We have taken a look at several ships in Starfleet that have their roots in the 2370s overhaul
of the fleet and those that filled specified roles, but what about the one that was to
fulfil all missions asked of it?
Like the Galaxy class that came immediately before it, the Sovereign was designed to be
able to handle anything Starfleet would encounter and become the poster-ship for the organisation,
a beacon of what Starfleet stood for, a versatile multi-role exploration vessel, and at the
time of the line’s launch in the 2370s, it was the most advanced vessel put into service,
remaining a staple of the fleet until at least the beginnings of the 25th century.
The original design was created by John Eaves for the Star Trek First Contact film and the
original design brief was to have a more battle-orientated look to the new Enterprise, which led to the
removal of the typical “neck” and the swept back nacelle pylons along with the narrower
feel to the vessel.
There were even original concepts with the moving nacelles like those seen on the intrepid
but the general design profile was to take the oval saucer of the Galaxy class, rotate
it to make the ship longer and add design elements from ships like the Excelsior and
Constitution.
In universe, work on the Sovereign design began in 2365, while the Galaxy was still
in the height of service and projects like the Nova and Intrepid were in development
and as such, it benefitted from the numerous technologies being developed around that time.
The aim of the Sovereign was effectively to create a successor to the Galaxy class, but
spare no expense and skimp on no technology.
Not that the Federation uses money, but you get the picture, this vessel was to embody
the pinnacle of design of its era.
It shared numerous developments among projects, such as incorporating the bioneural gel pack
technology first introduced on the Intrepid class, as well as taking into consideration
the damage to subspace that warp drives could cause.
Unlike the Intrepid however, it was not altered to include variable warp geometry and instead
simply developed to create less turbulence to subspace when in high warp factors.
Aerodynamics is not a thing in space, but a subspace profile is.
It also contributed to the ablative armour systems that would go on to be used on the
Defiant and many following ships as well as being one of the earliest ships to include
a dedicated Quantum torpedo launcher, accommodating the newly derived projectile device that was
also entering production that year.
The original prototype for this class was launched in 2370, USS Sovereign NCC-73811
and would undergo a further two years of shakedowns and testing before the Sovereign line was
deemed ready to roll out into production.
With so much advanced tech at play, it is no wonder that there were problems with its
design at first, chief among these being that the advanced regeneratt-(raspberry noises)…
chief among these being that the advanced regenerative shield system went on to draw
too much power from the core and was replete with errors which led to it failing unless
supplied with an a large amount of energy.
There were so many modifications and adaptations to the USS Sovereign, that by the time the
USS Enterprise NCC-1701-E was launched in 2372, the second Sovereign ship was rather
different to the first, at least internally.
In apocrypha, the second Sovereign vessel was to be the USS Honorius, under Captain
Morgan Bateson, but after the Enterprise D’s loss, Starfleet reassigned the captain, crew
and renamed the vessel as the successor to their flagship.
Bateson was apparently fine with this as he found the Sovereign a little too advanced
for his sill-acclimatising temporally displaced self.
The Sovereign was equipped with a warp engine capable of cruising at warp 8, two factors
higher than the Galaxy it was to replace with a maximum spend of an impressive warp 9.995.
This may have been closer to 9.975 earlier on in testing, with refinements and refits
bringing it to this higher speed.
This makes it the fastest vessel at warp of the era, which explains the proportionally
large nacelles.
This rapid speed made it ideal to fulfil the roles of a long term exploratory vessel as
it could head into uncharted space and return in much faster intervals, allowing Starfleet
to continue to expand its horizons.
This also made it an ideal vessel to respond to a myriad of situations and Sovereign class
vessels would often find themselves with surprise assignments which had them deviating course
to deal with issues all across Federation space.
Posting aboard a sovereign class was guaranteed never to be dull.
Additionally, the diplomatic suites of a Sovereign were not spared either, with several lounges,
recreational facilities and a multitude of quarters.
It had a crew of 855 personnel, but could hold up to 6500 people in an emergency, but
even this could be uncomfortably stretched to 9,800 if needed.
Its sensor systems were incredibly accurate, but it did lack the additional mission pods
attachments of other vessels, meaning that in this one regard perhaps, the Luna could
outclass it.
Aside from this however, it was replete with science labs and an array of new technologies
giving it ample utility.
Of course it was also heavily armed, more so even than most other vessels barring those
dedicated escorts such as the Defiant.
The original design of the Sovereign had it armed with 14 type X phaser arrays, the mentioned
single dedicated quantum torpedo launcher at the fore, accompanied by 2 more regular
launchers and 3 more aft ones for a total of 6 torpedo tubes.
Then it was overhauled and the newer refit sovereigns had 16 phaser arrays and the number
of photon torpedo tubes increased by 1 on the fore and 3 towards the rear.
Yeah, the Sovereign’s weapon systems were pretty much incomparable to its contemporaries,
outgunning even the Defiant class.
Although the Defiant did have the more powerful dedicated systems such as the pulse phase
cannons.
Defiant vs Sovereign, I should make a video.
Its powerful impulse engines too meant that it was rather fast as sublight speeds and
was surprisingly manoeuvrable, considering its size.
Which was a grand 685 metres long, 250 metres wide and 88 tall.
It had 24 decks, although some versions had 29, and it has a mass of 3,205,000 metric
tons.
It also had two shuttle bays, one on the rear of the saucer and a second at the aft of the
vessel and it could house a wing of fighters, although this never comes to play on screen,
not does the ship’s ability to saucer separate.
The sovereign generally is a crowning achievement of Starfleet and at its launch the most advanced
ship in the fleet incorporating those technologies that exploded out of the desperate push to
update their fleet and it shows.
There is not really a role that the Sovereign cannot fulfil, which was design brief of the
vessel, to replace one of the most respected and versatile vessels of the era, the Galaxy.
While it’s offensive capability was far higher than its predecessor and it no longer
had room to accommodate a civilian presence, the ship retained all the essentials to perform
as an explorer too.
It’s just that it was also expected to patrol and defend alongside these duties, which it
did so with vigour.
When one of these entered the system, it was a symbol that Starfleet meant business, whether
in a diplomatic sense, or as a military one.
All in all, the sovereign class was the most advanced ship of the time and this future-proofed
its technology, much as the Excelsior was for the 23rd century, seeing its use common
place even into the year 2402 and hopefully beyond.
I’ve been Ric, thanks for watching this breakdown of the Sovereign class starship
and I’ll see you later for another lore video.
Until then, thanks again and goodbye!