The USS Voyager was a legendary ship,
making the 70 year voyage from deep in the delta quadrant back to the Federation in only 7 years,
and it seems like its legacy continues into the 32nd century!
Welcome to Trek Central! I’m your host, Captain Jack, and let’s get into it!
With Star Trek: Discovery having taken us to the future of Star Trek, into the 32nd century,
the main legacy ship we see in the fleet of the 32nd century is the USS Voyager J, the eleventh in the line of Voyager ships
So let's take a look at this latest in the Voyager Legacy, what we know about it, its role in the story and behind the scenes as well!
FUN FACT, Did you know that only 18% of you watching this video are currently subscribed to the channel here on YouTube?
We’ve got a target of 100K Subscribers than we want to reach, can you help us do it?
Hit that Subscribe button to never miss a video on the Star Trek Universe from myself and the team here at Trek Central!
If you want to keep up to date on all the latest Star Trek news, lore and more, then make sure to hit that subscribe button to never miss a video from the team here at Trek Central!
You can also follow us on social media for daily updates on the Star Trek Universe!
Okay, engage!
The 32nd century variant of the Intrepid Class Starship was launched, surprisingly, in the 31st century,
but was primarily known as a 32nd century ship due to the reduced nature of Starfleet and the Federation at the time.
The vessel came to a length of 452.95 metres. As with many 32nd century starfleet ships, the vessel has detached elements, from its saucer section to its nacelles.
.The nacelles are detached in order to provide extra manoeuvrability for the vessel, allowing the nacelles to angle in multiple directions for warp travel.
And in regards to the saucer section, this would allow for much easier saucer separation between the saucer and secondary hull sections of the vessel, since it is already separated.
Since this detachable technology has been employed for at least a century, we can be assured that any downsides of such elements in ship design have been mitigated, and are outweighed by their benefits.
Apart from the detachable elements of the vessel, the intrepid class of the 32nd century does share the same style as that of the Intrepid class from the 24th century,
with its more angular saucer flowing into a secondary hull with two nacelles.
The rear of the secondary hull is very interesting, with a curved structure surrounding the aft shuttle bay. What purpose this has is currently unknown.
The hull of this ship is very fascinating, as it seems to go over the windows of the ship, perhaps allowing extra protection,
, or perhaps these sections close during combat, something akin to the ablative armour that the original USS Voyager utilised in its final attack against the Borg unimatrix.
As of 3189, the Voyager-J was being installed with the prototype Pathway Drive.
This experimental faster than light propulsion system was designed by the Federation to lessen their dependence on dilithium.
It’s likely that this experimental drive was derived from Spore-Drive technology that the USS Discovery brought from the past to the future.
. However it seems like this Pathway drive was not spore-drive adjacent, as Starfleet was developing a next generation spore drive for 32nd century ships,
alongside the development of the Pathway drive.
The Voyager-J was armed with 32nd Century’s phaser banks, phaser beam arrays and photo torpedo launchers.
With many ships of the 32nd century coming equipped with Cloaking systems, especially considering that the Romulan Star Empire is no longer a faction,
due to them joining the Vulcans to create Ni’Var, it can be presumed that the Voyager J does come with a cloaking system, however this has not been seen utilised by the vessel yet.
This is not canon, but I would love it to be so, is that Star Trek Online introduced a unique weapon to the Voyager J, and that is the Photonic Canon.
If you think that sounds familiar, it is a weapon system daydreamed by the EMH aboard the original intrepid class USS Voyager.
It is said this weapon system was only able to come to fruition with the advent of Programmable Matter, and creates a massive weapon capable of great damage to ships in front of it.
When this variant of intrepid class was first developed or launched is unknown,
but we know that at least 3 vessels of this type were present in the year 3069, in the incident known as the Burn.
Where dilithium went inert across the galaxy, which caused all active warp cores to destabilise, due to dilithiums use as an energy regulator in matter-antimatter reactions, and caused these warp cores to overload.
This was disastrous for the Federation, who were reliant on dilithium in their warp cores, and because of this lost most of their navy, territory and member worlds due to this incident,
however a lot of the member issues were from issues with the Federation before the Burn.
The intrepid class however was still in use during this post-burn era, with the most notable of these vessels being the USS Voyager J, the eleventh ship to bear the name Voyager,
after the prodigious USS Voyager in the 24th Century, which had been stuck in the delta quadrant, 70,000 light years from federation space,
and made the journey back in only 7 years! All this, under the command of Captain Kathryn Janeway!
This newer intrepid class was officially titled the Intrepid Class, but was also known as the Janeway Class Starship, in honour of Captain Janeway’s role in making the USS Voyager a legendary vessel.
The USS Voyager-J was present at Federation Headquarters in 3189 when the USS Discovery arrived from the past into the future.
The ship was crucial, like most of the fleet, in maintaining the station's protection field.
Who was captain of the USS Voyager during this time was unknown, but surely they would have to be a great captain in their own right to be given the posting aboard the Voyager J.
Voyager would take the lead in defending Federation HQ from the commandeered USS Discovery,
which had been taken over by Emerald Chain leader Osyraa and was attempting to flee.
The Emerald Chain was a faction who rose up during the post burn era, and exploited the weakened Federation to gain a stranglehold over many people and star systems for their own profit.
Admiral Charles Vance informed Voyager J to take the lead in attacking the Viridian, Osyraa’s command ship, while the rest of the fleet attacked Discovery.
The ship would also form up as a part of a larger fleet featuring Ni’Var Razor starships that would pursue Discovery and the Viridian, once they escaped the Federation HQ field.
However the assistance of the Voyager and the rest of the fleet were not needed, as the USS Discovery was able to destroy the Viridian from the inside.
Later that year, the Voyager-J would be docked in the newly constructed Archer Spacedock.
This was introduced by newly elected Federation President, Laira Rillak, who also informed USS Discovery Captain, Michael Burnham, that the Voyager would be fitted with a prototype Pathway Drive.
Rillak was also shortlisting someone for command of the USS Voyager-J, suggesting the ship did not have a permanent commanding officer,
or that the current one was due to retire or be reassigned.
Voyager would be involved in the evacuation of Earth and Ni’Var during the DMA crisis that involved Species 10C.
It would later retreat under the orders of Fleet Admiral Vance, as he stayed behind to give covering fire to the evacuation fleet.
Following the conclusion of the Species 10C and the Dark Matter Anomaly crisis, Voyager-J was present at the celebrations welcoming United Earth back into the Federation.
The ship could be seen assembled along with Starfleet’s rescue fleet, Including the USS Discovery.
With the DMA crisis resolved, the short list for captaincy would include Captain Michael Burnham of the USS Discovery, but she would refuse the offer even if she was chosen.
nd so far, that is all we know about the USS Voyager J in front of the camera.
It is sure to have more stories to tell, but as for now, let's look at its story behind the camera to see how it came to be!
With Star Trek: Discovery’s third season going into a brand new frontier for trek of the 32nd century, concept artist Ryan Dening
who has designed many of the ships for Star Trek Discovery, was tasked to design an entire new fleet of Starfleet ships for this new future.
The producers of the show not only wanted new ship designs, which spoke to just how vast and different the Federation had become since we last saw it,
but some familiar designs as well, such as one looking like a constitution class, and another to pay tribute to Janeway's famous ship, the USS Voyager.
There is some confusion and online discussions about the classification of the USS Voyager-J.
While officially, via online articles, the class of the Voyager-J is listed as an Intrepid-class, which is the same as the first USS Voyager under Captain Janeway.
Meanwhile, Star Trek: Online lists the ship as a Janeway-class vessel, of course playing homage to the iconic captain.
Personally, I think Janeway class works a lot better than the Intrepid-class, but after eight hundred years of evolution, using the same classification system would make sense.
The original Intrepid-class would be long forgotten by the time of the 32nd Century some would think.
It’s possible that the Voyager-J as a Janeway-class is just a subclass of the Intrepid class, which would make sense.
Did you like the design of the USS Voyager-J? Let us know what you think of it in the comment section below, because if you’re talking about Star Trek, then we want to hear from you! Make it so!
If you want to keep up to date on all the latest Star Trek news, lore and more, then make sure to hit that subscribe button to never miss a video from the team here at Trek Central!
You can also follow us on social media, or join our Community Discord Server!
For now, I’ve been Captain Jack, thanks for watching and we’ll see you next time! Live Long and prosper my friends!