My friends and I recently challenged each other to list our top five starship classes and were surprised by how different our opinions were despite being generally in agreement with what we like about the various series.
Personally it was hard for me to make a definitive "top five" but here are some I rank highly in no particular order:
- TOS-era constitution
- Refit constitution
- Discovery-era Bird of Prey (OG is good too obv but I love the HR Geiger-esque weirdness)
- D'Kora class Ferengi ship
Not canon, butI love the original "Long-boi" Discovery design. It gives off some very cool art-deco retro-futurism vibes. Not very classically "trek" but I love it nonetheless!
I am curious to see what c/StarTrek thinks!
An actual top 5 list is likely to be fluid from moment to moment, but right now I'm going to give some love to the small, functional ships that don't get a lot of attention.
- Danube class runabout
- Nova class
- Raven-type
- Intrepid class (okay this one gets plenty of love)
- Yeager-type (you know you love it)
I like that you mentioned Raven-type, I agree they did a good job with that one.
The Excelsior-class is one of my favorites. A bit wonky from a top-down view, but gorgeous from every other angle.
The Sovereign-class continues the general aesthetic of the Excelsior, but for the TNG-era design style and fixing the problem with high angle views.
The Valdore-type warbird from Nemesis is probably the best thing about that movie.
The Klingon D4 from Into Darkness is similarly one of the better things from that movie.
The NX-class Refit is also just shockingly pretty. Makes the original look incomplete.
Not canon, but I love the original “Long-boi” Discovery design. It gives off some very cool art-deco retro-futurism vibes. Not very classically “trek” but I love it nonetheless!
That is the canon design for the Discovery before the far future refit it got.
The Klingon D4 from Into Darkness is similarly one of the better things from that movie.
Yes I agree! Good one
That is the canon design for the Discovery before the far future refit it got.
I thought that was this one, no?
*removed externally hosted image*
Why did I think the other version was never on-screen?
EDIT: I have been informed the above image is fanart.
Something to consider with those two images is that they're different angles. Your first image is of the underside of the ship, while the second is the top of the ship.
Also, the texturing and nacelles are different between the two, but the body and saucer seem to be structurally the same. Still a long-boi even with the slightly shorter nacelles.
1 - Sovereign
John Eaves just crushed it with the Ent-E
Then in no particular order, SNW Enterprise, Excelsior, NX-refit, and Parliament (USS Vancouver from LD)
5 Olympic-class
4 Parliament-class
3 Centaur-class
2 D'Deridex-class Romulan Warbird
1 TOS Romulan Bird-of-Prey (the updated version seen in PIC and SNW is also great)I also want to give an honourable mention to the Niagara-class, which is a three nacelle abomination. When I started running my Star Trek Adventures game, I choose the Niagara-class because I wanted something relatively unique which still that communicated to the players they weren't in a top of the line, prestigious ship. It's been just over two years since we started playing the adventures of the USS Dauntless (yes, I know, but it's not that Dauntless), and the ship has really grown on me.
On my best days I can tolerate the presence of a one nacelle ship, maybe even a four nacelle ship. But I'll be dead in the cold cold ground before I recognize the legitimacy of a THREE nacelle ship.
I’m sorry, but it sounds to me as though you’re saying a one nacelle ship is more tolerable than a four nacelle ship, and I just can’t take anything seriously after that.
At least with four nacelles you can understand how they’re generating the warp field between them, but one? Does it have two sets of warp coils inside the single nacelle? All Starships are beautiful in Gene’s eyes, but I believe there are some he chooses not to look upon.
You're absolutely right. I can tolerate four nacelle ships as long as they keep it in the bedroom. Single nacelle ships belong in jail.
In no particular order:
Steamrunner Miranda D'Deridex Magee Constitution
There are so many but the beauts are the beauts.
- Ambassador class
- Defiant class
- D’Deridex class
- Excelsior class
- Jem Hadar Battlecruiser
