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Some screencaps and scans of 22nd century Starfleet/Federation vessels seen and captured from Enterprise, and elsewhere...
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Unnamed Starfleet ships seen defending Enterprise from a Klingon BoP, seen in ENT: 'The Expanse' - there are a total of three ships. One ship from this sequence was named as Intrepid, and it's possible that the more detailed vessel nearer the camera is that ship. Class unknown. |
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Unnamed Starfleet ships seen defending Enterprise from a Klingon BoP, seen in ENT: 'The Expanse'. Again, we see the 'Intrepid' candidate firing upon the BoP. The second ship, closer this time, is triangular in shape - class unknown, but it could be a candidate for the Neptune class, as mentioned by Trip in 'Singularity'. |
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The unknown Starfleet ships seen defending Enterprise from a Klingon BoP, seen in ENT: 'The Expanse'. A second triangular ship of the same class as the other comes into the frame. |
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At the end of the battle sequence we see the Intrepid once again from the rear. It has an NX kind of appearance, with a saucer, and fin-like protrusions emanating from the slightly more antiquated nacelles. |
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The two triangular vessels move into formation before flying off. Little more can be discerned of this ship-type for now, although one would say that these, and the ship of the other class, certainly predate NX. |
Quote: "The Starfleet ships were just shapes we came up with," Rob Eaves told the Starfleet Communications Network at the recent WonderFest convention. The Warp 2-capable ships helped the Enterprise NX-01 fight off an attack from the Klingons as it returned to Earth.
"The script just asked for some backup Starfleet vessels so it was just a bunch of shapes we kind of conglomerated together that kind of looked pre-NX-01. And so [executive producer] Rick Berman just picked two out of the five. There's no names, no numbers, or really anything on them."
Source - Trek Today
So how can we explain this away...? Gauging by the established design of the NX-Class (which is not wholly popular with myself) it's safe to assume it perpetuates, at least in some part, a lineage of an already benchmarked design base. So the shape and form of the other Starfleet vessels seen in 'The Expanse' don't surprise me at all, nor does it disappoint me, although very little effort seems to have gone into their design and construction. They do though seem to fit the NX mould quite well, but do they fit in with the previously 'imagined' paradigm of 22nd century ships (taking the Daedalus, SS Enterprise, and the quasi-canon Valiant into account)? no, they don't. NX was a foul up from day one. But I don't seek to debate that, or Berman and Braga here. NX exists, it's here to stay, and unfortunately I can't just say 'it isn't canon' for convenience sake. I have no choice but to accept it, and we all have to get used to that.
So, looking at these new Starfleet vessels we can already see a lineage beginning to take shape. And that is a lineage not dissimilar to the much later Defiant and Sabre Classes: a single primary hull structure, saucer-like, with two raised nacelles protruding on either side. It seems here Starfleet has a specific design theme, and it would disappoint me now though, at this stage, to see any Starfleet ship that employs a secondary hull. That is best left for later starship development lineage (23rd century and beyond). So for now I have to tip my hat and say thanks for at least bothering to show us that Starfleet has other ships. May there be more....
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This is the unknown ship seen in the opening credits for Enterprise. It's quite clear, as can be seen from the impulse engine array aft, that this type of ship is not a candidate for any of the three ships seen in 'The Expanse', although there are similarities. |
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J-Class Freighter. Technically not a Starfleet vessel, but an 'Earth Ship'; and one controlled by whatever body operates and regulates interstellar freight. |
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NX-02 under construction in drydock, approximately T- 14 months before launch. Seen in ENT: 'The Expanse'. In the 3rd season episode 'E2', the NX-02 was confirmed as being named Columbia. |
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This is the NX-Alpha, the first test-bed ship used in the NX-Class engine trials, (seen in ENT: 'First Flight'). The vessel exploded near Jupiter due to a critical malfunction, although the NX-Beta successfully broke the warp 2 barrier, hence perpetuating the NX program. |
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The Daedalus Class is reasonably well established, with there being at least three known ships of this class: The Essex, Archon and Horizon - a further two (The Carolina and Valiant are in doubt). The ship was in service from the 2160's to the late 2190's. See the Daedalus Class page for more... |
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SS. Valiant (not the Daedalus candidate), as portrayed by the TOS Episode 'Where No Man Has Gone Before'. Supposedly this vessel was the first Earth ship to leave the Galaxy (in the 2060's), nearly a century before Archer. One can only imagine how it covered such a distance being limited to speeds around the Warp 1 area... |
Valiant pics (a conjectural design by Greg Jein) scanned from Star Trek Encyclopedia...
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The 'Ring Ship' SS Enterprise - an early Earth Ship as first depicted on a wall display in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. In Enterprise it has been seen several times as similar wall displays. A nice, but rare observation of continuity... |
More screencaps coming soon...
