I just consider the Daedalus to be the Volvo of the 22nd century, a reliable, solid runaround...if a little on the boxy side
Now that we'll get to see what Starfleet is flying in the 2150s, we will be faced with the fact that the Daedalus class is in fact really puny as far as starships go. Clearly, it will be difficult to pretend it's the top dog of the 2160-2190 period. So it could be time to rethink the whole concept of the Daedalus class now.
The Essex is the only canonically known example of the Daedalus class, and even then we lack visual identification. So there are a lot of options on how to deal with the ships we THOUGHT were Daedaloi - from more severe to less so:
1) Essex is a Daedalus, as canonically stated, but looks completely different from the conjectural pictures, and is well armed and armored. Horizon is the only one that looks like the baseball-and-beer-can, as per the tabletop model, but she is not Daedalus class. Archon is something utterly else altogether, and potentially also big and bad.
2) Essex is a Daedalus and so is Horizon. Given their similar registries, they are likely to share a class. Thus, both must look like the Horizon tabletop model. Archon is a different ship, possibly more powerful.
3) All the ships are indeed just like speculated in the Encyclopedia. They just aren't very powerful for their era. They are more akin to Oberths, and the seeming lack of weapon ports is in fact because the ships do not HAVE weapons.
4) All the ships are just like speculated in the Encyclopedia, and they are indeed the primary ships of their day. Starfleet just went wimpy for a while. Or perfected miniaturization, and then forgot about it.
The second theory appeals to me the most. I'd hate to lose the tabletop design, but I'd also hate to think of it in a major role now that we know that Starfleet had bigger and more modern things from day one (or, rather, from year minus-ten). There is nothing in "Power Play" to suggest that the Essex was not a meek Oberth-like surveyor, now is there? Nor are the capabilities of the Archon or the Horizon clearly outlined in the episodes.
Just like Oberths look somewhat antiquated in the TOS movie era, so the Daedaloi could be old designs dating from before the "saucer era" that was begun by NX-01. Size-wise, they are similar to the supposed Enterprise class as Oberths are to the Constitution class...
Timo Saloniemi
And by making the Archon more akin to the Constitutions of the day than to an Oberth, we'd be continuing the TOS tradition of having mainly the best and biggest ships (Exeter, Defiant, Constellation) get into trouble or disappear. That would nicely separate the show from TNG, where the smallest and dinkiest ships were the ones to get into trouble (apart from the hero ship, of course).
When Mike originally labeled all the old ships as Daedalus class, he was sorely lacking in alternatives - note he never tried to think up a fictional class for the USS Valiant, even if that strange NCC-1226 popped up from somewhere. Now that there are alternatives upcoming, I think he should rethink the decision and retcon the canonically unconfirmed parts.
Timo Saloniemi
I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that Starfleet had more than one type of really solid design around the time of the Daedalus. I also don't think it's unreasonable to assume that the Daedalus wasn't the top of the line. I mean, the pre-Ent is going to be getting into all kinds of trouble every couple weeks or so and not crash land on a moon, or get lost or anything... My point is, I think it's completely possible that, even though the Daedalus is newer than the pre-Ent, it may have about the same level of toughness...
Or something. Am I making any sense at all...?
And the rest of the Galaxy class ships. Yamoto, Oddysey, Enterprise; they lost half their original ships in less than ten years. Not a good thing for a design tht was suppossed to last a century...
How big is the Daedalus anyway? I'd bet that if we do see any Daedalus', they'll look slighty different (read = better/newer) than they do in the Encyclopdia.
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I'd go TAS over ENT... in terms of canonicity.
What about that ship in TAS that was supposed to be the first ship with warp drive that looked like an overweight connie.
I just consider the Daedalus to be the Volvo of the 22nd century, a reliable, solid runaround...if a little on the boxy side
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What about that ship in TAS that was supposed to be the first ship with warp drive that looked like an overweight connie.
You mean this? The S.S. Bonaventure NCC-S2100. It's supposed to be the first STARFLEET ship with warp drive. (Not that Ent isn't going to blow that to hell...) And it happens to be one of my favorite ship designs. Overweight Connie, my ass! this is exactly what a Pre-TOS ship should look like, not some anorexic Akira! Smaller, a little bulkier, but still recognizable.
[ July 26, 2001: Message edited by: The Mighty Monkey of Mim ]
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supposed to be the first STARFLEET ship with warp drive. (Not that Ent isn't going to blow that to hell...)
I think the Phoenox already did that.
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that ship looks like it took more than a few whacks from the ugly stick.
More like it had an entire ugly tree dropped on it from a great height.
The Daedalus is not quite as long as the Akiraprise' saucer.
Reverend: Erm... The Phoenix was very much not a Starfleet ship.
"...it seems unreasonable to assume that ALL the starships lost in that time period would be from a single class..."
Wow. They only lost a grand total of three ships? That's a pretty damned good record... *rolls eyes*
Is it so unreasonable to assume that the three starships we happen to have heard about, out of all the ones lost in that time, were of the same class?
Of course, First Contact changes this to the Phoenix, which is a good thing. A very good thing. Because the ship looks too much like the Enterprise to have been built in 2063 or whenever. And it's ugly. (In TAS's defense, I'm sure no one was really figuring things out chronologically like Okuda would later do.)
Now if you want to take Scotty's statement figuratively instead of literally, then you might say that he meant that the Bonaventure was the first Starfleet ship. It makes much more sense. Although the ship still remains ugly.
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Reverend: Erm... The Phoenix was very much not a Starfleet ship.
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In the TAS episode it was featured in, Scotty makes the statement ,"There's the old Bonaventure, the first ship to have warp drive installed." Scotty does NOT say that it was the first Starfleet ship w/ WD, but the FIRST SHIP. Period.
Thankyou Dukhat, thats what I thought he said.
And, even with the Pre-E, we can still rationalize it by saying it was the first FEDERATION ship to hve warp. (In fact, this may even turn out to make more sense considering the registry number.)
Sorry for not spelling things out. I'll remember next time. 
There's a lot to be said for clarity.
Reverend: Well, if Scotty didn't say "Starfleet", that's different. I was simply responding to the fact that you said:
"supposed to be the first STARFLEET ship with warp drive. (Not that Ent isn't going to blow that to hell...)""I think the Phoenox already did that."
Maybe we could interpret that line as the first ship to have already been built for another purpose but had warp drive later installed??
The ship in that scenario would have dated back to the early 23rd century, perhaps the 2230s or so - that would have explained the TOS-style markings on her, and the TOS-like saucer-hulled design, and would still have allowed for some time to have passed, to justify the line "the descendants of the crew might still be alive". The Bonadenture could possibly have been the first ship to feature dilithium in the engines, or duotronics in the computers, or some other quantum leap in her propulsion or navigation capabilities that would justify calling her "the first".
But now that we know that saucers have been a starship design feature for all eternity, and that the markings haven't changed all that much either, I'm willing to squeeze the ship in somewhere earlier in the timeline. Heh - perhaps even a prototype for NX-01 propulsion systems, dating back to the 2140s (again not the very first ship with a warp drive, but the very first with something Scotty would dignify with the name warp drive).
Timo Saloniemi
JUST HAD A BURST OF INSPIRATION. Don't ships draw power from their Warp Drive to run electircal stuff on the ships? What if the Phoenix only used her Warp Engines for creating the warp bubble and had an alternate power source for everything else. Then the Bonaventure could be the first Starfleet vessel to use its warp core to power more than just its warp bubble. Am I right or am I just babbeling uncontrolably?!?
...That second one.
Several people have asserted that the Daedalus class is much smaller than the Akiraprise. Several more have asked how long the Daedalus was(with no answer).
With the only canon image of it being a desktop model, how does anyone know what the size of the Daedalus was?
[ August 01, 2001: Message edited by: Harry ]
Happy Target, you could be on to something there. That might explain why in First Contact, after the Phoenix supposedly went warp and then throttled back, we still saw a fairly good sized Earth through the her windows. Perhaps Cochrane initiated a warp bubble and got going at a fairly good clip (impulse using some low level warp field) before turning around.
If the Phoenix had actually gone warp 1 or higher, she probably would have travelled much further. I'm sure the math majors out there could actually figure out how far she flew based on the Earth's (I think) angular size. Either way, she didn't leave the vicinity of Mother Earth by a long shot.
Constellation of One, waiting for the flames to begin.
Warp Drive: system for FTL propulsion as a whole
Warp Core: plasma supply for warp drive
Warp Coil: device for producing warp speeds
Warp Engine: array of warp coils
Warp Nacelle: outboard warp engine
All warp propulsion systems seem to use this same terminology.
Maybe this fits in with the comment in "The Cage" where they had broken the 'time barrier' or what ever.