Do you prefer the hulking majesty of a Galaxy class, the sleek curves of an Intrepid class, the retro-futuristic Constitution or something else?

I've grown quite fond of the Danube class runabout. Small, agile, warp capable, and weapons. Most of the amenities of a larger ship in a smaller package. Where the large ships are like flying cities, the runabouts are more like space RVs and the quadrant their open road. There's just something more personal about them that appeals to me.

Absolutely loved the design of the Enterprise D at the time. And still do.

Loved the Enterprise E when it came out in the movies.

Also quite fond of pre-Burn Discovery’s "retro-futuristic Art Deco" style. *

And DS9.

Not yet a fan of the new ships in Academy; it’s like they were made without much thought of function, but made only to look more alien.

(*) fixed my terminology

Also quite fond of pre-Burn Discovery’s "retro Art Deco" style.

I almost added "retro Art Deco of the Crossfield class" to my examples but wasn't 100% sure that was right. Thanks for confirming lol. But definitely love the style of it.

And yeah, I'm still warming up to the detached nacelles of the 31st 32nd century ships. I'm assuming it makes sense in-universe, but my brain is still trying to figure out how.

retro art deco

I’m no expert though that’s how it appears to me, though I just realized I should have written: "retro-futuristic art deco"…

The detached nacelles, I can somehow live with it, but those weird curves and lack of windows on most new ships are just too off for my brain… it’s like they were made only in CGI with no physical models were ever made, which feels kinda "wrong" and unpractical… as an example, comparing the Enterprise D in Picard season 3, vs in the series and movies. As much as they try, it’s just not the same.

However, the new Academy ship feels mostly okay with me—aside from the Atrium protruding under, which feels is missing something…

Also quite fond of pre-Burn Discovery’s “retro-futuristic Art Deco” style.

There are dozens of us!

Something about this post makes me think you would enjoy playing Endless Sky

Oh, nice. Never heard of that but will definitely give it a go.

I'm not versed in the arts, but going by this definition of art deco:

the principle that various simple geometric shapes like triangles and squares are the basis of all compositional arrangements.

Sovereign class is my favorite.

I miss Lower Decks :-(

Hands down the Sovereign class for me too. First time seeing it in First Contact on the big screen was so damn amazing.

having played star trek online its hard for me to not want ones from the game especially the romulan ones and due to capabilities. Going strictly by the shows its hands down the bird of prey like they stole in star trek 4 of the toss movies. EDITED - ooh ooh. I like the thought of the next gen romulan space using the void space in the middle for fighters that would have an airlock type of dock and wanted the game to do a carrier like that but canonacially it was never fashioned that way. Some nice drone ships from the movie docked in there.

Growing up while Voyager was still showing new episodes, it was the Intrepid class (24th century) until the Crossfield class showed up. When I saw the first teaser for Discovery, I thought she was the oddest looking ship that I had ever seen, but she QUICKLY grew on me. I loved her 31st century version as well.

I thought she was the oddest looking ship that I had ever seen, but she QUICKLY grew on me.

Like the Triceratops of starships. Hopefully that Jurassic Park reference makes sense.

I really just want the Aventine Vesta-class.

Refit Constitution class.

That scene with that music in Star Trek TMP was easily the best one in the whole damn movie. Seven year old me was entranced

While the Galaxy and Sovereign classes do indeed look big and tough, the Constitution hints at it with restrained elegance. As her Chief Engineer might say, "she's a bonnie lassie".

I always liked the Excelsior class. (Judging by the replies, I might be the only one!)

The Excelsior-class was was the peak of Star Trek ship design, and it's been all down hill from there.

Gut instinct says Excelsior, but Lower Decks modernized it beautifully with the Obena class.

Love the Excelsior, love the Intrepid, feel somewhat obligated to love the Constitution, and for a left field pick, remembee the Olympic class, Crusher's ship from the future in All Good Things? ugly at a first glance but it quickly grew on me, I love the orb "saucer" section

I really like the pre-Federation Vulkan ships. They're so elegant looking.

Ooh, yeah. I always forget about the circular nacelles on Vulcan ships. They do have a certain elegance to them.

the runabouts are more like space RVs and the quadrant their open road

Eagle 5 has entered the chat.

The Pasteur's spherical saucer section always made me think of the Discovery from Space Odyssey.

LOL. As far as how I'd like to spend my retirement, that's definitely in my top 3.

I’m assuming it makes sense in-universe, but my brain is still trying to figure out how.

In "Scavengers", right after Discovery gets her refit, Saru says, "even her nacelles are now detached, improving maneuverability and enabling us to be more efficient in flight."

I found this pretty puzzling, but it eventually dawned on me that the explanation is probably seen most clearly with Book's ship. There are a few times when we see his ship rearrange itself on the fly to navigate the many, many debris fields present in the post-Burn galaxy - it looks like the detached bits let them dodge debris without actually changing their course or speed.

We do get a glimpse of Discovery doing something similar late in season 5, when they ram their way into the Breen dreadnaught - the nacelles tuck themselves up and behind the saucer, reducing the ship's profile.

I'll go for a deeper cut and say the Nova class. Small, purpose-built, and pretty cool-looking.

Good catch. I knew Book's ship did the fancy, in-flight reconfiguration but never caught the Discovery refit using similar capabilities. Guess it was a subtle thing I just missed.

Edit: The other "how" I'm still struggling with is how the detached nacelles receive the warp plasma from the core. Is it more efficient to just do a continuous transport of warp plasma? Are there many, distributed warp reactors in each nacelle/throughout the ship? I long for the technical manuals on these newer models lol.

Excelsior
Sovereign
Steamrunner or Akira
Defiant
NX Protostar
Dauntless
Prometheus

I actually like the runabout and wonder how many would fit in the Galaxy or Intrepid class shuttle bays.

That closely fits within the definition.

I don't have a satisfying answer for that one - wireless power transfer is NBD in the TNG era, so maybe it's just an extreme version of that?

Reno once had a line about replacing the warp plasma conduits with "polaric" ones, so maybe they don't use plasma at all?

But the Athena seems to, so 🤷

maybe they don't use plasma at all?

Never even thought of that. There was a lot of dialog and plot points about finding alternatives to warp after the Burn, and we know they still use dilithium as a regulator, so I assumed they're still using the same M/A reaction as before. But it's very possible they extract the energy from the reaction in completely novel ways now.

Was just assuming the same way as we've always known because (checks notes) the nacelles still light up blue lol.

I'm partial to the Vesta class.

Had to look that one up and recognized the USS Aventine from ST: Destiny. Definitely looks like a cool ship. Assuming the models of it are from ST: online?

If I had to choose, it would always be the Galaxy-class. <3

Damn that’s tough. I’m theoretically watching DS-9 right now, so either the USS To Little To Late AKA The ooooo it’s got guns we never fire… or any of The Kardashian ships because they remind me a bit of Captain Nemo’s sub in the Disney version of 20kl Under the Sea. Which is my jam… if you can’t get behind James Mason and a singing harbor seal then you need to rethink your life.

I’m just presuming a Kilo League is a metrical unit, and I’m just going to leave Kardashian as is because it made me laugh. Somebody needs to AI up a picture of one of their ships with a big zipper in the rear 😝😵

Yep

Not sure if it's my absolute favorite, but I have always been unusually impressed with the creative design of the D'Kora class:

A Ferengi ship? Interesting choice!

TIL that I've always been looking at them backwards. I always thought the curved section was the front.

feel somewhat obligated to love the Constitution

I love the design of golden age scifi and I love how the constitution class is like the perfect bridge between sleek atomic era and whatever you want to call the more detailed aesthetic in the 70s.

Excelsior class? Why in God's name would you want that bucket of bolts?

Probably more than you think, remember we never actually saw the full interior of the Ent-D's main shuttle bay. It's massive.

Kardashian ships

😂🤣

Oooh, that's a good angle. The Ferengi definitely get some unique looking ships.

Firefly

Came here looking for this and found it right at the top, where it belongs.

Shiny.

Ever read the comics by Dark Horse or BOOM!? Gf9 board games? Fluxx, Shiny Dice, and a few others out there too.

I'm a sucker for the USS Defiant (NX-74205)