| Universe : |
All Good Things |
| Affiliation : |
Federation |
| Class Name : |
Refit Galaxy Class |
| Type : |
Original Galaxy was an Explorer [1] |
| Unit Run : |
USS Enterprise [1] 1 built in total. |
| Commissioned : |
2394 [1], class remains in service |
| Dimensions : |
Length : 641 m [2]
Beam : 470 m [3]
Height : 157 m [3]
Decks : 42 |
| Mass : |
5,100,000 metric tons |
| Crew : |
1,215, ; Evac limit unknown |
| Armament : |
1 x heavy phaser lance [1]
16 x visible phaser arrays [1] , total output 350,000 TeraWatts
2 x Rapid fire quantum torpedo tube with 250 rounds |
| Defence Systems : |
Regenerative shield system shield system, total capacity 6,000,000 TeraJoules
Standard Duranium / Tritanium Double hull plus 9 cm High density armour.
High level Structural Integrity Field |
Warp Speeds
(TNG scale) : |
At least Warp Factor 13 [1] |
Strength Indices :
(Galaxy class = 1,000) |
Beam Firepower : 7,000
Torpedo Firepower : 5,400
Weapon Range and Accuracy : 2,000
Shield Strength : 2,222.22
Hull Armour : 1,100
Speed : -
Combat Manoeuvrability : 1,000 |
| Overall Strength Index : |
4,132 |
| Diplomatic Capability : |
7 |
| Expected Hull Life : |
100 |
| Refit Cycle : |
Minor : 1 year
Standard : 1 years
Major : 20 years |
Notes
In 2364 the Captain of the USS Enterprise, Jean Luc Picard, encountered the mysterious being known only as "Q". Q demonstrated tremendous abilities to control matter, space and, in subsequent encounters, time itself. In 2370 Q began shifting Picard between three time zones; one based in 2364 shortly before Picard became Captain of the Enterprise, one set in the present, and one set in 2399. In the future version of the timeline the Federation continued to exist, but was in a period of poor relations with the Klingon Empire. It was in this period that Picard encountered the refitted Enterprise-D. The ship was the same Galaxy class vessel launched in 2364, but had undergone a radical upgrading some years earlier rather than being retired. This refit included the addition of a third nacelle mounted on a large pylon on the engineering hull, between the existing pair. This allowed the ship to travel at speeds of at least warp factor 13 for prolonged periods. This version of the Enterprise had also been fitted with a cloaking device.
The ship also had upgraded weaponry, most visibly the addition of a very large beam weapon of some kind to the underside of the saucer section, covering the Captain's Yacht. Measuring some two hundred metres in length, this canon was used to spectacular effect in a battle against a pair of Klingon vessels. The weapon - which appeared to be a form of phaser - was able to punch through the shields of the Klingon ships with apparent ease and caused a catastrophic hull breach in one vessel, resulting in its rapid destruction. The second Klingon ship retreated smartly when it realized how overmatched it was by the Federation Starship.
This Enterprise was partially responsible for the repair of an anti-time anomaly which had been accidentally created in each of the three periods Picard visited. The ship was able to enter the anomaly and, along with earlier versions of itself commanded by Picard, generate a static warp shell which repaired the time/antitime rift. Upon the completion of this task Q stopped the time shifts and apparently reset the event sequence to its original configuration.
Although it is unclear exactly how Q performed this feat of temporal engineering, it would seem that the future depicted differs from the preferred timeline in at least some respects - the Enterprise-D itself has since been destroyed at the Viridian system, so it is unlikely that it will be able to feature in any version of Q's timeline. Nevertheless, at least some aspects of the future appear to have manifested themselves as part of the preferred timeline. The USS Venture was recently refitted with the same nacelle add-on units holding extra phaser arrays, bringing the total for the ship to fourteen. The benefits of adding a third nacelle to the Galaxy class are not yet apparent [1] - one possibility is that the ship would be able to travel at higher speeds with this addition, or maintain a higher average speed by periodically 'resting' two of the nacelles whilst travelling on the third. However, given that the ship was apparently able to achieve warp factors beyond Warp 10 it seems more likely that in this future the Federation perfected a form of transwarp drive. The third nacelle may be related to this drive system.
Colour key
References
| # |
Series |
Season |
Source |
Comment |
| 1 |
TNG |
7 |
All Good Things |
|
| 2 |
|
|
Speculative |
Assumed to be the same as the standard Galaxy Class. |
| 3 |
|
|
Speculative |
Assumed to be the same as the standard Galaxy Class. |
Comments
The episode "All Good Things..." featured Picard jumping between three different time periods; one began shortly before he took command of the Enterprise-D, the second was set in 2370 - Picard's present - and the third set at some undetermined time in the future. This is often claimed to be 2390 because of Geordi's line that it had been twenty years since they had all served together. But this assumes that the E-D crew broke up just after season seven. In the original timeline the Enterprise-D was indeed destroyed shortly after the end of season 7, but the crew went on to serve together on the Enterprise-E for some years. Although Worf did transfer to Deep Space Nine he frequently seemed to find himself back on the E-E, and the crew really didn't split up until the end of Nemesis, with Data killed and Riker and Troi transferring to the USS Titan.
Whilst both Data and the Enterprise-D survived in Q's timeline, I've presumed that the crew stayed together as before, with the E-D taking part in First Contact, Insurrection and Nemesis, after which Riker and Troi would leave. That's certainly just a presumption of mine though, the reality is anything could have happened differently in Q's timeline. Assuming it did happen the way I've presumed, this puts the future of All Good Things in 2399, which puts the Enterprise-D's refit in 2394 since there is a line that Riker had the ship refitted "five years ago".
The major external differences between the refitted Enterprise and the TNG era ship are the third nacelle and the Big Gun. The former sits, as said on the specs page, on a large pylon between the existing pair. It is visually identical to the originals, but all three now have a prominent box like structure on their upper surface. Each of these has an additional phaser array mounted on them. The single phaser array on each of the original two nacelle pylons has been replaced with a fin like structure flanked by two arrays, giving the ship sixteen visible arrays in all. Including the one which is presumably still hidden within the ships separation plane would bring this to seventeen arrays total, but for the purposes of the specs page I have not included this last one. This is because it looks to me like the big gun on the bottom of the saucer is joined onto the ships connecting neck, which may well prevent separation. If so then this last array would be unusable, and would presumably have been removed. In any case, the specs entry refers to visible arrays only so it's covered either way.
Like other vessels of the era the ship was able to travel at Warp 13, and some have taken this to indicate a third recalibration of the warp scale. I prefer to think of this as indicating that the Federation finally conquered the transwarp drive, and for my own speculative transwarp scale you can check out the "Sci-Tech" button above.
The Big Gun is often called the "Phaser Lance" by fans, but I don't know if that is official or not. I've gone with it anyway, as it's as good a name as any and it seems to have stuck for quite a while not. The Lance's performance was pretty amazing; we don't see the results of its first shot but the second punched a hole straight through the forward hull of what would soon become known as a Negh'Var class ship. I've generally presumed that weapon and shield upgrades have been performed to keep the Enterprise-D current, giving it quantum torpedoes, heavy shields, and a boosted structural integrity system. No ablative armour, as I presume that would mean replacing much of the hull of the ship, which seems over the top for a refit. I've added some extra mass and extra crew to the ship to account for the various mods and upgrades over the years.
As well as the nacelle and weapon, the refitted Enterprise had some other modifications. There were two appendages placed on the saucer near the bridge; these look a bit like forward pointing cannon of some sort, but could equally be sensors or communications equipment or pretty much anything else you want to make them. The area behind the bridge has also been built up with a box like structure.
The neck connecting the main and secondary hulls also had a boxy structure attached. This covered the old impulse engine, replacing it with another on the back of the box in the same location. The last change I can make out is a pair of fin like structures on the outside of the nacelle pylons, about where the phaser arrays are on the current version.
The All Good Things model was later modified to become a more standard Galaxy by having its various doodads removed. However, while the third nacelle was removed the structures on the top of the other two were not. This model was seen as the USS Venture in the episode "The Way of the Warrior". I think this was probably an accident - though it's just a feeling, I have no proof one way or the other. Either way, it does make a lot of sense - if Q was projecting Federation technology into the future to create a simulation, or was actually putting Picard into one possible real future, then the Venture becomes a nice stepping stone between the two. The Venture also presumably represents one of the "combat biased" Galaxy class ships discussed by Rick Sternbach. These vessels are said to have no science labs, holodecks, or other non-essential items. As such they are easier to build, a useful measure with the Dominion war looming. Enhanced engines and an extra pair of phaser arrays would also fit a more combat oriented ship well.
These ships may also be the "uprated" Galaxy class ships mentioned in the DS9 Tech Manual. These are claimed to be capable of Warp 9.9 compared to the standard Galaxy's Warp 9.6. But caution is always advised when using non-canon sources such as Tech Manuals, and most especially this particular section of this particular book. This entry alone contains at least three other mistakes - the ships height is way wrong, and the phaser and torpedo armament is also in error.
The refitted Galaxy class also breaks two of Gene Roddenberry's claimed Starship design rules; namely, the pylon supporting the third nacelle breaks the "nothing between, behind or in front of nacelles" rule, while the nacelle itself breaks the "nacelles in even numbers only" rule. Although other ships have broken the latter rule before, few have been so prominently displayed on screen. One could claim that this doesn't count since this future was an invention of Q, but one would expect Q to be mindful of such things - he would presumably want to make a future which was creditable, lest he make Picard realize it wasn't real.
Naturally, the destruction of the Enterprise-D at Viridian in "Generations" makes at least this part of the "All Good Things..." future redundant, so we will never see this particular ship again (unless you count reruns, har har). But we could eventually see ships of this type again - if we ever see a film or series set in the future, a Galaxy refitted in this manner as a background ship would make a nice tip of the hat to TNG, much as TNG and DS9 drew so heavily on Excelsior and Miranda class ships.
