(97)The Ptolemy Class 

"the Tholian's intentions not being crystal clear" I see what you did there.

With my weird sense of humor, I would had named this class the Kenworth or Peterbilt class. LOL!

I've always loved this class from the original tech book. I would like to see Eaglemoss reproduce this ship for my collection

5:36 200 metre long MK-III Reefers? Yes please! I hear Andorian Kush is _da bomb._

My favorite of the Franz Joseph designs. I used to imagine Q-ship designs packed with phasers and torpedos, or carrier pods stuffed with shuttle craft, a launch bay, repair facilities, and crew quarters.

Even though this class already got covered in two previous videos, I didn't hesitate to click this because A: Your vids are a pleasure to listen to. and B: I knew there would be more fun details added as well. One thing I would imagine would get done over time with the Ptolemy class is it would get refit with additional hull to allow for a more powerful warp drive. With the size of the Federation increasing every few years, making sure these ships can get to Point B expeditiously would become increasingly important. I'd imagine the added hull would definitely make it appear even more as a sister ship to the Miranda class.

This was always one of my favorite designs (really all of them were) of that tech manual. Really did have shades of being a wagon trail which helped fill out some of the background of the Star Trek universe.

I ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ this video! I’ve watched it three times already and am saving it in my list. The Ptolemy Class is my favorite of the TOS era. As a child, I stared at the Franz Joseph pod designs and dreamed of the variety of adventures this unsung ship would have. Only a late era Miranda class variant modified to tug the original pods in the ignored “safer” rimward area of the Federation would make me happier. Well done and cheers!

This has been one of my favorite ships since I saw the U.S.S. Masada on my View screen in the 25th Anniversary computer game.

I always liked the notion of pods for this ship given all the different configurations. Really cool idea.

The way you seamlessly integrate your story into a, let's admit it, pretty messy canon is always astonishing.

Thank you for bringing this to us i have always loved this ship it deserved to be cannon how eles could people and products get moved around the Federation I mean you cant just use your capital ships for this you need these work horses to do the labor you always need a tugboat out there taking the little things and the big things that make a Federation run smoothly. Great job as always =)

Thank you x1000 for this awesome video! The Ptolemy is rapidly becoming one of my all-time favourite ships partly thanks to your Franz Joseph designs series

I remember this from the Federation Technical Manual way back. Even then I wondered if it could have been turned into a weapons pod of some kind. It would certainly be a nasty surprise for any Raider who thought they had themselves a soft target,

The Ptolemy always makes me think of Thunderbird 2 with its changeable pods

In my head-canon I always imagined the Ptolemy class as the TOS version of the Miranda class. Thanks for showing a brief glimpse of my favourite class.

I can see Starfleet's Medical Corps, Engineering, Terraform Command, And the aforementioned Transport Corps all using this design.

We see the Klingon and Romulan councils but we rarely see the Federations except in the movies!

Another great video on a cherished ship! I look forward to you hopefully doing a video on Franz Joseph's Starfleet HQ design from his Technical Manual.

These various container ships are some of my favorite beta canon/fanon ships

I had a kitbashed one I made as a kid. I had it set up to tow a Connie or retrieve a Connie saucer if necessary.

Star Fleet Battles added a fifth pod to the possible inventory available to the Ptolomey, in the form of the “battle pod.” It featured photon torpedo tubes and several additional phaser banks. If you ever update this video you might want to add this as another non-canon element.

This whole, stardust filled history of this class was very well done! I love the ships from the Franz Joseph book and it great someone is giving them some attention. The idea that this was a multi-role ship instead of just a tug is interesting. However, if that were the case I would have expected there to be a greater variety of pods, like scientific, astronomy, manufacturing, search- and-rescue, fighter or shuttle carrier, even POW pods if necessary. The possibilities are endless.

I love this Class of Ship! Thank you for covering it!

Hello CR. I used to own a copy of the manual with all these ships types in it. I remember thinking that the designers missed a bet when dealing with the Ptolemy Class. So, using Starfleet Battles, I designed my own 'cargo' container for specialist usage. My design took a 'passenger' pod, stripped almost to the bone. Inside it, I placed a warp core and energy distribution network. I then added 'Cruiser' class shields to the fore and aft ends, giving the pod a spherical defensive field that would be hard to totally take down. I further added weaponry to the pod. A total of 12 phasers (in 6 pair arrays: 2 fore, 2 aft, 2 port, 2 starboard, 2 zenith, and 2 nadir) and 8 photon torpedo launchers (4 forwards, 4 aft). I also added heavy duty reaction control thrusters all over the outer surface to enable the pod to spin and twist to point it's weapons heavy ends at potential targets. In effect, I took a 'cargo pod' for the Ptolemy Class, and turned it into a portable mini battle station. One that could be towed to position and dropped off to defend a tactical or strategic target (I figured that 6 of these pods, placed around a planet, would easily deal with most threats. Since the pods were already in volume production, conversion to my design would have been fairly quick, and efficient. With tactics like moving a dozen of these pods into an enemy system, I could convert a few more to support them, as well as support a invading fleet. A further radical designed pod could thus be added. One that specialized in ship repairs (this was actually two pods that would build a 'cocoon', or support grid-work scaffold system, to house the ship under repair, and allow for the mounting of heavy construction units. The 'Repair Pods' would house the laborers, multiple industrial fabricators, and a large power source. And yes, they too would mount the dual-shield system of the 'Combat Pod'. In this manner, I could set up a 'forward command and control base' in any star system I chose. Even one without planets! This meant that my opponent had to carefully look at each and every star system in a given area, and not just those with planets in their system, since my new 'base' could be anywhere. All for the cost of between 12 and 20 'pods'. Since I would not need to move the pods at warp, any warp cores installed could be much smaller than those of a standard ship, which meant that all those cores from older mothballed ships could be put to use in far less time than what would be needed to construct new, larger cores. Eventually, a further upgrade to the Pods saw them with installed Impulse Drives (The drive's 'thrusters' mounted in a manner that allowed them to be deployed, locked into position and used, then unlocked, retrieved, and stowed behind armored panels). Just a few thoughts,

Love the Ptolomy class:) I was a member of a Starfleet club. Our ship was a Ptolomy class:) The USS Lagrange:)

It's a great concept and ties into the California class well. And i like the concept of the California class too. But think both classes got beat with an ugly stick. I just don't like how low everything it slung. But also video as usual!

I'd like to see a truth or myth beta on one of the hidden gems of starfleet designs, the TOS Sentinel class

I would like to think Ferengi got one of these ships , and had many space trucking adventures.

Thank you!! I've always loved this class of ship

It'd be fun if Strange New Worlds' production crew digibashed their new Constitution class model into some of these old Connie-based designs for background and guest star ships. They probably won't, though, since they already have the models for all those random Starfleet ships from Discovery available for that kind of stuff.

Loved this design from when I had this book years ago (lost in a move across country). I could so easily imagine one of these ships carrying multiple pods to a new colony planet. Not only the people, equipment & supplies to get it started but also the containers left to be repurposed living space or materials themselves. Thanks for this.

Would love to see a re-fit version of this ship.

if they had put the deflector dish at the front edge of the saucer section, it would have allowed the cargo pod to be moved further forward better optimizing that warp field.

I love the goofy “deflector dish on a stick” design that show up on some ships of this era.

I am a fan of this class-I always thought it would be fun to have a story set on one of the starliner pods.

I came up with additional specialty pods for the ST Tactical Combat game. 1 would be a mobile repair station pod with Spacedock facilities,Med pod-essentially a hospital ship, and a battlepod-which had it's own antimatter reactor,multiple phaser banks and photon torpedoes along with independant deflector shield generators. Some would have a hangar bay for fighters and such.

Entertaining and informative, as always. It’s always fascinating to see aspects on the periphery of what we know about Starfleet fleshed out like this - thanks.

Always loved this FASA classic

I remember seeing this design and all the pods in the original technical manual.

I bought these manuals in the eighties and it’s absolutely wonderful to see you bring them to life. How about the Northhampton class.

I wonder if there's a bit of design history linking the Ptolomy class and the California class? They're very similar primary hull & elongated pylon/nacelle designs.

This would seem like a perfect platform to add a "tactical pod" to; Give the pod its own fusion generators, or even a separate matter/antimatter reactor, a secondary set of shield emitters, and a buttload of phaser emitters and photon torpedo launchers. It could probably be smaller than the standard pods, too, to improve warp performance. Or, keep it the same size as standard pods, decorate it as such, keep its systems powered down when not needed, and you'd have a great surprise for any raiders!

Carrying that big ass Pringles can.

It's interesting we don't seem to see this kind of bulk transport around much, you'd think the need would still be there if it ever really was.

And these ships received more respect than most truck drivers do.

I personally like to think the California class is basically a Dominion war period or post war version of the Ptolemy class. A good solid proven design that can use minimal existing parts and tech to handle the mundane jobs that always exist, while the shipyards develop and build new designs with the lessons learned from the recent war.

Love this one - total workhorse.

Definitely not the most aesthetically pleasing ship in the world, but certainly utilitarian. Very practical. Looks like a hybrid of the Connie and Olympic to me.

You sir are a true Star Trek fan! These stories are so good to listen to while I work. Great job as always. Please keep such high quality Star Trek content coming. 😃😄

it looks like a beta cali class. I love it.

Great video, always loved this class.

I had actually forgotten about this class until your video. The design is very functional but I would like to have seen a "pod" design that would have been like a "carrier" of sorts with multiple shuttle bays, fighter launch tunes, etc.... And maybe some pods with a sexier shape.

I think the ship was probably more likely fully phased out because of the Oberth Class. If you look at the long section at the bottom. It probably has a very similar modular type system. But instead it used Transporters and containers. So the cargo could be more easily moved between any ship instead of dedicated storage.

Man, I always love your beautiful shots of the ships. Oh, you left out the 'Seasonal' Pod. 😃 Ever since the TNG episode Relics, I've always wondered if Scottys' transporter buffer solution would ever be used as cargo storage as it would take up no more space than the computer core and subsequent buffers. Has anyone in Trek ever capitalized on it?

I think the California class of Lower Decks was derived from a cargo tug design. basically the TNG era replacement for the Ptolemy class. My reasoning being this explains the California's rather utilitarian design, abnormally long warp nacelle struts, and powerful engines for its size.

A photon torpedo pod would be nice

A refit Ptolemy class with new nacelles and deflector would look sweet.

You got me so hooked on the starships from that book that I got one through ebay. Have you thought of doing the starships from Fasa's TOS rpg?

I think I could extend the pod it handle up to 4 by adding a extra warp nacelle to the 3 pod. It would draw more from the matter-antimatter reactor but it could work. Adding a shield generator to the base of extra warp nacelle could help with shielding.

Great job

The Ptolemy class is a really interesting looking vessel I'd love 2 have a model of this unique design

There was a video I saw awhile ago that fixed subspace relays from the classical Tos era,.

Love this class as a Federation workhorse. Not a fan of the deflector as Joseph designed it. Would rather see it integrated into the saucer rim like the NX.

Really like this class great video

An excellent episode! Love your history take on this class. Am curious how you explained the cargo pod blocking the nacelles line of sight rule as establish by Gene. While I understand the real reason behind that unusual rule. My idea on that rule is while blocking the line of sight doesn’t dispute the warp bubble it does cause a decrease in its efficiency. Would say during TOS era the decrease in warp efficiency become profound at higher warp speed. By TNG or DS9 there was little deficiency as we can see the Defiant can travel at high warp speed.

Thank you very much for this nice Video

I remember this as the ship on Star Trek 25th anniversary you have to board and save people from space pirate that took the crew hostage. It was either Star Trek 25th anniversary or judgment rights I'm not sure which one.

it's like a tos era California class!

Thank you been wondering about this class since I first saw it as a boy in the 70s in my Star Fleet Technical Manual. I enjoyed the narrative you created to bring this ship to life , I often wondered if thease class of ships might had gone on to be upgraded into Miranda class is it?? From The Wrath of Khans USS Reliant haha Geat video thank you. 😀

I always said if humanity reach the goal of long range exploration this stile of ships could be the one will use

I voted for this one in the poll! :-) But I thought that majority of people wanted the Federation-class Dreadnought.

Look like a mix predecessor of the Oberth Class and Curry type except the big container could serve something out of a luxury cruise ship

Just a thought, could the newer ships come up through the galaxy class, have a heavy tractor beam added so they could tow one pod between the nacelles and above the secondary hull?

I wonder if we will see those new ships replaced in this class ship here. And remember the Federation became much bigger as time goes. Until the burn! ;-)

I think the class name should've been named Liberty Class, in honor of those men and women who manned that transport class during the second world war. But, that's just me. However, she nice on the eyes, except where the deflector is located at. Should've been, located forward on the saucer section like on the NX. This would've made it, easier to load and unload the pod. But, as stated before that's just me. I would love to see an Refit look of this lass though.

Always looked like to me here are a few of these pods attached to Regula 1 and the star base in TMP

After learning about the old design law about Warp Nacelles needing an unbroken parallel line of sight between them. It was the Defiant class that really shocked me seeing the warp nacelles merged into the hull, breaking this rule. Then to come find out that there were technical manuals that broke this rule as well. Classes like these that break away from restrictive design aesthetics where your cargo sits right between the warp fields emitters. Side note: This is a true "Lower Decks" kind of ship. Doing 2nd contact, hauling goods :)

The Franz Joseph series of these particular starships was never seen in the OG series.

Nice video.

I really love 23 century stile ships they are military look are also simple in look

I would think that this class would featch quite a price for the civilian transport market. I would hope that this was the case as sending this to the breaking yard would be a tragic waste.

Yippee!

Okay, who do we have to blackmail to get this in Strange New Worlds?

An excellent video for one of my absolute favorite ship classes. Thank you so much. You did, however, make one tiny error. The liquids pod isn't divided into cube-shaped compartments. It's a single large tank fitted with a matrix of baffles to prevent surge in the liquid load (a.k.a., sloshing). These baffles would be wall- and floor-like structures that would restrict surge under acceleration, deceleration or maneuvering, but they would have many holes that would allow movement of liquid when loading/unloading. A very minor issue in an otherwise perfect video. A+++ This class always seemed such an efficient design. Since the pods could be loaded without the ship present, they could be ready to go when a ship arrives. Likewise, the pods brought in by the ships could be dropped off and unloaded the same way, freeing the ship to spend more time in transit. As Spock might say, it's a logical design. I always imagined that after decommissioning, many of these Ptolomy-class ships would be bought by private shipping companies, much like the WWII Liberty ships were. And like the Liberty ships, they would be seen on trade route for decades after decommissioning. It's a shame that the remaster of the original series didn't include any of the Franz Joseph designs in episodes in which the Enterprise called upon a base. It's also disappointing that no company ever put out a model of the Ptolomy. I may have to kit-bash one.

looks like the Ceritos

I would like to see episodes on the Star Trek books. Reviews, opinions, reactions and so on. Either on this channel or maybe a new channel.

Thanks for that and I know you said you would do this. Maybe you could do one on the "Fleet Headquarters" as seen on page 01:01:30 of the Star Fleet Technical Manual. One question is registry number of USS Anaximander. You list this is NCC-304T but The Technical Manual has this as NCC-3804. Is this due to Star Fleet directive for disinformation?

It needed a shuttle bay.

What could happen if adding another pair of nacelles and warp core only that could strap on to the contaners

Not sure if you did or not but the dreadnaught from the star feel technical manual be cool to see love the mission profile pod swap out Also is there any back story to Sto Atlas class canon or beta Always great vids dude 👍

Question.... I have a 3D model of this wonderful class...it is a TMP refit like the refit Enterprise/ Constitution II type....would not starfleet either refit these ships or replacethem.with new hulls meeting the Enterprise/ Constitution II refit standard? This would allow the type to habe some real nice features....

as a cargo ship it looks fine. my only issue is with the deflector dish placement. Think an nx type on the saucer section would have been much nicer. great video. keep em coming :)

What about adding a shield generator or two to each cargo pod?

Speaking of compact Enterprise variants, have you seen the recently shown concept art of the Pegasus that looks like a compact Ambassador class starship?

The Anaximander is such a popular ship name that it's already on its 20th generation in just 100 years? 304T? I'm finding this confusing. Am I missing something about ship numbers and designations here?

What about the later Ptolemy-inspired classes?

Don't worry if people say your videos ain't "canon", just keep them coming. The rest of us appreciate you "filling in the gaps". What about a Galaxy class variant episode. We have the Nebula class aka "giant" Miranda class, we're just missing the "tug" or Ptolemy class. I don't think they would have a scout, it would be too big. You keep missing the ventral phaser emitters, they were always paired. Dorsal and ventral.

"Not exactly crystal clear"?😉

Just a thought.. y didn't starfleet just make a shit load of these in the evacuation of the Romulans. Idk..