Worst Starfleet ship design

[LutherSloan]

Since we already have a best Starfleet ship thread, I figured that we needed one for the WORST ship design.

I have to go with the Oberth-class. It doesn't fit in at all with the rest of Starfleet designs, and it's ugly regardless. It barely looks like a starship.

Second place belongs to the NX-01, for obvious reasons. It just doesn't evoke the grandeur of the more original designs from earlier series.

I have also never been a fan of the blocky design of the Danube-class runabouts. Same goes for the 'Jenolen' type shuttlecraft, or transports. The Delta Flyer design was much better than both of those.

Another dishonorable mention goes to the Intrepid-class, proving that ST's designers were starting to run out of ideas by the time they had started working on DS9. The Centaur-class (I believe it's called), was also uninspired, and seemed like a 24th century Miranda.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

I never liked the Intrepid-class, personally.

The NX-01, on the other hand--I don't see what was so awful about that. Of course it's not going to evoke visions of grandeur; the thing is a prototype, like everything else about humanity's endeavors in the stars at that point. It fits the show and the time period it's in.

 

[LutherSloan]

I never liked the Intrepid-class, personally.

The NX-01, on the other hand--I don't see what was so awful about that. Of course it's not going to evoke visions of grandeur; the thing is a prototype, like everything else about humanity's endeavors in the stars at that point. It fits the show and the time period it's in.

I suppose, but I can't shake the feeling that it's closer to the Civil-War ironclads than to Kirk's Enterprise in design.

 

[prometheuspan]

personally i like the runabouts and the shuttles. And the cute little science vessels--- well it was hard to figure how you'd get from one hull to the other...??
But other than that i thought that was a pretty kewl ship. Me personally?
I think the defiant is about the lamest ship design and also, the lamest excuse
for design choices (armored warp engines? WTF?)

But hey, I could give you an engineers running list of headaches for any of them. All of those two nacelle ships going around in circles because the thrust
is off from center of gravity- just to start.

 

[Unicron]

I would think the Nebula class is more of a 24th century Miranda, since the Centaur is clearly a movie-era design.

 

[ShinRa Actual]

If the Akira hadn't been around, NX-01 wouldn't have been too bad, but it it still didn't jive right with me.

Besides that? The four mismatched nacelle Nebula prototype comes to mind, and some of the DS9 kitbashes

Centaur wasn't that bad for a kitbash, except for the Rollbar cheat (basically a Excelsior derivitive of the Reliant, like the Nebula was derived from the Galaxy). I'm fine with those derivitives, as they generally come off as cheaper but mostly capable ships to round out the fleet.

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

I'm gonna have to go with the NX-01. The catamarans kept their upward curve, but the nacelles were moved up, the ends of the catamarans were tapered to a ridiculous point, which ended up making it look unbalanced. Also, I'm a annoyed by the idea that EVERY Federation Starfleet ship would be based soley on HUMAN design principles. WTF happened to IDIC? Did the Utopia Planitia engineers become specist (xenoist? somebody help me out here?) or something? Something familiar, yet different could have easily been designed. In fact they did design something perfect for that: The Conestoga.

2nd place is gonna have to go to the Sovereign. Sure the shape is great, but the hull decals are ridiculous, there are windows in places I don't even wanna think about, and the huge impulse engines look really akward from above.

 

[judge alba]

not too keen on the oberth myself the design doesn't seem right some how, but the worst would have to be the ent 'b' i mean having those massive impulse engines hanging off the back of the saucer kind of ruined the excelsior.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Not a fan of the DS9 Defiant or the Voyager.

 

[JoeZhang]

Always the winner for me

 

[Jono]

The Galaxy class.

 

[Space Cowboy]

My first pick would be the Oberth-class, followed by either the Yeager-class or the runabout.

 

[Jon1701]

Never liked the nebula class.

Just looks...off.

 

[Pindar]

I have never liked the Galaxy Class

 

[cbp44189]

Definitely the Yeager and Oberth.

 

[Rÿcher]

Always the winner for me

totally! All of the so-called Shelley class ships...

 

[LutherSloan]

Yeager-class? Isn't that the Saber class?

 

[drasche]

Always the winner for me

Agreed. It looks so wrong, you cannot imagine Starfleet ever designed that.

Yeager-class? Isn't that the Saber class?

Definitely Yeager class

 

[JNG]

The DS9 kitbashes are disasters as real starships, but fortunately we didn't get much of a look at 'em and I tend not to assign them too much importance.

However, the Oberth-class *has* gotten some significant close-up screen time, and while it looks "cool" and different enough from what had come before to indicate its different purpose, it is also a flawed design. It just isn't possible to move between the two hulls at the intended size, and this is a serious problem within the Trek universe that should have been noticed. I am not sure if the later scaling of the design was intended to correct this, but it created its own set of problems and I can't accept it to the degree it was shown (which, on occasion, would have left an Oberth-class ship larger than a Constitution-class ship--clearly not the original intention). I'd thus have to name it as the "worst," but only because a bunch of neat components were arranged in a problematic way.

 

[Haytil]

I think the defiant is about the lamest ship design and also, the lamest excuse
for design choices (armored warp engines? WTF?)

What's wrong with armored warp engines? They seem pretty vulnerable otherwise - and warp engines are your only sure way of escaping a fight you know you can't win (probably something pretty common for a small ship intended for war). You don't want to find yourself suddenly outnumbered, with no way out, simply because someone got the jump on you and fired one or two lucky shots at your engines before you could react.

But hey, I could give you an engineers running list of headaches for any of them. All of those two nacelle ships going around in circles because the thrust is off from center of gravity- just to start.

We've never seen rocket exhaust or anything coming OUT of the warp engines, so it's logical to think that they use some other method for propulsion that would make this concern irrelevant. Especially given, you know, the fact that it makes the ship move FASTER than light.