GALAXY Class Refit Concept 2

A concept for the refitting of the GALAXY class.

(One of the most significant areas of detail addressed in this version are the nacelle struts. I had toyed with changing their shapes before, but here I actually gave some thought to reconciling the dorsal and profile views, and likewise, to how it would alter the visual impression of overall proportion.)

Around the time of — but originally unrelated to — the USS Galaxy Admiral's Bridge project phaeton99.deviantart.com/art/U… , I was considering how the GALAXY Class might be updated to meet the standards of the current setting timeframe as represented by Enterprise-E.  The consideration was spurred by a fleeting idea for a bit of fan fiction in which the current Enterprise meets its massively refit predecessor from an alternate future timeline (inspired by a vague notion about the survival of Picard's nephew, who would appear as the Captain of this ship)  in which it was Kirk, not Picard, who emerged alive from the tangle with Dr.Soren, and due to a quirk of circumstance, "D" was never destroyed... a story idea that never quite gelled for a variety of reasons.  The notion of refitting the GALAXY Class, however, seemed worth pursuing, regardless.

I compiled a list of the all sorts of prospective alterations — from such minor details as SOVEREIGN-type lifeboats, an enlarged impulse deck, a new bridge module, and Defiant-like Captain's Yacht;  to major component changes like new nacelles, a potentially deepened keel and a reshaped neck — and arbitrarily applied them mentally to what had long been my imagined "personal" ship of the class, the "USS Millennium" (or alternately, "Millennia" — and yes, the Captain's yacht is called the "Falcon", of course  ), with the idea that this latter-day GALAXY might be built from the keel with these new attributes. 

Ultimately, I conceived of the list as also representing a major refit program for the Class as a whole and dubbed it the "Millennium Refit" after that vessel.

It was about a year ago (2008) that I began to try putting these ideas into practice, starting with the more major changes.

Above is one of several quick experiments testing variations on the look of the new neck I had envisioned:  more aggressively raked than the original, repositioning the saucer a few decks lower on the vertical axis and slightly more forward. (note the inset profile comparison).

This particular idea was an old one, dating back to my first impressions of Enterprise-D back in 1988.  I thought the ship looked too awkwardly duck-like in profile and thought it would be improved with a more swan-like neck that thrust the primary hull forward, making for a sleeker form.  I later became accustomed to Ent-D's proportions, but the idea endured. Prior to the new experiments, I had never used actual GALAXY components to test its merits.

Engineering-wise, reconfiguring the neck would not be an unreasonably complicated alteration of the space-frame, even though it would significantly alter the appearance of the ship, since neither the attachments to the saucer nor engineering hull would be significantly changed (though the lower mounting ended up significantly wider here to accommodate the thickening of the neck).  The argument for doing so might be high warp efficiency or impulse maneuverability; or be related to some aspect of the new engines installed.

I added an armored collar around the main deflector — just barely visible here — inspired by a production study model for the TNG Enterprise that featured something of the sort (see p.71 of The Art of Star Trek, 1995 edition).

The saucer grid has been completely reworked to de-emphaisze the radial symmetry of the hull, and better differentiate the forward sections from the aft. I tried to give both the impression of armor platting and a subtle suggestion of wings — not in the Romulan sense, but rather as a different way of conceiving of the spread of the wide elliptical hull in an era of more dart-like ships.

Not visible on the schematics is a concept for the main impulse exhausts (which is now the saucer units, not the smaller engineering hull ones): in addition to the large vents topside, a set of smaller ones would appear on the underside of each unit, allowing direct thrust to be vectored more easily across a wider arc. This is an idea that struck me soon after noting that Enterprise -E's impulse decks seem to lack a clear mechanical means to direct impulse thrust at a low angle.

I'm still toying with the idea of integrating some sort of warp nacelles into the saucer for separated operation, either as submerged structures or extendible — but I have yet to come up with a satisfactory solution.


Alternate Concept