Voyager's Unusual Size?

[suprmn4105]

Hey guys,

New poster, but a long time reader.

I was recently reading up on the USS Voyager and the Intrepid Class ship. When comparing the specifications of the class to other ships, like the Galaxy class, I noticed that the size of the ship seams a little off to me.

The crew compliment of an Intrepid class ship is 150 to 200 crew members. Which is vastly smaller than that of say a Galaxy or Sovereign class ship, with standards of 750 to 1000 crew members.

When watching Voyager, I new these facts in my mind, and so therefore I always envisioned the Voyager as a much smaller ship than the Enterprise D.

The issue arose when I read that the Voyager is more than half the length of the Enterprise D, at the 344 meters. In my mind this scale seams a little off compared to crew compliment and storage needs.

Does anyone else have an issue with this or has it been discussed in the past?

 

[exodus]

Yes, Voyager is long but way slimmer in height & width than the Enterprise.

You won't notice too much difference it you put them side by side in length but if you put Voyager on top of the Enterprise, you'll see a big difference in size. Ent. is way, way more wider and bigger in height than Voyager.

 

[Michael]

Does anyone else have an issue with this [...]?

No. But then again, the ships in Star Trek are mostly just a special effect to me.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Kirk's Enterprise has 3 times Voyagers Crew and two bowling allies when it's about the same size.

I think the real scary thought is how BIG the Kazon CITYSHIPS are, according to the scale in my encyclopaedia it's maybe twelve times the tonnage of Voyager and just fricking huge. in battle with these Behemoths (Still a fraction the size of a Borg Cube) Voyager looks like a matchbox car trying to get itself waxed at a regular sized carwash.

Of course all things being equal, it still takes 10 of these bastards to match Voyagers firepower.

 

[scotpens]

Kirk's Enterprise has 3 times Voyagers Crew and two bowling allies when it's about the same size.

TWO bowling alleys?

Overall length alone doesn't tell us much about the internal volume of either ship. The TOS Enterprise is a dispersed structure consisting of a flattish saucer that bulges in the middle, a cylinder, and two warp nacelles, all connected by skinny pylons. Voyager, by contrast, has a more contiguous shape and much greater volume relative to its linear dimensions.

 

[Guy Gardener]

http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Bowling_alley

A friend had the blue prints showing the two(?) alleys as a poster on his wall.

Though, if you follow the link, you'll see that there was also a bowling Alley on the Promenade of Deep Space Nine.

Maybe it's standard?

Where's the bowling Alley on Voyager?

 

[Destructor]

"What about the SSOUS'?"

"Starships of unusual size? I don't believe they exist."

 

[Cyke101]

There are also two plot reasons for Voyager's small crew compliment:

-many personnel died when the ship was taken
-the brand new bio-neural gel packs were supposed to help with automation and much greater ship performance, reducing the need for more manpower

 

[Guy Gardener]

"What about the SSOUS'?"

"Starships of unusual size? I don't believe they exist."

I've been waiting for someone to blink.

Josh on the West Wing was going on about Rats of Unusual Size under his desk the other day and I laughed my ass off.

 

[C.E. Evans]

IMO, the type of mission a ship is deployed on may also determine how big its crew will be. The Voyager was supposedly launched with an original crew of 141, but other Intrepid-class ships could have smaller or bigger crews depending on their mission requirements.

Another thing might be that in a pinch, the Voyager probably could carry hundreds of passengers for a very short duration. In this capacity, the ship would be acting as a transport vessel temporarily carrying special personnel, combat troops, or even refugees to a nearby starbase or Federation member planet...

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

Maybe it's standard?

Where's the bowling Alley on Voyager?

What do you need a bowling alley for when you've got a holodeck where you can create one?

 

[Deckerd]

I would imagine having an actual bowling alley with balls and skittles would use an awful lot less energy than creating one on a holodeck.

 

[Guy Gardener]

But space is at a premium.

The lower decks wouldn't have to share bunk beds if Janeway would just partition the Bowling alley for living space, but then all the able crewmen packed together like sardines said the same thing about the little alien girls ever expanding novelty farm.

It's a TINY ship.

Although they some how managed to pack in another 400 Klingons on top the regular compliment.

 

[Deckerd]

Don't you think that one of the perks of being stuck in a tin can for long periods of time, given that they don't do hypersleep or stasis or any of that reasonable stuff, would be that the crew were given the luxury of a bit of extra space to enjoy?

 

[Guy Gardener]

The tin can in question was on a 3 week mission Janeway said in the pilot. Crew circulated in and out of the ship according to that grumpy astronomer from Good Shepard...

There's only one reason one person builds a bowling alley on a Star Ship, especially in the age of Holodecks, and that is that that one person is saying "Go **** yourself!" to another person.

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

I would imagine having an actual bowling alley with balls and skittles would use an awful lot less energy than creating one on a holodeck.

I was under the impression that Federation starships have an almost unlimited supply of energy...

And the advantage of the holodeck is that you can use it as bowling alley, tennis court, soccer field, baseball field, swimming pool and so on. With an actual bowling alley you're limited to one kind of sport/recreation.

 

[Deckerd]

I wasn't specifically meaning the bowling alley but the private quarters of the crew. It may have been a 3-week maiden voyage but the implication of all the big ships in the fleet was that they were 'out' more than they were docked somewhere.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Voyager may be big, but apparently it's not big enough for all the stuff they crammed inside:
http://ex-astris-scientia.org/inconsistencies/inconsistencies-voy.htm
http://ex-astris-scientia.org/articles/delta-size.htm

(warning: Somewhat mind-numbing)

Oh, and the TOS Enterprise's bowling alley is just below the hangar deck, according to Franz Joseph's old 70's floorplans.

 

[Udat]

Yes, Voyager is long but way slimmer in height & width than the Enterprise.

You won't notice too much difference it you put them side by side in length but if you put Voyager on top of the Enterprise, you'll see a big difference in size. Ent. is way, way more wider and bigger in height than Voyager.

Well put

 

[Praxius]

Hey guys,

New poster, but a long time reader.

I was recently reading up on the USS Voyager and the Intrepid Class ship. When comparing the specifications of the class to other ships, like the Galaxy class, I noticed that the size of the ship seams a little off to me.

The crew compliment of an Intrepid class ship is 150 to 200 crew members. Which is vastly smaller than that of say a Galaxy or Sovereign class ship, with standards of 750 to 1000 crew members.

When watching Voyager, I new these facts in my mind, and so therefore I always envisioned the Voyager as a much smaller ship than the Enterprise D.

The issue arose when I read that the Voyager is more than half the length of the Enterprise D, at the 344 meters. In my mind this scale seams a little off compared to crew compliment and storage needs.

Does anyone else have an issue with this or has it been discussed in the past?

Considering the Intrepid isn't as tall as the Galaxy class, no, it doesn't bother me much.... and considering it's not as wide as the Galaxy class, it's length seems appropriate.

Large Image so I won't IMG tag it:
http://www.strekschematics.utvinternet.com/fleetchart/mainfleet/mainfleetfront.jpg

^ As you can see, the Intrepid's width and height are mediocre compared to the Galaxy, so the crew compliment seems to make sense to me.