So the Enterprise F is now canon to Star Trek, the design created in Star Trek Online has
graduated to full canon, although the circumstances around its creation will have to have been
shaken up somewhat to make it fit, but I’m okay with that.
The vessel is an Odyssey class Starship, something that I have not covered in full before so
let’s tackle that today!
Ships named Enterprise have always been on classes of vessel that best fit the general
purpose of Starfleet.
In that the Constitution, Excelsior, Ambassador, Galaxy and Sovereign classes were all shaped
by their time, but all considered multi-role vessels able to operate for extended periods
of time away from base and chart space.
Work on the Sovereign class began in universe in 2365 with the first vessels emerging in
2369 to 72 and it suffered no shortcuts.
The Sovereign was the pinnacle of Starfleet design and replaced the Galaxy class before
it as the frontline cruiser.
Although it had many features stripped away from its predecessor class, such as its civilian
facilities and had the addition of more technologies geared for combat.
This was a reflection of the time Starfleet was embroiled in the mounting tensions with
the Dominion, entering full-scale war with them at the end of 2372.
But the Sovereign class still retained all the facilities for exploration and diplomacy
that was expected of Starfleet.
Nevertheless, the developments made to Starfleet’s ships in this time were many and their designs
came on in leaps and bounds.
This was a much needed push for innovation in the Federation and although the Sovereign
was the fastest and most advanced ship of the line in 2372, it was soon being outclassed
in specialty roles.
The Prometheus class was a more efficient battleship, the Luna class was a stronger
and longer range exploratory vessel.
The intrepid could sustain a higher warp factor and that preceded the Sovereign.
Not to say that the vessel was shoddy, by no means, but the innovations produced by
Starfleet at this time simply exceeded their production capabilities.
Every day, there was something new that rendered ships already in production as outdated as
they left the shipyards.
I’m Exaggerating, but only slightly.
So under this light, it is perhaps not unexpected then that even as the Sovereign class was
enjoying its heyday in the 2370s as the most advanced all rounder, the Starfleet ship design
bureau was already at work sketching out its replacement, the Odyssey Class.
We don’t know exactly when the Odyssey was initially designed, but it was likely around
2380 when construction of the prototype began.
This theoretically would have been the USS Odyssey NX-97000 which was freshly launched
in 2381.
The following comes from the Picard prequal series of books and comics, which cites the
USS Verity NCC-97000 as the ship Admiral Picard was assigned to during the Romulan evacuation
efforts of 81 to 85.
The USS Verity, I suspect was the USS Odyssey, simply given a name change and NCC registry
when it was officially put into service, but why this vessel class for the evacuation?
Well, as Starfleet’s newest ship, it was a sign that they were taking this extremely
seriously and the ship itself had a crew capacity of 1600 with an evacuation limit far higher
than that.
Also, rather selfishly, It also provided a relatively safe testing ground for the class,
evacuations and meetings with extended flight time in between, nothing overly intensive.
However, production on the Odyssey was likely slowed considerably when Starfleet pivoted
to the creation and evacuation fleet of Wallenberg-class ships.
This was all that was being produced by shipyards like Utopia Panetia under the oversight of
Geordie LaForge.
The Romulan evacuation came to an end however with the Zhat Vash and Tal Shiar attack on
Utopia Planetia, where the synthetic androids and automated defenses were turned on the
primary Federation shipyard.
This put Starfleet into a defensive posture and they lost their entire line of Wallenberg
ships, ended all efforts to continue the evacuation, they simply had no time to recreate all their
hard work and had no idea where the attack had come from.
So, the Federation stood by, halfway through its evacuation plan, bristling and awaiting
another attack that never came while the Romulan sun exploded and wiped out Romulus.
I seriously doubt that during the next couple of years, Starfleet was churning out many
ships, considering the loss of Utopia Panetia.
This is speculation, but I suspect this is the reason that the Odyssey class was first
seen in 2381, but still considered top of the line enough by 2402, to warrant a new
Enterprise, the NCC-1701-F. The Odyssey Star Cruiser was to replace the Sovereign, which
too was still in use by the 25th century, just as the Galaxy had been in use while the
Sovereign was in production.
The Odyssey was the largest ship produced at 1061 metres long, 371.88 wide and 147.9
tall and weighed in at 6.6 million tons.
It a big boy.
It had a maximum warp speed of 9.99 and had a split neck design which was there to reduce
the subspace wake, and thereby reduced the damage done in the same way as Variable Warp
geometry, or the Sovereign’s lower profile.
In the games it was also outfitted with the early Quantum Slipstream drive.
This has been seen to be in use by the USS Dauntless in 2383, Admiral Janeway’s ship,
so it could be standard issue by the launch of the Enterprise F. It’s warp core was
a Yoyodyne 46A M/ARC Warp Core and it was outfitted with twin Charon Yard Hyper Impulse
Engines with a further 10 Zhiv/Ren SR83 Impulse Thrusters for maneuvering.
Those are …certainly…
words.
Want more?
As befitting an advanced exploration vessel, it had top of the line DYN-75 Multi Band Linear
Sensor suites, 4 more additional Omniwave Passive sensor matrices and a singular J-Dome
omni-directional sensor array beneath the saucer section.
It was heavily armed too, featuring 18 Mark 12 phaser arrays and 4 torpedo launchers.
Like many of the ships that came before it, the Sovereign and Galaxy included, it featured
a saucer separation ability for both combat and evacuation purposes.
Additionally, it also housed an Aquarius-class escort ship, which was a vessel in its own
right that was docked in the rear of the vessel.
This could be launched far more easily than Saucer separation and served to undertake
missions for which the Odyssey itself was too large or unwieldy to operate.
Navigating a debris field or atmospheric flight for example.
This utility reflected the Odyssey’s self-reliance, following the previous design ethos to have
it act away from Starbase for extended periods and without support.
The Odyssey was named after the Apollo CSM-109 spacecraft as part of the Apollo moon landing
program and the Aquarius was the name given to the detachable lander module, the mothership
and small craft roles reflected here.
In the game, there was a specific design wing for the Odyssey class that further developed
several subclasses for specialised roles as technology developed further, with the Yorktown,
Endevour and Sojourner versions of the Odyssey.
There was also a Mirror Universe version which stuck a weapons platform on her back but hey,
that’s terrans for you.
In the games too, the ship was launched under the command of Captain Va’kel Shon, an Andorian
whose life I covered in this video here.
Sufficed to say, with the initial launch of the Enterprise F being in late 2409 in this
game, its addition to canon means that it must precede this so we are likely to see
a different captain altogether, although Shon would have probably been on the USS Belfast
at the time of 2402.
I am eagerly awaiting more lore on the Enterprise F and to see how the continuity of the Odyssey
class has been adapted to fit the primary lore so as more is revealed, I will be covering
it.
If you want even more information on the Odyssey, I have compiled a small playlist and linked
it below so enjoy and thank you for watching this video.
I’ve been Ric and I’ll see you for the next one.
Thanks again and goodbye!