Galaxy class starship Enterprise |
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| First appearance | "Encounter at Farpoint" |
|---|---|
| Affiliation | United Federation of Planets Starfleet |
| Launched | October 4, 2357 |
| Decommissioned | N/A |
| General characteristics | |
| Class | Explorer/Heavy Cruiser |
| Maximum speed | Warp 9.9 |
| Fighters | N/A |
| Auxiliary craft | Shuttlecraft Captain's Yacht[1] |
| Defenses | Deflector Shields |
| Propulsion | Warp, Impulse, Thrusters |
The Galaxy class is a fictional class of starship in the science fiction franchise Star Trek. At the time of their inauguration in the fictional timeline, they are the largest and most powerful Starfleet vessels of the Federation.
The most notable Galaxy-class starship is the USS Enterprise-D, the primary setting of the TV series Star Trek:The Next Generation and the feature film Star Trek: Generations. Galaxy vessels are also present in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, including the pilot (featuring Enterprise-D) and during the Dominion War. There are also several appearances of this class in Star Trek: Voyager, including the finale.
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The Galaxy-class model was designed by Andrew Probert for Star Trek: The Next Generation.[2] Interiors were designed by Probert and Herman Zimmerman during the first season.[2] Richard D. James designed and rebuilt the sets for the remaining six years, while Zimmerman returned for Star Trek Generations.[2]
The ship's design features the classic Star Trek configuration: a saucer section connected via a vertical "neck" to the stardrive section, with warp nacelles attached to the rear of the stardrive section via pylons. The Galaxy-class contrasts with previous starships, however, in that the saucer section is considerably wider than it is long; the nacelles pylons are roughly half the height of the ship's neck; and the entire ship is designed with an emphasis on forward-leaning arcs. The smaller Nebula-class starship features a similar saucer and nacelles to the Galaxy.
Primarily designed for exploration, the Galaxy class has an actual crew compliment of 1,012, and can carry 1000 passengers. However, in the episode "Yesterday's Enterprise," Lt. Yar states that the Galaxy class can carry "up to 4,000 troops." Due to the large number of passengers, the ship is occasionally equated to a "city in space". There are holographic entertainment and training facilities onboard. The ship is heavily armed, possessing 12 phasers, arranged on the hull as "strips", in contrast to the more literal phaser cannons on older Starfleet vessels. The Galaxy class is easily retrofitted for combat due to size, total reactor power, and volume of hollow space, and the Primary Deflector can be rigged as a makeshift weapon.
Within the series it is stated that design and construction of the Galaxy-class began in the 2340s, with the first ships being commissioned in the 2360s.[1] According to dialog in the Next Generation episodes "11001001"[3] and "Booby Trap",[4] designers of the USS Enterprise-D included Orfil Quinteros and Leah Brahms.[2]
Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry stated that only six Galaxy-class starships had been constructed;[2] in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episodes "Sacrifice of Angels" and "Favor the Bold" no fewer than nine are seen as part of a single "Fleet" and by this point in the series the Galaxy-class USS Enterprise-D, USS Yamato, and USS Odyssey had all been destroyed. The Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual provides a possible canonical workaround by claiming that, while only six ships were ordered initially, Starfleet reserved the right to procure six more at a later date. Indeed it was likely a necessity given the increase in hostilities with the Dominion, the Klingons and the Borg as seen in Deep Space 9 and Star Trek: First Contact.
Three distinct Galaxy class bridge variants have been seen: the Enterprise bridge in The Next Generation (which undergoes a redesign in the first two seasons), the Enterprise bridge in Star Trek Generations,[5] and the USS Odyssey bridge in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "The Jem'Hadar".[6]
The main bridge of the Galaxy class Enterprise is located on deck 1, and she also has a secondary battle bridge on deck eight of the secondary hull for use when the ship has undergone a saucer separation. It is first seen in the TNG episode "Encounter at Farpoint" and again in "The Arsenal of Freedom", with an updated version appearing in "The Best of Both Worlds".
In addition to these vessels, several unnamed or unidentifiable Galaxy-class ships appear in DS9's "A Time to Stand", "Sacrifice of Angels", "Tears of the Prophets" and "What You Leave Behind" and in Voyager's "Endgame".
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