Truth OR Myth? Starship Beta Canon - The Sovereign Class Design History

Truth OR Myth? Starship Beta Canon – The Sovereign Class Design History

Hello and welcome to another episode of Truth OR Myth,  a Star Trek web series that looks at the Truth, or canon information to dispel the myths that have surfaced on any given topic.  Today’s episode continues our journey through Beta Canon, this time taking a look at the Sovereign Class of Starfleet Starships.

In the year 2370, the Sovereign Class was launched and quickly became a shining example of the future for the United Federation of Planets and Starfleet Command itself.  But what was the design history of this amazing vessel class?  Well today, we find out.

Of course, there IS a lot of information available of this class in Alpha Canon, so what I’ve done is thoroughly researched the Class through Beta Canon, combined it with established Alpha Canon and filled in some of the gaps with my imagination, all to give you good “Tri-naries” a little bit more design history info to chew on about this amazing class.

As a result though, this video 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, lets begin.

Continuing the tradition of the time of making grand exploration starships, Starfleet Command ordered it’s core of design engineers, to create a fantastic new scientific starship as a larger sister ship to that of the Galaxy Class of Starfleet starships.

(Paramount) U.S.S. Enterprise E In Earth’s Orbit – “Star Trek: First Contact”

Immediately getting underway early in the year 2365, the Sovereign Classes initial design would bear little resemblance to the starship class eventually launched in the year 2370.

Many Federation member worlds had begun to feel that Starfleet had become complacent and somewhat arrogant in its starship designs, the Galaxy Class itself 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 saw the Galaxy Class in a different light, being a mere showboat, and were concerned that it’s design simply wouldn’t live up to the reputation Starfleet was attempting to give it. And these concerns would ultimately prove justified.

With the destruction of the U.S.S. Yamoto early in 2365, as well what was seen as several disappointing performances by the class since it’s launch, these member worlds began demanding a starship design which could in fact perform as Starfleet had hyped about and so the Sovereign Class began it’s design phase, taking most of its cues from the Galaxy Class itself. This decision, however, would be quickly changed as later that same year, the U.S.S. Enterprise D, under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard, would have it’s first encounter the Borg Collective, proving that the design of the Galaxy Class was seriously lacking and therefore not a good design to base a new design on.

Assuming they had far more time before another encounter with the Borg would happen, Starfleet’s Design engineers began redesigning the Sovereign Class with a larger focus on it’s defensive and offensive systems.

(CBS) The Battle of Wolf 359 Aftermath

Then, just over 1 year later in 2366, when the Borg entered Federation Space, Annihilated a Starfleet Task Force at the Battle of Wolf 359 and almost made it to Earths orbit, Starfleet Command immediately pressed it’s design engineers to begin creating tactically sound designs utilizing all the new technological breakthroughs that the Federation had to offer.

Pouring almost all of its available resources into these new breeds of starship designs, Starfleet Core of engineers were able to come up with what was essentially a tactical/ science hybrid, specifically designed to combat the Borg. 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%.  And 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.

Second, this new Class would not have civilians aboard.  Being its primary purpose was to fit Borg, and given the loss of life at the Battle of Wolf 359, Starfleet reversed it’s standing orders that all starship designs created in the 2360s were to include accommodations and facilities for families aboard ship. And 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 Classes first starship the U.S.S. Sovereign herself would be a slow process, however, as once again, thanks to the resources diverted by Starfleet into new design and technology development, meant that in order to appease the Federation Member Worlds, any and all new breakthroughs were to be included within the Sovereign Class. And one man who would combine and bring this class to life would be none other than the legendary 23rd-century engineer, Montgomery Scott.

(Paramount) The U.S.S. Enterprise – E Fires Quantum Torpedoes

One of the most amazing developments at the time which was hastily included in the sovereign class was that of Quantum Torpedoes.  These new Torpedoes were designed to have a much greater destructive power than their photon torpedo counterparts and were designed once again to combat the Borg.

The U.S.S. Sovereign was launched in early 2370, and thanks to it’s improved warp core and offensive systems did fairly well during its initial shakedown cruise.  However, events within the Federation would once again cause this new design to come in to question by several member worlds. Just after it’s shakedown cruise began, it was discovered that conventional warp drive was actually having a detrimental effect on subspace itself, and if standard warp drive continued to be used, this effect would end up being devastating to the Milky Way Galaxy, causing subspace rifts to form. And so Starfleet once again had it’s 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 awaiting a fix for the warp engine problem.

At this time, Starfleet also began construction on a 2nd and a 3rd Sovereign Class starship. Amazingly, Once again, Dr Leah Brahmas 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 it’s moving parts, was a liability, one which Starfleet could ill afford, especially on what they wanted their newest class to be, the best, most balanced design ever created. And so the second option, with stationary but completely redesigned Nacelle components, was chosen to be utilized on the Sovereign Class.

The major difference with these new nacelles, however, was in a new Victrium/ Tritanium alloy used in their construction.  And this new alloy was extremely hard to make, let alone making a large enough quantity to construct Nacelles large enough for the Sovereign Class. Never the less, by 2371, the U.S.S. Sovereign was relaunched with the new nacelles and began it’s year-long shakedown cruise.

(Paramount) The U.S.S. Enterprise E’s First On Screen Appearance – “Star Trek: First Contact”

Meanwhile, the second starship of the class eventually named the U.S.S. Enterprise E also was nearing it’s completion, with 1 major change made to its design, that of the inclusion of Bio-Neural Circuitry. This new breakthrough in Computer Engineering was proving to be massively successful in the Intrepid Class design and as such, Starfleet demanded it is included in the Sovereign Class. 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, allowing the starship itself to predict and counter hostile situations a starship faced.

Remembering the disaster of the M5 Computer tests back in the late 2260s, Starfleet 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, rather simply more predictive, Starfleet quickly fell into line, loving this new breakthrough. And when the U.S.S. Enterprise was actually launched and finished her own shakedown cruise, the benefits of this new technology could not be ignored, and Starfleet recalled the USS Sovereign back to Spacedock once again, this time to have all her computer systems converted to Bio-Neural components.

Finally, with all it’s improved technology, the Sovereign Class would prove herself one of the most innovative and amazing designs of the 24th century.  And the sovereign class itself would also quell all the discontented member worlds, proving that Starfleet once again, had become a force the could be reckoned with if the situation required it.

And yet, the Sovereign Class design was also the pinnacle of Starfleet’s Exploration Style cruisers containing some of the most advanced scientific systems ever created by Starfleet at the time. 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. And so with faith re-affirmed in Starfleet by the Federation Member Worlds, and Starfleet itself determined to never become complacent again, the Sovereign Class would blaze the way into a New Era of both exploration and technological development for the Federation as a whole, earning this class it’s place in Starfleet history…

Thank you for watching today’s episode of Truth or Myth, what do you think of the Beta Canon design history for the Sovereign Class?  What do you think of the class itself?  Well leave your comments in the section below and don’t forget to like the video and subscribe to the channel, hitting that little bell icon so you won’t miss a single video we release.

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