Revealing the TRUE Purpose of the Galaxy Class! Did the Enterprise Miss Out? 

The reason the Enterprise was never sent on the mission you describe is very simply because the ship bore the name “Enterprise.” That automatically made her the Federation’s political showpiece and trouble shooter. You don’t send that ship out into nowheres on secret missions, you keep it close to home where it can be sent on “flag waving” missions around the known hotspots.

I have been saying this for years. The Galaxy Class is, in a very literal sense, a mobile starbase. It is 640m of The Federation, sent out to wherever starfleet sees fit. Not merely the long arm of Starfleet power, but a very real, very tangible piece of the FEDERATION itself. A city that can just be sent and parked wherever it's needed.

It was explained by the show runners decades ago (feels like yesterday but I'm old), its a multi-role long term explorer. Starfleet was retiring its aging fleet but they didn't want specialized ships, they wanted a ship that could do it all. It can explore, transport colonist, disaster relief, etc. It was meant to go on multi year missions without having to return for supplies or refit.This ship is the height of Star Fleets arrogance that gets crushed in Wolf 359 and then the Dominion War, thats why after the Federation goes back to smaller and more specialized ships Edit- In reference to the Enterprise, easy answer is she is the big stick and she was placed near Romuln and Klingon space as a show of force. Klingons made fun of her luxury but never her battle capabilities

If i remember right, the original writer's bible that David Gerrold, Farpoint was the absolute furthest humanity explored. The rest of the series was going on a "reverse Voyager" where they would explore and come back something like 20 years later. It's also why families were aboard the ship because the mission was going to be too long to separate families. We also weren't going to see any of the original races unless one of those races caught up to the Enterprise.

I was thinking for a moment that that would imply that Starfleet thought the existing Ambassadors, Excelsiors, Constellations Mirandas would be enough to hold the line in the event of war with Klingons or Romulans, but then I realized, that's what the Nebulas are for: Galaxy-class tech in a package optimized for shorter trips and more intense combat, with a Miranda-like modularity of mission pods mounted above the main hull.

The group of ships you have featured is pretty slick. 2 Miranda… 1 Excelsior… 1 Galaxy…. Pretty capable little unit right there. Nicely done.

It’s awesome that you posted this video because recently I was thinking that the Galaxy class was originally designed for missions that could be generational in nature. I’m not surprised that the original Galaxy class was a potential launch point for a new series either. In my opinion, the Galaxy is best served as a command cruiser, sort of like a mobile star base. I agree that the enterprise likely was meant to serve that role as a true flagship on long term task force missions. It seems you have a lot of the same ideas. :)

I see the light purple on those satellites. Iconian time, babyyyyy.

The Galaxy class being a deep space exploration ship does make sense, it has all the facilities to keep it's crew happy and healthy far from any space dock. The idea of a small fleet of ships supporting one is also a cool idea too.

The size of the Galaxy class is largely about showing the flag and diplomacy. It is the same reason why we might send an aircraft carrier and used to send battleships on a port visits especially to places that might not be 100% friendly. It's a way of showing how big and powerful the Federation is. This thing is stuffed to the gills with the latest tech and luxuries it is a flying city and is incredibly expensive It's about impressing but also telling people not to fuck about and find out as it also has big teeth. It's classic naval defence diplomacy in space. This thing is a very big not so subtle statement of intent if one of these rocks up at your door you listen and you listen hard. It's both an iron fist and a velvet glove

I've always imagine the galaxy in the role of being basically a mobile star base. The thing is big enough enough that it can easily carry not just it's own crew but easily handle the extra load of crews for a couple defiant classes as given how unsuitable that ship is for long range missions so they can rotate on and off. It's hanger easily has the space a lot support craft like worker bees for maintenance of itself and other ships. And it seems like the kind of ship that'd have industrial grade replicatiors as standard or at least the space and extra power for them. Personally i think it's a ship that'll live long behind the lines frontline days are over all big replenishment ship

Geeze, you've got my fanfic gears going... One thing that always bothered me about ST is the fact that starships never went out in convoy groups like you'd see in most navies (even nowadays you have multiple ships operating in a single location due to how they are designed). I'd definitely need to study up on the outfit of the Federation in the 2360s, but I'm in complete agreement with the use of the Galaxy-class as a fleet flagship with several smaller ships flying in support for extreme deep-space missions. Now, to be fair to Picard, as he is the ambassador and negotiator for the Federation, it would make sense to give him command of the largest ship in the fleet as a sort of power symbol ("Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.")

If Starfleet was more of an actual fleet, they would have sent out their ships in squadrons of some sort or another, like you propose. Imagine if you had squadrons of 1 capital ship, 2 medium cruisers, and 4 scouts. They would explore or patrol and support each other. Say you’ve got 4 Mirandas, just zipping through every star system in their designated area, looking for the anomaly of the week. 2 Excelsiors back them up, doing more thorough investigations of anything peculiar or bailing them out when said anomaly starts causing issues. The Galaxy sits back, coordinates, and acts as a mobile starbase. It is the most well-defended ship in the squadron, but that is *because* it houses the families of the crew on the other 6 ships, along with support facilities. Maybe it hangs out in orbit over some outpost or new colony, assisting the groundside needs in addition to coordinating the squadron’s mission. Almost a colony ship, but not quite. And maybe you go with 2 capital ships. Say 1 Galaxy class and 1 Ambassador class. The second capital ship would be the one sent in to address the really serious issues, where a real bruiser of a ship is required.

The cut-out on the underside of the secondary hull, would have been perfect for carrying two Defiant class ships.

Ive always seen the later Odyssey class as a true second attempt at what they wanted the galaxy class to do while having it prepared to take up the roles that the galaxy class had to take up during its years of service.

The Borg is the main reason Starfleet basically ended the 5 years mission program because Starfleet didn't want to send ships into the uncharted space from federation space because they vessel would probably run into a Borg cube and get assimilated and the growing treat from the Romulan star empire so yeah Starfleet stoped exploring for a while.

The Galaxy-class is a command exploration battlecruiser, capable of acting as a mobile base when needed. The class was used extensively in all these roles in various combinations before, during, and after the Dominion War. Very good video.

Surprised you didn’t bring up the Ambassador-class, because sizing wise it’s also quite a bit smaller than the Galaxy-class.

Forget your head canon. Roddenberry wanted a ship far larger and luxurious than the constitution and there we have it.

I remember reading somewhere that the Galaxy class was originally going to be a twin warp core design, but later in its development phase, it was downsized to a single warp core.

Love the vids… Love the format… Love all of it as it relates to Trek. I appreciate what you and am thankful for your efforts! No. Damned. Doubt! Keep it up! Please!

I completely agree with you on this concept, there is something that always bothered me about the Galaxy class and the Enterprise in particular in that we rarely see it being the Flagship of a task force or the like like how we typically think of flagships in modern navies. Not until DS9 with the Galaxy Wings do we see this play out so would have been amazing to see the Enterprise and its task force of recurring characters and ships

I was really hoping that we would see the Galaxy class in Star Trek Discovery's final season as Burnham looks for clues on their treasure hunt. Instead we get a Romulan scout ship not seen since ST:TNG "The Defector" (1990) We got the ISS Enterprise but it's a messy canon suggesting it was an Alternate Universe of Alex "ManDark" Kurtzman. We can't have nice things anymore...

It’s a good idea however there is an issue I believe that the USS Galaxy was shown in DS9 during the dominion war battle scenes so it probably will have to be a different Galaxy class potentially one not seen on any of the trek series.

I'm of the belief that Section 31 had a hand in designing the Galaxy Class. They could easily have laid the groundwork for a militarized fleet while keeping the larger Federation in the dark. Just look at how effective the class was in the Dominion War when Starfleet got off their butts and actually kitted them up correctly. More space for shields/weapons and possibly fighters/drone-craft. Heck, you could even use the ship as a mobile barracks given the sheer number of people the class can hold.

The galaxy class was meant for extreme deep space exploration. Like 30 to 40 year missions. However romulans the borg and Dominion threw that out the window but the galaxy did have a perfect role on the battlefield as a commamd, control and carrier ship since its sensor and communication systems were the best in the fleet. In star trek online the galaxy found a new purpose as a colony set up ship. It would provide new colonies the resources and protection they needed until a starbase was built or the colony grew enough to defend itself.

I tend to look at shows like Star Trek in comparison to actual history. Instead of classifying ships in type groups like we had in WWII, I would look back further to around 1800 and the Napoleonic era. C.S. Forrester's "Captain Hornblower" is credited with being one of Gene Roddenberry's inspirations. The original Constitution class NCC-1700 parallels the USN's Constitution class heavy frigate with smaller ships like the Miranda class or Klingon D-7 becoming lighter frigates (i.e. HMS Java or Guerriere,) themselves fast and capable ships. Larger and heavier ships (Excelsior) parallel the heavier Ships of the Line (60 to 80 gun two gundeck battleships) with the largest (Ambassador & Galaxy) equivalent to the largest and most powerful (as well as incredibly expensive) three and four deck ships like HMS Victory of 103 guns, USS Pennsylvania of 120 to 130 guns (1837 - look her up) and Santisima Trinidad of 120 guns. Even the heaviest and most powerful ships of the earlier times could and were deployed independently but were at their best as Flagships of battle fleets.

From my understanding and the research I've done in the past, the Galaxy class was the final stage of Starfleet's plan of creating a ship to properly replace the Constitution class as the heart of the Federation fleet. The Excelsior class was initially supposed to do this, but after the failure of the transwarp drive it never quite recovered. Despite the Excelsior being a very reliable ship, it never quite lived up to the performance of the Constitution class. The Ambassador Class was the first step and was a test bed for a lot of new and innovative technological advancements. Once these were proven to be a resounding success the long process of designing the Galaxy Class begun. The idea, as I see it, is the Galaxy Class is supposed to be Starfleet's Golden Goose. A powerhouse that could form the heart of the Federation's defense in wartime, or perform long range exploration missions like the Constitution had. There were plenty of multipurpose vessels in Starfleet but the Galaxy was intended to be the ultimate form of this type of ship. Sure it would have to be replaced but it would serve quite a long time like the Constitution had back in its day. There were few ships that were as powerful or as efficient as the Constitution class was. Now as for the story idea you discussed, I do quite like it. I don't think it makes sense to design a ship like the Galaxy class specifically for this, but it would easily fit this kind of role. It would make sense that after the Galaxy Class was launched, a smaller vessel found a cluster of stars quite a ways from Federation space that seemed to contain the remnants of an ancient space faring civilization. Maybe it could be that what they did find from smaller ships that explored the outskirts of this region is that the civilization was very old, older than anything they've seen to date but the region is too dangerous for these smaller ships to explore too deeply on their own. There could be wild speculation that maybe this is an untouched region of space that once belonged to the Progenitors given how old some of what they found was. This would make the idea of exploring this region of space a top priority only interrupted by other concerns that threaten the Federation, something that would require the Galaxy Class to perform one of the roles it was designed for, to be the front line of Starfleet's defense of the Federation. It would make the Galaxy both the idea choice for this mission, but also make Starfleet hard pressed to spare one when it could be used to protect Starfleet should the Romulans or the Borg become a problem.

I like the idea that's been hypothesized here, I never thought about that possibility of the Galaxy Class' purpose, but it does make a lot of sense.

As a life long Star trek fan, I do find your idea for the reason why the Galaxy class ship was built is quite interesting. I too have felt that this class of ship was never really used to its full potential!! That being said, It was one hell of a ship!!

I love your idea for the Galaxy Class. One of my thoughts, is what the Odyssey Class was designed for. As it was meant to be the replacement for the Galaxy (The Sovereign was not meant to replace the Galaxy) and be a mobile command center in the center of a large fleet. So if that's what the Odyssey was for and replaced the Galaxy, I figure that bolsters your theory on the Galaxy Class.

One minor critique of the video is that you said the "area of interest" that the galaxy class intended for was only a year at warp away from Earth. By the 24th century according to manuals polublished during the airing of the Next Generation, Federation space had become so vast that it would take multiple years to go from one end of its widest border to the other... If you're going forward with the "where no one has gone before" concept here, the area of interest should be months or years beyond THAT instead. And in suggestion, the cruisikg speeds and maximum warp factor of the Galaxy class was notably higher than ships like the Miranda and Excelsior classes, at least until the Borg attack and Dominion war seemed to motivate Starfleet to overhaul these older vessels to add to fleet strength and numbers. So i would suggest that any fleet accompanying a Galaxy class would have to be one of the rarely ever seen "modern" ships of the era that came out of the Galaxy class development program: the Cheyenne, New Orleans, Apollo, Freedom, Challenger and of course the Nebula class, simply in order to keep up. And because most of these ships were still smaller and less advanced than the Galaxy, having the new flagships of the Federation as the fleet command ships still makes sense. With the galaxy class acting as a kind of starbase surrogate in the region from which the rest of the fleet could be deployed from and return to for rest and repairs while the Galaxy itself set up a small ground based starbase of a suitable planet from which long term operations could be hadled, and for subsequent fleets to arrive at and bouild up, should the region prove interesting enough upon analysis to warrant a greater Federtion presence.

Very cool video, it makes sense that the Enterprise was always kept deep within Federation space, Since Kirks "Historic" 5-year mission, all ships named Enterprise are Flagships of Starfleet. The ship is more of a symbol of the Federation than an actual Starfleet ship. It may be that other Galaxy classes were scheduled for long term missions outside of federation space but the various threats that started to appear so soon after Enterprise was launched made Starfleet change its mission requirements for the class, and once the threats became more Immedient Starfleet accelerated the buildup of the class. If one of the roles of the class was as a command-and-control ship, there would only be a couple of the class assigned to various fleets during the Dominion war, and not the entire wings of dedicated galaxy class ships as seen on screen. The environment of the world that the various writers of Star Trek had grown had everyone see the Galaxy class change from an exploration ship to a front-line warship. and that line of thought continued with the Sovereign class. Continuing with what the writers of Star Trek have shown we will not see a Enterprise explorer till Enterprise J.

I actually wrote a fanfic, years ago, where the USS Galaxy was modified for the Galaxy Project, intended to send lone starships out on long range, long term exploration missions with minimal support and resupply. Part of the modification was adding a third warp nacelle for greater warp speed and duration, a big phaser cannon in case they ran into a threat like the Borg, etc, basically resulting in the refit we see in All Good Things.

Extreme range explorer was Galaxies mission, but the Enterprise D was flagship and used as a deplomatic vehicle Picard was chosen as his strong diplomatic acumen. The sub mission was a colony transport ship. A possible variant I would have liked to see was a Galaxy with drop bays for Defiant sized ships. I would think that the USS Galaxy while on the exploratory mission ran into a maguffin that either prevented them going to warp and scrambled subspace or damaged the warp coils and subspace communication coils and left them stranded.

Since TNG was announced (I'm that old), I've been playing with the concept of a ST: Generation three, dealing with the adventures of the Enterprise J in the XXV century. Remember, Picard hadnd't made his debut yet, and Archer was in a distant, undreamed of, future. Two concepts I came up were exactly this. One was the Ent J being sent for the initial mapping of a new sector behind a distant nebula, so there wouldn't be even star maps. The ship would be responsible for contacting all the spacefaring civilizations, build an outpost etc., completely cut off Federation contact for a year - or a season. The other concept was that a generation before a small fleet was sent to a wormhole to a place decades away from the Federation border, and they were tasked to return home, founding colonies along the way. The Ent J would be sent to greet them, and evaluate how the returning pilgrims had evolved away from Federation, to define how to integrate those people into the current version of the Federation, while dealing with whatever baggage they accumulated - as in, allies and enemies they'd acquired, treaties they'd signed etc..

Perhaps the Galaxy was dual use? I think you've pointed out how >Vast< the Galaxy class is compared with its crew complement of 1000. (Either you or EC Henry) Perhaps the Galaxy class was also used by Section 31 as a secret mobile base? Those ships are so huge, entire departments could be hidden onboard. Especially if the technology used for observing less advanced planets without violating the Prime Directive is utilized to aid this purpose.

I have heard this theory, or at least a variation on it. That, the Galaxy Class, was designed and built for long-duration exploration into Darkest Space, going off the edge of the map to explore far off into completely uncharted space. However, they never got to do this, since Starfleet decided they didn't want to risk these very big, powerful ships and so kept them in Federation space or close to it, having them troop the flag, perform diplomatic missions to impress new potential member states and of course, to show potential enemies the scale and power of Starfleet to dissuade conflict with them.

The coolest theory I've ever heard. This is the type of idea that I love so much that I want to consider it cannon. It just gives the Galaxy class so much purpuse and it feels like that special mission would be the type of event that carries out simmilar importance to the Wolf 359 battle or the Mars attack. I love the 3D models you make. They give me a very inspiring feeling to everything you say.

I think Picard’s old professor said it best when he called Picard a Centurion on the Frontier of the Empire. The Galaxy is like a mobile colony or star base, capable of meeting any need, repairing or supporting anything in a limited fashion, and project support or power at need. It is a rescue ship, a massive survey and exploration vessel at need. A generational ship for long term exploration if required, etc. I think if a Galaxy was caught in a trap was said in the video, I think the defenses would have treated the crew like a disobedient child, strand them on a planet, reducing them to primitive levels out of a sense of stewardship for the upstart lesser species that came to their doorstep. I could then see a derelict USS Galaxy left to go its way abandoned, and waiting to be found.

I would love to see a series like this. The idea is similar to a fan pitch about a series that jumped to a nearby galaxy with a small fleet of ships

This is such an awesome idea for a series. The USS Galaxy and it's task force could be sent to a globular cluster, which is on the edge of the galaxy and whose stars are much older than the rest of the galaxy. This is actual characteristics of real globular clusters. The ancientness of the star systems is fertile ground for mysteries and story telling. Its distant location would make it a many-year mission. The task force would include supply ships, several Defiant class ships, Runabout class ships, and even a new shipyard ship. That's right, the taskforce can repair, upgrade, and even build new ships; and do it while at warp. This would be similar to a starship towing another starship using tractor beam, which was depicted several times in TNG and DS9 episodes. The shipyard ship can even tow an asteroid for resource gathering. Ships acquiring new capabilities would be the subject matter of various episodes and character developments, the ships themselves being characters. Politics within and outside the fleet will be a major feature of the show.

There are several problems with that theory in particular what happened to the U.S.S. Galaxy: Number 1:What you are describing sounds like a prelude to invasion as Starfleet doesn't do that sort of thing Number 2:The Galaxy was involved in the Dominion War Number 3:I highly doubt Starfleet Command would send civilians into dangerous areas Number 4:Captain Jean-Luc Picard may love archeology but one thing he would never do is put innocent civilians in the line of danger Number 5:The way you are describing the Galaxy Class as a warship because of all of it's weapons is all wrong with how the class was designed it was designed to be an explorer and with a majority of Starfleet officers being married the Galaxy Class was designed with families in mind so those officers can have their families on the same ship Number 6:The Galaxy Class went from being explorers to military style command ships when the Dominion war started after the destruction of the U.S.S. Odyssey a Galaxy Class Starship that was destroyed by a Dominion Kamikaze attack Number 7:If the supposed galaxy with a large number of M Class Planets did exist and Starfleet knew of it the Federation council would have been told about it

In addition to what @HistoryNut-1701 said. I'd like to point out that even if your hopping from one federation system to the next. The vast amount of the year is spent onboard. So even if the Enterprise is only a few hundred light years from home. The crew still needs to _LIVE_ onboard most of the year, year to year. In this case that would include children, who have their own needs apart from the adults. So you'll need accommodations necessary to stave of cabin fever for a large diverse group of people over a long period of time. Hence it's huge size.

One of the underrated features of the Galaxy-class is it's main computer. It's gigantic with enormous storage and processing. Sensors and communications are useless without a computer system to cope with the information load. Whether it's exploring or clearing interference from an enemy's jammers or cloaking device, the Galaxy-class is probably the best equipped to handle it in Starfleet, even with the introduction of newer ships and technologies. The sheer size and complexity of it would be difficult to outmatch. This lends to the idea that it's a ship of the line, able to scan and dictate the field of battle with long range bombardments, both with phasers and torpedoes.

The Galaxy Class was the command ship for Wolf 359 for a reason. We know.

I've never developed a taste for RLM, but the concept for that series sounds smooth. B5 Crusade had something similar, but done not very good. I don't have any ideas right now, but I expect wonders!

The Galaxy Class was meant to be like a mobile starbase. That is why it has several shuttle bays, including the massive main shuttle bay in the saucer. It canonically has dozens of shuttles and smaller craft, many of which are warp capable. The idea was that the Enterprise would warp to an unexplored system and shuttles would be sent to survey and explore the planets of that system. This makes the Saucer separation make more sense as well as sometimes you'd need more than a shuttle to "get the job done" so you'd leave the saucer with its huge shuttle bay behind to act as the "star base" while the drive section did some heavy lifting. The size of the ship was also because an early idea was that some client races would join the mission as they were discovered, kinda like Neelix did in Voyager but more varied. So the ship would need the space as the crew expanded. We never saw the show shape up this way mainly because it was too different from previous Trek shows, where the ship was a hero and not just a setting, and because budget meant that they couldn't afford to build shuttles for part of the first season.

The Galaxy class is a projection of presence, and power. It can be sent anywhere, on any mission, and make the Federation look powerful doing it. It shows the other powers that the Federation can still be a super power, even without dedicated "warships" in production. It was a massive flex, and arguably an edifice of hubris.

I absolutely love RLM's Star Trek Galaxy video. It's my happy thought when the topic of the abysmal modern Trek comes up. This idea of yours about what the Galaxy class could have been designed for is brilliant and a perfect companion to that RLM video. If only the people making the actual shows were this creature with the IP.

The true depths of the Galaxy-Class, as others surmised, was for extremely long, possible decades-spanning, missions, given what they offered. Essentially, a luxury cruise ship with a punch. Scotty comments how big the quarters he was given, and how even an Admiral wouldn't have had such quarters on the Constitution-class. Probably no different for someone who is being transferred from a more strictly militaristic ship to the Galaxy; it could be awe-inspiring.

One thing that most fans overlook is that the Enterprise herself was a "character" in TNG: just as DS9 was a "character" in that series. That being said: given what was revealed throughout TNG about the capabilities of the Galaxy clads: the plot of TNG often "down played" the actual power of a Galaxy Class. I draw this hypothesis from a few sources. In one episode: the power systems of the Enterprise were capable of generating power in the terawatt range. Two, the shield power of the Galaxy Class was twice that of the predecessor Ambassador class. Three, the phasers on the Galaxy Class were not limited to the signal sustained beam or quick burst shots seen in the series. Four, while the Galaxy Class was a large ship: the series often portrayed the Galaxy Class as slow maneuvering ship: yet ST:Picard revealed that the Galaxy Class is a very nimble ship for its size. Therefore, the Galaxy Class should have been able to out run, out gun, and out maneuver anything the Alpha, Beta, and Gamma quadrants had to offer. As such: the Glass Class was meant to be the formidable face of the Federation and Starfleet. Then again: that's just my hypothesis.

Brings up a great point and a whole new direction for the show. Unless it's a particular circumstance, federation ships travel alone. Seeing more task force-type missions with several ships traveling together would be interesting.

I'd love to think that the Galaxy was outfitted as you commented on a as a mobile command station but imagine its also equipped with its huge shuttle bay and expansive multiuse labs as a portable ship repair station. Then with the Romulans, Borg and eventually dominion threat, the Galaxy is deployed with some retrofitted Refit constitution class, Miranda class and Excelsior class ships. We already saw a very retrofitted Excelsior vs the Defiant in DS9 (Defiant vs Lakota) - it wouldn't be unreasonable to imagine Starfleet valuing this uncharted section of space enough to pull some ships out of mothballs, upscale them, and deploy them with a Galaxy as the center piece to be able to maintain and dispatch them within this long-term mission. I love the Trek universe!

I think this might be a better idea for a computer game rather than a series. Allowing the audience to investigate the mystery would be more engaging than watching the cast investigate some old ruins for several episodes.

The Galaxy Class starship can be many things. It’s so modular in its design that it can be whatever Starfleet needs it to be. An ultra long range explorer, a scientific discovery platform, a mass rescue ship, a diplomatic platform, a mobile starbase with warp engines, and lastly a “F@&$ around and find out battle cruiser.” Here is the crazy part. With the Dominion War upgrades of better phasers, better shields, improved combat structural upgrades, and imagine if any of them were ever upgraded to use Quantum Torpedoes. If they could upgrade an Excelsior class ship with those launchers, it shouldn’t be too hard to upgrade a Galaxy. That leads directly to the Galaxy Class successor design known as the Ross Class, a Galaxy/Sovereign hybrid that can be mass produced, while leaving room for more advanced designs.

If i was leading the starfleet design office i would have made use of this modular design by having mission specific saucer sections that could be swapped. The standard one is a good long term exploration module where families can be on board making the crew's years long tours away from home more bearable (the seperation feature being handy exactly as we see it used) But it could also be outfitted with "saucer" modules (they could ofc be totally different shapes) - a battle module, a saucer with its own power system, extra shield generators, more photon launchers and phasors, maybe fighter bays or drone launchers, electronic warfare systems etc -a colony base module, which is in essence a starter town including population, that can be detached upon arrival at the designated planet and then land with "one off" engines or some engine module that comes back up, or is capable of being remodeled into some small runabout like craft for the colonists. -a troop transport saucer that can carry 8000 troops or a smaller number plus vehicles. Maybe such a saucer can detach and split into several landing craft. Troop version could also be used for colonist transport. -speed saucer, one with extra warp engines and impulse engines for high speed missions or maybe "range saucer" with large amounts of fuel either for a tanker mission or for hyper long range missions. -scan saucer Basically a huge scanning array for investigating areas where a stationary array is impractical. -cargo/equipment saucer. for hauling large equipment, bulk cargo or even smaller vehicles and craft or space station parts -base saucer, basically the central portion of a space station or starbase that can be delivered fully operational to the desired location and then expanded upon by the crew (using the above Cargo saucered galaxy classes for modules and materials) -warhead saucer. Yup a huge photon torpedo that is brought to speed by a galaxy class stardrive section and then released. For when you need that biiig badaboom. -Whale transport saucer (cause you never know when that crazy probe turns up again, and you dont want a repeat of last time, so there be whales everywhere!) - a plethora of other types or mixed types i didnt think of. Like this you could build a bunch of standard "workhorse" stardrive sections and just plop a mission specific "saucer" on, determining the "ship" purpose

5:30 Oh my god I had that exact same Idea. Wow fantastic. Good to see a nice idea prove itself on youtube. Nice video man! I thought the Galaxy class was suppose to be a carrier?

During TNG, the Enterprise was the flagship of the Federation. You keep your flagship close to home for all of diplomatic nonsense or for a show of strength. Also, the "lost starship" thing has been done. Twice. That "Calypso" episode of Discovery and Prodigy.

I like this idea. Especially with a squad of the other galaxy lineage; New Orleans, freedom, nebula, etc

I've mentioned on other channels that it is incredibly weird that they didn't use the star drive to drop off the saucer for long term studies/ space station duty and then send the star drive to go pick up a new saucer, explore, or act as a defense ship. The galaxy class is by design modular; it should've had other options besides a saucer section at its disposal. The nebula has a sensor pod / weapons pod that should've been able to dock with a galaxy star drive to turn it into a giant version of the defiant.

The Galaxy-Class was literally designed to be a return to those deep space multi-year missions that made so many allies and discoveries. It can fabricate entire pieces of its hull and even nacelles in case of damage, has extensive hangar bays and repair bays, and everything else needed for prolongued survival without any shipyards to accomodate it. That was literally its role - the Enterprise, however, was the flagship of the federation and disregards the orignal role of a ship to instead focus on the most high-risk missions available. Whether that be combat, recon, hauling, or even just diplomacy. The Enterprise being the Federation's flagship simply means that it's the best of the best crew, and they have to be the best at everything in the roles they fill in order to be a policial and moral boost. However, it was made a point that Galaxy-Classes generally did menial work due to the breaking-down of logistics chains due to accepting so many new allies and expanding territory so quickly. The Intrepid was also made to take over the diplomatic role the Galaxy filled, as it's a lot smaller, sleeker, and most importantly not as intimidating as a giant dreadnought with those features combined. These were all explained in interviews, comics, and behind the scenes chats with the creators.

The Galaxy class design was basically 4 ships in one. 1. Long range explorer (they could stay out of range of starbases for years without having to return) 2. Long range search and rescue. ( They shops could hold hundreds of thousands of people) 3. Flag wavers ( get to a potential hot zone before it turns hot) 4. Battle cruisers. (Not battleship) The ships are not battleships too lightly armored, they could do some damage but cant take too many hits)

To be honest, the first thought I remember having when I heard that the Enterprise-D was going to be this huge "city in space" (as the media referred to it at the time) with families and a huge capacity was that it was a colony ship rather than a TOS-style spearhead hero-ship like its predecesssor. And to be honest, even as I grow older and start taking into account more logistical factors, that still feels like the most likely puropse - a smaller long-range scout-explorer vessel (like the forerunners of the USS Voyager) checks out some far-off system and finds a near-M-class world which (with maybe a little light terraforming) would make a great foothold in the new area, and once they report back a Galaxy-class ship is dispatched full of families, science labs and industrial replicators and equipped with many shuttles of various classes for a variety of roles (transport, reconnaissance, aerial cartography and surveying, etc). With seemingly-overpowered combat capabilities, the Galaxy class vessel can not only act as a staging area for the initial forays to the surface but, once the first ground bases are established, can remain in orbit as a defensive presence until a more permanent solution can be built, just in case the system turns out to be more hostile than the scout-ship had experienced... after all, maybe the smaller craft just didn't catch the attention of the local xenophobic star empire on its fleeting visit, but a whole planet being colonised by unknown aliens in their backyard would likely make more waves. And once you've sent a Galaxy-class ship halfway across the quadrant loaded up with enough resources to basically build a civilization it's a bit more difficult to turn round and come home again, so once you've committed to the colony you're going to want to protect your investment. And once you have some habitable homesteads you then have whole families on board ready to go who can populate the new world rather than starting from scratch. Depending on how long the journey was, they might have already started by the time they arrive! All in all, it seems more straightforward and sensible that this was the intended purpose for the Galaxy-class. It still doesn't make much sense why the Enterprise-D is used in a first-response or force-projection role or as a diplomatic vessel, except for the obvious fact that while it's not _designed_ for any of these roles it _can do_ them all well. After all, if you're sending a single ship to build an entire colony, you want it to have the versatility to overcome any unforseen problems - especially if you''re a year-long warp journey from reinforcements.

I've always guessed from the context of the show (or maybe I just remember people talking about it in the lead up to TNG coming out), that the Galaxy Class was designed for much longer (longer than 5-year) missions into very deep space, so would logically carry people's families, but also the ability to defend itself and more or less operate as a traveling city. I know the concepts of the different galactic quadrants like Delta and Gamma hadn't been come up with, but I could have sworn that's how the "new" Enterprise was described from marketing stuff back in the day.

I personally saw the Galaxy Class as a sort of Generational Exploration/Colony ship. The generational aspect is self explanatory all that room allows for the crew to grow, reproduce and expand. As for colony prep. A location for a colony is discovered. The Galaxy has the job of investigating the area, or region for possible hazards, dangers, hostiles, etc. When a suitable location is decided on, the Galaxy will clear an area in a depression, with holes drilled down to magma chambers to provide thermal energy for power generation. And the saucer is detached, and with the Star drive section using a tractor beam, along with the saucer's own thrusters, engines. And the saucer is then settled into the depression and becomes an INSTANT City. Which contains EVERYTHING a City would need. Connections are then placed into the geothermal areas etc, and the initial thousand crew start and continue the Set up for the colonists, some of who will remain behind. While the Star Drive serves as a protector of the new colony until proper support arrives. Star fleet then will dispatch supply ships which include a few warp tugs hauling a new saucer section which will currently hold at least 1/4 to 1/3rd of the maximum occupancy of the saucer section. During this trip the Colonists learn the lay out of the saucer section and when they arrive they transport and start to live on their new home. At that point the now vacated saucer section becomes the NEW saucer of the star drive section and replacement crew for those staying behind. As @Historynut-1701 said, "You don’t send that ship out into nowheres on secret missions, you keep it close to home where it can be sent on “flag waving” missions around the known hotspots."

Makes sense to have the Galaxy class as a command ship of a small fleet, Much like a modern Carrier battle group. Although on a mission like this there would still be less civilians on board due to mission risk and room made for specialist staff. A Ambassador class as a heavy cruiser, two Excelsiors as destroyers, two Mirandas as frigates/scouts and a Nebula with a cargo pod as a logistic support with a New Orleans as a supply ship.

My money's on an expedition to the Large Magellanic Cloud as a generation ship. The sheer internal volume of the ship compared with the relatively tiny crew needed to run it means it could be packed to the brim with supplies, auxiliary craft, prefabricated colony structures, etc for the Federation to set up shop in one (or both) of our satellite galaxies. Get a small fleet of them out there and they could undock and link their saucer sections into a starbase, freeing up the stardrive sections to act as explorer/defense craft. Maybe even replace the normal saucers with ones designed to land and act as ready-made colonies in their own right.

Maybe they'll find out. That's the location where the doomsday machine from the original star. Trek actually came from. Perhaps they'll be several. They're waiting around and one just simply wandered off on its own, possibly from some other effect. Maybe a rogue planet or something similar? That caused it to fall out of its normal Position, and that would be interesting because so far we have not. Proud out anything else about the dim's day machine.

🖖😎👍Very totally cool and very nicely wonderfully well informatively explained and executed in every detail way shape and format provided on "Realvealing the True Purpose of the Galaxy Class!, And did the Enterprise Miss Out?"; A job very nicely fabulously well done indeed Sir!👌.

That concept is indeed an interesting one. If I ever get around to building my own personal galaxy class intergalactic FTL exploration vessel, I'll let you guys know and we'll go for a spin.

Another way is simply watching the videos from start to end, that boost a channel's rating in the "algorithm"

I would really love to see a series based on a Galaxy class again.

I love the idea of the galaxy class being a base for other smaller ships, would make the most sense for all the living space, the saucer can be separated to protect them while the other half goes in battle if needed using the battle bridge. Because honestly the excess crew space on board is over kill for what missions the enterprise did in the show.

The USS Galaxy is seen on screen during the Dominion War in DS9. And in extended canon / beta canon, it is mentioned that the Galaxy spent much of its early career in or around the Sol system as a kind of technology test bed ship. So she was never actually lost. I've read different sources on this over the years that state different numbers but essentially the Galaxy class was only ever built in small numbers (I'm talking on screen canon now). The USS Galaxy and USS Enterprise were part of the initial first four Galaxy classes built with a further 4 Galaxy class space frames built and put into storage for later construction,. But some other sources state that there were six initial Galaxy's built with a further 6 space frames put into storage. These space frames were later built for the Dominion war but with a lot of crew amenities and science facilities omitted and missing to rush production. Additional cargo bays were added to carry the single seater star fighters Starfleet used in the war. These later ships also did not carry families or civilians. Its only really in the books, comics etc where you see a lot more Galaxy class ships operating.

The series began at a place "beyond which lies the vast unexplored area of the galaxy" they pretty quickly abandoned deep space long term missions for putting around federation space charting anomalies and studying pulsars. Doing diplomatic missions, then cardasdians, romulans and kilngom civil wars.

They said, either in the series or in one of the novels that the galaxy class was meant to be a generation ship, where they did these long-term missions into deep space

I like this. The Galaxy class was designed in a golden age of exploration when peace for the forseeable future was expected. After the Romulans, the Borg, and then the Dominion, Starfleet had to completely rethink their role and the Galaxy got kind of left by the wayside. The original mission in TNG was supposed to be exploratory. Beyond Farpoint Station was "the great unexplored mass of the galaxy", said early in the first episode. That's what they were supposed to be doing. But then Star Trek stuff happened, haha.

The other function the Galaxy class serves is as a demonstration of the of the benefits of joining the federation - "come joins us, look what we can build by working together".

I like the plot idea a lot. I do think the general idea of the Galaxy class was for the Federation to be a truly spacefaring civilization with people really living 'out there' and not just on planets and stations, ...and basically puting whole college towns/navy bases out there families and all meant of course they had to be some of the best-protected assets out there.

The Dyson Sphere builders! That's a storyline that would fit perfectly into this scenario. And also an excuse to return to the sphere. Say The Federation found tech/relay on the Dyson sphere pointing to the space just outside the Milky Way, or even crib from Star Wars and call it a mini galaxy. You'd thus have two anchor points for the series narrative. One on the original sphere within known federation space, and the task force sent to explore.

Wow, the Federation did it, they found the Forerunners

imagine having a squadron of galaxy class ships go wherever. each deploys their saucer sections to form a mini or starter star base. the ships then, sans saucer section, go on to do what ever it is they are supposed to do, coming back to the star base whenever they need to.

Galaxy Class was designed as multi purpose ship to handle alone every type of mission Starfleet would throw water them. According to the technical manual, it was designed to operate up to seven years without resupply for long term exploration but also to show force like a ship of the line.

Honestly part of me feels like it would be an iconian outpost, or if we dont want to reuse THAT ONE, could be some ancient civilization that died out that were in a dangerous area for one reason or another. Also theres an OLD thought I always had Ive always seen the intrpid class as being comparable to a pocket galaxy class. So when it was in a combat fleet it acted like a frigate, I think dont remember which ship classification was what. Though when doing its primary job as a scientific ship it acted as a mini command ship with ships like the nova class under its command with a titan or titan to act as basically body guards. Basically a small taskforce meant to explore an area of space right outside of federation territory but not in an extremely dangerous area, like I feel like what happened to the voyager is what the galaxy class was actually designed to handle. It getting lost in the delta quadrant i mean and having to come back.

In Discovery season 2, it's revealed that the Enterprise never fought in the Klingon war. It was sent to deep space. The reason, Captain Pike was the opitome of the ideals of Starfleet and the Federation. He was to be the future of humanity if the Klingons won. Captain Picard also fits this description, possibly even more so. I think the Enterprise is so big and with the addition of families, it could easily be used as an ark for humanity.

I was always under the impression that the name "galaxy " was the mission profile. Build some galaxy class ships, test them for a reasonable amount of time, put a crew of very long living species on them and let the ships fly to the next galaxy.

The Dominion War is the second reason why the Galaxy class's original mission was subverted years later. The Intrepid class was developed to fill the long-range explorer role. This shift also capped the size of these massive capital ships. The new design philosophy favored vessels with smaller crews that were compact and fast to build, like the Defiant class. During the war, all Galaxy class ships were converted for combat operations and stripped of their luxury amenities. This is also becomes a Staffing issue too. While it took 5-10 years to construct and fully staff a Galaxy class vessel, an Intrepid class ship could be built and crewed in about one-third of that time. Post-war, one can imagine the chaos if a Galaxy class ship lost half its crew, as it would struggle to remain functional, conduct repairs, and train new cadets simultaneously.

I’ve always seen the Galaxy class as more of a mobile star base than a simple starship. It was likely intended for fleet support duties on the farthest frontiers of the Federation. The Federation likely had multiple areas of interest, similar to what you described, that the Galaxy class was ideal for deployment to.

The USS Galaxy herself was seen in combat operations in at least two episodes of DS9 during the dominion war. The FX crew labeled the cgi model with the name and registration number for a couple of galaxy close up shots. Other than that, I like the idea as it was always the intended purpose of the class to be extended range deep space exploration.

Makes sense when you think of the writing for Encounter at Farpoint being about how it was the edge of known space etc. shows how when coming up with the pilot they had in their minds that it would be going out beyond federation space into the unknown

Amazing video!

I always had a similar headcanon of the Galaxy project being a new design for far-out colony ships during that peak era of Starfleet's golden age setting their eyes on the far horizons of space and designing a ship that could be self-sufficient for long periods of time, if not almost indefinitely in regions far off the beaten path. If you think about it, you could use the saucer as a space station of sorts in orbit of a planet with its dozens of support crafts (we never saw the main flight deck on the show, but it's there in concept) and have the engine section still function as an independent starship around any nearby system. The saucer alone could provide a staging point for constructing a starbase on an M class planet by remaining for months or even years, while at the same time still capable of functioning as a capital starship in the sector. While I think the idea was still for this ship to be on a decade or longer long mission on the far reaches of Federation space without "returning to the nest" ever during that time frame, I can imagine this sort of secondary function as command cruisers or colony support structures would make sense once a Galaxy ship gets left behind by the cutting edge of federation starship design - since it was never specialized for a single function, it would likely still remain a "comfortable place to live in" even 50 years after it being put into service. As for why within the fiction the Enterprise was not on such a mission, I do believe that as the flagship it was tasked with *all* tasks the Federation would ideally associate itself with - missions of mercy, aid, diplomatic, trade, exploration, show of force, and of course you would chose the most advanced impressive ship class in your fleet for that function. But if not for the other reasons mentioned in the video (the Romulans, the Borg, the Dominion war etc) and the unfortunate loss of the Enterprise D in Generations, I would assume that after a decade or two in service as the flagship, it could have likely been assigned such a long-term exploration/colonization mission.

I like the idea of a Long range flagship, but I think there's a bigger missed opportunity. In addition to the scenario you mention, saucer separation makes sense for long term missions in friendlier space, like establishing relations with new planets, or extended negotiations. The saucer section detaches and orbits the planet, and the drive section can gallivant around the local area shuttling diplomats, exploring stuff etc. The Galaxy-class should really be flagships for the most important missions. But even more then that, the Drive section could be the basis of a whole fleet. With the Galaxy saucer, you have the long term flagship missions. With no saucer, you have a corvette fast reaction ship, all engine, no bulk. Bulk cargo saucers offer a range of ways to do asteroid mining or disaster relief on a planetary basis or set up an outpost in a single go. A midsized saucer with a mix of weapons and exploration amenities replaces the generalist ships like the Excelsior class. Science saucers for specialized exploratory missions. and a heavily armed saucer for a battleship role. The saucers are interchangeable, so a ship could be equipped with the right saucer (and auxiliary crew) for the job, but eventually, most ships and crews would specialize. Even so the economies of scale of building 1 drive system/engineering area for every role is way more efficient then the ships that are canon. Only ships that are truly specialized (like Voyager with it's landing capabilities) would need to be built outside this paradigm. I know the show didn't do this because they built a model, and when they need more ships, they just reshoot the model they have, and if it has to be a different ship, they kitbash one together from spares of the model they have. But it makes more sense to me then a Galaxy saucer with practically no engineering section to have a smaller saucer on a Galaxy drive section.

Make one wonder why the saucer section wasn´t more developed like the prometheus were each part were more autonomous. Or a Drive Section which was more a Carrier for several Saucers or a Drive Section Train, connecting several Saucers like Train Wagons with smaller Drive Section inbetween. They also always talked about modularity for mission specific specs, but with that size, imagine a saucer build for manufcatoring mostly for that very long and deep range exploration mission, where you need set up a base. If one is able to add the ability to also start from a planetary surface, those bases couold be planted on far away planets, and a more genereal purpose Saucer with a Drive Section which now only needs to support one saucer as traveling/exploration around the system or combat if needed.

Your idea is interesting, and I think early concepts of the Galaxy class did conceive of it as a very long-range explorer that wouldn't return to UFP space for a generation or more, but that idea ultimately didn't materialise in the shows. My own head canon is that the Galaxy in its Enterprise configuration was basically the luxury passenger transport version of a Galaxy Class. It still had weapons to defend itself because people are precious cargo in the UFP, and it still had science labs because Sf would put a science lab in a Type 6 Shuttle if they could, but its ideal role was transporting thousands of passengers to new colonies or evacuating people in an emergency. Other patterns of Galaxy Class could've been fitted with fewer passenger quarters and more cargo space, or science labs, or medical facilities (think hospital ship), or even combat systems like shields and phaser arrays. The saucer sections of Sf ships are generally seen as having been designed for modularity, a ship might get refitted to do it's current job better every few years but it could also be refitted to do a different job within the fleet.

The reasoning behind the Galaxy-class project has already been explained in canon: The Galaxy was commissioned during the Federation's "Golden Age", that time right after the Klingons had signed the Khitomer Accords and become allies, right up until TNG. The Federation had no major threats at this time; the Klingons were allies, the Romulans had retreated behind the Neutral Zone and isolated themselves again, the Cardassian "war" was a very minor conflict with a minor power, and the Borg weren't even a twinkle in Picard's eye at the time. Federation membership had expanded greatly, new technologies were being developed at a rapid scale, and the known galaxy was, for the most part, at peace. The Galaxy was commissioned to be the symbol of the Federation's prosperity and power in the Alpha/Beta quadrants. It was meant to be an all-in-one ship, a grand design that could do it all: diplomacy, science and exploration, defense, engineering, medical missions, and more. It was really meant to be a sort of mobile starbase, able to provide aid and show the flag where needed, as well as acting as the C&C vessel for fleet operations. Officers were allowed to have family on board to show that the Federation was so powerful and safe that this could be allowed. It had an arboretum, classrooms, numerous holodecks for civilian, crew, and diplomat's comfort. It's power was also meant to intimidate those minor powers into thinking twice before picking a fight with the Federation (obviously the Cardassians didn't get the memo, but they're not very good at getting those kind of messages). It had twelve Type-X phaser arrays providing 360 degree coverage, and fore and aft torpedo launchers with a 250 round capacity each, with programmable warheads that could be fired in patterns and configured for various purposes. It was the most advanced tactical platform the Federation had, bigger than anything the Klingons or Romulans had built up to that point. (The D'Deridex was not revealed to the Federation until after the Enterprise's launch). One of these ships was always going to be named Enterprise, and was meant to be the flagship, so they'd do even more flag-waving missions and showing the rest of the galaxy why it's a good idea to join the Federation or to stay out of their way if you had hostile intentions. Loaded with the most advanced technology known, the biggest guns, the most comfortable living and working spaces, it was the most advanced ship anyone known had ever built. It was also equipped to go on any long-range exploration mission that was needed, as it was better equipped than any other ship for science, but also for crew morale and recreation, so a long term exploration mission wouldn't be as burdensome as prior ones had. There was no secret or unknown mission for the class; this was it. During the Dominion War their role as a command and control hub for the various combat fleets showed what they were capable of in large-scale conflict, especially with even more upgrades and refits as production of these spaceframes ramped up. So needed was the firepower they could bring to bear they were rolled out of the fleetyards with minimal crew quarters and life support, a barebones ship bristling with weapons and shielding. Starfleet could have chosen to use those resources on constructing other vessels, but the Galaxy was so powerful that it couldn't be ignored. So there you have it, the true purpose of, and the real reason the Galaxy-class was created. The GCDP was also used as a testbed for new technologies on other, more specialized classes derived from the Galaxy, such as the Challenger, Cheyenne, and Niagara classes.

A fascinating idea! And it makes a lot of sense. I think a ship with the same kind of design philosophy, but much later and more advanced, would be used to explore another galaxy. It would take years to reach another galaxy, and so it would need a ship that can be a home for the crew and people aboard. It would be a decades long mission to make contact and explore one of the nearby galaxies and then return.

I always thought the Galaxy class would make an excellent long range colony ship. It had the facilities for exploration, defense and research, but also had the capacity for large numbers of colonists.

I read years ago (I THINK it was cannon) that the Galaxy is designed to operate as a FOB / starbase (FOB = Forward Operating Base) in wartime. Heavily armed for its own defense, advanced sensors to monitor fleet movements and act as fleet CIC, medical facilities for the wounded, engineering facilities for repairing ships, vast cargo spaces for resupply, holodecks and 10-Forward for shore leave... all supported by 3 shuttle bays and lots of transporters.