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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, likely because by all accounts...
00:10the 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 from the years...
00:202245 to 2363.
00:22But what exactly is it that makes the next...
00:25generations Enterprise so dissimilar?
00:27So with that in mind then, I'm Ellie with TrekCulture here...
00:30with the 10 biggest differences between Kirk's Enterprise and Picard.
00:35Number 10. Size.
00:37Although the two starships had very similar...
00:40designs, the Enterprise-D galaxy-class was much bigger than its...
00:45constitution-class counterpart.
00:47Picard's ship was more than twice as long, measuring in and...
00:50at 641 metres.
00:52That's 2,103 feet.
00:54Compare...
00:55The ship had to Kirk's ship at 288.6 metres or 947.
01:00And was also made much bulkier around weak spots like the neck and the warp nace...
01:05cell pylons.
01:06Although the number of people on both ships fluctuated, the original Enterprise never...
01:10had more than 500 people on board, typically around 200.
01:14Whereas the Enterprise...
01:15D consistently housed a little over 1,000 people.
01:18Both ships were among the...
01:20largest and most powerful of their times.
01:22But by the 24th century, even ships that were...
01:25considered small, such as Voyager, were much larger than Kirk's vessel.
01:29Weirdly, it's...
01:30In the Star Trek 2009 film, Kirk's Enterprise was redesigned and scaled up...
01:35to be about the same size as a galaxy class due to the size that they made the ship's windows...
01:40on its 3D model.
01:41Number 9.
01:43Speed.
01:44Comparing the maximum...
01:45speed of both ships isn't really fair because although there was a writer's guide to calculate...
01:50how long it should take the ship to travel anywhere, this guide was rarely consulted and by the time...
01:55of the next generation, an entirely new system replaced it.
01:59In Gene Roddenberry's...
02:00initial draft proposal, Star Trek is, he stated that the maximum speed of...
02:05the original series Enterprise was 0.73 light-years per hour, which would...
02:10mean 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...
02:20confusion comes because in the next generation and beyond, new calculations were implemented...
02:25and Warp 10 was defined as infinite speed, a seemingly impossible velocity that...
02:30would allow you to occupy every point in space simultaneously.
02:33The speed of warp factors...
02:35increased exponentially from 1 to 9 to 9.1, 9.2...
02:40and beyond, never reaching 10, as this would be infinite speed.
02:44The Enterprise...
02:45Enterprise-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, Scotty could apparently get...
02:55the ship beyond Voyager's max speed of warp 9.975, it is safe to assume that...
03:00this was merely a mistake, but maybe Scotty really was just a miracle worker.
03:05Number 8. Computer Systems
03:07Starfleet's computers have gone through numerous...
03:10changes over the years. Touchscreens were not commonplace in the original series, and most computer...
03:15computers were bulky and had very indistinct buttons and dials plastered all over.
03:19Their design...
03:20harkens back to early computers from the 60s. Presumably, the set designers failed to anticipate...
03:25how far computers would advance. In the next generation, we are introduced to...
03:30L-CARS, short for Library Computer Access and Retrieval System. L-CARS is the...
03:35operating system that all Starfleet uses in the 24th century. Characterised by its...
03:40bright coloured borders separating different pieces of information, as well as its touchscreens...
03:45which greatly resembled the technology in modern smartphones. The design of the computer...
03:50L-CARS was not the only thing to change, however, as 23rd century starships operated with...
03:55duotronic systems. Whereas, in the 24th century, they used isolinea...
04:00L-CARS. The differences between these two types of computers are not clearly defined, but it's safe to...
04:05assume that the isolinea circuitry is much faster.
04:09Number 7.
04:10Holodex.
04:11Holographic communication devices existed in Kirk's time.
04:15As 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...
04:25actually be touched. They fell out of use before the original series, and it wasn't until about...
04:30300 years later that we started to see some advancement in the tech. The next generation's pie...
04:35Charlotte introduced us to the holodeck. Leaps and bounds beyond the holograms of old...
04:40able to render entire realistic worlds that fit within the confines of a small room, yet...
04:45appeared to stretch beyond the horizon. The holodeck employed an extremely advanced...
04:50system of lasers, force fields, optical illusions, and anti-gravity to make the simul...
04:55simulated worlds indistinguishable from reality. The creation of the holodeck was the greatest...
05:00advancement in entertainment in human history, and by the late 24th century...
05:05they were on board nearly every starship in the fleet, every starbase, and even some people...
05:10homes. Number 6. Replicators. The 23rd century...
05:15predecessors to replicators, known as food synthesizers, operated on a similar principle...
05:20The main difference being that while replicators can rearrange individual atoms to create...
05:25virtually any object, food synthesizers were more limited, only able to rearrange...
05:30collect amino acids and other substances available on board the ship to create meals.
05:35The invention of the replicators meant that the Enterprise-D did not have to keep stock of...
05:40individual ingredients for food, as nearly every meal could be constructed using miscellaneous...
05:45particles in space. The replicators could also create weapons, clothing, and...
05:50nearly anything else imaginable given enough power. Food synthesizer technology...
05:55appears to be limited to rearranging organic matter. The operation of these devices was also very...
06:00very different. Replicators responded to voice commands, whereas people ordered meals from food...
06:05synthesizers by inserting a small program tape into the device. Replicators on the Enterprise...
06:10freed up storage space, gave the crew more food options to choose from, and allowed for more...
06:15long-distance missions as the ship did not need to constantly replenish specific ingredients.
06:20Number 5. Shuttle bays and the captain's yacht. Both the...
06:25original Enterprise and the Enterprise-D had shuttles on board that could transport members of the crew...
06:30on special missions away from the mothership, or land on a planet's surface. They were warped...
06:35capable and armed with phasers, but much slower and less powerful than a starship.
06:40The shuttles were stored, launched, and maintained in shuttle bays. Kurt's ship only had one shuttle...
06:45whereas Picard's had at least three. Interestingly, the Enterprise-D was also equipped...
06:50equipped with another small vessel known as a Captain's Yacht. Picard's Yacht was known as the...
06:55Mipso, and was never used on screen, though you can make out the outline of it on the...
07:00underside of the saucer section. It makes sense that Picard would barely use his yacht, as it's...
07:05seems more like a pretentious status symbol than anything practical.
07:09Number 4.
07:10One of the oddest changes from the original series to the next...
07:15generation was that the Enterprise now inexplicably had families and children on board at all...
07:20times, a fact that Picard himself expresses disagreement over in the pilot episode...
07:25encounter at Farpoint. The Enterprise-D even had a school and many children would spend years...
07:30years of their lives on the ship. This is terrifying when one considers how often the ship is threatened...
07:35by aliens, anomalies, and other disasters. When the entire crew de-evolved into...
07:40prehistoric animals in Genesis, all these children were affected too. They were subjected to...
07:45memory loss in the episode Conundrum, and nearly assimilated by the Borg in Cue Who. Not to...
07:50mention the near-weekly space battles. Clearly, a starship is no place for children.
07:55Starfleet in the original series was much more logical in this regard, treating starships more...
08:00like military vessels than luxury cruises, only allowing civilians and children on board...
08:05for short periods when necessary. Number 3. Cetacean Ops.
08:10In Kirk's time, whales were extinct, and humanity did not yet know of...
08:15theirs and the dolphins' highly advanced intelligence. When the whales were brought back from the past...
08:20to repopulate in Star Trek The Voyage Home, and Starfleet discovered that they were sentient...
08:25learned to communicate with them and formed an alliance. Many whales and dolphins, or cetaceans...
08:30could even join Starfleet, and in the next generation, some starships such as the Enterprise...
08:35had an area on board known as Cetacean Ops. Huge water tanks where cetaceans...
08:40would use their advanced brains and unique physiologies to assist the ship with navigation...
08:45greatly improving efficiency. We never got to see cetacean ops on the Enterprise-D, but...
08:50in the Lower Decks episode First, First Contact, the crew of the Cerritos pays a...
08:55busy visit and is greeted by two adorable beluga whales in Starfleet uniforms.
09:00Number 2, Weapons. Surprisingly, the weapons on Starfleet's ships didn't change...
09:05much at all from the 23rd century to the 24th. Both enterprises were equipped with...
09:10torpedoes and phasers. It wasn't until the first invasion of the Borg when Star...
09:15Starfleet began to develop more destructive weapons like quantum torpedoes and tricobalt war...
09:20warheads. Prior 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...
09:30arrays, linear arrangements of phaser emitters that could fire from virtually any angle.
09:35This was a massive improvement from the traditional phaser canons of Kirk's time, which could only...
09:40require in a very limited path. Number 1, Saucer Separation.
09:45As mentioned earlier, the Enterprise-D, as opposed to Kirk's ship, had a large number of civilians...
09:50and children on board. When the ship was under attack, it needed a way to evacuate all of these...
09:55non-Starfleet people to safety. And this was the rationale behind the Enterprise-D...
10:00saucer separation. Saucer separation could be done with the original series' era ships, but...
10:05the procedure was dangerous and could not be undone, except at a starbase. Perhaps...
10:10the coolest yet most underused feature of Picard's ship. Saucer separation could be...
10:15could also be used to flank enemies, attacking them from two angles at once. Both parts...
10:20of the ship functioned completely well on their own, equipped with warp nacelles, weapons and shields.
10:25It would have been nice to see more combat scenarios involving this maneuver.
10:30Saucer separation was only used in a couple of episodes for many reasons. Mainly, it's just because of...
10:35the high cost of filming the model to do it, but also separation took a long time, as they had...
10:40to wait for all non-Starfleet personnel to move to the saucer and the crew to split between the two...
10:45sections.
10:46And that concludes our list. If you can think of any that we missed, then do...
10:50let us know in the comments below. And while you're there, don't forget to like, and subscribe, and tap that notification bell.
10:55Also, head over to Twitter and follow us there, at TrekCulture, and I can be found across various social...
11:00medias just by searching Ellie Littlechild. I've been Ellie with TrekCulture, I hope you have a wonderful day...
11:05and remember...
11:06to boldly go where no one has gone before.
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