A theory on Daedalus Class.

[NaughtyTrekkie]

Daedalus class is not exactly canon. We heard of some Dadalus class ships in the late 22nd century in TNG but never seem them displayed on a screen. We saw a "ball and cylinder" ship in sisko office, but no one ever said it is a daedalus class ship, in fact, we don't now if that is a real design or just a baby Sisko fantasy work.

In non canon novel and site the Daedulus is said to be 105 meters, and that it was operative during romulan war.

This create some problems:

1- the ship is very little
2- it looks too primitive, after ENT at least (to be sincere, I think Daedalus is too TOS-ish).

Now, giving for true that Daedalus has really the design of Sisko office ship, that it is relly just 105 meters long and that it was operative during Romulan War, I have a theory:

During romulan war Earth fleet (or Fed Starfleet, or the coalition of planets, depending if you think the war is set before, after or during federation birth) had few ship. They had to do something, so they developed (or maybe they already have an Emergency ship design) the daedalus to be a little, cheap, highly standardizated, fast-to-build ship to mass produce just for the war.

Basic sensors, limited supply and fuel (mayby just enough to travel to the target, attack and come back), skeleton crew (20-30 persons), just a couple of shuttle to use as escape pod too, cheap worp systems design to last few years, and maybe ignoring some security standards.

Daedalus would have not a captain, just low grade officer and enlisted crew (captains are for true ships), like a WWII bomber (I think).
We could think of attack fleet with a couple of normal ships and a dozen of Daedalus, with the norma ships leading the operation.

Opinions?

 

[Spot261]

Or simply a smaller ship class, more a destroyer to the NX class's capital ships?

 

[NaughtyTrekkie]

Or simply a smaller ship class, more a destroyer to the NX class's capital ships?

let me use my imagination

 

[SPCTRE]

EAS has a good article about the Daedalus class.

 

[Spot261]

let me use my imagination

Sorry, do indulge

 

[NaughtyTrekkie]

Sorry, do indulge

don't worry, I was kidding.

I think that about daedalus because it seems a very little ship, unable for exploration and too little for a cargo

 

[Richard Baker]

I forget which book it was, but during the Romulan War they produced Daedalus class ships in greater numbers because the advanced technology used in the warp five NX class was so difficult. An NX was faster and better equipped, but you could build over a dozen Daedalus class ships and field them in the time it took to produce one NX.

 

[Spot261]

For years my thoughts on the daedalus had always that it was a precursor to the explorers, a long range (for the time) peacetime probe type vessel with minimum crew, probably operating outside of practical communications range much of the time. It's similarity to the Discovery (2001 ASO one, not the new CBS one) helped with that image.

Putting it into the context of the Romulan war makes that problematic and requires her to carry a significant surplus of armaments for her size, especially given the primitive and thus likely space consuming nature of her other tech. For that reason I imagine her to be a short range vessel when militarised, operating near to points of resupply (or fleet based tender vessels) in wartime.

Another good source of speculation (albeit diverting further from canon) is this:

http://www.starfleet-museum.org/daedalus.htm

 

[C.E. Evans]

I forget which book it was, but during the Romulan War they produced Daedalus class ships in greater numbers because the advanced technology used in the warp five NX class was so difficult. An NX was faster and better equipped, but you could build over a dozen Daedalus class ships and field them in the time it took to produce one NX.

I think a few people were floating that idea here at trekbbs not long after we got our first good look at NX-01.

 

[Kor]

In my head canon, this is part of the design lineage from the Discovery One to the Starfleet ships of the 23rd century.

Kor

 

[Tenacity]

Basic sensors, limited supply and fuel (mayby just enough to travel to the target, attack and come back), skeleton crew (20-30 persons), just a couple of shuttle to use as escape pod too, cheap worp systems design to last few years, and maybe ignoring some security standards.

Or, it has the NX-01's warp reactor, engines, deflector, basically every last thing good about the NX, but it has a hull design that's superior and stronger. More capable of withstanding external pressures (enemy fires). It's smaller size (combined with the NX's warp field) makes it more warp dynamic in terms of speed and turns.

With no intention of exploration, all the equipment with that in mind is missing from the design.

 

[VulcanMindBlown]

I forget which book it was, but during the Romulan War they produced Daedalus class ships in greater numbers because the advanced technology used in the warp five NX class was so difficult. An NX was faster and better equipped, but you could build over a dozen Daedalus class ships and field them in the time it took to produce one NX.

Or, it has the NX-01's warp reactor, engines, deflector, basically every last thing good about the NX, but it has a hull design that's superior and stronger. More capable of withstanding external pressures (enemy fires). It's smaller size (combined with the NX's warp field) makes it more warp dynamic in terms of speed and turns.

With no intention of exploration, all the equipment with that in mind is missing from the design.

The book was called Star Trek: Enterprise: The Romulan War: Beneath the Raptor's Wing and the part two was To Brave the Storm. I haven't read the Daedalus books but they say that the ship class predated the NX-Class or at least was planned to be made back then.

 

[Tenacity]

The book was called Star Trek: Enterprise: The Romulan War: Beneath the Raptor's Wing and ...

Tried twice to read that, never got beyond the third chapter. Good God it's bad.

The whole "Trip faked his death" in These are the Voyagers, what the hell?

 

[The Wormhole]

The whole "Trip faked his death" in These are the Voyagers, what the hell?

Fandom reacted in outrage to Trip's death in TATV. In fact, for about a year after the episode aired, there was a whole thing where fans of the character changed their avatars to images of him with "Not. Dead." written over them. Which spawned its own amusing parodies, but that's besides the point. Evidently, someone at Pocket Books also disapproved of Trip's death and made the decision to negate his death.

 

[Jedi Marso]

I absolutely hate the design of the Daedalus Class yet am forced (reluctantly) to accept at least some version of it as canon. Sort of makes the NX-01 look a century or two ahead of its time, doesn't it?

 

[ItIsGreen]

The book was called Star Trek: Enterprise: The Romulan War: Beneath the Raptor's Wing and the part two was To Brave the Storm. I haven't read the Daedalus books but they say that the ship class predated the NX-Class or at least was planned to be made back then.

That's far too many colons.

I love the design of the Daedalus (and its real world history as a potential Enterprise design) and I wish we'd gotten to see one (or some) of them in action in a canon production.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Sort of makes the NX-01 look a century or two ahead of its time, doesn't it?

The NX-01 makes the NX-01 look a century or two ahead of its time.

 

[Tenacity]

Sort of makes the NX-01 look a century or two ahead of its time

The Daedalus looks more like a precursor to the TOS Enterprise, than the NX-01 does.

To my eye the NX-01 look clunky and awkward, and I'm sure any randomly selected Daedalus could run circles around it and make the NX-01 it's sissy lil' bitch.

 

[Shawnster]

I want to see the Daedalus Class in the Kelvin style. I think that could look sharp. Sisko's desk model could be a prototype design or variant.

 

[Dukhat]

Actually, here's the canon facts about the Daedalus class:

1. There was a Starfleet vessel class called the Daedalus class, although we don't know what it looks like.
2. The U.S.S. Essex was of this class, and it was in operation in 2167, six years after the founding of the Federation.
3. It had a crew of 229.

Now let's compare this to the NX class:

1. United Earth ship that possibly carried over into post-Federation use, since the Franklin-type (built before the NX class) definitely did.
2. Saucer section is about as large as the Constitution class saucer.
3. NX-01 had a crew of 83.

Based on this info (and going under the assumption that the little ball-and-tin can design is NOT in fact the Daedalus class), then I'd guess that the Daedalus class is much larger than even the NX class, possibly as large as the Constitution class (considering Pike had about 200 crew when he was in command of the Enterprise).