star trek ancient battle cruiser

Star Trek: TNG's Booby Trap Put The Enterprise In A Classic Trek Problem

In the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode "Booby Trap" (October 30, 1989), the Enterprise-D discovered — floating in a vast asteroid field — an ancient Promellian battle cruiser, a ship that had been built 1,000 years earlier. Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) mentions that the cruiser was engaging in space battles when Earth was barely perfecting the crossbow and that he — an archaeology buff — used to build models of similar ships as a boy. The Promellians, he explains, were once engaged in a costly and prolonged war with a species called the Menthars. The Promellian/Menthar war entirely wiped out both species a millennium ago, and derelict ships from the conflict are quite rare indeed. 

"Star Trek" typically espouses a pointed pacifist philosophy, but one might find that the franchise also contains numerous characters who are fascinated by the history of combat and antique weapons of war. It's telling, however, that a battleship is merely a disused artifact in this universe. 

When the Enterprise approaches the Promellian battle cruiser, however, all of its systems begin to randomly shut down. The power is draining from the ship and no one knows why. The engines shut off and the Enterprise is stranded. Communications go down, leaving them unable to call for help. Most notably, the shields drop, letting in lethal doses of mysterious localized radiation. If the Enterprise cannot escape, the crew will die and the Enterprise will be left derelict as well. 

Only Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton), the ship's engineer, can solve the problem.

"Star Trek" is, of course, set in a far-off future where technology is friendly, widespread, and used to benefit the quality of life throughout the galaxy. Starships are equipped with weapons, of course, but most of the shows' stories center instead on their propulsion, communication tech, food replicators, shields, and holodecks. Society has adapted to advanced technology and has become reliant on it. "Booby Trap" presents Trek's future society with a major problem: What happens when said tech fails on you? And how does an engineer — a man who lives for technology — solve a problem with as little tech as possible? 

This is a classic "Star Trek" conundrum, one that forces characters to question the role of technology in their lives. We can rely on it, yes, but "Booby Trap" proves that it may not always be reliable. Sometimes, Geordi will eventually discover, a more human touch is required. 

By the show's third season, the writers of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" developed a clever teleplay-writing template that allowed them to broadcast their theses in the very first scene. At the start of "Booby Trap," Geordi is seen on the holodeck with a woman named Christy (Julie Warner). They're on a date, and it's not going well. Geordi has used his engineering acumen to program the perfect simulated beach scene, the perfect simulated drinks, and a simulated itinerant violin player. Christy rejects all of it and leaves the date, claiming fatigue. All the technology in the world couldn't help Geordi generate honest romance. 

Audiences see right away that technology will not be the answer. That theme will lurk in our minds for the rest of the episode. Kudos to credited screenwriters Ron Roman, Michael Piller , and Richard Danus. 

Dr. Leah Brahms

The Enterprise crew eventually discovers that an ancient booby trap had been set for the Promellian battle cruiser, a booby trap located in the nearby asteroids. The trap sucks energy out of a ship, then redirects it back as harmful radiation.  Any energy expense is almost instantly drained. Geordi has to find a way to speed up the ship's energy relays so that he can power the engines before they can be drained. In order to study the engines that closely, though, he has to study the way the Enterprise looked right when it was built; in the last few years Geordi has made a lot of engine alterations on the fly. 

Geordi, then, recreates the design lab where his ship was first conceived on the holodeck. To help him out, he creates a simulated co-worker in the form of Leah Brahms (Susan Gibney) , the Enterprise's chief designer. Geordi and the simulated Leah brainstorm incessantly and come up with several possible solutions, but each one fails. When things look dire, they have their Eureka moment. If they shut down every system on the ship — including life support — and fire the Enterprise's thrusters for a short burst, they can use mere gravitational inertia to drift out of the asteroid field. Sometimes, Geordi says, you have to shut it all down. 

It wasn't technology that solved the problem, but a basic knowledge of physics. Indeed, Picard — eager to contribute — ends up piloting the Enterprise himself, steering it out of the asteroids, and even harnassing the gravity of one of the larger asteroids, to slingshot the ship to safety.

The fate of the cruiser

Many Trekkies have noticed a glaring issue with the denouement of "Booby Trap," however. Once free of the radiation field, the Enterprise is instantly able to power back up again. Picard got to harness gravity like an old-school space sailor, Geordi learned a lesson about reliance on technology, and even fostered a romance organically; it wasn't about creating a simulated environment, but developing a mutual passion for his organic interests (in the case of Geordi and Dr. Brahms, engineering). And, yes, the irony of the episode is that Dr. Brahms herself is a simulation. That simulation, incidentally, will get Geordi in trouble when he meets the real Dr. Brahms in season four. 

The glaring issue, though, is when Picard says to Riker ( Jonathan Frakes ) that no one should be drawn in by the Promellian battle cruiser again. Riker orders that the ship be destroyed, and Worf (Michael Dorn) blows it up. Many viewers winced at the ship's destruction. It is, after all, a 1,000-year-old relic left over from a lost civilization. Surely it should be preserved for valuable anthropological research. Indeed, wouldn't the archaeology enthusiast Picard want to keep it intact? Why can't they put out a warning buoy instead of destroying the whole ship? It feels like a massive waste. 

But considering the symbolism of the Promellian ship, destroying it made sense thematically. It was a holdover from a destructive ancient war, still possessed of the ability to kill. In a pacifist "Star Trek" universe, such a ship has no function. The memory of war is being destroyed, and battlefield technology is being put aggressively in the past. Practically, the Promellian ship should have been preserved. Dramatically, it made perfect sense to blow it up. 

The Everlasting Klingon Battlecruiser

The situation has changed with VOY: "Prophecy" and especially ENT: "Unexpected". The battlecruisers that appear in these two episodes ignore (or retcon) visual evidence from TOS, and extend the lower limit for the life span of the K't'inga design to as many as 225 years.

Screen Evidence

The model eventually built for the third season lacked the kind of fine details and the sophisticated lighting the original USS Enterprise model already had. In particular, the hull of the Klingon ship was completely smooth, without visible paneling. The color was the same gray used for the Enterprise, but only for the upper surfaces, while the rest of the model is a grayish green.

The designation as D7 was never mentioned in TOS, but first appeared in the Star Trek Encyclopedia I as a supposedly official designation. Ironically, the most prominent appearance of the D7 miniature was not even as a Klingon ship, but as the Romulan ships of Klingon design in "The Enterprise Incident".

Star Trek I

Considering that we never saw a very detailed view of the TOS ship (also because there are just not many details!), it may have been possible to claim that the K't'inga was the very same type of ship as the D7 (where D7 may be the Federation designation instead of the obviously Klingon name K't'inga). This interpretation, however, was only an option until DS9: "Trials and Tribble-ations" clearly showed us a newly built D7 by Greg Jein, without all the K't'inga modifications except for the hull panels. Since then it is clear that there is supposed to be a difference indeed.

Star Trek VI

There is, however, one more obvious difference: the plasma in the nacelles of the Kronos One from "Star Trek VI" shines cyan inside and outside, where there is no shine in TMP. On the other hand, Miranda-class ships suddenly have glowing nacelles since DS9 too. It seems to be much a matter of preference whether the Kronos One is essentially the same as every other K't'inga, or rather a variant. We actually don't know how the plasma flow in Klingon ships is controlled. It is possible that, unlike it seems to be on Federation ships, the nacelles are not lighted all the time.

The K't'inga appeared in TNG a few times where the ship was shown as obsolete. The first times in "Heart of Glory" and in "The Emissary" were stock footage from TMP. During early TNG, the Bird-of-Prey was supposed to be the most advanced and most powerful Klingon ship, although the design can be at most a few years newer than that of the K't'inga. This was emphasized by the sometimes awkward upscaling of this ship type. In their role as capital ships, both the K't'inga and the BoP seem to have been eventually replaced by the Vor'cha that didn't show up until fourth season's "Reunion". The K't'inga, on the other hand, temporarily disappeared at the same time.

The plasma in the nacelles of the DS9 K't'ingas shines again, first green and later cyan as on the Kronos One. The absence or presence of the shining plasma, as already hinted at above, is not necessarily a sign that it is a class variant. The different color may point to a class variant though, although two variants at the same time would do anything but facilitate explanations.

Also, in "The Way of the Warrior", we see K't'ingas fire disruptor beams from the very forward end of the command section where the photon torpedo tube is supposed to be located since TMP. This may either be taken as a sign that the ships were refitted to extend their life spans, or it is just another error that we may decide to ignore. Even the Enterprise-D once fired the phaser from the torpedo tube in TNG: "Darmok", which was fixed for TNG-R.

DS9: "Trials and Tribble-ations"

The DS9 episode is actually the only time this design is called "D7" on screen (whereas a second mention in VOY: "Prophecy" refers to the wrong model). The first conclusion we need to draw is that the D7 and the K't'inga are meant to be two distinct designs. Otherwise Greg Jein could just have taken the K't'inga model. Secondly, with small exceptions, this homage to TOS demonstrates that we need to take the visual evidence from TOS seriously. We can't just ignore it and pretend that everything actually looks different (although this would have facilitated the forehead problem a lot).

VOY: "Prophecy"

The ship in "Prophecy" may be actually a D7, maybe a variant that bears a certain similarity to the K't'inga (especially in the bow section that can be seen very clearly), considering that we have never seen a detailed D7 anyway. Alternatively, Tom may be simply mistaken, if we don't want to ignore the K't'inga.

Update notice Mike Sussman, co-author of VOY: "Prophecy" along with Phyllis Strong, tells EAS: "I was reading your 'Everlasting Klingon Battlecruiser' article, and wanted to explain the discrepancy (to the best of my knowledge) in the Voyager episode, 'Prophecy.' As the co-writer on that script, I was the one who dropped the D-7 designation into the dialogue. I knew at the time that we'd seen Greg Jein's D-7 in 'Trials and Tribble-ations' and I assumed the optical department would simply reuse that model. That's what I get for assuming things! When the episode aired, I was surprised to see the movie-era Klingon ship. I believe that by Voyager's seventh season, all the effects were computer generated, and to my knowledge, a CG version of Jein's D-7 did not exist, and it would have cost a fair amount of money to design one in the computer. Had I been aware of this, I would have simply changed Tuvok's line to 'The tetrion readings indicate it's a K't'inga Class cruiser.' And obviously, Tom's line about the D-7 being retired decades ago would have had to be changed as well."

ENT: "Unexpected"

In a similar fashion as already the Voyager episode where the D7 became the K't'inga, "Unexpected" denies that there was ever a difference between "old" and "new" battlecruisers, as we are clearly shown that there is only one design (variant) for 225 years. In this respect, it is also sad that Enterprise does not bother to pay respect to TOS the way DS9: "Trials and Tribble-ations" skillfully did.

Update notice In Star Trek: The Magazine the issue with the battlecruiser in "Unexpected" was explained: "As Rob (Bonchune) explains, John Eaves had designed a new Klingon ship specifically for this scene. 'It was kind of the same shape as the original Klingon battle cruiser; just a little more primitive. The way John had done it was very much like the original series one, so it had very few windows, and they were small and red. So, when I dropped the ship into the scenes that we had worked out, you couldn't see that it had windows. At the time, it never dawned on me that this would be an issue, but I understand why it is, because in STAR TREK if there are windows they are obvious.' The producers saw the model only a few working hours before the show was due to be delivered. They decided it could only be used with major changes, but after their work on Broken Bow the team was simply too exhausted to work through the night in a desperate attempt to get the shots ready. Instead, the producers made the decision to use an old model. 'We wound up going back to a version of the Klingon ship that had been built for DEEP SPACE NINE,' Mitch (Suskin) says. 'But that particular type of Klingon ship will not be used again, because they decided that it just didn't fit into their vision for this universe.' Rob admits that, he for one, is sorry the old ship was used, but acknowledges there was no alternative. 'As a fan I really regret that that ship is in there, but people were just working too much. After Broken Bow, everyone had already worked so much overtime'." - Apology accepted! Thanks!

ENT: "Judgment"

This episode introduces us to what we can see as a "true" Klingon battlecruiser of the 22nd century, namely the D5. This ship type had been mentioned in DS9: "Once More Unto the Breach" by Kor as an outdated cruiser. Whilst it is pleasant that a fitting ship was designed, unlike it was the case in "Unexpected", the two unfortunately look too different to be the same design.

TOS Remastered

Star Trek (2009)

Explanations

There is no solution that would allow us to explain all visual evidence and all dialogue. To start with, should we accept that a capital Klingon ship could remain substantially the same for 225 years? The common explanation in fanon is that Klingons are warriors, as opposed to engineers who would more likely frequently come up with new ship designs, is insufficient in my view. Warriors need always the best weapons. Even the good old bat'leth may have been improved several times using new alloys, and the same likely applies to ship hulls. The Klingons are not Hirogen, they want to win a battle and not have the thrill of fighting a superior enemy with traditional hunting rituals (or outdated ships). They are eager to get the new holotechnology in "Unexpected" as well as they quickly adopt cloaking devices prior to "Star Trek III", so it is implausible that their ships should always stay the same.

Moreover, Klingons are at war more or less all the time. They frequently lose and need to replace ships, much rather than an organization of peaceful exploration. When they require new ships anyway, wouldn't this be a perfect opportunity to redesign them? There is even canon evidence for this notion, since T'Pol says, "There are many classes of [Klingon] ships." in ENT: "Sleeping Dogs". During TOS, the Klingons were clearly on the same technological level as the Federation, which makes a lot of sense since it was supposed to reflect the Cold War in the real world. At that time, the Soviets and the Americans kept the balance of power by developing new horrible weapons and countermeasures almost in parallel. It doesn't seem that the Klingons were very busy to develop anything new from 2151 to the end of the Cold War if they are still using up their old rust buckets.

If we believe in the visuals of VOY: "Prophecy" and ENT: "Unexpected", we would have to ignore that TOS/TOS-R and DS9: "Trials and Tribble-ations" showed us a reasonably different ship type, which may have been a predecessor of the K't'inga. If one ship class in service for 225 years is already implausible enough, why should a second ship, very similar to the other one, exist either in parallel for at least 100 years (if the D7 was already in the time of TOS) or only for a short period (which would imply that the D7 was a complete failure and that the fairly new ships were scrapped in favor of a design that was already 120 years old)? Even if we seek the explanation in different ship yards or different Klingon houses building similar yet distinct ships, we would still have trouble with the fact that there were either only D7s or only K't'ingas in what we have seen of the Klingon fleet. Like with the Klingon forehead problem too, this would ultimately require that we ignore the visual evidence in the least "relevant" era (which would once again have to be TOS, as sad as it is).

It is still possible that the Klingons have been building the same basic ship hull with only minor modifications through the centuries. Maybe the Klingons, who were never fond of scientists, generally gained access to new technologies by conquest, and with this strategy they may have hit the wall some time in the 22nd century. Maybe it is a traditional hull shape and there was no need to alter it even as the technology became more advanced. On the other hand, in chronological order we have first seen the K't'inga on Enterprise, then the D7 in TOS and then the K't'inga again, and I wouldn't like to pretend that either the K't'inga predated the D7 or that they are all the same anyway. Maintaining the idea that the battlecruiser is a traditional basic design that didn't change too much in 225 years, it will be best for technical plausibility to respect the difference between D7 (23rd century) and K't'inga (23rd/24th century), and have one design that predates both of them.

In the case of the Klingon battlecruiser I am glad that the people in charge care so much about their job and also about technical continuity. Mike Sussman tells us that the ship we were intended to see in "Prophecy" was the D7. Moreover, the article in Star Trek: The Magazine clearly recommends to ignore the exact look of the battlecruiser in "Unexpected". The ship we were supposed to see is a yet unseen older design. In this light and with the above findings in mind, I think there is no point in making up convoluted explanations why a ship from the 22nd century should look exactly like one from the 24th century, whereas there are variants of the class that exist for only a small fraction of the more than 200 years. Enterprise made up for the error by introducing fitting ships, such as the D5 as a genuine 22nd century battlecruiser. But the ship in "Unexpected" looks so much like the K't'inga and so little like the D5 that it still needs to be explained.

• Firstly, we may posit that Tom was wrong in "Prophecy" and that what he called "D7" was actually an (early) K't'inga, of which many are obviously still in service towards the end of the Dominion War. Maybe an old power or weapons signature (as we would expect these systems to be upgraded while the hull may remain unchanged) led him to the wrong conclusion. There are variants of the K't'inga, but the nacelle color isn't necessarily a sign of their age, as we have seen dim nacelles, cyan nacelles and green nacelles over the decades at random. If Tom was simply mistaken here, we wouldn't have to ignore the appearance of a K't'inga even twice. On the other hand, it wouldn't complicate the issue if we simply followed Mike Sussman's intention and imagined to see a D7.
• Secondly, and this is the more important postulate, I think that we ought to ignore the appearance of the battlecruiser in ENT: "Unexpected". Since this is the very same model with even the very same nacelle color as ships that still take part in battles 225 years later, it must have been a much older, yet similar class, not a K't'inga. Although it would alleviate the issue of life spans a bit and would fit with the supposedly old ship in "Prophecy", it should not be a D7 either, as it would cause even more problems to reconcile this with the visual evidence from TOS and DS9: "Trials and Tribble-ations" that clearly shows a different ship. The "Unexpected" ship would much better be still another and much older class, such as the battlecruiser designed by John Eaves and built by Rob Bonchune.

These two suggestions allow us to maintain the D7 as an older variant or rather a predecessor of the K't'inga. It would also provide us with a reasonable design lineage of Klingon ships from what I call the "battlecruiser type" (the design of Eaves's and Bonchune's D4 but perhaps named D6), over the D7 to the K't'inga. The D5 from ENT: "Judgment" may be a different type of battlecruiser of roughly the same age as the unclassified ship. The presumable design lineage is summarized in the following table.

Klingon Ship Classes - from all eras

Starship Gallery - D7 & K't'inga

Thanks go to Daystrom Institute Technical Library , where I found some more facts and suggestions, and to The Guardian of Forever and Neutral Zone Starship Database for some of the screen caps. Thanks also to Kris Olinger , Tony Midyett, Markus Glanzer, Theron Williams and Daniel Rooth for suggestions. Special thanks to Mike Sussman and Mike Okuda.

https://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/articles/klingon-battlecruiser.htm

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Designing the Klingon Battle Cruiser

Matt Jefferies designed the Klingon battle cruiser for the episode “Elaan of Troyius”, although it first appeared on screen as a Romulan battle cruiser in “The Enterprise Incident”. It was updated for The Motion Picture , when it became the K’t’inga .

Jefferies told Herb and Yvonne Fern Solow for Star Trek Sketchbook that he designed the Klingon ship at home. “There was just too much going on at the studio from morning till night.”

Since the Klingons were the enemy, I had to design a ship that would be instantly recognizable as an enemy ship, especially for a flash cut. There had to be no way it could be mistaken for our guys. It had to look threatening, even vicious. So I modeled it on a manta ray, both shape and color, and that’s why it looks as it does in The Original Series .

The ship’s design was perfected by a sketch dated November 20, 1967. It was then sent to American Model Toy Corporation, “and they returned a master tooling model which we used in the show.”

The original model for what was called the D7 was given to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. “I’m assuming it’s still there,” Jefferies said, “along with the Enterprise .”

Movie upgrades

The Star Trek: The Motion Picture upgrade, called the K’t’inga , was built by Magicam and measured 6 feet in length. More detail was added to the surface, so it looked more credible on the silver screen.

“We attempted to stay as close to the TV series version as possible,” Andrew Probert recalled in an interview with Starlog 32 (March 1980, My Star Trek Scrapbook has the full interview ), “but after running some camera tests we discovered that an additional level of detail was needed for widescreen photography.”

We painted it a darker color. I’ve always liked the idea of a black spaceship — which would have been impractical for this movie; so we came up with a dark military green. I had an idea that was carried out beautifully by Ron Gress. Ron painted a giant Klingon symbol on the underbelly of the ship. It was a revision of the old Klingon symbol.

The model was updated again for Star Trek VI , when William George and Mark Moore of ILM added epaulets to the top of the hull.

“It was one of the few models we could alter to look new for this show,” George told Cinefantastique 22.

After we did some research into military costuming, we came up with the concept that when these ships return victorious from battle, the Klingons build some sort of epaulet onto their wings. We added these golden etched brass epaulets, based on some of the helmet designs we’d seen. It looks very regular and contrasts nicely with the Enterprise when they’re seen flying together. The Enterprise is smooth, monochromatic and cool while the Klingon ship is adorned, ostentatious and warm.

Storyboards

These storyboards were published shortly before the release of The Motion Picture , when little was known about the plot. They depict the opening sequence.

Initially the scene would have featured V’Ger bursting from the blackness of space, attacking the Klingons without any apparent provocation. Later it was decided the Klingons were to be the aggressors, attacking V’Ger as it moved through Klingon territory on its way to Earth.

When Douglas Trumbull took over special effects on The Motion Picture , Probert was asked to contribute to the design of the Klingon cruiser’s bridge.

“Doug wanted something like the interior of a Japanese submarine,” Probert recalled; “he wanted a bridge suspended between big shock-absorbing supports, with mechanically operating stations for the crewmen.” As Trumbull put it, the interior of the battle cruiser had to look like “an enemy submarine in World War II that’s been out at sea for too long.”

Probert’s conceptualization of what lurked beneath the battle cruiser’s distinctive primary hull helped define the Klingon style for the rest of the Star Trek franchise.

Later upgrades

A new model of the D7, called the IKS Gr’oth , was built by Greg Jein in 1996 for the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode “Trials and Tribble-ations.” While referenced, but not seen, in the original version of the episode, the model features an amalgam of detail from both The Original Series model and the K’t’inga . It bares a pale green coloration, in line with future Klingon vessels.

Yet another model of the Gr’oth was created for the 2006 remastered version of Star Trek , this time digitally. Mike Okuda explained to Ex Astris Scientia that the ship came in two types:

In early episodes, when it was very small on the screen, it was the original version of the ship, which had essentially no surface detail. In “The Enterprise Incident”, “Elaan of Troyius” and “Day of the Dove”, the ship was reworked somewhat to add surface texture. And, of course, in “The Enterprise Incident” we added the Romulan bird markings.

Fascinating article. Lots of great background information. I thought I should let you know that the photo of the forward bridge section titled “Photograph of The Motion Picture model courtesy of John Eaves” is actually a photo of the model modified as Qu’onos I for Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country . There were many changes made to the model at that time; notably large amounts of photo etched brass trimming and gold paint detail. Obvious in the photo is the modified bridge dome (dust red, and wider with a more flat top) and the photo etch surrounding the photorp tube at the front. The whole model was given a different color scheme as well, incorporating shades of red, brown and gold trim detail.

It’s worth making the distinction that, though the Klingon battle cruiser did indeed first appear in “The Enterprise Incident” (as a Romulan vessel, no less), its design was first slated for “Elaan of Troyius”, an episode produced prior to but which aired after “Incident”.

Thanks! I didn’t know. I’m updating the article accordingly.

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Star Trek: The Next Generation

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• Cast & crew
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• Episode aired Oct 27, 1967

Very alien visitors to our galaxy attempt to connect with human consciousness but miss, winding up tapping into the regions of human nightmares instead. Very alien visitors to our galaxy attempt to connect with human consciousness but miss, winding up tapping into the regions of human nightmares instead. Very alien visitors to our galaxy attempt to connect with human consciousness but miss, winding up tapping into the regions of human nightmares instead.

• Joseph Pevney
• Gene Roddenberry
• Robert Bloch
• D.C. Fontana
• William Shatner
• Leonard Nimoy
• DeForest Kelley
• 34 User reviews
• 12 Critic reviews

• Captain James Tiberius 'Jim' Kirk

• Mister Spock

• (as Theo Marcuse)

• (as Mike Barrier)

• Transporter Chief
• First Witch

• Second Witch
• Third Witch

• Crewman Jackson
• (as Jimmy Jones)
• Lieutenant Hadley
• (uncredited)

• Lieutenant Leslie
• D.C. Fontana (uncredited)
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Did you know

• Trivia The voices of the little creatures in the final scene are the sounds made by newly-hatched alligators calling for their mother.
• Goofs The initial landing party makes no sense. Kirk almost always leads the landing party himself. The planet is seemingly uninhabited and has sparse plant life. If he doesn't go himself, he would send Spock with a team of professional scientists with a heavy concentration in geology and meteorology. Instead, Kirk sends an engineer, an amateur botanist, and a command-track officer. Not a blueshirt in the bunch.

First Witch : Wind shall rise.

Second Witch : And fog descend.

Third Witch : So leave here, all, or meet your end.

[wailing witches cackle and vanish]

Captain James T. Kirk : Spock. Comment.

Mr. Spock : Very bad poetry, Captain.

Captain James T. Kirk : A more useful comment, Mr. Spock.

Mr. Spock : What we've just seen is not real.

Captain James T. Kirk : That's useful.

• Alternate versions Special Enhanced version Digitally Remastered with new exterior shots and remade opening theme song. Highlights include a wider establishing shot showing the entire castle, not just the front door.
• Connections Edited from Star Trek: Where No Man Has Gone Before (1966)
• Soundtracks Theme Music credited to Alexander Courage Sung by Loulie Jean Norman

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• Rainey-Dawn
• Jan 8, 2017
• October 27, 1967 (United States)
• United States
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• Runtime 50 minutes

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Published Oct 11, 2013

Guest Blog: Designing the Avenger Class Battle Cruiser

Since the war with the Klingon Empire began, Starfleet engineers have been working on ship designs intended for battle as well as exploration. One of the designs to come out of this effort was the Avenger Class Battle Cruiser.

When we started to design the Avenger, we knew it would be a combat vessel, but it wasn’t an escort. It needed to be smaller than a standard cruiser, so it could be more agile, but still be a ship that could take some hits and survive.

That sensibility influenced the visual aesthetic of the Avenger. This is a gunship. Taking the 2409 Federation design of traditionally elegant sweeping lines and pushing it toward a more combative style was one of our biggest challenges. The Avenger needed to look aggressive, but still like a Starfleet vessel.

We first started by really increasing the “battlefield” feel of the Avenger. It has visible, modeled hard points for all of its weapons. The windows are inset to give them a more protected, armored look. The deflector dish is rectangular, which gives it a stronger feel. The neck is thicker, which makes the ship look a little chunkier and more ready for combat.

But, because this is still a Starfleet vessel, we couldn’t go completely combat with it. So we used influences from the Akira (the protected bridge) and the Odyssey (split neck and saucer/hull integration) to make the Avenger look like an iteration of Starfleet design, and not something completely new.

We’re really pleased with how the Avenger turned out, and we hope you’ll be flying one into battle soon! More images and information on the Avenger Class Battle Cruiser, including stats and abilities, can be found in this Dev Blog . Additionally, it is now available in the C-Store.

See you in-game!

- The STO Ship Team

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Heavy cruiser

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A Constitution -class heavy cruiser

An Ambassador -class heavy cruiser

In starship classification , a heavy cruiser was a large multi-purpose starship .

While the Federation considered their Constitution -class starships to be a Class I heavy cruiser in their heyday, the Klingons referred to the Constitution II -class , in their terms, as a battle cruiser . ( Star Trek III: The Search for Spock )

Ambassador -class starships were also classified as heavy cruisers. ( TNG : " Conspiracy ")

In an alternate timeline , the Ambassador -class was simply referred to as a cruiser . ( TNG : " Yesterday's Enterprise ")

Curiosity -class starships were identified as heavy cruisers. ( PIC : " The End is the Beginning ")

The Emerald Chain flagship Viridian was identified as a heavy cruiser-class starship in 3189 . ( DIS : " The Sanctuary ")

Appendices [ ]

Background information [ ].

The term "heavy cruiser" was first used in the shooting script for Star Trek: The Motion Picture for describing the Klingon K't'inga -class starships.

It was used later for an on-screen display of the Constitution -class, which was from the Star Fleet Technical Manual , and it was spoken in reference to the Ambassador -class.

According to the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual , the Akira -class , D'deridex -class , Jem'Hadar battle cruiser , Keldon -class and Vor'cha -classes were all referred to as "heavy cruisers".

In a dossier for the alternate reality USS Enterprise , her class, the Constitution -class , was classified as heavy cruisers. [1]

External links [ ]

• Heavy cruiser at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• Heavy cruiser at Wikipedia
• 2 ISS Enterprise (NCC-1701)