The design of the starships of the Federation

[Aad Moerman]

Perhaps I am not the first one who has asked the question: why did they designed the starships of the Federation in this particular way?
A saucer as primary hull and a cylinder shaped secondary hull above one another.
It makes the ship more vulnerable to enemy fire and travelling with warp speed.
Nowadays we are used to see them on the screen, but when you take a new look at them, as I have done lately, while working on a ship from the Constitution class from TOS, I started thinking about it.
The other races or empires use designs that are more logical to me: a more narrow front and a wider rearend like the Klingons and the Dominion. The exception here are the Cardassian ships.
I’d like to hear the opinion of others.

 

[CABAL]

The designer of the first Enterprise reasoned that the warp engine was probably radioactive or potentially explosive, so he put the thrust portion away from the ship on struts, hence the nacelles. I would guess that the saucer section was another way to get the crew positioned away from the engines. Also, TOS was going to have saucer separation, and separating the saucer is mentioned in a few episodes and, I think, a movie, but it wasn't in the budget.

 

[kjc733]

There's also the element of "realism" of construction. Cylinders and spheres are efficient shapes space/material wise (and don't forget the initial sketches for the original Enterprise has spherical bows). As Cabal said, they wanted to keep the nacelles separate from the crew, and I guess the engineering spaces from the crew quarters. The dish helps emphasis that its human tech (even though physics are physics) by providing something familiar.

With regards to profile, don't forget that the Federation is about "peaceful exploration." The ships are sturdy and powerful, but that isn't their primary role (or so they keep insisting). The D7 was designed as a combat ship and so, as you say, it has a slim head on profile. The Romulan Bird of Prey was also a combat ship, but was supposed to look reminiscent of a cruder version of a Federation starship (thus adding to the suspicions about Vulcan spies). Hence the disc and pylon separated nacelles.

Once you have those three basic design aesthetics in place, the three main races expand from them. The Vor'cha is an obvious derivative from the D7. The D'deridex obviously has the hallmarks of the BoP (albeit much much larger). The B'rel is an oddity being a hybrid of Klingon (D7) and Romulan (BoP) styles. This is probably because the original script for ST III called for Kruge to steal a Romulan BoP.

The Cardassians were a chance for a clean slate. To be honest, I'd like to know the inspiration for the Galor because it's basically a brick with wings. I imagine they were going for "rugged" and wanted to do something different than the nacelles that the Feds, Klinks and Romulans have.

The Dominion, now they have an interesting set of ships. Unlike most of the other races they have a properly defined set of ship roles streamlined into three hulls. There's the attack ship/frigate/escort (small, agile, low profile). There's the main cruiser (lowish profile, reasonable size, a brawler), and there's the dreadnaught (massive juggernaught with guns, another brick but with a configuration reminiscent of the cruiser). This is something that annoys me about the other races, all ships seem to be used for all roles.

The Borg - well they just like geometric shapes. And lets face it, there is something intimidating about the power needed to shift such a mahosive cube quickly through space. It's not natural, its not familiar (ships, aircraft, cars, none of them are cubes), and the unfamiliar is unnerving if not scary.

Who else... Ferengi. Pass. I've got no ideas on where that came from.

 

[Aad Moerman]

Thanks guys, sounds reasonable.