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I think we can all agree that the original Galaxy class had more than a few design flaws. Form exploding warp cores to the idea that everything imporatant is in a Jeferies tube.
If you could fix just one of these problems, what would it be?

Inspired by a similar thread from another site.

I choose the Consoles because loseing bridge staff in battle can't be helpful.

I don't like the idea of computers controlling a ship in general so I would never choose that.

Also I think that any ship like the Galaxy class that has long missions needs good quality crew quarters so they stay big.

Fix the warp core. None of the other problems threaten the immediate destruction of the ship the way that Ford Pinto of a warp core does. In fact, I can think of at least six occasions on which a Galaxy-class ship was lost due to shoddy design.

PS. The idea of removing the saucer (and the civies) also has merit - it's meant to be a warship, not the Queen Mary.

PS. The idea of removing the saucer (and the civies) also has merit - it's meant to be a warship, not the Queen Mary.

No it was supposed to be an Explorer. Thus making the crew as happy and comfortable as possible is important. Only during the Dominion war was it used more as a Warship but thats a (Hopefully) one off thing.

Conundrum wrote:Worf:We are equipped with ten phaser banks, 275 photon torpedoes, and a high capacity shield grid.

MacDuff:We're a battleship.

Worf:It appears so.

The Galaxy may be designated as an Explorer, but it can go toe-to-toe with the best anyone else has to offer. Note that ave for a few cosmetic changes to the bridge the E-D of "Yesterday's Enterprise" was identical to the regular vessel (right down to the shoddy warp core), despite being designed specifically for war. Time after time after time te Enterprise has been sent into combat situations - the Ferengi, the Romulans, the Borg, the Klingons, the Cardassians, among others. You wouldn't send Cook's Discovery into those sorts of situations. You'd send Nelson's Victory.

It does do those things but it's primary role was as an explorer and a diplomatic ship. Making a crew comfortable and happy is important. Also apart from the Dominion war the Federation is generally a very peaceful place thus the risks of having civilians on ship are far less than the benifits.

Other than the Cardassian war, perpetual internal unrest in the Klingon Empire, the Romulans' constant mischief-making and random aliens-of the week droping in to blow something up.

If the Galaxy was a simple science vessel it wouldn't be armed like a battleship and it wouldn't spend half its time rushing to the latest trouble spot - quite the contrary, it would be running in the opposite direction. If it's a battleship, which fits all the evidence, it sure as hell shouldn't have civilians aboard. Besides which, sailing off into the unknown, ie exploring, is dangerous work. You never know what's going to be waiting in the next starsystem, whether it's a hostile alien or a natural threat.

Up until 2365 the Federation was reallativily peaceful. There is always somethign but not enough to worry about. All that stuff you said is in the last decade of our knowledge of the Federation.

It provides a better working enviroment to have civilians on board a ship. These ships a years away from their families and such it only makes sense to make them as comfortable as possible. They know the risks involved. Most Federation ships are in situatutions were they are in grave danger rearly.

Id limit computer access from remote terminals. The bar computer should serve drinks not be able to control the ship.

i'd add a toilet somewhere on that ship.

Teaos wrote:Up until 2365 the Federation was reallativily peaceful. There is always somethign but not enough to worry about. All that stuff you said is in the last decade of our knowledge of the Federation.

The Cardasian war was in progress before TNG started, and Picard fought in it as CO of the Stargazer. Besides which, Starfleet's primary role may be scientific, but it is still the Federation's military, and they can't afford to have civilians on board, given the unpredictability of threats turning up. Look at the Odessy for example. What if the captain had ignored Dax's advice to strip down to a skeleton crew - there would have been over a thousand dead.

It provides a better working enviroment to have civilians on board a ship. These ships a years away from their families and such it only makes sense to make them as comfortable as possible. They know the risks involved. Most Federation ships are in situatutions were they are in grave danger rearly.

But when they are in danger, where would it be better for the crew's families to be? Safely on a planet or a few decks down being shot at along with everyone else? The result of the latter is that the crew will always be worrying in the back of their minds, distracting them from doing their jobs with potentially fatal results for the entire ship. If its a science vessel cataloguing stars or looking at nebulae deep inside the Federation this shouldn't be a problem, and could even be an advantage (though not necessarilly - look at the Saratoga for example). For a battleship like th Enterprise however, which runs into serious trouble every other week, its a serious problem.

The simple fact that the Enterprise is routinely called on to engage in military activities shows us that its not purely a science vessel.

Add fix the whole ship with:
redundant weapons controls
tie circut breaker to the bridge consoles
redundant systems to the Warp Core.

Exploding bridge consoles aside, almost all the Galaxy's problem fall into one of two areas

1) Overreliance on computers. From the 2nd episode of the series on wards, the ships existence was threatened time and again because the computers were damaged, infiltrated, infected with a virus or a hundred other things, resulting in a mad dash to repair it before the whole thing went bang.

2) Lack of redundancy/overcentralisation. Again, time after time either all the weapons were knocked out by a single hit, or all the sensors went down, or the sole coolant system for the warp core was wrecked or the core ejection system was wrecked, and there was no backup.

i like the extra nacelle idea