I never thought the NX-01 was a bad ship considering the level of technology at this particular time in history. I think it was actually the best that they could do.
I agree and considering it a pure humans ship tech wise should be looked at differently compared to later ships which can draw on yrs of expertise and technology from over 150 species
@@vojtechpribyl7386 The weapons tech in the show is marketly inferior to what is available in the 1990s, let alone now. A 13 KT nuclear warhead on a torpedo the size of a current generation 130KT or 1 MT warhead? A Phase rifle less effective than a 7.62mm Rifle? Ship's Phase cannon which are ineffective until they overload/// X Ray laser gets better thruput...
13:05 - I have a theory on this. The NX-01 was designed, from aft to stern right from the beginning, as a ship without shields. They didn't have them, so they couldn't rely on them. So what happens once shielding technology is common place? Well, if there's an issue with a bulkhead or you have a gigantic hole or otherwise missing part of your ship... you can just erect forcefields/shields until you return to port (and I do think this makes Starfleet more complacent in designing ships for combat... which "officially" they don't do, even when it's hilariously false like with the Defiant). They don't have that luxury. So it's my theory that the NX-01 was designed more like modern warships on the seas - many more ways to shut off areas of the ship, more airlocks/doors to prevent leaking atmosphere when damaged, and more emphasis on damage control. So long as nothing vital is blown or shot off, you can just seal it off, do temporary repairs and continue combat. And given that I'd venture that the NX-01 was designed with far more armor and segmented areas that can be closed off for damage control than most other ships of the period, I think that's why it could take the pounding it could. That, and most likely human experience with doing such damage control on the seas. (The episode where Reed gets impaled by a Romulan mine on the hull of the ship and references his grand(?)father's service in the navy seems to show where this mindset came from. I have to wonder: would the Vulcans, living on such a desert planet, have as much experience doing damage control on vessels as humanity did before venturing into space? I doubt it. So we got lucky have generations of experience with naval vessels on such a water-dominated planet.) That's my theory, anyways.
Federation Hulls are actually quite strong Galaxy Class has 9cm of armor on top of a Duranium/Titanium hull. As a rule, Federation takes a safety first, stronger hulls/shields weaker weapons compared to a other parity species ships.
I think I like this analysis. After the battle of azati prime you could see the sections of the NX-01 that were exposed to space had no power and this was likely done intentionally so in the event that section is stuck again, the damage would be negligible as there is nothing to be damaged. This could save up hull plating energy for the sections that have intact hull.
It wasn't a bad ship, it was a primitive ship. It also wasn't a war ship, it was intended to be a science and explorer ship that might have to defend itself. Despite its intended design, it acquitted itself nicely in combat against foes of equal abilities.
@@josebrown5961 America’s first aircraft carrier started life as a coal ship. A warship conversion is only as good as its starting hull. In this case the Enterprise was an overall solid platform.
@@josebrown5961 This is true but also which is true is what rabbit says. As modular as it was, it wasn't perfected until the modular designs down the line with other ships. The default galaxy class was a glass cannon. However science labs removed. Less crew, my power generators, more shield emitters and phaser emitters, the war variant was a beast. Though still less than ideal being it was designed in peacetime during the golden age
All of which highlights that the Federation should have had dedicated warships. Galaxy class is a huge waste of metal in a war footing. Better off being used as hospital ships than warships.
My favorite ship in Startrek is the NX refit. It just looks SO cool! The NX was disgustingly out of her depth yet out into the deeps she went, and that is what makes the Enterprise series great. She can't just steamroller over everything she comes up against.
Yeah when she first launched it was like HUMANITIES OPTIMISM. After everything that happened, one episode has archer admit he was wrong launching without being prepared
@@alanmike6883 but he does also point out Vulkan didn't help by warning humanity of neighboring civilizations that are warp capable like Andorians, Orions and Klingons. The idea of not giving humanity tech they didn't earn is one thing, not making a clear point of at what point Humanity is ready to meet other quadrant powers is an understatement of how bad the Vulkans blundered that one.
they should have used the uss Bonaventure design pre - constitution class . it was all saucer w/ twin boom warp nacelles & cylindrical command section , running fore to aft and a Connie style navigational deflector. it was the Warp Speed testbed .
It also had to be an evolutionary predecessor to the Constitution-Class. If you look at a WW1 battleship with its 12" guns and want to build a prequel story, of course you're gonna end up with an ironclad as flagship. It just felt logical that their weapons were vulnerable and their torpedos sucked. Tbh it would've felt like a huge continuity violation if they had given it anything more powerful. (Which will always be the flaw of Star Wars: the prequel ships like the Venator feel more competent and well-designed compared to the classic IDS I and II. Sure, they're smaller, but the design was overall more rounded and sound, which is just not how generational iterations of progress work.)
NX had good propulsion, it wasn't too long before it was able to sit comfortably at Warp 5 with seemingly little problem and there seems to be no issue with it's sub-light capability. The Phase Cannons are good. The idea of them having their own turbolifts is hilarious. They clearly started with three, and that seems to be their Launch loadout, but quickly upgraded to far more. The Spatial Torpedos were garbage, about as good as the Plasma Cannons they had in the first episode. But the Photonics were much better. Maybe not as good as some other species, but more than effective. The Defenses is the part that lets NX down. Hull Plating was okay, but certainly inferior to most shielded vessels. At that time having both would have made the NX a beast. It was still decently resilient against other vessels of it's size though As for the "Stealing the ship" Plot likes. Keep in mind the NX has a good couple points going for it. Transporters, which weren't all that common place and pretty valuable at the time. Phase cannons were good, so were Photonics. The Warp drive seemed to be pretty good for the time. For the Columbia refit. They did have Andorian Shields. But there were Bugs, they couldn't go over Warp 3 with the shields on to start with. But it's still a major upgrade and they did manage to get around it after a while. Plus they could hit up to Warp 6 with the bigger core. That bigger power plant undoubtedly meant more Phase cannon power too. NX's major advantage was in how it was clearly built with expansion, sustainability and adaptability in mind. They knew it wasn't going to be the best thing out there. They knew they'd need to bring them back to refit upcoming technologies and they planned well for that.
did not like that there were a Vulcan on the NX enterprise, its NON canon. could have used other TOS aliens , as they met them FIRST , Orions, Telerites , Saurians, Endosian, Catacian . Paramount just wasn't very creative.
I agree that the NX was good for it's time. Comparing mid-22nd century Starfleet to only the Vulcans and Andorians while ignoring most everyone else is like comparing the early/mid-1800s US Navy only against the British Royal and French navies while ignoring most everyone else. Sure the NX wasn't the best in the region, but it was either able to hold it's own or even superior to majority of ships and factions in the Quadrant aside from those two great powers. Especially by the time of the Columbia refits.
@@venomgeekmedia9886 It should be pointed out that after first NX prototype fall apart (now we know being of same class as Franklin). Earth did heavily reinforce NX-01 to survive vibrations of unregulated Warp Drive. It actually worked better then expected, to point that ships structure was later reused for 23'th century Columbia class (STO) Destroyers, despite it not being originally designed for combat. It is also speculated that Loknar class could be late 22'th century refit. Also it is worth to point out that Enterprise is slightly different then production models of NX, what have larger deflector. And also plasma conduits on bridge (for some reason). But though slightly inferior, Enterprise was mostly comparable. Honestly it is bit weird that it didn't this upgrade in the season 4 (it may be or not a plot hole)? It is worth to mention that in Beta canon most of NX'es were unfortunately rebuild in heavily armed Poseidon class Destroyers, what were rather alternative variant then straight refit (they have large hangar in space between two upside down pylons and rollbar. Somewhat resembling proto-Miranda). Only small number of NX get proper "Columbia" refit. But those units were quite potent heavy cruisers capable of long duration strike missions. Thanks to powerful deflector. They armament was comparable to Poseidon, but largely because most guns were put inside the new expanded secondary hull, containing also hangar. As main hull still stay Explorer in nature. This design was direct inspiration for future Constitution class.
I think the NX class is a fine class of ship, as long as you remember the context of the time period and situation earth was in when it was put into service, the fact she could still complete her mission after taking so much damage during the Xindi arc shows just how durable these old ships really were. Plus I've seen TNG vessels explode being hit by less. XD
Other than the warp drive the NX-01 Enterprise was average for her time. Which is an amazing thing considering how much the Vulkans held humanity back. Also in the Brainworms in Archer timeline with shields the ship was pretty formidable. From the team and in the STO rundown the NX Refit has andorian defense shields which are tankier than Vulkan ones. I think the NX Refit was able to Cruise comfortably at warp 6.
@manny022 I’m with you. It would have been a mess if the Vulcans just gave humans all their tech. The Vulcans made humans EARN the advances they got. And the Vulcans were spying on NX-01 for most of season 1, ready to save them if they got really in trouble.
I like that the NX’s is a highly adaptable and upgradable design, we’ve seen it on several occasions be upgraded by Earth and alternative versions upgraded with Andorian shields and other alien technology. In those terms it puts even the Constitution to shame.
@@venomgeekmedia9886 well the USS Franklin was running around until it was plucked out of space by a giant green hand in 2164, so I’d say most NX class vessels were still in service well after that. Although I imagine that Enterprise was retired for memorials sake, and the first off the yard vessel made by the Federations Starfleet replaced it as the flagship of the fleet. I then imagine that the reason for such a long time between NX-01 and NCC-1701, is that it took all that time for Starfleet to integrate all the various found worlds technology and culture into the fleet before they felt comfortable having an Enterprise as the flagship.
Didn't Enterprise find the Vulcan ship that had disappeared in the expanse, with the crew having gone mad, due to the mineral used to insulate against the anomalies? Or am I getting confused?
@@venomgeekmedia9886 I disagree. The trellium would have solved the issue with the anomalies, and not being as able to evade them would not have made a difference. A human crew, unaffected by trellium would have been able to complete the mission and bring the ship home. On the other hand a Vulcan crew trying to insulate an NX-class with trellium would still have gone mad and been lost.
@@MrAranton the problem was the anomaly was effecting other systems like sensors and even the ships internal gravity. Also let's not forget the Brainworms that Archer got due to one anomaly.
I would like to suggest that the Vulcan were more risk adverse. They fully prepare their children before they enter society. Human need to go into the deeper ends of pools and flounder as bit as part of their development. As for describing roughly equal ships, I like to describe them as in the same weight class with one might having a slight advantage, but the captain/crew will be the decisive factor.
It's interesting how the initial premise of the show is that the Vulcans have superior warp technology, yet their ring warp engines aren't the ones that last past that era. 🤔
I think venom geek pointed out why in the end of the video. Starfleet ships are hard to kill and easy to repair. Also the double nacelle type is far better for maneuvering then the ring type. Add in after the formation of the federation and the Nx class/Columbia being the best ship to merge all the founding races tech.
Isn't the annular warp field geometry good for speed but piss poor for manuverability & warp field efficiency due to overlapping of the field & subsequent resonance/dissonance of the field harmonics ?
I always looked at it as the Vulcan ring drives were far too complicated whereas the linear nacelle setup was much easier to work on and then the andorians putting their drives inside the ship's hole while protecting them didn't allow for a strong warp field or easy repairs
I aways saw the Vulcan shops as more powerful and faster in a straight line but the Andorians losing the warp speed but mire maneuverable. And starfleet ships being the compromise design of the federation going forward
I always took it as a kind of technology blind alley sort of like Betamax that didn’t go anywhere and becomes more and more inefficient as you get more powerful drives and the Vulcans we’re too stubborn to stop using them
To me shes a guilty pleasure. You see with the other classes of united earth ships that they were experimenting. One weakness of the class was the lack of warp engineering removal which would quickly make her redundant. But for the warp 5 program a good ship. As other have said the Vulcans did bold humanity back. Imagine if the Andorians had made first contact. Built in a relationship. I don't think they would've held back as much..
The flip side to that point, is that perhaps the NX was as polished as it was, because of the time the Vulcans made them spending doing more R&D before going out.
@@nunya3163 Imagine if it had been the Andorians as sponsors? Still a good ship though. Like taking the first steps when you leave home one in this case independence from the Vulcans
I think the problem with the was simply that it was a product of its time. Unlike in the TNG era which we were just coming off of, Earth was far behind the other major powers in the galaxy in Enterprise, most of which had been in space...hell, had been in conflicts longer than Earth had warp technology. The Vulcans in the series were not wrong, Earth wasn't ready to deal with everything they faced, and while season one and two of enterprise may have left much to be desired, it showed that fact very well, they were not ready. But they got ready, they made due, and by the end of the Xindi incident, they were now able to compete with major powers. The main problem was summed up by Archer himself in that episode after they got back from the expanse, Archer didn't want to take a warship to make first contact with other species and I think most of Starfleet agreed with him, but then, when he was out there, they were always going from one conflict to the next. She was never meant to be a Galaxy class starship, and it worked. Even during the Xindi arc, it barely survived. I just wish the writing was better able to capture that.
I really liked the NX-01 and the Enterprise series as a whole. It seemed much more grounded and felt like it had actual stakes. It was a prequel done right, IMO.
firstly one of my favorite ships of Star Trek. But It's odd they had deflector dishes for light speed travel yet they didn't have any type of basic shields.
Just shows you the energies involved, being hit with a disrupter blast is a lot worse than crushing into space dust at multiple times the speed of light.
I thought the point of ENT was that humans were finally in the position to truly explore outside their comfort zone, with all the challenges they were about to face, including dealing with potential foes much more powerful than they were. And they did so on a steep learning curve. Ergo, the ship being what it should be understandable to the casual fan, though I can also understand why some wouldn't like this premise. We're used to seeing our protagonists on equal footing with everyone else, after all.
NX-01 was the first Earth ship with enough speed to travel between star systems in a reasonable time. It made exploration practical and put humans on the map with other species that would eventually become their allies. Humans were behind Vulcans, Klingons, and Andorians in technology. But the NX class was good enough to do the job.
The NX class was excellent ship limited only by Earth's level of technology. Would love for new SNW series to find one and give it a total upgrade/refit comparable to DS9 Defiant class.
The one main thing you need to look at it's abilities is who is in command. If you have a horrid captain who does not know what they are doing that ship will be lost. Someone like Archer you would have a great chance of winning a battle.
I think the NX was in an interesting position. Much more advanced than a lot of other races starting out because of their isolation with the Vulcans led to decades of R&D but certainly not as advanced as they could be since the Vulcans hid a lot of the truth of deep space from them.
The STO mission that takes you into the Mycelial Realm to take care of Klingon technology that also gets you a Elachi BOFF was definitely a unique mission. And the Elachi have been involved in STO since the very beginning for Romulan characters. As you have to take on an Elachi warship with a T'liss.
You have to imagine how it would have been without the vulcans holding humanity back. There's a real possibility without their meddling that it would have been an absolute terror, almost by accident.
I thought it was an interesting concept from a writing perspective. By this time they had a magic gizmo for everything in Trek. This took them back to when they didn't, and they had to actually think their way through a problem. The crew were more like astronauts than sailors. This said, the ship was designed stupidly, and the crew were stupider still. The only exceptions were T'Pol and Mayweather, both of whom were ignored most of the time.
The lore says that the Colombia class got their shields from the Andorians. So it would've basically been the same shields that Shran had on the Kumari
I'm re-watching Enterprise and the first time on my OLED since getting Paramount+. As I'd re-watched it a few years ago when it was on a different streaming service. I also had watched it during its original run on a 20" Magnavox CRT. The episode I'm watching right now is ironically Silent Enemy which was the next episode in the queue lol
NX01 was not a warship it was for exploration. Remember Archer actually was against installing weapons at first and later said he wished he had more later on in the series.
Sphere-Builders - we have a planet destroyer and a whole fleet of power vessels of several races Captain Archer- we have the Enterprise... and plot armour... Mic drop
I don’t know how…but I seem to have missed this one. Nice vid mate! Made good points and was a great compare and contrast view of the most common threats of the time. Nicely done.
The ship left space dock with 4 plasma cannons, uncalibrated spacial torpedoes, and 1 uninstalled prototype phase cannon. Until the phase cannons were installed, the NX 01 should have run away.
The one about humans having superior tech to other already established interstellar powers, although at face value it doesn't make a lot of sense, the humans were deliberately held back by the vulcans. So, they sort of had extra time to develop some of their systems before actually going into space.
Considering the state of starfleet in 2158 and what the NX-01 accomplished, I'd argue she was incredible. Was she underpowered compared to neighbors like the Vulcans, and Andorians? Sure, yeah. But she was versatile, adaptable, and, considering how much she benefitted from upgrades, perfectly serviceable. Especially once she gets the early Photons (photonic) torps. Pure paper stats are not the only measure of a ship's capabilities. In terms of historical impact in universe, I don't think any other ship comes close. The NX class built the Federation.
Now question did the tos ever mention what the class of ship that was mentioned in the second pilot episode where no man has gone before? Was it possibly an nx class or even older? Also how did a sub warp5 ship reach the boundary of the galaxy as the story line is in that episode!
I was never a fan of "Akiraprise". However the refit version is awesome. I didn't like the "photonic torpedoes". They were supposed to use nukes back then. It would have been interesting if they developed 3rd generation nukes which are basically shape charge nukes.
Its not bad for the time, it was like a stock vessel when it was launch. I love that the writers can play around arsenal and abilities really see the ability of humanity if we are working as a race and not divided
Well the NX Class won a war against the Romulans, not bad for something that wasn't even designed for war. It was able to fend of the majority of the threats it came up against. By season 4 they were tactically comparable to a Klingon Bird of Prey. For the expanse refit, the Klingons mentioned that the NX-01's hull plating had been improved which is why their weapons were less effective. Just a note. The NX class summarised Humanity in Star Trek up perfectly. It doesn't excel in anyway but does everything well enough. It was a jack of all trades ship that was modular and multi purpose. Just like most Federation ships that came afterward, they didn't excel in away way but were more than good enough to do the job they needed to do.
She was a good ship given the technology the Vulcans made available to the humans. I would have preferred to see an entire flotilla of human ships in orbit of Earth after the Xindi attack, but the logical deployment at the edge of the system does make sense. If they'd sent her on her trip into the Delphic Expanse with even 2 other vessels of her class, I do believe that the Xindi Arc would have played out very differently. Plus, they could have used that as an excuse to help Archer develop the skills to become the Admiral he becomes during the Romulan War.
Since the Xindi ships used subspace vortices to travel instead of warp, and the Xindi join the Federation, yet we've never seen Starfleet ships use such vortices as a means of ftl, it's safe to assume that technology was given to the Xindi (and probably sustained) by the sphere builders.
I like the idea of having phase cannons on the surface of the hull. Your enemy obviously will focus on blowing those off - and then you flip out cannons integrated into the hull 😊
I have to say here that I always had a soft spot for the NX Class. Always loved the design. The way Starfleet develops the capabilities of the NX Class as the years progress always felt right too. Enterprise was woefully under armed during the first two years, even when their phase cannons were installed she wasn't particularly combat effective. The NX Class was never designed to be a combat vessel and thats fine, but she wasn't equipped to handle anything she came across really. But once the hull plating upgrades, increased phase cannon ports and photonic torpedoes are brought into the mix things change in a big way. Enterprise was easily overmatched by a single bird of prey in season 2 but after the upgrades the NX Class outguns a bird of prey 3 to 1 and has every advantage. The NX Class was a design with enormous potential and Starfleet really does develop the design to its potential. It's just a shame we didn't get more Enterprise.
the Enterprise was a damn tough design, eating damage with no shields and a Rocky Balboa 'I didn't hear no bell' attitude. I admit, as a kid watching this thinking 'oh, this'll be early Trek, where they didn't have photorps. Maybe we'll see something 'basic' like nukes and lasers and have to work their way up!' I wasn't expecting them to have missiles that even modern day humanity would sneer at.
Considering the small time humanity had been a warp species it is pretty amazing what they accomplished against opponents who had been Star faring for centuries longer than Starfleet.
Very late period of age of sail did see explosive shells used. The very first Victoria Cross was awarded to Charles Davis Lucas. He picked up an explosive shell fired from the Bomarsund fortress in the Aland Islands onto the deck of HMS Hecla and tossed it overboard before it could explode.
The NX-01 may not have been the meanest ship, but a ship is really only as good as its crew, and that crew made the ship great. I mean it took on a wide array of superior ships and came out on top more times than you would think (thanks to polarizing its plot plating).
0:28 How bad was the Brewster Buffalo? 2:19 yeah, but no. I could use the emergency launch of the refit Enterprise in TMP as a counter to this argument.
After Enterprise got home and was undergoing the refit to bring it back up two full operational status Archer went aboard Columbia and Captain Hernandez said that they improved hold position by 12% may not qualify as a new mark but I think that when Enterprise left spacedock for the third time it was definitely a lot stronger than when she went into the delphic expanse Also in the first episode Enterprise was using pulse plasma cannons probably a little stronger than the ones that they had on the earth cargo ships And the Special Torpedoes possibly all that Earth had at the time and the Photonic Torpedoes were still most likely was a classified project still in Starfleet R&D and as for the NX refit aka the Columbia class shields were either hand-me-downs, direct reverse-engineered, or flat-out Andorian Shields
The NX-class are the Junkions of Star Trek. "It's not hard to knock'em down. It's getting'em to STAY down that's the trick." - Springer, regarding the Junkions.
From what I remember of this show, I did get to watch it all. The NX1 was not meant to handle half of what it encountered at first. And they were held back tech wise thanks to the need to prove themselves to the Vulcans. But the ship was a very tough little ship and it's crew made up for much of it's early failings. And as for the era it's in, it worked well enough. A shame the show was cut short. I'd love to see your take on what this ship could have evolved into through the different times.
ENTERPRISE had issues for me, but with some irony, the show was TOO ADVANCED for its time period. At least in my opinion. It's an era I WANTED to see, but didn't believe it could be done; earth ships would have been slow and weak, every encounter would have been a big deal. Some would say that's exactly what this show did, but, really, it was a fairly standard Star Trek show. They zipped around way too easily and would make contacts too casually. The first story arc says it all--they journey to Qo'nos! In a few days! That's just crazy! There are a lot of threats in space--but the Vulcans were probably specifically afraid of earth dealing with the Klingons! They're the gorilla in the room of the local area of the galaxy. A big problem I had was that my thinking was that Starfleet tech at the level of TOS was relatively brand new. This is borne out from primary and beta canon. Starfleet and the Federation of previous generations were relatively primitive. Right in the CAGE there is the 'time barrier'. and the suggestion that ships of the 2430's were much slower than in TOS. Duotronic computers being only 20 some years earlier. Folks acting jittery about the transporters, for fairly good reason; they seem to break down and break. The allusions to the Romulan War suggests very primitive ships, more primitive than ENTERPRISE to be sure. Use of atomic weapons, no viewscreens, limited or no warp, and so on. Also, I read the TMP novelization, supposedly written by Roddenberry himself, which again alluded to ships slower than the Vulcan shuttle generations earlier. I was REALLY annoyed with the series finale what with Starfleet ships having reached warp 7! From my perspective, PACIFIC 201 is a good example of how I would see the year 2201. The NX-01 seeming to be more of THAT time than the 2150s. And, on a related subject, you might understand how I dislike the very advanced portrayals of DISCO and even SNW that are pre-TOS. Now, I've amended my thinking since ENTERPRISE debuted. Star Trek is rather inconsistent for one thing. The Romulans were really just surly local troublemakers in original continuity; it makes more sense thematically for them to be a terrible danger for earth and an impetus for the formation of the Federation. Earth being a client state of the Vulcans and getting a certain kind of help that would lead to getting a societal 'leg-up' is reasonable. A lot of races that have small, primitive ships sometimes acting as pirates being representative of races that weren't properly developed, or didn't get a beneficent 'leg-up'. Earth itself sending out Conestoga class colonizers before they were properly ready to do so. Having a trade network with slow, primitive traders, the intrepid cruiser of the era being a 'nice try' at a warship. The NX Class was earth really trying to show that they were ready to go out and do exploration the right way. It might seem like a small ship next to some of the juggernauts out there, but it's about the size of the Connie's saucer section. The NX-01 is as big and advanced as earth can really make ships at this time. There are actually a LOT of ships in earth's Starfleet, but almost NONE of them show up to help out. They're just too slow , they aren't advanced enough in defenses, weapons and utility. There's a lot of decks on the NX-01, they're needed for an exploratory ship that can contain the tech and resources to handle a deep space assignment. Only the NX class ships can really go out and meet the larger community and play with the big boys. The more primitive ships congregate on earth's systems, and the spaceways between them, and the trade routes. So, I agree with your assessment for the NX. Again, if anything, it's too advanced for the era; not too primitive. It represents the best earth could do at that decade of time. It also suggests that Starfleet would always have its explorers being some of its best starships. Which would make sense; if cut off from help, it makes sense for the starship to be able to handle itself and cover a lot of contingencies.
Also being so advanced, not many could be built especially for defense and war when you saw that other older class with the big sphere hull in front. Daedalus? Where they could be built at a rate of three to one. So it makes sense that's the nx would be one of those ships more like a command ship/battleship/explorer because there were so few of them...
@@alanmike6883 What does the NX class “advancement” have to do with Earth not being able to make more? NX was the proving ground. After -01, and -02 Earth proved they could build a decent ship. Building more should be no problem. Actually it should be easier, to the point of giving the ships a registry without the NX. Now making the warp drive better is another matter. But building the ship should be no problem. They say the -01 got a secondary hull and a warp 7 reactor in the “big refit” that the ship was going to get. What would stop Earth from creating new hull designs that are also high warp?
@@josebrown5961 Don't forget that by the founding of the federation, most earth ships were not nx or Colombia class. Most were the older class. Especially since they could be built in quickly and in numbers during and after after the war
The refit the enterprise receive at the end of season 2 was a 9 extra phase cannon, specifically pulse phase cannon, the photonic torpedo like you say and a upgraded pullorize hull plating
according to some Gama canon and some de-canonized text when the NX-01 launched it had three high yield Plasma Canons and during Space Trials also had a number of Medium Yield Plasma Canons, the original planed launch armaments where to be three Phase Canons for offensive armament and a "Number"of Variable Yield Plasma Canons for 2ndry Armament/Point Defense, it also had a complement of outgoing generation Spatial Torpedoes for the Space Trials it was meant to replace them with Next Gen Spatial Torpedoes when it launched. Q Store had dropped the ball and not delivered any of the new Plasma Canons, Torpedoes and only one of the Phase Canons, the Yard had just gotten throw uninstalling the trials 2ndry Armament and had bean told to hold off on the high yield canons till all the Phase Canons arrived.
🖖😎👍Very cool and very nicely well done and very well executed and very well informatively explained in every way shape and form and detail provided to you on the NX class starship's, And I myself have always loved the Enterprise NX-01 as a great design and as per its refit upgrade as well, And I thought that the NX class was a good ship for the time period for which it was built for the first warp 5 ships at the time and for the weaponry at the time along with its special hull plating for as deflector shields weren't fully developed yet with no help from the Vulcans who truly didn't want mankind out there yet and so forth!...
The end of the video made my brain replay the intro song... your description of NX-01's strengths and weaknesses kinda justifies the lyrics... *It's been a long time...*
23:12 - I'd actually extend your age of sail metaphor. Complaining about NX-01 getting damaged in most of its fights is like complaining about an age of sail ship being taking damage from contemporary cannon. They're not expected to be invulnerable to their opponents weapons. You knew going into a fight, even against a weaker ship, that you were going to take damage -- you'd get hole in your hull, your propulsion (rigging and sails; possibly masts) damaged, some of your people would be killed, and likely some of your guns would be knocked out. And then, after you won (or escaped), you'd patch yourself up and continue your mission. Like you said of NX-01, (relatively) easy to damage, but very hard to actually kill.
Yeah age of sail ships were very rarely sunk, more often either captured or returning to port. There was a French ship "lOrient" which was sunk at the battle of the nile by detonating the magazine
@@WALTERBROADDUS actually they are. When the US first rolled out the Mk. 41, one of the cells was reserved for a crane to allow the cells to be reloaded at sea. That was abandoned for several reasons, one of which I assume being the danger of attempting to manhandle ordnance of that size on a ship that is rolling in the waves. More to the point, however, a Star Trek VLS system would most certainly be reloadable. Starfleet torpedo bays are spacious enough for 2 or 3 tubes, allowing rapid rates of fire. In this circumstance, we are primarily changing the orientation of the launchers from the horizontal plane to the vertical one. I imagine we can put the launchers closer together along the dorsal and/or ventral hull of the ship, with that full deck devoted to torpedo storage, maintance, and loading procedures. I can think of at least one advantage: Saturation. A single ship would be able to fire enough torpedoes to overwhelm the shields of even the largest capital ships and even engage multiple targets with devastating volleys of long range missiles. After all, dialogue in TNG and Voyager indicates missile ranges of 300,000 to 8 million kilometers while the TNG and DS9 technical manuals indicate ranges of 750,000 to 4 million kilometers. In any event, the range, combined with the poor state of missile defense and electronic warfare in Star Trek, makes it a prime environment for missile heavy warships.
@@WALTERBROADDUS I thought I explained that but I shall do so again. You'll reload it the same way you reload the existing torpedo tubes. It will just be oriented vertically rather than horizontally.
@@nicholaswalsh4462 that would not be wise from a design point of view. You're putting a bunch of hatches as weak points. And you have to somehow load internally? BY hand?
Future video idea, Xindi in the TOS and TNG era's, both cannon and your own cannon that you are developing. As for why the Vulcan's did not think that the Human's were ready, it is because Human's were too emotional and illogical, The Vulcan's took how they were before logic and put the human's in the same picture, the Vulcan's took centuries when the humans did the same in decades. And the Vulcans just could not perceive that another race can advance faster than them.
Actually the Vulcans had a point about the humans trying to go too fast. Now I don’t think that humans needed to scrap the warp 5 engine and start over, but a little more care could have been taken. Earth was raring to get out there and they did.
The Vulcans didn't send their ship into the delphic expanse with the Enterprise, that in itself was a different trip for the Vulcans long before Starfleet even heard of the Xindi. The biggest problem with the Vulcan ship not being able to travel through the expanse wasn't the spacial anomalies, but was in fact the trelium d in either its natural form or in its refined form which was poisonous to the Vulcan brain and would basically turn pretty much any Vulcan into an aggressive, violent and completely illogical creature. The Vulcan ship stopped in an asteroid field in which the asteroids were mostly comprised of trelium d which was bad enough for the Vulcans to be close to anyway, but to make matters worse, the Vulcans then were refining the trelium d and beginning to line their hull with the bare metal which I'm sure was poisoning them at an exponentially higher rate. No matter what Doctor Flox could do, there was NO way to restore their minds back to the people they used to be.
Thank you for the consistent well researched and articulated content. This is off subject but I'd be extremely grateful for feedback from you and or your followers in the star trek universe can a starfleet federation hunter killer intercepter arrow class runabout /shuttle destroy larger romulan, klingon etc starships ? Could it hold it's own ?
It was not the hull plating that provided protection against weapons, it was the energizing of the hull plating that protected against weapons which created an energy field (probably electromagnetic) that strengthened the hull plating against energy and concussive strikes. I have no evidence to prove it, but considering that whatever energized the hull plating made it stronger, I believe that after they started using energy shields that stopped weapons from impacting the hull plating, that the technology that was used to energize the hull plating became what they called a structural integrity field later when the ships started getting larger and rapid maneuvers put more stress on the "bones" of the ships.
the enterprise era ships reminds me of the delta quadrant ships voyager encountered. like, everyone was in the process of growth, or some type of decline, but no true dominant power. i can't call the kazon a true force cause they suck to me. great video
The nx-01 was ready (once the phase cannons were installed) But how many ships did earth Starfleet have, I think they needed more ships they had, but I guess that is always the case isn't it?
I never thought the NX-01 was a bad ship considering the level of technology at this particular time in history. I think it was actually the best that they could do.
I agree and considering it a pure humans ship tech wise should be looked at differently compared to later ships which can draw on yrs of expertise and technology from over 150 species
I actually really like the NX, it feels like a submarine
The US government has small nuclear warheads 10 times as powerful as torpedo yields in the 1980s... We have warheads 1000x as powerful NOW.
I think that is exactly the point of this - the ship is pretty mediocre becuase human tech was pretty meh compared to some of the others.
@@vojtechpribyl7386 The weapons tech in the show is marketly inferior to what is available in the 1990s, let alone now. A 13 KT nuclear warhead on a torpedo the size of a current generation 130KT or 1 MT warhead? A Phase rifle less effective than a 7.62mm Rifle? Ship's Phase cannon which are ineffective until they overload/// X Ray laser gets better thruput...
13:05 - I have a theory on this. The NX-01 was designed, from aft to stern right from the beginning, as a ship without shields. They didn't have them, so they couldn't rely on them. So what happens once shielding technology is common place? Well, if there's an issue with a bulkhead or you have a gigantic hole or otherwise missing part of your ship... you can just erect forcefields/shields until you return to port (and I do think this makes Starfleet more complacent in designing ships for combat... which "officially" they don't do, even when it's hilariously false like with the Defiant). They don't have that luxury. So it's my theory that the NX-01 was designed more like modern warships on the seas - many more ways to shut off areas of the ship, more airlocks/doors to prevent leaking atmosphere when damaged, and more emphasis on damage control. So long as nothing vital is blown or shot off, you can just seal it off, do temporary repairs and continue combat. And given that I'd venture that the NX-01 was designed with far more armor and segmented areas that can be closed off for damage control than most other ships of the period, I think that's why it could take the pounding it could. That, and most likely human experience with doing such damage control on the seas. (The episode where Reed gets impaled by a Romulan mine on the hull of the ship and references his grand(?)father's service in the navy seems to show where this mindset came from. I have to wonder: would the Vulcans, living on such a desert planet, have as much experience doing damage control on vessels as humanity did before venturing into space? I doubt it. So we got lucky have generations of experience with naval vessels on such a water-dominated planet.) That's my theory, anyways.
Excellent analysis. I firmly agree DC is taught on every naval ship and all crew are trained in DC no matter the job. From Air crew to Boatswains.
Federation Hulls are actually quite strong Galaxy Class has 9cm of armor on top of a Duranium/Titanium hull.
As a rule, Federation takes a safety first, stronger hulls/shields weaker weapons compared to a other parity species ships.
I think I like this analysis.
After the battle of azati prime you could see the sections of the NX-01 that were exposed to space had no power and this was likely done intentionally so in the event that section is stuck again, the damage would be negligible as there is nothing to be damaged.
This could save up hull plating energy for the sections that have intact hull.
Make the hulls 5 feet thick
It wasn't a bad ship, it was a primitive ship. It also wasn't a war ship, it was intended to be a science and explorer ship that might have to defend itself. Despite its intended design, it acquitted itself nicely in combat against foes of equal abilities.
You see the federations founding principles with it before there was even a federation.
Diplomacy and science.. Then combat
Don’t forget that for season 3 she became a warship. They refit her for the Expanse.
@@josebrown5961 America’s first aircraft carrier started life as a coal ship. A warship conversion is only as good as its starting hull. In this case the Enterprise was an overall solid platform.
@@josebrown5961
This is true but also which is true is what rabbit says.
As modular as it was, it wasn't perfected until the modular designs down the line with other ships.
The default galaxy class was a glass cannon.
However science labs removed. Less crew, my power generators, more shield emitters and phaser emitters, the war variant was a beast.
Though still less than ideal being it was designed in peacetime during the golden age
All of which highlights that the Federation should have had dedicated warships. Galaxy class is a huge waste of metal in a war footing. Better off being used as hospital ships than warships.
My favorite ship in Startrek is the NX refit. It just looks SO cool! The NX was disgustingly out of her depth yet out into the deeps she went, and that is what makes the Enterprise series great. She can't just steamroller over everything she comes up against.
Yeah when she first launched it was like HUMANITIES OPTIMISM. After everything that happened, one episode has archer admit he was wrong launching without being prepared
@@alanmike6883 but he does also point out Vulkan didn't help by warning humanity of neighboring civilizations that are warp capable like Andorians, Orions and Klingons. The idea of not giving humanity tech they didn't earn is one thing, not making a clear point of at what point Humanity is ready to meet other quadrant powers is an understatement of how bad the Vulkans blundered that one.
they should have used the uss Bonaventure design pre - constitution class .
it was all saucer w/ twin boom warp nacelles & cylindrical command section , running fore to aft and a Connie style navigational deflector. it was the Warp Speed testbed .
The Xindi conflict proved how tough the NX-01 was.
Damned near destroyed her in the process, though.
@@travisfoster1071 Kept on chugging though.
Imagine if she had been upgraded like Columbia before the xindi crises and had shields...
@@travisfoster1071 NX-01:i didn't hear no bell
No it didn’t. The Xindi let them live. NX-01 was dead and the Xindi just left instead of finishing them as they should have.
I liked and accepted the fact that NX-01 was meant to be weak and it allowed for the writers to have room to work and challenge the plot line
It also made the show a bit mmore realistic, as humanity where the literal babes in the woods at the time.
It also had to be an evolutionary predecessor to the Constitution-Class. If you look at a WW1 battleship with its 12" guns and want to build a prequel story, of course you're gonna end up with an ironclad as flagship. It just felt logical that their weapons were vulnerable and their torpedos sucked. Tbh it would've felt like a huge continuity violation if they had given it anything more powerful.
(Which will always be the flaw of Star Wars: the prequel ships like the Venator feel more competent and well-designed compared to the classic IDS I and II. Sure, they're smaller, but the design was overall more rounded and sound, which is just not how generational iterations of progress work.)
Enterprise was my favorite Trek series after DS9. It's a terrible shame that it didn't finish.
How Enterprise ended is really one of the reasons today, that I simply don't bother watching TV shows anymore.
I’d say it’s a pretty tough little ship seeing as how was able trade blows lots of other crafts like a Klingon bird of prey.
Little?
@@davidcolaco8355 To be fair, it is little compared to most hero ships on Star Trek
@@davidcolaco8355 I see what you did there. The other guy above me totally missed the First Contact.😀
@@josebrown5961 haha😅
who you calling "little" ?
NX had good propulsion, it wasn't too long before it was able to sit comfortably at Warp 5 with seemingly little problem and there seems to be no issue with it's sub-light capability.
The Phase Cannons are good. The idea of them having their own turbolifts is hilarious. They clearly started with three, and that seems to be their Launch loadout, but quickly upgraded to far more.
The Spatial Torpedos were garbage, about as good as the Plasma Cannons they had in the first episode. But the Photonics were much better. Maybe not as good as some other species, but more than effective.
The Defenses is the part that lets NX down. Hull Plating was okay, but certainly inferior to most shielded vessels. At that time having both would have made the NX a beast. It was still decently resilient against other vessels of it's size though
As for the "Stealing the ship" Plot likes. Keep in mind the NX has a good couple points going for it.
Transporters, which weren't all that common place and pretty valuable at the time.
Phase cannons were good, so were Photonics. The Warp drive seemed to be pretty good for the time.
For the Columbia refit. They did have Andorian Shields. But there were Bugs, they couldn't go over Warp 3 with the shields on to start with. But it's still a major upgrade and they did manage to get around it after a while.
Plus they could hit up to Warp 6 with the bigger core. That bigger power plant undoubtedly meant more Phase cannon power too.
NX's major advantage was in how it was clearly built with expansion, sustainability and adaptability in mind. They knew it wasn't going to be the best thing out there. They knew they'd need to bring them back to refit upcoming technologies and they planned well for that.
It was except for one thing.
The engine.
The ship was built round the engine nothing the other way around round...
Nahkul timeline 100 year refit version was on par with a TOS era miranda and even then it lasted better odds damaged than the Nahkul ships.
except its NON canon.
many pre Connie books on starships , had Phasers , Torps, Transporters , etc.
What I loved about the show is they showed how naive Star Fleet was when they launched the NX-01 to how much they advanced in the final season.
did not like that there were a Vulcan on the NX enterprise, its NON canon.
could have used other TOS aliens , as they met them FIRST , Orions, Telerites , Saurians, Endosian, Catacian .
Paramount just wasn't very creative.
I agree that the NX was good for it's time. Comparing mid-22nd century Starfleet to only the Vulcans and Andorians while ignoring most everyone else is like comparing the early/mid-1800s US Navy only against the British Royal and French navies while ignoring most everyone else. Sure the NX wasn't the best in the region, but it was either able to hold it's own or even superior to majority of ships and factions in the Quadrant aside from those two great powers. Especially by the time of the Columbia refits.
Yeah that's actually a very good comparison for starfleet at the time.
@@venomgeekmedia9886 It should be pointed out that after first NX prototype fall apart (now we know being of same class as Franklin). Earth did heavily reinforce NX-01 to survive vibrations of unregulated Warp Drive. It actually worked better then expected, to point that ships structure was later reused for 23'th century Columbia class (STO) Destroyers, despite it not being originally designed for combat. It is also speculated that Loknar class could be late 22'th century refit. Also it is worth to point out that Enterprise is slightly different then production models of NX, what have larger deflector. And also plasma conduits on bridge (for some reason). But though slightly inferior, Enterprise was mostly comparable. Honestly it is bit weird that it didn't this upgrade in the season 4 (it may be or not a plot hole)? It is worth to mention that in Beta canon most of NX'es were unfortunately rebuild in heavily armed Poseidon class Destroyers, what were rather alternative variant then straight refit (they have large hangar in space between two upside down pylons and rollbar. Somewhat resembling proto-Miranda). Only small number of NX get proper "Columbia" refit. But those units were quite potent heavy cruisers capable of long duration strike missions. Thanks to powerful deflector. They armament was comparable to Poseidon, but largely because most guns were put inside the new expanded secondary hull, containing also hangar. As main hull still stay Explorer in nature. This design was direct inspiration for future Constitution class.
I think the NX class is a fine class of ship, as long as you remember the context of the time period and situation earth was in when it was put into service, the fact she could still complete her mission after taking so much damage during the Xindi arc shows just how durable these old ships really were.
Plus I've seen TNG vessels explode being hit by less. XD
Other than the warp drive the NX-01 Enterprise was average for her time. Which is an amazing thing considering how much the Vulkans held humanity back. Also in the Brainworms in Archer timeline with shields the ship was pretty formidable. From the team and in the STO rundown the NX Refit has andorian defense shields which are tankier than Vulkan ones. I think the NX Refit was able to Cruise comfortably at warp 6.
These were the pre-awakening Vulcans, so I wonder if they were trying to cultivate humanity as a servitor race to use against the Andorians.
@@nunya3163 or they just underestimated humanity's drive for exploration.
@manny022 I wasn't meaning technologically. I was meaning Intel wise. How do we get ready when we don't have a baseline to go off of.
@manny022 I’m with you. It would have been a mess if the Vulcans just gave humans all their tech.
The Vulcans made humans EARN the advances they got. And the Vulcans were spying on NX-01 for most of season 1, ready to save them if they got really in trouble.
@@josebrown5961 there's a difference between giving your tech to someone and holding them back from developing their own
I like that the NX’s is a highly adaptable and upgradable design, we’ve seen it on several occasions be upgraded by Earth and alternative versions upgraded with Andorian shields and other alien technology.
In those terms it puts even the Constitution to shame.
Yeah I wounder how long the NX was in service after the end of the romulan war?
@@venomgeekmedia9886 well the USS Franklin was running around until it was plucked out of space by a giant green hand in 2164, so I’d say most NX class vessels were still in service well after that. Although I imagine that Enterprise was retired for memorials sake, and the first off the yard vessel made by the Federations Starfleet replaced it as the flagship of the fleet.
I then imagine that the reason for such a long time between NX-01 and NCC-1701, is that it took all that time for Starfleet to integrate all the various found worlds technology and culture into the fleet before they felt comfortable having an Enterprise as the flagship.
Didn't Enterprise find the Vulcan ship that had disappeared in the expanse, with the crew having gone mad, due to the mineral used to insulate against the anomalies? Or am I getting confused?
No, you remember right. The episode had a bit of a horror flare as the Vulcan crew had been reduced to a violent, zombie-like horde.
Yep. That was not a great episode. But I think part of the issue the vulcans had was that they could only travel in a straight line.
@@venomgeekmedia9886 I disagree. The trellium would have solved the issue with the anomalies, and not being as able to evade them would not have made a difference. A human crew, unaffected by trellium would have been able to complete the mission and bring the ship home. On the other hand a Vulcan crew trying to insulate an NX-class with trellium would still have gone mad and been lost.
@@MrAranton the problem was the anomaly was effecting other systems like sensors and even the ships internal gravity. Also let's not forget the Brainworms that Archer got due to one anomaly.
@@venomgeekmedia9886 enjoyed the episode a lot
I would like to suggest that the Vulcan were more risk adverse. They fully prepare their children before they enter society. Human need to go into the deeper ends of pools and flounder as bit as part of their development.
As for describing roughly equal ships, I like to describe them as in the same weight class with one might having a slight advantage, but the captain/crew will be the decisive factor.
It's interesting how the initial premise of the show is that the Vulcans have superior warp technology, yet their ring warp engines aren't the ones that last past that era. 🤔
I think venom geek pointed out why in the end of the video. Starfleet ships are hard to kill and easy to repair. Also the double nacelle type is far better for maneuvering then the ring type.
Add in after the formation of the federation and the Nx class/Columbia being the best ship to merge all the founding races tech.
Isn't the annular warp field geometry good for speed but piss poor for manuverability & warp field efficiency due to overlapping of the field & subsequent resonance/dissonance of the field harmonics ?
I always looked at it as the Vulcan ring drives were far too complicated whereas the linear nacelle setup was much easier to work on and then the andorians putting their drives inside the ship's hole while protecting them didn't allow for a strong warp field or easy repairs
I aways saw the Vulcan shops as more powerful and faster in a straight line but the Andorians losing the warp speed but mire maneuverable.
And starfleet ships being the compromise design of the federation going forward
I always took it as a kind of technology blind alley sort of like Betamax that didn’t go anywhere and becomes more and more inefficient as you get more powerful drives and the Vulcans we’re too stubborn to stop using them
We all know the NX CLASS wasn't great. But for its time in Earth's history. It was top of the line.
To me shes a guilty pleasure.
You see with the other classes of united earth ships that they were experimenting.
One weakness of the class was the lack of warp engineering removal which would quickly make her redundant.
But for the warp 5 program a good ship.
As other have said the Vulcans did bold humanity back.
Imagine if the Andorians had made first contact. Built in a relationship.
I don't think they would've held back as much..
The flip side to that point, is that perhaps the NX was as polished as it was, because of the time the Vulcans made them spending doing more R&D before going out.
@@nunya3163
Imagine if it had been the Andorians as sponsors?
Still a good ship though.
Like taking the first steps when you leave home one in this case independence from the Vulcans
I think the problem with the was simply that it was a product of its time. Unlike in the TNG era which we were just coming off of, Earth was far behind the other major powers in the galaxy in Enterprise, most of which had been in space...hell, had been in conflicts longer than Earth had warp technology. The Vulcans in the series were not wrong, Earth wasn't ready to deal with everything they faced, and while season one and two of enterprise may have left much to be desired, it showed that fact very well, they were not ready. But they got ready, they made due, and by the end of the Xindi incident, they were now able to compete with major powers. The main problem was summed up by Archer himself in that episode after they got back from the expanse, Archer didn't want to take a warship to make first contact with other species and I think most of Starfleet agreed with him, but then, when he was out there, they were always going from one conflict to the next. She was never meant to be a Galaxy class starship, and it worked. Even during the Xindi arc, it barely survived. I just wish the writing was better able to capture that.
I really liked the NX-01 and the Enterprise series as a whole. It seemed much more grounded and felt like it had actual stakes. It was a prequel done right, IMO.
The NX-series is, to quote Commander Riker, a “tough little ship”
Worf: "Captain, they are now locking LASERS on us." 🤣
Without shields, even "weak wee heaters" can burn you!
firstly one of my favorite ships of Star Trek. But It's odd they had deflector dishes for light speed travel yet they didn't have any type of basic shields.
Just shows you the energies involved, being hit with a disrupter blast is a lot worse than crushing into space dust at multiple times the speed of light.
The NX 01 was not bad, it was just unrefined, after the refit and the full weapons load it might have grown into its own.
I thought the point of ENT was that humans were finally in the position to truly explore outside their comfort zone, with all the challenges they were about to face, including dealing with potential foes much more powerful than they were. And they did so on a steep learning curve. Ergo, the ship being what it should be understandable to the casual fan, though I can also understand why some wouldn't like this premise. We're used to seeing our protagonists on equal footing with everyone else, after all.
13:02 plot armour. Stronger than any shield or armour in the universe
NX-01 was the first Earth ship with enough speed to travel between star systems in a reasonable time. It made exploration practical and put humans on the map with other species that would eventually become their allies.
Humans were behind Vulcans, Klingons, and Andorians in technology. But the NX class was good enough to do the job.
sometimes being the best isnt necessary, sometimes good enough, is perfect
i think the NX is the embodiment of this
You're getting so natual at this. Good gravy, I'm always lovng your content.
The NX class was excellent ship limited only by Earth's level of technology.
Would love for new SNW series to find one and give it a total upgrade/refit comparable to DS9 Defiant class.
The one main thing you need to look at it's abilities is who is in command. If you have a horrid captain who does not know what they are doing that ship will be lost. Someone like Archer you would have a great chance of winning a battle.
I think the NX was in an interesting position. Much more advanced than a lot of other races starting out because of their isolation with the Vulcans led to decades of R&D but certainly not as advanced as they could be since the Vulcans hid a lot of the truth of deep space from them.
In all honesty, I always thought she was at least a decent ship myself.
Can't expect a Constitution class brought out the door.
The STO mission that takes you into the Mycelial Realm to take care of Klingon technology that also gets you a Elachi BOFF was definitely a unique mission. And the Elachi have been involved in STO since the very beginning for Romulan characters. As you have to take on an Elachi warship with a T'liss.
You have to imagine how it would have been without the vulcans holding humanity back. There's a real possibility without their meddling that it would have been an absolute terror, almost by accident.
I thought it was an interesting concept from a writing perspective. By this time they had a magic gizmo for everything in Trek. This took them back to when they didn't, and they had to actually think their way through a problem. The crew were more like astronauts than sailors.
This said, the ship was designed stupidly, and the crew were stupider still. The only exceptions were T'Pol and Mayweather, both of whom were ignored most of the time.
The lore says that the Colombia class got their shields from the Andorians. So it would've basically been the same shields that Shran had on the Kumari
Considering what NX-01 was up agsint...INCLUDING BS allies it did an INCREDIBLE job.
I'm re-watching Enterprise and the first time on my OLED since getting Paramount+. As I'd re-watched it a few years ago when it was on a different streaming service. I also had watched it during its original run on a 20" Magnavox CRT. The episode I'm watching right now is ironically Silent Enemy which was the next episode in the queue lol
NX01 was not a warship it was for exploration. Remember Archer actually was against installing weapons at first and later said he wished he had more later on in the series.
Tough little shop indeed. One of my favourites. Wonderful video!
Sphere-Builders - we have a planet destroyer and a whole fleet of power vessels of several races
Captain Archer- we have the Enterprise... and plot armour...
Mic drop
I don’t know how…but I seem to have missed this one.
Nice vid mate!
Made good points and was a great compare and contrast view of the most common threats of the time.
Nicely done.
It was a damn good first attempt, and testbed for technologies and concepts for future ships.
The ship left space dock with 4 plasma cannons, uncalibrated spacial torpedoes, and 1 uninstalled prototype phase
cannon. Until the phase cannons were installed, the NX 01 should have run away.
the NX was glorious!
she is my favorite Enterprise.
Given warp-drive, she’s the Enterprise that my great-grandchildren will build.
My favorite is still the T.O.S. Enterprise.
@@johnharrison6745 the TOS refit and the Mighty E are tied for second, imho
The one about humans having superior tech to other already established interstellar powers, although at face value it doesn't make a lot of sense, the humans were deliberately held back by the vulcans. So, they sort of had extra time to develop some of their systems before actually going into space.
I liked the NX-01... The amount of asswhooping it took and survived, its a winner in my book.
5:59 don’t forget that, the first shots didn’t do anything, only after they overcharged the cannons they could do real damage
Considering the state of starfleet in 2158 and what the NX-01 accomplished, I'd argue she was incredible. Was she underpowered compared to neighbors like the Vulcans, and Andorians? Sure, yeah. But she was versatile, adaptable, and, considering how much she benefitted from upgrades, perfectly serviceable. Especially once she gets the early Photons (photonic) torps. Pure paper stats are not the only measure of a ship's capabilities. In terms of historical impact in universe, I don't think any other ship comes close. The NX class built the Federation.
Now question did the tos ever mention what the class of ship that was mentioned in the second pilot episode where no man has gone before? Was it possibly an nx class or even older? Also how did a sub warp5 ship reach the boundary of the galaxy as the story line is in that episode!
"So that the episode can happen."
--- Screenwriter Guy.
I was never a fan of "Akiraprise". However the refit version is awesome.
I didn't like the "photonic torpedoes". They were supposed to use nukes back then. It would have been interesting if they developed 3rd generation nukes which are basically shape charge nukes.
Its not bad for the time, it was like a stock vessel when it was launch. I love that the writers can play around arsenal and abilities really see the ability of humanity if we are working as a race and not divided
Well the NX Class won a war against the Romulans, not bad for something that wasn't even designed for war.
It was able to fend of the majority of the threats it came up against. By season 4 they were tactically comparable to a Klingon Bird of Prey. For the expanse refit, the Klingons mentioned that the NX-01's hull plating had been improved which is why their weapons were less effective. Just a note.
The NX class summarised Humanity in Star Trek up perfectly. It doesn't excel in anyway but does everything well enough. It was a jack of all trades ship that was modular and multi purpose.
Just like most Federation ships that came afterward, they didn't excel in away way but were more than good enough to do the job they needed to do.
She was a good ship given the technology the Vulcans made available to the humans. I would have preferred to see an entire flotilla of human ships in orbit of Earth after the Xindi attack, but the logical deployment at the edge of the system does make sense. If they'd sent her on her trip into the Delphic Expanse with even 2 other vessels of her class, I do believe that the Xindi Arc would have played out very differently. Plus, they could have used that as an excuse to help Archer develop the skills to become the Admiral he becomes during the Romulan War.
The spatial torp has one saving grace over the phase cannons and photonics. They are controllable, you can guide them around asteroids.
Since the Xindi ships used subspace vortices to travel instead of warp, and the Xindi join the Federation, yet we've never seen Starfleet ships use such vortices as a means of ftl, it's safe to assume that technology was given to the Xindi (and probably sustained) by the sphere builders.
I like the idea of having phase cannons on the surface of the hull. Your enemy obviously will focus on blowing those off - and then you flip out cannons integrated into the hull 😊
13:20 you see, it has this module called 'Faith of the heart'.
“Easy to damage but hard to kill”……I love that assessment!!
I have to say here that I always had a soft spot for the NX Class. Always loved the design. The way Starfleet develops the capabilities of the NX Class as the years progress always felt right too. Enterprise was woefully under armed during the first two years, even when their phase cannons were installed she wasn't particularly combat effective. The NX Class was never designed to be a combat vessel and thats fine, but she wasn't equipped to handle anything she came across really. But once the hull plating upgrades, increased phase cannon ports and photonic torpedoes are brought into the mix things change in a big way. Enterprise was easily overmatched by a single bird of prey in season 2 but after the upgrades the NX Class outguns a bird of prey 3 to 1 and has every advantage. The NX Class was a design with enormous potential and Starfleet really does develop the design to its potential. It's just a shame we didn't get more Enterprise.
The ability of the NX to still be fighting at the end of the Xindi conflict is far more a statement about the crew than the ship.
the Enterprise was a damn tough design, eating damage with no shields and a Rocky Balboa 'I didn't hear no bell' attitude. I admit, as a kid watching this thinking 'oh, this'll be early Trek, where they didn't have photorps. Maybe we'll see something 'basic' like nukes and lasers and have to work their way up!'
I wasn't expecting them to have missiles that even modern day humanity would sneer at.
Considering the small time humanity had been a warp species it is pretty amazing what they accomplished against opponents who had been Star faring for centuries longer than Starfleet.
photonic torpedoes are quite obviously really early photon torpedoes
and if I recall the writers said as much
Very late period of age of sail did see explosive shells used. The very first Victoria Cross was awarded to Charles Davis Lucas. He picked up an explosive shell fired from the Bomarsund fortress in the Aland Islands onto the deck of HMS Hecla and tossed it overboard before it could explode.
The NX-01 may not have been the meanest ship, but a ship is really only as good as its crew, and that crew made the ship great. I mean it took on a wide array of superior ships and came out on top more times than you would think (thanks to polarizing its plot plating).
0:28 How bad was the Brewster Buffalo?
2:19 yeah, but no. I could use the emergency launch of the refit Enterprise in TMP as a counter to this argument.
After Enterprise got home and was undergoing the refit to bring it back up two full operational status Archer went aboard Columbia and Captain Hernandez said that they improved hold position by 12% may not qualify as a new mark but I think that when Enterprise left spacedock for the third time it was definitely a lot stronger than when she went into the delphic expanse
Also in the first episode Enterprise was using pulse plasma cannons probably a little stronger than the ones that they had on the earth cargo ships
And the Special Torpedoes possibly all that Earth had at the time and the Photonic Torpedoes were still most likely was a classified project still in Starfleet R&D and as for the NX refit aka the Columbia class shields were either hand-me-downs, direct reverse-engineered, or flat-out Andorian Shields
it had the best plot armour in the franchise
The NX-class are the Junkions of Star Trek.
"It's not hard to knock'em down. It's getting'em to STAY down that's the trick." - Springer, regarding the Junkions.
From what I remember of this show, I did get to watch it all. The NX1 was not meant to handle half of what it encountered at first. And they were held back tech wise thanks to the need to prove themselves to the Vulcans. But the ship was a very tough little ship and it's crew made up for much of it's early failings. And as for the era it's in, it worked well enough. A shame the show was cut short. I'd love to see your take on what this ship could have evolved into through the different times.
As always a great video, keep up the great work 🖖🏽
Can you do a VS video putting the Dominion Battleship vs the Scimitar?
ENTERPRISE had issues for me, but with some irony, the show was TOO ADVANCED for its time period. At least in my opinion. It's an era I WANTED to see, but didn't believe it could be done; earth ships would have been slow and weak, every encounter would have been a big deal. Some would say that's exactly what this show did, but, really, it was a fairly standard Star Trek show. They zipped around way too easily and would make contacts too casually. The first story arc says it all--they journey to Qo'nos! In a few days! That's just crazy! There are a lot of threats in space--but the Vulcans were probably specifically afraid of earth dealing with the Klingons! They're the gorilla in the room of the local area of the galaxy.
A big problem I had was that my thinking was that Starfleet tech at the level of TOS was relatively brand new. This is borne out from primary and beta canon. Starfleet and the Federation of previous generations were relatively primitive. Right in the CAGE there is the 'time barrier'. and the suggestion that ships of the 2430's were much slower than in TOS. Duotronic computers being only 20 some years earlier. Folks acting jittery about the transporters, for fairly good reason; they seem to break down and break. The allusions to the Romulan War suggests very primitive ships, more primitive than ENTERPRISE to be sure. Use of atomic weapons, no viewscreens, limited or no warp, and so on. Also, I read the TMP novelization, supposedly written by Roddenberry himself, which again alluded to ships slower than the Vulcan shuttle generations earlier.
I was REALLY annoyed with the series finale what with Starfleet ships having reached warp 7!
From my perspective, PACIFIC 201 is a good example of how I would see the year 2201. The NX-01 seeming to be more of THAT time than the 2150s. And, on a related subject, you might understand how I dislike the very advanced portrayals of DISCO and even SNW that are pre-TOS.
Now, I've amended my thinking since ENTERPRISE debuted. Star Trek is rather inconsistent for one thing. The Romulans were really just surly local troublemakers in original continuity; it makes more sense thematically for them to be a terrible danger for earth and an impetus for the formation of the Federation. Earth being a client state of the Vulcans and getting a certain kind of help that would lead to getting a societal 'leg-up' is reasonable.
A lot of races that have small, primitive ships sometimes acting as pirates being representative of races that weren't properly developed, or didn't get a beneficent 'leg-up'. Earth itself sending out Conestoga class colonizers before they were properly ready to do so. Having a trade network with slow, primitive traders, the intrepid cruiser of the era being a 'nice try' at a warship.
The NX Class was earth really trying to show that they were ready to go out and do exploration the right way. It might seem like a small ship next to some of the juggernauts out there, but it's about the size of the Connie's saucer section. The NX-01 is as big and advanced as earth can really make ships at this time. There are actually a LOT of ships in earth's Starfleet, but almost NONE of them show up to help out. They're just too slow , they aren't advanced enough in defenses, weapons and utility. There's a lot of decks on the NX-01, they're needed for an exploratory ship that can contain the tech and resources to handle a deep space assignment. Only the NX class ships can really go out and meet the larger community and play with the big boys. The more primitive ships congregate on earth's systems, and the spaceways between them, and the trade routes.
So, I agree with your assessment for the NX. Again, if anything, it's too advanced for the era; not too primitive. It represents the best earth could do at that decade of time. It also suggests that Starfleet would always have its explorers being some of its best starships. Which would make sense; if cut off from help, it makes sense for the starship to be able to handle itself and cover a lot of contingencies.
Also being so advanced, not many could be built especially for defense and war when you saw that other older class with the big sphere hull in front.
Daedalus?
Where they could be built at a rate of three to one.
So it makes sense that's the nx would be one of those ships more like a command ship/battleship/explorer because there were so few of them...
@@alanmike6883 What does the NX class “advancement” have to do with Earth not being able to make more? NX was the proving ground. After -01, and -02 Earth proved they could build a decent ship. Building more should be no problem. Actually it should be easier, to the point of giving the ships a registry without the NX.
Now making the warp drive better is another matter. But building the ship should be no problem.
They say the -01 got a secondary hull and a warp 7 reactor in the “big refit” that the ship was going to get. What would stop Earth from creating new hull designs that are also high warp?
@@josebrown5961
Don't forget that by the founding of the federation, most earth ships were not nx or Colombia class.
Most were the older class. Especially since they could be built in quickly and in numbers during and after after the war
The refit the enterprise receive at the end of season 2 was a 9 extra phase cannon, specifically pulse phase cannon, the photonic torpedo like you say and a upgraded pullorize hull plating
you have such good takes!
according to some Gama canon and some de-canonized text when the NX-01 launched it had three high yield Plasma Canons and during Space Trials also had a number of Medium Yield Plasma Canons, the original planed launch armaments where to be three Phase Canons for offensive armament and a "Number"of Variable Yield Plasma Canons for 2ndry Armament/Point Defense, it also had a complement of outgoing generation Spatial Torpedoes for the Space Trials it was meant to replace them with Next Gen Spatial Torpedoes when it launched.
Q Store had dropped the ball and not delivered any of the new Plasma Canons, Torpedoes and only one of the Phase Canons, the Yard had just gotten throw uninstalling the trials 2ndry Armament and had bean told to hold off on the high yield canons till all the Phase Canons arrived.
Could you do this with voyager and the ships of the delta quadrant?
Was it ever defined what type of warhead the Spatial Torpedoes were equipped with? Are they nuclear/fusion weapons?
In the episode where the defiant fights the neg'var that the defiant somehow got in-between the shield and hull of the neg'var?
🖖😎👍Very cool and very nicely well done and very well executed and very well informatively explained in every way shape and form and detail provided to you on the NX class starship's, And I myself have always loved the Enterprise NX-01 as a great design and as per its refit upgrade as well, And I thought that the NX class was a good ship for the time period for which it was built for the first warp 5 ships at the time and for the weaponry at the time along with its special hull plating for as deflector shields weren't fully developed yet with no help from the Vulcans who truly didn't want mankind out there yet and so forth!...
I clicked the like button, and your hull plating went down.
The end of the video made my brain replay the intro song... your description of NX-01's strengths and weaknesses kinda justifies the lyrics...
*It's been a long time...*
23:12 - I'd actually extend your age of sail metaphor. Complaining about NX-01 getting damaged in most of its fights is like complaining about an age of sail ship being taking damage from contemporary cannon. They're not expected to be invulnerable to their opponents weapons. You knew going into a fight, even against a weaker ship, that you were going to take damage -- you'd get hole in your hull, your propulsion (rigging and sails; possibly masts) damaged, some of your people would be killed, and likely some of your guns would be knocked out. And then, after you won (or escaped), you'd patch yourself up and continue your mission.
Like you said of NX-01, (relatively) easy to damage, but very hard to actually kill.
Yeah age of sail ships were very rarely sunk, more often either captured or returning to port. There was a French ship "lOrient" which was sunk at the battle of the nile by detonating the magazine
Speaking of missiles, what are your thoughts on a VLS sort of armament system? I'm a fan of missile heavy ships.
Basic problem with that type system is that they're not reloadable.
@@WALTERBROADDUS actually they are. When the US first rolled out the Mk. 41, one of the cells was reserved for a crane to allow the cells to be reloaded at sea. That was abandoned for several reasons, one of which I assume being the danger of attempting to manhandle ordnance of that size on a ship that is rolling in the waves.
More to the point, however, a Star Trek VLS system would most certainly be reloadable. Starfleet torpedo bays are spacious enough for 2 or 3 tubes, allowing rapid rates of fire. In this circumstance, we are primarily changing the orientation of the launchers from the horizontal plane to the vertical one. I imagine we can put the launchers closer together along the dorsal and/or ventral hull of the ship, with that full deck devoted to torpedo storage, maintance, and loading procedures.
I can think of at least one advantage: Saturation. A single ship would be able to fire enough torpedoes to overwhelm the shields of even the largest capital ships and even engage multiple targets with devastating volleys of long range missiles. After all, dialogue in TNG and Voyager indicates missile ranges of 300,000 to 8 million kilometers while the TNG and DS9 technical manuals indicate ranges of 750,000 to 4 million kilometers. In any event, the range, combined with the poor state of missile defense and electronic warfare in Star Trek, makes it a prime environment for missile heavy warships.
@@nicholaswalsh4462 how are you going to reload them in Space? And yes, the crane was dropped long ago.
@@WALTERBROADDUS I thought I explained that but I shall do so again.
You'll reload it the same way you reload the existing torpedo tubes. It will just be oriented vertically rather than horizontally.
@@nicholaswalsh4462 that would not be wise from a design point of view. You're putting a bunch of hatches as weak points. And you have to somehow load internally? BY hand?
Future video idea, Xindi in the TOS and TNG era's, both cannon and your own cannon that you are developing.
As for why the Vulcan's did not think that the Human's were ready, it is because Human's were too emotional and illogical, The Vulcan's took how they were before logic and put the human's in the same picture, the Vulcan's took centuries when the humans did the same in decades. And the Vulcans just could not perceive that another race can advance faster than them.
Actually the Vulcans had a point about the humans trying to go too fast. Now I don’t think that humans needed to scrap the warp 5 engine and start over, but a little more care could have been taken. Earth was raring to get out there and they did.
What does the NX-01 have going for it? Captain Archer
The Vulcans didn't send their ship into the delphic expanse with the Enterprise, that in itself was a different trip for the Vulcans long before Starfleet even heard of the Xindi. The biggest problem with the Vulcan ship not being able to travel through the expanse wasn't the spacial anomalies, but was in fact the trelium d in either its natural form or in its refined form which was poisonous to the Vulcan brain and would basically turn pretty much any Vulcan into an aggressive, violent and completely illogical creature. The Vulcan ship stopped in an asteroid field in which the asteroids were mostly comprised of trelium d which was bad enough for the Vulcans to be close to anyway, but to make matters worse, the Vulcans then were refining the trelium d and beginning to line their hull with the bare metal which I'm sure was poisoning them at an exponentially higher rate. No matter what Doctor Flox could do, there was NO way to restore their minds back to the people they used to be.
the relied on a fair bit of plot armour to be fair.
Thank you for the consistent well researched and articulated content. This is off subject but I'd be extremely grateful for feedback from you and or your followers in the star trek universe can a starfleet federation hunter killer intercepter arrow class runabout /shuttle destroy larger romulan, klingon etc starships ? Could it hold it's own ?
Great episode dude!
It was not the hull plating that provided protection against weapons, it was the energizing of the hull plating that protected against weapons which created an energy field (probably electromagnetic) that strengthened the hull plating against energy and concussive strikes.
I have no evidence to prove it, but considering that whatever energized the hull plating made it stronger, I believe that after they started using energy shields that stopped weapons from impacting the hull plating, that the technology that was used to energize the hull plating became what they called a structural integrity field later when the ships started getting larger and rapid maneuvers put more stress on the "bones" of the ships.
I want to see a NX dreadnought variant.
Here, have a thumbs up and a comment, in respect for your reference to the Starfleet history museum!
the enterprise era ships reminds me of the delta quadrant ships voyager encountered. like, everyone was in the process of growth, or some type of decline, but no true dominant power. i can't call the kazon a true force cause they suck to me. great video
Great perspective in comparison to the different metas, which general comparisons don't cover... 🙂
The nx-01 was ready (once the phase cannons were installed) But how many ships did earth Starfleet have, I think they needed more ships they had, but I guess that is always the case isn't it?
you are just uploading nonstop, Venom Geek Media. Keep up the great content.
"Mr. Human and his indestructible junk machine" -Vrusk expression, Star Frontiers universe.