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 Sovereign Class, as first seen in the movie Star Trek: First Contact, to better understand its place in Star Trek History.
Please note, that this is an updated video of an older episode I once made for the channel, with brand new visuals and a refined narrative.
But as always, 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.
In the year 2370, the Sovereign Class would be launched and quickly became a shining example of the future for the United Federation of Planets and Starfleet Command itself. But what do we know about the history of this amazing vessel class…
Many Federation member worlds had begun to feel that Starfleet had become complacent and somewhat arrogant in its starship designs.
After the Borg Attack on wolf 359 in 2366, the Galaxy Class itself would be seen as one of the ultimate examples of this arrogance.
There had been a lot of Pomp and Circumstance surrounding the Galaxy Class, Starfleet Command toting it as the most important, most advanced starship design ever created, a design that would herald in a new era of exploration unlike any that had been seen since the launch of the Constitution Class over a century before.
These member worlds now saw the Galaxy Class design in a different light, being more of a showboat than anything else, and these concerns would ultimately prove justified through the history of the class.
With the destruction of the USS Yamato early in 2365, as well as what was seen as several disappointing performances by the class since its launch, these members world began demanding a starship design which could in fact live up to the hype that Starfleet Command had been spreading since decades before the Galaxy Classes launch.
So shortly after the Battle of Wolf 359, Starfleet’s design engineers would begin the daunting task of creating the ultimate Starship design for the organization, and eventually, the Sovereign Class would be born.
Sitting at a length of approximately 680 meters and a width of approximately 240 meters, the Sovereign Class would be designed to be operated by 700 officers and crew members.
To ensure that the Sovereign Class would surpass the expectations of both Starfleet Command and the Federation’s citizens, this starship design would include several new, never before tested technologies.
First, the Sovereign Class would Utilize a brand new, much more powerful Warp Core, a smaller version of the core was already being tested and outperformed the Galaxy Classes Warp System by almost 300%. So utilizing this new core as a template, Dr Leah Brahams and her teams designed a much larger version unlike any warp core ever seen aboard a Starfleet Starship.
As a result of this amazing new core, the Sovereign Class would have a standard safe cruising speed of warp factor 8, and a maximum emergency speed of Warp Factor 9.99.
The Sovereign Classes warp nacelles would also contain completely redesigned warp coils which would prevent its warp travel from damaging subspace.
Just after its shakedown cruise began, it was discovered that conventional warp drive was having a detrimental effect on subspace itself, and if the use of standard warp drives continued, this effect would end up being devastating to the Milky Way Galaxy, by causing subspace rifts to form.
And so, Starfleet once again had its engineers look into the problem and come up with a solution, and due to the Sovereign classes’ larger and far more powerful warp core design, the ship itself was recalled to Spacedock to await a fix for the warp engine problem.
Amazingly, Once again, Dr Leah Brahams and her team would solve the warp travel problem with 2 very different solutions.
The first, known as the variable geometry warp drive, utilized several new components as well as pylons which moved the warp nacelles closer to the starship when travelling at warp. This new engine system was tested on the Intrepid Class, and although it proved successful, most of the Admiralty felt this design, with all its moving parts, was a liability, one which Starfleet could ill afford, especially on what they wanted their newest class to be, the best, most potent and balanced design ever created.
The second option, with stationary but completely redesigned Nacelle components, was chosen to be utilised on the Sovereign Class.
The major difference with these new nacelles, however, was in a new Victrium/ Tritanium alloy used in their construction, which would absorb all the delta radiation created by the nacelles, again preventing damage to subspace.
The Sovereign Class would also contain Bio-Neural circuitry. Bio-Neural Circuitry allowed a much faster response time from the ship’s computer and in essence, allowed a computer aboard a starship, to basically think for itself, allowing the starship to predict and counter hostile situations it faced.
Remembering the disaster of the M5 Computer tests back in the late 2260s, Starfleet Command was not very keen on this new computer concept at first. But after testing and proving that the computer cores aboard their starships would not in fact be sentient, but rather simply more predictive, Starfleet quickly fell into line, loving this new breakthrough.
Tactically, the Sovereign Class would also contain the most destructively powerful weapons systems created to this point in Starfleet History.
Equipped with the Latest Phaser and photon torpedo technology, the Sovereign Class would also include one of the most amazing developments in weapons technology, that of Quantum Torpedoes.
These new Torpedoes were designed to have a much greater destructive yield than their photon torpedo counterparts.
The Sovereign Class would also not have civilians or families aboard her. Being its primary purpose was to fight and defeat the Borg, and given the loss of life at the Battle of Wolf 359, Starfleet reversed its standing orders that all starship designs include accommodations and facilities for families aboard the ship.
This reversal would prove very beneficial to the Sovereign Class, as it allowed for a much more compact design to be created. Construction on the Sovereign Class would also be slightly different from Starfleet’s normally undertaken.
Instead of constructing and testing a single vessel of the class, and then commissioning that class, this Class would have 6 starships constructed at once, with construction commencing on the other 5 ships of the class a mere 6 months after the Sovereign’s own Construction began.
One legendary man would oversee the entire construction process of the class, the legendary 23rd-century engineer, Captain Montgomery Scott.
The USS Sovereign was launched in early 2370 and performed way above the expectations of Starfleet and the Federation during its yearlong Shakedown cruise.
After the unfortunate destruction of the Galaxy Class USS Enterprise-D in 2371, saving the Veridian Star System from destruction, it was decided the second starship off the line would be renamed the Enterprise E, and once again Captain Jean-Luc Picard would assume command of this newest flagship.
And the Enterprise E, having received minor changes and upgrades to her design would blow away everyone’s expectations with its performance.
The Sovereign Class would remain in service for over 150 years until eventually the decision would be made to decommission the class once and for all in favour of newer sleeker looking designs.
Created to defeat the Borg, the Sovereign Class would prove herself far more than just a fighting machine, and with faith re-affirmed in Starfleet by the Federation Member Worlds, Starfleet itself would be determined to never become complacent again, leading directly to a New Era of both exploration and technological development for the Federation as a whole.
Even years later, with the introduction of classes such as the odyssey and Inquiry Classes, the Sovereign Class would still remain a major force within Starfleet’s Star fleet, exploring strange new worlds, seeking out new life and new civilization, boldly continuing to go where no one had gone before, but this time with teeth.
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