The Federation's First Starship: The Rockwell Class
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- Опубліковано 9 лют 2025
- Today we take a look at the unusual yet charming Rockwell Class. by Terranimperial. Entering service in the late 22nd century this was the first true Federation starship. incorperating Earth, Vulcan, Denobulan, Andorian, and Tellarite technology into its design... although this has had mixed results, and lead some to regard the Rockwell class as a failure. However i would argue that these failures were in fact key to the Sucess of the Federation Project, and the future of starfleet.
Original Artist:
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Music:
• Godzilla - Main Theme ...
• Leaving Home
The Ford Edsel of Starfleet: advanced, intelligent, interesting, launched from the top of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down.
"You're upside down."
"This is space! There's no right side up or down!"
"The vulcans are telling me you're upside down, and I really don't want to argue with them."
"Fine. Helm, flip us one-eighty degrees."
Great Video Venom! Here’s your monthly ‘muchas gracias’! Keep up the great work hermano….
This Starship really does have a 1920's retro art-deco look to it. Almost like I would see it more in Sky Captain: The world of Tomorrow.
Well given that TOS is 60s jet age. Only makes sense we have art deco/diesel punk too.
@@venomgeekmedia9886 watch the 1940s Superman short cartoons, and this thing would fit right in.
@@venomgeekmedia9886 What's it's source, also? I've never come across it before... presumably, fan made?
Also, any thoughts on Delta Dynamic's Horizon class - or Masao Okazaki's one? (sfmuseum)
@@chrissonofpear1384 Search Journal of Applied Treknology or JoAT.
@@glennlaroche1524 Oh yes, I found it. And the other one - the Harcourt-class.
I'd seen the Rockwell before, as it turns out, but had not thought much of it.
We really need a series that fills the gap between "first contact" and "enterprise".
Sorry, I forgot to add, great post on the Rockwell class.
No more prequels.
Can't really trust the present creative team to not make a mess of it
In enterprise they established that the Vulcans have been preventing Humans from going out very far, so if that series existed it would be very boring and would probably be focused on politics instead of exploring
Every Trekkie has the same thought!
the rockwell looks like an NX with a humpback. and so this was one of the ships the klingons disrespected in those early days huh? great video
It was larger
I still personally find the design of the Rockwell class to off-putting, but for what it is supposed to represent it is understandable.
The early years of the UFP would've had difficulty in integration, but the UFP would manage to push through.
I can tolerate it only as early version of Bonaventure.
I'd actually never heard of this ship whatsoever, until Venom Geek Media flagged it up, a few months ago.
It does feel fairly clunky.
Also, I like the idea of the Horizon-class better, maybe
(either the Delta Dynamics version or the Starfleetmuseum one)
If they flipped it upsidown it would look normal lmao
I really wish they had done a series that concentrated on the foundation of The Federation, not handwave it in like half a season
I really appreciate the design of the Rockwell class. The engineering hull being located above the saucer is interesting. I would love to see a 25th century variant of this ship class.
I suspect it may be early version of Bonaventure. Similar design was also used in Walker and Gemini class.
No more STO bullshit designs.
tbh earth and even to a larger degree the federation slowing down a bit to focus on economy and political issues makes sense. true they had just unified,*But they also just unified*. they were previously independant and had their own economies and militaries. it would take time to smooth out the inefficiencies and political issues. to use an example a lot of us probably get
in strategy games, after you annex a large amount of territory, you usually need to then slow down a bit before you can do anything, so you can incorporate your new stuff into the system. Make their industry your industry
And it did happen. Starfleet didn't become official fleet of federation until 2190.
@@TheRezrois your pfp a young lord Shen?
loving the Pharoahe Monch - Simon Says musical intro, Venom Geek. Much respect lol
I love the Rockwell it has a real retro feel to its design, like a rocket ship from early Sci-Fi movies and serials. So in that way, it is fitting that it is the grandfather of all modern Starfleet ships.
It is interesting that the Denobulan computers let the ship down in the ion storm. I'd love a follow-up video explaining what the failure mode was, had Denobulan's never put their advanced computers in space before, or did the interface with the Alien technology lack something like a surge protector? Did Denombulan hull have a design feature that protected the computer that the Rockwell class lacked?
Interesting way of looking at things. I always figured that when the early Federation worlds were "sharing technology" it was mostly centered around sharing IP to be manufactured locally, not sharing and shipping physical parts.
I think this story somewhat echoes modern western defense procurement.
The design gives off that 1950s vibe of Trek. I kinda like it for a predecessor to the Constitution
Came back to this video to find a link as I am building some star trek ships in a game (Might build a Rockwell as set décor, as I am doing TOS stuff), but I stayed for the intro, funny every time! Thanks for introducing me to this wonderful class, its become one of my favorite classes!
Dude i appreciate the economics discussion! Context is everything. Thank tou for the awesome vids!
This is a beautiful ship with an incredible lore background. I must build this in space engineers 🖖🖖
Thinking of United Earth's economic role in the early Federation community as being similar to Mexico's tickles my brain, and yet, it totally makes sense!
I definitely want to see the ship in a star trek game. I wonder if it has a Mirror Universe counterpart.
I'm sure there is....probably has a goatee and moustache painted on the underside....
Both the Asia class & Bonaventure class were on the Battle Clinic website, a few years ago, as downloadable models for the Star Fleet Command 1 & Star Fleet Command 2 PC games. The Klingon D22 was also on there.
Every year the Starfleet Museum has to reassure visitors that the Rockwell was an actual class of starship from the late 22nd century, and not some kind of joke put on by the museum's staff.
And yet, it earned it's place in history as the first starship built together by the founding members of the Federation, and gave us the Kobayashi Maru test.
Rockwell is cool. I like the design. It would cool see in TV series.
Commissioning plate on USS Rockwell: It Always Feels Like Somebody Watching Me
If they ever bring this ship back, I wouldn't mind if they made it ugly in-universe. Like I can imagine one of these showing up in SNW and Pike is like, "Phew, just as ugly as I remember" and Spock is like, "While the cosmetic aspect of the Rockwell may be lacking, the ship combined many alien technologies. We would not have ships like the Enterprise today without the Rockwell."
it would actually fit into SNW extremely well.
Would be interested to have more background on the Ferengi D'Kora class If you ever have chance. Love your work
Oohh that would be interesting I'd have to think about it.
Thanks for including crewman yet to be named be blessed in this weather day Peace
She's a nice looking ship once you get used to her. I can see how, in emergencies, the saucer can be easily "dropped" into to a planetary orbit or ejected on a descending trajectory relative to the rest of the ship. Assuming that it is detachable in the same fashion as the later Constitution class.
0:24 Channeling some Davros crossed with the 7th Doctor there. 👍🤣
11:28 OOH! I imagine that leaving perminant scars on Starfleet's Psyche.
Brilliant, nice one!
Anything that is named after sam rockwell has my vote
Love it. Great vid. 🙂
What i find unpalatable is that after the Federation forming it'd be logical to conclude ALL 4 species tech and style would be used in starship design. I know the fault is really with TOS not having a budget and making ships look good for humans was the baseline as to not overly confuse the audience.
Quirky, tries REALLY hard, and the longer you look at it the less it makes sense - it's CLEARLY named after Sam Rockwell.
He made a movie with Anna Kendrick called Mr. Right, he's a hitman and she doesnt know what she wants in her life and the bad guy is Anson Mount, pretty decent flic.
Love Sam Rockwell's work, but (as this ship is, in my view, a Work Of Art™) it is CLEARLY named after *Norman* Rockwell.
The Rockwell, is such a cool design !!!! 🖖
Venom, one piece of info I haven’t been able to find is the speed and performance of the Rockwell and Yorktown classes. What were their max speeds and cruising speeds? Thank you so much for the videos you make and stories you tell.
Ah well that honestly depends on what level of tech you think fits in that period. If your a fan of SF museum it would probably be warp 5. But including enterprise I'd say warp 6
Godzilla's theme was a nice touch
Makes sense for the rockwell class to be upgraded n-x design with alien tech thrown into make it better than, just like the Columbia class design in rise of the federation cannon is with a second hull added into the mix. Though of course as the testbed of an truly integrated all species tech starship, it was bound to have its teething problems and come up short in several aspects, while lying the groundwork for what would come after it too.
Having the components built by various different species also creates a weakness in the supply chain. A determined foe in a general war could interfere with shipments, and just one species contribution being delayed would hold up production.
Technically speaking the Federations first starship active would have been any starfleet ships drifting about after the treaty was signed, and eventually would include a refit NX.
Chances are most of the low NCC numbers would be made up of the existing starfleet fleet, with the eventual arrival of ships seen during discovery. As for what was actually first, it would make sense to be something like a yorktown class or something like an oberth or apollo.
Huhh...surprisingly good looking
So mad respect to the Rockwell for being the grand daddy of modern Starfleet, working out all the kinks in the future design, or as I like to say in the industry "beta testing,"
But I'm sorry.... MY TUNDERIN JAYSUS that is an ugly ship. I hope the next lesson was design aesthetics!
I realized recently that Rockwell is basically early version of Bonaventure class.
I politely disagree, it reminds me of a retro rocket ship so it gets a thumbs up from me
Would you have preferred the Spaceflight Chronology's Messier-class?
@@enterprise-h312 I do not see the point. Messier and Marshall were obscure old destroyers, predating Starfleet. They were made probably by independent Earth faction. Discovery class seams more relevant, as they were used in massive numbers as picket ships.
@@TheRezro My question was more from an aesthetic standpoint because Relav thought that it was ugly.
The Messier, Marshall and Baton Rouge were all less refined than the Constitution-class which made the latter feel really advanced and highlighted how far the Federation had come over more than 100 years. The biggest sin of the NX-01 is that it looks too good. It can't become much more refined than that. So my question was if Relav would have preferred such a design trajectory to going from the NX-01 into the Rockwell?
Understandable that the Bonaventure shown in that old TOS animated series episode was too 22nd century looking for being an old lost ship found by Kirk and crew, and therefore the Bonaventure shown in this video makes more sense. However I still think the animated series Bonaventure works for a early 22nd century ship taking on the namesake as its a cool ship.
Honestly, I dig the look a lot.
star fleet has always been know for slapping experimental and not quite ready for prime time tech together and sending it "out there". a decade of testing on this ship gets you the next ship, that next ship flies around for ten years and then you get something else. Ares class isn't cannon (it is in my head), but you can see how you get from nx class to this, this to Ares, Ares to Bonaventure, and Bonaventure to Enterprise tos
It looks like someone tried to build a Buck Rogers rocket but did it poorly. It does look better upside-down though.
I remember seeing this design on TrekBBS back in the day. The orginal artist explained it was his attempt to create a Starfleet ship with a old serial movie aesthetic.
Another lovely ship that looks better upside down
i hate this ship but i will watch the whole video. love the channel
The ship that could look majestic but designer said "nuh-uh" and made every wrong decision
First thing I thought was Andorian. Awesome ship. Not a fan of a nacelle though. A bit JJverse design which I despise
I think they coulda used more Andorian lines even if they wanted to directly-involve a deflector dish. You'd think it'd a least *look* less like it was designed by committee, anyway.
well thats the thing with gap fill in ships hence its purpose a ship intended to fill in the gap which JJ Abrams's Kelvin Timeline (JJ Verse) Lacked in his concept.
You were my dad this whole time!
😮
A great video as always. But I'm not sure if I agree with each new federation species making a curtain type or style of ship.
In many ways, the founding members were more advanced then the humans. While I do believe that there was much collaboration on new federation ship designs, it would make more sense for every member to rechristen their existing fleets under the UFP banner, until the new ships are made with all different types of integrated alien world technologies. This might just be, say, the first decade or two of the UFP.
1:21 Jokes on you! I'M INTO PERUN STUFF!
Neither my step or bio dad had that conversation with me about the Rockwell class. Of course my step-dad along with my mom have been deceased since December 19th last year. My bio-dad, heck if I know what's with him since we haven't spoken in over 20 years.
Interesting ship design. Not something I'd ever want to use. Not bad for an early starship design.
I don't know what to say about it, but I kinda like it.
This video is why I love venom’s content in a nutshell. He includes ships based on the roles that need to be filled in the fleet and to show a natural progression of technology, and he puts whether or not it looks good secondary- this might be one of the most wrong-looking ugly ships that doesn’t make sense from a technical standpoint, but from an in-universe perspective in context of the late 22nd century, it fits perfectly. Haters gonna hate, ugly ship, but we love for its ugliness. XD
Could you do the Baton Rouge class cruiser, at some time. Also the Mann class exploration light cruiser.
"Lets talk about the economy of the early federation" - he said with full sarcasm
"Oh sweet this will be great" -Me not sensing any
I like the godzilla music in the beginning lol.
3:51 Were you thinking of the Atlas Computer (Star Trek: 25th Anniversary game)?
Reminds me of the "upside down animal spine" issue. As animals evolved from little more than worms to the explosion of animal life many eons ago, the spine moved from along the belly to the back which doesn't look like it should work yet it was in so many ways that belly based spinal cords are rarely seen in animals. Putting engineering on top, so it sits in the middle makes a lot of initial design sense. Later designs abandon the idea all together. It can't just be aesthetics or to make the design style of the refit NX a core look, it had to be worth while so much that the engineering hull stopped being on top of the saucer. Thus the spine moved to the back, and the engineering hull moved to the bottom.
the rockwell was a necessary step in establishing a unified technology base for the federation
personally i would love a video about economics in star trek.
will you also cover the yorktown, harcourt & posiedon classes?
He already did in shorts
Already covered yorktown and posiedon. May mention the Harcourt in the future.
Thanks for the background information. The Rockwell class looks dodgy and clunky to me. The Galaxy class will always be my favourite class.
But in that ship.. is there AIR?
You don’t know!
If you have a last name you should be ok. If not, then I wouldn't risk it.
*(Sipping Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster)*
"So, are you along for the ride... or am I just dropping you somewhere?"
My apologies for a perhaps silly question but where does your starship class evolution graph/chart come from is there a link to it you can give?
it's mine. i came up with it. its available to centurions
He may want to be a bit clearer than he is that this is his "Star Trek Fan Fiction" designed to fill some gaps in the continuity in. As people might be confused and think he's referencing Licensed works more than he is.
As we can see the Rockwell is entirely made up it's not even a FASA or Starfleet Battle design or a retconed in ship like The Archer Class.
In that respect this channel is doing what Star New World does, which is to expand the fleet to fill the gaps the TV shows left, it's unfortunate this leads to Star Trek being very confusing when people use sources they likely shouldn't or just make stuff up, you see that all the time when people claim the Videogame mechanics of Star Trek online ships exist on the actual ship, when some of it is well "Space Magic" and not in keeping with that era's level of tech at all. The Franchise also has an issue with thinking things need to be a certain way and adjusting them to make it that way (Like adding additional Phasers it never had to the TOS Enterprise), which I am perfectly fine with that is after all exactly what The Star Trek Animated series did all the time too.
So long as everyone was a bit clearer on that point.
Looks more than a little like the Bonaventure, which appeared a good while back in the Ships of the Line calander series, and later as a release from Eaglemoss.
Do you have a print out of that starship lineage charT?
Federation trade department motto: sharing is caring
If they flipped the ship upside down it would almost look like a California class.
i used this ship on Star Trek Legacy, a fine ship.
Just found out something if you zoom in during the battle of chin toka you can see a constitution and d7's and some smaller tos ships maybe pre tos aswell
This ship is a tribute to the very finest of 50s Art-deco space tech. What a monstrocity. 😅
I should have commented this in the previous video, but my question is, not why Starfleet ships are more human, but why they´re all named after human stuff?
We need a show titled Star Trek: Rockwell.
This isn't "Human",
It's "Go home you're drunk!"
Undoubtedly, the _USS Bonaventure_ was one of them.
Depite VenomGeek's story-spinning, I have real difficulty accepting there's a practical reason of any kind for the things to be that plug-ugly an arrangement.
I mean you jest, but yes more economics of Trek please!
Venom, where did you find that image with the spaceship lineages? Did you make it? I cant find it anywhere
You should do a video on The Starfleet Museum website's 23rd century ships. That shows another interesting development of Starfleet vessels.
Cheers
With the number constructed that you suggest why are these hulls not popping up in the TOS/movie era like Mirandas? Even if not suitable for starfleet service you would expect demilitarized Rockewlls to be sold out of service and used commercially. If the ship was designed with an open archetecture intended to interface with a wide variety of alien tech I would expect that it would not be overly difficult to integrate upgrades over the hulls lifecycle.
I'd guess the rapid innovation of the time and hostility from the Klingons and Romulans meant that they were phased out and recycled. Look at our naval history, a ship built in the 1990s are still pretty up-to-date today, but ships built in the 1890s were totally obsolete by the time WW1 rolled around, despite both examples being 20-30 year old ships.
military ships are useless for commercial operation normaly
@@anuvisraa5786 Not always true, the French cruiser Dupuy de Lôme was converted to a cargo ship in 1920, and a large number of flower class corvettes became commercial vessels after world war 2 for example.
Presumably the Rockwell's would be useful for low volume, high value cargos or potentially passenger service. Operating costs would probably be significantly higher than a purpose built civilian ship, but depending what the economic situation looks like there may be a role they can be economically viable in with or without significant modification.
In my opinion Rockwell was Bonaventure prototype. It was not constructed in larger numbers, because until 2190 Starfleet was not official fleet of Federation and UE was crippled due to costs of war. I have theory that Bonaventure was base for ships used until 2230 (Kelvin Era). But after those prove weak against Klingon ships, major redesign happen with standard TOS design. For reminder TOS show happen when they basally already switch to TMP design in 2270 (Phase 2 ships of 2260 like Cheyenne, were made in low numbers, yes Discovery style always was canon).
Starfleet often operates 3 separate rates of fleets. So by TOS there might be a few left. But a lot were destroyed in the klingon war.
What i don't understand is, why the saucer section of so many Starfleet ships are so wide and circular but flat, with far too litte room for multiple decks? What's the reasoning behind that design choice, because structural integrity and space efficiency surely isn't it!
Economics🎉🎉🎉 wooooooooo
Are you sure it's not upside down?
flip it upside down and it'd look really neat
Why was Yorktown rededicated?
The poor mans Bonaventure.
That explains the human looks of ships. Why do the vast majority still have human names? Enterprise, Discovery, Excelsior,
another ship from this era i like is echenry's USS Pacific, also is there a lost era between the end of ww3 and enterprise?
Yes. That's where I'd place SF museums ships. And the Kzinti war.
I thought the Bonaventure class was the replacement for the NX and maybe you should do a video about it and not Zeffren Cochran's Bonaventure which was A connie with weird proportions
I hope named for Sam Rockwell.
Looks like a Bata prototype. In star fleet/star trek evolution.... Good lore to me.
I wonder if it has a Retro Encabulator built in? I am sure the side fumbling isn't just effectively removed, but is entirely! Or what the mailable logarithmic casing has become?
I like it
Honestly.
I ❤ IT.
No dumb Neck.
does any one know where i can find the evolution chart venom uses I have been trying to look for it for a while now
I'd like it better design better if they simply merged the secondary hull with the saucer more like they did with Star Trek Online's Gemini class. As it looks now it just looks slapped together. It doesn't look designed, or really looks very sloppy.