Galaxy Class Starship 

My head cannon is that the Glaxy class war re-fits would have been total combat monsters. They had tons of room for extra shield generators, auxiliary power generators, extra phaser banks, Redundant EPS conduit runs, extra torpedo launchers and all the space needed for ammunition. Hell they could have fit extra thrusters for manoeuvrability, extra structural field emitters and ablative armour with the mass saved from not having swimming pools and Anbo-jyutsu rings.

Some other little known facts: The main bridge has its own Shield Emitter, a fusion power generator, its own Subspace communications, and its own life support systems. It was also designed to act as a lifepod for the command crew on the bridge in case of an emergency. It could jettison from the main ship and could connect up with other life pods in a lattice to be a central nexus that supplies power and life support for the other pods. They had planned for this for a few episodes but budget issues stopped them from doing it on the show. This also explains why it appears to only take days to redesign the bridge in between some episodes, its because they don't, they simple remove the bridge unit and put a new one in.

The Galaxy Class is a perfect diplomatic vessel. It serves as a representation of the Federation. It's a ship that says "this is who we are. Explorers. Researches. Engineers. Families. And also armed to the teeth."

The Hotel in space approach to the Galaxy class was almost genius in terms of narrative design considering how a large portion of Next Generation's stories were more character focused and even had Slice of Life elements. It feels like being home whenever I watch an episode of Next Gen, and the aesthetic of the ship sets mirror that perfectly

You know the older I get the more I appreciate the design of the galaxy class, as a kid I thought it looked really silly, but it's grown on me so much.

I had a fellow Trekkie coworker who had been a theater student. One acting teacher was Leah Brahms actress Susan Gibney. He found a set of Enterprise D “Blueprints” and had her sign them.

I love the idea of Starfleet finishing up the Galaxy Class and then going, "Crap, this thing is an absolutely OP destructive beast. How do we keep the entire galaxy from seeing it as an unofficial act of war?" "Ummmmm, kindergartens, violin concertos, and a bar and grill?"

The combination of combat, functionally and comfort makes me think of the old spanish galeons; which basically were renaissance castles at sea.

As a commanding officer, you knew that you had arrived when offered command of a Galaxy. In the eyes of Starfleet, you were going places. Basically a Starfleet cruise ship that has all of the space and amenities one could possibly need. Plus your family can tag along too so that they could also understand just exactly how tense you felt as you rode into battle. I always liked how despite being dimensionally similar in saucer volume, the Nebulas appeared much more spartan than the galaxies did. In the same manner as buying an entry spec car and noticing that your dashboard doesn’t have as many switches and a smaller screen than if you’d ticked the options boxes.

My favourite class of starship in Trek. When a Galaxy Class comes over the horizon, you know you're safe. You know you're home. (So long as you're not in an episode of DS9!)

In '87 I thought it was ugly. 35 years later I have come to love its design.

I like the idea of the captain of a ship allowing civilians to use the empty space for morale purposes. 10 Forward and the like.

If I could choose any starship to cruise the galaxy, I would choose the Galaxy in a heartbeat. It is literally designed with the idea that the passengers onboard may never get off the ship, so they brought all the comforts with them. My only stipulation would be for it to be kitted out with Post-Dominion War weapons systems.

If you look at the blueprints of this class ship, you’ll quickly see that we know very little about the Galaxy class. One thing is that it carried dolphins to aid in space navigation which is something never explored or mentioned. There were also many more lounges than just 10 forward that sat along the rim of the saucer section. There were many areas that were simply vacant rooms designed to be turned into things as needed during its deep space missions. There was so much more to explore about the Enterprise-D, that I was surprised they simply abandoned it during TNG’s movie phase. By all rights, the Galaxy Class would still be the flagship class if all newer technologies were installed into it as time went on, because this class ship was deliberately designed to be upgraded as new things were invented.

The most beautiful of the Enterprises - elegant design, superb engineering and went way before her time.

I bought the published deckplans years ago when they came out. The Galaxy-class shuttle bay was so huge that it could’ve served as a fighter carrier.

I've still always had the notion that the idea of the Galaxy-class ship was to start making the Federation a truly spacefaring civilization, and the armaments and other capabilities were there *because* it's basically taking a college town to space and it darn well better be protected from various known and unknown potential threats. Being a good battlewagon without all the 'town' stuff just came in handy. :)

Its an elegant sculpture of a ship. There was a design linage that culminated with the galaxy class and then oddly abruptly changed sadly. I miss Andy Proberts work on Star Trek.

My head canon is that the loss of their status as the top-of-the-line ship of the Federation to ships like Sovereign-class has been a boon for the Galaxy-class after the Dominion war. Free from the curse of being the flagships, the ship is now free to embark on what the original designer has envisioned : a long-range exploratory vessel that can operate independently in uncharted territory for years. The new post-war batches of Galaxy-class, unofficially designated by some as "Galaxy-II" to denote upgrade derive from advancement on ships like Sovereign-class, form the core of the revitalized exploratory branch of Starfleet, which were massively curtailed following the Wolf-359 disaster and the following Dominion war, and launch the Federation into a new golden age of exploration.

A neat idea for a star trek series could be a Voyager-esque show about the Civilians aboard a Galaxy Class attempting to reestablish contact with the federation after the Starfleet Crew is killed by some sort of phenomenon. It wouldn't even need to go anywhere: exploring the ship and learning how to repair it's systems and navigate it from aft to stern could be fascinating in itself.

I LOVE the Galaxy class ship. It's the most beautiful starship in Trek.

I always thought that when a war started they could ditch the saucer and dock on a battle section with more shields and weapons..

Peak Federation. Sleek and powerful. A statement to the friends and foes a like. Like watching a superhero arriving at a disaster and you just know, that everything is going to be ok.

The Galaxy Class is like a battleship heavy equipped with Luxury liner rooms, bars and many other things, it is also built like a mini airport in its aft section, especially witnessing the main shuttle bay in that virtual tour of the Enterprise D.

Do you realize how good you've become at making these?

This is actually my favourite Enterprise. Awesome episode.

Please make more of these videos featuring the Galaxy Class. I love this ship and have for 30 odd years.

Ah yes, the infamous warp capable hotel in space! Glad you mentioned the design's temperamental warp core that made this flagship a glass cannon in TNG and according to its writers, the easiest way to apply tension to the plot! 😆

The biggest thing that always bothered me about the Galaxy class was, as mentioned, the lack of warp capability of the saucer on separation. If the idea is to drop the saucer before going into an overly dangerous situation - and Starfleet had the impression that this would happen a lot more often than it did - it feels an oversight (to me) that they wouldn't stick a smaller core in there. Just enough to give the saucer warp one to gtfo if needed. We see with the Nova class that a ten to twenty deck core isn't really needed...though maybe its a mass relation thing, idk. But yeah, giving the saucer at least a /little/ warp, as a treat :) , would not have gone amiss.

I was always perplexed why the Galaxy class in the Dominion War was running around with the saucer attached. Why weren’t they just deploying the star drive sections and saving the saucer resources to produce more star drive units?

This ship IS the perfect ship for a TV series. Because of its civilian aspects, you can think of the people serving on the ship akin to modern military families that have their families living on-base... and it would cause the captain to be FAR MORE diplomatic than he should be because every battle is likely to kill civilians via ship damage.

Im always torn on my "favorite" star trek ship, while I think the sovereign is beautiful and sleek, the Galaxy is the one i grew up watching, and i think I will always have a HUGE soft spot for her. Im hoping to see more Galaxy class models done in Picard S3, in some way or another, as showing that ship with modern CG make it look amazing.

Some more lore; The Galaxy class was the first starship series in the federation to use isolinear chips of all sorts for it's warp core processes, enabling it to reach and hold high warp speeds.

"COOLANT LEAK!! We got a coolant leak here!"- Every Galaxy-class Chief Engineer ever.

the "uprated" Galaxy Class of the Dominion War had a faster warp drive (9.9) additional phaser arrays and two additional torpedo tubes. it's also likely they more fully utilised the saucer section fusion generators and impulse engines the uprated Galaxy Class was certainly increased capability.

Just a beautiful design. I grew up with it, so naturally I'm a fan, but I always felt that, by accident mind you, Paramount or who ever designed this, made a true piece of art. And also rather fitting that it presents the Federation at the height of their hubris. Anyway, have a like and see you next time

a hundred year lifetime... Starfleet's B-52!

She is a beautiful powerhouse of a ship! My favourite 😊 Awesome video once again Rick!

This is my favorite class ship. Defiant class second, sovereign third.

Imagine if a galaxy class was stranded in the delta quadrant instead of Voyager?

My favorite class ship. It’s just so cool. Lots and lots of room and built for exploring but it can defend itself.

This is still my favorite enterprise. This is the one I grew up on. Its still so beautiful to me. Just a small city with defensive capabilities flying through space LOL. Just a gorgeous ship.

The future galaxy-x from all good things was my favorite variant.

I can imagine the Glaxy Class and the Texas Class (if done a bit smaller and less falty) could very well be very effective in constructing fully operational outposts. Just imagine the Sorcer secction being detached in order to land on a plannet as a fully operational base with additional structures being provided by the Texas class. Since the Galaxy Class has two bridges I would say if the one in the body would actually be the main tachtical bridge and the body being equipped with some propper defence mechanisms and put it on the helm of at least two Texas class ships with predetermined flight patters after being detached. The sorcer secction would have more of anti air weapponry and ground forces as well as the main medical and research ficilitys as well as housing. This would bring two things 1. A fully operational base with all the equipment and comodetys needed to house the reserchers for more long term projects and can ve retrived when the Mission is over to be used in other places 2.A planetary defence force squadron orbiting the planet as the first contact with attacking enemy forces. Even if they couldn't defeat them it would certainly buy enough time for the sorces secction on the ground hail for help and or get away.

This ship and the Romulan Warbird ... I still remember thinking that they will merged together with the saucer section went inside the Warbird massive gap to create a super ship. And together they'll fight the enemy. Years later, I see that there are several others who thinks the same. I saw a fan art strip comic where the two ships merge in a Megazord-esque transformation style 😅

Perfect video for end of the week; thanks for making it a good

For decades now, I've rated the Federation Galaxy Class starship as literally the most beautiful man-made object ever designed for the purpose of causing human beings to change location in all of fiction. And no design shown since then has even begun to rival the masterpiece. I would like to have one, with a phased cloak so that I can casually park it inside of the moon to evade any reasonable concern of 21st century mankind catching wise through direct observation of near-Earth space. And then with that out of the way I'd have to figure out how to marshal such an instrument to covertly (and hopefully constructively) ease worldwide poverty because that's muh prime directive. Gazing at the stars and sipping exotic drinks in the holodeck or transporting to vacation anywhere I'd like would probably also happen but only during off-hours. :S

This is an excellent overview of this ship class! I think knowing how big this ship really was sets a bizarre feeling seeing tng episodes because I never quite felt it's scale as I assume the show's creators really wanted to convey, but small ish tv show budgets only allow so much, and they did a fantastic job with what they had. Great video!

Thank you for making a playlist about this ship & the Akira & luna class etc, love all your videos, Rick Keep up the awesome work!

This is an incredible video. Finally got the info I wanted about this awesome ship.

For such a big powerful ship class it sure couldn't take much of a punch to start with. I'm sure the Borg threat and Dominion War changed that in later ship builds but the early Galaxy class ships had a glass jaw imo. Don't get me wrong i loved the Enterprise D but it all ways seemed to me it and its sisters ships were more of a fancy luxury liner then any thing else.

I like the thought process that the galaxy class of the dominion war were seen as a variant class in their own right as the galaxy titan class because they were set up with all weapons and shield systems built out to their best combat abilities and because if the extra unused volume when civilian were not installed, they carried large numbers of ground troops fighters and acted as command ships

The way it was described the Galaxy Class sounds like a combination of an Aircraft Carrier with a luxury liner as described by Captain DeSoto of the U.S.S. Hood from the Season 3 episode 'Tin Man' and a Battleship with how heavily armed these ships were armed with 14 type 10 phaser arrays and 2 photon torpedo launchers one forward and one aft and a high capacity shield grid with a warp core capable of generating 12.5 billion GigaWatts of power.

What I always thought was take advantage of the modular nature of the detachable saucer section. Have a saucer that was effectively a battlestation or weapons platform - nothing else, no crew except for maintenance access, minimal life support (or uses drive sections life support) ect. It's fitted to a Galaxy's secondary hull when needed, swapping out the 'nice' friendly peacetime hull, and relying on the battle bridge, warp core and shields (although it may have extra shielding and armour, along with fusion reactors or even another warp core) ect of the drive section. And then it just rains down massive long range barrages of photons at range, sort of like a souped up version of the homewold missile destroyer. Imagine a fleet manoeuvre where as an opening salvo hundreds of photons rain down on the enemy fleet as they approach for engagement. And while fitting it with an arsenal of phasers is tempting and useful, it's still just one ship with one set of shields and can be destroyed as such, if you can withstand the fire. At close range it would be priority target number one of the enemy fleet, and it needs the power for all the extra phasers (secondary reactors?). Still some more phasers would be handy for missile defense and eliminating fighters and corvettes, say double the number of phasers wouldn't tax the systems too much. Using it as a missile truck/artillery barrage is a better use of it's abilities. The saucer could hold thousands of photon torpedoes (not quantum torpedoes, they are 'expensive' and in limited supply, and space is not an issue) and dozens of launchers for simultaneous launch of large salvos. Plus the massive computer systems of the Galaxy could handle the processing of all that targeting information. It could have similar firepower to DS9 (which had 5000 photon torpedoes), but in a mobile package. It could also be disguised to look like a regular saucer section to sensors, with dampening fields hiding the arsenal if the extra expense was warranted in peacetime. If expecting trouble (say going to Romulan space on a piece of unconfirmed intelligence) it could be swapped into the drive section and potential adversaries would never know what they were facing. Or just keep them in reserve in Federation facilities without the extra build requirements of *Q-ship systems in case of a hot war. Also since they are just a standard hull design without a warp core, navigation, sensors or other complicated components they are easy to build. Since the same saucer is used for the Nebula class saucer Starfleet obviously has mass production for it. *Q-ships were used in WW2, it was a freighter turned into a gunboat with hidden rapid fire cannons behind panels ect. It was designed to sucker submarines into surfacing to use their deck guns to destroy lone unarmed ships instead of wasting expensive, limited torpedoes. As soon as the sub surfaced and before the deck gun could be manned the panels fell away and the sub was sunk before they could react.

I think a new version of a city ship could be fun for a new series. But with all civilian and non essentials on the saucer and ACTUALLY USE IT! "We are heading to the natural zone. Separate the saucer and leave the civilians here are the starbase"

It truly is a shame they killed the virtual recreation program. There are so many different games and other projects that could of been built off that platform. Counter Strike style games, hide and seek, vr chat, and so on.

I always loved that they had a Bolian barber on board. The irony of a bald alien species cutting hair is just so star trek to me. I wouldn't doubt it if Roddenberry himself mandated it from the beginning. I could just imagine imagine "oh, we're gonna have a barber shop on board and make the barber a bald blue alien."

Lots of channels make much ado about the Galaxy's short comings. The trek stories needed to introduce weaknesses necessary for drama, but it was the "best ship yet" for its era. It was a step forward.

Various sizes and configurations made some sense for the saucer

Yes, it may take hours. We eagerly await that video!!!!

As I recall many Galaxy class ships were also fighter carriers during the war.

I would have used a bunch of that extra space and added another warp core to the saucer. Put a whole bunch more weapons and such on both and you have one heck of a battle ship. Put everything on it from the all good things future with that extra warp core lol

A what if… What if with the design, being very customizable and modular, the Enterprise was specifically set up as a *Diplomatic Explorer* in the uncontested regions and that's why it had the _full cruise ship recreation_ and _university campus packages_ installed. And different captains could get different options fitted. … *New Galaxy Captain:* Ok, I'll get the full science pack as well, along with extra sensors, that'll stop them fighting over access, and detecting problems at long range is always preferable, a _tachyon detection grid_ as well, I want that running full time in addition to the regular sensors. Skip the civilian stuff beyond standard facilities for passenger transport and dual use assembly areas, just stick in a couple of extra Holodecks to take up the slack if necessary. Any crew reproducing can be handled on a case by case basis depending on their species maturation cycle. Ship brats grow up fast anyway and can be assigned monitoring AI software to keep them out of the way and care bots, and the Holodecks can take care of teaching and learning about the consequences of actions ect. Actually double that to 32 Holodecks total, they can be used by the science teams for bespoke labs and simulations if necessary and I intend for the rest to be used for crew training to keep everyone in top form. They're great for boarding action and intruder alert rehearsals as well, I intend for everyone to have full combat training and basic medical and first aid. Oh, and the database, I want holo experts and advisors in every imaginable skill area, and I definitely want it to run on a separate isolated system to the main computer, with its own power supply that has a physical manual override - I've heard some horror stories. Replicators - as well as the standard personal ones I want a industrial replicator next to each shuttle bay, with cargo holds adjacent, a extra large one, colony rated, by the main bay, and cargo transporters next to each, can you combine them into one unit as they both use matter energy converters? No,… really should look into that, a combo replicator/transporter/holodeck for small science vessels would be useful. Anyway the walls should be pressure doors to allow movement of items, just copy the hanger door design for safety. And I want a independent back up power supply for the largest replicator. And one near main engineering, one near main medical, same back ups. Also stick a couple of holodecks and a cargo bay near main medical, just in case of mass casualties. As for the bridge, no it's going to be located in the centre of the saucer section on the vertical plane, set back a bit so it's a straight drop to the drive section on the horizontal front back plane.…We don't use windows anymore, so why? And install viewers on all surfaces, just copy the astrometrics displays so we get full 720° coverage … if you suffer from vertigo you shouldn't be on a spaceship anyway. Stick astrometrics next to it anyway, we'll need access a lot of the time. And I want the _Away_ teams ready room next to the bridge with access on the other side and large holoviewers so they can be kept apprised of the situation…seriously? What sort of *idiot **_uses bridge crew on away missions?_* …yes, besides the first officer…Who controls the ship? The second stringers? And swapping over in an emergency is just asking for trouble, with over a thousand crew I'm sure I'll have more than _ten competent crew members._ In fact, stick a couple of extra seats on the bridge for some away team members, they can act as bridge security in the meantime. And have a full security station nearby as well, the main bridge is often a target in boarding actions. Put in another main security station next to engineering, both should be set up for defensive actions for the same reason…you've never had Cardassian boarders try to disable your ship, have you? Set up the battle bridge with exactly the same physical layout as the main bridge, can't be told apart by viewers…could be useful for deception, and at least crew familiarity, another security station next to it, don't want to leave a vulnerability. Now as for the warp core, in addition to _2 spares in storage,_ and I want the full replicator pattern for the main replicator, just in case…well, install a holodeck next to the replicator, it can make bespoke factories to construct the non replicatorable components and we just assemble from the ground up. I also want one warp core and drive installed and running in the saucer section, so it can move at full warp if necessary…without the _dolphin tanks and the arboretum_ there'll be enough space, and besides the extra power could be useful. But don't skimp on the battery back ups, I want mini generators for life support in each section as well, and emergency suit lockers in every room, with extra air bottles to run as a back up, mini optimized air replicators or air processors as well…fine a small arboretum, just a greenhouse next to life sciences, but purely for research and a emergency air processor, not recreation, it's weird how it becomes unbreathable as soon as _life support goes offline._ I want some give in the system. The old bridge location at the top of the saucer…no, not an observation lounge, I want the biggest phaser you can mount with full coverage…something meant for planetary defense, that's another reason I wanted the extra warp power nearby, besides the colony replicator and saucer escape. By the way, any chance you could stick a second deflector dish nearby, a bit in front, the saucer would need it for independent warp travel and having vital system backups is part of my design paradigm, oh, spare computer cores as well, kept offline. Yes, and stick extra phaser strips, here, here, here, here, here here, and here. Now as for photons, 8 extra launchers, how much extra space do we have with everything included so far? … Well 5000 torpedoes … yes, you heard me right, 5000… you're right, make that 8 extra launchers above the standard 2…no 7 in front, 3 behind, that'll allow a 35 torpedo volley in front as a opening shot.… damn, can you put 2 impulse engines facing forwards? That way we can point the heavy guns while keeping … sorry, just been spending some time in full Newtonian simulations. …I know we can replicate torpedoes, but not in the middle of a confrontation. And before I forget, that second warp core, I want heavy power conduits leading to the secondary deflector array…so we can feed *warp power* to it without overloading the main drive of course. Speaking of the power conduits, ever heard of circuit breakers?…well, just don't run them behind control interfaces, keep them behind armoured shrouds and run the controls through isolinear cabling. *And stop using rocks as insulation!* I want seat belts at all vital bridge stations, no inertia dampers aren't perfect, they only compensate for the ship's drive, not pot shots taken at you.…and that's why I want security personnel permanently stationed on the bridge, if the weapons officer is in hand to hand combat they can't shoot the enemy ships. And stick a pattern disperser on the bridge with a _manual on/off_ switch, I lost my left arm and both eyes to a Cardassian phaser when our shields dropped once … damn right I want a second shield emitter grid, that was a great suggestion, and some ablative armour, especially on the nacelles and neck. Y'know it was a mistake to sue for _peace with the Cardassians,_ we had the upper hand and could have steamrolled them in space, if we brought the Klingons into it with treaty obligations. They'd have loved a *good war by our side,* I know what they _thought._ Mark my words, someday we'll have to fight Cardassia again, and they may get allies, imagine if they teamed up with the Romulans. Now you know why I want a battle wagon - and we don't know who else is out there, but they're possibly not friendly. Yeh, _both artificial,_ got a exographic sensor installed in the left eye, the bulky fake one with the surrounding plating, and a tricorder and phaser installed in the left arm, linked to my optic nerves.…really? A Vulcan officer on the USS Strata suggested it? Micro transporter and projectile weapon? I'll look into it thanks…hang on, he's just been resigned to the Grissom according to Starfleet … I've also got a PADD linked into my cybernetics. The right eye is just a standard cybernetic, I'm actually _full Betazoid_ but you can't tell without natural eyes. Don't worry, I'm not reading your mind, learnt some Vulcan focusing techniques to keep me polite …that's only the _females,_ in our species the romantic roles are the reverse of humans.… yes, I've imagined what a human male would do with my abilities. I've met commander Riker as well…you pushed the image into my mind, Vulcan discipline notwithstanding… and you're right, that's why I got training in shutting out other minds, that man's thoughts are a sewer, only empaths can tolerate him for long. [Sigh]…okay, I'll check what your partners feelings are about his ex, but only as a favour for the shield grid suggestion, I don't make a habit of it and I don't want you distracted from your work… _humans!_ How long will the ship installation take with the customization?… Don't worry, I'll get clearance from the Admiral. [Smirks to himself, humans and their sexual insecurities, no wonder telepaths make them nervous].

Last great explorer of the Golden age. Future generations would marvel at the ideas it represented… and how quickly they passed into history.

Great, very informative video about my absolute favorite ship in Star Trek. Thanks a lot, Rick! Just one thing: You refer to the D's bulk bringing down its top speed. Maybe within an atmosphere, somewhere. But, space is big and empty, so...

I've long been intrigued by the idea of multiple variant saucers being the best way of refitting the class. In particular, mini starbase and carrier saucers could be interesting tools in Starfleet's chest.

Loving your videos Rick! Been watching through them again, I love the detailed information you give. I’m debating what my favourite ship is, for a long while it was the Intrepid class but after watching your videos again there are couple of new contenders for my top spot, the Galaxy class and Steamrunner class…..sorry Rick no Excelsior class in my top picks 😂

I think a lot of people presume that Starfleet stopped putting families on starships forever because some fans and producers think it's a dumb idea. People tend to forget that the episodes that we see with the red lights flashing are really only adding up to a few weeks in a given year. Starships aren't in mortal peril every single day, we just get to see the exciting stuff. 🙂 There's nothing canon to suggest that this was a permanent change, and the reasons for having families on ships during peacetime are just as valid after the Dominion War as before.

One little detail you got slightly wrong, in the Star Trek the Next Generation Technical Manual, written by Rick Sternbach and Michael Okuda, it was revealed that the galaxy class ship had 3 photon torpedo launchers, though we never saw the third in the show. The third launcher was mounted in the Saucer section, but could only be used when the Star Drive section was separated. Once separation was complete, the launcher would drop from it's stored location, into the main turbo shaft connecting the Main Bridge with the Battle Bridge, facing aft, and could fire torpedoes aft of the Saucer. I suppose the theory being to discourage hostiles from chasing the Saucer as it attempted to evade whatever hostile might have caused the need to separate in the first place.

I don't know if anyone else's commented on this but I'm hammering the nail home during the domain War the Galaxy class starship was serving as a Frontline battleship but before that it was about my eyes anyway

Wow, that had to take some work. Great Job.

when I first saw the Galaxy, I thought what a "Love Boat"..but I was a fan of the show

I've always been confused by the decision to say that a third of the Dominion War Galaxy class ship's internal volume was empty. I would think they could claimed that these wartime Galaxies have quadruple the medical space, expanded torpedo storage, or just a lot more cabins for Starfleet ground forces. I would think this kind of alteration would still be faster than building out all of the diplomatic suites and civilian services, and would move a Galaxy from a "moving Starbase" to a "readily available Forward Operating Base".

@ 10:49 if memory serves there is actually a 3rd photo torpedo launcher that was in the saucer section, but would only be clear for firing after a saucer separation. (edited for spelling mistake)

i can imagine a purpose built battleship version with ablative armor. the extra space used for troop transport, medical facilities and act as a carrier.

I always feel like the Galaxy Class was born out of Starfleets belief that there was nobody who would want anything more than to join them and nothing they couldn't handle if they didn't. I believe the arrogance people like to cite came from hope, not from obnoxiousness. (Always thought Obnoxion was a better version but maybe one day)

What a beautiful starship

STILL my favorite starship class! She’s a beauty!

I think the problems with the Galaxy Class design stem from the fact that it was supposed to be so powerful that it would never have to fight, leading to it underperforming its specs when in reality there were plenty of ships or races ready to challenge it. The tall and wide design gave it a ridiculously large hitbox, and its overly large saucer section compared to the stardrive section made it slow in turning. This meant that even with its powerful shields, it was going to take a ton of punishment in any fight that lasted more than a few seconds. Moreover, the engineering section was not designed with the kind of protection one would expect for any vessel expected to face combat, leading to the problem of potential war core breaches if any damage was done to the secondary hull. The ship classes designed to fight the Borg and the Dominion got rid of the tall profile and went for shapes that would turn much faster, reducing the chances of the enemy hitting them in combat, which really shows the problems in the Galaxy's design. In large-scale battles like Operation Return, the Galaxy Class actually lived up to its potential because it wasn't the sole focus of the enemy fire. Other ships that maneuver better at impulse speeds went in first and took the brunt of the enemy's attacks while the Galaxies came up behind to support, getting the chance to use their own powerful weapons without taking enough hits to overwhelm their shields in the process. The best way to use Galaxys in combat wasn't to have them get up close and personal like the Defiant class, but to hang back and fire from afar where it wouldn't be targeted as often and have to do much fancy maneuvering and where its command and control functions would be better served watching the whole battle.

In TNG canon I actually think the Galaxy class was severely underpowered in terms of weapons and shielding. We see Enterprise pretty consistently underperform for it's scale and it's not until very late seasons where it typically seems to perform a little better. It's not that it's a *weak* vessel, more that for the sheer scale of the thing it performs like a much smaller ship, and seems to have a way smaller tolerance for hull damage *especially* if we compare it to contemporaries such as the Intrepid

its amazing that the Federation had it so good, that they thought nothing of sending families and children into uncharted space, making first contact with species, exploring dangerous space anomalies etc... even in what is essentially a warship dressed up for a party. it must have been a point of pride for a family to be able to live such an exploring lifestyle , "StarFleet families" kind of like today's military if you have a home on the base and family. or just a civilian scientist working for the UFP stationed on a Galaxy Class would be the chance of a lifetime. The Galaxy Enforcer however...

If this were the real world but with all the same technology, we'd have ditched all the windows and gutted the entire interior living space in favor of a massive holodeck. Then simulate a general holographic command and living center that mimics a virtual adjunct to Starfleet headquarters. All ships would just be an extension of the Earth base and would allow a separation of ship assignment from the reality of the inside of the ship. Essentially, you would be living on Earth but would be able to visit a "building" that was the bridge, or the shuttle bay. Mobile emitters would allow crew members to participate in landing party expeditions if they were on another ship or on Earth physically. Every crew member would have their own bubble of holodeck space and everything (including other crew members) would be simulated from inputs from the other crew members' bubbles. Meaning no more passing of transmittable disease, and even a central location for bridge functions. Since the subsystems would manage where you physically were in the holodeck layout, you could always have the crew close to wherever the subsystem would think you need to visit (shuttle bay, engineering, etc.) Wherever you go, there you are, so to speak. Let the ship manage crew relocation ultra fast via either transporters or using holodeck forcefield tech. Could move the people around pretty quickly without them even knowing. Good for fast evacuation or separations. Even the escape pods could have holo-emitters so in the event of an emergency, they would still be able to perform their normal duties until contact was lost with the ship. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't mind doing my work on my back deck in the sunshine on an actual planet in a house. 🙂Why sit in a box (crew quarters) or fight over limited holodecks? (Since everyone is in a holodeck, they would all have the option at all times to visit a holodeck whenever they wanted to). It would technically allow for long duration missions to become permanent ones as social interactions and where you live would be entirely software defined. Getting relocated for relationships would not effect your duties. Just where your physical body would be.

That was sooooo rad dude!

I always wondered why there wasn't a star base sized replicator for pumping out ships.

What really tickles me is that the Galaxy is supposed to be able to go on long missions without the need for starbases, yet in every other episode of TNG they are setting course for Starbase such and such or at the beginning of an episode just leaving one, makes me wonder if the Enterprise D actually went anywhere other than starbases, lol

Video just about Warp Drive on Galaxy would be wondrous, if we could understand how it works with Manual also, including "where comes warp plasma if annihilation gives radiation? - from PDT that did not annihilated?" and entire Start Up, Warp Factors and energies for each, cooling and shielding working Orchestry would be fair and awesome. Currently I am learning that from the Manual and Krauss Star Trek physics to get it well ;)

The Galaxy Class Ship will always be my Favourite.

I loved the Galaxy class. It was definitely an exploration ship even though it was armed to the teeth (how well that offensive capability was depended on the episode). I never understood why they'd send the saucer section into battle during the Dominion War. Seemed like building a ship 2/3 bigger for a few more phaser banks was a bit much.

I'd like to think that a few massive galaxy class starships served as troop carriers during the Dominion War considering their incredible internal capacity - 15,000. Starfleet could have even configured it with extra transporters or shuttle bays for combat deployments. With its ability to separate the saucer, the Galaxy class is an ideal troop carrier, able to send the troop carrying saucer to relative safety under the protection of the drive section. I imagine a galaxy class carrying an entire division of Klingon warriors into battle. As the warriors step onto the massive modified transporter pads, the Starfleet transporter techs salute them with a "Qapla'!" before energizing the beams and sending them to the planet or station below.

Imagine if they beefed up the weapons, shields, and added ablative armor, then converted a good bit of the saucer section to a hangar deck, and added a secondary warp core. You could then have a carrier/dreadnought hybrid that can act as a command ship as well. Warp into a system, deploy a flotilla of nebula class and a few others e.g. Akira, steam-runner, defiant, and a few others. Separate the saucer section leaving it in the rear and deploy strike and interceptor craft.

always wondered why they didn't have different saucer sections for the galaxy class during the war, more guns variant, smaller/slimmer variant, troop transport variant, this list is not exhaustive.

That's what I always thought. The Galaxy class has so much room, it's like a Starbase. And it 's good to put lots of weaponry in the spare space.

12:02 that's a really good line

I always thought the galaxy class would be very intimidating to have over your city. That huge saucer. Or just intimidating in general. Looks so alien, like it could just mess you up. And it could

The Galaxy Class was just a huge flex 💪.

The Flying Hotel. How I love the Galaxy class.

The most beautiful ship in fiction, that's a hill I'm prepared to die on.

65% Completion and yet the ships were not only space worthy but combat capable as well with all being core capital ships in a Galaxy wing fleet groups during the war. So Starfleet really did create something like a floating hotel rather than a mission oriented capital ship.

I would tweak the stardrive section, like make it longer and a bit wider to counter the weight of the saucer, which looks way to big for that stardrive section, SORRY to say.

The Cadillac Escalade ESV Platinum Model of interstellar space. Still my favorite Star Trek ship.