RTR Blog: Matt's Favorite Starships

One of the most alluring aspects of Star Trek, and science fiction in general, for me is the starships. The vehicles which transport our heroes and villains across the cosmos is one of the reasons Star Trek captured my imagination and one of the big reasons why I love to watch sci-fi. Something about the visuals we get from the ships as they cruise along a starfield or enter orbit around a strange planet or engage in battle on the edge of a spectacular nebula just does it for me.

Shortly after I got into Star Trek, my dad bought me my first model kit (a small 3-piece kit containing the Enterprise, a Romulan Bird-of-Prey and a Klingon battlecruiser) which gave me a chance to build the ships I loved watching and have them hanging from my bedroom ceiling. This hobby kept me very busy for many years as I built dozens of model starships from the Star Trek universe and beyond. Unfortunately pretty much all of those models have perished since my teenage years, the result of several moves. The good news is that most of them were not well built anyway, so it isn't a terrible loss. The thought has recently crossed my mind of getting back into it, so there may be future blogs about re-capturing my youth by building some of these ships.

But I digress.

In this blog, I'll run down my favorite ships from the Star Trek universe. This was actually a tough one for me because there are so many ships that I really like, but I was eventually able to whittle my list down to ten with a few honorable mentions.

Let's start with my favorite Federation ships:

Nebula-class

Two things: I really like the nacelle down design and I really like the Next Generation era starship designs. Knowing that, you can probably imagine why I would include the Nebula-class in my list. The smooth lines are the main reason I like the Next Generation era Stafleet vessels. The streamlined look is something I really liked and I thought looked really good on screen. The Nebula class was the 24th century equivalent of the Miranda-class which was introduced to differentiate it from the Enterprise in the Wrath of Khan. The Nebula class was introduced for essentially the same purpose, housing an adversary to the Enterprise in "The Wounded". It had the feeling of being large, but the design was also fairly compact. It has all the design elements I like which puts it pretty close to the top of my list. It was always a treat for me when it made appearances on screen.

Akira-class

Possibly my favorite ship in the entire Star Trek universe, the Akira-class just looked flat out badass to me. From its first appearance in First Contact fighting the Borg to its background appearances in Deep Space Nine fighting the Dominion, this is a class that has proven itself in battle. It features the downward pointed warp nacelle design that I really like. It was a ship that felt like it could fill a number of roles . It had a small profile view and the impressive weapons array of a warship, but also had the size and the upper module that looked like it could be modified for scientific missions. It's a cool design, that I believe largely inspired the NX-01, that showed really well on the screen.

Galaxy-class

Again, I love the Next Generation era ship designs. The Enterprise-D was the ship I grew up with. It's no surprise the Galaxy-class makes this list. I love the smooth lines and that the Galaxy-class was a very reasonable evolution of the Original Series and Movie Enterprise. It retains the basic saucer/secondary hull deisgn while giving it a nice updated look that one would expect roughly 100 years later. It was a large majestic starship that seemed larger than life and had some really cool details. I never got sick of watching the Galaxy class week after week on the Next Generation and anytime it appeared in the other series. It is a solid design that was a logical evolution of the original Enterprise that I don't think ever gets old.

Type-6 Shuttlecraft

There have been several different shuttles over the years. The small shuttlepod, the bulky Type 7, they just don't hold up when stacked against the Type 6 for me. It's simple, big enough, and incorporates 24th century design elements without looking like a mini Enterprise. It also hearkened back to the shuttles from the Original Series and the Movies with its design which I thought was pretty cool as well. It has definitely stood the test of time as it was seen several times in Voyager after the Next Generation run came to a close.

Next, my favorite alien ships:

Klingon D7/K't'inga-class

Being a Next Generation guy, I always found the Original Series ships to be a bit bland, but there has always been something about the Klingon D7 that I always loved. Something about the design just screams manacing and intimidating to me. The bulbous forward section with the torpedo launchers and the large aft section filled with Klingon warriors .. I definitely would not want to run into one of these ships in the 23rd century. I also really liked the updated look in the movies which added more texture and glowing sections that really brought the ship to life. The basic design elements have been used in every iteration of Klingon warship, but the original to me just can't be beat.

Cardassian Galor-class

I had a hard time putting my finger on exactly what it was about the Cardassian Galor-class that I liked so much. I think it is the simplicity in the design and that it is the ship that probably most reminds me of a contemporary naval vessel. The long main hull with a single set of wings (or blades as they are referred to in "Caretaker") and the forward bridge module is simple but still interesting to me to look at. There are also some cool details like the tail piece and the large glowing part at the front (that I assume is a weapons array). It was also one of the first ships we saw with the bright orange/tan color scheme that I also really liked.

Kazon Raider

I don't think I was ever more excited for a new TV show than I was for Star Trek: Voyager. New series in a new part of space meant new ships! We were introduced to the Kazon right off the bat and I loved the smaller raiders (the carriers were .. meh). I thought the design of the ship almost looked insectoid to me which was different and I thought they also matched up well with the Kazon's less developed technology. They were kind of patchwork looking utilitarian ships that weren't the prettiest but got the job done.

Romulan d'Deridex-class

Again, my Next Generation bias is showing here, but is there a more imposing intimidating ship than the famed Romulan Warbird? In all those season three episodes when two or three of these ships decloaked, the feeling was always of dread. Luckily Captain Picard had plenty of tricks up his sleeve to avoid getting into a full blown fire fight with the deadly vessels. I like the almost beaklike forward section and having a hollowed out main hull was very unique. I also really like the green glowing sections on the dark green ship. It was very distinctive and left no doubt who you were dealing with when they decloaked off your bow.

To finish off the list, a couple of one off ships:

Future USS Enterprise-D

I think the best moment for me in "All Good Things ..." is when the Enterprise decloaked in the future timeframe. I thought the Future Enterprise was just about perfect; retrofitted with a third warp nacelle, a phaser cannon powerful enough to roast a Klingon warship, some other smaller weapons and even a modified bridge. I thought it was great to include the ship in the future timeframe under the command of Admiral Riker. The additions to the ship were great and were subtle enough that they didn't completely take over the ship. It was definitely the Enterprise and it looked much like you might expect it to after 25 years of service. A great part of the Next Generation series finale.

Promellian Battlecruiser

This one is a bit off the board, but when I started thinking of my favorite ships this one came up very quickly. I love the premise of encountering an ancient starship from an extinct civilization and the Promellian battlecruiser that appeared in the Next Generation episode "Booby Trap" was really cool. I liked the simple design and I thought the model makers did a really great job of painting this model to look old and derelict but still spaceworthy. There were some great close ups of the ship in the episode and I thought it looked spectacular. There weren't a lot of lights which I thought fit perfectly with the premise of the ship. A very memorable one off ship that I really liked.

As always, here are a few honourable mentions:

Jem'Hadar Warship The Jem'Hadar changed everything when they first appeared on Deep Space Nine. Their ships inspired fear. They were small, fast, maneuverable and travelled in packs. I loved the design and the unique purple color scheme. They were so different from what we had seen and became a worthy staple on Deep Space Nine for the remainder of the series.

USS Defiant This was a tough one to leave off because I love Deep Space Nine and this tough little ship played such a huge part in the show. I had a poster of the Defiant on my bedroom wall for a long time. It was a totally different design and had a deadly array of weapons. Definitely a memorable ship that I loved to see in action.

USS Reliant I had to include the Reliant, partly because it is another of the downward facing nacelle starships, partly because it was the vehicle of Khan in my favorite Star Trek film. It had a cool design, a bit more compact than most Federation starships and was part of some really spectacular battle scenes in the film. It's demise was pretty cool too.