Why the California Class Starship is Not That Bad 

Honestly! Its seriously a wonder they haven't been added to the lore sooner. The concept makes way, way too much sense. Like, prior to Lower Decks I'm pretty sure a lot of fans kinda just assumed Starfleet didn't make much of an effort to make sure their newly discovered civilizations are still okay after leaving.

You mean officially called that. It has been a thing in the comics for decades.

​@@StarRider587 there is little reason for most Trek stories to feature second contact, or whatever they used to call it in novels etc. The whole premise of calling it Second Contact is a joke, that would never have happened on a serious Trek show, except perhaps as a quip from someone like Riker.

Pretty sure the concept of second contact was established way before just not really shown. At least don't pretend this rick and morty side gag show is some trailblazer.

@@bipolarminddroppings And thus you get such situations as nobody ever checking up on Ceti Alpha V after Kirk marooned the "young supermen" there. And look how that turned out.

I mean I don't recall anyone saying it was a 'bad' ship, just that it was an ugly one. I can love the ship and still not like the look. It DOES 'look' like a tugboat/utility vessel though.

​@@captin3149which is largely what it is.

Navies are full of such ships. You hear about all the battleships. But not often about the minelayers or other auxiliary ships.

It’s design language is perfect for the theme of the show

I don't like it. It wasteful, getting rid of the secondary hull and building the engineering section either into the saucer or directly attaching it to the bottom of saucer section if they just have to have a secondary hull is still better option. The warp nacelles then could be moved further away and the pylons shortened a bit. The ship would still be bare bones while removing the vulnerability it has.

Even in show it's implied a few times that Cali class is basically the bottom rung of ships actually getting sent out places. Their captains aren't invited to official captain functions and a Starbase was the only place mariner could be demoted to, implying even those Nova classes running orbital defense duty have higher status.

The engineers were like "oh right, this utility ship might actually have to fight sometimes"

@@JohnPeacekeeper”Wait we have to launch a probe? Ummm get the duct tape”

They look like the weapons equivalent of pop-up headlights.

Maybe the caiforna class only got the strap on phonton lunchers after the battle of wolf 359. As far as being warp 8 being maxiun that seems low to be red line maxium pussing the limits would have a hard time keeping up with the fleet which was running at maxium emerancy fleet speed of warp 9.6. The only ship class designed to be able tp run at wapr 9.6 at all was defiant class which even maxed out pushing the red line defiant maxed out at warp 9.2. Even when dsn first got defiant it was limited to warp 8 maxiun redline because of shaking problems

so basically a space tractor, all that grunt to pull whatever is needed, like when they pulled a ENORMOUS generation ship whit just 2 Cali class ships, the Cerritos and Merced, just shows that they can pull big things

Respectively I've always chuckled to the use of the word "speed". Warp technically is not speed but just what it implies. Unless a ships design has a limited function in use, I don't see how warp "speed" would be relevant to a star ships design. Unless the core it's self was designed just so for what levels are needed for said ship.

Also deflector placement actually make sense in case of a tug. You could attach there containers, like in Prometheus.

I don't know what you're on about. Speed is the time it takes to do something, in this case get from point a to point b. You can indeed measure speed from warp.

@@Usa_mikek It's down to a number of factors the California's warp bubble would be huge almost spherical and create a lot of "subspace drag" if they stretched the pylong back more like a Steamrunner it would be quicker. I can't think of any advantage to stacking the ship so tall as that, but it's not the only ship that is unusually tall, but the term as aerodynamic as a brick comes to mind. I think the whole thing ends up looking a little Hydrofoil like to me.

Yeah its an Auxiliary ship. Minelayers, Hospital ships, Armed transports, Tugboats, Repair ships, Survey ships, are all in the navy.

This. The class just reminds me so much of naval tender ships.

Kind of sums up the show. The whole cast are all brilliant in their own right. All very skilled and on any other ship would still be outshined by others. Yet, on this "Meh" ship. Their exploits and duties make them feel important. Maybe not doing first contact or exploring strange new worlds. Or on the Frontline kicking ass (or ass kicked). They are providing the background roll that everyone forgets about. And Lower Decks just adds layers to the Alpha Lore of Star Trek kind of needed. Cause only a handful of series had only episodes exploring this kind of thing. It maybe Meh, but it is honest work.

You're goddamn right❤❤😂!!!!

Honestly I adore the look it still has that federation design language but it is so much more

It’s ugly cool, but I irrationally hate the nacelles being so offset. Do they not require a center of gravity ?

I would almost thing that engine core is modular and swappable.

It closely matches the TNG warp core, just with the white orb around the reaction chamber removed so we see more of the coolant guts. (Edit: haha it’s actually a silver orb in TNG, clearly my DS9-first brain shows through here) And since the video compared against the Defiant, the Defiant core also closely matched the TNG one but instead built the white orb into the floor and bent a lot of the plasma and coolant injection tubes around like a snake to fit. Two different approaches which achieve similar aims

makes sense. one of the biggest time sinks in setting up modern nuclear power plants is designing the reactor. this is kinda the whole appeal of small modular reactors - design it well once, then plug one in where you need power.

It also makes for a great real-world training bed for engineers that might end up on those larger, more frontline ships while still maintaining a purpose outside of just a trainer.

yeah, this makes sense. The Dominion War really increased the attrition rate of the Mirandas and Excelsiors, not just from combat but also just due to being pushed hard and probably not prioritized for repairs and maintenance as much as the newer more combat capable ships.

Plus, you assume all pre-Galaxy designs had to adhere to the Warp 5 speed limit.

It Also Shows a Design language that is quite coherent and screams hey this vessel is Star fleet

The girl isn't pretty but she can work.

I was the same way. Really, wasn't so much the ship though. I kind of like ugly ships. All because in STO, I own the Jupiter-Class Federation Carrier. She ain't pretty. Almost looks like a Space Whale. But I like her. The real reason I was unsure I'd like the series was the humor. And well...I watched some clips of some episodes. And my tone changed. Thus went to watch the series. I really need to get down to watching all of Season 3. Just been too busy.

​​@@QardoThoughts on the _Yeager_ class?

@@ReddwarfIV Ugly, but I want one. If it was in STO. I would buy it. Though, I am not much of a Cruiser captain. I am very much a big ship Dreadnought or Carrier captain, lol. But, I'd buy it.

And if you mess with one, the whole class will arrive and rain down pain on you.

That would make sense if I remember correctly the shipyards were literally pumping out ships with the easiest and simplest designs to maximise output, so instead of a galaxy every 5 years they would have 10 defiants in a month. That would explain the basic design along with the workhorses of the fleet that are not over a hundred years old serving as troop ships during the war

Most likely troop transports for the Cardassian wars.

Considering the size of that generation ship from Season One that two Calis could tow, that seems to track!

Like a diesel truck 😊

There's also the fact that most feddie tech can be made to work better just by pumping more power into it. Maybe the oversized warp core was used to make up for the other resource and part limitations imposed by the ship's design budget, account for having less of everything by making it all work just a touch better or something like that.

How dare you talk bad about the amazing oberths! 😠 😡

😱 🤣

Because you're gonna die because of some unexplained anomaly or a grandiose science project.

I can agree with this.

@@FuzzyBunnyofInle to be fair, just cause you die doesn't mean you stay dead.

Apologise for either the enterprise or the Titan basically apologising for Riker

Pretty much this, they show 2 of them easily towing a generation ship that a galaxy would struggle to budge.

Cheap and good enough beats state of the art for many many things.

Technically most Federation ships are not meant to pick fights they just fight back when someone else does

Or maybe the Prius. Kind of awkward looking, lots of cargo capacity.

You can imagine the marquis having a few, hanging out the back with the Star Trek version of AK-47s.

Sprinter van

Toyota Hilux, I would think. Just look at what Top Gear had to do to destroy one. I wonder if it could be the Starfleet version of a Technical?

The Toyota Hilux of starships. Hell, with that oversized warp core you could probably strap some ludicrously oversized weapons to it and make it into a space technical.

in other words, the writers and artists are willing to put their money where their mouths are and show their love of star trek, not just talk about it. Some of the other production teams have seemed far less ready to show.

Same exact thing but for Fresno!

Sacramento represent. Also, I was born in Bellflower, right next door to Cerritos so it was a trip to learn that was the ship's name.

USS Carlsbad represent.

My American Grandparents (who fun fact: are Star Trek fans themselves) live in Cerritos! I’m personally waiting for a U.S.S. Pomona or U.S.S. La Puente to be added to the roster of California Classes!

@@foxxojones4757I went to high school in Cerritos.

I'm assuming that was another lesson learned from The Defiant class - not needing open space between nacelles (even if it might still be better in most circumstances).

@@phillippatryndal4255 Ah but there is open space between the nacelles, the underside of the Defiant class shows that the nacelles are exposed to each other.

@@sumus11as indeed they are in the Steamrunner at the back. But both also extend into the primary hull rather than being on separate pylons :)

I mean does it really matter? Not like it’s a defensive vulnerability. If the shields go down the ship can be completely exploded in short order.

Interesting how the extra-thick saucer manages to _not_ look like a throw-back to the previous century, unlike the Neo-Constitution class.

@@originaluddite They literally just cut-and-paste the saucer for the Neo-Constitution from the refit version. Even the window placements are exactly the same. Such a lazy design...

I'm surprised. It somehow wears the saucer better for its era - must be the TNG-like array of windows on its sloping surfaces.

She can also make .5 past lightspeed. Wait, wrong fanchise... 😄

That is what Starbase 80 is for.

You could get an Oberth class.

@@martinjrgensen8234 yeah i dont see the hate for Mirandas, they're chunky no-nonsense ships unlike Oberth witch is some weirdly undersized super-shuttle with a surfboard thing attached to the bottom because they forgot to add space for luggage.

@@confuseatronica my headcanon is that eventually they started running out of Mirandas to use for support roles and built the California class as a cheap ship made to do the same thing as they'd been using Mirandas for

Miranda classes are awesome.

oh crap. I didn't realize Eaglemoss went under. Ugh... now all the replicas are like 5xs what they were originally.

@@Venslor Yeah, sucks, even used or broken models are going for 3x the new price. And no one does anything remotely close to as good as their original quality.

The Qraftworks foam model of the Cerritos is a nice budget option.

@@Venslordepending on your country there’s remaining-stock reseller options. A few ships are way marked-up but a few are only like 150% price. Of course you have to be watching the site and act quickly when something comes up

Or God behold a Deadalus

@@viridian8258 I'd even take a Daedalus over a 24th century Freedom-class, though

Oberth: Blows up if you look at it funny. Cali: Takes one of the most hellacious beatings a starship has ever dished out on screen, is repaired in weeks.

yep, they can't all be the flagship of starfleet

Personally, I hate the Titan-A/Enterprise-G ship, it looks like a bad kitbash.

​​@@HylianFox3I wish it stayed the Titan-A But at least Voyager-A is a beauty

Getting to see Mariner emote in more subtle ways was wonderful. I especially like the way she scratched her cheek while standing up after Uhura said she doesn’t take breaks. And the little eyebrow motions and squints when they’re in the bar/mess.

I love the idea. But one small suggestion. change it to "Never bet against a Cali Class."

​@@magicpokey4922until that episode where the entire fleet of California classes teamed up to take down one Texas class, betting against a California class was a very safe bet as that was the first time we ever saw a Cali survive combat without being bailed out by another class of ship or resorting to a boarding action.

@@peterhans3791It is important to note, that was after just one California Class ship took out two Texas classes.

@@jessamynpratt5068 by ejecting it's warp core while they were in hot pursuit, something they could only do because of the circumstances making Cerritos a high value target(which is also why the fleet action went so well) . Even then, that's like saying an Oberth can take out any ship because it has a self destruct system or you could just throw an absurd number at the target. .

@@peterhans3791 It's actually because the California had an incredibly useful component that the Texas lacked. A crew. You may laugh, but the multiple perspectives and genuine team aboard a California was able to come up with an innovative solution that a single minded advanced AI couldn't think of. Call me a romantic, but not everything about a ship is obvious from its stat sheet. The Texas Class didn't have friends to come and back it up other than a couple carbon copies of itself. It didn't have a caring Orion ensign to call it out when it forgot what it was there for. It didn't have an experienced and crazy Bajoran guerilla to propose stupid plans. It certainly didn't make a place special enough for even the people it hurt to still come back and save it. Star Fleet ships with the biggest photon torpedo bays and the fastest warp drives, but no weird diverse community to support them are dead in the water. That's why the California beat the Texas.

You can go warp 9. At least until you rip the nacelles off the pylons that is.

Cali class was there in season 3

@@chemicalhap No it wasn't. If you can find it be my guest.

If it makes you feel better, Star Trek Online has been including a California class in seemingly every fleet action featured in missions lately. Usually noticeable in cutscenes.

In the Dominion War, a lot of Cali-class ships were probably moving around just behind the front lines - Fast logistics ships were undoubtedly in constant demand.

@@katherineberger6329That's a great example of where they'd have been involved in events we saw on screen, but unlikely to have been visible becaues of the perspective we were given!

I wonder if they don't just beam between those sections if they can

I figured the turboshafts were heavily shielded and the lifts dropped you off inside the secondary hull proper. We’ve never seen corridors inside the nacelles, at best a small control room at the front (in TNG and SNW)

@@kaitlyn__L I always thought that having control rooms in the nacelles was crazy for exactly the same reason. That's what Engineering is for. And from what I recall of the one in TNG, the only thing separating you from being instantly disintegrated in a stream of extremely high-energy plasma was a semi-permeable force field that you could just walk through. Utter madness.

@@thomasw4422 A similar suggestion having been given for the Oberth class. It would work...unless there's a power outage. Or the ship is smack dab in one of any number of those conditions where transporters go all wonky.

@@KenoshiAkai the idea they were permanently manned in that TNG episode is really silly. But the episode does show a large door which comes down, much like the shuttlebays, and I’m pretty sure he had to turn off the forcefield rather than being allowed through it. I liked that the one in SNW by contrast was only occasionally used, and had a very thick transparent aluminium (plexiglass) window just like there is around the dilithium reaction chamber in the Engineering set. Which was a nice progression imo from the whole-nacelle “catwalk” in Enterprise, where they had to be totally shut down to even go into the small room at the front and of course were also not usually manned. No way anyone’s jumping into the plasma stream in either of those designs!

Yeah my headcanon has always been that once a civilisation joins the Federation they repurpose their existing ships for this kind of local work

Can you imagine killing your way to a promotion to being captain of... a Klingon Ammunition Support Ship?

Honestly the class has such a Roddenberry look to the design that I assumed it was a pre-established ship class that just didnt get any attention until I looked it up and found out it was made for Lower Decks.

@@StarRider587it definitely feels like it should’ve been a kitbash in the background of Earth Spacedock or the aftermath of Wolf 359!

Technical manuals say its to keep radiation produced by the nacelles away from the crew. Possibly a way to reduce the need for shielding.

@@TyphonJRT Yep it’s less of a design choice and more along the line of “we don’t want the redshirts getting irradiated”

This is my head canon now

Essentially over-specing the engine so that it could endure those lower speeds for much longer.

Maybe because they towed the excelsior class ship? It is kind of neat they have what looks like a Sovereign class style engine.

Funny you mention that; I always saw the Defiant as being a Federation take on a Bird-of-Prey. Small, stripped-back, spartan accommodations for the crew, and designed primarily (if not exclusively) for ship-to-ship combat. No wonder Worf felt at home on her.

@@georgereimers3115 Fair point.

The show is fine, the ship should have been a Miranda.

What kind of monster are you?

The Yeager better not get stuck in the Delta Quadrant

@@LostMercenary99 it's constant refits would turn the kitbash to a proper ship without ruining it's original silhouette. It would be a red dwarf style of ship.

Also, it's been 200 years since the inception of the Federation. Plenty of history / fan recognized canon to celebrate with the ships names. I can see using alien names can be problematic for viewers, you want a marketable name. But something in canon the viewers know would work like a charm. In a sense Star Trek's ship naming convention is as if the US named their capital William The Conqueror instead of Washington.

It's probably due to a starfleet originating as a Pre-Federation Earth organization, and as a result, probably having a "bias" when naming classes and starships, it also doesn't help that starfleet in large portion is still seemingly made up of mostly human personnel, at least 60% or more.

Looking on Memory Alpha for non-Earth names… there _are_ a few examples of Starfleet ships with them, but with one or two exceptions they all seem to be names of non-human characters established in earlier series/movies, and it is all in names of specific ships, not ship classes.

You assume it isn't cultural taboo to name ships after the things on other planets. The federation always tries to respect customs and taboos.