Right, this one gave me problems. It looks completely out of place, like an extra from Voyager who wandered onto the wrong set. It's configuration, based on what we know from TNG era trek, implies a greater level of sophistication than we're supposed to assume for Enterprise era vessels generally, mostly due to it's ability to incorporate the nacelles into the hull and the apparent absence of a deflector.
Some sources suggest the design is a colony transport which is also used for general duties, such as in the episode referenced on Memory Alpha. This, however, doesn't address the design issues. It only makes them worse!
- If it's a transport, then why does it waste valuable internal volume on nacelles when it could hang them on struts outside the hull as normal?
- The trend of vessels to separate their nacelles in this way implies there are good reasons for it. I once read an idea that suggested that the further apart the nacelles are, the more efficient they are. Again, a very good attribute for a long range transport.
- It it's a colony transport, then it carries colonists. Is it a good idea to incorporate major radiative components of ones' FTL drive into the hull in this way? Wouldn't that necessitate all kinds of expensive and inconvenient precautionary measures that need to be built in to the interior, like some form of shielding, perhaps? And again, it wastes space.
So, the idea I came up with initially... armed merchant cruiser.
Up until the end of WWII it was common practice for the Admiralty to identify various classes and types of privately operated vessels for modification at the design stage. This would allow the vessel to be equipped with large calibre guns and rudimentary armour schemes at need as the gun mounts and preparation for the armour plate had already been installed. In time of need, the Admiralty could recall these vessels, equip them and put them to use as patrol vessels, convoy escorts and, in WWII, U-boat bait.
Massive alien weapon attacks Earth. Kills 7 million. Earth decides it is now at war with an unknown enemy of unknown strength. Dispatches it's most powerful vessel to meet the foe. Meanwhile, every other available Fleet vessel is scraped together to protect Earth and her colonies. But Starfleet, we know, isn't very big or well resourced up to this point, and so Starfleet ships are few. To protect the colonies as well as Earth, Starfleet recalls and refits the merchant cruisers.
So, I've established that it's an armed civilian design, which accounts for the design differences from Fleet vessels, but does not account for the treknological discrepancy, i.e. it looks too advanced for it's time. Well, read on.
Ever seen a modern cruise liner? Weird looking things. Almost look like they'll either fall over or take off! Certainly designed to look very smoochy and flash and impressive for the customers. And their designs are also influenced both by the need to provide large recreation spaces internally and by the need to get about fairly quickly from place to place, because the more time you spend plodding along the sealanes between exciting destinations, the more bored your passengers get, the more money you must spend on shipboard entertainments and the less money you make as profit at the end. So it's worth spending the money on powerful engines up front. Look at the new QE2. She does 30 knots. She's actually significantly faster than a great many modern frigates and destroyers!
The Sarajevo type is a cruise liner. She is designed to look sexy, hence the sleek, clean lines. She has big engines, hence the huge size of those blue things at the rear of what we must assume are internal nacelles (relative to Enterprises nacelles, those blue "end caps" are big.) She has a large internal volume due to her hull form (much more spacious than Enterprises saucer). Her engines still waste some of this space, but because she transits at high speeds, her engines have a higher maintenance load and to keep them in good condition and out of space dock (where you spend money, not make it) her engines are mounted internally for ease of access by the crew. Problems of shielding are accepted to gain this advantage, especially as this vessel will be cruising to places of unspoilt natural beauty in the cosmos, like distant and visually stunning nebulae and star formations. It will be visiting developing human colonies and contributing in a big way to the emerging tourism industries on these planets. It will take you literally on the trip of a lifetime. All you need to do is be rich enough to be able to set aside one or two years for the Galactic Tour! Either that, or be a wealthy pensioner who has released the equity on their estate and is enjoying retirement.
posted
Internal warp engines don't really strike me as an advanced feature. Rather, they could be part of the primitive need for aerodynamics: the "Iceland" design, a very close counterpart to the Sarajevo, would be the next step in the development, with the nacelles on the outside but still with transatmospheric capabilities. Earth ships would begin as transatmospherics, and only gradually evolve into true starships.
The Sarajevo seems to perform a liaison role in the UESF. "Cruise liner" would be fine, except I doubt Earthlings did any interstellar pleasure cruising back then. Personnel mover, yes, but an insystem personnel mover. Plenty of use for warp in there, too.
Wanna see all the gas planets? Without warp, a trip of a month. With warp, a weekend. Wanna resupply the Marsbase? Without warp, two days. With warp, two minutes.
Starfleet would just adapt the design into a command boat. Most of its vessels would be limited to operating within a single star system anyway (basically, Earth's), despite having warp capabilities, and would be able to land on planets like Earth or Mars to replenish or to perform surface action. They'd be very analogous to modern littoral warfleets, such as our native one. Plenty of fast but short-ranged missile and torpedo boats, minelayers, amphibious transports - and a few large, fast, unarmed pleasure boats converted into command posts.
posted
In say it's a patrol/multirole ship- an older one at that: more of a flatbed truck than a warship.
The design's inboard nacelles might be very small compared with what we're used to seeing- allowing for warp 1 or 2 only, but leaving plenty of internal volume.
Earth would have use for ships that have atmospheric capibility to operate in the "Jovian System"- maybe an entire fleet of them to service various outposts and colonies- as well as mining ventures of gasses and minerals in the outer system and asteroid belt...maybe even comet farming for water ice.
From Archer's dialogue, it seems that either he personally knew the Sarajevo's captain or that it's captain is very well known/regarded. Not real likely for a "cruise liner", and the ship's first appearance is with the mixed Vulcan/STarfleet force, so it's probably not a transport or liner as a first role.
As Starfleet is in it's infantcy, I think most ships are made for the needs of expansion and luxuries like exploration/first contact were not employed before Enterprise (making her the star of the fleet by comparison). There could also be a bunch of those "J Class" freighters operating within Earth's solar system, ferrying raw materials and tanks of oxygen to and from various outposts.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
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posted
We try: no one out-geeks Flare for starship conjecture. Good ideas yourself there...
Anyone notice the resembelence to various Starblazers designs? Back when it forst appeared, someone noticed it looks a LOT like the Sweeps from Transformers: The Movie.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
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posted
Could it be an interstellar passenger liner? The design looks like that but as Jason said, Earth wouldn't have luxury liners like that. As for the idea that the Sarajevo is an intrasystem warp ship, my impression was that it could travel at Warp 2 or more because it met with Enterprise. An intrasystem ship would need no more than Warp 1.
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posted
An intrasystem ship could well use warp 5. A star system is vast, and intercepting the enemy at the outer fringes might be a crucial requirement. Also, the fewer insystem defenders a species has, the faster they have to be...
But speed alone wouldn't be decisive here. Could an insystem passenger vessel or her military counterpart have the required range and endurance for interstellar flight? I'd suggest the Sarajevo design has speed superior to Boomer freighters but endurance inferior to that: perhaps warp 2.2 sustained for a couple of weeks, as opposed to warp 1.8 sustained for six years.
posted
I do think 200 meters is too large an estimate for this vessel though. It certainly seemed a lot smaller in it's first appearance, and perspective in space scenes can be tricky.
Additionally, it kinda looks like the top section of the ship may possibly be a transatmospheric craft in it's own.
I'd go for the limited range warp-capable transport option. Often only inner-system, or sort of an 'express' service to Vulcan and other nearby destinations.
posted
It seems a bit of a non-issue, frankly. I know what Lurker means about it looking a it out of place in the ep, but there's advanced and there's advanced, you know? The Intrepid and Iceland look more advanced that the NX in some ways.
The polar exploration ship in the Borg ep had warp but no exterior nacelles. Like someone said, it's the difference between a weekend and a month in travel time, for any sort of in-system exploratory/science craft. At this stage of development humanity couldn't have the cutting-edge tech everywhere, so on a ship like the Sarajevo they'd have the older stuff, but tarted-up.
posted
The arctic expedition transport did seem to have some kind of a cigar, or perhaps three, atop its rear end, IIRC. The Borg added a few more, but I've got the impression that this could be our first canonical "live" odd-naceller of human origin.
A warp transport, even if just insystem warp, for an arctic expedition seems like overkill. But there would probably be few places on Earth left to be studied by "expeditions" of any sort - so the arctic mission could have been assigned to the same folks that do Mars and Ganymede and Xena, and those folks would have warp transports as standard gear.
I'd also think the ship type would make for a good planetary assault vessel in case the evil aliens managed to get a foothold on Xena. It would be part of the semi-atmospheric family that also features Iceland and Athens (or whatever one calls the Sarajevo's class - just for fun, I assume these are named after Olympics sites ). A somewhat different family would normally operate in outer space - but in times of great need, even these low-warpers could cross from one system to another.
posted
The class could also be named after cities that bit the dust in WWIII... Or the ship may have been built at the site of former-Bosnia.
Lee's post gave me an idea: Maybe we're seeing a bunch of different companies/Earth cultures competing for the best design? It's unlikely that there is any real guidelines for starship design at this point in history (aside from safety issues and FTL capability).
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
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posted
Perhaps it's a member of the Michael Winterbottom class? You got the (Welcome to) Sarajevo, plus the Jude, the Code 46, and the 9 Songs (this last a very popular duty assignment).
posted
Holy shit: you win the most obscure reference award for the month.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
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![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
). A somewhat different family would normally operate in outer space - but in times of great need, even these low-warpers could cross from one system to another.
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