Star Trek: Daedalus Class
April 29, 2009This remains my second-favourite Star Trek ship concept (after the original Enterprise, of course). I guess I’m drawn to simple, classic lines. I can tell you that I have never much liked the Enterprise D (or the E, for that matter). I didn’t even like the Archer Enterprise. But this ship, this design, always caught me eye.
We never actually saw this ship class on the original series, so it’s been up to good artists and designers to bring her to life. This drawing you see here is courtesy of designer Adam Heinbush; there are a lot more out there, from fans exploring this mythic ship design.
This is not a very large ship. It would be dwarfed by the nacelles on the NCC-1701, in fact. It has a crew of about 200, and features stairs, not turbolifts. All in all, a fairly claustrophobic way to explore deep space.
Daedalus class ships are mentioned twice on TOS: The USS Horizon (in “A Piece of the Action”) and the USS Archon (“The Return of the Archons”). And its design made a return in the TNG finale, All Good Things, as the USS Pasteur, a medical ship. Sometimes, Starfleet just has to have big balls instead of flat saucers … er, primary hulls.
Thank you
The Daedalus Class was actually based on one of Matt Jefferies’s early sketches for the Enterprise.
This is definitely a generational division; you like designs inspired by the old ’50s and ’60s pulp sci-fi magazines. They are the rocketeering ships that barely made it out into the void, produced by recently space-borne civilizations. You like technology that is not perfected.
True. I like older classic rocket ships, etc. Of course, part of that is a pet peeve of mine: that starships have to be sleek and aerodynamic. I don’t much like that look.