Worst Starfleet ship design

[Red Ranger]

The Defiant wasn't one of Starfleet's ships that was designed in order to look good. It is purely a warship designed to fight the Borg (although it only did it once). It's just fine as a weapon of destruction, but I don't give it negative points for looking like an ironclad ship.

Its designed to look muscular...can't argue with those aesthetics! No its not graceful, but man it can pack a punch. The A-10 Warthog of the 24th century.

Man I can't believe how many people hate the Akira. Its such a graceful design. I would easily put it in my top 10.

RAMA

Yeah, the Akira-class is OK. It reminds me a bit of the Miranda-class, which I like for two reasons: it's simple design; and resemblance to the 23rd century Romulan Bird of Prey. -- RR

 

[roguephoenix]

all of you will probably hate me but the least apealing ship for me is the ncc 1701. i don't know another ship i wouldn't rather have before it. just looks too plain, too blah, too... sterile. it has the features meant to be sleek (at the time, i guess) yet it doesn't look sleek. sure it's iconic and everyone probably loves it. i just can't bring myself to think, "wow that's an awesome looking ship." the only reason i would ever have one is if it was a gift. not really a fan of the original series.

>_< *ducks for cover*

 

[Swarles Barkley]

I never liked the Galaxy class. Everything seems out of proportion on the outside (oversized primary hull, teensy warp nacelles). And the entire interior looks like a generic Holiday Inn somewhere near the New Jersey Turnpike.

 

[payndz201]

I like the Defiant... but I like the original design even more. (The DS9 Companion shows the sketch from which the Defiant evolved; it was originally a Bajoran fighter. It's more menacing and thuggish-looking than the final design.)

As for horrid designs... the Intrepid was the worst of the 'hero' ships by far, as it looked boring from almost every angle, and had a hunchback and puny little out-of-proportion warp engines to boot. The Enterprise-B modification of the Excelsior was fairly hideous too: the additions didn't blend with the rest of the ship, and it was obvious that they'd been stuck on just so that they'd have something to blow apart without wrecking the expensive model.

The Nebula was a design which at first looked cool - a more compact Miranda-style version of the Galaxy - but when you actually saw the details turned out to be rather an awkward botch-job. Didn't both the main impulse engine and the main shuttlebay point right at the pylon supporting the mission pod?

 

[Trekker4747]

I like the Defiant... but I like the original design even more. (The DS9 Companion shows the sketch from which the Defiant evolved; it was originally a Bajoran fighter. It's more menacing and thuggish-looking than the final design.)

As for horrid designs... the Intrepid was the worst of the 'hero' ships by far, as it looked boring from almost every angle, and had a hunchback and puny little out-of-proportion warp engines to boot. The Enterprise-B modification of the Excelsior was fairly hideous too: the additions didn't blend with the rest of the ship, and it was obvious that they'd been stuck on just so that they'd have something to blow apart without wrecking the expensive model.

The Nebula was a design which at first looked cool - a more compact Miranda-style version of the Galaxy - but when you actually saw the details turned out to be rather an awkward botch-job. Didn't both the main impulse engine and the main shuttlebay point right at the pylon supporting the mission pod?

As far as I recall, the Nebula has no obvious impulse engine.

But, yeah, the main shuttlebay opens up to the pod's pylon. Which, I guess you can just steer around it or, I guess, no one just parks in the middle of the shuttlebay.

 

[butch101]

The Galaxy class still feels odd to me. The Enterprise-J is totally awful.

I miss those days where the Constitution, Miranda and Excelsior ruled !

Butch

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

Actually the Nebula doesn't have the center impulse engine, and yes there are impulse engine details on the back of the saucer, but the VFX shots never showed it lit for some reason. The physical model wasn't that bad of a kitbash. The saucer has fewer windows and a substantially different rim, the engineering hull is scratchbuilt, as are the pylons. It only became a straight-up kitbash for the DS9 CGI shots.

 

[The Caretaker]

I've no idea what class it is, but my vote goes for that ship that Crusher was captain of in All Good Things... It looked like a ping-pong ball with nacelles stuck to it.

 

[startrekfiero]

all of you will probably hate me but the least apealing ship for me is the ncc 1701. i don't know another ship i wouldn't rather have before it. just looks too plain, too blah, too... sterile. it has the features meant to be sleek (at the time, i guess) yet it doesn't look sleek. sure it's iconic and everyone probably loves it. i just can't bring myself to think, "wow that's an awesome looking ship." the only reason i would ever have one is if it was a gift. not really a fan of the original series.

>_< *ducks for cover*

Hey now...thems fightin' words right there

 

[Saga]

i liked the Enterprise J. *shrugs* never cared for the Oberth class at all though.

 

[LutherSloan]

I've no idea what class it is, but my vote goes for that ship that Crusher was captain of in All Good Things... It looked like a ping-pong ball with nacelles stuck to it.

Olympic-class. It still beats the Daedalus class, which was basically what it evolved from.

 

[Chaos Descending]

all of you will probably hate me but the least apealing ship for me is the ncc 1701. i don't know another ship i wouldn't rather have before it. just looks too plain, too blah, too... sterile. it has the features meant to be sleek (at the time, i guess) yet it doesn't look sleek. sure it's iconic and everyone probably loves it. i just can't bring myself to think, "wow that's an awesome looking ship." the only reason i would ever have one is if it was a gift. not really a fan of the original series.

>_< *ducks for cover*

Yes, I hate you now.

And I want you to die of flea bites.

 

[FalTorPan]

The Enterprise-E is my least favorite starship design.

As for the DS9 kitbashes and the Borg-battling ships from First Contact, they weren't designed with the same level of scrutiny as a "hero ship" or a "major guest ship," so I cut those designs a lot of slack.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

I don't like the Constellation Class or Yeager Class.

 

[MIB]

Any and all of the kitbash designs easily fit in the "worst design" catagory. Of course the REAL question is; which ones are worse? the kitbashes of DS9 or TNG? The Curry and Centaur models are pretty bad. But do they stand up to eye sores like the Cheyenne, Freedom, and Challenger designs?

As for ships that actually got some screentime- the top of my "worst design" list would probably be occupied by the Oberth, Constellation, Norway, and Danube designs.

I would consider the best deisgns to include the Olympic, Nova, and Excelsior models.

But in the end this consideration only reminds me of a pet peeve I've always had with Trek. That is the rediculously long line of unique hull designs starfleet utilizes. Is a completely unique design really necessary for the slightest difference in the specifics of a mission profile? Why not have just a "science vessel" type, a "warship" type, a "long range exploration" type and so on with "under the hood" differences if specific objectives were required?

 

[Sector 7]

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.

Honestly, I thought that's what the designers WANTED--for us to be able to relate the design more to things seen in our time than things seen in the shows further in the future. This is consistent with the inside set design: look at a control panel on the NX-01 and it should evoke the inside of the space shuttle or an Apollo capsule. Look at the uniforms and you should think of a flight suit from our time much more than you'd think of anything else you'd see in the series. Even the way the characters speak sounds more like the 21st century than the hyper-refined speech of the 24th century. To me, it all comes part and parcel.

It seems I'm almost alone on this, but from where I stand, I thought there was a lot of attention paid to coming up with a good hybrid between the 21st century and 23rd.

I agree with you. I think the NX-01 design fulfilled its purpose well.

I keep telling myself those designs aren't real, and that those ships never really existed.

Ummm... they are not real. They were created for a television show by humans in this (or actually, the last) century, who were in turn trying to envision the far future.

As much as I love Star Trek and understand the instant recognition factor... the separate saucer/ nacelles/ cigar design isn't logical. Voyager at least kept the saucer attached to engineering making it much easier to get from one to another. Vectoring nacelles... well that's a whole other story.