A Space Møøse once bit my captain… No realli!
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You are taking the classification of “escort” way too literally. In Star Trek, escorts do more than escort, just as explorers do more than explore and cruisers do more than cruise.
Starfleet got caught with their pants down because of this kind of thinking. You don’t wait until the war is upon you to build the weapons for the next war.
honestly the best idea warship for the federation is a modular design that can be a highly effective warship in times of need, but in times of peace can be equipped for exploration, the nebula for example.
In most cases, such a design is less effective in either role than a dedicated ship would be in one of them. It’s trading peak effectiveness for versatility. While Starfleet has long gone for such an approach, they seem to be making more and more specialized designs as they might have realized that–in a fleet with thousands of ships (sigh…)–they can afford to have a significant number of specialists.
I finally started watching Picard, and I love the uniforms in it They are basically the early DS9/VOY uniforms with a few updates, like high collars, and rank pips on right breast, but they are way better looking than the horrible FC “gray shoulders” uniforms that I want to edit out of my Star Trek.
If you like the TNG uniforms so much, maybe you will enjoy those of another TV show (spoilers)
It seems that after years of the same uniform design Starfleet is changing them very fast. Three different designs in six years?
I’m OK with TNG uniforms, but I prefer the VOY uniforms and the Picard uniforms are simply a refined improvement of those in my eyes.
What you’re describing is the Miranda, which is extremely modular, and yes they’re frequently refitted into warships. Just look at how many were destroyed at Wolf 359. I’m not sure if they’re “ideal”, in the sense that there are definitely better ships to use in times of war. But it’s undoubtedly convenient to have ships like that if you don’t intend to have a permanent dedicated military fleet of starships.
the Miranda and the Nebula, both of which are, conveniantly, the work horses of starfleet
I like to set my games 10 years after TOS, but with all the assumptions of TOS intact (ship designs/tech, Starfleet organization, uniforms, hairstyles…).
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We are set TOS era, after the original show and before the Movie. I treat DIS as an alternate timeline
I agree with @lightjammer as far as Klingon appearance and attitude towards war & Roddenberry
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That makes a fairly unsupportable assumption that the Federation actually has ships patrolling members’ systems routinely. Exactly the same kind of not likely as the USAF patrolling Tulsa (Oklahoma) or Toledo (Ohio)… you patrol the borders, not the interior, and then have ready response forces at key points.
Doesn’t just make it sound… we see battles with easily 100 total ships on one side - if you count all the fighters - But I don’t recall it being 100 on each side. THe klingon ships are small, and we see up to 20 in a single frame. We seldom see less than 3:1 ratios… often 5:1.
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except that those are land locked states. keep in mind starfleet doesn’t just fill the role of navy, they also act much like the coast guard, they’d be engaged in maintiance of bouys and stations, Search and Rescue, police actions (I know the US doesn’t have a national police force per say but countries that do absolutely use it to patrol their interior) disaster relief, scientific research etc.
No the interior doesn’t need a big galaxy class, but it’s going to have smaller ships working within it’s borders
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I sprinkled a few more enlisted people as supporting characters into my head cannon since I don’t feel that we see enough of them on screen. I also don’t consider Star Trek V to be canon since it was a bad movie and creates a plot hole with Voyager.
I’m not a fan of Star Trek V, but I’d rather dump all of Voyager than it.
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I make three main assumptions in all my Trek games, that I’ve been running since FASA Trek:
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The TV shows and movies are fictional history pieces, not documentaries of real events… like Top Gun… and don’t necessarily reflect how things really work. The Klingon Empire has a similar show called “Battlecruiser Vengeance!”.
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Starfleet referring to itself as “not military” is at best propaganda. Non-military organizations by definition don’t hold “courts martial”. They may be like the US Coast Guard, that they have many non-military missions and responsibilities, but they are a uniformed, armed force under a chain of command with the responsibility of being the primary organization that prosecutes war for it’s parent political entity. The US Army could say tomorrow that they are no longer a military organization, but if they still has the guns and tanks and put their people in prison for breaking their rules, they’re still a military.
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A holdover from LUG Trek: Starfleet is the primary military arm of the Federation, but each planet is sovereign (note they send ambassadors to the Federation Council, and can grant asylum) and can keep their own military forces. Some, like Andor are extensive, and some , like Betazed and Risa don’t bother… but all can, and that’s why we see so many older ships in major conflicts, they are reinforcements from planetary defense forces. The Andorians primary export is Soldiers. Many Federation planets that can’t be bothered or who’s inhabitants are unsuited to military service contract with Andor to provide search and rescue, customs, and local defense services.
Other minor things include:
Starfleet not having so many different classes of ship, the logistics and training would be unmanageable.
The Saber is based off the Andorian “Hrisal” class patrol frigate. The Defiant and Nova classes are variants of the Saber.
Ships with shrouded or partially shrouded nacelle designs are Andorian influenced: Saber, Defiant, etc. Ships with “two up and out” are Tellarite influenced: Constitution, etc… and ships with “two back” two pylons stretching back with often a seperate engineering pod are Terran influenced: NX, Akira, Norway.
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In the 2370s, Starfleet had a little more than a dozen classes, only about two-thirds of which were in current production. I’m OK with this number so long as they have significant differences in capabilities to justify so many designs. I do find myself thinking that this system minimizes the differences between the various ships a little too much, and a result of that is that several classes appear superfluous and redundant.
If you dumped all of Voyager, you would lose Jeri Ryan, and she has been doing a wonderful job on Picard.
I don’t consider the Picard series worthy of keeping either. I would put it firmly as the worst of Star Trek shows.
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