The Galaxy Class was the pure embodiment of the federation as envisioned by its creator. Its place at the top of any list is not a repudiation of what came later, but an acknowledgment that what came later wouldn’t have been possible without it, both in canon and in reality.
Someone on a different channel said that deciding to name it the "Galaxy class" could possibly hint at the scope of the designers' ambition. As in "this ship will let us explore and dominate the *entire* Milky Way Galaxy."
The Universe Class represents this comment 100% 😁 I Command this class of Starship in STO a lot. Can't go wrong with a mobile Starbase/Colony that can do pretty much everything! 🤣
I'm just happy that my bae got included, even at Number nine. I have the Eaglemoss XL on my dresser, and I even built one in Minecraft with a full functional interior and a Tellarite captain-I fully intend to make it "operational" once the _Valkyrien Skies_ mod updates. Thanks for the awesome video, Ric! So good, I'm happy to watch it twice!
I am not a fan of Discovery or the ships in it, but the Shen Zhou is the one design that I do like. It fits in better, IMO, with traditional Federation starship design, as well as being classy in it own right.
12:16 I believe the Andromeda didn't yet exist for it to be canon, I feel like the Enterprise-D saving the day on Frontier Day 2401 inspired its creation and upon its launch would be the most advanced class of ship commissioned to date.
I agree with almost this entire list except for #1 actually. The Galaxy is incredibly overhyped and wasn't really the crowning achievement everyone made it out to be (and I literally have its technical schematics poster behind me on the wall in my home office right now so it's not that I don't like it or anything). We saw time and time again how easily it could be destroyed or damaged and that it was actually very unwieldly - partly because it was essentially a floating shopping mall for civilians and diplomatic missions rather than being a practical multi-mission vessel like the Excelsior was. I think the only other change would have been to make the Ambassador an honorable mention. It isn't that great of a vessel (feeling more like a transitionary ship more than anything else) but did usher in a long era of improved Federation-Klingon relations following the Battle of Narendra III and that alone should earn it high praise.
I completely disagree. The galaxy class was the backbone of the fleet during the dominion conflict. It's main weakness was the writers room/the power of plot.
@@claytonberg721 I would argue that the Miranda, Excelsior, and Steamrunner classes were the backbone of the fleet during the Dominion War (and the Akira/Saber classes to a lesser degree). Did the Galaxy serve an important purpose in the fleet as being essentially a Federation Battlecruiser? Oh, without a doubt, but it wasn't the best starship and had a glass jaw. We saw the Odyssey destroyed by a single Jem'Hadar ship, the Enterprise destroyed by a single Bird of Prey, and also destroyed by a light collision from the USS Bozeman. I liken the Galaxy to the HMS Hood - it was a great ship/class, but could easily be defeated and had design flaws. The writer's room argument doesn't really make much sense considering that could apply to literally any ship in the fleet.
@@KevinTheID Your argument is the power of plot. Same with the enterprise being blown up in generations. Keep in mind after the odyssey there wasn't a single galaxy class lost on screen in the dominion war. Remember they were called galaxy wings, not Miranda wings. As capital ships they were essentially unmatched in the federation fleet until the odyssey class. You can't carry 16000 people in a defiant or akira class starship. It was also a highly effective weapons platform.
@@KevinTheID And when they lost the odyssey the federation shields were ineffective against dominion weapons and it was still in the fight. It took a dominion ship crashing directly into it's engineering section to destroy it, because they would have gotten away otherwise. Please name another ship that could have tanked that much damage in that tactical situation.
The Defiant is now and will likely always be my favorite Star Trek ship. I can understand why you wouldn't include it on a list like this as it was very specialist but I personally just love the idea of such a small ship being so powerful. Because of its size, one would presume they are also not terribly difficult to produce as the mirror universe made their own at a space station instead of a huge space dock.
I feel that longevity has to also be taken into account, while less important than how much of a top of the line ship it was when it came out, it is also important that it stayed relevant, this would probably push the excelsior up a ship or two and same with the sovereign.
The Defiant will always be the best ship Starfleet ever produced. It proved they only make huge 600,000 meter long ships because they get paid by the meter.
@@martinjrgensen8234 Sure she doesn't have insta-repair or infinite shuttles like the Intrepid class, but if you're being attacked she's the ship you want. Also the NX-01 wasn't a luxury cruiser but it was a great diplomatic ship while being not that much bigger than the Defiant (mostly because of its nacelles).
@@julius-stark if I could be on any ship going into battles during the dominion war I'd want to be on a galaxy class. Aside from the odyssey (which held it's own again 3 jem hader fighters despite its shields being useless) we didn't see any of them being destroyed on screen during a battle and they were deployed in far greater numbers than the defiant class and unlike the deviant plot amour didn't need it to save them.
i agree with the list, i am a bit biased towards the Galaxy class as that is still my favorite ship, despite the plethora of starships in STO, plus they have multiple variants in the mmo so im a happy man.
I agree we’d expect the original Connie to be high on the list. Not only a premiere explorer, but militarily outclassing most foes it would encounter, with few exceptions. Which is why it seems odd that Strange New Worlds retcons it into a ship that is outclassed by every enemy and has to run from every hostile encounter without even bothering to fight back. It might as well be the Oberth. But at least it has a really cool bar.
the galaxy class is the perfect starship. it combines everything about starfleet and the federation into a single class. it's great for exploration. it has an impressive weapons system. it carries families. it has plenty of science capability. and it's just so damn gorgeous...
One thing I really disliked about TNG was how the firepower of the galaxy class was never consistent. Bad writing how they could nerf her down to suit the episode
I oppose where you placed the sovereign in that place, the Odyssey was basically a mix of the galaxy class and a Sovereign if that had a baby, but I have to respect your opinion, we all may see things differently but our love for star trek remains
I would have to say the best ship overall would be the Intrepid class, Voyager. Granted this is a tough list and you will never get a lot of people agreeing on this type list. Good overall for sure!
While you did the Sutherland I think with out the modularity and multi capabilities of the Nebula a lot of design concepts would not have occurred. For my money the Nebula outshines the Galaxy in multi mission capability while offering just as much comfort and power in a less resource intensive package.
I for my part would switch the Galaxy directly next to the Odyssey and muddle with the overall listing, but that's my personal perspective and I think it is impossible to make a not personal list. Well not without an system that is balancing out all facts we know and even that list might be fall to subjective feelings...
The real question is if you were a Captain of a Starfleet vessel not named in any major way on-screen but just known to exist as one of the same class which of these ships would you want and why
Had the Ambassador-class that we got been the same as the one on the Wall of Enterprises, then I'm pretty sure that I would appreciate it, but it isn't, and is but a pale comparison to the beauty that Probert crafted.
TBH I would have swapped the Excelsior and the Galaxy. Doing my research, mind, but here's my thoughts: The Galaxy is extremely resource intensive and relies a lot on brute force to heft its bulk. The civilian crews are... a moral dilemma, considering how much danger they are put into without proper training. Per Beta content (Star Trek Adventures), a lot of Galaxy class ships were commissioned during the Dominion war by stripping out a lot of the fluff systems which left some of them nearly hollow. Honestly, I'm surprised - Memory Alpha shows somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 Galaxies recorded on screen. So perhaps a little less difficult to build than I thought (or just economy of scale plus post-scarcity). Also, 2 of them show up in alternate futures (the D refit and the Challenger), so the class clearly has some legs. The Excelsior bridges from the end of TOS era to the end of DS9. Aside from the B'Rel and the Miranda, few if any ships served longer, and the Miranda couldn't serve in the front line like the Excelsior did during the Dominion war. In-universe, the Excelsior was clearly still a preferred posting just based on the number of admirals who continued to put their flag on the Excelsior even in the presence of newer ships. Arguably, the only reason the Excelsior was retired is because of moral issues (subspace damage) instead of technological progress, and the Excelsior-II tells me that starfleet engineers felt that way too.
Starfleet's engineers have a habit of making super ships that outclass all competitors, more or less just because they can. Awesome for the fans, probably *super* annoying for rivals of the UFP
If you are going by “on screen appearance” at what point did they say the Enterprise F was decommissioned due to massive system failures? I don’t recall hearing that at all.
The Galaxy class the big problem for me is that when the integrate field went down the ship wound want to rip it self a part and that is when it was moving slowly and that happened in quit a few eps so to me the structure of the ship was second and power came first
I was pretty annoyed that Cryptic went along with retconning the Odyssey into being a 24th century ship that just hung around for over 20 years by STO's time, all for canon recognition [it will never be seen on TV again barring a screw up or a change in the STO licensing agreement]. The ship seems far too advanced to have been built only a decade after the Dominion War.
Galaxy class is everything wrong with starfleet when it came out. You have a luxury liner instead of miltary vessel. The federation forgot what they were and thats why they kept getting punched in the face by the Borg, Cardassia, the Dominion
I was interested in your list but it died when you put Sovereign at 8th. You putting Galaxy first really cemented my disagreement with you. Sure, the Galaxy was a nice cruising type of starship but it wasn't the best. It wasn't good at anything and seemed to mostly lose the battles it was in, unless it had a -D on it.
I dislike the Walker class. ot because it's a shit ship, no, it was lazy on the designers. They literally grabbed a NX-01 and flipped it. I don't think the Ambassador Class doesn't get the credit it deserves.
You know that when they announced the Odyssey as a supercapital design some shipyard boffin started thinking “now how many swimming pools and ice-cream dispensers can I fit in the extra space…”
I agree and disagree with your Sovereign take. On one hand, it IS just kind of a generational upgrade. It's like the Galaxy and Intrepid had a baby. It was fast and powerful and capable, but not a generational leap like the Excelsior was vs the Constitution. But let's not forget, it folded up that Borg Cube in First Contact like it was a lawn chair. The Akira, Defiant, and Steamrunner you saw on screen collectively orgasimed when the Enterprise showed up to save their asses, and they all fell in line. Sovereign is the peak TNG/DS9/VOY era ship.
Oh for sure. I just think that it was released at a time when other ships were already comparable in different fields where as others on this list simply outclassed in all. Let's not forget, it's still easily in the top 10 of all ships (that we have enough context on).
@CertifiablyIngame yep I just love the conversation on this stuff! I wouldn't put it in top 5 just because it wasn't really a breakthrough as opposed to a refinement. But I will argue that tactically in its time, unmatched.
@@RunDGC Technically Constitution was quite faulty design. It was just one of first proper warships Federation has in 23'th century (claims that it was not is propaganda). But there is a reason why they were completely replaced by Excelsior and Miranda. During confrontation with Khan, serious flaws of design become impossible to solve.
A very fair list honestly. The Sovereign makes sense where it's at. "speak softly and carry a big stick" is the kind of diplomacy that starfleet was using when building that ship.
From the moment she was introduced as E, I was in love. C and E were always my favourite Enterprise versions. I always found D a bit odd, as the saucer was just not shaped in the way I thought proper (of course, aerodynamics hold no value in space, but still).
@Ned-Ryerson I agree. When the E was introduced I automatically loved it, especially hearing Gordy say that it was "the most advanced ship in the fleet". Also, I'm not a hater but I never liked the D. It just looked all smoothed together even though it was a very accomplished vessel.
Fantastic list & I generally agree. You certainly made good arguments for their placement. I would love to see this style of list for other factions, Klingon, Romulans etc.
My one annoying issue with the Sagan is still that it canonically has no torpedo/probe launchers. I want to love this ship so much but it's a crazy oversight.
Personally, I'm thrilled the Galaxy class took the top spot; for me it's the best preeminent symbol of what the Federation hopes to be (had circumstances not overtaken it, as you said). Lots of big, friendly-looking curves on a battleship frame that held the line in some of the Federation's darkest hours, and all with comfortable chairs, warm lighting, and the thing that everyone would miss most of all in future designs - the carpet. The ship was too mean, so Starfleet started putting families onboard. When the shit started hitting the fan, the Galaxy class went "Hold my tea, Earl Grey, hot - it's time to go cut a bitch."
That's how I've liked to think of it for all this time. When I was younger, I was as bemused as Picard as to why families were on board, but as I got older, and thought about it more and heard others talk about it, I came to realise that the Galaxy class was made during one of THE most prosperous and peaceful times of the Federation. Klingons were almost allies, if not cool neighbours, the Romulans were almost unheard of, and even when they did become more active, they didn't push for major conflict. It was only when the Borg and Dominion came on the scene, virtually simultaneously, did the reality set in. That the Federation had either new, or more active enemies become a far greater, even existential threat, which demanded less luxurious designs, and the removal of families from the ships. I don't know if this was all planned by the creators, or if Roddenberry just wanted the delusional idea of families on ships to be seen as normal in and of itself, but how it has worked out makes a lot of compelling sense.
@@Novarcharesk Roddenberry wasn't "delusional" per say, but his idea was that the Federation had evolved beyond war which while it may be true, doesn't speak for any other civilization. That said, I don't see families on a starship of that caliber being any crazier than military families actually staying on base. And when the exploration missions begin to exceed five year missions, then having your family with you means you can serve in Starfleet and not miss your kids growing up. Star Trek has had entire planets blown, up eaten by a giant space amoeba, and infected by flying fried eggs since TOS. There's no safe place, so you might as well have your family with you unless it's just an active war. With all that said, my only real complaint on this issue regarding the Galaxy class is that the Saucer section doesn't have a warp drive. The Saucer Section should be able to make it home if the Stardrive loses in a battle.
The Prometheus strikes me as much like the Excelsior: a big experiment, throwing all their best tech at the wall to see what sticks. The kind of thing that would probably have a troubled development cycle. Delayed, over budget, but incredibly cool once it works. (In fact, I think the crew have actually mentioned that they chose a low registry number for the Prometheus to imply it had been stuck in development hell for a long time.) And the Excelsior... was almost a huge embarrassment! The first time it shows up on screen its fancy-schmancy new engine fails and the renegades fly off laughing about how they made it too overcomplicated. Of course, later history would exonerate the Excelsior and it would become established as an extremely sound spaceframe. But that was very close to not happening. If it had a couple more embarrassments they probably would have shelved the class as a failed experiment. So the Prometheus in the prime timeline could easily have fallen on the other side of that coinflip. A potential gamechanger-to-be which ultimately didn't stick the landing and ended up relegated to a few expensive experiments. That's what I've always envisaged.
People sneer at people and call them "edge lords" if they like the Prometheus Class. But it is innovative in terms of the integration of the hologram emitters through most of the ship.
I still do not understand why, with all the tech floating in the Federation and StarFleet, the Ent-F was not just stripped to the keel and rebuilt, instead of scrapping the ship because "it suffered too much damage". They do basically that during some refits. In fact it should be really hard to Scrap or decommission a ship for damages that do not outright destroy the ship. On the production side, why even give a nod to the Ship, if Paramount/CBS was afraid of having to pay royalties to the creator of the Odyssey Class who was also awarded the Ent-F christening/commission.
Yup, real ocean liners and, I'll bet, other ships have been saved from more intensive damage to continue to operate. Like chopping off the entire bow or stern section after getting caught on the rocks to tow the remainder back to the construction yard to be completed with a whole new bow. The only reason I can think of for CBS-Paramount to want to scrap _Enterprise-F_ was to replace her with one of their own designs. By choosing _Titan-A_ , not only did they choose a lesser vessel, but they also spat on the legacies of both Enterprises and Titans, in my opinion. It's also the only reason to advance the Odysey's rollout to the point they would be decommissioning one while Picard was still alive. The _F_ should have been commissioned in 2409, and her first captain should have been Vakel Shon, the previous commanding officer of the Defiant-class _USS Belfast_ . But that's far from my only criticism of _Picard_ season 3. It was so full of plotholes, Diana Troi could have piloted the _D_ through them without so much as brushing against the side. Terry Matalas did try, and it shows, however by then the franchise had already been rendered unsalvageable. Unlike the _F_ . And of course, another great ship and captain are nowhere in sight: Captain Nog and his _USS Chimera_ . Although this would have required a recasting, it is a ship and crew with stories worth telling.
No, it's because Terry Matalas and the current production team are Retro-Style OBSESSED. This era of Star Trek started with a TOS era prequel instead of a 25th century show.
The Connie wasn't just built for defence because the Federation was at war with the Klingons when she was built, so she is legitimately a battlecruiser. But like all vessels at the time, retasked at cessation of open hostilities and the beginning of the cold war era that TOS is set in. The Khitomer Accords being the complete and open end of things until DS9 beyond The Enterprise getting dragged into shit, generally involving House Duras. lol
I like to think that the Enterprise's amazing success led to Utopia Planitia to routinely come back to the Constitution profile for every new ship intended to have an "Enterprise" Flagship, as they just felt that any ship meant to bear the name should look the part.
I can understand saying most beautiful and peak because that’s subjective, but it’s definitely not the most iconic. That’s either the Constitution or the Galaxy.
I personally dislike the Discovery/Picard ships, since I do not care for how Bad Reboot has handled their shows. That is of course personal preference. I believe that the Ares class from 'Prelude to Axanar' deserves an honorable mention at the very least. The studio came up with a very believable precursor design to the TOS Constitution class, one with a serious 'come-at-me-bro' vibe that any Klingon would have recognized immediately. It has been suppressed by CBS, which is further proof of how good it actually is. D-6's beware!
My top 10 favourite Federation Starships: 1. Constitution class (Not including Konnie (Kelvin variant) or Donnie (Discovery variant) excluding Gamma - john eaves Concept version) 2. Odyssey class 3. Sovereign class 4. Galaxy class 5. Nebula class 6. Miranda (or Malachowski) class 7. Constellation class (4 Nacelles - T.M.P/T.N.G era) 8. Walker class 9. Ambassador class 10. NX/Columbia class. Honorable Mention: Nimitz, Crossfield, Oberth, Luna & Universe classes.
I think this is a pretty good list, but I kind of disagree with the Galaxy being on the list at all. It had massive design problems with its computer core, engines, amenities, and warp core. It was also incredibly undergunned and undershielded for a ship of its volume and mass. It represented the Federation at the height of its hubris and arrogance. I thought that your reasoning that the Galaxy was passed by because the environment it found itself was far more fraught with danger than what its planners envisioned was a good one. But to me, that should put the Galaxy way down on a list like this. I think that the Federation from after the Cardassian War to Wolf 359 was in stagnation. Its shortsightedness and general feeling of invincibility in that time led to a lot of people dying. Q was right in Encounter at Farpoint, mankind still had a long way to go and a lot to left to learn. The Galaxy Class was conceived and built in an era when humanity thought it knew far more than it actually did. The galaxy proper disabused them of that notion.
The sovereign and defiant (though not in this list) are most beautiful of that era, but the galaxy was the beast to their beauty, well deserved number one. Huge fan of the sagan too, she is absolutely beautiful for a new-era ship.
@@pike100 The Defiant was a brute. Smaller and packed to the gills with weapons and armor. There's beauty in that. It's all subjective. For sure my favorite Federation ship.
While not groundbreaking and clearly an offshoot of the refitted Constitution class, the Miranda class deserves an honorable mention for its workhorse design that saw it serve as a backbone vessel for the Federation for over eight decades. The class also demonstrated huge adaptability and was a clear design concept influence for later vessels like the Nebula class.
agree refited she is also a power on her own, you could argue that she could have done better at narrendra if she had better systems, but be honest the warbirds were too much even though they were the older ones. The Ambassador class is in my opinion exactly what the name says: An ambassador to get new worlds into starfleet. She has to look great and symbolise Starfleet in relativly peacefull times.
U.S. aircraft carriers are built to be upgradable and are intended to continue in service for at least 50 years. Starships built hundreds of years in the future should have similar if not longer lifespans… making a ship seem old after 10-20 years doesn’t make sense..
But what I would say to that is if the ship is built right before a technological, boom or a massive upgrade and its systems prove to be on the cusp of that new technology, but not quite there yet then sometimes it does make sense to decommission the ship in favor of something newer, rather than continue upgrading a platform that’s always going to be just behind
Love that the Odyssey class is at number 10. I liked the Walker class right away on Discovery. I am surprised that my favorite is at number 8 lol And my second favorite at number 7 I strongly dislike the Ambassador class. It's so generic and uninteresting. I prefer the Probert concept I just can't get by the fact that the Galaxy class was a glass cannon. It's power systems were unstable and compromised the core A LOT lol
There are many of these lists. I've admittedly always liked this channel. But this list is the FIRST IVE TOTALLY AGREED WITH. Bravo sir! Take a bow while I salute the Galaxy class and the big "D" Thanks for your hard work.
Galaxy is my #1 as well. Even though it's a bit smaller than the Oddy, it still looks and feels larger to me. I use the Legendary Mirror GalX on a few of my toons in STO and have no regrets :)
Really glad the Odyssey made the list, even though most of its lore is from beta canon. Also surprised but glad the Sagan class made it, it’s a great looking ship and I hope we see more of it. I think the Sovereign is in a good spot. It’s an amazing ship, but a bit niche and pretty outclassed by the 25th century. Not sure how I feel about the Sutherland being above the Excelsior though, I feel the Excelsior was so much more influential… Totally agree with #2 and #1 though! I would have bet money those two ships would win before even watching the video haha.
I really felt the Runabout should have made the top ten. Its versatility and overall over performance in the Dominion War really makes it stand out. IMO.
Now, technically a shuttle is a ship. That means there are quite a few candidates that could bump off some of the mentioned ships quite easily by show of service and time spend on service and for that matter options. They were used for a lot of different jobs and they should at minimum be named at least once for this alone. A worker bee for example was present for nearly a century, even if it doesn't have warp capabilities or anything fancy, it did it's work even while being assigned to the big boys of the fleet. From orbital usage, to starbase and star ship. It was a very capable tiny ship that should be mentioned for it's role. Problem is that it's a auxiliary craft created for repairing, building and not much else. Now even a bigger contender would be the Runabout for example, it had a warp 5 speed (in some versions even upgraded to warp 6 or 7). With a crew of 2-4 and 4 phaser arrays and 1 torpedo launcher it was actually quite a decent little ship. Capable of doing all kinds of missions with the added capability of actually landing the ship on a planet or any space rock. Also it was actually a command pod, warp sled and cargo module into 1 and yes this could be easily changed into the configuration that would be needed for a specific mission or task. It was even used as carrier shuttle on the Akira-class for example. It could be very easily used for other tasks like cargo runs within a solar system between planets if you would add a bigger cargo pod for example or change the warp sled for something bigger and you might have more range and warp speed. This ship might be the most versatile ship of all, including the big ones.
I have a hard time understanding the transwarp on the USS Excelsior. Did they not test out transwarp on something smaller before building the largest newest star ship? A small starship or large shuttle would have been more appropriate. How could you invest so much in a large ship like that without knowing it would work to some degree?
Didn't the Galaxy Class Enterprise suffer from near warp core breaches a few times per season? Plus it was an ugly, oversized ship. The Intrepid class deserved more investment by the federation due to it's capabilities and adaptiveness.
Sovereign at VIII is just wrong. Steamrunner, Akira, Norway matching it weapons-wise ? Wrong. Maybe the Defiant and Prometheus can. Sagan-class? Excuse me!?
If you actually only used cannon you would REJECT the complete ABOMINATIONS called the Abrams and Kurtzman Trek. They are the furthest away from canon.
Oi. A list like this hurts because tops are near the bottom and bottoms are near the top, i.e. Galaxy. Ive come to dislike this ship but it was a hell of a leap in canon. Cant disagree with Sovereign along the same but opposite lines. Much better looking and tougher than Galaxy, but thats about it. My top 3 in innovation would be duotronic Constitution, isolinear Galaxy, and sprinting a marathon Intrepid. As a DS9 fan, Defiant is the best ship, no arguments will be heard. 😊
What if the Excelsior _"Transwarp"_ was simply *the new warp scale* speeds, which were a big jump from the TOS era, and not TNG warp 10+ cross the galaxy warp drive? Basically what Khan developed in the Kelvin timeline - the Dreadnought being a combat optimised Excelsior concept with the drive tech that the Prime timeline would develop in a few more decades. And the chase scene from _Into Darkness_ does seem like what the Excelsior captain expected to do in _The Search for Spock._ Easily catch up to a Constitution Class in warp, and be able to attack it in warp. So that once Starfleet undid Scotty's sabotage and refined the engines, it did indeed work. After all, a Excelsior could still keep up with the fleet a century later.
I will have to respectfully disagree. And I say respectfully. Please don't be like that other guy going "You're wrong! WRONG STUPID!" just because I expressed a contrary opinion. The Galaxy is a great ship but it takes too many resources to build and run. The Galaxies had too much empty space in them. It's good if you want a generational ship, but they were never seen used for that. Despite being built more for combat in mind, the Sovereign has been shown to do all the missions of a Galaxy class almost just as well. Same with the Inquiry. Or matching to that era, the upgraded Excelsiors. I'll grant it's an upgrade from the Ambassadors and the Nebulas, but it's been shown to have issues keeping up with the threats to the Federation. It can do the science missions but even then you can send an Oberth for most of those too, and later the Intrepids and Novas took that role. I'd pick the Sovereign for all rounder best. It's got the best mix in my view of elegance (important for all those diplomacy missions), economy (cheaper to build than a Galaxy as I said, and with less to maintain), firepower, versatility, science and exploration ability.
This was a very surprising list... except when you put the Galaxy class at No. 1.🙄 The Galaxy-class is an RV. The kind that's so comfortable it defeats the purpose of going camping in the first place. It's a contention I have with most 24th century ships because I highly doubt there's a holosuite in every home. The Excelsior is a Pickup truck. It will always be at the top of my list for all the reasons you said however going off of beta and alpha canon, I think the she contributed just as much to starship design as the NX, maybe more. Plus, I'm of the camp that says the transwarp actually worked and they just changed the Warp Scale and like the NX, they rebooted this design at least three or four times in canon. And I just think the Excelsior looks cooler. Tho in STO the Pathfinder has been my baby since it came out. It's like the Dauntless and Sternbach's Voyager concepts had a baby with a paint job a-la Mass Effect. Small, speedy, smart, and has a bottomless shuttlebay.🥴
man i cant wait to see the lamarr class in action it look awesome i am guessing it from star trek online or something the picture i havent found anything on it outside the clip that was shown a few month ago
it's a crime they just don't give every player who ever purchased at least one federation ship from the Zen store or least earned their own TIER 6 the old fashioned way the option to ALWAYS have a selectable sovereign style warp "necelles" at spacedock. Since they take YEARS to come up with new one of it's type in the first place.
Nebula Class, Steamrunner Class, Odyssey Class, Miranda Class, Akira Class. I like starship designs that not anyone would think of and are clearly functional and fun and useful. Your choice of Sutherland Class covers the Nebula, and the Akira sort of.
A few nitpicks: I don't think the Lakota was one of the most capable ships in the fleet... I think it was up against a tiny escort (the Defiant) and basically punched down. We would expect a ship of similar size like the Sovereign to wipe the floor with the Defiant. The Intrepid was MUCH larger in volume than the Constitution class, which routinely did 5 year missions, and looks quite cozy in SNW... heck, it doesn't really seem that different from a Sovereign class internally. Lastly, so awesome to see the Galaxy Class at the top of this list-- but one of the most underapreciated features of the ship was its massive hangar. Lastly, we see Galaxy Class ships being produced well into the late 2370s-- and we can presume that many were converted over to the Ross class or Andromeda class refit. Children may have been a bad idea on some missions, but civilian diplomats, scientists, anaylisits etc make perfect sense on a starship that is routinely operating far from Federation core worlds.
Voyager didn't outperform, its crew did! Hell, any Starfleet ship of similar size and firepower could have made Voyager's journey, given the same crew! I mean even (former) screw ups like Paris got their shit together and helped modify the ship if needed! Hell, Paris built the Delta Flyer (well, he made the plans for it and had them on the computer) in his spare time as a fun project and had it ready to made when Voyager needed something better than a regular shuttle-craft! Torres can probably adapt 90% of found tech to work with Voyager's systems, especially later on when Seven of Nine helps her (and Seven probably knows most tech, because the Borg encountered most of it before!)
One of the problems with new Star Trek is how quickly ships become obsolete. It's like their cellphones or cars? Today, an aircraft carrier is built to sail for 40-50 years. The Constitution Class was a top of the line ship for many decades. The Excelsior seemed to have a nice 40 year run etc-- but the Galaxy Class is supposed to be the absolute pinnacle of the fleet in 2365 and then by 2371 it's obsolete? The Enterprise E lasts for about 13 years, and then the Enterprise F only lasts for 7? Starships are supposed to be modular and upgradable, these are incredibly sophisticated platforms that are built to last for 100 years. The out of universe reason is obvious; producers want each series to have its own "feel," but it's putting a huge amount of strain on the credibility of the franchise. Every decade in the post TNG era has completely different ships! The Inquiry class is a perfect example of this-- it's only the most advanced combat ship for three years? Ships take a decade or more to design, test, develop. You would think that Starlet would future proof these designs, so they would incorporate new technologies. Most new technologies are iterative, not revolutionary, so a ship's designers can anticipate and incorporate them overtime. Lastly, combat effectiveness is an overrated feature of a ship's design. As Voyager showed, it's not that hard to upgrade a ship with new weapons. Weapons are probably one of the most modular systems on a ship, pretty easy to add a few more torpedo launchers and phaser strips here and there. Also probably pretty easy to add in extra shielding. We know (power wise) that the power of the weapons doesn't come close to the power of the warp core, so it's not an issue of available power.
The Galaxy Class was the pure embodiment of the federation as envisioned by its creator. Its place at the top of any list is not a repudiation of what came later, but an acknowledgment that what came later wouldn’t have been possible without it, both in canon and in reality.
it seemed like one of those "fuck around and find out" kind of ships
One of the best things about the Picard series was the amazing STO artists getting their ships canonised.
True, but they also mismatched the era they were built.
You meant to say “the only good thing” I believe
The Galaxy class always gave me that "What if a starbase could fly around?" feeling
Someone on a different channel said that deciding to name it the "Galaxy class" could possibly hint at the scope of the designers' ambition. As in "this ship will let us explore and dominate the *entire* Milky Way Galaxy."
@vic1505 The designers of the Universe-class were thinking the same thing. ;D
@UGNAvalon they cranked up the level of ambition to 11.
The Universe Class represents this comment 100% 😁
I Command this class of Starship in STO a lot. Can't go wrong with a mobile Starbase/Colony that can do pretty much everything! 🤣
Lol, DS9 did in one episode ;)
I'm just happy that my bae got included, even at Number nine. I have the Eaglemoss XL on my dresser, and I even built one in Minecraft with a full functional interior and a Tellarite captain-I fully intend to make it "operational" once the _Valkyrien Skies_ mod updates.
Thanks for the awesome video, Ric! So good, I'm happy to watch it twice!
That is a level of dedication few ever achieve.
I am not a fan of Discovery or the ships in it, but the Shen Zhou is the one design that I do like. It fits in better, IMO, with traditional Federation starship design, as well as being classy in it own right.
The close-ups of the Intrepid class made it look like it had USB and Aux ports.
12:16 I believe the Andromeda didn't yet exist for it to be canon, I feel like the Enterprise-D saving the day on Frontier Day 2401 inspired its creation and upon its launch would be the most advanced class of ship commissioned to date.
Great video yet again 😁
Thanks for clicking the fresh one, lol
Everybody loves the big one. :)
Honestly surprised the Crossfield class didn't even get an honorable mention.
I agree with almost this entire list except for #1 actually. The Galaxy is incredibly overhyped and wasn't really the crowning achievement everyone made it out to be (and I literally have its technical schematics poster behind me on the wall in my home office right now so it's not that I don't like it or anything). We saw time and time again how easily it could be destroyed or damaged and that it was actually very unwieldly - partly because it was essentially a floating shopping mall for civilians and diplomatic missions rather than being a practical multi-mission vessel like the Excelsior was.
I think the only other change would have been to make the Ambassador an honorable mention. It isn't that great of a vessel (feeling more like a transitionary ship more than anything else) but did usher in a long era of improved Federation-Klingon relations following the Battle of Narendra III and that alone should earn it high praise.
I completely disagree. The galaxy class was the backbone of the fleet during the dominion conflict. It's main weakness was the writers room/the power of plot.
@@claytonberg721 I would argue that the Miranda, Excelsior, and Steamrunner classes were the backbone of the fleet during the Dominion War (and the Akira/Saber classes to a lesser degree). Did the Galaxy serve an important purpose in the fleet as being essentially a Federation Battlecruiser? Oh, without a doubt, but it wasn't the best starship and had a glass jaw. We saw the Odyssey destroyed by a single Jem'Hadar ship, the Enterprise destroyed by a single Bird of Prey, and also destroyed by a light collision from the USS Bozeman. I liken the Galaxy to the HMS Hood - it was a great ship/class, but could easily be defeated and had design flaws.
The writer's room argument doesn't really make much sense considering that could apply to literally any ship in the fleet.
@@KevinTheID Your argument is the power of plot. Same with the enterprise being blown up in generations. Keep in mind after the odyssey there wasn't a single galaxy class lost on screen in the dominion war.
Remember they were called galaxy wings, not Miranda wings.
As capital ships they were essentially unmatched in the federation fleet until the odyssey class. You can't carry 16000 people in a defiant or akira class starship. It was also a highly effective weapons platform.
@@KevinTheID And when they lost the odyssey the federation shields were ineffective against dominion weapons and it was still in the fight. It took a dominion ship crashing directly into it's engineering section to destroy it, because they would have gotten away otherwise.
Please name another ship that could have tanked that much damage in that tactical situation.
@@claytonberg721 I think the problem is that we're both right.
The Defiant is now and will likely always be my favorite Star Trek ship. I can understand why you wouldn't include it on a list like this as it was very specialist but I personally just love the idea of such a small ship being so powerful. Because of its size, one would presume they are also not terribly difficult to produce as the mirror universe made their own at a space station instead of a huge space dock.
california class shoud have been an honorable mention cause is like the old Volkswagen Beetle, despite being falling apart it doesn't let you down
I feel that longevity has to also be taken into account, while less important than how much of a top of the line ship it was when it came out, it is also important that it stayed relevant, this would probably push the excelsior up a ship or two and same with the sovereign.
The Defiant will always be the best ship Starfleet ever produced. It proved they only make huge 600,000 meter long ships because they get paid by the meter.
Not a ship you would want to serve on for a 5 year mission, nor do diplomacy or science in
@@martinjrgensen8234 Sure she doesn't have insta-repair or infinite shuttles like the Intrepid class, but if you're being attacked she's the ship you want. Also the NX-01 wasn't a luxury cruiser but it was a great diplomatic ship while being not that much bigger than the Defiant (mostly because of its nacelles).
@@julius-stark if I could be on any ship going into battles during the dominion war I'd want to be on a galaxy class. Aside from the odyssey (which held it's own again 3 jem hader fighters despite its shields being useless) we didn't see any of them being destroyed on screen during a battle and they were deployed in far greater numbers than the defiant class and unlike the deviant plot amour didn't need it to save them.
i agree with the list, i am a bit biased towards the Galaxy class as that is still my favorite ship, despite the plethora of starships in STO, plus they have multiple variants in the mmo so im a happy man.
I agree we’d expect the original Connie to be high on the list. Not only a premiere explorer, but militarily outclassing most foes it would encounter, with few exceptions. Which is why it seems odd that Strange New Worlds retcons it into a ship that is outclassed by every enemy and has to run from every hostile encounter without even bothering to fight back. It might as well be the Oberth. But at least it has a really cool bar.
the galaxy class is the perfect starship. it combines everything about starfleet and the federation into a single class.
it's great for exploration.
it has an impressive weapons system.
it carries families.
it has plenty of science capability.
and it's just so damn gorgeous...
One thing I really disliked about TNG was how the firepower of the galaxy class was never consistent. Bad writing how they could nerf her down to suit the episode
I oppose where you placed the sovereign in that place, the Odyssey was basically a mix of the galaxy class and a Sovereign if that had a baby, but I have to respect your opinion, we all may see things differently but our love for star trek remains
I would have to say the best ship overall would be the Intrepid class, Voyager. Granted this is a tough list and you will never get a lot of people agreeing on this type list. Good overall for sure!
While you did the Sutherland I think with out the modularity and multi capabilities of the Nebula a lot of design concepts would not have occurred. For my money the Nebula outshines the Galaxy in multi mission capability while offering just as much comfort and power in a less resource intensive package.
I for my part would switch the Galaxy directly next to the Odyssey and muddle with the overall listing, but that's my personal perspective and I think it is impossible to make a not personal list. Well not without an system that is balancing out all facts we know and even that list might be fall to subjective feelings...
I would definitely add the Wells and Universe classes. But that's just me
The real question is if you were a Captain of a Starfleet vessel not named in any major way on-screen but just known to exist as one of the same class which of these ships would you want and why
Had the Ambassador-class that we got been the same as the one on the Wall of Enterprises, then I'm pretty sure that I would appreciate it, but it isn't, and is but a pale comparison to the beauty that Probert crafted.
miranda just too good to us
TBH I would have swapped the Excelsior and the Galaxy.
Doing my research, mind, but here's my thoughts:
The Galaxy is extremely resource intensive and relies a lot on brute force to heft its bulk. The civilian crews are... a moral dilemma, considering how much danger they are put into without proper training. Per Beta content (Star Trek Adventures), a lot of Galaxy class ships were commissioned during the Dominion war by stripping out a lot of the fluff systems which left some of them nearly hollow.
Honestly, I'm surprised - Memory Alpha shows somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 Galaxies recorded on screen. So perhaps a little less difficult to build than I thought (or just economy of scale plus post-scarcity). Also, 2 of them show up in alternate futures (the D refit and the Challenger), so the class clearly has some legs.
The Excelsior bridges from the end of TOS era to the end of DS9. Aside from the B'Rel and the Miranda, few if any ships served longer, and the Miranda couldn't serve in the front line like the Excelsior did during the Dominion war. In-universe, the Excelsior was clearly still a preferred posting just based on the number of admirals who continued to put their flag on the Excelsior even in the presence of newer ships. Arguably, the only reason the Excelsior was retired is because of moral issues (subspace damage) instead of technological progress, and the Excelsior-II tells me that starfleet engineers felt that way too.
2:09 This line had me laughing. Mostly because it's true.
Starfleet's engineers have a habit of making super ships that outclass all competitors, more or less just because they can. Awesome for the fans, probably *super* annoying for rivals of the UFP
If you are going by “on screen appearance” at what point did they say the Enterprise F was decommissioned due to massive system failures? I don’t recall hearing that at all.
The Galaxy class the big problem for me is that when the integrate field went down the ship wound want to rip it self a part and that is when it was moving slowly and that happened in quit a few eps so to me the structure of the ship was second and power came first
I was pretty annoyed that Cryptic went along with retconning the Odyssey into being a 24th century ship that just hung around for over 20 years by STO's time, all for canon recognition [it will never be seen on TV again barring a screw up or a change in the STO licensing agreement]. The ship seems far too advanced to have been built only a decade after the Dominion War.
Galaxy class is everything wrong with starfleet when it came out. You have a luxury liner instead of miltary vessel. The federation forgot what they were and thats why they kept getting punched in the face by the Borg, Cardassia, the Dominion
speeking of i am surprised the protostar and dauntless is not on the list ahh well perhaps on a new top 10 list
Since when is that outro screen a thing? It's different now.
bro said the sovereign class could only go warp 8 when they went warp 9.99 in the movies same with the galaxy class
I was interested in your list but it died when you put Sovereign at 8th.
You putting Galaxy first really cemented my disagreement with you. Sure, the Galaxy was a nice cruising type of starship but it wasn't the best. It wasn't good at anything and seemed to mostly lose the battles it was in, unless it had a -D on it.
I dislike the Walker class. ot because it's a shit ship, no, it was lazy on the designers. They literally grabbed a NX-01 and flipped it.
I don't think the Ambassador Class doesn't get the credit it deserves.
In my opinion, Starfleet should have not decomissioned the Galaxy class...
I would turn them into hospital ships!!!!
Hate grinding and not spending real money
2:21 Every 20 years, Starfleet points Utopia Planita at the tech tree and says "I want all that, in here" and Fleet Yard says "bet"
You know that when they announced the Odyssey as a supercapital design some shipyard boffin started thinking “now how many swimming pools and ice-cream dispensers can I fit in the extra space…”
I agree and disagree with your Sovereign take.
On one hand, it IS just kind of a generational upgrade. It's like the Galaxy and Intrepid had a baby. It was fast and powerful and capable, but not a generational leap like the Excelsior was vs the Constitution.
But let's not forget, it folded up that Borg Cube in First Contact like it was a lawn chair. The Akira, Defiant, and Steamrunner you saw on screen collectively orgasimed when the Enterprise showed up to save their asses, and they all fell in line.
Sovereign is the peak TNG/DS9/VOY era ship.
Oh for sure. I just think that it was released at a time when other ships were already comparable in different fields where as others on this list simply outclassed in all. Let's not forget, it's still easily in the top 10 of all ships (that we have enough context on).
@CertifiablyIngame yep I just love the conversation on this stuff! I wouldn't put it in top 5 just because it wasn't really a breakthrough as opposed to a refinement.
But I will argue that tactically in its time, unmatched.
It also punched way above its weight class against the Scimitar. And it is just so gosh darn beautiful.
All you would need is Voyager against the Borg at the Battle of sector 001
Plot armour
@@RunDGC Technically Constitution was quite faulty design. It was just one of first proper warships Federation has in 23'th century (claims that it was not is propaganda). But there is a reason why they were completely replaced by Excelsior and Miranda. During confrontation with Khan, serious flaws of design become impossible to solve.
A very fair list honestly. The Sovereign makes sense where it's at. "speak softly and carry a big stick" is the kind of diplomacy that starfleet was using when building that ship.
More survivable than ships that outgunned it, More armed than the ships that outrunned it, and also carried a full variety of multirole equipments
From the moment she was introduced as E, I was in love. C and E were always my favourite Enterprise versions. I always found D a bit odd, as the saucer was just not shaped in the way I thought proper (of course, aerodynamics hold no value in space, but still).
@Ned-Ryerson I agree. When the E was introduced I automatically loved it, especially hearing Gordy say that it was "the most advanced ship in the fleet". Also, I'm not a hater but I never liked the D. It just looked all smoothed together even though it was a very accomplished vessel.
Fantastic list & I generally agree.
You certainly made good arguments for their placement.
I would love to see this style of list for other factions, Klingon, Romulans etc.
My one annoying issue with the Sagan is still that it canonically has no torpedo/probe launchers. I want to love this ship so much but it's a crazy oversight.
Personally, I'm thrilled the Galaxy class took the top spot; for me it's the best preeminent symbol of what the Federation hopes to be (had circumstances not overtaken it, as you said). Lots of big, friendly-looking curves on a battleship frame that held the line in some of the Federation's darkest hours, and all with comfortable chairs, warm lighting, and the thing that everyone would miss most of all in future designs - the carpet.
The ship was too mean, so Starfleet started putting families onboard. When the shit started hitting the fan, the Galaxy class went "Hold my tea, Earl Grey, hot - it's time to go cut a bitch."
That's how I've liked to think of it for all this time. When I was younger, I was as bemused as Picard as to why families were on board, but as I got older, and thought about it more and heard others talk about it, I came to realise that the Galaxy class was made during one of THE most prosperous and peaceful times of the Federation. Klingons were almost allies, if not cool neighbours, the Romulans were almost unheard of, and even when they did become more active, they didn't push for major conflict.
It was only when the Borg and Dominion came on the scene, virtually simultaneously, did the reality set in. That the Federation had either new, or more active enemies become a far greater, even existential threat, which demanded less luxurious designs, and the removal of families from the ships.
I don't know if this was all planned by the creators, or if Roddenberry just wanted the delusional idea of families on ships to be seen as normal in and of itself, but how it has worked out makes a lot of compelling sense.
@@Novarcharesk Roddenberry wasn't "delusional" per say, but his idea was that the Federation had evolved beyond war which while it may be true, doesn't speak for any other civilization. That said, I don't see families on a starship of that caliber being any crazier than military families actually staying on base. And when the exploration missions begin to exceed five year missions, then having your family with you means you can serve in Starfleet and not miss your kids growing up. Star Trek has had entire planets blown, up eaten by a giant space amoeba, and infected by flying fried eggs since TOS. There's no safe place, so you might as well have your family with you unless it's just an active war.
With all that said, my only real complaint on this issue regarding the Galaxy class is that the Saucer section doesn't have a warp drive. The Saucer Section should be able to make it home if the Stardrive loses in a battle.
Kinda surprised the Prometheus didn't get an honorable mention.
Since archer saw it at Battle of Procyon V it was at least as long lived as the excelsior class. at least in that timeline.
Because it's rigged.
The Prometheus strikes me as much like the Excelsior: a big experiment, throwing all their best tech at the wall to see what sticks. The kind of thing that would probably have a troubled development cycle. Delayed, over budget, but incredibly cool once it works. (In fact, I think the crew have actually mentioned that they chose a low registry number for the Prometheus to imply it had been stuck in development hell for a long time.)
And the Excelsior... was almost a huge embarrassment! The first time it shows up on screen its fancy-schmancy new engine fails and the renegades fly off laughing about how they made it too overcomplicated.
Of course, later history would exonerate the Excelsior and it would become established as an extremely sound spaceframe. But that was very close to not happening. If it had a couple more embarrassments they probably would have shelved the class as a failed experiment.
So the Prometheus in the prime timeline could easily have fallen on the other side of that coinflip. A potential gamechanger-to-be which ultimately didn't stick the landing and ended up relegated to a few expensive experiments. That's what I've always envisaged.
People sneer at people and call them "edge lords" if they like the Prometheus Class.
But it is innovative in terms of the integration of the hologram emitters through most of the ship.
I still do not understand why, with all the tech floating in the Federation and StarFleet, the Ent-F was not just stripped to the keel and rebuilt, instead of scrapping the ship because "it suffered too much damage". They do basically that during some refits. In fact it should be really hard to Scrap or decommission a ship for damages that do not outright destroy the ship.
On the production side, why even give a nod to the Ship, if Paramount/CBS was afraid of having to pay royalties to the creator of the Odyssey Class who was also awarded the Ent-F christening/commission.
Yup, real ocean liners and, I'll bet, other ships have been saved from more intensive damage to continue to operate. Like chopping off the entire bow or stern section after getting caught on the rocks to tow the remainder back to the construction yard to be completed with a whole new bow.
The only reason I can think of for CBS-Paramount to want to scrap _Enterprise-F_ was to replace her with one of their own designs. By choosing _Titan-A_ , not only did they choose a lesser vessel, but they also spat on the legacies of both Enterprises and Titans, in my opinion. It's also the only reason to advance the Odysey's rollout to the point they would be decommissioning one while Picard was still alive. The _F_ should have been commissioned in 2409, and her first captain should have been Vakel Shon, the previous commanding officer of the Defiant-class _USS Belfast_ .
But that's far from my only criticism of _Picard_ season 3. It was so full of plotholes, Diana Troi could have piloted the _D_ through them without so much as brushing against the side. Terry Matalas did try, and it shows, however by then the franchise had already been rendered unsalvageable. Unlike the _F_ .
And of course, another great ship and captain are nowhere in sight: Captain Nog and his _USS Chimera_ . Although this would have required a recasting, it is a ship and crew with stories worth telling.
No, it's because Terry Matalas and the current production team are Retro-Style OBSESSED. This era of Star Trek started with a TOS era prequel instead of a 25th century show.
@@BNutsit was a toss up between the Picard and Enterprise and you know which they decided to choose last minute.
The Connie wasn't just built for defence because the Federation was at war with the Klingons when she was built, so she is legitimately a battlecruiser. But like all vessels at the time, retasked at cessation of open hostilities and the beginning of the cold war era that TOS is set in. The Khitomer Accords being the complete and open end of things until DS9 beyond The Enterprise getting dragged into shit, generally involving House Duras. lol
The TOS Connie was a heavy cruiser, but the TMP refit turned it into a true battle cruiser
I like to think that the Enterprise's amazing success led to Utopia Planitia to routinely come back to the Constitution profile for every new ship intended to have an "Enterprise" Flagship, as they just felt that any ship meant to bear the name should look the part.
Sovereign was the most iconic, beautiful, peak of Starship design - by far. Everything we've seen since looks like lego.
I can understand saying most beautiful and peak because that’s subjective, but it’s definitely not the most iconic. That’s either the Constitution or the Galaxy.
Are you deliberately trying to start WWIII?
LMAO
😂 😂😂
Bitterly disappointed that the oberth wasn't at no#1
"Splatterblast" "Yodaslovtoy"
You're pretty great at coming up with usernames.
At least Odyssey carrying bit of oberth design on it where Saucer and Hull not connected directly like most of Starfleet ship
If the lost was "Top 10 most fragile Federation ships," it would be.
@TheZacula to be fair, the Oberth is what it is, a light science vessel.
I'm not sure the Oberth would actually qualify as a starship in the TOS/TMP era
I still think that 3 nacelled, laser cannoned Enterprise D was something that Riker specifically would come up with if the ship were given to him.
The Miranda class the truly forgotten red shirt ship. So sad.
There's another error in this version of the video that might require another reupload: You throw shade at the Ambassador Class.
Third time lucky, eh?
cant argue with #1. my favourite ship of all time. the classiest of all the ships. such a beautifully designed ship in all honesty
I loved the fact that you have the Connie and Excelsior class ships, they carried the Federation and Starfleet to the frontier
I personally dislike the Discovery/Picard ships, since I do not care for how Bad Reboot has handled their shows. That is of course personal preference. I believe that the Ares class from 'Prelude to Axanar' deserves an honorable mention at the very least. The studio came up with a very believable precursor design to the TOS Constitution class, one with a serious 'come-at-me-bro' vibe that any Klingon would have recognized immediately. It has been suppressed by CBS, which is further proof of how good it actually is. D-6's beware!
I'm surprised the Prometheus did not get a mention.
My top 10 favourite Federation Starships:
1. Constitution class (Not including Konnie (Kelvin variant) or Donnie (Discovery variant) excluding Gamma - john eaves Concept version)
2. Odyssey class
3. Sovereign class
4. Galaxy class
5. Nebula class
6. Miranda (or Malachowski) class
7. Constellation class (4 Nacelles - T.M.P/T.N.G era)
8. Walker class
9. Ambassador class
10. NX/Columbia class.
Honorable Mention: Nimitz, Crossfield, Oberth, Luna & Universe classes.
I think this is a pretty good list, but I kind of disagree with the Galaxy being on the list at all. It had massive design problems with its computer core, engines, amenities, and warp core. It was also incredibly undergunned and undershielded for a ship of its volume and mass. It represented the Federation at the height of its hubris and arrogance. I thought that your reasoning that the Galaxy was passed by because the environment it found itself was far more fraught with danger than what its planners envisioned was a good one. But to me, that should put the Galaxy way down on a list like this. I think that the Federation from after the Cardassian War to Wolf 359 was in stagnation. Its shortsightedness and general feeling of invincibility in that time led to a lot of people dying. Q was right in Encounter at Farpoint, mankind still had a long way to go and a lot to left to learn. The Galaxy Class was conceived and built in an era when humanity thought it knew far more than it actually did. The galaxy proper disabused them of that notion.
Galaxy-class is too top-heavy, IMO. The drive section should be bigger, or the saucer section should be smaller.
Thanks for giving the Ambassador Class a shoutout ❤❤❤
The sovereign and defiant (though not in this list) are most beautiful of that era, but the galaxy was the beast to their beauty, well deserved number one. Huge fan of the sagan too, she is absolutely beautiful for a new-era ship.
I never thought that the Defiant was attractive.
Very fast and very powerful? Yes.
Attractive? No.
@@pike100 The Defiant was a brute. Smaller and packed to the gills with weapons and armor. There's beauty in that. It's all subjective. For sure my favorite Federation ship.
While not groundbreaking and clearly an offshoot of the refitted Constitution class, the Miranda class deserves an honorable mention for its workhorse design that saw it serve as a backbone vessel for the Federation for over eight decades. The class also demonstrated huge adaptability and was a clear design concept influence for later vessels like the Nebula class.
Not sure I would have put the Galaxy Class at #1. It seemed to do poorly in battles.
While it might not be the best, the ambassador class is my favorite Federation starship class.
agree refited she is also a power on her own, you could argue that she could have done better at narrendra if she had better systems, but be honest the warbirds were too much even though they were the older ones. The Ambassador class is in my opinion exactly what the name says: An ambassador to get new worlds into starfleet. She has to look great and symbolise Starfleet in relativly peacefull times.
Constitution class refit is the only one I like the best
U.S. aircraft carriers are built to be upgradable and are intended to continue in service for at least 50 years. Starships built hundreds of years in the future should have similar if not longer lifespans… making a ship seem old after 10-20 years doesn’t make sense..
But what I would say to that is if the ship is built right before a technological, boom or a massive upgrade and its systems prove to be on the cusp of that new technology, but not quite there yet then sometimes it does make sense to decommission the ship in favor of something newer, rather than continue upgrading a platform that’s always going to be just behind
Hey the Nebula didn’t even garner an honorable mention?
Sovereign at 8 and Galaxy at 1?! Naaaah!
The Excelsior was robbed due to sabotage.
Naw. My head cannon says that the "transwarp" experiment later became the new warp scale. Obviously they knew what scotty did to sabotage her.
Well at least Sisko's pimp hand got an honorable mention. I'll give you that.
TNG enterprise is the best! I like the defiant too
Love that the Odyssey class is at number 10.
I liked the Walker class right away on Discovery.
I am surprised that my favorite is at number 8 lol
And my second favorite at number 7
I strongly dislike the Ambassador class. It's so generic and uninteresting. I prefer the Probert concept
I just can't get by the fact that the Galaxy class was a glass cannon. It's power systems were unstable and compromised the core A LOT lol
There are many of these lists. I've admittedly always liked this channel. But this list is the FIRST IVE TOTALLY AGREED WITH. Bravo sir! Take a bow while I salute the Galaxy class and the big "D" Thanks for your hard work.
Galaxy is my #1 as well. Even though it's a bit smaller than the Oddy, it still looks and feels larger to me. I use the Legendary Mirror GalX on a few of my toons in STO and have no regrets :)
I always love a top 10 and I love a starship, so I love this video! Slightly surprised that you didn’t put the Excelsior class at number 1 though 😂😂
Really glad the Odyssey made the list, even though most of its lore is from beta canon.
Also surprised but glad the Sagan class made it, it’s a great looking ship and I hope we see more of it.
I think the Sovereign is in a good spot. It’s an amazing ship, but a bit niche and pretty outclassed by the 25th century.
Not sure how I feel about the Sutherland being above the Excelsior though, I feel the Excelsior was so much more influential…
Totally agree with #2 and #1 though! I would have bet money those two ships would win before even watching the video haha.
wow... no love for the venerable and multi-use Saber-Class. I am disappoint at this Rick.
I really felt the Runabout should have made the top ten. Its versatility and overall over performance in the Dominion War really makes it stand out. IMO.
Now, technically a shuttle is a ship. That means there are quite a few candidates that could bump off some of the mentioned ships quite easily by show of service and time spend on service and for that matter options. They were used for a lot of different jobs and they should at minimum be named at least once for this alone. A worker bee for example was present for nearly a century, even if it doesn't have warp capabilities or anything fancy, it did it's work even while being assigned to the big boys of the fleet. From orbital usage, to starbase and star ship. It was a very capable tiny ship that should be mentioned for it's role. Problem is that it's a auxiliary craft created for repairing, building and not much else.
Now even a bigger contender would be the Runabout for example, it had a warp 5 speed (in some versions even upgraded to warp 6 or 7). With a crew of 2-4 and 4 phaser arrays and 1 torpedo launcher it was actually quite a decent little ship. Capable of doing all kinds of missions with the added capability of actually landing the ship on a planet or any space rock. Also it was actually a command pod, warp sled and cargo module into 1 and yes this could be easily changed into the configuration that would be needed for a specific mission or task. It was even used as carrier shuttle on the Akira-class for example. It could be very easily used for other tasks like cargo runs within a solar system between planets if you would add a bigger cargo pod for example or change the warp sled for something bigger and you might have more range and warp speed. This ship might be the most versatile ship of all, including the big ones.
I have a hard time understanding the transwarp on the USS Excelsior. Did they not test out transwarp on something smaller before building the largest newest star ship? A small starship or large shuttle would have been more appropriate. How could you invest so much in a large ship like that without knowing it would work to some degree?
Didn't the Galaxy Class Enterprise suffer from near warp core breaches a few times per season? Plus it was an ugly, oversized ship. The Intrepid class deserved more investment by the federation due to it's capabilities and adaptiveness.
no akira in the list. worst top tier list ever.
It's in my older personal 10 favourites list however
@@CertifiablyIngame dud was waiting for the comment to pop up - was like a near instant reply there. lol
Sovereign at VIII is just wrong. Steamrunner, Akira, Norway matching it weapons-wise ? Wrong. Maybe the Defiant and Prometheus can. Sagan-class? Excuse me!?
If you actually only used cannon you would REJECT the complete ABOMINATIONS called the Abrams and Kurtzman Trek. They are the furthest away from canon.
Oi. A list like this hurts because tops are near the bottom and bottoms are near the top, i.e. Galaxy. Ive come to dislike this ship but it was a hell of a leap in canon. Cant disagree with Sovereign along the same but opposite lines. Much better looking and tougher than Galaxy, but thats about it. My top 3 in innovation would be duotronic Constitution, isolinear Galaxy, and sprinting a marathon Intrepid. As a DS9 fan, Defiant is the best ship, no arguments will be heard. 😊
I have a soft spot for the Excelsior class because of the Starfleet Command II: Empires At War game. Loved that ship.
What if the Excelsior _"Transwarp"_ was simply *the new warp scale* speeds, which were a big jump from the TOS era, and not TNG warp 10+ cross the galaxy warp drive?
Basically what Khan developed in the Kelvin timeline - the Dreadnought being a combat optimised Excelsior concept with the drive tech that the Prime timeline would develop in a few more decades.
And the chase scene from _Into Darkness_ does seem like what the Excelsior captain expected to do in _The Search for Spock._
Easily catch up to a Constitution Class in warp, and be able to attack it in warp.
So that once Starfleet undid Scotty's sabotage and refined the engines, it did indeed work.
After all, a Excelsior could still keep up with the fleet a century later.
I will have to respectfully disagree. And I say respectfully. Please don't be like that other guy going "You're wrong! WRONG STUPID!" just because I expressed a contrary opinion.
The Galaxy is a great ship but it takes too many resources to build and run. The Galaxies had too much empty space in them. It's good if you want a generational ship, but they were never seen used for that.
Despite being built more for combat in mind, the Sovereign has been shown to do all the missions of a Galaxy class almost just as well. Same with the Inquiry. Or matching to that era, the upgraded Excelsiors. I'll grant it's an upgrade from the Ambassadors and the Nebulas, but it's been shown to have issues keeping up with the threats to the Federation. It can do the science missions but even then you can send an Oberth for most of those too, and later the Intrepids and Novas took that role.
I'd pick the Sovereign for all rounder best. It's got the best mix in my view of elegance (important for all those diplomacy missions), economy (cheaper to build than a Galaxy as I said, and with less to maintain), firepower, versatility, science and exploration ability.
This was a very surprising list... except when you put the Galaxy class at No. 1.🙄
The Galaxy-class is an RV. The kind that's so comfortable it defeats the purpose of going camping in the first place. It's a contention I have with most 24th century ships because I highly doubt there's a holosuite in every home.
The Excelsior is a Pickup truck. It will always be at the top of my list for all the reasons you said however going off of beta and alpha canon, I think the she contributed just as much to starship design as the NX, maybe more. Plus, I'm of the camp that says the transwarp actually worked and they just changed the Warp Scale and like the NX, they rebooted this design at least three or four times in canon. And I just think the Excelsior looks cooler.
Tho in STO the Pathfinder has been my baby since it came out. It's like the Dauntless and Sternbach's Voyager concepts had a baby with a paint job a-la Mass Effect. Small, speedy, smart, and has a bottomless shuttlebay.🥴
man i cant wait to see the lamarr class in action it look awesome i am guessing it from star trek online or something the picture i havent found anything on it outside the clip that was shown a few month ago
I'm avoiding the entire French language for fear of spoilers, lol
it's a crime they just don't give every player who ever purchased at least one federation ship from the Zen store or least earned their own TIER 6 the old fashioned way the option to ALWAYS have a selectable sovereign style warp "necelles" at spacedock. Since they take YEARS to come up with new one of it's type in the first place.
Did bruh call the Sovereign class the Cheesecake Factory of starships???? It’s does everything, but does nothing well!??? Lol
“Best” all depends on how you’re objectively defining it.
Nebula Class, Steamrunner Class, Odyssey Class, Miranda Class, Akira Class. I like starship designs that not anyone would think of and are clearly functional and fun and useful. Your choice of Sutherland Class covers the Nebula, and the Akira sort of.
A few nitpicks: I don't think the Lakota was one of the most capable ships in the fleet... I think it was up against a tiny escort (the Defiant) and basically punched down. We would expect a ship of similar size like the Sovereign to wipe the floor with the Defiant. The Intrepid was MUCH larger in volume than the Constitution class, which routinely did 5 year missions, and looks quite cozy in SNW... heck, it doesn't really seem that different from a Sovereign class internally. Lastly, so awesome to see the Galaxy Class at the top of this list-- but one of the most underapreciated features of the ship was its massive hangar. Lastly, we see Galaxy Class ships being produced well into the late 2370s-- and we can presume that many were converted over to the Ross class or Andromeda class refit. Children may have been a bad idea on some missions, but civilian diplomats, scientists, anaylisits etc make perfect sense on a starship that is routinely operating far from Federation core worlds.
Voyager didn't outperform, its crew did! Hell, any Starfleet ship of similar size and firepower could have made Voyager's journey, given the same crew! I mean even (former) screw ups like Paris got their shit together and helped modify the ship if needed! Hell, Paris built the Delta Flyer (well, he made the plans for it and had them on the computer) in his spare time as a fun project and had it ready to made when Voyager needed something better than a regular shuttle-craft! Torres can probably adapt 90% of found tech to work with Voyager's systems, especially later on when Seven of Nine helps her (and Seven probably knows most tech, because the Borg encountered most of it before!)
One of the problems with new Star Trek is how quickly ships become obsolete. It's like their cellphones or cars? Today, an aircraft carrier is built to sail for 40-50 years. The Constitution Class was a top of the line ship for many decades. The Excelsior seemed to have a nice 40 year run etc-- but the Galaxy Class is supposed to be the absolute pinnacle of the fleet in 2365 and then by 2371 it's obsolete? The Enterprise E lasts for about 13 years, and then the Enterprise F only lasts for 7? Starships are supposed to be modular and upgradable, these are incredibly sophisticated platforms that are built to last for 100 years. The out of universe reason is obvious; producers want each series to have its own "feel," but it's putting a huge amount of strain on the credibility of the franchise. Every decade in the post TNG era has completely different ships!
The Inquiry class is a perfect example of this-- it's only the most advanced combat ship for three years? Ships take a decade or more to design, test, develop. You would think that Starlet would future proof these designs, so they would incorporate new technologies. Most new technologies are iterative, not revolutionary, so a ship's designers can anticipate and incorporate them overtime.
Lastly, combat effectiveness is an overrated feature of a ship's design. As Voyager showed, it's not that hard to upgrade a ship with new weapons. Weapons are probably one of the most modular systems on a ship, pretty easy to add a few more torpedo launchers and phaser strips here and there. Also probably pretty easy to add in extra shielding. We know (power wise) that the power of the weapons doesn't come close to the power of the warp core, so it's not an issue of available power.