Hello and welcome to another episode of Truth OR Myth Beta Canon, a Star Trek web series that dives into the history of any given topic using Beta Canon sources and my own imagination to fill in the gaps. In today’s episode, we’re looking at the Centaur Class, as first seen in Star Trek: Deep Space 9, to better understand its place in Star Trek History.
This episode is an update and reworking of a much older video I once made before I had access to better Space Engine, and even before these Beta Canon videos truly existed. So, I thought I’d pull this one out of the vault, update and rewrite it to conform to my now established style, and give you good “Tri-Naries” the video you deserve in the class.
As always though, because this IS a Beta Canon video, all information re-laid should pretty much be taken with a grain of stardust, and only considered a little bit of Star Trek Fun! And so, with all that out of the way, let’s begin.
With a bold new future on their horizons, Starfleet Command would create New Starship Designs to herald in this new era for the fleet. One of the classes introduced during this time would initially be seen as mostly a failure until 75 years later with breakthroughs in technology that would make the Centaur Class, a Huge Success. But what do we really know about this often-forgotten vessel class?
Starfleet Command and the United Federation of Planets were entering a new Era of Exploration and discovery.
The long peace treaty negotiations with the Klingon Empire had begun, while relations with the Romulan Star Empire were stable, and showed no real sign of deterioration. So, Starfleet decided it was time for a facelift in its starship designs to represent the bright new future it had been predicting.
In the 2280s Starfleet had experimented with a new Starship Class known as the Excelsior Class, and by 2293 this class was proving itself out in deep space all over the Federation.
The Excelsior Class had been a radical departure from the look of the Constitution Class refit, Miranda and Constellation Class developed at that time, and the Excelsior Class itself seemed to have held all the hope for the future of Starfleet itself.
So, it was no surprise that Starfleet Command would order its Core of Starship Designers to focus on the Excelsior Class for designs cues when coming up with new starship designs for consideration.
One of the most versatile and breakthrough designs of the Constitution Refit Era had been that of the Miranda Class. Considered a light cruiser, the Miranda Class consisted of a saucer section with warp nacelles and a roll bar attached to it. And the Miranda Class had proven itself a very versatile design of the time.
Directed to use the Miranda Class as a template, Starfleet’s Design Engineers began to develop an Excelsior Style version of that class which they named the Centaur Class.
Sitting at a length of approximately 382 meters and a width of approximately 320 meters, the Centaur Class would be designed to be operated by 315 Officers and Crew members.
The original starting point for this design was an Excelsior Class Saucer Section with Excelsior Style Nacelles attached to it. The design seemed elegant and sleek enough except the internal space for this class quickly became an issue.
The addition of the torpedo launching system as well as main engineering into the hull meant there wasn’t enough space for all the crew quarters, science labs, cargo bays and recreational facilities required by Starfleet Command to be included in any vessel class that might be operating out in deep space for years at a time.
To combat this issue, the designers immediately added a box-like section to the back of the saucer section like that of the Miranda Class. But this addition proved unpopular as it immediately negated the sleekness of the original design.
Heading back to the drawing board, This problem would be fixed when one of the design engineers suggested removing the box-like section and adding a weapons pod rollbar to the underside of the design.
A decision that allowed the vessel to maintain its sleek aesthetic while at the same time removing the need for the torpedo launchers to be installed within the primary hull.
Another problem was that due to the saucer’s configuration there was really no room for Shuttlebay. Originally this problem was solved by having Shuttlebays like the NX Class on the underside of the saucer on both the port and starboard side of the class.
Again, however, this took up far too Space within the design and after experimenting with the placement of the Shuttlebay, eventually, the design engineers would simply tack the bay onto the top of the saucer section, in from of the main bridge.
Which would provide additional protection to the command centre of the class. The USS Centaur itself completed construction in 2295 and immediately began her shakedown cruise, but like most new starship classes, it had its share of problems from the outset.
Many settling in adjustments had to be completed over the space of 8 months before the class was deemed space worthy and put into production by Starfleet Command with an initial order of 24 vessels.
As what often happens with a bureaucratic mentality, Starfleet took more than a decade to really decide what they wanted to do with Centaur Class, while at the same time, the Miranda Class was receiving periodic updates which kept her in line with all the starship classes of the time.
As a result, Starfleet Command declined to build any more of the Centaur Class, feeling it was more economically beneficial to merely keep the larger Miranda and Excelsior Classes as their ships of the line, updating them every decade or so rather than spending the resources on yet another class of starship.
Also, during the early part of the 24th Century, Starfleet had put more focus on computer and computer component development, a decision that would eventually lead to the Isolinear breakthrough, and so Starfleet Command was leery of producing brand new starships until there was something new to warrant a new design.
Of course, by the time of the Isolinear Breakthrough the Centaur Class was over 30 years old and Starfleet In turn looked for a brand-new class to herald in this new technology.
So, by the 2340s most of the Centaur Class starships that had been commissioned were now decommissioned and placed in Starfleet shipyard ready to be forgotten with all the other dead hulk starships.
Flash forward to the year 2366, After an almost fatal but most certainly devastating attack by the Borg Collective at Wolf 359 had Starfleet running scared, as they realized just how unprepared they were for future encounters with the Borg.
As a result, Starfleet began pouring resources into developing new starship designs and technologies to combat this threat.
Starship engineers would work tirelessly to achieve the goals set by Starfleet Command, and classes such as the defiant, Intrepid, Prometheus and Sovereign classes would be developed much to the elation of the Federation.
However, some Starfleet design engineers were tasked with looking at existing Starfleet Starship Designs and updating them to conform with the latest technologies and expectations of Starfleet.
One of the major technological breakthroughs at this time was the smaller more efficient and powerful warp cores that we’re able to produce far more power than even a Galaxy Classes warp core could at the time.
Commander Benjamin Sisko, who oversaw the Defiant Class project wanted to utilize this breakthrough in his new starship class, and so Starfleet Command granted Sisko permission to construct and install this new warp core in any starship currently in their decommission shipyards as it was their view that they couldn’t afford to recall even one vessel unnecessarily back to Spacedock.
So, Benjamin Sisko would eventually decide to install the new warp core in a Centaur Class Vessel, the USS Centaur herself.
Pulled out of the decommission yard, her technologies were semi updated to give a true test of the warp core and its components and during initial testing, the USS Centaur blew expectations away, performing so well that even Starfleet Command took notice.
Commissioning a full Centaur Class project, the remaining 17 Centaur Class Starships would all be hauled out of the yard, updated with brand new state of the art technology, including Bio-neural circuitry, and sent for trial runs.
After very few settling in adjustments were made, Starfleet witnessed firsthand the rebirth of this old class. And by 2373, the Centaur Class once again went into full production.
With the rising Dominion threat, the Centaur Class could be easily constructed and deployed should the need arise, and of course, it was, as by 2374 the United Federation of Planets along with the Klingon Empire was at war with the Dominion and the Cardassian Union.
During this war, the Centaur Class would time and time again proves its worth. The Captain of the USS Centaur itself, Captain Charlie Reynolds, would go on to become a hero and somewhat of a legend within the Federation thanks to all his successful engagements with the enemy during this conflict.
After the war, Starfleet would continue production of this class, though on a lesser scale than they had originally been intended, preferring to pour more of their resources into far newer classes that would represent the new aesthetics in starship design that Starfleet was going for.
However, the Centaur Class continues in operation today, valiantly representing a different age in Starfleet’s Starship design history but nonetheless earning its place in Starfleet History…
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