Designing the Sovereign Class (Complete) (ft. John Eaves)

[@nicholasdickens2801]

21 years old and still a great design.

[@NaD-o2p]

This ship is a year older than me! And it's still my all time favourite Star Trek ship. It's also one of my most favourite ship designs ever. And I like ship designs enough as it is XD

[@katschaccc]

She is just my favorite ship 💙💙💙

[@lucian6273]

A beautiful ship. The sleek aesthetic just brings a unique aspect to the enterprise family. I personally prefer the 11ft model to the cgi one, but they are all good. I love these trek yards episodes where they combine their multiple part episodes into one, saves me looking for them all.

[@enterprise-h312]

To this day I want to know what upgrades were made to the USS Enterprise-E at the end of Star Trek: Nemesis. The quantum torpedo launcher never felt like an upgrade of the Galaxy-class to me which was said to be capable of firing 10 photon torpedoes from each of its two forward-facing torpedo tubes every 6 seconds. I don't believe that we've ever seen the full combat capabilities of the Galaxy-class in any of the series or movies. At least the games gave us a relative sense of power with the Generations telling us that the Enterprise-D could defeat a single Chodak Dreadnought but not two simultaneously. I get that 2x10 quantum torpedoes per 6 seconds might seem like overkill, but we're talking about fighting the Borg here.

[@isfj1009]

It is absolutely beautiful. Have seen, a couple times, model makes create amazing 4-foot+ versions, and it is absolutely beautiful!

[@ModestNeophyte]

Ooh, John Eaves episodes are always a treat!

[@gphoenix51]

Love this ship! Love, love, love it! So gorgeous! Sucks that we only saw it for such a short time.

[@Shadx27]

Parts of this discussion makes me glad I don't view ship size as cannon just because it looked such size on screen. People can't get over the fact that tv and film makers often don't care about scale and only care about how the shot looks!

[@colinmelton3815]

Oh the Enterprise E! Sovereign class, absolute favorite starship ever, NCC 1701 A, second favorite. Really fond of the 1701 B too

[@jesse33cdn]

I like when you have guests! 😊

[@johnmullins5258]

I love this ship design. I wish CBS would've let Eaves design the Discovery ship.

[@KeairaKusanagi]

fun fact: my boss on Star Trek Renegades was the one who pushed the button that crashed the saucer model into the scimitar. :)

[@LightStrikerQc]

Great design are timeless. The E just works.

[@krisguntner4805]

Awesome interview! Always love the behind the scenes stuff! Makes me want to go rewatch nemesis this weekend.

[@90lancaster]

Torpedo Launchers in the same Place Voyager has them would have been a big help on the design. Especially as it leaves the Primary launcher with the lower hull during separation. I suppose those big armoured covers on the back of the saucer could hide small warp nacelles for the saucer. I don't mind the lack of Aztecing as I think the "new design" of colours and pattern layout on the hull was a nice way to make the era distinct from Voyager while still seeming consistent with it. It also slightly draws on the colours of the Enterprise C, Excelsior and USS Defiant to some extent too. but it's done in such a way that it ends up looking more distinct that the blue does in most views of something like the Lakota or the Enterprise C. But I agree the original lack of a rear Torpedo launcher - just because the story didn't need one is a terribly oversight. Sort of like how some ships forgot to have the appropriate running lights on them. The defiant is a curious example of a ship with a bunch of features in it that they never used as well as some ill defined design elements that stand out poorly like the Impulse engines location being a bit vague. Overall thought I like the E and how it's balanced - it's not a pile of illogic like the Yorktown Station is for example. Oh and the Star Trek Online variant with a circular Saucer looks pretty terrific too.

[@S1nwar]

i think there is 1 notable thing about this ship that they forgot to "streamline": the frame around the impulse engines. if that met the hull more horizontally rather than perpendicular to the primary hull it would look much smoother.

[@Jack_Stafford]

Love that you guys can bring guys like John Eaves to us who have such enthusiasm for their work and are obviously so talented and have been instrumental in creating the history of Trek. Great job and great questions and hope to see much more in the future!

[@newport3856]

My favorite Enterprise!

[@dr.sommercamp3435]

New Port So true!

[@ThomasEJohnson]

My favorite Enterprise design.

[@ciscoduncan838]

Great combination of power and beauty. Thanks for the video. 🖖🏾

[@ginger00022]

Great guest.

[@benw9949]

Really great episode, well explained, on a great ship design. I always felt the D looked off-balance in pretty much every view. I liked the movie Enterprise (refit / A) and the Excelsior and Reliant, and of course the classic TOS. So the E was a good return, I thought, and now I see, well thought out for function and form.

[@RingoLoadagain]

I love that you have the Covenant of Primus on your wall! Seems like your two favorite things are also my two favorite things :)

[@dunsel5887]

I really like the design, but I was hoping that it would be much smaller, about the length of the D's saucer or a bit longer

[@rochat]

I actually preferred the concept until he told the "turkey in a pan" story and now I can't unsee it.

[@nicholasdickens2801]

rochat They were also concerned with designs from other things like designs from Babylon 5, with the Whitestar.

[@splat-trainproductions]

That's why I hate the pylons for the JJprise, it's the same pylon design & it sucks & now we know WHY it sucks.

[@mariolawrence897]

New subscriber here! Great show! (I love the physical models over the CG ones, as well.)

[@AvoozlPlays]

The E was basically my first favorite Enterprise ship, The B was mysecond favorite enterprise ship and first favorite TOS era Enterprise ship.

[@Muraku666]

TOS Enterprise, while being Iconic, looks like a Sausage Patty with Toothpick architecture.

[@xstarwolfx]

Would've loved to get Mr. Eave's viewpoint on what Star Trek Online has done with the Sovereign variants. (Still wishing I could've got to talk to you gents on the original concept of the Regent before Cryptic made it their own).

[@KuraIthys]

Always interesting to see the process behind these things. It's definitely a really nice design. I prefer the galaxy class, but that's one of those things where familiarity and nostalgia kicks in. 178 episodes of a TV series vs 3 films... mmh.

[@PicardManeuver]

John is so kickass. Can't wait to see some Discovery-era ship Trekyards eps with John! (hint hint... :P)

[@jameslewis2635]

This design was a big improvement over the Galaxy class. I feel like the Galaxy class was a mistake due to the Federation being at peace for long enough that they had become complacent about the dangers of space exploration. Putting families on a ship that is in effect the most heavily armed type in the fleet is a really dumb thing to do because it will always be assigned the most critical threats. The Sovereign class however seems to come after the Federation had a nasty wake-up with the Dominion war (one of the first battles of that shows a fully crewed Galaxy class being destroyed) and the Borg breathing down their collective necks.

[@harvey1965]

It's such a sexy Enterprise! Great episode. Can't wait to see his work on Discovery.

[@Promance2300]

Lovely ship

[@gallendugall8913]

I like that fewer of the Sovereign's windows are nonsensical. The vast number of skylights and glass bottom boat floors in the Galaxy class have perpetually annoyed me.

[@markbernero9302]

...and me on the NX-01!

[@DrewLSsix]

Gallen Dugall. those windows also played havoc with the perception of scale. 10 forwards windows were tiny on the outside but rather generous on the set, that means the deck 11-12 windows must be massive!

[@saquist]

There will always be a stark difference between sets and models. -The torpedo room in TWOK was far too small to fit the final set. -Deep Space Nine's Promenade windows were far too small for a station which was supposed to fit a Galaxy Class and Galor Class Starship in the upper docking arm. Many things aren't designed in tandem like they should be.

[@assemblyrequired7342]

Maybe I'm just blind, but I'm not really seeing the turkey in a pan on the swept forward concept. And I was wondering why rather than blowing up the entire ship, why they didn't separate the saucer, MAYBE site-to-site transport to take the shuttles in the secondary hull and store them in the primary hull, and THEN set the self-destruct! After all, maybe they could have used the shuttles for slingshot maneuvers!

[@Kaiber_Phoenix]

I always thought it would be interesting to see the sovereign with fighter capabilities since the game incursion back on the original PlayStation and seeing that there's a few variants of the sov on STO it'd be interesting to see that feature added to make it more of a combat carrier. it would of also been a nice scene in a film to see the sov charge into battle launching fighters that'd be a interesting action shot to see

[@Kaiber_Phoenix]

oh and the fleet variant of the sov in STO does in my opinion kinds look like a carrier more so then looking anything like a sov

[@BobM925]

I still prefer the D. I grew up with that ship, through 7 seasons of TNG and I'm still gutted it got blown up in such a stupid way in Generations. The E is a cool ship, but the D is where Picard and his crew belong.

[@ukrockhit]

Still a great looking ship

[@watchthe1369]

Clear= Tacky......got it.

[@lanceripplinger8352]

"Make it clear!" 😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁

[@allocater2]

Anybody else has a feeling of Deja vu, watching this episode?

[@power543]

This is a "Complete" episode where we combine the parts 1/2 for a full episode for people to enjoy :)

[@djpob]

power543 oooh that explains it

[@martinlloyd8866]

I Love Enterprise D and E

[@adampoole948]

they should still build and use physical models.. they look better then CGI and are more real since their actually there.. same way real books and drawing on real paper is better then digital

[@johnathanalvarez7907]

Adam Poole producers are limited to time now and CGI can do more with battles, tng battles weren't good cause it was limited

[@SuperGamefreak18]

honestly I feel there should be a balance between the two like physical models fully design the ships and the CGI to do things that you cant do with physical models like making multiples, damage that you wouldn't be willing to do with a phyical model and other things.

[@JakeWerkmeister]

CGI models work IF the animators understand the mass, movement, and rules set by previous iterations of Trek. It's something that new Trek is getting better at, but I still shake my head when I see things like like an Akira class doing barrel rolls for no reason. These ships have mass. The limitations of capturing a model actually does a better job at conveying that than these animators occasionally choose to pull off. BTW, I still rather enjoy the CGI work in later DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise. More often than not, they understood the concept I'm referring to, so even their outdated CGI holds up better than most of Discovery, which came out decades later.

[@DrMacintosh]

wowzers he has an anime babe on his wall!

[@SovereignKnight74]

The Enterprise E is the sexiest Enterprise. Not knowing what the hell Worf did to it before the Picard series still bugs the hell out of me...

[@mrdot1126]

i dont mind CGI ships.. if they are made well.. i have issues with it when they pull a Picard series CGI, that was just awful...

[@novoeduardoac1248]

Samuel Cockings I love you!

[@KuraIthys]

hahahha. Ah, the DS9 guy didn't care about scale huh. That explains a lot. Have you ever tried to get a coherent answer about how big the Defiant actually is? There's at least 3 different scales that get tossed around constantly... Ah well... XD

[@thirstcontact2799]

Not to mention the station herself....different sizes depending on which ships were docked at any given time.

[@DrewLSsix]

KuraIthys. scale issues are as much a part of trek as stilted dialogue and laughably over simplified morality.

[@StarTrekMarco]

Don't forget the computer stations that tend to explode in a ridiculous fashion.

[@saquist]

Defiant according to my Precise Defiant Thread...has to be 200 meters long.

[@DrewLSsix]

StarTrekMarco. thats kinda excusable in my book, assuming the weapons and shields used by these ships may cause inadvertently (or not) inductance that creates powerful charges in the consoles the equipment wouldnt need to be packed with thermite as they seem to be. this actually makes sense as a lot of the crippling damage to the ships over the years seems to be to internal systems rather than to the hull its self.

[@draticusmaximus6289]

I think the Sovereign is a great design. If it wasn't stated as a Borg fighter. I don't see it as the War winner, in that regard. Definitely a Top Tier Alpha Quadrant vessel. The Sovereign would not have prevailed against the Borg- Without Picard being there. Because He arrived and overheard the collective and found that "Death Star weakness". Without Him that battle would have been lost. If Riker arrived on the Sovereign- defeat was gonna happen. The battle wasn't going well when They arrived. It would've only gotten worse. The Sovereign is a great match against any Alpha Quadrant vessel. Just not a war winner against the Borg. 1 cube was wrecking Starfleet. What happens if the Borg send 100s? 50-150 ships to fight 1 cube. How can Starfleet manage to fight a War with Them? And defend 150+ world and outposts, colonies, etc? Not with the Sovereign design. Cubes can keep fight with 75%+ damage. So, a ship has to have an intense Alpha Strike. Devestate a Cube with only a few passes or it adapts. The Sovereign doesn't cut it. It would need 3x-10x the phaser output and 5x the quantum lanchers to deal that level of damage. And have plan A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, etc for when They adapt. I love this design. They just gave it the wrong story for it's capabilities.

[@sulphurous2656]

What animation software was the intro made in? Is there a download for the models?

[@power543]

Lightwave 3D (same that was used on Star Trek Voyager) and yes all of these in the intro are fan models and are all available online.

[@steventhonpkins5840]

Alfred Pennyworth you have my respect but Sovereign Class is too imperialistic a name Independence Class works better but that's just my opinion and as for the Excelsior It's supposed to be the Europa Class U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-B for Dave Bowman and it needs some more work to look like an angel.

[@adampoole948]

i prefer the Enterprise D over the E

[@markplott4820]

The Enterprise E is severely under armed for a Battleship in First Contact. No Rear Torpedoes and only a Single forward Torp launcher. also its under armed in the Phaser department as well. then it got a bit of a refit in Nemesis with Bootstrap Torps and Phasers. no my favorite design. Overall John Eaves did a good job but I don't think he knows what a Battleship is. think BB-61 USN Battleship. I don't think he was given ANY direction on its design.

[@edwardianed]

The Sovereign class has three aft photon torpedo launchers, also how is twelve phaser arrays under-armed?

[@saquist]

It's unfortunate that the Sovereign Enterprise was under Rick Berman. It had a lot of potential. -A Separation plane that won't work -Designed with no aft beam weapons for the Stardrive -No Upper Transport emitters for the Stardrive -No Sensors for the Stardrive -No ejection port for the warp core -No Impulse engines on the stardrive -It's IMPOSSIBLE for the Captain's yacht to fit under the saucer where a Quantum turret sits right in front of it's front windows! -The Black Arrow head on the back of the saucer is the largest waste of space to presume people could use but can't It was an EXTREMELY GOOD concept but POORLY thought out. It's almost as bad as the Prometheus as designs go. Even to the point that after the second redesign in Nemesis Eaves still says it's not what he wanted. In my Opinion: -A true upgrade to Galaxy need a warp capable Saucer -Faster at Warp than Galaxy -Articulating warp nacelles to streamline for slipstream speeds. -Sensor Palettes like Voyager and Defiant -Saucer Shuttle bay is in a bad location (no separation latches can be put there) -Stardrive impulse engines, thrusters, more lifeboats and sensors -artisticaly: a smoother saucer ventral hull (instead of the Star Destroyer looking steps.

[@oiops]

Your critique is spot on. You would knock one of these shipyard episodes out of the park.

[@AtlantiansGaming]

Most of your critiques are really irrelevant stylistic differences, with no bearing on the merit of the design. "A Separation plane that won't work" It doesn't separate. "'No Impulse engines on the stardrive" Doesn't need them. "It's IMPOSSIBLE for the Captain's yacht to fit under the saucer where a Quantum turret sits right in front of it's front windows!" Not if they feed in at an angle or from above. It is a rapid fire torpedo launcher and must have some sort of auto-loading magazine design. "Saucer Shuttle bay is in a bad location" It is in a perfect location if it doesn't separate. Separation is silly.

[@saquist]

Atlantians Gaming, -at 15:25 the Designer of the ship says "It was designed to separate" It's different between Designers and Artist. Matt Jeffery Rick Sternbach and Andrew Probert were from the school or art that treated Design work in movie and films as functional as real Designers like myself. Today's Artist though are like John Eaves and Drexler where flare and style mean more than Design Intent and Logic. It's true one is limiting but it's also true todays artist lack the ability for something to look plausible and it begins here with designs like Sovereign. It was based on the Galaxy but it wasn't designed like the Galaxy.

[@edwardianed]

It may have been designed to separate, but it may not have been designed for post-separation functionality; much like the Constitution class, the Sovereign may have had one-way separation built in as a course of last resort, allowing the saucer section to act as a lifeboat in catastrophic situations.

[@markmorris251]

+saquist John Eaves went to design school and very definitely respects the "universes" he designs in. His writings about his design work make all this clear. Most of those Trek designers had this ethos. They design things for a universe as if that universe were a real place.

[@EVAUnit4A]

Samuel Cockings: *nods* That's it. That's all he does. Nod at, like, _everything._ That's all he ever does at Trekyards. That, and "Hey look at my Eaglemoss collection, woohoo!". And accent or not, he says his name so damn fast I had to go to their site to see what his name even is. Boring.

[@PixelatedH2O]

I'll just come out and say it... I don't really like the Sovereign. It's too long and stretched out and I don't really like the black on it.