There’s over 800 episodes of Star Trek now and that means there are a lot of weird ships.
But there’s only been one ship that posed as a starfleet ship, but isn't a starfleet ship, but might become a starfleet ship.
And that my friends is the topic of today’s Starship Breakdown.
Welcome to Trek Central, lords ladies and sovereigns! I’m your host, Lieutenant Adam, and let’s get into it!
Today we’ll be looking at the one-and-only Dauntless-Class Starship, AKA Voyager’s Trojan Horse, which promised to send the crew of the USS Voyager home, but instead tried to lead them straight into the Jaws of the Borg...
Like some sort of assimilated shark...
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The Dauntless Class Starship was launched in the 24th century and sent off, unmanned, deep into the Delta Quadrant, ostensibly sent there by Starfleet Command in the year 2374.
When exactly was it built? No one knows... they never got around to that in the episode, see, I told you it was weird.
The Dauntless Class came to a length of 204.82 metres, consisting of 7 decks.
The ship’s design was a stark departure from Starfleet’s design philosophy, resembling an odd fusion of a dolphin and a tortilla chip, with a “saucer” section that came to a spear-point before ‘flowing’ instead of ‘linking’ to the drive section.
While the chevron / speartip saucer was not exactly new - the Intrepid or Prometheus classes had done similar already by this point - it did look… well… curvy? Make of that what you will.
This weirdly-flowing arrow-head shape was complemented by two Nacelles.
But what made the ship so unique and maybe even Appealing was how curved and streamlined the ship was, with even the saucer section curving downwards, almost like an interstellar Concorde.
This sleek appearance was due to the unique component of the Dauntless Class, a Quantum Slipstream Drive, which in layman’s terms, allowed the ship to enter and travel through a form of tunnel in subspace,
while also withstanding the enormous stresses caused by travelling in this rarefied method of propulsion.
Given the two-nacelle, bridge-on-top features of the Dauntless, you could argue that it was still vaguely consistent with Starfleet ship designs of the time;
but the Deflector of the ship was not, with the deflector consisting of a strip instead of a dish which wrapped around the hull of the drive section underneath the saucer.
This was due to the deflector being tied to the Quantum Slipstream Drive, which channeled energy through the deflector to open subspace corridors,
in a similar fashion to how Borg Transwarp coils worked.
The Quantum Slipstream drive was really the show-pony of the ship, and the Dauntless was evidently built around it
This propulsion system allowed the vessel to travel at much faster speeds than a conventional warp drive.
It was sort of like the Spore Drive of the TNG/VOY era; it could travel 60,000 light years in three months, which would have taken the USS Voyager decades,
and before you ask yes, it was mercilessly mocked as an Ex-Machina Loophole around the Warp 10 speed limit which Voyager had already made a huge lizard of in Threshold by this point.
Pun, absolutely intended...
Alongside the Quantum Slipstream drive, the ship also had a traditional Warp Engine and impulse engines,
with the warp nacelles also deviating from standard design from not having noticeable bussard collectors and being very close to the hull of the ship.
The Impulse engines were standard, located at the rear of the saucer section.
The hull of the ship also came equipped with standard federation designed RCS Thrusters and escape pod hatches.
But it has it's own unique finish on the hull material.
The Dauntless class was relatively minimalist in not only size but also compliments, with only 1 transporter, no replicators, holodecks or shuttlecraft. Certainly experimental.
The bridge design was very Starfleet, with a central captain's chair. However the consoles around the bridge were all standing consoles, including at the combined ops and helm console at the front of the bridge.
The Bridge was obviously designed for a minimal operating crew, which makes sense since the ship could be piloted by a single crewmember.
Instead of the usual viewscreen the Dauntless had a master control display located on a wall mounted console.
Engineering also had this Starfleet-but not quite quality to it, with it looking like a normal engineering room, but the usual matter-antimatter warp core was replaced by a much smaller Quantum Slipstream Drive,
which had a small clear globe crackling with energy on top. Whether this doubled up and also supplied warp power, or another warp core was present on the ship is unknown, as the ship was still capable of warp.
The only known ship in the Dauntless class was the USS Dauntless, with registry NX-01-A, noting it as an experimental ship, but by normal registry conventions this would identify the USS Dauntless as a refit of the Enterprise NX-01, which it definitely is not.
It would come to no surprise that the USS Dauntless was not actually a Federation ship, but a ship used by Species 116,
according to their borg species designation,
which utilised Particle Synthesis technology, a technology which allowed for the creation of artificial environments in a way more advanced than that of conventional holograms.
It could be said that Particle Synthesis was a precursor to the Programmable matter used by the Federation in the 32nd century, seen in Star Trek: Discovery Season 3.
The USS Dauntless was actually a trap, laid out by a member of Species 116, called Arturis, who blamed the crew of the USS Voyager for the death of his civilization by the hands of the Borg Collective.
Species 116 had managed to resist the Borg for centuries,
but were assimilated with only a few survivors after Voyager had assisted the Borg Collective in dealing with the invasion of Species 8472.
Arturis had stalked the USS Voyager for some time after the destruction of his civilisation and had created a fake Starfleet message, tricking them into believing the Dauntless was an advanced Starfleet ship sent into the Delta Quadrant to bring the USS Voyager’s crew home.
Arturis’ actual plan was to pilot the ship into Borg Territory with the crew of the Voyager onboard, as revenge for him believing they were partly responsible for the borg assimilation of his people.
He even had a giant "winge" about it, directly at Captain Janeway!
Unfortunately for Arturis’ the crew of the Voyager managed to escape,
which left him alone into Borg territory where he and his ship were captured and presumably assimilated by the Borg.
Even though the Dauntless class was not actually a Federation vessel, a possible Future where the Battle of Procyon IV happened between the United Federation of Planets and the Sphere Builders had a Dauntless Class ship in service.
Presumably the Federation created Dauntless Class Vessels from the scans the USS Voyager made of the ship, after returning to the alpha quadrant.
In the Extended Canon of Star Trek, which takes into account the Books, games and comics, Starfleet eventually created their own Quantum Slipstream Drive, based off of Voyager's experience with it.
Eventually Starfleet would put their own Dauntless-class starship into production, having it ready in time to take part in Operation: Delta Rising, which took place in Star Trek Online’s year of 2410.
The Dauntless class was designed by notable Star Trek Ship designer Rick Sternbach, and didn’t change much during initial development, always having a sleek arrowhead look to the ship.
The only significant change that was made in Pre-Production, was the removal of the bridge section from the top of the model.
Since the ship was also said to be more advanced than previous starfleet ships, it had to look the part, but still look like it came out of a starfleet shipyard and not that an alien was behind it.
Though that explains the general Starfleet look of the vessel, what about the curved look of the vessel?
Well it was requested of the designer that the ship had to look fast. Though this was a challenge for how to make a ship, especially a starfleet ship,
with most starfleet ships not really adhering to obvious aerodynamic shapes we associate with speed.
At this point in Voyager, and in Star Trek in general, ships were becoming 3D CG models, instead of studio models, so the USS Dauntless was created in 3D.
Many of these 3D models were reused in Star Trek Enterprise, from random alien ships appearing in Enterprise, to these 24th century Starfleet ships being used in scenes at the Battle of Procyon V in the 26th century.
Not only was the Dauntless-class present there, but also the Prometheus Class Starship and the Nova Class Starship
with both of these ships also being created for Star Trek: Voyager.
While it's true that different CG houses have thrown Easter eggs into space Battle scenes before (I'm looking at YOU, ILM, dropping the Millenium Falcon into First Contact) this appearance on screen technically makes the Dauntless-class already canon.
With a possible future having the Dauntless Class, might we see this ship reprised as an actual Starfleet class in a future show? Who knows, but it’d be great to flesh out this story of the Dauntless Class!
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For now, I’ve been Lieutenant Adam, thanks for watching and we’ll see you next time! Live Long and prosper my friends!