2 Miles Long, "Grown" Starship: The Universe Class 

I do like the concept of a fed ship so far into the future that it's capabilities cannot be understood by the contemporary series characters. This ship is to them, what the Enterprise TOS is to us.

I love how starships are designed "aerodynamic" even though it's a space ship. The Borg just had cubes. LOL!

I hated the J…until I saw a universe class in STO. Seeing it in scale compared to the rest of the ships made the design work so much better for me

I like the updated version where the hull is transparent, making the streets and parks visible. This ship is essentially a mobile colony. This ship would look so cool in a canon show with its apartment buildings and shops with trees lining the streets. Like what they tried to do with interior shots of Babylon 5.

I actually really like this ship, for the reasons you point out - it's right on the edge of "not making sense", but not *beyond* that edge. It's what I'd expect from a Federation whose technology was just on the edge of singularity. So basically, like Iain M. Banks' "The Culture." I can imagine this ship arriving in a brand new galaxy, exploring, making peaceful contact with the civilizations there, serving as the spark of a grand renaissance in the native star-empires by showing them what it's possible for them to become... and then bidding them farewell and moving on, much like how the Enterprise of old visits a planet and then moves on at the end of the episode. Initially I didn't like the "windows" on the ship. They were so hugely stretched and distorted that trying to imagine the rooms inside was weird. But then I decided they were probably all skylights - both the ones on the top *and* the bottom, since why have all the decks oriented the same way? Have the gravity flip at the midline of the saucer so both sides of it are the "top," that works fine. The only remaining bit of the design that I don't care for is that the spike-like pylons poke *through* the hollow parts of the engine nacelles. I like to imagine that the hollow parts have some really intense spatial distortions going on in there when the ship's hauling ass, so I'd rather have the spikes not interfere with that. But eh. Perhaps the nacelles move around and that's just their sub-warp docking arrangement.

I love that in STO you participate in the battle that's happening outside the window in that Enterprise Episode. That entire arc of the game was just so good.

The Roddenberry Archive recently put out some more detailed concept art, where the ship shimmers and has clear sections revealing the internals to have skyscrapers and such, making the whole ship even more of a floating city. I like the idea; reminds me of Mass Effect's Citadel, which this ship sort of is.

The Enterprise J captured my mind from the moment I saw it in "Enterprise". It is just so mysterious and evokes a certain kind of grace. I love how the secondary hull is inline with the saucer and the sweeping of the outlines.

Although it tends to be unpopular, I find the J’s design to be lovely and majestic. I would be fascinated to see its interior (beyond the humdrum corridor we saw in “Enterprise.”).

The Roddenberry archive recently put out a video showing the evolution of the enterprise, the enterprise J is briefly seen, though it has undergone a slight redesign by Doug Drexler, and by slight I mean that the entire ship is now transparent, allowing you to see the metropolis inside. Edit: it has been brought to my attention that Drexler did not contribute to the redesign. Not sure who did.

There would be crew members who would probably never meet on a ship that size. I already feel like that was implied on the Enterprise D with its size. I'm sure people met other crew members for the first time ever on Ten Forward

The biodome version that has gone viral lately is also gorgeous.

If you told me it had a sort of Wormhole Drive, point-to-point jump across most if not the whole Universe, I'd buy it.

Fell in love with this ship the first time I saw it on Enterprise. Just watching this video makes me want to hop on STO and take it out again. I wish they had given us more of an interior for it.

I’d love to see your take on the Klingon and Romulan iterations of this era’s ships

The Universe class has grown on me the way the Galaxy has, I love the "flying city in space" and "generation ship" concepts, this one takes it a step further. Here's hoping DSC makes some reference to this one.

given the implication of exploring the universe, i always assumed it was as big as it is and shaped the way it is, because the original intention might have been making a ship that could survive crossing the galactic barrier and make the intergalactic journey beyond as a generational ship.

Makes sense for a 'universe' class as there was a 'Galaxy' class

Another fun possibility with the design also explains the absurdly-thin saucer with overly-lit windows. This ship design and Kal Dano’s shuttle (Enterprise: “Future Tense”) were constructed near the same time, and that shuttle was bigger on the inside. It’s probable that the Universe class’ saucer was larger on the inside than the exterior implied, and the light coming through the windows appears “compressed” and therefore brighter. From the inside, it likely looked more like an ellipse than a flat saucer.

I loved the concept art that had an entirely transparent hull, as if the saucer section was a mobile colony habitat.

Regarding the possibly detatched nacelles... strictly speaking, they don't need to be attached to the ship at all. If they've each got their own warp cores to generate warp plasma for their respective coils, then whether they're attached to the rest of the ship or not is immaterial. They generate a warp bubble that wraps around the ship (connected or not) and then any trivial amount of momentum carries everything in that warp bubble forward. The warp nacelles were never "pushing" a starship forward, the whole region of space around the ship was "falling" forward. This is why we sometimes saw a ship "extend" its warp field around another ship and carry both at warp speeds, even though the ships weren't physically touching.

Also, last I knew, the U.S. Navy was actually working to revert newer touch screens back to physical controls. There are some schools of thought that, even with the semi-tactile nature of LCARS, physical controls may never go away.

i adore this ship design , its so delicate . i love when they make bold decisions . the ring starship in discovery was stunning , same as most of those 32nd century starfleet ships

Honestly for me personally, the bigger the better for Star Fleet Ships design/looks. Love the Universe-class, beautiful Vessel, awe inspiring! Love the quirks & features! Thanks!

If it can be used to tell a great story and comment on the human condition, then I like it. Being a child of the 80's, I thought a normal computer was something big and irrelevant to my life, not something that I can hold in my hand and do it all, like my phone today. Maybe that's the point of the "J"....the future tech of Starfleet might seem weird and alien to Captain Archer.

Honestly, the J has never caught on with me. I always thought it just looked gawdy. But, I know, that's the point as many of the military aircraft and sea vessels used by the US military in service today I would have thought ridiculous looking back from the viewpoint of when I was a kid and the US navy were still using battleships.

I live for these. Have you ever thought of creating your own class of ship for a video?

I agree with your assessment of this guy. It's honestly so big and so stupid that I've kinda looped back around to loving it. It's always fun when one of these cartoonishly large chonky bois pops up in your TFO.

LOL, type 40 phasers! But jokes aside I really do find the Enterprise J truly original so it's great to see your analysis of its galaxy-spanning abilities. Just from your description of its quantum slipstream and transwarp drives; plus, its neural connection between crew and computer it sounds more like a Both Cube.

I'm pretty sure Discovery said that whatever tech locks the nacelles in place is, _at least partly,_ based on magnetic forces. Or at least, they were critical enough to this functionality that the Discovery crew shutting off the electromagnets was enough to detach a nacelle at the end of season 3. I'm sure it's fancier than "just magnets" though, so who knows what other principles it's based on?

Enterprise J is my favorite iteration of the ship by far. Beautiful design and it's nice to have a little more information on it.

Hey Rick. This is the first video of yours that I've watched, and I really enjoyed it. It stands out for its honesty - rather than just make up stuff, you admit what we don't know, and include the writer's reasons for those decisions. Great stuff!

I remember speaking to Doug about this ship for an interview I did with him 2 years ago. He told me that the studio gave him less than 2 weeks to finish it.

I loved J when I saw it in ST: ENT, my fascination with the design geometry and engineering aspects has grown since its inception.

Great vid! Regarding making ones way through a ship of the Enterprise-J's size - as well as turbolifts I like to think that it would be equipped with those walk-through transporter arches like those seen outside Starfleet Command in S1 of Picard.

thank you for your awesome videos 😌 I love watching them, it’s so cool to get even more information on all that is star trek in a podcast-ish form 😌 When I click on your videos I know I will be able to relax and enjoy. Thanks a lot ❤️🖖🏻

I hope in the final season of Discovery, they'll find an old Universe Class that had been converted into a starbase.

I imagine that with it being so big despite having pocket dimension technology in that future timeline (was explored in another Enterprise episode), it was probably made as a mobile city for extremely long term deployments.

A big ship that functions as a mobile base of operations for smaller ships (i.e. a mothership) makes sense to me for a super long range exploration vehicle. I didn't know about this ship, so thank you for the episode! God be with you out there everybody. ✝️ :)

It’s comforting to know that while technology may change, the Starfleet font remains the same. Also worth saying, the interior of the J is just as intriguing as the exterior design

I know it's always difficult to compare ships from between different stories/franchises, but Ent J is roughly analogous to a GSV from Ian Banks' Culture series, in general terms of speed, mission profile, etc. It's quite a bit smaller, but it's right in line with a lighthugger from Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space universe (which does not include transporters, FTL, etc.) A really neat hybrid.

Such a radical and crazy design, that's why I love it. Thanks for much for this informative video!

These are really cool videos. I like them a lot, please keep them coming.

I'd honestly be interested in a federation ship built in the style of a UNSC ship. The pillar of autumn would be a scary prospect with impulse engines and phasers.

I’ve been waiting & hoping for this one!

Thank you Rick. Been waiting for this one.

Fantastic video, the whole aspect of looking at it and thinking..."heh?" Was what endeared me to the Univere class in the first place

Your video scratches an itch. I've always wanted to know more about the Universe class but I could never find any information. Lovely graphics. Thanks.

What bout the VFX design recently shown in that video narrated by Jhon de lancie? I remember seeing a much sleeker version of the J with a Glass disk and cities inside

The universe class renderings with it having a transparent hull. Really gives the class a much better overall appearance.

Damn ship length 3,219m long. To put that in somewhat topical perspective, the Titanic wreck site is 3,800m deep. Also I always thought it wasn’t supposed to be much bigger than a Galaxy class. The size makes the design make WAY more sense. I love the idea of what scaling up federation design doctrine to the size of almost Super Star Destroyer scale would look like.

Could you make a video of the Constitution class of the 32nd century?

i wonder if discovery will intruduce a new enterprise in the future

+8:55 I've always seen it as having a Co-Axial Warp Drive. I like the newer images of it that show the city inside and that the hull can be made to be transparent (which looks really pretty) I think it can generate energy from anywhere it likes and as such doesn't have Phasers as a discrete part unless they decide to give it one as optional gear (perhaps something self-powered or portable) Being 3K long it has more than enough space to carry or make anything it might ever need. so Shields, repairs, energy weapons and the like are likely the same system.

If everything that was just mentioned with how the Universe Class operated would make it like the Starfleet version of a Borg Cube where the ship was controlled by the crews minds it was like what Riker said about the Borg cube 'This ship just thinks and does what it wants' and 'The Crew are using they're combined power to repair the ship'.

I never liked the look of this ship in STO. Future tech or not. My first though when I saw it was "did something go wrong with the mesh of the model in the game engine?"

That Incredible Vessel of this Iconic Title my friends. Thanks.

All starships should have served as hubs of other ships. The enterprise d was so huge it should have had dozens of support craft out exploring beyond just the main ship. Jump at high warp to New location and then send out the slower shuttles in all directions for a few days. Retrieve shuttles then move onto the next location

It has it's certain appeal. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But the present always changes perhaps the future will as well.

9:00 Yeah nothing ever goes wrong with "Deep Brain VR". The Holodeck malfunctions on a semi-regular basis and nearly kills everyone in it on up to endangering the entire ship. Someone goes all "Tetsuo" (from "Akira") moment, while plugged into the ship's "Deep Brain VR" (see "The Lawnmower Man"), while being boosted to godlike levels like Lt. Barclay ("The Nth Degree") , with the safeties having failed or otherwise turned off, and proceeds to tear up the ship and/or mindr*p* everyone. Yeah this is a GREAT idea.

I'm glad they didn't go with the invisible force holding the nacelle, it's what I hate about Voyager J .. great video 🖖

Thank you for breaking down this neat future ship to carry the name enterprise

Everything about this ship just screams the idea of us (the audience) as a child looking up to a parent or a figure with more experience than us, with knowledge beyond our current understanding, and the ultimate parent form of discipline: "Sit down, shut up, you're in a timeout". XD

Admittedly there was only a very small section of the interior shown on ST:Enterprise. But that interior section and monitors gave me a DS9/Cardassian vibe.

A series set in the year 3000 or something like that would be amazing. The possibilities would be hard to imagine.

I remember the first time I had ever seen the Altair Class was at the end of a video I saw in the history of the U.S.S. Enterprise and when I first saw the ship I initially thought it was a future Enterprise design.

Great design. I love it !!! Can't wait to see her in action !!! 💥💥💥

Enterprise J will always be on my honorable mention list when discussing favorite Enterprises.

The dart boards by the main viewer are a nice touch. Can also be used to make decisions too!

Outstanding Star Ship!

Now that’s a big ass ship. I definitely want to see it sometime in some form.

I've heard the term 'gravitic lance' before, in Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga series. First appears in The Vor Game, published in 1990. Gravitic lances were described as a "five-space/three-space interface phenomenon."

If ever a ship needed a revamp and touch up it is the Universe Class.

Crime not to highlight the roddenberry foundation version of this ship, with the transparent hull and cityscape inside. It's a perfect "future vessel" design that imo does "far future" even better than the 32c designs from discovery.

Universe class. Beautiful!

I love it, it honestly looks like Lamborghini of starships and I would love for an show to follow it. Sadly I don't think we'll ever see it again. As far as consoles go, if their minds are linked to the computer then Augmented Reality would be the best. Also extremely secure as any intruders wouldn't see consoles anywhere, only the crew can see them.

It's energy draining ability sounds like a step towards the cultures effectors. Being able to remote effect things rather directly rather than through weaponry.

I love that technologies on the Enterprise-J were basically a first step to what would be common in the 32nd century, similar how the Enterprise NX-01 had technologies in their infancy that would be common and more advanced by the 24th century. Hopefully, some day, we'll have a series set in the 26th century so we can see these predecessors of 32nd century tech.

I've always wondered just how big the Captain's yacht was. Maybe the size of TOS Enterprise? Yeesh.

I do like the look of it it looks fast even when it's stopped

It's a flying starbase. Do they have Dyson Spheres at this point in the future?

Thank you for talking about the J ahe needs to remain a mystery i like her design traveling to different galaxies she looks like she could too

I have always loved the J ever since I first saw it in enterprise. I've always been interested in what it was capable of both exploratory and combat wise. IIRC, the phasers on the J are called the Infinity modulator array. I've always been fond of the gravimetric lance on it. Being the twenty-sixth century, we can only assume that the J carries chroniton torpedoes and some kind of advanced quantum. Maybe with the start of transcendental technologies embedded within the ship. Most likely had either a temporal Shield grid or multiphasic shield array. The armor on the outside that was grown would act as a permanent deployable armor which would regenerate rather quickly as it is organic metalloid. If the universe class was meant for exploring other galaxies in this universe, it most likely would have some kind of singularity generator or controlled wormhole drive or something similar. Either way you are correct in assuming that in order to travel that long of a distance you would have to pull into account higher dimensional superstring theory, which could relate back to any kind of technology. I do wish the universe class was explored more upon, and hopefully wherever we get to the launch of the Enterprise J in the twenty-sixth century, because we are very close to that launch, that's they go more in-depth on the technology in it. I also hope that the writers modern Trek decide to keep the j as the J and not make it some other ship, because knowing the modern era that's exactly what they're going to do. Enterprise J, Constitution V class lol

Thanks for mentioning the Congo Class, I really wish they'd gone with that design instead!

This beast is both familiar and "different" and not in a bad way, looks as sleek as hell, wish we get a longer view, in Canon, not too far off. The potential of "site-to-site Transporters" reminds me of "Atlantis" in Stargate. The potential of the Crew being "Mentally linked" to some of the Ship's Systems as well as the draining of Hostile Vessels Shields is reminiscent of the Borg. But the Concept of the Universe Class is intriguing, and the lineage/history fascinating. Thank you

The one thing about the Universe Class is that Discovery - like it or not, it IS canon and in the Prime Timeline - confirmed that there is a Galactic Barrier and how it works. It also confirmed that Discovery is the first ship to actually get beyond it without the help of beings like the Q or the Traveler. So unless the Universe class' experience beyond the galaxy has been lost to history by the 31st Century, it stays here.

I have long wanted to see a Star Trek show from the time when they have timetravel technology, perhaps on a ship similar to the Relativity from Voyager. I don't understand why they keep going backwards just to mess up what is considered canon.

That ship is an eyesore of epic proportions.

I love this design. ❤

You can tell that they had this design in a computer program with a more rounded disk section and someone said, "Make the disk wider." and they just streatched it out without changing any of the details already on the disk and just called it a day.

This is a very interesting ship that implies a very interesting era for the federation. I’m sure many of the seams you can see are phaser strips given the scale, or whatever weapons the federation is using. I remember a breakdown made by a fan. It has phasers, disruptors, phased polaron energy weapons, as well as photon, quantum, tricobalt, transphasic, and chroniton torpedoes covering all angles. It basically has the firepower of a starbase and then some. Probably did have type 20 phasers and hybrid disruptors for more punch. The energy dampeners is a funny addition that really is just “sit down, and stay”

I think it's a badass ship and it should be explored more

Please let a new series feature it in that era. It's beautiful.

Oh hey! It does exist! I saw a photo of this in Barnes and nobles almost 20 years ago and I think about it on occasion!

amaizing!

I seem to remember he said the interior could be all done with holodeck technology. We already saw a tiny bit of that in Picard season 1 where his quarters were changed up to resemble his office back home. A show based on this ship would certainly look overall like nothing we've seen before.

I really like the voyager looking vessel at 32 seconds. Id like to know more about that one.

actually I think the idea of the material extending in subspace so that it appears that sections are not attached would be a cooler explanation why some of the ships had seemingly disconnected nacelles, maybe that there were emitters that needed to be in different subspace dimensions so either to make more effective warp fields or allow better scanning of the subspace to better calculate the shape of the warp field.

i have this in sto and its so fun to use with its gravitic lance

The "head*" of the secondary hull reminds me of the "head" of a Klingon ship. I wonder if that was deliberate as a way to fit in with what Daniels told Archer about Klingons being member of the Federation by the 26th century. * For lack of a better term.