(109)The Starships of Project Galaxy 

This take on how "history" views the Galaxy project makes a lot of sense... in hindsight, putting families and kids on any starship is just about the dumbest thing any organization could ever do... that's like putting a family on board a naval aircraft carrier or battleship that's assigned to patrol the waters of countries whose relations are uneasy with your own... it's just begging for trouble.

I think the Galaxy Class ships seen in the Dominion War should have been refit to have the 3-nacelle dreadnaught configuration. That would have been awesome!

I love the TNG "Galaxy Project" Ships: Especially the Galaxy, Nebula, and the New Orleans Class are amazing ships (design and story wise). At least in my headcanon, the New Orleans Class also continued service well in the 2380s and maybe 90s (modular Missions Pods for the win).

I love all the TNG-era ships and for my money, the modified Enterprise-D dreadnought is the single coolest ship EVER.

🖖😎👍Very cool and very nicely well done and very well executed in every detail way shape and form and very informatively explained with everything possible provided to you as well on the Galaxy class and all it's variations of set class indeed!,👌.

The Galaxy Class; the chariot of my childhood and dreams! I love her design so much! If I were given command of a Starfleet vessel of my choosing, it would be a Galaxy Class; for her flexibility, accommodations, stance, and gracefulness, aswell as her disposition against the Dominion, with much unlocked potential!

I may have well been born into the Navy as my earliest memories are of like in and around a Naval Air Station so life about a military vessel for families just seemed like a very bad idea to me when TNG first premiered. While Picard was a highly stylized ideal of a military man, Jellico (I think that was his name) was much more in line with what kind of officers I grew up around and what I have found typifies the mentality of those that hold the rank of Captain. In other words, great to have your back but not the best kind of guy you want in charge of a ship full of families in a hot zone. I do appreciate your take on the reality of Starfleets' hubris in the Galaxy Class. It's a bitter pill, but realistically, just not feasible.

Even 'in show' the Galaxy Class was called a 'cruise ship'. It's a cruise ship with strong shields, several guns and a highly advanced torpedo delivery system, but behind all that it's a cruise ship / giant science vessel. War was clearly an afterthought, and the Galaxy Class was designed more as a utility vessel than a warship. I'm glad you didn't 'curse' the design, even in the 25th Century I could imagine Galaxy and Nebula classes around... as exploratory and utility vessels. The idea of families on board in due to long voyages makes sense. A sign of an expanding Federation and far flung frontiers. Doubtlessly faster propulsion tech will both alleviate the issue but eventually bring it back. Being years from home might just be the lot of a member of Starfleet. I am something of a fan of the New Orleans class, even with its mountings for torpedo / sensor pods. It looks like a fast and deadly design, but the 'add-on' appearance of those pods does suggest a lack of the central design. I suspect that the Ambassador class design had its problems and triumphs. In many ways, size not least, the Ambassador is a larger jump from the Excelsior than the Galaxy is from the Ambassador. I could imagine that it was the laboratory where technical issues were ironed out. Even its name suggests that it was intended for deep space exploration. It's chunky design suggests a physically tough ship, for all its scale, the Galaxy looks rather refined. I don't know if the Ambassador ought to be considered a failure as it was the THE heavy cruiser of its time; but it's true that it very rarely was seen. Very likely the Ambassador was a lot of resources for not enough reward? But the Galaxy Project might be said to have been 'doubling down' on a 'bigger is better' philosophy?

For myself, I love the Cheyenne class of lead-up design the best. Something that is lost out on when it comes to the Galaxy-class is that you have a powerhouse vessel as is in the stardrive section, a fact that was pointed out by a Klingon, a race known for its keen eye for such details. It's the saucer where this class ends up being a mixed bag. It's all well and good in peace time but as the Odyssey found out the hard way it's as useful as an anchor chained to a featherweight boxer. Quite honestly Captain Keogh probably would have been better served to of left the saucer, along with the families of the crew, docked at DS9 and gone in floating like the proverbial butterfly and not the floundering whale she ended up being. To meet the demand being placed on Starfleet to come up with a means to fight the Borg and later the Dominion using the Galaxy-class vessels already built would best be served by creating a warp-capable tactical saucer for each of these individual ships and storing them at the nearest spacedocks. Not only would you have a ship with Sovereign like fighting capabilities made ready in short order but you'd also have one heck of a station defense craft sitting hot and ready waiting on a crew to take her out. It's a win-win.

Look forward to the rest of your Project Galaxy Beta series. Thanks for making Beta universe more cohesive than Alpha universe!

The Best of Both worlds pt 1 and 2 was and still is one of the greatest "Crossroads" that any tv series has had. However i feel that the incident with the Borg was a slap to the federations face .......and it stung! But that sting began to fade over time as starfleet built ships and systems to deal with the Borg. It was only during the Dominion war when Starfleet got a kick to the knackers with steel toe-capped boots. Having said that....the TNG generation of starships will always be "iconic" of that time period and i still have great affection for the Nebula class.

The Galaxy Class is my absolute favorite ship class! its a powerful as seen in the Dominion War one shotting a Galor Cruiser in Sacrifice of Angles. im so happy you finally did a video of one of the most iconic starships in Star Trek.

Ironically, most of Enterprise-D's missions were within already mapped Star systems. With a few exceptions, like Triangulum Galaxy (M-33) I assume by the name of this channel, your home Galaxy..... :D

Looking forward to these next videos on the project Galaxy classes

The Galaxy and Nenula Class are my favorite.

aka project kitbash. Love it.

The New Orleans is probably my favorite from this era, and I wish we had gotten to see more of it. I wish some of these ships had been rendered and used in the fleet shots for the Dominion war. I love the Miranda, but I think the fleet representation was abysmal.

Another excellent video. I do like the design style of these ships. Nice story of why Starfleet made these ships.

Ohhhh boy. If they only knew my starship design idea!!!!!

A good way to see the shortcomings of the "Galaxy" project and Gene's ideas being more fantasy then reality!

I always loved the GALAXY class,she had alotta bugs to work out.But during the War that Class showed it was top tier and earned respect

I love that you did something other than TOS era. Great video!

The testbed for a new series of videos, who couldnt ask for more? And a rather surprising one for me especially being Project Galaxy too so what a way to watch on my day off a nice video with a cuppa. 1:54 I love the impulse engine on the Enterprise C (Thats the registry on the ship anyway) being blue in this video, I am sure I read somewhere that the impulse engines on the ambassador class were originally going to be blue but were changed for some reason for the standard red, now I red this back when I was in college so that was at least 18 years ago now as I remember reading about it when i was taking a break from studying for my science exam at home. What I always had a personal laugh at was that the Enterprise D seemed to spend quite alot of time going back to starbases after a single knock in a battle at the end of episodes, it was like are they gonna actually be exploring the unknown or keep going to starbases for a little repair and respray, the galaxy class is meant to be out there and have a competent crew that are capable of fixing the ship on th ego, not go to a starbase facility after a little tussle with an attacking vessel, it was like in comparison someone getting a new car then as soon as you go over a bump in the road them taking it to the garage to get looked at. The galaxy class is meant to stay in deep space and on exploration missions foro years on end, thats why they are kitted out for such things with supplies etc and can be resupplied by the workhorses that are the excelsior class ships anyway. The only case I can think of is that Picard wanted his ship to look fresh and new being the Federation flagship, and you would think that all the time it spent at a starbase it would have been updated more often and would have been able to have better defences against a 20 yeard old bird of prey with self modulating shields after the first attack blasted through the ships shields in Generations, afterall they did it with the Borg, I would have thought it would have been a standard tactical programme to self modulate shield frequences, but then again I am no starship offense and defence technician. The Galaxy class will always remain in my personal top 5 of favourite starships I will find fault with every starship to go alongside their positivies as well, I mean they looked pathetic throughout TNG but when DS9 brouoght the Dominion war, we saw the Galaxy class get beefed up and become very effective in fleet battles, as I am sure that what was they were intended to do in defence of the Federation, but in the TNG era seemed to be a joke with the loss of the Yamato early on and then later on the Enterprise D, and they were 2 of the original 7 built, then the loss of the Odyssey in The Jem'Hadar, that hit home to me, though the ship could have used a better tactical officer for one and used its torpedoes that might have helped a little but still the class got a beef up and survived alot more. The idea of having families live aboard the ship with you is commendable but there must be something in the small print when they sign up about possible fatalities in the family when having them onboard with you that Starfleet is exempt from blame in these circumstances as serving on a starship is no real picnic really especially on a Galaxy class when they are gonna be the ones on the frontier of Federation space and going into the unknown. The New Orleans class is another ship I like, the marker pen cheraper alternative to a full sized Galaxy class, it is a huge pity we never saw this ship in action, its a lovely design. I arent sure if I remember correctly when Q flung he Enterprise to their encounter with the Borg 7000 light years away Data reports it would take around 2 years and 7 months, give or take a few days, to get to the nearest Federation facility and I think that was at their maximum warp whould would be I think warp 9.6. Come to Voyager and 70,000 Lightyears and that tripi will take 70 years and their warp drive is far more efficient and can go to warp 9.975. Wolf 359 will always be a mystery, Admiral Hanson says he managed to get a fleet of forty ships for the attack and 39 vessels were destroyed so what happened to the 1 surviving vessel, what class was it, what was its name, how did it manage to escape, that is a msyery for another time perhaps... A lovely video and some lovely shots as well, thankyou so much kind sir Peace and Long Life

A little bit of Star Trek fun… I think you mean A LOT of fun. Love your vids, always a lot more than just a little bit of fun. :)

Lets see, favorites of the project; Uprated Galaxy, Nebula and New Orleans classes.

Another wonderful video!! I always, always! Look forward to seeing them in my queue... my favorite class of ship is the Nova class! With some upgrades to the warp core and the weapon systems I think it would be a very good class of ship! Whenever I imagine myself a captain in Starfleet, it's always on another class ship albeit with many many upgrades!

I would still love to think that even with the upgrades the Galaxy class would be mostly relegated to large troop transport duties or evacuation missions. This is to allow the newer classes to be able to have their place in the sun with regards to other Major missions. Just as I imagined The Excelsior class being used to (currently) do ceremonial, very specific, or special transport duties for officials, ambassadors, and admirals. Actually, of all the classes of Starships from yesteryear that I would want to continue for as long as the next Century after Picard it would be the Galaxy and Excelsior classes. They give a sense of classic continuity. I love the foundation for this class as you lay out. I also love the references to the needs and desires of the Federation and the civilians. As a side note , when we think about all the different actions and Wars we tend to forget about the opinions of the civilians and how they would have a say in how the Federation-their federation- behaves in the future. (I wish the Admiral at the beginning of Picard would have explained this a little to the X Admiral as a reference to the occasional trauma that truly shakes up this powerful yet ultimately delicate Society of willing planets.)

I really like the Galaxy class especially the Dominion war refit it's always been 1 of my favourite Federation Starship classes

Interesting. I remember thinking when TNG came out the Galaxy class was absurd. In theory it sounded good but space is dangerous and unpredictable.

"I have sworn eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man". From the bridge plaque of the USS Yamato NCC-71807. UFP

I like the story you have created to this time period and I agree with it. The Galaxy Class is my all time favorite Starfleet vessel but I have to concede that its encounters with the Borg were less than inspiring. One would have thought that given the hazardous nature of long range exploration Starfleet would have invested some time and credits in upgrading The Galaxy class offensive and defensive systems. Look at all the Constitution ships that were lost 80 years earlier. As Teddy Roosevelt said (Speak softly but carry a large stick!) 😉

Wow very nice Video. Thank you very much for so much Information

Great video! Looking forward to the series.

The Galaxy class is one of my favorites I think it's a fantastic ship

I liked the Nebula Class configuration most from this era.

To me the ships introduced in the final years of the 23rd century, especially the Sovereign class will forever be my favorites. Even though I admire the idea of essentially cruise liners combined with mobile embassies in space, I am glad Starfleet finally remembered their true purpose of being the Science and Military organization of the Federation. Imagine Starfleet continuing their Galaxy design philosophy into the times of the battle of Sector 001... That sure would have been another disaster waiting to happen, and if not by then due to the potential assimilation of Earth and many local populations loosing all faith in Starfleet, possibly even segregating from the UFP, surely by the outbreak of the Dominion War, the Federation would have fallen within a matter of months.

If there's a bunch of TNG class videos coming, presumably that means New Orleans class? I am so excited for that one

Well, Deep Space exploration would require basically a mobile Star Base which is what the Galaxy Class is. It wasn’t designed for heavy duty Military Combat. And the complacency of Starfleet and the Federation Council to put all their eggs into one basket. Bad move as Wolf 359 was Starfleet’s Pearl Harbor and their complacency wake up call. The Dominion threat was just around the corner and the new ships and upgrades stepped up to the plate. Never have a “Fleet” without having capital battleships to specifically defend the Federation from threats from without. Even the Constitution Class tho designed as a scientific and exploratory vessel it was designated a “Heavy” Battle Cruiser.

Project Galaxy reminds me of League of Nations, the Washington Treaty, and actually believing WW1 was “the war to end all wars “

The Maraschino cherry drive system nacelle s started showing their age in the ambassador class.

It seems that the universe class of the enterprise J is an extension of this project but with that focus on the future that project Galaxy didn’t have.

Great Video! Are you saying Q helped us! Lol

I thought the Project Galaxy-class ships were ridiculously large. With such automation in the 24th Century the crew could easily number about 60 - 100, and why do they need dozens of shuttlecraft, some of which are huge. If you need to have lots of civilian accommodation the answer is obvious - have separate accommodation ships.

I really enjoyed this narrative, and it fits well with the overarching story of the 24th century Starfleet. It just pains me to consider the notion that the Galaxy class could be considered a failure in this light. Easily my favourite starship class in Star Trek.

It seems to me that, after Picard season 3, Starfleet has indeed become complacent again in its ship design/philosophy.

I'm surprised we didn't see a variant of the Galaxy class that basically omitted the saucer section, and instead had a much more modest one with the necessary extra fusion reactors and impulse engines...

Indeed!!

Ironically they had the right ideas but too relaxed and complacent. Which as you said led to the almost complete destruction of The Federation. I like however how it led to some of the best Starships and classes that I ever enjoyed becoming enamored with since "Wolf 359".

This seems... uncharitable. Q's point was that humanity was not prepared for the Borg; and more "battle focused" starships faired little better. The ability of the Borg to adapt quickly, in part due to their expansive knowledge, is one of their greatest attributes... and one mirrored in the Federation ships most effective against them - the Enterprise D and (ugh) Voyager; each of which used science and knowledge gained through exploration to counter, even "corrupt" the Borg from within... while all the Defiant did was hit hard. Might I point out that the Breen energy weapon wiped out dozens of starships, including the Defiant, and it was a single Klingon Bird of Prey that accidentally survived? Dumb luck because the ships attacked were military vessels, not exploration vessels capable of solving such problems.

More of a large country town in space - up to 1014 crew people and families.

What was really needed was a greater push by the Federation to court, and eventually integrate more "aggressive" races and starships into it's inventory. Klingon/Federation hybrid ships showed great promise and were quite deadly in battle. So more advanced technology integrated into the D7, Vor'cha, Q'ong, and Kahless battle cruisers could have turned the tides of the Borg war, and after only the Iconian War and the discovery of the Iconian/Solanae Dyson Sphere was VERY advanced tech available to all three major powers (Federation/Klingon/Romulan Republic). The Federation suffered like we are suffering now, with the "oh everything is peaceful and ok, we don't need no silly military or defense". While our rivals are modernizing their militaries and are threatening to overtakes us. THIS almost cost the Federation it's very existence, what do you think this is going to do for Democracy of the 2020's? This should be a warning to those who think peace requires no effort or fortitude to maintain. Well, it does and only the most vigilant and prepared prevail. Both now, and in the future.

it would've been cool if the galaxy X was more a thing by the dominion war along with a galaxy version of the new orleans class or even a hybrid of the two looks

Well first of all when TNG came out in the late 80's very much disliked the Galaxy class, then after years of watching it's the first ship that comes to mind when anyone says Star Trek.

The galaxy is great show of what starfleet and the federation was but it lacked the ability to be a force to be reckoned with I enjoy how the federation is after the dominion war being more tactical yet still what the federation was before Off topic I like how the federation evolves and though I don’t like 32nd stuff and Earth not being in the federation but that aside starships in part could be more organic in design and hulls kinda grown and heals I do miss the look of ships that said and showed they are federation and starfleet Like when you see a federation ship romulan klingon Borg cardassian you know them right away

Biggest Oof in Starfleet history "Lets bring families and civilians into a battle against an invading alien species where there may be risk of annihilation"

I think it's sad that they didn't upgrade the new Orleans class

You could do like a Nx Project with the Nx Classes varients or the Constitution Project with its variants.

My head Cannon has the Galaxy class as well as several variants captain Starfleet until the 2460s alongside the sovereign and defiant and intrepid classes. Excelsior and Miranda class ships too are used in 2460s however they are mostly used for training and or patrol duties with the Miranda's being mostly used as either training vessels and or torpedo boats. This is due to several treaties Starfleet designed after the Dominion war as well as several other conflicts. These treaties were done in hubris which almost cost Starfleet the game when a conflict with the romulans began. The catalyst of the conflict could be traced back to the Shinzon And the Remains killing the Romulan ruling elite in 2379 & after the romulan civil war post Hobus supernova established at any strong man that was able to get the military to side with them who would seize control the empire. Such a strong man emerged in the 2460s that he was able to consolidate his power and swiftly attacked the federation catching them completely flat-footed. After nearly losing the war and only winning after the intervention of the Klingon Empire due to the assassination of the entire high Council by romulan operatives the federation decided to decommission The Excelsior and Miranda classes as well as completely revamped their fleet. The entire command staff was completely replaced due to having too many Neville chamberlains who sought to appease various groups in the Galaxy whenever conflict arose due to bitter memories of the Dominion war as well as the Kxenti border conflict and the earlier romulan encouraging of the 2430s. Order the ashes of the conflict came several new classes the Yorktown class, the New century class Starships as well as other classes of starship.

The galaxy class was clearly a dry run at creating a generation ship. Something meant to last a century, could be refit while under way, and had families so it could one day have new crew. The lessessions is taught I'm sure helped voyager get home, but overall it was a dream. That dream died at wolf 359.

if you want peace, prepare for war. Galaxy had lots of gee whiz stuff, and was really spiffy, but the federation took their foot off the gas on weapons and shields.

🖖🏻 🖖🏻 🖖🏻

Love this video, but might I make a suggestion. Do a part 2 of this covering the Doninion War variants of these classes of ships. Side by side comparison and basically listing the evolution from the Golden era ships, to frontline ships of war.

I can't help myself after knowing the truth. Those are felt tip markers, not warp nacelles.

"A grand experiment in hubris, eventually leading to all existing starships of the project to receive a complete overhaul and refit" I thought that was the standard operating procedure for all Starfleet ships, they get regular maintenance overhauls conducted by the ship's engineers, complete overhauls every few years and put into dock for major refits once or twice a decade. Looking at the Constitution Class for example, during Pike's tenure as captain of the Enterprise she received at least 2 major refits, another before Kirk took command, another not long into Kirk's tenure, another major refit (really ground-up redesign and rebuild) after Kirk's 5-year mission, the bridge seemed to be being replaced or significantly modified every few years. the NX-74205 Defiant was regularly receiving significant modifications (including increasing or reducing its size by a few hundred percent, adding/moving phasers, torpedoes, ablative armor, shuttle bays), even the Sovereign-class Enterprise E was receiving significant modifications for each film, likely as significant as the Dominion war refit of the Galaxy, so that's at least 4 significant refits (including the one at the end of Nemisis) in what 6 years? As for the Galaxy being underpowered, sure Galaxy class ships were no match for swarms of Dominion fighters or Borg Cubes, but the most powerful ships of the other "superpowers" near the Federation the D'deridex or Vor'Cha classes did not fare better in first encounters with the Dominion, the Galaxy was designed to beat the most powerful enemy ships the Federation knew of, The Federation was (as far as they knew) at least on par with the enemies they were likely to face in the near future, so did not put as much effort into weapons development as they could, likely to avoid an arms race.

The new Orleans class with its high liter pen nacelles ha ha.

Don’t understand why families were on a small ship like the Saratoga.

Im in a kind of mad love with the Galaxy class and wouldn't consider them a complete failure, do to the fact they carried their dutys well after the upgrade. But i agree they where ill prepared for wartimes, but creating a civilian vessel that could easily upgraded after break throughs arrived is impressive. That said in my personal book it's the second best ship after the Sovereignclass. But i guess it's because i grew up with them and the Enterprise E arrived in my teenage years making it the rebel to the established Galaxy class i grew up with. So my memory and my opinion may very well be clouded by that fact. Thanks for the video, it was a joyful watch.

My own theory was that Project Galaxy, undertaken at Utopia Planitia, was born out of a need to modernise Starfleet due to the ongoing wars and skirmishes during the late 2240s, early 2250s. Like the designers of the Constitution class a century before they'd design a series of vessels for multiple mission profiles using common components and engineering principles. A common concept was the use of swappable mission modules as seen on the Springfield, New Orleans and Nebula classes. However San Francisco Fleet Yards thought the project too ambitious and would run into lengthy delays, which it did. So their engineers decided to use advances in hull geometry and design to build several mission specific starship classes which housed all the current developments in technology rather than developing new systems to be housed in the new designs. Thus the Sabre, Norway, Steamrunner and Akira classes were born. All would be relatively easy to build and could be refitted as and when newer systems came online. My theory explains why the ships first seen in Star Trek: First Contact have similar registry numbers, or lower than those used during TNG

Don't think that I agree with you much on what you had to say about Project Galaxy. I think those ships were perfectly capable of exceeding their expectations. The Romulans were only impressed with the Galaxy Class because it was in every way equal or superior the Romulan Warbird. Without the Project Galaxy ships, the Romulans would not have tried to re-unite with Vulcan or meddle in the Klingon Civil War, they would have invaded the Federation without much resistance. While I am opposed to having families on board, I do understand the desire to want to further one's career and raise a family at the same time. It was extremely fortuitous to have Galaxy, Nebula, New Orleans, Excelsior, Ambassador classes still in service for the unforeseen and long war with the Dominion. Had Starfleet and the Federation never built those classes and several others, we would all be enslaved by the Founders and would be at the mercy of the Vorta and Jem'Hadar. Not a thrilling or inspiring future.

I never felt the Ambassador Class was an embarrassment at all!! I felt it was a wonderful class. In my Star Trek rpg group, we have an updated Ambassador Class ship

"A mistake that Starfleet would never allow to happen again." Only it did just a few years later with the Dominion war. Starfleet seems a little too beholden to political whims.

Judging a class in hindsight like this seems off. It was perfectly suited for the role it was built for. It was filled with optimism and maybe even naivete, but they overpowered any known threat. You could have had the Galaxy designed for war, but the quantum leap in power with the borg would still have ensured defeat. Galaxy class represents the golden era of peace and I love it for it.

Seems a little strange that Starfleet retired a bunch of classes when they where pretty young when they kept the Mirandas and Excelsiors in service for so long. And that they stopped production of the Classes post Wolf 359. You'd think they'd at least finish another batch or two while new designs where worked on

10:57 I'm sorry, but it WILL happen again. Large; and old, organizations don't bend very well. And when they do bend in their attitudes, they will make sure it's only for a short time. I still say that Starfleet needs to stop being bipolar (if the writers would let it), and start having a military brand and a scientific / diplomatic branch. That's my opinion. Let the hate comments begin! LOL.

STILL A FAN OF THE AMBASSADOR CLASS

The Galaxy-class is not bad, just needs improvements. The whole idea of civilians on board any ship that goes to trouble-spots or patrols the border is a bad one, so remove them. Improve the defensive and offensive systems to combat the new threats, as well as old threats like obsolete Birds-of-Prey. Change out the bridge so it does not look like a luxury liner. And add better equipped security officers or maybe some Starfleet Marines. Other than that, I think it's pretty good for what it is - a jack-of-all-trades that is used for all sorts of missions.

I love this video but I don't see the Galaxy ships like that. The only (huge, catastrophic and incredibly obvious) mistake Starfleet made was not separating exploration and defense roles. The Galaxy ships were some of the most powerful ships in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. It's not their fault they were introduced just in time to be rendered obsolete by the Borg, who could have seen that coming? Dedicated warships would have been destroyed just as easily at Wolf 359, they just would have lost fewer civilians. The Federation's weakness wasn't in its designs, it was how they used them.

Other than the Galaxy herself, the New Orleans and Springfield classes are the best looking. and Frankly the reasons for having families aboard still seems justified given the size of the Federation. The problems lie with how ships are deployed. If Starfleet followed a taskforce style deployment with the Galaxy acting as a mobile starbase or command ship. It would house all the families of the smaller ships of her taskforce, and the ship itself would be a "shore leave" destination for the crews of the smaller ships. It would also justify the massive shuttlebay that was never used on screen as shuttles traffic from all the other deployed ships would be coming and going transferring crews. Galaxy Class is the Command ship 2 Cheyanne and 1 New Orleans providing Escort for the Command ship and responding to other ships in need. 2 Springfield's doing scientific surveys 3 Freedom classes scouting ahead of the Taskforce 1 Challenger classes making initial contact with inhabited planets in the area. with the Galaxy making formal first contact and diplomatic missions. 1 Nebula Class Like the Galaxy would be a destination for off duty taskforce crews, but unlike the Galaxy, be a workhorse support ship. Deploying buoy and coms relays, doing AWAC and comms duties. It would be a Expeditionary Taskforce rather than a single ship, so far from home. However TV Budgets prevent things on this scale. LOL

When you take the civilians out of the starships and start arming The starships as battle cruisers, that goes against everything Gene Roddenberry envision for Star Trek. In fact it's the exact opposite. Every science fiction media out there hell every media out there is war battle blood guts upgraded torpedoes phasers lasers lightsabers. Can we not have one science fiction that's adventure discovery?

Perhaps it's because this was just a brief overview to pave the way for future videos, but I felt like the narrative here was somewhat lacking. For example, sister classes to the Galaxy were name-cropped, but without much context of what their purpose or contribution to the project was. Personally, I like to think that the Freedom class was a sort of testbed for its warp nacelle design, to prove its viability and work out any technical issues before attaching them to a full-size starship. The New Orleans might perform a similar role for the design of the deflector. That's just my personal headcanon, though.

.....and the refitted Galaxy and Nebula classes served and performed well during the Dominion war

Also the newer starship designs accommodated the new warp field designs to reduce damage to subspace

I’m surprised that the Galaxy class was so bad! Seeing Pickard saved humanity going back in time to wipe out the borg!

I think you're being unnecessarily harsh on the Galaxy Class Project. It was a long-term technology platform intended from day 1 to be highly expandable and adaptable for at least the next half-century, possibly longer. The first ships were wonders of technology capable of going toe to toe with anything known to Starfleet at the time. The Enterprise herself went into combat numerous times with few (if any) civilian casualties. The expandability of the platform is probably best exemplified by the Yesterday's Enterprise version. Same basic technology, but built up on a war footing and seriously capable of kicking some ass. She held off three Klingon ships with a similar level of advancement to get the Enterprise C safely back in time. Which means she had to soak up all those hits herself as the C was a sitting duck. I think your basic facts are correct. The Galaxy class (and most other ships of the period) were massively underpowered for a war time footing. Furthermore, having families on board proved to be a deadly mistake for many ships. Especially those at Wolf 359. But these were not "negligent" decisions. They were good decisions for the realities of the time. Adding more power to the Galaxy class would have only served to unnecessarily escalate tensions in the quadrant. Especially since we can see that the Romulans were well prepared with their own super-ship design. Nor do I see any signs that the Admirals were purged. Rather, it seems a lot of new talent was *added* to the command levels as Starfleet rapidly mobilized. There's a good story to tell here, but this feels more like a rehash of the Constitution refit than the story of the Galaxy class ship. I feel like you can still squeeze a bit more balanced story out of this. Especially if you focus a bit more on all the amazing advancements that the Galaxy class legitimately brought to the table.

Galaxy class capacity was closer to 1,000 than 10,000.

Let's not forget that Gene Roddenberry's vision for Star Trek as a commentary on contemporary social, political, and economic culture and issues was parlayed into the construct of TNG when it first aired. An astute lifelong student of history, Roddenberry saw the writing on the wall as the cracks in the Soviet Union's "walls" slowly but surely emerged before the public's eye. With a peace dividend in sight, so much of the resources of the world formerly devoted to mutual annihilation could finally be devoted to exploration of the unknown - the final frontiers. It was, after all, the mission of Starfleet from the beginning to explore. The Galaxy Class was the product of its time - an "Age of Innocence" and prosperity. The idea of taking families along on long-term deep space missions is a noble and wonderful idea! It's not like the Galaxy ships were built to be "parade ships." These were ships designed for the KNOWN challenges of the time and they were significant battlewagons in their own right. Q's insinuation into the Federation's timeline with premature contact with the Delta Quadrant Borg species was reckless but such interference did not make the Galaxy Class a failure. All things being equal and without irresponsible timeline disruptions, the Galaxy Class starship was an exceptional product of her time and was certainly a revolutionary design looking toward a bright future of peaceful exploration and discovery.

It's a pity that project galaxy didn't find a cure for male baldness....