I do like the concept of a fed ship so far into the future that it's capabilities cannot be understood by the contemporary series characters. This ship is to them, what the Enterprise TOS is to us.
I like the updated version where the hull is transparent, making the streets and parks visible. This ship is essentially a mobile colony. This ship would look so cool in a canon show with its apartment buildings and shops with trees lining the streets. Like what they tried to do with interior shots of Babylon 5.
Roddenberry envisioned the Enterprise D as a mobile colony. thats why they had kids and families there. but they never really wrote much around that idea.
@@MICROKNIGHT3000it was done for the Roddenbery Archive, I think? But here's a video showing it: th-cam.com/video/iLI9DpX1UM4/w-d-xo.htmlsi=eqAFSwyiMswvddAT
I loved Babylon 5s shots like that. Especially the tram shot where the bomb blew up and you got to see how big the station actually was. It even made sense to me at the time for centrifugal gravity.
I'm good with the overall design; I just have two nitpicks: I don't like that the pylons extend through the nacelles a bit (looks childish and tacky) and I don't like that the registry and ship name are on the port and starboard sides of the saucer rather than forward facing, as it should be. Other than that, I think it's decent. Not the best looking ST ship I've ever seen, but certainly not the ugliest either.
I was the same about seeing it in STO. I hated it when I saw it on the show. But seeing it in action, being able to feel the scale of it, the weight of its presence, the imposing figure... it really does feel like a mobile starbase. It somehow became my favorite design in the franchise, and in STO, I now proudly fly one on my main character. My I.S.S. Eschaton is not idly named. It feels and plays like the final boss of a mission or the Big Bad of a movie, and I've had people compliment that feel after slugging against it in PVP combat. It's just such a unit of a platform. It can be graceful and majestic, or seriously imposing, just by camera angle alone. It feels less like a ship, and more like a force of nature.
@@Tantalus010 agree on the nacelles, kinda tacky. Though the registry and name *are* forward facing on the saucer in addition to them being on the p/s.
I actually really like this ship, for the reasons you point out - it's right on the edge of "not making sense", but not *beyond* that edge. It's what I'd expect from a Federation whose technology was just on the edge of singularity. So basically, like Iain M. Banks' "The Culture." I can imagine this ship arriving in a brand new galaxy, exploring, making peaceful contact with the civilizations there, serving as the spark of a grand renaissance in the native star-empires by showing them what it's possible for them to become... and then bidding them farewell and moving on, much like how the Enterprise of old visits a planet and then moves on at the end of the episode. Initially I didn't like the "windows" on the ship. They were so hugely stretched and distorted that trying to imagine the rooms inside was weird. But then I decided they were probably all skylights - both the ones on the top *and* the bottom, since why have all the decks oriented the same way? Have the gravity flip at the midline of the saucer so both sides of it are the "top," that works fine. The only remaining bit of the design that I don't care for is that the spike-like pylons poke *through* the hollow parts of the engine nacelles. I like to imagine that the hollow parts have some really intense spatial distortions going on in there when the ship's hauling ass, so I'd rather have the spikes not interfere with that. But eh. Perhaps the nacelles move around and that's just their sub-warp docking arrangement.
Shout out to The Culture! I sometimes imagined the largest vessels - the GSVs and GCUs - to not even have a hull; rather, their entire structure and interior is visible to space, with manifold shields and fields keeping everything in. Alternately, just an ovoid shape without clear features, such as in the cover of _Look To Windward._ I wonder what the Enterprise J would have called itself if it had a Culture Mind?
YES! I was thinking the exact same thing! It reminds me so much of the way Culture GSVs work in that they're piloted by god-tier AI who consider humans a curiosity and take care of their every need. To be honest, the Culture is a sci-fi universe I like even more than 'Trek and is the one I wish I lived in.
I love that in STO you participate in the battle that's happening outside the window in that Enterprise Episode. That entire arc of the game was just so good.
The Roddenberry Archive recently put out some more detailed concept art, where the ship shimmers and has clear sections revealing the internals to have skyscrapers and such, making the whole ship even more of a floating city. I like the idea; reminds me of Mass Effect's Citadel, which this ship sort of is.
The Enterprise J captured my mind from the moment I saw it in "Enterprise". It is just so mysterious and evokes a certain kind of grace. I love how the secondary hull is inline with the saucer and the sweeping of the outlines.
You're literally laughing at the Borg for being smarter than everyone else in the setting. Sure, aerodynamic ships look cool, but what is the point of them? The Borg recognized the uselessness of aerodynamics in space, and opted for designs that maximized internal volume and capability. This is half the reason why they are as scary and effective as they are, because they are ACTUALLY logical, not a bunch of emotionally constipated posers like the Vulcans.
@@rmartinson19the reason that the ships of the galactic powers are streamlined is because of subspace interference and that collapse of subspace due to it. The Borg can have polygonal and spherical ships is because that use a fundamentally different form of ftl travel instead of warp.
@@narthted8200 I'm aware that they use transwarp conduits, but when not using those, the Borg do use standard Warp fields, and are able to achieve high enough warp factors that they can outrun a Galaxy class starship. Which suggests that either those sleek shapes aren't as necessary as everyone seems to think, or that the Borg have developed a technological workaround that makes it unnecessary. In either case, it means the Borg are just plain smarter, at least in this limited technical sort of way.
@@rmartinson19 I will admit in matter's of technology they are better than starfleet when they first encountered each other but eventually their reliance of adaptation of existing technology by races that they assimilate means that they don't keep that edge. Tldr: they aren't smarter they just assimilated someone who was.
@@narthted8200 That's a fair point. Rather than smarter, maybe they're just more bluntly logical, which is fitting for a race that is, more-or-less, an AI gone wrong. Don't need sleekly shaped ships to help define your warp field anymore? Build big simple geometric shapes that maximize utility instead.
Fell in love with this ship the first time I saw it on Enterprise. Just watching this video makes me want to hop on STO and take it out again. I wish they had given us more of an interior for it.
There would be crew members who would probably never meet on a ship that size. I already feel like that was implied on the Enterprise D with its size. I'm sure people met other crew members for the first time ever on Ten Forward
IRL, there are sailors serving on aircraft carriers who already experience this. When I served in the Navy, I remember hanging out with a couple of guys who served on the same carrier but hadn't realized it until we got talking about it. It doesn't surprise me that people serving on a ship the size of a small city would run into this problem, too.
@goldenknight578 yeah I feel like on the original Enterprise most crew probably eventually met on the 5 year mission under Pike and Kirk. Bit as each ship got bigger. There was alot less chance you'd know everyone even after 5 years.
Although it tends to be unpopular, I find the J’s design to be lovely and majestic. I would be fascinated to see its interior (beyond the humdrum corridor we saw in “Enterprise.”).
@@residentmemberofhell - the G is definitely one of the uglier ones. Although the ugliest starship design by far, hands down is Discovery. The coolest design is DS9’s Defiant. The most gorgeous remains the TMP Enterprise refit.
The Sovereign and Constitution Refit are still the two nicest looking designs. The Odyssey is right up there too. I don't have a problem with the Neo Constitution. Just not a fan of them renaming the Titan-A the Enterprise-G.
Seems like a logical development point. If you warp space enough you do in theory create a wormhole. The only limitation would be generating enough power to achieve it.
@@PhilandSofiaif I remember correctly, the Enterprise-J was a 28th(?) century starship. Due to the immense censuring of information by 23rd century Starfleet, the organization would not gain full access to Spore Drive technology to be able to replicate it until the 32nd century. To date, there was a successful replica after this point, but it was destroyed during the Species 10-C encounter. It could potentially be recreated however. It also seems that by the 32nd century, Starfleet has severely downsized the scale of its ships compared to starbase sized juggernauts like the universe class, possibly a reaction to the Burn, or possibly struggles with energy costs and unique propulsion systems. To fold in another bit of experimental tech from the modern shows, maybe the Enterprise-J ran on a Protostar Drive? The energy of a whole star could definitely sustain the thing.
The Universe class has grown on me the way the Galaxy has, I love the "flying city in space" and "generation ship" concepts, this one takes it a step further. Here's hoping DSC makes some reference to this one.
The Roddenberry archive recently put out a video showing the evolution of the enterprise, the enterprise J is briefly seen, though it has undergone a slight redesign by Doug Drexler, and by slight I mean that the entire ship is now transparent, allowing you to see the metropolis inside. Edit: it has been brought to my attention that Drexler did not contribute to the redesign. Not sure who did.
Was wondering if someone else was going to call that out, makes me wonder if the outer armour is retractable/deployable when needed - th-cam.com/video/ETVSm2AmYjc/w-d-xo.html
@@lovipoekimo176 I’m not sure I’m a fan of the redesign, however I could look past it if it features a deployable armor system (like the kind voyager used in its season finally)
The redesign was not done by Drexler, in fact he commented on it in a video interview around the time of Picard Final Season. It was done without his knowledge and he reached out to the Roddenberry Archive about it.
@@FeeriiEekii interesting, I think they credit Drexler for the design in the video, perhaps they were referring to the original design, but only showed the redesign
given the implication of exploring the universe, i always assumed it was as big as it is and shaped the way it is, because the original intention might have been making a ship that could survive crossing the galactic barrier and make the intergalactic journey beyond as a generational ship.
Honestly for me personally, the bigger the better for Star Fleet Ships design/looks. Love the Universe-class, beautiful Vessel, awe inspiring! Love the quirks & features! Thanks!
Regarding the possibly detatched nacelles... strictly speaking, they don't need to be attached to the ship at all. If they've each got their own warp cores to generate warp plasma for their respective coils, then whether they're attached to the rest of the ship or not is immaterial. They generate a warp bubble that wraps around the ship (connected or not) and then any trivial amount of momentum carries everything in that warp bubble forward. The warp nacelles were never "pushing" a starship forward, the whole region of space around the ship was "falling" forward. This is why we sometimes saw a ship "extend" its warp field around another ship and carry both at warp speeds, even though the ships weren't physically touching.
Honestly, the J has never caught on with me. I always thought it just looked gawdy. But, I know, that's the point as many of the military aircraft and sea vessels used by the US military in service today I would have thought ridiculous looking back from the viewpoint of when I was a kid and the US navy were still using battleships.
i adore this ship design , its so delicate . i love when they make bold decisions . the ring starship in discovery was stunning , same as most of those 32nd century starfleet ships
If it can be used to tell a great story and comment on the human condition, then I like it. Being a child of the 80's, I thought a normal computer was something big and irrelevant to my life, not something that I can hold in my hand and do it all, like my phone today. Maybe that's the point of the "J"....the future tech of Starfleet might seem weird and alien to Captain Archer.
@@HylianFox3I did you should have been watching the Japanese back in the early 90s cell phones. By 1998 I think it was the Japanese had video communications, shopping, ticket buying, as well as camera phones obviously. The screens were not sophisticated but all the basics was already in place for adding a big screen and cleaning up the relative technologies and simplistic enough a child or elderly person could figure it out.
LOL, type 40 phasers! But jokes aside I really do find the Enterprise J truly original so it's great to see your analysis of its galaxy-spanning abilities. Just from your description of its quantum slipstream and transwarp drives; plus, its neural connection between crew and computer it sounds more like a Both Cube.
Wouldn't be surprised if the technology was inspired by the Borg also quite possibly the destruction of dilithium that could have happened in the far future.
Another fun possibility with the design also explains the absurdly-thin saucer with overly-lit windows. This ship design and Kal Dano’s shuttle (Enterprise: “Future Tense”) were constructed near the same time, and that shuttle was bigger on the inside. It’s probable that the Universe class’ saucer was larger on the inside than the exterior implied, and the light coming through the windows appears “compressed” and therefore brighter. From the inside, it likely looked more like an ellipse than a flat saucer.
I agree with your assessment of this guy. It's honestly so big and so stupid that I've kinda looped back around to loving it. It's always fun when one of these cartoonishly large chonky bois pops up in your TFO.
I'm pretty sure Discovery said that whatever tech locks the nacelles in place is, _at least partly,_ based on magnetic forces. Or at least, they were critical enough to this functionality that the Discovery crew shutting off the electromagnets was enough to detach a nacelle at the end of season 3. I'm sure it's fancier than "just magnets" though, so who knows what other principles it's based on?
I think they were talking about the magnetic field constricting the "warp" plasma being used for propulsion. With the ability to matter/energy transport, I doubt they need a physical connection so far into the future when we can deliver power wirelessly already.
I know it's always difficult to compare ships from between different stories/franchises, but Ent J is roughly analogous to a GSV from Ian Banks' Culture series, in general terms of speed, mission profile, etc. It's quite a bit smaller, but it's right in line with a lighthugger from Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space universe (which does not include transporters, FTL, etc.) A really neat hybrid.
I guess... The galaxy class was complimented by the similarily designed nebula class. Having a universe class pop up a few hundred years later is kinda weird.
Also, last I knew, the U.S. Navy was actually working to revert newer touch screens back to physical controls. There are some schools of thought that, even with the semi-tactile nature of LCARS, physical controls may never go away.
I especially never understood how on the shows they managed to use touchscreen controls at times without even looking at them. Unless your screen never changes it's going to be very difficult to memorize the positions especially if you can't feel for them.
@@jeffumbach Well, that in and of itself is somewhat believable. If it never changes that is, I could see it being like gaming. You reach a point where it's just muscle memory. And don't forget; within the deeper lore, the buttons aren't 100% flat. There IS a tactile element there. Now doing so with a screen that changes, that's different.
Great vid! Regarding making ones way through a ship of the Enterprise-J's size - as well as turbolifts I like to think that it would be equipped with those walk-through transporter arches like those seen outside Starfleet Command in S1 of Picard.
I imagine that with it being so big despite having pocket dimension technology in that future timeline (was explored in another Enterprise episode), it was probably made as a mobile city for extremely long term deployments.
It’s comforting to know that while technology may change, the Starfleet font remains the same. Also worth saying, the interior of the J is just as intriguing as the exterior design
I remember speaking to Doug about this ship for an interview I did with him 2 years ago. He told me that the studio gave him less than 2 weeks to finish it.
What bout the VFX design recently shown in that video narrated by Jhon de lancie? I remember seeing a much sleeker version of the J with a Glass disk and cities inside
I'd honestly be interested in a federation ship built in the style of a UNSC ship. The pillar of autumn would be a scary prospect with impulse engines and phasers.
It'd be interesting if the 'grown' part of the ship incorporated something like the Tinman/Gommtuu 'living starship' components in it. Gommtuu was telepathic, so it'd make sense that if the J could link to its crews thoughts, and act on them, that it'd have a similar kind of 'mind' in it. The hull plating being grown seems somewhere between the various natural-growing metal entities in the rest of Trek, Borg nanites, and programmable matter. I can see how they'd all blend together. I underestimated its size though; I figured it was at least ten times the estimated 3km size. That it was an amazingly huge ship that could stand toe to toe with other alien races' 'big ships', like the worldship in the Delta quadrant. The energy siphon/dampener sounds like adapted Breen tech to me.
Damn ship length 3,219m long. To put that in somewhat topical perspective, the Titanic wreck site is 3,800m deep. Also I always thought it wasn’t supposed to be much bigger than a Galaxy class. The size makes the design make WAY more sense. I love the idea of what scaling up federation design doctrine to the size of almost Super Star Destroyer scale would look like.
If everything that was just mentioned with how the Universe Class operated would make it like the Starfleet version of a Borg Cube where the ship was controlled by the crews minds it was like what Riker said about the Borg cube 'This ship just thinks and does what it wants' and 'The Crew are using they're combined power to repair the ship'.
Hey Rick. This is the first video of yours that I've watched, and I really enjoyed it. It stands out for its honesty - rather than just make up stuff, you admit what we don't know, and include the writer's reasons for those decisions. Great stuff!
All starships should have served as hubs of other ships. The enterprise d was so huge it should have had dozens of support craft out exploring beyond just the main ship. Jump at high warp to New location and then send out the slower shuttles in all directions for a few days. Retrieve shuttles then move onto the next location
Minute 7:00 - Programmable ship hull - Regarding this matter, the writer Arthur Clark, in some of his stories ("The City and the Stars"-1956), prefers to use a molecular maintenance system in the style of 'food dispensers' from Star Trek. This system is constantly reviewing the entire structure of the ships and regenerating those damaged areas including the engine parts, something like the garbage collector of the Java language.
+8:55 I've always seen it as having a Co-Axial Warp Drive. I like the newer images of it that show the city inside and that the hull can be made to be transparent (which looks really pretty) I think it can generate energy from anywhere it likes and as such doesn't have Phasers as a discrete part unless they decide to give it one as optional gear (perhaps something self-powered or portable) Being 3K long it has more than enough space to carry or make anything it might ever need. so Shields, repairs, energy weapons and the like are likely the same system.
A show focused on the Enterprise J would be fascinating if they dared to be ambitious enough with the writing. Having each season be in a new galaxy was an idea attempted by Stargate Universe but never really tackled effectively by a plot with the scale and vision to encompass it, but a show like Voyager got pretty close to with having a wider backdrop to paint upon. The unique challenge to writers would be finding a common thread to guide the viewer or reader though such a vast setting, and to write stories that matter on a galactic scale. There are scifi tropes from many different books that try to tackle the heavier concepts like the Kardeshev Scale, truly ancient civilizations, and how galactic-scale dystopias might look. Games like Stellaris or classic literature like Dune can inform ideas that events in a galactic community have swung so far in one direction that there is a collective personality and issue that a galaxy could have; even Babylon 5 touched on it with the idea of the spacefaring community being the puppets between two ancient and opposing superpowers. Tackling big concepts like that is hard because the scale of relatable media becomes increasingly difficult the larger a field that it draws from, so interpesonal plot and character development sort of scales between shows that focus on overcoming a greater crisis like Deep Space Nine did well, or on the personal endeavors and developments of plot like Voyager did well. A meaningful story that can cover a galaxy, handing galaxy-sized issues, is hard to reach for because it would fall back on more esoteric minutae of scifi philosophy, but rewarding because it can provide an allegory to really get to an important issue that doesn't have a media context to draw from for it that people would be familiar with: *Addressing galaxy-wide issues in settings.* Warhammer 40k has multiple-competing galaxy-wide issues that affect it, Star Wars has The Force, Babylon 5 has the precursor war, Star Trek has the Great Barrier and so on. Something fundamental that makes that galaxy distinct, where something has happened to all of it or been done to it. The Enterprise J coming in and learning what happened or is happening to specific galaxies could be covered and doable if the setup for it is correct. There is star trek lore for the Andromeda galaxy for its pilot season, and branch off from there. The goal could be them helping them with a protagonist species in each season they have to convince to accept an intergalactic comms beacon, then aiding their new friend with some issue they face in that galaxy. The idea of the ship as a torchbearer, bringing the light of the Federation to strange new galaxies would be an appropriate image to allude to, and an awesome undertaking.
A big ship that functions as a mobile base of operations for smaller ships (i.e. a mothership) makes sense to me for a super long range exploration vehicle. I didn't know about this ship, so thank you for the episode! God be with you out there everybody. ✝️ :)
It would be a traveling city in space. I assume that many people would just prefer to live that way, traveling around the galaxy. Even within their own space, they could have a substantial amount of people living on such ships. I'm surprised that in the Next Generation's time that there weren't ships that large. There should have been large civilian spaceliners that transported people and goods around the federation (and there should have been many more of these than Starfleet vessels). I can't imagine most people hitching a ride on a Starfleet ship just to get somewhere.
Do any of the ST shows after 2003 show anything of civilian life in the Federation? Starfleet military and exploratory missions are not the only stories that Star Trek can tell of this delightful shared universe.
I think a universe-exploring vessel or task force leading ship should have large-scale manufacturing capability. If an auxiliary ship or craft is destroyed or the main ship needs extensive repairs, upgrades or refitting, what shipyards would be available to perform such necessary actions? The shipyards that originally built the Enterprise-J would be farther and farther away, so they would be useless for these eventualities.
Another likely issue with a universe exploratory task force, the Enterprise-J will eventually be too far away from the Federation that the colonists/shipmates will lose communication with their original civilizations. Their task force would pass into legend and maybe forgotten. Meanwhile, the E-J t/f could seed colonies on unclaimed or undiscovered worlds to extend the survivability of its diverse crew and to reduce the growing population on board. Humanity must travel into deep space and settle new worlds so we may survive the limitations of being trapped on only one world, in only one solar system. Our destiny as a race lies Out There.
The Enterprise-J and its essential task force could be contacted/visited by legimate Starfleet personnel centuries after leaving the Milky Way. What changes in culture, technology, politics, etc could both groups learn of each other? If the E-J was meant to continue exploring indefinitely, never returning to the Federation, how could a reasonable command structure exist between the increasingly separated groups?
I love that technologies on the Enterprise-J were basically a first step to what would be common in the 32nd century, similar how the Enterprise NX-01 had technologies in their infancy that would be common and more advanced by the 24th century. Hopefully, some day, we'll have a series set in the 26th century so we can see these predecessors of 32nd century tech.
9:00 Yeah nothing ever goes wrong with "Deep Brain VR". The Holodeck malfunctions on a semi-regular basis and nearly kills everyone in it on up to endangering the entire ship. Someone goes all "Tetsuo" (from "Akira") moment, while plugged into the ship's "Deep Brain VR" (see "The Lawnmower Man"), while being boosted to godlike levels like Lt. Barclay ("The Nth Degree") , with the safeties having failed or otherwise turned off, and proceeds to tear up the ship and/or mindr*p* everyone. Yeah this is a GREAT idea.
Crime not to highlight the roddenberry foundation version of this ship, with the transparent hull and cityscape inside. It's a perfect "future vessel" design that imo does "far future" even better than the 32c designs from discovery.
The one thing about the Universe Class is that Discovery - like it or not, it IS canon and in the Prime Timeline - confirmed that there is a Galactic Barrier and how it works. It also confirmed that Discovery is the first ship to actually get beyond it without the help of beings like the Q or the Traveler. So unless the Universe class' experience beyond the galaxy has been lost to history by the 31st Century, it stays here.
@@Staticsceptreyeah I think it’s for getting through tight spots, possibly warp field geometry shenanigans as wells. I could also imagine Future Starfleet ships straight up launching their nacelles at an enemy as a last ditch maneuver
4:30 they already have examples of quantum locking or "flux pitting" that they can set up fairly easily. I'm sure the smart science-y types that run this channel have heard of and are familiar with it. I feel like that would have been a good solution for the detached thrusters.
I love it, it honestly looks like Lamborghini of starships and I would love for an show to follow it. Sadly I don't think we'll ever see it again. As far as consoles go, if their minds are linked to the computer then Augmented Reality would be the best. Also extremely secure as any intruders wouldn't see consoles anywhere, only the crew can see them.
I never liked the look of this ship in STO. Future tech or not. My first though when I saw it was "did something go wrong with the mesh of the model in the game engine?"
@luke23478 Of course, it would probably be a variant of the Era, like a Constitution XI Class or whatever, kind of like how the Titan A is a Constitution III class. Also, the Voyager J is a 32nd century version of the Intrepid class, probably more inspired by the class of ship from hundreds of years before than anything. Not saying they should go down that route.
Me too instead of introducing trans gay's and white male cucks.... I try to watch star trek because I love star trek and space but I hate this agenda they're pushing on us..... disgusting and sad.
Well discovery is set in the 32nd century, but I feel it was a bit underwhelming. It felt just like the 24:th century in Star Trek, but with a few extra gadgets.
Admittedly there was only a very small section of the interior shown on ST:Enterprise. But that interior section and monitors gave me a DS9/Cardassian vibe.
I remember the first time I had ever seen the Altair Class was at the end of a video I saw in the history of the U.S.S. Enterprise and when I first saw the ship I initially thought it was a future Enterprise design.
It's actually possible that the Enterprise-J may still come to pass. The "only" thing that was changed was that the ship would not have to fight at the Battle of Procyon V, since the Sphere Builder War was negated. Otherwise, the ship may have still been built as shown if the war had no impact on its initial construction (just like how the Dominion War had no impact on the development of the Galaxy-class, despite its participation in that conflict).
I always thought this ship would have something different going on inside based on the original design, a folded space interior, gravity plating directing the floor towards the centre of the circle, so the windows were on the walls and therefore a lot more room than it would seem. The transparent version is a cool idea, but a folded space carrier/spacedock which could have hundreds of galaxy class sized ships inside would be quite a spectacle.
At least the Borg tell you that you'll be assimilated. Now you're connected to this Federation ship's computer and have brainwashing data transmitted into your brain.
Your video scratches an itch. I've always wanted to know more about the Universe class but I could never find any information. Lovely graphics. Thanks.
If the Universe class was built to explore other galaxies... does that mean 26th Century Starfleet has bypassed the Galactic Barrier? I'm not up to date on Disc S3, so while I know the barrier plays a role in that season, I'm unclear on whether Starfleet has ever extended its reach beyond the galaxy.
Altogether now….Universe class, Universe class, size of the entire universe class! Is it a city or is it a ship? Is it canon or will it not exist? Powerful ship, Universe class!
Ahh, a fellow They Might Be Giants fan. Good on ya! My high school history teacher would always play "Minimum Wage" from the Flood album whenever there was a quiz that day.
The good news is there’s nowhere left to go in the theme once you reach Universe Class. That’s also the bad news. Don’t start with “Multiverse Class”, I dismissed it as silly before you even reached the end of this sentence.
Timeship class. Its revealed in the same episode of Enterprise where the time traveler shows off the Enterprise J to Captain Archer, that when Starfleet and its contemporary enemies grew too powerful to explore the universe they began to explore the timestream and reoriented their militaries to fight to influence time. In the 31st century Starfleet realized the problem with trying to change time, so their fleet studies previous eras of history and fights to protect the Temporal Prime Derective. Beyond that, federation citizens would live like gods and there may not be need for ships past the 31st century.
It's a neat design I suppose, but it doesn't look practical. I've never really liked this version of the Enterprise. It's like someone said "Just exaggerate the hell out of all of the current ship designs and make it large" and called it a day. Feels lazy.
I've heard the term 'gravitic lance' before, in Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga series. First appears in The Vor Game, published in 1990. Gravitic lances were described as a "five-space/three-space interface phenomenon."
Yeah but then you run afoul of breaking the sacred law of federation starship design that it most also serve 20 purposes half assedly rather than specializing in one distinct branch military or scientific/diplomatic ect. And tailor make each class specifically for the mission needs, but that would not feel enlightened enough to trek fans i guess.
The "Ungainly Feeling" appearance of this ship is exactly how I felt when STTNG debuted. The Enterprise D was so odd at first due to being raised on reruns of STTOS and the films that followed. But, as everything goes, the Galaxy Class Enterprise became a staple in viewing and all the other ships that followed in the continuing series. Personally, I really like the Nebula class ships, as it reminded me of a modern version of the Miranda class vessel, and the fact it is modular.
It's energy draining ability sounds like a step towards the cultures effectors. Being able to remote effect things rather directly rather than through weaponry.
I hate this style of Star Trek ship design. It is overly massive, but yet to thin. If it is meant to make me think about it, it succeeded. I just don’t like it.
@@Vegetables578 The visuals were great but the tech never felt like it had moved forward enough to me. 930 years ago most Europeans were dirt farmers labouring under feudal Lords. 930 years after the 23rd century society should be similarly unrecognisable to the crew of Discovery.
I do like the concept of a fed ship so far into the future that it's capabilities cannot be understood by the contemporary series characters. This ship is to them, what the Enterprise TOS is to us.
TOS to you, I grew up watching TOS and animated series
@@pbwc781ok mate well done
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
Carl Sagan
@@vic5015I think that was Arthur C. Clarke.
Not really, it's just a horrible design with no practical application.
I like the updated version where the hull is transparent, making the streets and parks visible. This ship is essentially a mobile colony.
This ship would look so cool in a canon show with its apartment buildings and shops with trees lining the streets. Like what they tried to do with interior shots of Babylon 5.
@@OOL-UV2i really want to see those rainforest starfleet ships on discovery in action
Updated version? Where
Roddenberry envisioned the Enterprise D as a mobile colony. thats why they had kids and families there. but they never really wrote much around that idea.
@@MICROKNIGHT3000it was done for the Roddenbery Archive, I think? But here's a video showing it:
th-cam.com/video/iLI9DpX1UM4/w-d-xo.htmlsi=eqAFSwyiMswvddAT
I loved Babylon 5s shots like that. Especially the tram shot where the bomb blew up and you got to see how big the station actually was. It even made sense to me at the time for centrifugal gravity.
I hated the J…until I saw a universe class in STO. Seeing it in scale compared to the rest of the ships made the design work so much better for me
I'm good with the overall design; I just have two nitpicks: I don't like that the pylons extend through the nacelles a bit (looks childish and tacky) and I don't like that the registry and ship name are on the port and starboard sides of the saucer rather than forward facing, as it should be. Other than that, I think it's decent. Not the best looking ST ship I've ever seen, but certainly not the ugliest either.
@@Tantalus010 You know I gotta ask, what is the ugliest?
I’m guessing any one of the Frankenstein/Kitbash Fleet?
I was the same about seeing it in STO. I hated it when I saw it on the show. But seeing it in action, being able to feel the scale of it, the weight of its presence, the imposing figure... it really does feel like a mobile starbase. It somehow became my favorite design in the franchise, and in STO, I now proudly fly one on my main character. My I.S.S. Eschaton is not idly named. It feels and plays like the final boss of a mission or the Big Bad of a movie, and I've had people compliment that feel after slugging against it in PVP combat. It's just such a unit of a platform. It can be graceful and majestic, or seriously imposing, just by camera angle alone. It feels less like a ship, and more like a force of nature.
@@Tantalus010 agree on the nacelles, kinda tacky. Though the registry and name *are* forward facing on the saucer in addition to them being on the p/s.
I actually really like this ship, for the reasons you point out - it's right on the edge of "not making sense", but not *beyond* that edge. It's what I'd expect from a Federation whose technology was just on the edge of singularity. So basically, like Iain M. Banks' "The Culture." I can imagine this ship arriving in a brand new galaxy, exploring, making peaceful contact with the civilizations there, serving as the spark of a grand renaissance in the native star-empires by showing them what it's possible for them to become... and then bidding them farewell and moving on, much like how the Enterprise of old visits a planet and then moves on at the end of the episode.
Initially I didn't like the "windows" on the ship. They were so hugely stretched and distorted that trying to imagine the rooms inside was weird. But then I decided they were probably all skylights - both the ones on the top *and* the bottom, since why have all the decks oriented the same way? Have the gravity flip at the midline of the saucer so both sides of it are the "top," that works fine.
The only remaining bit of the design that I don't care for is that the spike-like pylons poke *through* the hollow parts of the engine nacelles. I like to imagine that the hollow parts have some really intense spatial distortions going on in there when the ship's hauling ass, so I'd rather have the spikes not interfere with that. But eh. Perhaps the nacelles move around and that's just their sub-warp docking arrangement.
Shout out to The Culture! I sometimes imagined the largest vessels - the GSVs and GCUs - to not even have a hull; rather, their entire structure and interior is visible to space, with manifold shields and fields keeping everything in. Alternately, just an ovoid shape without clear features, such as in the cover of _Look To Windward._
I wonder what the Enterprise J would have called itself if it had a Culture Mind?
YES! I was thinking the exact same thing! It reminds me so much of the way Culture GSVs work in that they're piloted by god-tier AI who consider humans a curiosity and take care of their every need. To be honest, the Culture is a sci-fi universe I like even more than 'Trek and is the one I wish I lived in.
RIP Ian M Banks, long live the culture.
@@Pete...NoNotThatOne 'mostly harmless...' :)
@@johnneill9740 Nice one! I could just think of an ex-SC psychopath class calling itself that.
I love that in STO you participate in the battle that's happening outside the window in that Enterprise Episode. That entire arc of the game was just so good.
yes, it was quite a ride. :)
Though that mission in particular is a rat bastard in the space sections and rest of sto faire in the enterprise section.
i wonder if someone has managed to find that specific window of the ship that the shot takes place in
You’re that indecipherable starship dot in the background of the episode :D
The Roddenberry Archive recently put out some more detailed concept art, where the ship shimmers and has clear sections revealing the internals to have skyscrapers and such, making the whole ship even more of a floating city.
I like the idea; reminds me of Mass Effect's Citadel, which this ship sort of is.
The Enterprise J captured my mind from the moment I saw it in "Enterprise". It is just so mysterious and evokes a certain kind of grace. I love how the secondary hull is inline with the saucer and the sweeping of the outlines.
I love how starships are designed "aerodynamic" even though it's a space ship. The Borg just had cubes. LOL!
You're literally laughing at the Borg for being smarter than everyone else in the setting. Sure, aerodynamic ships look cool, but what is the point of them? The Borg recognized the uselessness of aerodynamics in space, and opted for designs that maximized internal volume and capability. This is half the reason why they are as scary and effective as they are, because they are ACTUALLY logical, not a bunch of emotionally constipated posers like the Vulcans.
@@rmartinson19the reason that the ships of the galactic powers are streamlined is because of subspace interference and that collapse of subspace due to it. The Borg can have polygonal and spherical ships is because that use a fundamentally different form of ftl travel instead of warp.
@@narthted8200 I'm aware that they use transwarp conduits, but when not using those, the Borg do use standard Warp fields, and are able to achieve high enough warp factors that they can outrun a Galaxy class starship. Which suggests that either those sleek shapes aren't as necessary as everyone seems to think, or that the Borg have developed a technological workaround that makes it unnecessary. In either case, it means the Borg are just plain smarter, at least in this limited technical sort of way.
@@rmartinson19 I will admit in matter's of technology they are better than starfleet when they first encountered each other but eventually their reliance of adaptation of existing technology by races that they assimilate means that they don't keep that edge. Tldr: they aren't smarter they just assimilated someone who was.
@@narthted8200 That's a fair point. Rather than smarter, maybe they're just more bluntly logical, which is fitting for a race that is, more-or-less, an AI gone wrong. Don't need sleekly shaped ships to help define your warp field anymore? Build big simple geometric shapes that maximize utility instead.
Fell in love with this ship the first time I saw it on Enterprise. Just watching this video makes me want to hop on STO and take it out again. I wish they had given us more of an interior for it.
There would be crew members who would probably never meet on a ship that size. I already feel like that was implied on the Enterprise D with its size. I'm sure people met other crew members for the first time ever on Ten Forward
IRL, there are sailors serving on aircraft carriers who already experience this. When I served in the Navy, I remember hanging out with a couple of guys who served on the same carrier but hadn't realized it until we got talking about it. It doesn't surprise me that people serving on a ship the size of a small city would run into this problem, too.
@goldenknight578 yeah I feel like on the original Enterprise most crew probably eventually met on the 5 year mission under Pike and Kirk. Bit as each ship got bigger. There was alot less chance you'd know everyone even after 5 years.
Although it tends to be unpopular, I find the J’s design to be lovely and majestic. I would be fascinated to see its interior (beyond the humdrum corridor we saw in “Enterprise.”).
I used to think it was the worst desing, that now is the G for me. the Neo connie seems so uninspired.
@@residentmemberofhell - the G is definitely one of the uglier ones. Although the ugliest starship design by far, hands down is Discovery. The coolest design is DS9’s Defiant. The most gorgeous remains the TMP Enterprise refit.
Same... although they could have redesigned the warp nacelles
Looks like crap
The Sovereign and Constitution Refit are still the two nicest looking designs. The Odyssey is right up there too. I don't have a problem with the Neo Constitution. Just not a fan of them renaming the Titan-A the Enterprise-G.
The biodome version that has gone viral lately is also gorgeous.
I'd love to see it! I looked for an image but couldn't fine one. Anyone have a link?
If you told me it had a sort of Wormhole Drive, point-to-point jump across most if not the whole Universe, I'd buy it.
Seems like a logical development point. If you warp space enough you do in theory create a wormhole. The only limitation would be generating enough power to achieve it.
Spore drive?
@@PhilandSofiaif I remember correctly, the Enterprise-J was a 28th(?) century starship. Due to the immense censuring of information by 23rd century Starfleet, the organization would not gain full access to Spore Drive technology to be able to replicate it until the 32nd century. To date, there was a successful replica after this point, but it was destroyed during the Species 10-C encounter. It could potentially be recreated however.
It also seems that by the 32nd century, Starfleet has severely downsized the scale of its ships compared to starbase sized juggernauts like the universe class, possibly a reaction to the Burn, or possibly struggles with energy costs and unique propulsion systems.
To fold in another bit of experimental tech from the modern shows, maybe the Enterprise-J ran on a Protostar Drive? The energy of a whole star could definitely sustain the thing.
The Universe class has grown on me the way the Galaxy has, I love the "flying city in space" and "generation ship" concepts, this one takes it a step further.
Here's hoping DSC makes some reference to this one.
The Roddenberry archive recently put out a video showing the evolution of the enterprise, the enterprise J is briefly seen, though it has undergone a slight redesign by Doug Drexler, and by slight I mean that the entire ship is now transparent, allowing you to see the metropolis inside.
Edit: it has been brought to my attention that Drexler did not contribute to the redesign. Not sure who did.
It reminded me of the Taelon Mothership from Earth Final Conflict
Was wondering if someone else was going to call that out, makes me wonder if the outer armour is retractable/deployable when needed - th-cam.com/video/ETVSm2AmYjc/w-d-xo.html
@@lovipoekimo176 I’m not sure I’m a fan of the redesign, however I could look past it if it features a deployable armor system (like the kind voyager used in its season finally)
The redesign was not done by Drexler, in fact he commented on it in a video interview around the time of Picard Final Season. It was done without his knowledge and he reached out to the Roddenberry Archive about it.
@@FeeriiEekii interesting, I think they credit Drexler for the design in the video, perhaps they were referring to the original design, but only showed the redesign
given the implication of exploring the universe, i always assumed it was as big as it is and shaped the way it is, because the original intention might have been making a ship that could survive crossing the galactic barrier and make the intergalactic journey beyond as a generational ship.
I’d love to see your take on the Klingon and Romulan iterations of this era’s ships
Romulans are extinct at this point they merged back with the volcans
@@evos469 Do a google search for Valkis Temporal Heavy Dreadnought Warbird .
Honestly for me personally, the bigger the better for Star Fleet Ships design/looks.
Love the Universe-class, beautiful Vessel, awe inspiring! Love the quirks & features!
Thanks!
Regarding the possibly detatched nacelles... strictly speaking, they don't need to be attached to the ship at all. If they've each got their own warp cores to generate warp plasma for their respective coils, then whether they're attached to the rest of the ship or not is immaterial. They generate a warp bubble that wraps around the ship (connected or not) and then any trivial amount of momentum carries everything in that warp bubble forward. The warp nacelles were never "pushing" a starship forward, the whole region of space around the ship was "falling" forward. This is why we sometimes saw a ship "extend" its warp field around another ship and carry both at warp speeds, even though the ships weren't physically touching.
Honestly, the J has never caught on with me. I always thought it just looked gawdy. But, I know, that's the point as many of the military aircraft and sea vessels used by the US military in service today I would have thought ridiculous looking back from the viewpoint of when I was a kid and the US navy were still using battleships.
I loved the concept art that had an entirely transparent hull, as if the saucer section was a mobile colony habitat.
i adore this ship design , its so delicate . i love when they make bold decisions . the ring starship in discovery was stunning , same as most of those 32nd century starfleet ships
lol...maybe we'll meet in the 32nd century to build starfleets ships🥂
If it can be used to tell a great story and comment on the human condition, then I like it. Being a child of the 80's, I thought a normal computer was something big and irrelevant to my life, not something that I can hold in my hand and do it all, like my phone today. Maybe that's the point of the "J"....the future tech of Starfleet might seem weird and alien to Captain Archer.
Really, even 20 years ago I didn't think we'd have smartphones that make the communicators of TOS look quaint.
@@HylianFox3I did you should have been watching the Japanese back in the early 90s cell phones.
By 1998 I think it was the Japanese had video communications, shopping, ticket buying, as well as camera phones obviously.
The screens were not sophisticated but all the basics was already in place for adding a big screen and cleaning up the relative technologies and simplistic enough a child or elderly person could figure it out.
They had the tech 15 years before the US.
Enterprise J is my favorite iteration of the ship by far. Beautiful design and it's nice to have a little more information on it.
LOL, type 40 phasers! But jokes aside I really do find the Enterprise J truly original so it's great to see your analysis of its galaxy-spanning abilities. Just from your description of its quantum slipstream and transwarp drives; plus, its neural connection between crew and computer it sounds more like a Both Cube.
Wouldn't be surprised if the technology was inspired by the Borg also quite possibly the destruction of dilithium that could have happened in the far future.
Destruction of Dilithium . Yeah No Warp Drive any more .
Another fun possibility with the design also explains the absurdly-thin saucer with overly-lit windows. This ship design and Kal Dano’s shuttle (Enterprise: “Future Tense”) were constructed near the same time, and that shuttle was bigger on the inside. It’s probable that the Universe class’ saucer was larger on the inside than the exterior implied, and the light coming through the windows appears “compressed” and therefore brighter. From the inside, it likely looked more like an ellipse than a flat saucer.
I live for these. Have you ever thought of creating your own class of ship for a video?
I agree with your assessment of this guy. It's honestly so big and so stupid that I've kinda looped back around to loving it. It's always fun when one of these cartoonishly large chonky bois pops up in your TFO.
I'm pretty sure Discovery said that whatever tech locks the nacelles in place is, _at least partly,_ based on magnetic forces. Or at least, they were critical enough to this functionality that the Discovery crew shutting off the electromagnets was enough to detach a nacelle at the end of season 3. I'm sure it's fancier than "just magnets" though, so who knows what other principles it's based on?
I think they were talking about the magnetic field constricting the "warp" plasma being used for propulsion.
With the ability to matter/energy transport, I doubt they need a physical connection so far into the future when we can deliver power wirelessly already.
Discovery is just a load of rubbish. Unwatchable
Whatever discovery said is moot because that entire show is stupid, an abomination, and should not be considered canon, or even simply exist. 🤷♂️
@@WuSEification 😂 so Discovery shouldn’t even be considered canon to Discovery, great argument bro 👍
@@Reinforce_Zwei oh that’s a good point, I didn’t think about that!
I know it's always difficult to compare ships from between different stories/franchises, but Ent J is roughly analogous to a GSV from Ian Banks' Culture series, in general terms of speed, mission profile, etc. It's quite a bit smaller, but it's right in line with a lighthugger from Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space universe (which does not include transporters, FTL, etc.)
A really neat hybrid.
Makes sense for a 'universe' class as there was a 'Galaxy' class
I guess...
The galaxy class was complimented by the similarily designed nebula class. Having a universe class pop up a few hundred years later is kinda weird.
Yes, some tiny city - sized ships for settlement building and space exploration are quite fantasy.
The Universe class was capable of traveling to other galaxies.
I loved J when I saw it in ST: ENT, my fascination with the design geometry and engineering aspects has grown since its inception.
Also, last I knew, the U.S. Navy was actually working to revert newer touch screens back to physical controls. There are some schools of thought that, even with the semi-tactile nature of LCARS, physical controls may never go away.
I especially never understood how on the shows they managed to use touchscreen controls at times without even looking at them. Unless your screen never changes it's going to be very difficult to memorize the positions especially if you can't feel for them.
@@jeffumbach Well, that in and of itself is somewhat believable. If it never changes that is, I could see it being like gaming. You reach a point where it's just muscle memory. And don't forget; within the deeper lore, the buttons aren't 100% flat. There IS a tactile element there.
Now doing so with a screen that changes, that's different.
Great vid! Regarding making ones way through a ship of the Enterprise-J's size - as well as turbolifts I like to think that it would be equipped with those walk-through transporter arches like those seen outside Starfleet Command in S1 of Picard.
I imagine that with it being so big despite having pocket dimension technology in that future timeline (was explored in another Enterprise episode), it was probably made as a mobile city for extremely long term deployments.
It’s comforting to know that while technology may change, the Starfleet font remains the same. Also worth saying, the interior of the J is just as intriguing as the exterior design
They only had one printer that could print the identification on the ship.
I remember speaking to Doug about this ship for an interview I did with him 2 years ago. He told me that the studio gave him less than 2 weeks to finish it.
What bout the VFX design recently shown in that video narrated by Jhon de lancie?
I remember seeing a much sleeker version of the J with a Glass disk and cities inside
P. S. Overall, that redesign looks far better imo
@@Vegetables578 Agreed.
I'd honestly be interested in a federation ship built in the style of a UNSC ship. The pillar of autumn would be a scary prospect with impulse engines and phasers.
It'd be interesting if the 'grown' part of the ship incorporated something like the Tinman/Gommtuu 'living starship' components in it. Gommtuu was telepathic, so it'd make sense that if the J could link to its crews thoughts, and act on them, that it'd have a similar kind of 'mind' in it. The hull plating being grown seems somewhere between the various natural-growing metal entities in the rest of Trek, Borg nanites, and programmable matter. I can see how they'd all blend together.
I underestimated its size though; I figured it was at least ten times the estimated 3km size. That it was an amazingly huge ship that could stand toe to toe with other alien races' 'big ships', like the worldship in the Delta quadrant.
The energy siphon/dampener sounds like adapted Breen tech to me.
Could you make a video of the Constitution class of the 32nd century?
The universe class renderings with it having a transparent hull. Really gives the class a much better overall appearance.
Damn ship length 3,219m long. To put that in somewhat topical perspective, the Titanic wreck site is 3,800m deep. Also I always thought it wasn’t supposed to be much bigger than a Galaxy class. The size makes the design make WAY more sense. I love the idea of what scaling up federation design doctrine to the size of almost Super Star Destroyer scale would look like.
Wasn't the SSD ten miles long? I think it may have varied by source
This ship would definitely dwarf a standard SD
The last time I heard someone say, "...huh." like you did at 11:08, it was from Captain Mal upon meeting River Tam.
If everything that was just mentioned with how the Universe Class operated would make it like the Starfleet version of a Borg Cube where the ship was controlled by the crews minds it was like what Riker said about the Borg cube 'This ship just thinks and does what it wants' and 'The Crew are using they're combined power to repair the ship'.
Makes sense as a number of newer Starfleet ships are augmented by Borg technology.
Yeah. Uh, no thank you...🤯☠️
Hey Rick. This is the first video of yours that I've watched, and I really enjoyed it. It stands out for its honesty - rather than just make up stuff, you admit what we don't know, and include the writer's reasons for those decisions. Great stuff!
All starships should have served as hubs of other ships. The enterprise d was so huge it should have had dozens of support craft out exploring beyond just the main ship. Jump at high warp to New location and then send out the slower shuttles in all directions for a few days. Retrieve shuttles then move onto the next location
Minute 7:00 - Programmable ship hull - Regarding this matter, the writer Arthur Clark, in some of his stories ("The City and the Stars"-1956), prefers to use a molecular maintenance system in the style of 'food dispensers' from Star Trek. This system is constantly reviewing the entire structure of the ships and regenerating those damaged areas including the engine parts, something like the garbage collector of the Java language.
+8:55 I've always seen it as having a Co-Axial Warp Drive.
I like the newer images of it that show the city inside and that the hull can be made to be transparent (which looks really pretty)
I think it can generate energy from anywhere it likes and as such doesn't have Phasers as a discrete part unless they decide to give it one as optional gear (perhaps something self-powered or portable) Being 3K long it has more than enough space to carry or make anything it might ever need. so Shields, repairs, energy weapons and the like are likely the same system.
A show focused on the Enterprise J would be fascinating if they dared to be ambitious enough with the writing. Having each season be in a new galaxy was an idea attempted by Stargate Universe but never really tackled effectively by a plot with the scale and vision to encompass it, but a show like Voyager got pretty close to with having a wider backdrop to paint upon. The unique challenge to writers would be finding a common thread to guide the viewer or reader though such a vast setting, and to write stories that matter on a galactic scale.
There are scifi tropes from many different books that try to tackle the heavier concepts like the Kardeshev Scale, truly ancient civilizations, and how galactic-scale dystopias might look. Games like Stellaris or classic literature like Dune can inform ideas that events in a galactic community have swung so far in one direction that there is a collective personality and issue that a galaxy could have; even Babylon 5 touched on it with the idea of the spacefaring community being the puppets between two ancient and opposing superpowers. Tackling big concepts like that is hard because the scale of relatable media becomes increasingly difficult the larger a field that it draws from, so interpesonal plot and character development sort of scales between shows that focus on overcoming a greater crisis like Deep Space Nine did well, or on the personal endeavors and developments of plot like Voyager did well.
A meaningful story that can cover a galaxy, handing galaxy-sized issues, is hard to reach for because it would fall back on more esoteric minutae of scifi philosophy, but rewarding because it can provide an allegory to really get to an important issue that doesn't have a media context to draw from for it that people would be familiar with:
*Addressing galaxy-wide issues in settings.*
Warhammer 40k has multiple-competing galaxy-wide issues that affect it, Star Wars has The Force, Babylon 5 has the precursor war, Star Trek has the Great Barrier and so on. Something fundamental that makes that galaxy distinct, where something has happened to all of it or been done to it.
The Enterprise J coming in and learning what happened or is happening to specific galaxies could be covered and doable if the setup for it is correct. There is star trek lore for the Andromeda galaxy for its pilot season, and branch off from there. The goal could be them helping them with a protagonist species in each season they have to convince to accept an intergalactic comms beacon, then aiding their new friend with some issue they face in that galaxy. The idea of the ship as a torchbearer, bringing the light of the Federation to strange new galaxies would be an appropriate image to allude to, and an awesome undertaking.
A big ship that functions as a mobile base of operations for smaller ships (i.e. a mothership) makes sense to me for a super long range exploration vehicle. I didn't know about this ship, so thank you for the episode!
God be with you out there everybody. ✝️ :)
It would be a traveling city in space. I assume that many people would just prefer to live that way, traveling around the galaxy. Even within their own space, they could have a substantial amount of people living on such ships. I'm surprised that in the Next Generation's time that there weren't ships that large. There should have been large civilian spaceliners that transported people and goods around the federation (and there should have been many more of these than Starfleet vessels). I can't imagine most people hitching a ride on a Starfleet ship just to get somewhere.
Do any of the ST shows after 2003 show anything of civilian life in the Federation? Starfleet military and exploratory missions are not the only stories that Star Trek can tell of this delightful shared universe.
I think a universe-exploring vessel or task force leading ship should have large-scale manufacturing capability. If an auxiliary ship or craft is destroyed or the main ship needs extensive repairs, upgrades or refitting, what shipyards would be available to perform such necessary actions? The shipyards that originally built the Enterprise-J would be farther and farther away, so they would be useless for these eventualities.
Another likely issue with a universe exploratory task force, the Enterprise-J will eventually be too far away from the Federation that the colonists/shipmates will lose communication with their original civilizations. Their task force would pass into legend and maybe forgotten. Meanwhile, the E-J t/f could seed colonies on unclaimed or undiscovered worlds to extend the survivability of its diverse crew and to reduce the growing population on board. Humanity must travel into deep space and settle new worlds so we may survive the limitations of being trapped on only one world, in only one solar system. Our destiny as a race lies Out There.
The Enterprise-J and its essential task force could be contacted/visited by legimate Starfleet personnel centuries after leaving the Milky Way. What changes in culture, technology, politics, etc could both groups learn of each other? If the E-J was meant to continue exploring indefinitely, never returning to the Federation, how could a reasonable command structure exist between the increasingly separated groups?
I love that technologies on the Enterprise-J were basically a first step to what would be common in the 32nd century, similar how the Enterprise NX-01 had technologies in their infancy that would be common and more advanced by the 24th century.
Hopefully, some day, we'll have a series set in the 26th century so we can see these predecessors of 32nd century tech.
9:00
Yeah nothing ever goes wrong with "Deep Brain VR". The Holodeck malfunctions on a semi-regular basis and nearly kills everyone in it on up to endangering the entire ship. Someone goes all "Tetsuo" (from "Akira") moment, while plugged into the ship's "Deep Brain VR" (see "The Lawnmower Man"), while being boosted to godlike levels like Lt. Barclay ("The Nth Degree") , with the safeties having failed or otherwise turned off, and proceeds to tear up the ship and/or mindr*p* everyone. Yeah this is a GREAT idea.
Crime not to highlight the roddenberry foundation version of this ship, with the transparent hull and cityscape inside. It's a perfect "future vessel" design that imo does "far future" even better than the 32c designs from discovery.
I hope in the final season of Discovery, they'll find an old Universe Class that had been converted into a starbase.
There may be one in Andromeda which escaped the Burn
@@Academician100 That would be an interesting storyline, if they decided to pursue it.
The one thing about the Universe Class is that Discovery - like it or not, it IS canon and in the Prime Timeline - confirmed that there is a Galactic Barrier and how it works. It also confirmed that Discovery is the first ship to actually get beyond it without the help of beings like the Q or the Traveler. So unless the Universe class' experience beyond the galaxy has been lost to history by the 31st Century, it stays here.
ugh, detached nacelles hurts my head
I'd love a reason why they decided to do that in the lore
@@Nx--7567 yea, but it's like saying the turbulance of a fast-moving blade stack in a turbomachine is preventing better flow efficiency.
@@Nx--7567 Pretty sure it’s so they can rotate and do special manuevers
It’s a silly idea
@@Staticsceptreyeah I think it’s for getting through tight spots, possibly warp field geometry shenanigans as wells. I could also imagine Future Starfleet ships straight up launching their nacelles at an enemy as a last ditch maneuver
4:30 they already have examples of quantum locking or "flux pitting" that they can set up fairly easily. I'm sure the smart science-y types that run this channel have heard of and are familiar with it. I feel like that would have been a good solution for the detached thrusters.
It has it's certain appeal. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But the present always changes perhaps the future will as well.
I love it, it honestly looks like Lamborghini of starships and I would love for an show to follow it. Sadly I don't think we'll ever see it again.
As far as consoles go, if their minds are linked to the computer then Augmented Reality would be the best. Also extremely secure as any intruders wouldn't see consoles anywhere, only the crew can see them.
I never liked the look of this ship in STO. Future tech or not. My first though when I saw it was "did something go wrong with the mesh of the model in the game engine?"
Fantastic video, the whole aspect of looking at it and thinking..."heh?" Was what endeared me to the Univere class in the first place
i wonder if discovery will intruduce a new enterprise in the future
By that time it would either have to be an Enterprise X/Y/Z or AA
@@Vegetables578I'm hoping it's a brand new design instead of a Constitution-class (31st century)
@@Obiwan7100 i doubt the constitution would last for 600 years
@luke23478 Of course, it would probably be a variant of the Era, like a Constitution XI Class or whatever, kind of like how the Titan A is a Constitution III class. Also, the Voyager J is a 32nd century version of the Intrepid class, probably more inspired by the class of ship from hundreds of years before than anything.
Not saying they should go down that route.
Me too instead of introducing trans gay's and white male cucks....
I try to watch star trek because I love star trek and space but I hate this agenda they're pushing on us..... disgusting and sad.
A series set in the year 3000 or something like that would be amazing. The possibilities would be hard to imagine.
Well discovery is set in the 32nd century, but I feel it was a bit underwhelming. It felt just like the 24:th century in Star Trek, but with a few extra gadgets.
I would love to see a saucer sep.
Always wanted this in STO, but it's never dropped.
So many boxes >.
It's a flying starbase. Do they have Dyson Spheres at this point in the future?
Admittedly there was only a very small section of the interior shown on ST:Enterprise.
But that interior section and monitors gave me a DS9/Cardassian vibe.
I always thought this ship looked ultra-cool
Same. I've never understood the hate for this ship. It's probably in my top 5 Federation starship designs.
I remember the first time I had ever seen the Altair Class was at the end of a video I saw in the history of the U.S.S. Enterprise and when I first saw the ship I initially thought it was a future Enterprise design.
It's actually possible that the Enterprise-J may still come to pass. The "only" thing that was changed was that the ship would not have to fight at the Battle of Procyon V, since the Sphere Builder War was negated. Otherwise, the ship may have still been built as shown if the war had no impact on its initial construction (just like how the Dominion War had no impact on the development of the Galaxy-class, despite its participation in that conflict).
I always thought this ship would have something different going on inside based on the original design, a folded space interior, gravity plating directing the floor towards the centre of the circle, so the windows were on the walls and therefore a lot more room than it would seem. The transparent version is a cool idea, but a folded space carrier/spacedock which could have hundreds of galaxy class sized ships inside would be quite a spectacle.
Regenerative hull, crew connected to the ship via implants...sounds VERY Borg-y to me!
At least the Borg tell you that you'll be assimilated. Now you're connected to this Federation ship's computer and have brainwashing data transmitted into your brain.
Your video scratches an itch. I've always wanted to know more about the Universe class but I could never find any information.
Lovely graphics. Thanks.
I'm glad they didn't go with the invisible force holding the nacelle, it's what I hate about Voyager J .. great video 🖖
Enterprise J will always be on my honorable mention list when discussing favorite Enterprises.
If the Universe class was built to explore other galaxies... does that mean 26th Century Starfleet has bypassed the Galactic Barrier? I'm not up to date on Disc S3, so while I know the barrier plays a role in that season, I'm unclear on whether Starfleet has ever extended its reach beyond the galaxy.
They go through it
Discovery is cancer...🤮
@@Academician100 and become gods! I always though that was stupid (as well as the concept of a galactic barrier).
8:55 - Wow, four typos on a single screen. That’s… impressive.
Altogether now….Universe class, Universe class, size of the entire universe class! Is it a city or is it a ship? Is it canon or will it not exist? Powerful ship, Universe class!
Ahh, a fellow They Might Be Giants fan. Good on ya! My high school history teacher would always play "Minimum Wage" from the Flood album whenever there was a quiz that day.
Hahahaha! That's a great reference.
Just hope to see this ship in future in some stra trek tv show made in Enterprise-J's time
The good news is there’s nowhere left to go in the theme once you reach Universe Class. That’s also the bad news.
Don’t start with “Multiverse Class”, I dismissed it as silly before you even reached the end of this sentence.
Universe class is just a class tho. They could easily go beyond
Timeship class. Its revealed in the same episode of Enterprise where the time traveler shows off the Enterprise J to Captain Archer, that when Starfleet and its contemporary enemies grew too powerful to explore the universe they began to explore the timestream and reoriented their militaries to fight to influence time. In the 31st century Starfleet realized the problem with trying to change time, so their fleet studies previous eras of history and fights to protect the Temporal Prime Derective. Beyond that, federation citizens would live like gods and there may not be need for ships past the 31st century.
@@tneil.4292 Continuum-class, one would expect.
Outstanding Star Ship!
I never understood why this ship got so much hate.
Such a radical and crazy design, that's why I love it. Thanks for much for this informative video!
It's a neat design I suppose, but it doesn't look practical. I've never really liked this version of the Enterprise. It's like someone said "Just exaggerate the hell out of all of the current ship designs and make it large" and called it a day. Feels lazy.
That Incredible Vessel of this Iconic Title my friends. Thanks.
"2 miles long eh? It's a start...."
- Warhammer 40k
I've heard the term 'gravitic lance' before, in Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga series. First appears in The Vor Game, published in 1990. Gravitic lances were described as a "five-space/three-space interface phenomenon."
Be better off with a full on warship heavily armoured and armed to the proverbial nacelles best to be prepared for anything out there
Yeah but then you run afoul of breaking the sacred law of federation starship design that it most also serve 20 purposes half assedly rather than specializing in one distinct branch military or scientific/diplomatic ect.
And tailor make each class specifically for the mission needs, but that would not feel enlightened enough to trek fans i guess.
Thank you for breaking down this neat future ship to carry the name enterprise
Great video. I like the Enterprise J. I wonder what the Enterprise K looks like?
Given the tech at play and its extra-galactic mission profile, it's entirely possible the J is still out there somewhere in discovery's 32nd century.
The "Ungainly Feeling" appearance of this ship is exactly how I felt when STTNG debuted. The Enterprise D was so odd at first due to being raised on reruns of STTOS and the films that followed. But, as everything goes, the Galaxy Class Enterprise became a staple in viewing and all the other ships that followed in the continuing series. Personally, I really like the Nebula class ships, as it reminded me of a modern version of the Miranda class vessel, and the fact it is modular.
This ship is essentially a Culture GSV type ship from Iain M Banks series.
A fellow connoisseur, I see.
@@DanielSolis *tips hat*
If ever a ship needed a revamp and touch up it is the Universe Class.
U.s.s. Pizza Cutter
Thought that was the Disco.
It's energy draining ability sounds like a step towards the cultures effectors. Being able to remote effect things rather directly rather than through weaponry.
I hate this style of Star Trek ship design. It is overly massive, but yet to thin. If it is meant to make me think about it, it succeeded. I just don’t like it.
Please let a new series feature it in that era. It's beautiful.
The 32nd century we got in Discovery, over 500 years later, was very disappointing by comparison
L+ratio the visual department never failed with disco
@@Vegetables578 The visuals were great but the tech never felt like it had moved forward enough to me. 930 years ago most Europeans were dirt farmers labouring under feudal Lords. 930 years after the 23rd century society should be similarly unrecognisable to the crew of Discovery.
The dart boards by the main viewer are a nice touch. Can also be used to make decisions too!