Hello everyone! Ric here and I’ve already done a video on my personal favourite Federation
Vessels, which honestly is outdated by now anyway, but I thought it about time to do
another top 10, this time on my 10 picks of non-Federation vessels. I will be drawing
from any licenced Star Trek works, but I promise it won’t be just the entire catalogue of
Romulan vessels from Star Trek Online. Well, not entirely. Maybe one or two…. Again,
these are just personal preferences, not a breakdown of the best in order, just ones
that stand out to me for one reason or another. That all said, let’s start out with number
10. The Voth City Ship is just downright impressive.
The Voth themselves are a civilisation that has been spacefaring for at least 20 million
years. Although, honestly, with that timeframe, you’d have thought that they’d have developed
far beyond their level of tech as seen in Voyager to be honest. Nevertheless, they are
clearly one of the most advanced powers encountered by Starfleet and this is most evident in their
enormous scale City Ships that house millions of residents and dwarf even the largest Starfleet
vessels. Effectively mobile space station, they are also equipped with transwarp technology
to make them exceedingly fast. On top of this, they have transporters capable of beaming
an entire starship into its interior and facing one in battle is basically untenable for the
Intrepid class vessel. Smaller ships were equipped with interphasic cloaking devices
that actually shift the object within the field slightly out of phase with the universe
in order to completely shroud them. The weaknesses of their technology seem to be related more
to the arrogance of the Voth, overestimating their superiority based on years of strict
dogmatic belief in that dominant position in the Delta Quadrant.
Number Nine, a bit of a deep cut and one of only two star trek online vessels on this
list. Again, for the sake of variety, I’m deliberately reaching out beyond my initial
gut reactions, but I really like the Tzenkethi ships. These are big, lumbering starships,
about on par with Federation ships, but they are severely min-maxed. In that, their vessels
are slow turning, so their shielding is reinforced on the sides and rear, at the cost of lesser
fore shields. So attack from the front then? Well, no, because the majority of their most
destructive weaponry is forward mounted, so in order to hit their weakest points, you
have to place yourself right into the firing arc of dozens of canons and torpedo launchers.
On top of this, their unique colour scheme, glow and smooth, domed look make them really
stand out. Even their smallest, most compact ships have a Defiant-like feel to them of
a compact little powerhouse, but refined and specialised for combat by a species who dedicated
themselves wholly to generations crusading with zeal.
Number Eight. The Andorian battlecruiser of the Imperial Guard, the Kumari as captain
by everyone’s favourite, oddly familiar blue-boi, Captain Shran. I won’t lie, half
of its appeal is its association with Shran. While really outclassed by my prior two picks,
by both technology and time, it nonetheless was an impressive vessel for the 22nd century.
The vessel served alongside the Enterprise in both the Xindi crisis, albeit with a bit
of coercion, but then stood by them during the mounting Romulan issues. This continues
in the Enterprise Books and the vessel even is given a bit of history within the show.
It is the namesake of the first Andorian Icecutter to navigate the world, and is the first andorian
starship of its class. This was great to hear, as it insinuates so much history and context
to the universe. Every species in Trek, every strange, alien sounding word, has a legacy
and lineage behind it and it was this addition of flavour that elevated the Kumari for me.
Number Seven. The Romulan Bird of Prey. It’s a classic vessel, and again, most of the appeal
of it is linked to its use and appearance in Balance of Terror and the telling of the
sub-hunt across the two crews. I don’t think is that imposing, although the raised nacelles
do give it the swooping look, it’s the fact that the Romulans painted a giant bird across
its keel and hull. You have to admire how extra the Romulans went on that one, “hey
let’s paint the symbol of our Empire right across its entire lower decks! It will look
wicked!”, “But isn’t it going to be a stealth ship that spends most of its time
invisible around anyone who’d see it?” Over time however, the design grew on me in
its simplicity and smooth form, it’s just a few geometric shapes, but they work. A shout
out too, for the one that turns up in Star Trek Picard, although no longer in the hands
of Romulans, it is a modernised version with a lot more detail but is still readily identifiable
simply because of the basic look to the ship. Number Six, the Vulcan D’kyr class starship.
Enterprise was a great series for getting to see some of the main species vessels, due
to the pre-Federation Starfleet setting. The D’kyr was one of the largest and most advanced
Vulcan ships of the era, easily making warp 7 and featured the fairly unique Vulcan warp
ring design that became a hallmark of their ships. These vessels serve multiple roles,
sometimes as science ships, but they were also the ones sent out by High Command when
they needed stuff sorted, taking the role of a combat cruiser. What stood out about
these ships (and Vulcan tech in general), was that they were the more familiar thing
in many ways than the NX-01. The Vulcans were ahead of humans in their development by a
few centuries and this was encapsulated in the D’kyr class’ abilities. A foreshadowing
of the Federation Starfleet. At number five we have the Mogai class, formerly
the Valdore-class. At least I think they’ve gone with Mogai officially now. Either way,
it is the second Romulan ship on this list and one of the most modern we’ve seen, appearing
in Star Trek Nemesis. While the Scimitar is a defiantly better in every way, the Mogai
are sort of the new backbone of the Star Empire navy and not too shabby. Although, to be honest,
despite getting to toy around with on in Star Trek online, pretty much one-hundred percent
of the reason they are on this list is how they look. They’re just so low profile and
glider-like with those graceful wings, that would serve no purpose in space, but dammit
Jim, they look sweet. Something that will come up later in this list too, so spoilers
I guess. At fourth place is a bit of a deep cut, the
Damar Class Intel vessel from Star Trek Online. Again, this is one of only two from that game
on my list, but I wanted something Cardassian from just how much they feature in the shows.
Thing is, I’m not a huge fan of the Galor class ship, which literally was designed to
resemble their own logo. The Damar Class ends up on this list, not only for taking that
design an adapting it into a stealth ship, but for what it represents. Briefly, in this
setting, the Cardassians have been rebuilding after the scorching of their homeworld by
the Dominion, and in the process, discovered a singular talent for construction. They turn
this not only to rebuilding their world, but then into the stars once again, becoming known
as high quality shipwrights, securing a trade deal with Ferenginar and prospering from their
new, less shooty-shooty-opressive pastimes. These vessels end up operating alongside even
Starfleet on a few missions, and one even plays host to Garak for a time, so that’s
always an added bonus. At third place, and I’m not cheating, is
the USS Dauntless, which actually wasn’t a Federation ship. This vessel was alien looking
in its compacted, domed shape, but familiar enough to the Starfleet silhouette to be a
believable experimental vessel. It of course came equipped with the Quantum Slipstream
Drive, a wholly new method of propulsion for Starfleet, and while the vessel was lost,
its tech was recorded in detail and brought back to the Federation along with many of
Voyager’s delta quadrant spoils. Again, it’s a vessel that’s here mostly for its
looks, but beyond the superficial, when it was first presented in the show, I genuinely
thought it to be a UFP ship, a believable next step in design for Starfleet with its
arrow-shaped primary hull, promising to cut through space at speeds unattainable by regular
warp drive. Plus the story attached to it wasn’t that bad either with a villain I
found to be genuinely sympathetic and tragic. At number two, I placed the iconic Klingon
Bird of Prey. Now technically there have been several variations, from the cylon-like ones
from the 2250s, to the even earlier 2150s versions, but I’m talking the film era and
beyond. While the Negh’Var is bigger and more powerful, these ships just have so much
character and seem to be at the centre of so many stories and endeavours. Gul Dukat
stole one and went pirate for a time, Kirk stole one and went back in time, (so apparently
they’re easy to hotwire), and Martok even picked the Rotarran as his flagship. So what
if their size varies, apocrypha says the Klingons just upscale the same frame and that they
constantly refine, tweak and modify the Bird of Preys to keep in them current for almost
a 100 years. What do they think this is, an Excelsior? From the cloaking ability, to landing
capability, it’s just a fantastic vessel for running a wide array of missions for the
Empire! It was also one of the first models I got, so that helps.
Before number one, however let’s look at some honourable mentions. For a start, I want
to throw in the Phoenix. I like its utilitarian look, it’s literally a rocket with warp
nacelles and it kick started mankind’s warp era, and technically it is not a Federation
vessel so its fits on this list. Then there is the Dhaikhina Class Warbird as seen in
Star Trek Picard which shows up in the final episodes. I really like the design but apart
from an appearance in ST Online, we have no canon reference for capabilities, commonality
or anything really enough beyond how it looks. And finally I’m going to include the species
8472 bioship here too for its shear wow factor, firepower and introduction alongside 8472.
Its organic-synthetic style and ability to destroy a Borg cube make it a notable addition.
And at number one is the D’Deridex Class. This is my favourite vessel of non-Starfleet
design for several reasons. Firstly, it was the Romulan vessel for a new era, a powerhouse
to rival the Galaxy class in scale and capability, but it came with a better cloaking device.
The curved hull is designed to resemble the Romulan heraldry even more than their Bird
of Preys and it just has this menacing profile down to the sharp beak. On top of this, there’s
a myriad of little touches, like the nacelles still maintaining line-of-sight (while no
longer exactly a design requirement for warp) it’s still a nice touch, and the shape ends
up retroactively reminding me even of the earlier Vulcan vessels. The faint Aztec-ing
of the hull is in such a way as to resemble feathers. Then there’s the fact that in
canon, it’s the only Romulan vessel to run off a compressed and artificial singularity
core, which I always found to be the Romulans just being contrarian out of principle, because
they do have regular matter-antimatter warp drives too. This is just my all round favourite
alien ship in Trek, maybe just generally my favourite ship.
So how does my list stack up? I mean, there are probably too many Romulan ships on it,
right? And these aren’t exactly the fastest, most powerful ships, even if you were to take
them in their contemporary eras, but these are the ones that stand out for a either one
reason, or a culmination making them something special. I just like them. Let me know how
your list differs, or something you have a soft spot, even if it doesn’t not get much
attention. Thanks for watching, and until the next video, I’ve been Ric, goodbye!