Screencaps Analysis 3 -Wolf 359

In TNG's third season finale The Best of Both Worlds, 40 Federation starships go up gainst a Borg Cube at Wolf 359, in a last desperate attempt to destory, or at least curtail the Cube's incursion, and protect Earth. The taksforce, led by Admiral Hanson failed, and most, if not all those 40 ships were destroyed. We got to see a tantalising glimpse of some of those ships when the Enterprise enters the system en route to Earth and discovers a mass graveyard of wrecked ships. In the footage shot we get to see a few of these wrecks, and several new classes of ship, never before seen, emerge. These include, Challenger, Cheyenne, Niagara, New Orleans and Springfield, and a prototype Nebula that wouldn't debut in any detail until the next season. Unfortunately we never get to see any of the ships in any real, close-up detail, but with the combined effort of the Wolf 359 Research Team a significant amount of work has been done to shed some light on these ships, from screencap analyses, to dialogue with one of the key contributors to the models, Mike Okuda, to unearthing rare studio model photos....

Here I'm going to take a good look at some screencaps from The Best of Both Worlds graveyard scene. Now that DVD captures of this episode are available it has at last given us the opportunity to further analyse some of the detailed images of this oft discussed, and conjectured sequence.

Also on the DVD for TNG's fourth season is a featurette, taking a look behind the scenes and giving us a glimpse of the some of the models which were filmed.

For now I am borrowing these images with the permission of Nick Angeloni of The History of The Enterprise. He has done an excellent job with these new DVD captures...

I've enhanced these images the best I can. They are certainly now a lot better than the VHS and Laser Disc captures that were previously available...


IMAGE ONE	IMAGE TWO

IMAGE THREE	IMAGE FOUR

IMAGE FIVE	IMAGE SIX

IMAGE SEVEN

In IMAGE ONE, in the immediate foreground, are what appears to be a Constitution Class saucer, badly damaged, and a Galaxy style nacelle. We can only conjecture what a Constitution Class ship, if that's what it is, may be doing in a battle in 2366. Could this be the Fleet Museum Constitution that Picard alluded to in 'Relics'? Could it be a training vessel, or old decommissioned ship rushed into action when the call came through to scramble as many ships as possible within range? If it is the latter, one would expect a decommissioned, mothballed ship to be probably stripped of tactical weapons and warp capability.

The Galaxy nacelle may well be debris from the Melbourne (proto-Nebula). But again not enough information is available to make any concrete assessment.

In the middle distance of IMAGE ONE is the familiar New Orleans Class USS Kyushu. It's suffered heavy damage. Here are the initial images that we had from the Encyclopaedia, and some model photos of the Kyushu, taken from the DVD Featurette:

In summary, the New Orleans appears to be an approximate Galaxy contemporary, sporting similar design themes in the saucer and nacelles particularly. Actual dialogue calls this class of ship a Frigate (more). The pods on the saucer and one beneath have an unknown purpose. Some suggestions include torpedo launchers, shuttlebays, auxiliary nacelles and so forth. The Kyushu was build by Ed Miarecki using an Enterprise-D 1/1400 kit, other objects used include marker pens for the pods.

Query 2 is unknown. Many have said that this is the 'Liberator' shuttle which apparently appears in the scene, but it could also be the Miranda Class Reliant model.

Looking at IMAGE ONE again, I've listed a few queries - vessels/objects that cannot be identified immediately. It is one theory that Query 1 is the Springfield Class USS Chekov, without the pod, as seen here on the left (alongside the Ahwahnee):

This isn't entirely obvious though, as it has a certain resemblance to this ship below... This is from 'Unification', a vessel seen in the Qualor II Surplus Depot (as seen on this page) This ship is one of the Excelsior study models (pictured).

There is a definite resemblance, so, at first it seemed at least possible that this ship was that study model, and not the Chekov...

But this picture clinched it for me. The position of the pod is consistent, and the dark red bands around the nacelles are also present. So in my view, the Springfield has been identified...

Again, like the New Orleans, the Springfield Class appears to be a member of the Galaxy Family. This design has been seen with two pods, one on the dorsal side, protruding from the secondary hull, and one hanging beneath. It is one opinion that the one beneath may be a mission specific pod, much like the Nebulas, which seem to be interchangeable. Another theory is that the Springfield is a newer type ships filling the shoes of old Oberth deployments, which also sported a similar pod/undercarriage type structure. It was my thinking that the pod accommodated a deflector dish at the front - and that's what I modelled into the Springfield mesh (below)

The Chekov was constructed and designed again by Ed Miarecki, using parts from both a 1/2500 and 1/1400 Enterprise-D kit this time. Two marker pens were used for the nacelles.

The Cheyenne Class Ahwahnee in the upper right of IMAGE TWO is fairly clear. This was once thought to be the four nacelled Excelsior model, but that theory can more or less be disregarded now, thanks to these much clearer DVD captures. I think it definitely is the Ahwahnee...

The Cheyenne Class Ahwahnee was built by Ed Miarecki, using two bottom halves of the Galaxy Class AMT/Ertl 1/2500 Enterprise-D kit, stuck together. The pylons are original parts, but marker pens (again) were utilized for the nacelles.

The Challenger Class Buran, (also called Query 3 in IMAGE ONE) as outlined on the lower right of the image will become clearer in a moment...

The Proto-Nebula USS Melbourne (not to be confused with its Excelsior namesake), also appears on the left here, largely burnt out.


USS Ahwahnee Model	Proto-Nebula Desk Model
Cheyenne Class	'Future Imperfect'

The Proto-Nebula design appeared as a desk model firstly in 'Future Imperfect', and was built by Ed Miarecki. It also appeared in the background in Captain Maxwell's Ready Room on the Phoenix, in 'The Wounded'. But another replica model was built of this ship, and the battle damage applied, and it was this that was used for 'The Best of Both Worlds' - The finalized Nebula Class design didn't appear until 'The Wounded'.


USS Phoenix, Final Design	Proto-Nebula Desk Model	Proto-Nebula Desk Model	Proto-Nebula Desk Model
'The Wounded'	'Future Imperfect'	'The Wounded'	'The Wounded'

IMAGE THREE is one of the shots of the bridge crew as they observe the Wolf 359 carnage, and Shelby identifies the Tolstoy, Kyushu and the Melbourne. The Tolstoy as we know is supposed to be a Rigel Class ship, yet no such ship can be identified from the available footage. It is doubtful that any such model was built for this class. Maybe the object of Query 2 is meant ot be the Tolstoy? Either way, it is more or less certain now that if a Rigel Class was built it at least cannot be identified in any of the footage we've seen, and Mike Okuda, to his knowledge, believes than none was built/filmed. Anyway, from the screencap above we can see the Kyushu again, and the Ahwahnee, as well the Niagara Class Princeton, adrift in the top right hand corner.

In IMAGE FOUR It would seem that Query 4 is most likely going to be the same as what was Query 1, being the now identified Springfield Class Chekov..

Query 5 is an unknown object. Very little useful detail can be discerned. So for now it has be a question mark.

In IMAGE FIVE Queries 2, 4 and 5 show up again here. But over to the right we see the Princeton coming into the shot... here's some model photos of the Princeton being prepared with the appropriate battle damage.

The Niagara certainly has a Ambassador feel to it, and Greg Jein (centre top) did a great job with it, utilizing both Galaxy components and custom parts. It has both an elliptical saucer and Galaxy style nacelles, not attributes one would expect from an Ambassador era vessel, but these could quite easily be put down to additions made for a Niagara refit.

In the top left of IMAGE SIX is the first appearance of the wrecked Freedom Class USS Firebrand.

Nick Angeloni captured this fascinating picture of the never before seen Freedom studio model. Perhaps the footage of both the Firebrand and the Princeton didn't do the quality and detail of these models justice. The Freedom looks quite attractive here, and judging by the size of the saucer and the windows, this ship is a heck of a lot larger than previous estimates. It would seem that the Niagara and Freedom saucers are about the same size...

Here's the viewscreen again in IMAGE SEVEN - and a new capture of a scene I don't even recall seeing before. Because the immediate thing to notice is a brand new image of the Buran in the bottom right, as seen from a different angle. This was quite a revelation, and this now is the best known image of a Challenger Class ship.

Below is the long hidden photo of the Challenger Class Buran. The original picture (shown here in the infamous convention slide show) was taken by Mike Okuda before the battle damage was applied for filming in 'The Best of Both Worlds'. For legal reasons I, along with my Wolf 359 research colleagues, was for some time unable to display this polaroid of the slide (taken by Paul Frenczli). But now at last the 'censorship' has been lifted. Chris Spinnler's image (above), as well as my 3D model is loosely based on this photo.

If you wish to use any of the images on this page, you must ask permission first. Do not use excerpts of text. Further distribution of Springfield images is strictly prohibited, and is not to be used on any web pages.

Due thanks goes to Mike Okuda, Ed Miarecki, Bernd, Nick Angeloni for the DVD captures, the whole Wolf 359 Research Project team, and the others at Flare who have contributed ideas and opinions.