You May hate me for this....

[Alyeska]

oh yea the E-D is toughter, Watch Nemesis and watch all the consoles explode as in TNG the consoles rarely did.

Meaningless statement. The E-E took higher levels of abuse then the E-D ever did and survived unscathed. The first flight GCS had major warp core problems (reference the Oddessy, Yamato, and Enterprise). On the other hand the E-Es warp core has shown itself to be very stable as well as the ship having Ablative armor and Regenerative shielding. Something the Galaxy class has never had before.

[TurboPhaser]

Eh? The E-E has armour? I've never spotted it.....

[Alyeska]

Eh? The E-E has armour? I've never spotted it.....

Federation armor isn't something you spot quite like that. You spot is based on how it mitigates damage from other ships. In Nemesis when the E-E took hits directly to its hull from either torpedoes or disrupters the damage was only localized and there was very little splash damage. The armor was ablated away and prevented nearby shock damage from taking out the rest of the ship. Furthermore the NDF affects of the weapons were almost non-existent. Compare that to the damage patterns taken by the E-D in Generations where there were massive explossions on the hull and the hull plates bulked.

[Raoul Duke, Jr.]

You know, when I first started corresponding with Mike, I had a similar hangup. Combat-oriented starships are ugly. No question. The Daedalus was ugly, and -- according to speculation -- was a combat design created in response to the Romulan War. The exploration and defense-focused Constitution, while it has character and history, is not an aesthetically pleasing design, either. But they're not supposed to be pretty -- in a design that takes durability, range and capability as its three primary design foci, aesthetic considerations are simply unimportant.

[Death from the Sea]

I can't believe that the Akira class is considered to be a fan favourite, because I recently saw a detailed 5-view of the CG model. Frankly, I think it's an ugly piece of shit.

Well then you are in a very small minority. The Akira is stunning in its looks. A very refreshing design.

Actually I agree with Spanky The Dophin on the Akira looking crappy. The Akira just has bulges like a dead bloated animal all over making it look well... bloated. And I don't like the way the nacelles are put on, but on the other hand I do like the way the NX-01 Enterprise is designed(far as looks go) it is much more pleasing than the Akira.IMHO. I only mention the NX-01 because people constantly cry about it being a copy of the akira class. But I like the upwards sweeping nacelles better.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

http://www.lcarscom.net/fsd/art/images/da-7.jpg

What I really don't like is how it looks from the bottom, with that ugly slapped on hull section to the saucer. I also don't like how it looks like two different ship designs from the top and the side.

Again, I think it's ugly.

It actually looked better when they rehashed it as the NX-01 for Enterprise.

[Alyeska]

Personaly I like several of the views from this page.

http://www.lcarscom.net/fsd/art/akira.html

[Death from the Sea]

See like I said we agree Spanky.

Actually if you look at the Akira class, the underside of the saucer section looks like they attached the bottom half of an engineering section right onto the bottom of the saucer. Any one else see that or is it just me?

[Peregrin Toker]

The Akira looks OK. Too bad we didn't see it go all out against the 3 Romulan Warbirds in Message in a Bottle.

It was outnumbered by several of the heaviest battleships in the Alpha Quadrant. What did you expect?

[Peregrin Toker]

The Akira looks OK. Too bad we didn't see it go all out against the 3 Romulan Warbirds in Message in a Bottle.

It was outnumbered by several of the heaviest battleships in the Alpha Quadrant. What did you expect?

What a missed opportunity for us to see it's 15 photon torpedo launchers in action.

Now that would have been a splendid sight!

[Frank Hipper]

See like I said we agree Spanky.

Actually if you look at the Akira class, the underside of the saucer section looks like they attached the bottom half of an engineering section right onto the bottom of the saucer. Any one else see that or is it just me?

Of course. That's part of what I like about it, an almost organic blending of the traditional structures into something that's new, yet recognisable.

[Raoul Duke, Jr.]

I liked the Akira at first, but the novelty's worn off for me. The new designs, IMHO, are getting just plain b'fugly -- anybody care for a steaming pile of Steamrunner?

And I can't figure out why I don't like them -- they're definitely more sensible than the Galaxy, but they're just... they look like they were designed for the Aliens movies, not Star Trek. That's kind of okay in its own right, but they should still be somewhat recognizable as Trek designs.

[Raoul Duke, Jr.]

oh yea the E-D is toughter, Watch Nemesis and watch all the consoles explode as in TNG the consoles rarely did.

Meaningless statement. The E-E took higher levels of abuse then the E-D ever did and survived unscathed. The first flight GCS had major warp core problems (reference the Oddessy, Yamato, and Enterprise). On the other hand the E-Es warp core has shown itself to be very stable as well as the ship having Ablative armor and Regenerative shielding. Something the Galaxy class has never had before.

Add to that the fact that we saw the E-D explode several times in one ep due to impact on its port (?) warp nacelle, and the E-E was rammed head-on into another starship and survived. Definitely a difference in durability and survivability factors in the two classes.

[Death from the Sea]

Add to that the fact that we saw the E-D explode several times in one ep due to impact on its port (?) warp nacelle, and the E-E was rammed head-on into another starship and survived. Definitely a difference in durability and survivability factors in the two classes.

While I completely agree with the fact that the Ent-E is way more tough than the Ent-D was, you also have to consider what parts of the ships were hit. The Ent-D was hit on a nacelle, which has all of the power of the warp core fed into it so it would be logical for it to be a bit more explosive. As compared to the Ent-E hitting the front quarter of the saucer section, which for the most part is just labs, crew cabins, ten forward and that kind of stuff. If I am remmebering correctly the Ent-E did have a piece of one of the Valdore class warbirds strike it, that would be a better comparison.

[Alyeska]

If I am remmebering correctly the Ent-E did have a piece of one of the Valdore class warbirds strike it, that would be a better comparison.

Indeed, and it didn't phase the ship worth a damn. The Sovereign class has vastly superior shielding and armor then the Galaxy class ever had. Even with the damage the USS Galaxy absorbed at Chin-Toka it still had massive hull damage. The E-E never took more then a few hull scorch points in Nemesis.

[Superman]

Personally I don't care how much stronger the E-E is, I still like E-D more. But, the E-E is obviously more advanced than E-D... I still like the E-D more...

[Uraniun235]

While the Soveriegn is technically a superior starship, with the right upgrades and proper usage of internal space the Galaxy could be made into an even more fearsome starship by virtue of it's greater size.

I personally find the Galaxy to be my favorite TNG-era starship; the Soveriegn is okay (great, even, in the right perspective) but it fails to communicate the majesty that the GCS projects. Of course, chronically bad writing (and/or directing) has made the GCS into a cow of a combat vessel, grr. I also have a special spot in my heart for the Ambassadors.

And, touching on the Akira issue, I personally find almost all of the newest Starfleet designs to be ass-ugly, including Norway, Steamrunner, Intrepid, and yes even Akira. Frankly, if it's so fucking easy to load up a ship like that with so much torpedo firepower that it can take on a GCS (yet, strangely, we don't see a fraction of the supposed firepower when we see it fire torps in FC... hmm...) why the hell haven't they incorporated similar designs into other starships? Why is Starfleet's top of the line vessel still so badly undergunned in comparison to that little bag of torpedoes they call an Akira? Frankly, I feel the Akira and the Scimitar with their absurd weapon mount counts in comparison to other ST designs are vaguely fanboy-ish... and given the Scimitar's striking resemblance to the Dominion capships, I've not got a lot of respect for the people designing models at Paramount about now.

The E-E never took more then a few hull scorch points in Nemesis.

The result being a disabled warp drive (on the second shot, no less!), no phasers, and near-worthless impulse engines. This all with the E-E's shields having come into full play, and I don't ever recall anyone saying "The shields have failed". Sorry, except for the core failure, and that should have been solved with a core ejection, the E-D took more apparent damage (UNSHIELDED, even!) and was still operable. And the core failure could have been avoided with merely a better warp core assembly... not anything so extensive as whole new weapons systems, armor plating, or supertechnobabble shield generators.