Star Trek: 10 Biggest Differences Between Kirk's Enterprise And Picard's
What did Starfleet improve on in the last 100 years, and what did they make worse?
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00:00One of the most hotly debated questions in science fiction is Kirk or Picard, but these
00:05arguments usually don't factor in their ships, likely because by all accounts the Enterprise
00:10D is far superior to Kirk's NCC-1701.
00:15Starfleet made a lot of progress in the time between making these two ships, from the years
00:192245 to 2363, but what exactly is it that makes the next generation's Enterprise so
00:26dissimilar?
00:27So with that in mind then, I'm Ellie with Trek Culture here with the 10 biggest differences
00:32between Kirk's Enterprise and Picard's.
00:35Number 10.
00:36Size
00:37Although the two starships had very similar designs, the Enterprise D, Galaxy-class, was
00:43much bigger than its Constitution-class counterpart.
00:47Picard's ship was more than twice as long, measuring in at 641 meters, that's 2,103 feet,
00:55compared to Kirk's ship at 288.6 meters, or 947 feet, and was also made much bulkier around
01:02weak spots like the neck and the warp nacelle pylons.
01:06Although the number of people on both ships fluctuated, the original Enterprise never
01:10had more than 500 people on board, typically around 200, whereas the Enterprise D consistently
01:16housed a little over 1,000 people.
01:18Both ships were among the largest and most powerful of their times, but by the 24th century
01:24even ships that were considered small, such as Voyager, were much larger than Kirk's vessel.
01:29Weirdly, in the Star Trek 2009 film, Kirk's Enterprise was redesigned and scaled up to
01:35be about the same size as a Galaxy-class due to the size that they made the ship's windows
01:39on its 3D model.
01:41Number 9.
01:43Speed
01:44Comparing the maximum speed of both ships isn't really fair because although there was
01:48a writer's guide to calculate how long it should take the ship to travel anywhere, this
01:52guide was rarely consulted, and by the time of The Next Generation, an entirely new system
01:58replaced it.
01:59In Gene Roddenberry's initial draft proposal, Star Trek Is, he stated that the maximum speed
02:04of the original series' Enterprise was 0.73 light-years per hour, which would mean it
02:10could travel Voyager's 70,000 light-year journey home in about 11 years, as opposed to 70,
02:16and Voyager was much faster than the Enterprise D.
02:19Part of this confusion comes because in The Next Generation and beyond, new calculations
02:24were implemented and Warp 10 was defined as infinite speed, a seemingly impossible velocity
02:29that would allow you to occupy every point in space simultaneously.
02:33The speed of warp factors increased exponentially from 1 to 9 to 9.1, 9.2, and beyond, never
02:41reaching 10, as this would be infinite speed.
02:44The Enterprise D was established in the show as having a standard maximum warp factor of
02:489.5, and given the speed of 0.73 light-years per hour, Scotty could apparently get the
02:55ship beyond Voyager's max speed of warp 9.975.
02:58It is safe to assume that this was merely a mistake, but maybe Scotty really was just
03:03a miracle worker.
03:05Number 8.
03:06Computer systems
03:07Starfleet's computers have gone through numerous changes over the years.
03:12Touchscreens were not commonplace in the original series, and most computers were bulky and
03:16had very indistinct buttons and dials plastered all over.
03:19Their design harkens back to early computers from the 60s.
03:22Presumably, the set designers failed to anticipate how far computers would advance.
03:27In The Next Generation, we are introduced to LCARS, short for Library Computer Access
03:32and Retrieval System.
03:34LCARS is the operating system that all Starfleet uses in the 24th century, characterized by
03:39its bright-colored borders separating different pieces of information, as well as its touchscreens,
03:45which greatly resemble the technology in modern smartphones.
03:48The design of the computers was not the only thing to change, however, as 23rd century
03:53starships operated with duotronic systems, whereas in the 24th century, they used isolinear
04:00cores.
04:01The differences between these two types of computers are not clearly defined, but it's
04:04safe to assume that the isolinear circuitry is much faster.
04:09Number 7.
04:10Holodecks
04:11Holographic communication devices existed in Kirk's time, as we see in the Star Trek
04:16Discovery episode, The Vulcan Hello.
04:18But they had poor resolution, and at this time, the holograms were merely 3D projections
04:23of people that could not actually be touched.
04:26They fell out of use before the original series, and it wasn't until about a hundred years
04:30later that we started to see some advancement in the tech.
04:33The Next Generation's pilot introduced us to the holodeck, leaps and bounds beyond the
04:38holograms of old, able to render entire realistic worlds that fit within the confines of a small
04:44room, yet appear to stretch beyond the horizon.
04:47The holodeck employed an extremely advanced system of lasers, force fields, optical illusions,
04:53and anti-gravity to make the simulated worlds indistinguishable from reality.
04:57The creation of the holodeck was the greatest advancement in entertainment in human history,
05:02and by the late 24th century, they were on board nearly every starship in the fleet,
05:08every starbase, and even some people's homes.
05:11Number 6.
05:13Replicators
05:14The 23rd century predecessors to replicators, known as food synthesizers, operated on a
05:19similar principle.
05:20The main difference being that while replicators can rearrange individual atoms to create virtually
05:25any object, food synthesizers were more limited, only able to rearrange select amino acids
05:31and other substances available on board the ship to create meals.
05:35The invention of the replicator meant that the Enterprise-D did not have to keep stock
05:39of individual ingredients for food, as nearly every meal could be constructed using miscellaneous
05:45particles in space.
05:46The replicators could also create weapons, clothing, and nearly anything else imaginable
05:51given enough power.
05:53Food synthesizer technology appears to be limited to rearranging organic matter.
05:58The operation of these devices was also very different.
06:01Replicators responded to voice commands, whereas people ordered meals from food synthesizers
06:05by inserting a small program tape into the device.
06:09Replicators on the Enterprise-D freed up storage space, gave the crew more food options to
06:13choose from, and allowed for more long-distance missions, as the ship did not need to constantly
06:18replenish specific ingredients.
06:20Number 5.
06:22Shuttle bays and the captain's yacht
06:23Both the original Enterprise and the Enterprise-D had shuttles on board that could transport
06:29members of the crew on special missions away from the mothership or land on a planet's
06:33surface.
06:34They were warp-capable and armed with phasers, but much slower and less powerful than a starship.
06:40The shuttles were stored, launched, and maintained in shuttle bays.
06:43Kirk's ship only had one shuttle bay, whereas Picard's had at least three.
06:47Interestingly, the Enterprise-D was also equipped with another small vessel known as a captain's
06:52yacht.
06:53Picard's yacht was known as the Calypso, and was never used on screen, though you can make
06:58out the outline of it on the underside of the saucer section.
07:02It makes sense that Picard would barely use his yacht, as it seems more like a pretentious
07:06status symbol than anything practical.
07:09Number 4.
07:10Families on board
07:11One of the oddest changes from the original series to The Next Generation was that the
07:15Enterprise now inexplicably had families and children on board at all times, a fact that
07:21Picard himself expresses disagreement over in the pilot episode, Encounter at Farpoint.
07:26The Enterprise-D even had a school, and many children would spend years of their lives
07:30on the ship.
07:31This is terrifying when one considers how often the ship is threatened by aliens, anomalies,
07:36and other disasters.
07:37When the entire crew de-evolved into prehistoric animals in Genesis, all these children were
07:42affected too.
07:44They were subjected to memory loss in the episode Conundrum, and nearly assimilated
07:48by the Borg in Q Who, not to mention the near-weekly space battles.
07:52Clearly, a starship is no place for children.
07:55Starfleet in the original series was much more logical in this regard, treating starships
07:59more like military vessels than luxury cruises, only allowing civilians and children on board
08:05for short periods when necessary.
08:08Number 3.
08:09Cetacean Ops
08:10In Kirk's time, whales were extinct, and humanity did not yet know of theirs and the dolphins'
08:16highly advanced intelligence.
08:18When the whales were brought back from the past to repopulate in Star Trek The Voyage
08:22Home and Starfleet discovered that they were sentient, they learned to communicate with
08:26them and formed an alliance.
08:27Many whales and dolphins, or cetaceans, would even join Starfleet, and in The Next Generation,
08:33some starships, such as the Enterprise-D, had an area on board known as Cetacean Ops,
08:38huge water tanks where cetaceans would use their advanced brains and unique physiologies
08:43to assist the ship with navigation, greatly improving efficiency.
08:47We never got to see Cetacean Ops on the Enterprise-D, but in the Lower Decks episode First, for
08:52the first contact, the crew of the Cerritos pays a visit and is greeted by two adorable
08:57beluga whales in Starfleet uniforms.
09:00Number 2.
09:01Weapons
09:02Surprisingly, the weapons on Starfleet's ships didn't change much at all from the 23rd century
09:06to the 24th.
09:08Both Enterprises were equipped with photon torpedoes and phasers.
09:12It wasn't until the first invasion of the Borg when Starfleet began to develop more
09:16destructive weapons like quantum torpedoes and tricobalt warheads.
09:20Prior to this, the Federation had been experiencing decades of unprecedented peace.
09:25The Enterprise-D did have one major advancement to its phasers with the inclusion of phaser
09:29arrays, linear arrangements of phaser emitters that could fire from virtually any angle.
09:35This was a massive improvement from the traditional phaser cannons of Kirk's time, which could
09:39only fire in a very limited path.
09:42Number 1.
09:43Saucer separation
09:44As mentioned earlier, the Enterprise-D, as opposed to Kirk's ship, had a large number
09:49of civilians and children on board.
09:51When the ship was under attack, it needed a way to evacuate all of these non-Starfleet
09:55people to safety, and this was the rationale behind the Enterprise-D's saucer separation.
10:02Saucer separation could be done with the original series-era ships, but the procedure was dangerous
10:06and could not be undone except at a starbase.
10:09Perhaps the coolest yet most underused feature of Picard's ship, saucer separation could
10:15also be used to flank enemies, attacking them from two angles at once.
10:19Both parts of the ship functioned completely well on their own, equipped with warp nacelles,
10:23weapons, and shields.
10:25It would have been nice to see more combat scenarios involving this maneuver.
10:30Saucer separation was only used in a couple of episodes for many reasons.
10:33Mainly, it's just because of the high cost of filming the model to do it, but also separation
10:38took a long time, as they had to wait for all non-Starfleet personnel to move to the
10:42saucer and the crew to split between the two sections.
10:45And that concludes our list.
10:47If you can think of any that we missed, then do let us know in the comments below.
10:51And while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe and tap that notification bell.
10:55Also, head over to Twitter and follow us there at Trek Culture, and I can be found across
10:59various social medias just by searching Ellie Littlechild.
11:02I've been Ellie with Trek Culture, I hope you have a wonderful day, and remember to
11:06boldly go where no one has gone before.