Interesting tidbit from the Voyager DVD's special features.

[Roondar]

I am in the process of (finally) watching all the little extra's that come on the DVD's I own for Startrek.

I've, so far, done STNG 1-5 and Voy 1-2.

Anyway, something very interesting was said during one of the Voyager features (I've paraphrased it as I don't have access to the DVD's here):

"With Voyager we've got a new ship... faster and more powerful than even the Enterprise-D ..."

They talk about the looks and tech and it comes up here that the series designers meant for Voyager to be a more powerful ship (they even mentioned weapons etc IIRC) than the E-D.

This is obviously interesting because in most debates the Voyager is put well below the E-D in strength. So the question becomes - did the show's designers do a good job of it?

Does Voyager do things that the E-D couldn't or show better strength in combat scenarios?

[Who is like God arbour]

Why would an Intrepid class star ship are not be more powerful than a Galaxy class star ship?

Only because the Interpid class is smaller than the Galaxy class?

The Defiant class is even smaller than the Intrepid class, but, as far as weapons and shields are concerned, far stronger than a Galaxy class.

Size is no benchmark for weapons- and/or shield strength.



To compare the strength of weapons of a Intrepid class star ship and a Galaxy class star ship, one would have to compare their effects in similar situations.

It would have to be either an unprotected target or an equally protected target, on which in both situations were fired, to be able to meassure differences in the effects, the weapons have had.

The problem is, that I can't remember a situation, in which the weapons of a Galaxy class star ship were fired, which is similar to a situation, in which the weapons of an Intrepid class star ship were fired.



Insofar, the show designers didn't have the opportunity to show, if an Intrepid class star ship is stronger than a Galaxy class star ship.

[Mr. Oragahn]

Which would mean that anything the Voyager would fail against, so would the E-D, even more.
Like a Cardassian missile for example.

[Cocytus]

Hmm. I'll have to look through the special features myself. What if any canonicity do you think should be accorded the commentary? While I always considered Voyager a capable midlevel warship in its own right, much more than just the scouting role it gets relegated to sometimes, I didn't think it more powerful than a Galaxy.

Certainly the Galaxy's torpedo loadout is much larger. The Intrepid's warp core is a Class-9 with tricyclic input manifold, more advanced and perhaps more powerful than the Galaxy's, especially since it's designed to reach the high end of the warp scale, where speed and energy consumption increase exponentially. This exponential increase should mean the Intrepid's core puts out more energy at high warp even though the Galaxy masses considerably more. The Intrepid's sensors are also more advanced, and should require more energy.

Offhand, the only comparable events I can think of are the much-scrutinized "Rise" and "Cost of Living" asteroid destructions.

[Enterprise E]

I think that we shouldn't place too much importance on what is said in the commentary and we should focus more on what is seen in the show itself. In TNG, it is implied, though not directly stated, that a Romulan D'deredix class warbird is a match for a Galaxy class starship. However, there was an episode in Voyager (it was the one where Tuvok trained some insubordinate Maquis officers) where there was a simulation where Voyager had to face a Romulan Warbird and it got slaughtered. The exercise was supposed to be a no win scenario, but I doubt that a ship that Voyager should be able to beat or fight closely with would be used in a scenario like that.

[Roondar]

Well, my point is not to put the special features interviews above the show (or even make them canon). It is more of a "I didn't see it like that, what do you guys think?" thing.

See, I mostly agree with Coytus here - Voyager was more advanced easily. The question of power is not as easy. It could be it's energy system is better (and yields more power). But it's torpedoes obviously fall far short of a Galaxy (in number anyway).

If it's warpcore produces more energy it might have better phasers though(setting aside the obvious firing arc advantage of the main arrays the Intrepid), which would seem to fit at least some kazon incidents where minor phaser fire outright destroyed relatively big ships (compared to Voyagers size anyway).

One thing goingfor Voyager was that it survived all sorts of nastiness without starbase support yet managed to keep in one piece and repair itself. It sustained damage comparable to/larger than what the E-D had to go through in Best of Both Worlds (1&2) yet where the E-D had to be repaired in dry-dock for two-three weeks Voyagers crew managed to repair 'in flight' with little outside help.

Obviously they had to do it that way, but the fact they got it done at all does suggest better resilience to damage than the E-D, which (as told in STTNG:Family IIRC) basically couldn't fly on without Starbase support at that time.

[2046]

1. Other than the tri-cobalts which were used once and then never again, there is no real indication of Voyager having greater destructive capability or survivability than the Enterprise-D.

2. Tom Paris stated that Intrepids were "built for combat performance", though Neelix has stated that they were "designed for long-term exploration". (Info from "The Thaw"[VOY2] and "Someone to Watch Over Me"[VOY5] respectively.)

3. Certainly we saw in DS9's Dominion War scenes that Galaxies were considered the big bad battleships of the fleet.

4. In Tuvok's simulation in "Learning Curve"[VOY1], first one and then a second Romulan Warbird spank Voyager, seemingly more quickly than we've seen Warbirds spank the E-D. But, further research is indicated for this example, if even warranted due to it being a simulation.

5. Taking a ship to a starbase when available is no real indicator. Taking our cue from automobile maintenance, one can see that those who do not wish to spend money on repairs can wind up with vehicles whose continued movement is little short of miraculous, but that doesn't necessarily indicate that the model is better or worse than a car of another make whose owner puts it in the shop constantly for minor things.

6. The E-D could still fly just fine at the end of BoBW. Whereas Voyager, if subjected to the same things as the E-D during the BoBW stuff, might've been patched up and soldiered on, chances are that when she did get back to Earth (were she to be put back in regular service) she would've spent the better part of a year getting refit and repaired.

[Praeothmin]

Concerning Warp speeds, let's not forget that it doesn't just rely on power, or else are you stating that the Warp 10 Shuttle generated more power then either Voyager or the E-D ever could?

We know that Warp speeds can also be influenced by the nacelle design, and the shape of the Warp fields, so just because Voyager is faster does not mean she is more powerful then a GCS...

As was mentioned, she was definitely more advanced, and pound for pound, probably more powerful in a fight, but that's it.

As for the Defiant, her shields never seemd so powerful to me.
What made her a real threat to ships way bigger then itself was the immense power of her weapons, and the resilience of the design (ablative armor, no Warp necelle struts, compact design, extremelly maneuverable).

Definitely the winner in Pound-for-Pound comparisons, but overall still short in power when compared to a GCS...

[Mike DiCenso]

3. Certainly we saw in DS9's Dominion War scenes that Galaxies were considered the big bad battleships of the fleet.

Ah, that brings up an interesting point. In "The Valiant", Jake and Nog discuss the Dominion battleship not in terms of Defiant class starships or anything else, they used the Galaxy class as their benchmark for how powerful and big the battleship was. Given how badly the Valiant got stomped in the fight, it does say something possibly about the raw firepower and endurance of a GCS over a DCS.
-Mike

[Kyosanim]

In the DVDs is explicitly said that the comments of the individuals are their own and do not represent Paramout, so as far as canon goes it are worthless.