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 Galaxy Class, as first seen in Season 1 of Star Trek: The Next Generation to better understand its place in Star Trek History.
Although this video does contain a LOT of Alpha Canon, please bear in mind that this IS in fact a Beta Canon video, so 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.
Before the Borg attack at Wolf 359, Project Galaxy was wowing Federation citizens everywhere with its new starship designs. And the cream of this Starfleet Crop was the Galaxy Class, a large, luxurious Starship design, the likes of which no one had ever seen before, but what the story behind this mammoth class…
From its conception in the 2340s, Project Galaxy had been hit. Each starship design brought out by the program had been the talk of the town for the Federations Population.
Large and spacious, member worlds throughout the organization had seen each of these classes of the project as Starship Powerhouses able to protect the Federation from all threats and suited Starfleet Command just fine.
The intent of Project Galaxy had always been to create a Mega Class starship to be named after the project itself. And the design for this new Galaxy Class starship had been one of the first completed, though its internal layout and components would not be finalized until the mid-2350s.
As a result, however, 6 Galaxy Class starships hulls would begin to be laid in 2342, but not be launched until the early 2360s, one of the longest construction times ever taken for a starship design.
Starfleet Command wanted everything to be right with the Galaxy Class.
Several impressively large and supposedly powerful designs throughout its history had been met with failure, which had severely tarnished the reputation and trust the organization had once held.
The latest class to experience this failure had been the Ambassador Class, and that failure, above all others, had spurred many discussions of dismantling Starfleet and replacing it with a non-Earth Based Organization to handle all the Federations Protective needs.
Thankfully, Starfleet’s best and brightest were finally able to make the Ambassador Class a success. And with the Christening of the Enterprise C as one of that class, Starfleet had narrowly avoided the chopping block, but they knew, they needed a new line of starship classes, to re-instil all they had lost with the ambassador debacle.
To that end, Project Galaxy had been created, and eventually, the Galaxy Class itself would be born.
Sitting at a length of 642.5 meters and a width of 463.73 meters, the Galaxy Class had 42 Decks and was designed to be operated by 1000 Officers and Crew Members.
The Galaxy Class incorporated the latest developments in Warp Technology, having a standard cruising speed Warp 6 and an emergency maximum speed of warp 9.6, the Galaxy Class was designed for deep space exploration and defence of the farthest frontiers of the Federation.
Constructed at the Utopia Planitia Shipyards Orbiting Mars, the Galaxy Class had both a forward and aft torpedo launch system and originally contained 12 enhanced Phaser Emitter Arrays, though this number of arrays would be increased in future Galaxy Class designs.
These larger strip-like Phaser arrays allowed the Galaxy Class to fire at any target in a 360-degree arc.
This Starship Design also incorporated a new defensive system which allowed the saucer section to detach from the engineering hull.
This had the benefit of allowing the saucer section of the ship to be used either as a lifeboat, ferrying crew, civilians, and passengers to safety during emergency situations or as another battle-ready target for an enemy to contend with.
Up to this point, most starship classes with a primary and secondary hull had the ability to separate in this manner but did not have the ability to reconnect unless aided by a Starbase facility. But the newly redesigned and constructed latching system included in the Galaxy Class overcame these design limitations.
During separation, the Stardrive Section or secondary hull would be controlled from what was known as the Battle Bridge.
Shielding for this class had been strongest created up to this time for any starship class, thanks to all the information gathered during the launch and testing of the other Project Galaxy Starship Classes.
The Classes Main Deflector Dish was a massive unit that could also be reconfigured to become a weapon of a sort, though it could only fire one sustained burst before burning out the Deflector Dish, the damage that one burst could cause was devastating.
Secondary Deflector Emitters, like those used in Starship Classes without the Main Deflector Dish, would provide limited Deflector capabilities at Impulse speeds, should the main Deflector be inoperable, or for the Saucer Section during Separation mode.
The Galaxy Class would also be designed to be basically a city space, with the ability to house an additional 10000 persons should the need arise.
The first official Starship Class to contain and promote Families aboard her, the Galaxy Class would have all the amenities one could expect from a colony or Starbase.
This included educational centres, gymnasiums, theatres, bowling allies and the newly created commercial versions of the Holodeck, just to name a few.
A specially designed area of the Class, known as Cetacean Ops, would also provide facilities for water breathing species to reside aboard the ship.
The Galaxy Class had twenty transporter rooms located all throughout the starship. These transporters were also the most advanced of the time and contained all the new improvements in that technology, such as the bio-filters, that Starfleet had to offer.
This Class also contained numerous multi-level cargo bays also located all throughout the ship. Some of these bays even contained cargo transporters, and some even had exterior hatches.
3 Shuttlebays, the Primary of which was in the Saucer Section, provided the class with all its Shuttlecraft needs, containing the largest array of Auxiliary Spacecraft ever included in a starship class.
The USS Galaxy herself would be launched for her shakedown cruise in early 2361 to mixed results.
Starfleet had felt that the Galaxy Class would take the Federation by Storm as so many of the other Project Galaxy Classes had.
Thanks to all the planning and long construction time taken on the Class, they had felt that the shakedown cruise was truly only a formality, feeling the class should perform exactly as expected, and on that point they were correct.
All the Galaxy Classes systems performed admirably during its shakedown, but what Starfleet hadn’t predicted, was the public’s reaction to the Class.
Thanks to its extreme size, yet luxurious accommodations by any standards of the Federation, the Galaxy Class ended up being seen as the height of hubris on Starfleet’s part by many of the Federation’s Member Worlds but also many of the nonaligned and hostile species in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, giving the Galaxy Class the unofficial nickname of the Space Luxury Liner.
Nevertheless, the Galaxy Class was a Marvel of Engineering, and so generally speaking, the Federation was able to overlook the luxury aspects, in favour of what was promised to be its capabilities.
In fact, the newest flagship of the Federation, the USS Enterprise- D, would become a part of the Galaxy Class, something which made absolute sense to both Starfleet and the Federation.
But the shining lustre of the Class began to wear off quite quickly.
Intended by Starfleet to be seen as the triumph of both form and function, the Galaxy Class simply wasn’t living up to anyone’s expectations.
After Starfleet’s dismal display at the Battle of Wolf 359, the Federation Council would begin a series of reviews on the Project Galaxy Class starship lines, that would end up seeing many of those starship classes decommissioned as a result of poor designs vs available technological upgrades which those classes simply couldn’t handle.
Thankfully, the Galaxy Class was not one of those starships designs, however, and after an extensive redesign and refit program, the Galaxy Class would in fact become one of the most powerful starships designs ever created for its time.
Years later, even a dreadnought version of the Class, containing 3 Warp Nacelles, would be introduced in a limited capacity.
With its upgrades and refit, and considerably now shorter construction time of only 2 years, the Galaxy Class would be mass-produced, becoming a command-and-control vessel class during the Dominion War.
And because of its amazing performance during that conflict, the Federations Public all but forgot the shaky start of the class, embracing it, even though Starfleet’s advances and aesthetics had changed quite a bit.
Even though new vessel classes such as the Sovereign, Defiant and Intrepid Classes would tend to dominate the Federations imaginations, it was not unusual to see the Galaxy Class creep into them every now and then.
What are more demands to serve aboard one of these classes of starships never diminished over its lifetime
Created during a different time in Starfleet’s History, the Galaxy Class would eventually prove itself a powerful and sturdy design, earning this class its massive place, in Starfleet History…
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