- 2 days ago
What did Starfleet improve on in the last 100 years, and what did they make worse?
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00:00One of the most hotly debated questions in science fiction is Kirk or Picard.
00:05But these arguments usually don't factor in their ships,
00:08likely because, by all accounts, the Enterprise-D is far superior to Kirk's NCC-1701.
00:15Starfleet made a lot of progress in the time between making these two ships,
00:19from the years 2245 to 2363.
00:22But what exactly is it that makes the next generation's Enterprise so dissimilar?
00:27So with that in mind then, I'm Ellie with Trek Culture here with the 10 biggest differences
00:32between Kirk's Enterprise and Picard's.
00:35Number 10. Size.
00:37Although the two starships had very similar designs,
00:41the Enterprise-D, Galaxy-class, was much bigger than its Constitution-class counterpart.
00:46Picard's ship was more than twice as long, measuring in at 641 metres, that's 2,103 feet,
00:54compared to Kirk's ship at 288.6 metres, or 947 feet,
01:00and was also made much bulkier around weak spots like the neck and the warp nacelle pylons.
01:05Although the number of people on both ships fluctuated,
01:08the original Enterprise never had more than 500 people on board, typically around 200,
01:13whereas the Enterprise-D consistently housed a little over 1,000 people.
01:18Both ships were among the largest and most powerful of their times,
01:22but by the 24th century, even ships that were considered small, such as Voyager,
01:27were much larger than Kirk's vessel.
01:29Weirdly, in the Star Trek 2009 film, Kirk's Enterprise was redesigned and scaled up
01:34to be about the same size as a Galaxy-class,
01:37due to the size that they made the ship's windows on its 3D model.
01:41Number 9. Speed.
01:43Comparing the maximum speed of both ships isn't really fair,
01:47because although there was a writer's guide to calculate how long it should take the ship
01:51to travel anywhere, this guide was rarely consulted,
01:54and by the time of the next generation, an entirely new system replaced it.
01:58In Gene Roddenberry's initial draft proposal, Star Trek Is,
02:02he stated that the maximum speed of the original series' Enterprise was 0.73 light-years per hour,
02:09which would mean it could travel Voyager's 70,000 light-year journey home in about 11 years,
02:15as opposed to 70, and Voyager was much faster than the Enterprise-D.
02:19Part of this confusion comes because in the next generation and beyond,
02:23new calculations were implemented,
02:25and Warp 10 was defined as infinite speed,
02:28a seemingly impossible velocity that would allow you to occupy every point in space simultaneously.
02:33The speed of warp factors increased exponentially from 1 to 9 to 9.1, 9.2 and beyond,
02:40never reaching 10, as this would be infinite speed.
02:44The Enterprise-D was established in the show as having a standard maximum warp factor of 9.5,
02:50and given the speed of 0.73 light-years per hour,
02:53Scotty could apparently get the ship beyond Voyager's max speed of warp 9.975.
02:58It is safe to assume that this was merely a mistake,
03:01but maybe Scotty really was just a miracle worker.
03:05Number 8. Computer Systems
03:07Starfleet's computers have gone through numerous changes over the years.
03:11Touchscreens were not commonplace in the original series,
03:14and most computers were bulky and had very indistinct buttons and dials plastered all over.
03:19Their design harkens back to early computers from the 60s.
03:22Presumably, the set designers failed to anticipate how far computers would advance.
03:27In the next generation, we are introduced to L-CARS,
03:30short for Library Computer Access and Retrieval System.
03:33L-CARS is the operating system that all Starfleet uses in the 24th century,
03:38characterised by its bright-coloured borders separating different pieces of information,
03:43as well as its touchscreens, which greatly resemble the technology in modern smartphones.
03:48The design of the computers was not the only thing to change, however,
03:52as 23rd century starships operated with duotronic systems,
03:56whereas in the 24th century, they used isolinear cores.
04:00The differences between these two types of computers are not clearly defined,
04:04but it's safe to assume that the isolinear circuitry is much faster.
04:08Number 7. Holodex
04:10Holographic communication devices existed in Kirk's time,
04:14as we see in the Star Trek Discovery episode, The Vulcan Hello.
04:18But they had poor resolution,
04:20and at this time, the holograms were merely 3D projections of people that could not actually be touched.
04:26They fell out of use before the original series,
04:28and it wasn't until about 100 years later that we started to see some advancement in the tech.
04:33The next generation's pilot introduced us to the Holodeck,
04:37leaps and bounds beyond the holograms of old,
04:39able to render entire realistic worlds that fit within the confines of a small room,
04:44yet appeared to stretch beyond the horizon.
04:47The Holodeck employed an extremely advanced system of lasers, force fields,
04:51optical illusions and anti-gravity to make the simulated worlds indistinguishable from reality.
04:57The creation of the Holodeck was the greatest advancement in entertainment in human history,
05:02and by the late 24th century, they were on board nearly every starship in the fleet,
05:07every starbase, and even some people's homes.
05:11Number 6. Replicators
05:13The 23rd century predecessors to replicators, known as food synthesizers,
05:18operated on a similar principle.
05:20The main difference being that while replicators can rearrange individual atoms to create virtually any object,
05:26food synthesizers were more limited,
05:28only able to rearrange select amino acids and other substances available on board the ship to create meals.
05:34The invention of the replicator meant that the Enterprise-D did not have to keep stock of individual ingredients for food,
05:42as nearly every meal could be constructed using miscellaneous particles in space.
05:46The replicators could also create weapons, clothing, and nearly anything else imaginable given enough power.
05:53Food synthesizer technology appears to be limited to rearranging organic matter.
05:57The operation of these devices was also very different.
06:00Replicators responded to voice commands, whereas people ordered meals from food synthesizers by inserting a small program tape into the device.
06:08Replicators on the Enterprise-D freed up storage space, gave the crew more food options to choose from,
06:14and allowed for more long-distance missions, as the ship did not need to constantly replenish specific ingredients.
06:20Number 5. Shuttle bays and the captain's yacht
06:23Both the original Enterprise and the Enterprise-D had shuttles on board that could transport members of the crew on special missions away from the mothership,
06:32or land on a planet's surface.
06:34They were warp-capable and armed with phasers, but much slower and less powerful than a starship.
06:39The shuttles were stored, launched, and maintained in shuttle bays.
06:43Kirk's ship only had one shuttle bay, whereas Picard's had at least three.
06:47Interestingly, the Enterprise-D was also equipped with another small vessel known as a captain's yacht.
06:52Picard's yacht was known as the Calypso, and was never used on screen,
06:57though you can make out the outline of it on the underside of the saucer section.
07:02It makes sense that Picard would barely use his yacht, as it seems more like a pretentious status symbol than anything practical.
07:09Number 4. Families on board
07:11One of the oddest changes from the original series to the next generation was that the Enterprise now inexplicably had families and children on board at all times,
07:20a fact that Picard himself expresses disagreement over in the pilot episode Encounter at Far Point.
07:26The Enterprise-D even had a school, and many children would spend years of their lives on the ship.
07:31This is terrifying when one considers how often the ship is threatened by aliens, anomalies, and other disasters.
07:37When the entire crew de-evolved into prehistoric animals in Genesis, all these children were affected too.
07:44They were subjected to memory loss in the episode Conundrum, and nearly assimilated by the Borg in Q Who,
07:49not to mention the near-weekly space battles.
07:52Clearly, a starship is no place for children.
07:55Starfleet in the original series was much more logical in this regard,
07:59treating starships more like military vessels than luxury cruises,
08:02only allowing civilians and children on board for short periods when necessary.
08:08Number 3. Cetacean Ops
08:10In Kirk's time, whales were extinct, and humanity did not yet know of theirs and the dolphins' highly advanced intelligence.
08:18When the whales were brought back from the past to repopulate in Star Trek The Voyage Home,
08:22and Starfleet discovered that they were sentient, they learned to communicate with them and formed an alliance.
08:27Many whales and dolphins, or cetaceans, would even join Starfleet,
08:31and in the next generation, some starships, such as the Enterprise-D, had an area on board known as Cetacean Ops,
08:38huge water tanks where cetaceans would use their advanced brains and unique physiologies
08:42to assist the ship with navigation, greatly improving efficiency.
08:47We never got to see Cetacean Ops on the Enterprise-D, but in the Lower Decks episode First First Contact,
08:52the crew of the Cerritos pays a visit and is greeted by two adorable beluga whales in Starfleet uniforms.
08:59Number 2. Weapons
09:01Surprisingly, the weapons on Starfleet's ships didn't change much at all from the 23rd century to the 24th.
09:08Both Enterprises were equipped with photon torpedoes and phasers.
09:12It wasn't until the first invasion of the Borg when Starfleet began to develop more destructive weapons
09:17like quantum torpedoes and tricobalt warheads.
09:20Prior to this, the Federation had been experiencing decades of unprecedented peace.
09:25The Enterprise-D did have one major advancement to its phasers with the inclusion of phaser arrays,
09:30linear arrangements of phaser emitters that could fire from virtually any angle.
09:35This was a massive improvement from the traditional phaser cannons of Kirk's time,
09:39which could only fire in a very limited path.
09:42Number 1. Saucer Separation
09:44As mentioned earlier, the Enterprise-D, as opposed to Kirk's ship,
09:48had a large number of civilians and children on board.
09:51When the ship was under attack, it needed a way to evacuate all of these non-Starfleet people to safety.
09:57And this was the rationale behind the Enterprise-D's Saucer Separation.
10:01Saucer Separation could be done with the original series-era ships,
10:04but the procedure was dangerous and could not be undone except at a starbase.
10:09Perhaps the coolest yet most underused feature of Picard's ship,
10:13Saucer Separation could also be used to flank enemies, attacking them from two angles at once.
10:19Both parts of the ship functioned completely well on their own,
10:22equipped with warp nacelles, weapons, and shields.
10:25It would have been nice to see more combat scenarios involving this maneuver.
10:29Saucer Separation was only used in a couple of episodes for many reasons.
10:33Mainly, it's just because of the high cost of filming the model to do it,
10:37but also, separation took a long time,
10:39as they had to wait for all non-Starfleet personnel to move to the Saucer
10:43and the crew to split between the two sections.
10:46And that concludes our list.
10:47If you can think of any that we missed,
10:49then do let us know in the comments below.
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10:57at Trek Culture,
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11:00just by searching Ellie Littlechild.
11:02I've been Ellie with Trek Culture.
11:03I hope you have a wonderful day,
11:05and remember to boldly go where no one has gone before.
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