxy every 5 years they would have 10 defiants in a month.
That would explain the basic design along with the workhorses of the fleet that are not over a hundred years old serving as troop ships during the war
Most likely troop transports for the Cardassian wars.
I like the visible step showing the decks, and the Torpedo blisters.
Those are interesting ideas. I also like the extra thick saucer. & the hull accent colour idea.
Interesting how the extra-thick saucer manages to _not_ look like a throw-back to the previous century, unlike the Neo-Constitution class.
@@originaluddite They literally just cut-and-paste the saucer for the Neo-Constitution from the refit version. Even the window placements are exactly the same. Such a lazy design...
I'm surprised. It somehow wears the saucer better for its era - must be the TNG-like array of windows on its sloping surfaces.
The C student of starship classes
Fun fact: the overpowered warp core can generate additional internal shielding so crew can get past the nacelles to other areas of the ship without being irradiated
It feels like a super-sized Oberth class in its function. Which I mean as a high compliment because I love both classes.
The California class is useful in only one regard:
Showing those serving on Miranda Classes that there are worse assignments to be had.
That is what Starbase 80 is for.
You could get an Oberth class.
@@martinjrgensen8234 yeah i dont see the hate for Mirandas, they're chunky no-nonsense ships unlike Oberth witch is some weirdly undersized super-shuttle with a surfboard thing attached to the bottom because they forgot to add space for luggage.
@@confuseatronica my headcanon is that eventually they started running out of Mirandas to use for support roles and built the California class as a cheap ship made to do the same thing as they'd been using Mirandas for
Miranda classes are awesome.
I didn't like it at first but once I saw the tone of the show I grew to love it. It's perfect for Lower Decks. I even bought the XL Eaglemoss (RIP) model.
oh crap. I didn't realize Eaglemoss went under. Ugh... now all the replicas are like 5xs what they were originally.
@@Venslor Yeah, sucks, even used or broken models are going for 3x the new price. And no one does anything remotely close to as good as their original quality.
The Qraftworks foam model of the Cerritos is a nice budget option.
@@Venslordepending on your country there’s remaining-stock reseller options. A few ships are way marked-up but a few are only like 150% price. Of course you have to be watching the site and act quickly when something comes up
The California Class is basically Starfleet’s replacement for the Miranda Class. They’ll be carrying out “second contact”missions, Starbase resupplying duties, etc…
The Toyota Corolla of Starfleet.
The Californias are the Toyota pickups of the TNG era. Cheap, tough, get it done, but no glitz or glam to be found. Probably still has a hand crank for the windows.
You left out the most important detail, hopefully because you thought everyone knew about it already.
The name for each Cali class was printed on the REAR of the saucer section, similar to tug boats.
I like the California class, but it's just the latest point in a very annoying line in star trek lore; the naming of ships
There are hundreds of federation member planets, but every ship is just named after an earth thing, from mytths like the Titans, to rivers on Tellus, to ships like the Enterprise, to cities in California
Vulkan is a fully developed language, and you can't even come up with Vulkan ship names for starfleet vessels?
Also, it's been 200 years since the inception of the Federation. Plenty of history / fan recognized canon to celebrate with the ships names. I can see using alien names can be problematic for viewers, you want a marketable name. But something in canon the viewers know would work like a charm.
In a sense Star Trek's ship naming convention is as if the US named their capital William The Conqueror instead of Washington.
It's probably due to a starfleet originating as a Pre-Federation Earth organization, and as a result, probably having a "bias" when naming classes and starships, it also doesn't help that starfleet in large portion is still seemingly made up of mostly human personnel, at least 60% or more.
Looking on Memory Alpha for non-Earth names… there _are_ a few examples of Starfleet ships with them, but with one or two exceptions they all seem to be names of non-human characters established in earlier series/movies, and it is all in names of specific ships, not ship classes.
You assume it isn't cultural taboo to name ships after the things on other planets. The federation always tries to respect customs and taboos.
As someone who lives in Riverside, CA, I was thrilled when I heard my city now had a ship named after it in Star Trek. Hearing it on screen made me fist pump the air so much.
Three cheers for the California class!
Same exact thing but for Fresno!
Sacramento represent. Also, I was born in Bellflower, right next door to Cerritos so it was a trip to learn that was the ship's name.
USS Carlsbad represent.
My American Grandparents (who fun fact: are Star Trek fans themselves) live in Cerritos! I’m personally waiting for a U.S.S. Pomona or U.S.S. La Puente to be added to the roster of California Classes!
@@foxxojones4757I went to high school in Cerritos.
I feel like there should be a Federation saying: Never underestimate a California Class.
I love the idea. But one small suggestion. change it to "Never bet against a Cali Class."
@@magicpokey4922until that episode where the entire fleet of California classes teamed up to take down one Texas class, betting against a California class was a very safe bet as that was the first time we ever saw a Cali survive combat without being bailed out by another class of ship or resorting to a boarding action.
@@peterhans3791It is important to note, that was after just one California Class ship took out two Texas classes.
@@jessamynpratt5068 by ejecting it's warp core while they were in hot pursuit, something they could only do because of the circumstances making Cerritos a high value target(which is also why the fleet action went so well) . Even then, that's like saying an Oberth can take out any ship because it has a self destruct system or you could just throw an absurd number at the target. .
@@peterhans3791 It's actually because the California had an incredibly useful component that the Texas lacked. A crew. You may laugh, but the multiple perspectives and genuine team aboard a California was able to come up with an innovative solution that a single minded advanced AI couldn't think of.
Call me a romantic, but not everything about a ship is obvious from its stat sheet. The Texas Class didn't have friends to come and back it up other than a couple carbon copies of itself. It didn't have a caring Orion ensign to call it out when it forgot what it was there for. It didn't have an experienced and crazy Bajoran guerilla to propose stupid plans. It certainly didn't make a place special enough for even the people it hurt to still come back and save it.
Star Fleet ships with the biggest photon torpedo bays and the fastest warp drives, but no weird diverse community to support them are dead in the water. That's why the California beat the Texas.
Well, the design probably *is* still a touch ungainly, but I do feel like someone missed their chance to make these a bit more like a TNG-era Ptolemy-class that can carry big modules of stuff or people, or even trains of such. Feels like if that deflector/engine pod was a bit higher or lower they'd slot right in. Maybe still could.
I'd love to see it in Live Action. Picard was a big missed opportunity to see it.
Cali class was there in season 3
@@chemicalhap No it wasn't. If you can find it be my guest.
If it makes you feel better, Star Trek Online has been including a California class in seemingly every fleet action featured in missions lately. Usually noticeable in cutscenes.
personally i thought it was a mobile shipyard. in-between the saucer and the warp core they would repair ships. even extend the space to work on bigger ships.
I have the Cali class in star trek online and i love it, it handles very well and way tougher than you think, i fitted consoles to repair teammates or multi tractorbeam the enemies...and terraforming gas is nasty suprise if used well, awesome non hero ship!
No idea why they didnt just strap the secondary hull to the primary and the ship would have been much more structurally sound.
The STO description for the Cali class is great: 'They aren't the fastest in the fleet, nor the toughest, nor even the prettiest by the opinion of most, but the California-class still has it where it counts... what exactly "it" is can be difficult to define. Or locate.'
I think the deflector dish and nacelles are from a Steamrunner. They just flipped the section upside down and extended the nacelles out with minimal plating and attached a saucer section to it. This way they can use already constructed parts with very little new fabrication like the Yeager class.
Actually a ship like the California would be needed you can't always use your flagship or long range ships to do the grunt work you have to have ships designed to do follow up work move supplies and people and do all the little things to keep both the Federation and Starfleet moving ❤️❤️❤️❤️
As someone who has family in California, there is just something about this class that resonates with me, and I yearn for the day. The writers of Lower Decks names a Cali ship for Sonoma County.
Gives me Y wing from the OT start wars vibes "workhorse of the fleet, it's not fast but it'll get the job done, she's got tough shielding, which is good because you'll be going nowhere fast"
I think another reason the top speed isn't great was mentioned as the nacelle pylons aren't strong to hold onto the saucer at full output - might also be a good setup for another great 'fly her apart' moment =D
You can go warp 9. At least until you rip the nacelles off the pylons that is.
Legitimately my favorite federation starships to date.
Something about its workhorse and "blue collar" vibe made me almost instantly fall in love with it.
Hell, I fell in love with it faster than most of the ship classes they've decided to slap the name "Enterprise" on.
Nothing against the Enterprises, but I think this is a much needed change of pace.
yep, they can't all be the flagship of starfleet
Personally, I hate the Titan-A/Enterprise-G ship, it looks like a bad kitbash.
@@HylianFox3I wish it stayed the Titan-A
But at least Voyager-A is a beauty
Didn't they have unusually strong tractor systems? Because they were expected to tow heavy stuff around, like other ships, meteorites, parts of construction sites? I thought that was why their warp core was so strong, to fuel those. Or am i just being mandela effected right now?
This is my head canon now
Essentially over-specing the engine so that it could endure those lower speeds for much longer.
Maybe because they towed the excelsior class ship? It is kind of neat they have what looks like a Sovereign class style engine.
I hadn't noticed just how much thought had gone into the look of the California class, the little details to make it stand out as "not a hero ship"
Aside from its flying saucer sitting on a saw horse look, the biggest problem that I have with the California's design is the placement of Engineering. So not only do you have to ride the turbo-lift down those skinny support pylons, but you have to walk through corridors that run inside of the warp nacelles. That are supposed to be so dangerously radioactive that they're held away from the ship's habitable sections on those spindly pylons that can break so easily.
I wonder if they don't just beam between those sections if they can
I figured the turboshafts were heavily shielded and the lifts dropped you off inside the secondary hull proper. We’ve never seen corridors inside the nacelles, at best a small control room at the front (in TNG and SNW)
@@kaitlyn__L I always thought that having control rooms in the nacelles was crazy for exactly the same reason. That's what Engineering is for.
And from what I recall of the one in TNG, the only thing separating you from being instantly disintegrated in a stream of extremely high-energy plasma was a semi-permeable force field that you could just walk through. Utter madness.
@@1TW1-m5i A similar suggestion having been given for the Oberth class. It would work...unless there's a power outage. Or the ship is smack dab in one of any number of those conditions where transporters go all wonky.
@@KenoshiAkai the idea they were permanently manned in that TNG episode is really silly. But the episode does show a large door which comes down, much like the shuttlebays, and I’m pretty sure he had to turn off the forcefield rather than being allowed through it.
I liked that the one in SNW by contrast was only occasionally used, and had a very thick transparent aluminium (plexiglass) window just like there is around the dilithium reaction chamber in the Engineering set.
Which was a nice progression imo from the whole-nacelle “catwalk” in Enterprise, where they had to be totally shut down to even go into the small room at the front and of course were also not usually manned. No way anyone’s jumping into the plasma stream in either of those designs!
Although I hated the nacelle-mounted engineering section from the start, I must admit that your description of the Cali class changed my view of the Cerritos and her sister ships. Despite being ugly 😋 it really seems to be a perfectly useful ship.
The California Class is to Starfleet what Alfred is to Batman. I confess. I didn't expect something done in the spirit of pure comedy to turn out so well. There is no glamour, there is no recognition for the work done by the California class ships and crews and yet, their misadventures and tedious routine prove to be as interesting to me as a mission done by Interprise, DS9 or Voyager. And sometimes, they show that they owe nothing in excellence to crews or missions of great importance even if they seem clumsy. They can do it, even though they are mostly average people. They often remind me of Lieutenant Barclay. Capable but underrated both because of his personality and because he's surrounded by highly qualified people who make him just a push of buttons in the corner of the room.
I see it as a Turtle of ships. Yes its slow, but it steady and just keeps moving to get the job done.
Personally I think the reason that its warp core can't get it going faster is because of 2 things.
1) Because of the shape of the ship and relation of the warp nacelles to the saucer the Warp bubble geometry is probably an issue.
2) Starfleet just didn't bother to improve it. Its to small and weak for it to be a front line ship, and its not going to be rushing off for emergencies.
Easy to build, easy to maintance, and carry day-to-day jobs of the Federation while other shinny exploritory crusier get the spotlight.
WW2 Liberty class of the 24th century Federation
What not to admire the little guys?
There needs to be a ship named Weed. That small town in northern California really should be represented.
I love these renderings, of the Cali class.
Also, just to point out from dialogue and my thoughts of its capabilities. ... re max warp speed.. just that the limiting factor in achieving higher speeds seems to the the struts, connecting the star drive to the saucer.
Though it did seem like it was straining to maintain warp 9... it could be that the structural integrity field generators wmay have been pushed beyond their max and causing turbulence in the warp plasma... and creating the electrical phenomenon, as seen in the season 3 finale.
I would guess that if the structural integrity could be maintained safely, I bet the Cali class could do warp 9.2-9.4.
Just my head canon and theory. 🙂
Thanks as always for your great video, Ric. 🤠🖖
the cali is SURPRISNGLY good in Sar Trek Online. despite its size, it's incredibly durable. it actually makes for a great beam boat, but i like to full impulse into a group of enemies and release terraforming emulsion while vomiting beams everywhere
I like and appreciate seeing the auxiliary ships that do the behind the scenes work that makes a big organization like Starfleet work.
Our existing terrestrial Navy has all sorts of auxiliary craft for all sorts of specialized roles, and it totally follows that Star Fleet would have those same kinds of specialized auxiliary craft needs too!
Good video on this understated ship!
I know there's likely not much info on it on top of being from the Kelvin universe, but can you take a look at the Aegis from bridge crew? she's become a personal favorite of me and my friends and doesn't get much mention these days.
I love Star Trek Lower Deck and enjoyed the video. The California class is perfectly "fine" because it's not suppose to be special, just do the job and move onto the next job.
I picture an episode where a second contact asks “Cerritos? What does a Cerritos taste like”
“It’s a ship not a food”
And then later on in the episode a massive creature tries to take a bite out of the Cerritos.
Back in the days of Those Old Scientists, they used to assign Constitution-class ships to such basic tasks as ferrying grain or checking on mining outposts. Now they can just send a California-class out there, and keep the big fancy hero ships out on the frontier to do big fancy hero things.
mabye they juat put in an older warp core and overcharged it, so it could only push 8 or 9? like for example they just yoink an old Excelsior core and tune it up balls to the wall?
I know this isn't a Star Trek ship, but I was wondering if you might make a video on the C-57D from The Forbidden Planet at some point and, if possible (just for a little fun), how this ship could have hypothetically worked in a Star Trek setting if The Forbidden Planet had been set the Star Trek Universe..?
The issue i have with most of these federation ships is that they always put the nessels so FAR from the base of the ship.
I guess its for safety incase it explodes… and for repairing the coils easier. But it just widens the shields and requires the crew to be more mindful of the additional length.
Technical manuals say its to keep radiation produced by the nacelles away from the crew. Possibly a way to reduce the need for shielding.
@@TyphonJRT Yep it’s less of a design choice and more along the line of “we don’t want the redshirts getting irradiated”
They do what they were built for. The Federation has plenty of other classes for specialized missions.
I still think the secondery hull should have been joined to the primary hull with a piece in the middle. Would love to see it get another upgrade and getting a connecting section addded then.