Why Are Starfleet's Ships So.... Human?

[@borg111]

I like this theory. I also would like to add that Humanity was considered neutral towards the rest of the Federation founders. Vulcans and Andorians would probably have an issue with accepting each others ship designs as the new standard, but could easily rally around a neutral Earth ship design.

[@JeanLucCaptain]

Plus saucers are just easy to build as opposed to the complex or specialized shapes everybody else is using.

[@bobsterclause342]

Well... the whole reason people don't use phazers is because they don't develope them. They make disruptos, because they are less scientifically intensive, are similar, but are more effective against armor and hull, and you use torpedoes on sheilds and phazers on hulls. So for less develpoement, you get more bang for your buck. But then with more scientific researach, and more develpoement phazers got similar and could do other things. FIrst of all, you probably allready have devices for other things so your convienience at that point would be like we allready have the rig where all the components are installed and just work when you press a button so why would we develope this phazer so one single device can do what two that shoot out of the same hole or not do. Oh, and not to mention you don't just own an entire continent by landing a thousand people on it, you get a whole palnet. So,... laziness is likely a huge part. WHy develope phazers when you can just join the federation? why develope phazers when you can develope disru[ptors that require more developement to do the same thing minus the same damage on hull part and then more on top of the more to get a beam weapon that does less anyway but now we do even more on top to get to the same part when we can just make a boom your hull withmuch less effort? So chances are that probably has a lot to do with it. You have some people who do more work to do extra things, and now you have a multipclass multitool thing. So like... they developed a disrutpor like beam weapon thatt can have buttons pressed and now it's a scanner that punches sheilding and doesn't do any damage, ore vibrates open a door.... or seperates ore without melting i so yoyu only have to melt what you want. I mean you can fly in your too lazy ships or a swiss army knife that does thousands of things more than you even probably thought of just in case. Why else? I mean why bother with your own stuff. You might as well just join the federation and give up some rights and control if you are lazy. its practically the same thing but you probably get more. OH, they made mutlitool ships? they invented so many things allread? join the federation. There we go. Don't have to develope thousands of things that each take a hundred years and tonns of research resources. just join the fed and you have it now. THey don't care, they will out develope the old stuff they give you, and you don't need to solve your research investing issue, they just need people to man their ships (that's you), valued, trusted ally

[@grandsome1]

Yeah, you'd still be quite nervous if your ex-mortal enemy ship was in orbit around your home planet for "defense" purpose.

[@canisarcani]

its so weird to think of humanity as the "neutral" party. frankly, i have the feeling that if we do make it to the point of interstellar travel we will probably be more like the andorians. ^~^;

[@borg111]

@Canis Arcani One of the purposes of Enterprise was to show how humanity has evolved into a species capable of mediating biases between other species and solving problems based on fairness and truth. This became the foundation for what the Federation represents. Roddenberry wanted to message that humanity's pursuit for self-improvement changed its vision for all life. This is why the Federation would have never formed without humanity.

[@SuperGamefreak18]

I STILL SAY the NX class was the result of time travel, remember Zefram Cochrane saw the sovereign in first contact, he likely designed the NX off of that ship. He tried to make a ship that followed that shilloute, but you know the telephone game.

[@venomgeekmedia9886]

I kinda like that... its the sort of thing he'd do

[@Marinealver]

I'd accept that Enterprise was a result of Firat Contact meddling. That matches better with the TOS.

[@razorburn645]

That's a good point, he got a close look at the pride of the UFP's 24th century flag ship and probably made some guesses.

[@Nostripe361]

@@venomgeekmedia9886 honestly a lot of the contradictory stuff in canon if you care about it, can be explained by time travel. But I do like the idea. Would also make a loop where starfleet ships were the best design for the starfleet, got seen by Cochran who then designed Earth ships that became the best design for starfleet

[@chrissonofpear1384]

@@Nostripe361 Maybe a bit more straightforward than the Enterprise novels' take, that a set of retro computer and engineering features were made prominent during and after the Romulan War, due to being less prone to software hijacking. Although that does still, kinda work.

[@nunya3163]

I do like this theory. I would also point out human adaptability, which is one of the traits that is a recurring trope throughout the various series. Humans are uniquely adaptable in the Star Trek universe. Combine this with the fact that they are indeed far less advanced than the other races, and have been acquiring various tech from the races, and incorporating them into their designs for many years, humans were simply more open to adapting the tech of the more advanced races, who all had bias to how their races does things.

[@sharokhankhan23]

Ι really like this idea

[@TheRezro]

To put it simply. After Earth-Romulan War in 2160's Starfleet was in fact on chopping block. United Earth was simply incapable to sustain massive fleet of warships. All those fancy NX derivatives (Poseidon and Columbia) and 400 meter Yorktown Battleships needed to go into storage. Archer kept only Dedalus class ships as they were dedicated science ships and Ganges (doritis from TV show) as they were principally multi purpose frigates. At the time Federation of planet has several fleets and Andorian (warships), Tellerite (cargo) and Vulcan (science) ships were superior to primitive earth ships. Though Humanity gain option for new fancy Bonaventure class, ships what were made with access to joint technology of Federation members (and as bonus points Vulcans rid off unstable NX drives, what disturbed subspace causing temporal incidents). In 2190's situation changed. Federation struggled with disagreements regard directions they fleets should take. Highly specialized ships caused issues and expanding number of Federation members chock supply depots. From founding species no one also didn't want for they relatively recent enemies to dominate Federation militarily. Earth was designing ships from beginning with use of every available tech, so they were maintenance and refit friendly. And earth engine setup with extended nacelles was really balanced. On top of that Humanity gain good reputation due to lot of diplomatic and science activity in Earth frontier area full of semi-independent colonies. All major factions trust Earth, who also technically was most junior from the founders. So Starfleet design and later training was accepted as standard of the Federation. We rarely do it in the show, but Federation members operated sometimes own Starfleet ships. Kelvin Era (2190-2230) was dominated by ships based on successful Bonaventure class refitted for different needs of different races (new STO scale make no sense, old one was superior as it was based on scale according to Koyabashi Maru size from TMP). And later with rising Klingon Threat Starfleet start pulling from storage old warships, as Bonaventure type hull was inadequate for combat. And refitting them into standard Federation look (they did share many Earth standard design solutions). Like Loknar class is clearly refit of NX (what for reminder was known from unusually sturdy hull). Quite interestingly original Constitution also has smaller saucer then average in previous era. Poseidon also do remind in style Anton/Miranda. Walker class was most likely based on old Yorktown class Battleships. If it is true, then it is quite possible that Kirk ship actually could be refitted ship of Archer. What would explain why Kirk treat it with such cult. BTW: Pike in STO clearly switched to new Sombra class ship, as transfer of numbers was common at the time. Just CBS make problems like usual. For reminder they in fact do behave like it is almost new ship in Disco S2, for example complaining about new holograms. After war with Klingons it make sense why Starfleet would stall pulling old ships from storage and adding letters. What is how Kirk get old Connie.

[@myria2834]

Not even Borg nanotech is safe from human integration. In fact, human adaptability is very similar to Borg assimilation. "Resistance is futile, all your knowledge and technology *WILL* be made to service us. Whether you give it willingly or we steal and reverse engineer it, that is your choice, but we will have it."

[@andycooper6085]

@@TheRezro Best explaination I've seen for why Kirk's ship in Where No Man has Gone Before matches so close to Pike's ship in The Cage, but not to what Pike uses throughout SNW.

[@ANTIStraussian]

There is an all Vulcan crewed ship in Star Fleet the T'Kumbra captained by Solok he plays baseball against captain Sisko on DS9. So this leads me to believe that while most crews intergrated there was an elite guard of the vulcan space navy that said look, we will use a human ship but we wanted to only use vulcans. And these ships will be crewed by our sons and daughters of this line of elite vulcan military community. And even 200 years in the future when it comes to the T'Kumbra(10th namesake) these lines of ships will still be vulcan only! So say we all.

[@madrabbit9007]

The secondary hull on the NX-01 is now cannon thanks to Picard today. She's in the fleet museum WITH the secondary hull! I love it!

[@James-rn7dx]

Connon to the NX class but they never point out that ship as the NX-01.

[@venomgeekmedia9886]

Kinda glad the NX didn't have a secondary Hull in the show. Would have made it less unique

[@TheHighSpaceWizard]

​@@venomgeekmedia9886 the NX-01 was just the Akira Class from First Contact upside down.

[@TheKruz-ox6fo]

I got excited and commented the same thing, lol!

[@madrabbit9007]

@@TheKruz-ox6fo ❤️

[@barrybend7189]

I think Starfleet ships are based on Human designs because it can hold parts of what the other member species can add to it. As the other members would argue about design and technology being incompatible. It also helps symbolically that Humanity was the one to help bring them together.

[@MAnthony8586]

Sounds like "Human" supremacy

[@vic5015]

This seens pretty unlikely to happen, but I'd *love* to have seen what the Constitution-class USS Intrepid's interiors looked like. The ship that ToS said had am all-Vulcan crew. Would the interiors and the crew quarters have looked distinctively alien? Would the environmental controls have been modified to make the ship hotter and drier, much like Vulcan itself when compared to Earth? Do Vulcans even prefer a hotter and drier environment than humans do?

[@OllamhDrab]

I've always assumed that the other Federation members have also have all along kept their own space agencies and forces, (Though we really ought to see more of them) which could also explain why there's such a disproportionate number of Earth-based ship *names,* if basically everyone but Earth is still using most of their traditional ship names, or perhaps in some cases never had that tradition in the first place.

[@Rasterizing]

So, basically what he said in the video :P

[@orakkus]

Well, I think a big part too is that Tellerite, Vulcan, and Andorian ships didn't have any human crew members. Their cultures have been pretty isolationist when it comes down to it because they didn't want their technology to fall into enemy hands. However, humans didn't have those viewpoints overall, and so having alien crew members forced them to develop interfaces that would be easier for alien races to learn and use. Eventually, there would simply be more crewmembers who knew how to operate Starfleet (human) type ships and systems. Once that is reached, it would only make sense then to standardize to the Starfleet ships.

[@venomgeekmedia9886]

That probably happened in TOS because spock is the only alien on the enterprise and this is notable. Because in TMP aliens are much more common on the enterprise

[@Broockle]

Also funny how the Human systems were located between all the other races' territories of the coalition on that map. 8:55

[@JonNargodian]

Same reason why Starfleet is mostly filled with humans, they're the only species that have a common desire to explore so they would be the most up for building surplus ships. Real reason is of course because this is TV and ENT was made after several previous series and a bunch of movies so that design was pretty much an important part of branding.

[@Nostripe361]

I’m a fan of that the human ships were the best ones to combine systems as at the time they were not as advanced. I also think that at the time it was easier to get an andorian to work on a human ship then get them to set foot in a Vulcan ship. So human ships won cause they were easier to combine systems and didn’t have the emotional baggage that other species’ ships did.

[@DrewLSsix]

My head canon since ENT has been that starfleet was in a position to be the exploratory arm of the new federation specifically because it was relatively primitive and politically almost neutral. When the U.S. was first created the founders decided that there would be jo standing army, it was to dangerous to the new nation as they had recently fought against the British who were Essentially their own military turned against them. However, they did allow for a navy, to secure national interests on the sea and because a navy alone poses little threat. I like to think that was the idea behind starfleet, it was almost harmless, at a time when Andorian ships flying through Vulcan space was likely to be a tense event outside of some specific circumstances. What still doesn't feel right is the complete absence of member world ships at Wolf359 or any number of other incidents....

[@Nostripe361]

@@DrewLSsix yeah. The federation was also going to be primarily exploring and human starfleet was geared towards that primarily. I could see the Wolf 359 being that nonhuman combat ships were not in the the area at the time since it’s close to Earth. Like you wouldn’t expect a polish destroyer near the Chesapeake bay. As for other times I don’t know. This is the same fleet that always only has one ship in range. My main issue is why the humans get the name of every class and like 90 percent of the ships

[@HawkGTboy]

During Enterprise they sort of hinted that each of the core races brought something to the table in terms of ship technology. The human ships had a modular design that made upgrades easier, the Andorians had good shields, the Vulcans had good warp drives, etc.

[@JeanLucCaptain]

We haven’t been bitching at each other for centuries certainly helps in your design briefs.

[@arnorrian1]

The post-show Enterprise books explained a lot. Vulcans dissolved much of their fleet, Tellarites are not overly interested in leaving their planet, so Human fleet became the exploration and diplomatic arm of the Federation fleet, and Andorian the defense arm. Also Human ships are much more resistant to Romulan ship-kidnapping technology.

[@Talon3000]

In one of them an engineer also mentions that the saucer design is tough and gives a lot of flexibility to reconfigure the spaces as needed while allowing for large horizontal decks, which is why he believes that the design will be the dominant one for the federation.

[@jakelogan2342]

I can't remember exactly where I read it, I think it was one of the old FASA Starfleet Battles books, but there's a section in one of the supplements that actually explains why most of the ships of Starfleet are designed the way they are. Starfleet is an organization with roots on Earth and Human culture, and since the the show is all mostly centred around Starfleet and not the "Federation". The other races of the Federation have their own ship designs and utilise them within their own borders, but it was "Starfleet" that was selected by the United Federation of Planets Council to be the primary exploratory and military branch so it makes sense that the ship designs we see on screen are predominantly "Human", because they were designed and built by humans while incorporating elements of other Federation Member worlds technologies.

[@mansquatch2260]

I have a much more simple explanation. Starfleet is a human organization that invited the rest of the federation into it. Because of this, humans took the lead for most of it's history, both in the ship yards and in the crewing. Starfleet has a bunch of non-human members, but at least half of starfleet is human. This means that their ships have to be designed with mostly human crews in mind, and are designed BY mostly human engineers. As more species started joining the federation and having a few people join Starfleet, non-human influences moved in, but they were influences on existing human design motifs. When the federation formed, Humans gained access to Vulcan, Andorian, and Tellerite technologies, and they were integrated into Starfleet ships. It wasn't until the 23rd century that Vulcans began actually joining Starfleet, starting with Spock, then Savak, Volaris, and Tuvok. Outside of technological advisors the Vulcans didn't have much say in Starfleet operations until a few of those vulcans reached the higher ranks (which we start seeing with Captain Spock in movie era.) By the 24th century, we see a much more diverse Starfleet, with the admiral ranks full of non-human officers, which would mean that by that era there would be much more integration in ideas, but those officers still came up through the ranks of Starfleet and would still think in very "starfleet" ways simply through decades of experience.

[@PaulGuy]

This is actually supported somewhat by recent shows. Lower Decks and Picard S3 both make refers to Vulcan ships, and Lower Decks explicitly shows one a few times, and it's clear that it's part of a "national" fleet. I think humans put their whole fleet into the Federation, while other species kept some level of their own fleets, while helping to fund Starfleet as the primary UFP fleet. Earth doesn't have their own fleet, it only has the UFP Starfleet, which is the biggest fleet in the Federation, and does most of the interplanetary/interspecies work and Federation defense, leaving the "national" fleets to do science and colony support for their own colonies.

[@mansquatch2260]

@@PaulGuy Too bad those aren't actually canon.

[@mansquatch2260]

@@aggravatedfruit_au No, no they aren't. Nothing Kurtzmantrek is the same universe.

[@occultatumquaestio5226]

Yeah, I've thought similar and this does make the most sense. "Human-style" ships were the most modular/adaptable and had the easiest time integrating tech from the other founding members. The whole Earth-Romulan war infrastructure retooling I did not consider before but yes, that would further lead credence to the theory. In the long run it was in the UFP's best interest to homogenize from that early on. Also, I only just noticed how wacky some of those "Gen-1" kit-bash ships look from different angles.

[@venomgeekmedia9886]

Someone told me the Harcourt looked surprised but I've really come to like the rockwell

[@matchesburn]

It's a good theory. I think it's worth pointing out that a saucer or sphere shaped design also allows for a lot of "wiggle room" for internal space and engineering of it. Say you want to project a shield - it's probably easier to make one that's spherical than one that's rectangular or triangular. A warp bubble is probably easier to make in a spherical or rounded shape than it is radically different shapes. And like you said, saucers or spheres are not a human-only design feature. The Borg, as well, have spherical ships (although cube ones as well, so go figure how accurate my previous statement was, then again the Borg emphasis efficiency so perhaps they view a cube as such an efficient ship design that it's worth any trouble making a shield or bubble to fit that shape). It's just a shape that's adaptable and, hey, humanity spearheaded the United Federation and it's a good design. Andorians can keep their own ship designs for their own fleets, say with Vulcans, etc. It's just a good design for Starfleet. It's adaptable, it gives large coverage for weapons, good internal volume and other reasons. I can see other races having no qualms about the design being used because... it's adequate. And they can keep utilizing their own designs for their own fleets as well.

[@Katthewm]

I just like to think that since none of the other races hated the humans, they were seen as the compromise pick. Like no way is a Andorian is going to fly on a Vulcan ship or vice versa. Plus humans are kinda average as far as amenities and design goes, the Vulcans lived like monks, the Tellarites preferred function over comfort, and the Andorians favored fire power.

[@chrisbuckley7345]

I think another fair point is that when the Federation was formed, humans transferred their Starfleet over to the Federation whole. We decided that the best way to make sure the Federation worked for us was to go all-in. Compare that to the Vulcans, whose participation seems to have been limited at first - it was decades later that Spock became the first Vulcan to even (officially) join Starfleet; although once he broke that ice, they joined in significant numbers. As a result, Vulcan annular warp drive didn't get adopted into Starfleet, while the relatively similar Human, Andorian, and Tellarite "linear/nacelle/pod" style drives were adopted and eventually combined. Look at the Enterprise - the original warp nacelles lean heavily into the human design style, being cylindrical with the red glowing domes at the front. Which it had, with minor modifications and updates, for the better part of 20 years before the TMP refit. Arguably, the TMP nacelles show a point where other designs, particularly the Andorian angularity, was fully integrated.

[@TiberianFiend]

I thought all of Starfleet's ships were simply made specifically for Starfleet at Utopia Planitia, which is why they all look alike.

[@clomiancalcifer]

I would also say that the reason everyone ends up accepting human frames for starships at least for the federation as a whole, is that humanity is the diplomatic flexion point for the Federation. The Andorians and Vulcans won't talk to each other (at first) directly without a human moderator, the Tellurites won't speak to either the Andorians or the Vulcans without a human moderator...the human's systems are the most malleable in terms of accepting all three's technology....it makes sense to coopt the human's ships for upgrading to bring them up to the other three's standards. A: for technical compatibility but also B: the humans can run diplomatic interference between non-human engineering and military crews installing the new tech... Humans are the keystone and bridge between the Vulcans, Tellurites and Andorians....

[@ComradeMeow]

My personal theory is not that the Federation uses human ships specifically, but rather that they use NX-based designs and I think there are a number of factors which led to this. Modularity is probably the biggest one. In fact, one of the most notable feature of the original NX class is how well it integrates new or alien technologies into its platform. The fact that the original NX was also retrofitted with the secondary hull, which implies a massive redesign, also points to this (whereas other ship designs, with their much more monolithic and integrated form factors, would be more difficult to redesign and modify). Also, modularity would also mean ease of manufacture and cost effectiveness. Its not that the Federation is secretly a human nation, its more of a case of the humans came up with a very good platform and the various alien members of the Federation looked at it and thought "hmm, I can improve and customize that to suit my needs". Afterall, the pre-Federation humans used a lot of different designs, but in the end the Federation settled on the NX specifically as the form factor for its ships (or, at least, something derived from it). Its the ability to customize that platform, from an engineering/blueprinting level, all the way to post-construction retrofitting, that made the NX so successful. I see it as kind of a Ford Model T, or Lego kit of Federation starships, basically. Something that revolutionized the way Federation members designed, built and maintained their ships, which came to heavily influence future designs. To give you an idea, developing a new NX/Enterprise form factor ship class can be a matter of simply changing what warp nacelles you use on it, or replacing the saucer section, or the secondary hull.

[@poseidon5003]

I imagine they had a competition and the Constitution class won. It then became the basis for all Federation starships . Earth styled but equipped with the best of the entire Federations tech.

[@jameskelly3502]

I've always considered the combination of saucer, engineering section (stardrive) and warp engines on pillons to be a very practical design. Having the main living quarters (saucer section) being able to separate from the engineering section makes sense from both a manufacturing and evaluation stand point. Having the warp engines easily accessible is also good from a manufacturing and maintenance standpoint. Plus, having standardized ships makes servicing at various Starbases more practical. I never considered starfleet ships to be exclusively human. Just practical.

[@hemaccabe4292]

I don't agree with you on much, but I respect that every Trekker is entitled to their own sources and pet theories. Regardless, this is a great video. Apparently we do agree that Enterprise is wildly out of continuity and we both come up with solutions to that.

[@177SCmaro]

Btw, that's probably why Borg ships are basic geometric shapes but upon closer inspection appears to be so cobbled together since Borg technology is a result of thousands of species technology merged together.

[@davidfinch7407]

It makes sense that Federation ships should be standardized into one basic design. Probably there was a contest where cost and efficiency of warships between the various members took place, and Earth won the competition. Warship construction companies in other member states either withered away, or adapted to constructing ships in the human manner.

[@kgmotte2363]

I'm pretty Sure they Answered that question Recently, Either in BNW or Lower Decks... Either way, the General Idea is that Federation Ships are for the most part Segregated by Species, there's a few Members of different Species on Every Ship, but for the most part Each ship has a "Mostly this ONE Species" Crew. Then Combine that with the Fact that the Audience Mostly just Follows The Majority Human Ships, Well it makes Sense that they'd all have Human Ship Appearances... They're not Segregated for Reasons of Bigotry, it's simply a Matter that Different Species have Different Biologial Needs, Vulcans come from a Nearly entirely Volcanic planet, they're Built for Heat, Meanwhile Andorians come From a Planet that's nearly entirely Frozen, The two can't Share a ship comfortably... Then there's Species that Need Special Equipment to be Able to breathe in what Humans consider a "Normal Atmosphere", Like Breathing Devices, It wouldn't Make much sense to have ALL of them always Wearing external Prosthesis to Allow them to breathe when you could just have them live in a ship who's Internal Life support is Designed for them. Every time we See a Vulcan Ship show up, They always have a CLEARLY Vulcan design. Sure they're part of the Vulcan Science Academy's Fleet, but they're Still Members of the Federation, which Makes them by Default Starfleet Ships as well. Yet, Despite Being Starfleet, they Kept the Vulcan design, I can only assume that every other Federation Species have their Ships Mostly Designed in the same way, They Follow the Core Designs of whatever Species mostly populates the ship... Then of course there's the Budget and Laziness of the Shows themselves thing... Where The Showrunners couldn't be Bothered to Make entirely New Ship Designs, and Presenting them in advance so we'd be able to recognize them immediately as Allies to Whatever Human Federation Ship we follow for that Series. So Instead whenever "the Federation shows up" It's always Humans and Every Ship that shows up are Human Ships... Honestly what Troubles me more is that Nearly 100% of the Starfleet Admirals we've Seen in every Show and Series have Been Human (And the ONE that wasn't turned out to be a Romulan Spy)... That doesn't Sound like Very Much of a "Multicultural Utopia" when The near totality of the Leadership of the Military of your "Federation" are all from the SAME Species...(And Yes, I know it's Just because they were being cheap on Costumes and Makup, But that doesn't change the fact that it's part of the Franchise's Cannon now!)

[@SerafineSilverstream]

Andorian and Telerite crews must have lost their shits when the Federation introduced the Steamrunners.

[@DrewLSsix]

I think that starfleet responded to the Borg by purposely diversifying their technology, so ships like the Steamrunner may actually be more alien in design than usual.

[@jack1701e]

I imagine that when Starfleet decided to build more military styled ships they rubbed their hands together with glee! Akira, Defiant, Steamrunner, Sabre, ooooh yeah!

[@BoisegangGaming]

would love to see more diversity in ship design philosophies for the federation.

[@DrewLSsix]

I like to think that's what we got with the anti Borg designs, they allowed member worlds to diverge greatly from established design doctrine and to some extent they had leeway to develop distinct technologies, though with an overarching tactical and technical compatibility in mind. Tellerites may have influenced the Defiant and Steamrunner with their integrated nacelles, the Akira is what happens when you tell humans it's OK to be slightly less enlightened and to embrace their violent nature just a bit. Many of the other ships have a somewhat alien aspect to them, though obviously being built to some unifying standard.

[@CaptainRasmot]

I think another thing to consider with this theory is the difference between the "joint" fleet and the "home" fleet. All of the ships we see in Starfleet in all of the various centuries are part of the "joint" fleet. Where technology and designs are shared and collaborated on. Meanwhile all the member worlds will have their own "home" fleets for self defense. This would allow the Federation to have a bit of leeway in how they operate. They don't need to worry *too* much about an attack on a member world due to the fact that each one has their own small armada. So there are possibly dozens if not hundreds of unique designs we haven't seen yet. That or they don't see the need to "innovate" on tried and true hull designs and go with modular systems. All that being said this is still a good breakdown on things.

[@raw6668]

I like the idea, but I think the accepted canon was all four founders were fighting the Earth-Romulan War, it was just Earth was attacked first, hence why they got top billing in the name department. I like a third theory that was developed, the computer virus theory. In that, the Romulans developed a computer virus and infected the colation computers through infiltration of the Vulcans. A virus that had a lot of different effects ranging from shutting down systems at best, to firing on ally ships at worst. Everyone, at the time, was reliant on computers and was vulnerable except one species, human ships. Partially because they were still early in development and did not integrate fully computer systems, partly because the computer systems were modular and can be shut down for manual control of individual systems. So, they began adopting human ships to their specifications as the War progressed to fight the Romulans while humanity with some help of the other species held the line in the first year of the war. And while the Vulcans were able to keep their main ship design, the others adopted the more human design for a variety of reasons with their own flare. It also explains why ships even in the 24th Century, Starfleet ships seem to depend more on user interface over purely computer input. Even targeting and shooting in a battle is not just pressing three buttons and letting the computer do all the work, but actively targeting, telling the computer to fire, or even more how it fires. It is still a bit of a holdover from the Earth-Romulan War.

[@juntakyle]

NX refit is now officially canon

[@TimothyChapman]

I suspect that most of the differences in technology (in terms of mechanical differences) would be the mechanical, hydraulic, and pneumatic complexity of the systems. It's the physical properties of the system that makes it operate after all. I imagine that with the exception of the United Earth, most of the surrounding powers would have computer chips operating at the very edge of what is physically possible, and that the only gains to be made there are in software, offloading various software tasks to hardware to improve processing speeds, and fixing vulnerabilities in the new hardware by physically replacing every computer chip in existence that uses that type of hardware. Vulnerabilities in software can be fixed by writing a patch and sending that patch out to every system that is connected to your network. Vulnerabilities in hardware requires physically replacing vulnerable chips with chips that don't have said vulnerability. Though it may be possible in some cases to provide some safeguards in software, since it's the software that dictates when the hardware runs.

[@thomasjenkins5727]

That's a great theory. The one I've come up with was simply that human ship production was dedicated almost completely to Star Fleet, partly because of having the headquarters around Earth, while other races continued to have their own planetary/system fleets. That's also why Star Fleet personnel were mostly human.

[@WhyneedanAlias]

Well Starfleet was at first a human organisation in the times of Startrek Enterprise before the Federation was founded. Sure there were one or two non humans but primarily there were only humans. I presume it stayed like that for a while after the Federation was founded and when the slowly became more and more diverse I don't find it hard to believe that they just continued with the general theme of how the ships looked

[@danielyeshe]

Great video. I do wish they they had gone with the idea presented at the start. So we could see Federation ships as a combination of human, Vulcan, andorian, and talerite ships.

[@ycplum7062]

If you accept the postulate that Humans tend to be more opportunistic (Picard says Ferengis have similar traits), less dogmatic in tech designs, and take more risks in the name of Progress, then Human would be the optimal race to integrate the technologies of the various Federation members.

[@locowolfie]

Im only 41seconds in but id argue that they chose human design as a happy neutral. Seeing as the historical difficult relations between the Vulcans, Andorians and Tellarite would make for troubled development

[@hexzinggaming5040]

My theory is that while the federation was founded by several alien races along with humans starfleet would stay mostly human for a long while with very few aliens joining meaning most designers would have been human thus the design philosophy becoming very human. When aliens did eventually join starfleet in greater numbers the saucer and secondary hull had become very in grained in the design philosophy and it was just as good as other designs. In fact making all the ships have a similar look and feel would help people identify a ship at a glance which is helpful in combat situations.

[@seancaverly9989]

Another reason could be the same reason they signed the treaty on Earth. We were seen as a neutral party, and to stop in-fighting about which design to use, they just settled with human designs. But this video was really interesting to watch. U can see the influence of other races in starfleet ships as they evolve. It would also make sense from a design aspect. Human ships were easier to integrate other technologies.

[@venomgeekmedia9886]

And the earth fleet was the biggest after the war

[@seancaverly9989]

@@venomgeekmedia9886 No way hi mate. Love your videos.

[@angelphoenix7784]

If I may, you are forgetting one important thing, by the time of Enterprise, the Federation wasn't a thing. So, the NX class is recognized as a human ship. That is also the reason it could not compete with several other species' ships.

[@MrMurdock86]

Very informative. I can see the dots you’re connecting and I very much like the implication

[@177SCmaro]

I think the simplest answer is the creators and producers of the show wanted the ships of the Federation to have a consistent aesthetic across the show's many iterations. In universe it probably would have made more sense for the Federation ships to take on the appearance of several species merged together to some extent and then standardizing over time.

[@derrickthefirst]

On the right track here. In TOS the UFP was a Federation of mainly human planets. Many humans fled the Eugenics Wars in sleeper ships (Space Seed) and settled other worlds well before the Warp Drive was invented on Alpha Centauri (Metamorphosis). TOS never really detailed what processes led to the formation of the Federation, but despite the presence of Mr. Spock even the 'Vulcanians' didn't seem to be members. (Recall that Sarek was Vulcan's ambassador to the Federation - a strange arrangement if the world was part of the UFP) Obviously there have been a few retcons since then, but the visual look has stayed the same.

[@jameshead9119]

An interesting fact was that at the start of WWII German radar was far ahead of Britain’s but was hard to upgrade than that to the British the breadboard arrangement at the time

[@gameoverinsertcointocontin8102]

I think early Federation ships were crewed mostly by a single species. It probably also makes it easier for the life support systems as Vulcans, Andorians and Humans have very different environmental preferences.

[@venomgeekmedia9886]

Oh yeah multi species crews come much later. But much like NATO it pays to have standardisation

[@gameoverinsertcointocontin8102]

@@venomgeekmedia9886 It absolutely does but if you are in a conflict with other powers and even a cold war than you still want to be careful about re-tooling your production lines.

[@Lasershadow]

First time this channel answered a question I was always wondering myself. Thank you! 💯👍

[@darthdrezz9237]

I would say the Federation members each use their own designs, we just never saw them in the show. Starfeet is the Earths ships. Vulcans an the like have their own. Starfleet is not the Federation, just earth.

[@Quadrolithium]

The same way NATO works. NATO has a standardization program to ensure that supply lines remain stable and there will be no shortage of spare parts or ammo, since they only make one ammo for this caliber and the parts are interchangeable. Everyone has their own ship at the start but then agreed upon the human design due to many reasons. Such as Vulcans not wanting to be inside Andor ships and vice versa but is fine with staying in human ships just as humans has no complaints going to anyone of it's partners ships. And that 2nd, human ships makes sense, the saucer design (though I'm not a fan of at the start but grew on me) is incredibly modular and has saved Starfleet's budget time and time again. Any ship that gets wrecked will be assessed, Nacelles blown up but Saucer is still fine? Put on brand new Nacelles for it and call it a new class. Saucer has a hole? Divide it like a pizza and decide what slices to keep then slap it on a partially built ship then call it a day.

[@ParaSpite]

I'm fond of nacelles that come in groups of four, and retract into the ship's hull to be covered in armor when not in use.

[@warrenreid6109]

You know VG I think your Romulan war theory is the correct one. It would also be how starfleet became the core military authority due to their experience in a modern war.

[@gabrielgabriel9779]

I always felt that Human design ships was actually the best design.. Even if the ship isn't the best, the design bring the best potential. Star Trek is a TV Show made to show us the human potential.

[@bjturon]

I think it would have been more interesting if the NX Enterprise had looked like it came a century before the NCC-1701, with more retro features and using a sphere instead of saucer.

[@JeanLucCaptain]

The obvious reason is Show Budget and Ent being a prequel using the established Starfleet design. Also the fact that humans are happy to use tech from almost anybody. “A Vulcans gonna do what a Vulcan is gonna do. Now the Andorians …they where happy to supply us their phasers”.

[@manofcultura]

I’d say the humans like the saucer design with secondary drive hull because it allows them to effectively shield the primary hull evenly while making drive section a relatively small target.

[@Relav1364]

So I agree with everything said, Humans had the best adaptability, and also the influence of the Earth - Romulan War. I wonder how much the political clout of Earth influenced it, particularly after the war? - Its still called Starfleet, an Earth term - Uniforms followed Earth conventions - Earth was probably like "we just saved all your asses, we're building *our* ships!" - The Earth design, being the newest, was the only thing that all the established powers could agree on

[@venomgeekmedia9886]

Remember we have 90 years between enterprise and discovery so there's a good chunk of time that needs filling in uniform wise

[@enterprise-h312]

Had I been forced to use the Enterprise as the hero ship in "Enterprise" I'd have used the XCV-330. We could have explored the design advantages and drawbacks of the coleopteric war drive as well as see the contributions of the other founding members. Even the canon show has got no excuse not to cover that ship more prominently. I recall Shran looking at ships to bear the name "Enterprise" in Archer's office and it not being there when it was there in "The Motion Picture". Humanity exploring different, even alien, designs is canon.

[@randomusernameCallin]

I like the idea that the shape is just more favorable to a better speed to mass ratio but at the cost of being easier to notice. That is why all ship having cloaking was not something that Star Fleet cared about.

[@jamesnicholson3658]

I always thought each planet had it's own defence forces and contributed to Starfleet as part of their obligations under the UFP treaty

[@DarinRWagner]

Budget. (Okay, seriously, it's not unreasonable to suppose that Starfleet requires their members to be generally humanoid and able to serve on starships with minimal modifications or equipment... like the Benzites.)

[@venomgeekmedia9886]

Still all the other races are humanoid... why not use theirs

[@DarinRWagner]

@@venomgeekmedia9886 You make good points. This is pretty much what I've always thought on the subject.

[@donaldnevgonhapniv3084]

​@@venomgeekmedia9886 I think you have a good theory, I'd add two points. Incorporating their tech to EARTH Starfleet by Vulcan, Andor, and tellar it back engineers it to be more compatible with each other while they work toward the unified Federation Starfleet that combined them all. which leads to the second, Logistics. Andor's an ice cube, Vulcan a blast furnace, Tellar a mud pit. Different environmental / dietary requirements. And they're trying to build a unified military force so they build ships from the common basis they're all doing already. If you have in the political crap they didn't like each other that much to start with. Slowly building on Earth's junk that they all understand for their own and later joint use

[@kevinmurphy65]

Really great topic. I can see this type of discussion ending up lending itself to a historcal compendium of the early period of Federation history. We get so much of Starfleet as that's the thrust of the story, but obviously there was more to the Federation than Starfleet. Interestingly, there has not been an attempt at a storyline outside of Starfleet. I realize that would be outside many viewers comfort zone perhaps, yet it would be able to fill in some gaps in the historical timeline.

[@venomgeekmedia9886]

Yeah I managed to fill in the 24th century lost era... but there's an even bigger one in the 22nd/early 23rd century

[@terrancechilds3049]

Another great video upload as always

[@venuspluto67]

One thing a lot of people don't realize: Federation starships with the exception of battle-workhorses such as the *Defiant* are all designed to be shaped like the astrological symbol for Uranus, the ruler of Aquarius. The Federation is an Aquarian interstellar civilization.

[@wargodsix]

Maybe aliens did have design influences nx didn’t have a secondary hull after federation it gained a secondary hull then you got Miranda and sphere designs too

[@RusticFederalist]

Nice to see the Starfleet Museum designs of Masao Okazaki getting some attention!

[@Marinealver]

Back in the 60s there was only 2 "spaceship" designs. The Rocket Ship 🚀 and the Flying Saucer 🛸. Gene Roddenberry took those two models and made the USS Enterprise. On criticism I would level is why aren't there any "Alien Named" ships? All of the USS ships have Earth Names, even the ones that are all Vulcan crews.

[@donaldnevgonhapniv3084]

Not all, but most shown; the Tkumbra is the only one I can think of off hand.

[@venomgeekmedia9886]

Yeah a shocking lack of diversity even the earth names are mostly American

[@derekbowbrick6233]

It's because of the Bi-pedal characters needing the same space and area for movement.

[@richardallen5384]

Where is that big graphic of all the different ship design lineage from? It's awesome! I love top down images like that especially with seeing what ship gave rose to which other ones

[@OllamhDrab]

Before Enterprise I always had kind of a headcanon assumption that Earth did spheres and cylinders and maybe someone else, like Tellar, did saucers.

[@MichaelJohnson-vi6eh]

This was so much more detailed than I thought. My guess had always been that daedalus and constitution class were just really simple geometrically, tubes, domes, saucers, struts, globes. Easy to replicate. I see the early 23rd century to basically be integration of non human federation culture and technology.

[@CaptainSovereign]

The whole arming Earth thing is sounds very familiar...hmmm

[@venomgeekmedia9886]

Indeed

[@DudePositive]

Terra Prime! That's why.

[@bernardom64]

the starship family tree/chart is pretty cool. is there a link for the full version?

[@wolfcraft484]

my headcannon is that each member of the federation have their own fleets sorta like nato in terms of military style and since i like space battleship yamato i like to think that those ships are what earth uses post dominion war era

[@Marveryn]

that also make more sense to me cause it would explain why human ship is basically crew by human with a few aliens. With vulcan ship crew with vulcan as we saw in the deep space 9 episode when they play baseball. Interesting we don't see andorians all that much in the federation nor their warships.

[@ryuukeisscifiproductions1818]

Not a bad explanation but i would personally use a few slight adjustments. One, the decision to base the combined starfleet of off human hull design may not be based so much on the adaptability of the hulls, but what the individual members can actually contribute towards the combined starfleet resources, as a rule of thumb a ships hull is technologically speaking, very basic, and also one of the cheapest actual components of a ship, generally only about 1 to 2% of the ships overall cost. And of course they want starfleet to have a unified style of hull design to make it easier to support logistically. So humanity, being somewhat behind in the complex technology. this would be the component that they could actually produce and contribute. Remeber starfleet wants to treat its members as being equal to each other, and they want each member to contribute what they can. Since humanity is behind on sensors, computers, weapons, shields engine design and warp drives, well, ok, they contribute their hull design and basic stuff like internal fittings. Vulcans likely have the best tractor beam, shielding and sensor tech, so early starfleet uses vulcan equipment in that regard. Andorians have very good weapons and impulse engines, so those components are integrated, Tellarites have for example very good computers, and warp cores or whatever so that's what tellarite equipment is used. The other reason why human style hulls are used is because Humanity is the neutral ground between everyone else, and there is no real animosity between humans and the other members, as a result human hull styles are the only ones everyone is comfortable enough with being the face of starfleet, and even though the earth romulan war is over, the threat is still out there so the nascent federation doesn't really have time to come up with a true clean slate hull design incorporating features from everyone. As a result Starfleet is using a human hull style, but all the actual technology in it, Ie the important (and most expensive) bits that make a ship work, those are all non human technologies.

[@jamesgarlick4573]

I always understood Starfleet ships being the human ship designs while the Federation itself was akin to NATO today, they share tech and even trade and cooperate new ship designs but they have their own separate fleets

[@lynngreen7978]

I blame it on Berman era producers. The predecessor to NCC-1701 was XCV-330 not NX-01. The Constitution and later ships ARE that homogenization you mention. And the novels make it worse with the Shran Class Battlecruiser. Which MUST have been built from scratch, launched, and traveled all the way to the farthest explored reaches of the Beta Quadrant to meet USS Titan, in a couple weeks. Because otherwise, the Andorians were simply sitting out the Dominion War, when they had warships more powerful than anything in Starfleet except the Sovereign.

[@venomgeekmedia9886]

Which novel is that? I take them with a heavy pinch of salt

[@lynngreen7978]

@@venomgeekmedia9886 Titan Fallen Gods

[@Nostripe361]

I don’t know about the Shran class but I could see Andorians giving up designs for long range combat and letting the Federation Starfleet take charge there. If the Andorian wants to go fight in the dominion war then it’s easier to just go on a Starfleet ship and just let the imperialgaurd protect home space

[@chrissonofpear1384]

@@lynngreen7978 Hmm - is it implied to be akin to the ST: Online Shran-class? And there's other hybrid designs in the books, like the Theophrastus-class, which is very Vulcan. Whilst the Federation: The First 150 Years book, does basically suggest the internal fittings and systems of the Constitution, were indeed a multi species hybrid, for the time.

[@lynngreen7978]

@@chrissonofpear1384 Different ship. Shran-Class is a resized Kumari, with 24th century tech, and more powerful than a Luna-class cruiser. And apparently really fast since it took Titan weeks/months to travel the same distance (I'd think Slipstream Drive, but then that doesn't fit other details in the story). Basically, the story was badly written.

[@andrewmalinowski6673]

While this is an interesting theory that each Coalition member world would divert towards a human-style design I always thought that it was more because they were the species who served as the "Babylon" of the forming and burgeoning Federation. Since Earth was the world that served as the site of the Coalition of Planets charter and where the Federation president would reside during their tenure it was also something that would bring them together and share their systems (something described in the second Romulan War novel) to create a cohesive sense of allegiance

[@nexusofice9135]

"Well I've got two words for you...THE ROMULAN WAR." *counts on fingers while thinking* .... I don't think that is just two words.

[@Raptor-ew6to]

In case you haven't watched lower decks, it is still apperent that the Andorians, and Vulcans still have ships of their own, you just don't see as much of them because the focus of most of the shows is on Star Fleet, a primarily human organization that has opened it's doors to other federation members aswell, the Vulcans and Andoreans have their own spacefaring organizations for their own independant use, they just also provide aid in developing starfleet and their ships aswell.

[@mattd6085]

Yeah that's what I was thinking the whole time. The Federation is a joint enterprise, but Starfleet is the Human navy in space. All the member species still have their own navies, and there's plenty of sharing of tech and crews, but fundamentally each species will have their unique fleets.

[@timothyhiggins8934]

no your second theory makes sense. just another thought in the back of my head that you brought out. great video by the way, are you thinking about doing a 4 years war series? no pressure

[@venomgeekmedia9886]

Maybe....

[@awesomeatronik]

I believe that Starfleet was started by earth, and is primarily a earthling based organization, just like the Vulcan's have their own science organization that is controlled by the Vulcan's, but the ships are considered federation ships because Vulcan is a part of the federation. Basically the federation and Starfleet are two different organizations. Federation is the coalition of multiple star systems, and Starfleet is earth's space program / the federations defense force.

[@jceggbert5]

It could be the same thing like how all mid-size sedans look the same, no matter what country they're from. All going for powerful, efficient, and quiet. Everyone optimizing those variables will lead to similar designs.

[@samueleveleigh2767]

personally i think that while the human style ships are a result of the romulan war the reasoning is a bit different. you see from my perspective when you look at the federation as a whole it is VERY human centric. star fleet is earth, the president is located on earth, the government is on earth, the fleet yards are on mars (an earth colony) meanwhile other species have their own fleets still, their own governments even. but earth... earth IS the federation. star fleet uses the human template of ship design because they have already given up pretty much everything to be the federation. at the time of the romulan war yes everyone in the alpha quadrant saw that either the romulans or klingons were going to try and take them over and that earth was next but it was human diplomacy that made all of the long time enemies put down their phasers and help. if it wasnt for humanity essentially sacrificing its identity the vulcans would still be a puppet state fighting the andorians who hated the telarites who tolerated the denobians. so thats why i think the federation uses humanities designs, to honor the founding member who was willing to die just to get them in the same room, afterall it isnt until warp drives go boom that the federation even considers moving the capital.

[@RichtorLazlo]

I like your theory, very good and well done, one of the big reasons, story wise is that Zefram Cochrane in the original history literally was who invented warp drive, the other races in the original history had other not as good FTL’s like the original romulan ships of the earth /romulan war did not have warp drive they had the artificial singularity that would sling shot their ships at faster then light, and the Romulan’s got warp drive from the romulan/Klingon alliance and the Klingons got cloaking.

[@alexandercaires5921]

I had a similar idea, but starting with the Yorktown Class Battleship, a pre-war design that was put on the back-burn thanks to the war, that by war's end incorporated (modern) Coalition technologies. My first generation Federation fleet included the Yorktown and the Bonaventure (from Eagelmoss and the Ships of the Line Calendar) the later a couple DSC era ships like the Walker and Crossfield. Overall, your idea is vey realistic, and extremely similar to my idea. I love it. Please keep doing these one-off videos. They really flesh out the Star Trek Universe like no one has done before. (I'm half tempted to ask for an updated Earth-Romulan War series at this rate)

[@venomgeekmedia9886]

Huh I personally put the Bonaventure as TOS a cousin of the Connie and a direct descendant of the Rockwell.

[@STho205]

The designers of Star Trek were WW2 vets and post WW2 guys. The US WW2 naval and air designs had become the ubiquitous pattern for all navies, air forces and civil aviation by 1965...that includes The USSR and Communist Asia. This had much to do with lend lease, the US build capacity in 1943, and an allied victory coming out of WW2 as the only nation not broke, even amongst the allies. So they replicated what they saw. Starfleet was obviously a 1965 NATO metaphor by Season 2. Today there is a growing departure from US designs IRW so that would not be done in a show. Babylon 5 and SG1 for instance didn't do it. In TOS season 1 the ubiquitous Earth Force design was the saucer section. The star drives were basically designed the same on all shown starships except Balock's and Tholius. Two or four nacelles on stalks, with a warp core. Assumed like a propeller or jet nacelles to be an engineering reality.

[@DrewLSsix]

While I get why they did it, I really wish Enterprise went with a different design for the ship. Something inherently human, with room for the traditional starfleet aesthetic to arise with the combined efforts of the early member worlds.

[@athane8358]

There have been many reference to "Vulcan ships" in post Enterprise Trek. Even in Picard in 2402 it was reasonable to believe the Titan had been disabled in a fight with a Vulcan ship. Other species in the Federation maintained their own security forces and fleets. The Humans were the only ones to not have their own dedicated fleet after the founding. This is why we see so many ships with human names and human crews. All humans join Starfleet, but only some Vulcans, Andorians, Tellerites etc. By the time other species had joined Starfleet in sizeable numbers, there was already a "culture" of saucer/stardrive designs. Disco does mention the "Vulcan Expeditionary Group" as well. Early Federation would still have racial grudges. So it would be easier for the races to work on the relatively neutral human vessels. Andorians too proud to serve on Vulcan designed ships, Vulcans not liking the atmosphere of Andorian ships and so on. So they send crew to work on and with Human Starfleet.

[@anthonylipke7754]

I'm suddenly reminded of the Pakleds only they didn't integrate their own technology. I know in some of our development hardware where I work we have extra capability for information capture and process control that normally gets thrifted out. If you have iterated design with little development over time you stop putting in those development features. I also expect design convergence where there are fundamental functional trade offs which makes me think the federation design found a key trade off. Design/cultural philosophy of values can also enter in. Having an adaptable platform common standard and dumb luck/timing can attract participation also backward compatibility. I'm thinking of windows x86 right now. Nobody else did the work for cross compatibility netting out overall adaptability. I really think it's the engineers that built the library that was the platform. Openness so others could build on one another's work coincided with the creation of the federation. Human tech might be the ISO shipping container (people might not appreciate the analogy) of warp tech. Once inertia is behind a design and it's good enough it gets further development. Path dependence is why it's hard for things like Wankel rotary engines to ever displace pistons engines this applies to other things but you need a significant fundamental improvement to change the path paradigm.

[@Fabian-Wenzel]

I think there was a variety of ships in the early Starfleet of the Federation. In my opinion, the humans make the greatest contribution to Starfleet because you see relatively few other races in Starfleet uniform. Behind them come the Vulcans and Andorians. In Star Trek Enterprise, the Vulcan ambassador has said that the Vulcans are impressed, but also frightened, by the technological development of humanity. Because the Vulcans needed much more time, about 1000 years, and the humans needed less than 100 years. In my opinion, simply the most efficient, well-versed and practical ship design has prevailed and that is the typical Starfleet design with a saucer section, neck, engineering section with a shuttle hangar as well as the pylons with the warp nacelles. In fact, most of the Starfleet shipyards are located on the territory of the United Earth, the San Francisco Fleet Shipyard and the Utopia Planitia Starfleet Shipyard near Mars. Otherwise, as far as I know, there is only one other Starfleet shipyard in the Vulcan solar system. According to my background information, the construction of a starship takes three months. Until humanity's break with the Federation shortly after the Burn, humans were quasi-manic Federation members because so many people dedicated their lives to Starfleet or the Federation, and with all their might these people dedicated themselves to its preservation, progress, prosperity and defence. The United Federation represents for me the best of all future scenarios and especially the most desirable one

[@Justice107]

Likely due to the various founding members of the Federation having violent histories with one another, having former rival ships flying around their territory probably antagonized citizens. Using any of their ships as the basic mold for the new alliance was probably an insult to many. To keep the peace and display they are all allies now, human ships were used as the standard Federation molds because everyone was neutral towards the human race/fleet.

[@xxxxCronoxxxx]

even without the romulan war, when human ships catch up to the other members they will have been able to adapt the unique technology from the other members, and by that point standardization and efficiency will leave them with little reason to not use a human inspired design.

[@TedSchoenling]

but that isn't what I've read in many books... the coalition of planets folded and nobody helped earth until the battle of Cheron when a bunch of klingon privateers and Shran came to save the day... and this was because the klingons, andorians and vulcans found that their ships were easily controlled by the telecontrol unit

[@joelmulder]

Wow, retconning rarely works this well, really great theory!

[@JohnDoeXYZ]

Of course we all know the real answer is the producers wanted the Enterprise ships to look similar to the Akira and Sabre classes from later on in the timeline.

[@alisilcox6036]

Yep. Vulcans and andorians wouldn't share tech, but there's something deeply non-threatening about human ships. They're well-placed (especially given the exploits of NX-01 and the advent of the romularn war) to receive the basic principles of various different planets' specialisations. This allows human shipbuilding to be accelerated, highly versatile, and attractive to other species as they are the only foreign vessels with familiar technologies and systems. TLDR because of earth's unique position at the start of the federation.

[@tonywhite9873]

That's easy to answer if you have seen the series Enterprise. Ally tech was added to the ships, from Vulcan, Andorian and Tellarite. The Roman/Earth war .

[@darienevans6229]

human ships were a nuetrull design between the in the past waring vulcans,adorian and tellarite.

[@LonelyMinnesotan1]

I think that the most important thing to remember when discussing Federation ship designs, and Starfleet ship designs in particular, is...well its actually a couple things. The first and most obvious is that, despite Star Trek frequently featuring aliens, at its core Star Trek is a human-centric brand. Throughout almost all Star Trek series it is shown time and again that humans very often serve as mediators and a stable center-point. This is definitely something worth discussing in more detail, but from a lore standpoint i think it boils down primarily to the fact that, compared to so many of the other species and founding members of the Federation in particular, humans arrived on the galactic stage rather late. Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarites had all been sailing the stars so-to-speak for hundreds if not thousands of years by the time humans first started experimenting with FTL/Warp travel. This makes humans, and human designs, a solid middle ground. Something that all of these different species (many of which have had histories of wars, disagreements, etc) can agree on without upsetting each other. Secondly, Starfleet was founded by humans, for humans. Starfleet at its inception was founded as basically the new military/exploratory branch for United Earth, so it would make sense for them to simply stick to their original design philosophy after the creation of the Federation, and the adoption of Starfleet as the official...well almost everything branch of the Federation.

[@pcheintz7264]

I would note not only are the other designs closed systems, but they are not modular. So starfleet split out the engines and other systems so that the exact same engines can be used on multiple ships with only minimal differences, ditto many other systems. So it is better once all those disparate bits of technology are integrated in a modular way they can be more easily incorporated into future setups.

[@JoducusKwak]

its not only that humanity has very basic tech, the NX class was meant to be highly compatible to be quickly refited with new technologies in which where either developed by Earth its self or aquired from allies and foes. I would asume this design strategy also made a huge impact on the early Federation and whoms type of ship design would be used

[@thequantumnexus4270]

I like the theory. It follows the idea of Enterprise and how Earth became the centre of the federation - by being a middle ground for everyone else to meet on. And true that war spurs technological growth like nothing else. Would have liked a series set in the Enterprise timeline about this era. It's been 25 years or so since Terra Prime (the real finale, not that epilogue episode with the holodeck). Maybe instead of Discovery. Could have had some nice PTSD talk about the Romulan war and everyone adapting to peacetime and the new alliance. Much more Star Trek like, I think.

[@Capitan0Guinea]

Terran and Tellarites ships were similar and were the backbone of the future designs, all based on the Columbia Class (the refit of NX-Class of Archer Enterprise). Other races give more about single systems, to enrich designs whose hull were already layed.