TOS Ship Battle: D-7 Class vs Constitution-class

[Sionnach Glic]

Which makes sense. If it were a new technology, they'd still be experimenting with how to best put it to use.

[Mikey]

Hardly gives a timeframe, though, unfortunately. We've seen Klingon ships from the TOS era in use as of VOY; and Kor's career was over a century long.

[Deepcrush]

Those old Klingons know how to stick around don't they. I'm impressed that any of the KDF-Battle Cruisers even survived the DW.

[Graham Kennedy]

Worth bearing in mind that we've also seen a D7 variant - Kronos 1 - take two direct torpedo hits whilst unshielded in ST VI. Whilst it did survive, and was still combat capable, the ship did lose gravity and spin out of control for several minutes. If the attacked had followed up with another few shots, that ship would have been toast.

[Deepcrush]

Not good for them. The Klingon ship would have no shields while dropping cloak. If the Connie got off even a single phaser she could cripple the Battle Cruiser.

[Vic]

This does make me curious, it seems to me that the first episode that a D-7 shows up the response is more 'oh shit', not 'ehh, no problem'. Why the worry if a D-7 is no match for a Connie?

[Deepcrush]

This does make me curious, it seems to me that the first episode that a D-7 shows up the response is more 'oh s**t', not 'ehh, no problem'. Why the worry if a D-7 is no match for a Connie?

You answered your own question. It was the first time they saw (We) the D-7. A ship 3/4 their size but built purely for combat. Thats something to be worried about since the Connie is a multipurpose ship. Later on we see them taking the D-7 a lot more lightly.

Of course there seemed to be a large number of D-7s, or at least compared to the numbers of Connies. What they lacked in ability they seemed to try to make up for in numbers.

[Vic]

I do remember a few, "Well, we can't take that many on, let's talk our way out." scenarios.

[Deepcrush]

That would imply the idea of multiples. Which also means that the crew of a Connie feel comfortable with taking on a D-7 head to head.

[Graham Kennedy]

It's also telling for me that the Romulans apparently deployed the D-7 in groups of three for border patrol duties. To me that says that one or even two D-7s just can't be guaranteed to do the job against a Connie.

[Nickswitz]

Wait... didn't they use D-7's in the Koyaboshi-Maru scenario. That was before the ship was launched for kirk, so didn't they know about them long before that ep.

[Deepcrush]

With the re-use of Klingon designs. It may not have been a D-7 but an earlier model or an updated program.

[Mikey]

Even when they knew the capabilities of the D-7, a ship that you outmatch can still do some degree of damage to you. That's a consideration when you are potentially months away from the nearest R&R facility.

[Captain Seafort]

Wait... didn't they use D-7's in the Koyaboshi-Maru scenario. That was before the ship was launched for kirk, so didn't they know about them long before that ep.

That was the Abramsverse, not the Prime universe - the two are different enough that events in either are effectively non-canon from the perspective of the other.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

Not good for them. The Klingon ship would have no shields while dropping cloak. If the Connie got off even a single phaser she could cripple the Battle Cruiser.

And even with shields a good torp hit can cripple a D-7.