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Posted by Fabrux (Member # 71) on :

That's right, folks, it's the mysterious USS Zandura from FC! Fresh out of the latest issue of ST: TM. It's a tiny little image at the back, but I scanned 'er in at 800 dpi and shrunk it down a tad. Enjoy!

USS Zandura

At first, I thought it was hideous. But, it grew on me pretty quick. You can pretty much pick out the design elements in this: Steamrunner-ish nacelles, Olympic stardrive (aft part, anyways), Sovereign shuttlebay. Overall, a nifty little ship.

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Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :

Well, that was certainly worth the seventeen hours it took to download. Are we to believe that this design was made into a model, or is this just a throwaway thing, or what?

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Posted by Fabrux (Member # 71) on :

Sorry about the long download time. I didn't want to risk degrading any details in a JPEG compression. If it's any condolence, the original PNG is about 3 MB

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"Lately I've noticed that everyone seems to trust me. It's really quite unnerving. I'm still trying to get used to it."
- Garak, "Empok Nor"

Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :

Hellooooooo, Replacement Constellation!

And an article with and about Alex Jaeger's used and unused designs? Boo-yah!

Mark

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"Why build one, when you can have two at twice the price?"

- Carl Sagan, "Contact"

Posted by Starship Freak (Member # 293) on :

So, any new information about the ship? I also like it. Constellation-replacement? How about Cheyenne-replacement?

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Posted by Timo (Member # 245) on :

If so, then there's a trend. Constellation was bristling with weapons; Cheyenne had two phaser strips and just possibly two small torp launchers on the vertical pylons, and that was that; and this baby seems unarmed at a first glance.

I'd say Oberth replacement, although she's a bit large for the job. A bigger and milder-mannered companion to the Nova class. Since no registry is given, and the nacelles don't belong to any obvious "family" or era, we might say this could be a fairly recent vessel.

This could also be one of those "four-nacelled courier" things - she's in the same size range as the reputed Pathfinder-courier at least. Secondary scientific roles, no defensive ones. Starfleet definitely needs superfast ships for liaison duties, and since not all of its ships are superfast, we can deduce there is a tradeoff. Perhaps superfast ships have to sacrifice all mission equipment like guns and labs and big computers to be successful.

Timo Saloniemi

Posted by Michael Dracon (Member # 4) on :

Oooh! Very cool ship! I love it!

Let's analyse the movie again. I may have an idea on where this beauty is visible.

BTW:
ST: TM? As in Star Trek: The Magazine?

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Posted by Michael Dracon (Member # 4) on :

I could not find it

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Terry: "Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, ...."
Max: "And?"
Terry: "I forgot."
Max: "Come on, Clinton was the fun one, then came the boring one."
Terry: "They're all boring."

- Batman Beyond (aka: Batman of the Future)

Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :

I think it's obvious what the relevance of this is. They got rid of the third, underslung nacelle and turned the ship upside down - result, one Sabre-class starship.

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Ross: This is not good for my rage. *takes another pill*

Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :

And, I hate it. Those nacelles are far too large.

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Ross: This is not good for my rage. *takes another pill*

Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :

Four nacelled ships = suck.

MHO, of course.

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Posted by MIB on :

I personally like the ship. Too bad it didn't show up on ST: FC so it's design can be offical. I don't think it's the Oberth's replacement sense it's pretty obvious that the Novas fill that role. Border patrol maybe? The best way to figure out what role it's supposed to fill is to find out what roles have already been filled by various known classes of starships.

Also, If you think 4 nacelled ships suck, I bet you love the only 6 nacelled ship in starfleet.

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Posted by Fabrux (Member # 71) on :

Well, this tiny little picture was at the back of the issue in the Queries section. No info about it. But they did say that another Jaeger article was coming up.

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"Lately I've noticed that everyone seems to trust me. It's really quite unnerving. I'm still trying to get used to it."
- Garak, "Empok Nor"

Posted by Mikey T (Member # 144) on :

So there are more little goodies that Alex designed that never showed up in First Contact. Imagine what kind of fleet we would have seen being decimated by the Borg....

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Posted by Jim Phelps (Member # 102) on :

Well, finally we see what it looks like. Alex Jaeger mentioned the ship to me a year ago over e-mail, which I reproduced on these forums. I suspected it might be the unclassified piece of debris that passed by the Defiant, but now I can't really tell from these sketches.

Boris

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I'm not the Boris Skrbic on the Grafitti Wall website

[This message has been edited by Boris (edited March 09, 2001).]

Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :

The debris was almost certainly just debris. Either that, or a bit of one of the main FC ships. It would be dumb to build a model of an entire ship just to break off one little chunk to use on screen...

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Posted by Jim Phelps (Member # 102) on :

It definitely wasn't one of the main FC ships; while it did have the diamond lifeboats, they were far too big compared to the ship's forward shuttlebay doors for it to have been one of the known classes. It could've been just a generic piece of debris, but who knows, maybe there exists a cut scene showing the whole thing.

Boris

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I'm not the Boris Skrbic on the Grafitti Wall website

Posted by Starship Freak (Member # 293) on :

Well, there is that modelpic of the debris that I got from Frank, check out this page: http://w1.314.telia.com/~u31412332/scifi/star2m2.htm

We�ve discussed this pic before and I think the conclusion was that it must be from an hitherto unknown ship and we just associated it with the Zandura-class. I can�t tell from the new pic if this is likely or not. What I would like to know is if there are anymore pics out there of this debris

Posted by Timo (Member # 245) on :

I only now realized that the piece of debris is an actual physical model, not a CGI fragment. The last picture seems to show this piece of debris resting on a table or something, with painted-in "flames" on the damaged area. Or if the pic's CGI, it doesn't seem to come from the movie...

It's highly unlikely that the modelmakers would have built an all-new model of these complex shapes (even if it was an unlit study model) and then only used this small fragment. This is even less likely than them doing a full CGI ship and then using a fragment...

So perhaps this was an Enterprise part that did not come out of a mold right, or a lamp shade or water cooler part or something, and somebody simply applied two shades of blue paint and some decals manufactured for the E-E model, and created this debris without ever creating the corresponding ship?

Timo Saloniemi

Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :

Actually, that last one is taken from the TNG Movie sketchbook. It's the gag labal for First Contact liquor - the pinkish thing in the upper left corner is Zephram Cochrane's face.

Anyway, more importantly is what Jaeger says of the Zandura class: "I also named another ship that did not appear in the film the Zandura-class, a prototype science ship (like the Grissom) with separation capabilities for atmospheric flight conditions."

I wonder how this fits in with the sketch above?

Mark

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"Why build one, when you can have two at twice the price?"

- Carl Sagan, "Contact"

Posted by Starship Freak (Member # 293) on :

I�m sorry, but what are you getting at?

Posted by Matrix (Member # 376) on :

If you want my opinion (probably don't) I think it could be a scout version to the Akira class. It looks more like a Akira than a Sabre or a Steamrunner. So I am only guessing that this ship with almost any visibel armament could be just a scout. The four nacelle design shows that it's build for high speed (or at least gives the impression) and little armament. So this ship is supposed to scout ahead for enemy ships, locate them then retreat back to the fleet.

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Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :

Hmm.

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Posted by MIB on :

I really don't think it's a type of science ship. Starfleet already has two different classes that fill that role. The Oberths, and the Oberth's replacement, the Novas. I honestly think that the Zandura is some type of border patrol ship, or maybe a kind of law enforcement ship.

After all you can't pull an Akira out of it's patrol duties in Cardassian or Dominion space to keep the locals under control whenever an incident occures in Federation space. As a matter of fact, now that I think about it, a 4 nacelled ship would be good for law enforcement because it can get to a trouble spot very quickly.

Man. A Star Trek Micro Machine of the Zandura would be soooooooo cool! By the way, do you like my new signature?

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Posted by Treknophyle (Member # 509) on :

Fabrux:
Regards Zandura...

I think I'm in love. If someone could come up with a good set of line drawings (fore/aft/side), I'd love to do a deck plans of this thing. Especially with the nacelle separation idea.

What an elegant design, which fills a niche no other ship does. The Oberth has a massive secondary hull, which I have always assumed was a fairing enclosing a huge sensor cluster (for survey work in orbit, or near stellar phenomena). This new vessel, by separating from its massive (and ungainly) warp necelle configuration, is small enough for ROUTINE planetary landings, Sort of an extra-large Science Runabout - perfect for on-sight planetary surveys.

Or as someone mentioned, courier vessel (which might make it a Corvette).

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Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :

It looks like the law enforcement fighter in "Tachyon: The Fringe".

MIB: Aah, the immortal words of Gattaca Johnson. Or perhaps you meant the movie? If so, who said it? Jude Law?

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Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :

Listen, what's the big deal here? It's just a conceptual sketch for a starship, and not a very good one at that. No wonder it never went any further, and, as I said above, you can ever see where one or two parts have been re-used in the finished versions of the other FC ships. There's nothing to get all excited about, wetting your pants as you speculate on its purpose. I didn't notice anyone having orgasms over the Streamrunner class. . .

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Ross: This is not good for my rage. *takes another pill*

Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :

Beauty, eye, beholder. It's all relative.

I happen to think it's pretty cool. A compact four-nacelle design anlong the lines of the Akira and Steamrunner. That separation thing should be interesting too. I for one am looking forward to it.

Mark

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"Why build one, when you can have two at twice the price?"

- Carl Sagan, "Contact"

Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :

*mumbles* I did.

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Posted by Starship Freak (Member # 293) on :

I have to agree with Mark, it�s a beautiful ship. Moreover, since there exists an unidentified piece of debris that could or could not be based on that design, it becomes important to find out if indeed the modelmaker used Jaeger�s design or not.

[This message has been edited by pIn'a' Sov (edited March 14, 2001).]

Posted by Bernd (Member # 6) on :

I wonder how the lower nacelle pair is attached to the engineering hull (or is it still the saucer?). I think the ship would look very massive from the front. Nevertheless, it's still a well-balanced design. It looks like the nacelles are slanted like that:

/ \
\ /

so they wouldn't be too large for the ship. In any case I would have prefered this ship any time over the ugly Steamrunner.

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Posted by MIB on :

Nimrod: That line was from the Movie. Gerome said it.

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"We have to get drunk immediately."----Gattaca

Posted by Timo (Member # 245) on :

How does any part of the ship separate for atmospheric flight, for that matter? The only obvious seams are between the nacelles and their ramscoops. A ship consisting of the forward hull *and* the ramscoops wouldn't be very aerodynamic... And reattaching the ship to four free-floating nacelle aft ends would be a chore. Perhaps there were several versions of Zandura, and this one did not have the atmospherics yet / any more.

I agree that this looks like an Akira stablemate - somewhat newer than the angular Steamrunner and Sabre, somewhat closer to the Galaxy smoothness and roundness. If used, it would probably have been rendered in Akiraish white instead of Steamrunnerish dark grey.

Timo Saloniemi

Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :

Huh.

It takes a little getting used to, but I like it.

But it doesn't look seperable. Someone mentioned the seams between the nacelles and the ramscoops -- but the ramscoops are the only connect point for the nacelles -- they're not attached to the secondary hull. If you look at the top view, it seems that there's a kind of "valley" between the command section (bridge ridgeline) and the nacelles.

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