10 Legendary Star Trek Ship Kit-Bashes
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00:00Hello, Ellie here. Today's video is brought to you by Surfshark, but more on that in a
00:05bit.
00:06Hello, my friends. How are you? Sean Ferrick here for Trek Culture. I've said it before.
00:09I'll say it again. You know me. I love ships. I love playing with model ships. I love seeing
00:15them fly around. Good Lord, didn't any of you build ships into bottles when you were
00:19kids? Please tell me you get the reference. I'm sure you do.
00:23With all of that, we are going to have a look at those ships that had a bit more of a, shall
00:28we say, rushed production schedule. Some of them may surprise you. Others may haunt and
00:34scar you the rest of your lives. I'm Sean Ferrick for Trek Culture and here are 10 legendary
00:40Star Trek kitbashes.
00:42Number 10, the Proto-Nebula Class. The USS Melbourne was introduced in The Best of Both
00:47Worlds Part 2. Well, I say introduced. The ship itself had been introduced by name in
00:54Part 1, with the appearance happening in Part 2. We have come to understand and expect
01:01a Nebula Class now to have that triangular-shaped sensor dome, for want of a better word, above
01:08the very Galaxy Class saucer section, but that was not always the case. In fact, the
01:12Proto-Nebula Class had two smaller warp nacelles where that triangular piece was going to be.
01:20Two physical models of this Proto-Nebula USS Melbourne were built. One was going to
01:27be heavily damaged and destroyed to be shown in the debris field after the Battle of 359.
01:33The other was then kept and used for a display piece in Captain Riker's ready room in the
01:40episode Future Imperfect. It's also the only kitbash that was seen in both The Best of
01:45Both Worlds Part 2 and Emissary as it was glimpsed through the window of Sisko's escape
01:50pod from the Saratoga. There is the longstanding story of Emissary also introducing an Excelsior
01:55Class USS Melbourne, so in the universe, the Excelsior USS Melbourne was already in service,
02:03with this new USS Melbourne being rushed into release to face the Borg, and I bet they'd
02:08wish they'd left it in space dock.
02:109. USS Elkins The Elkins is barely shown on screen in the
02:16Season 6 opener of Deep Space Nine, A Time to Stand. The script called for a battered
02:20Federation fleet to be limping back toward their territory after having seven levels
02:27of shite knocked out of them by the Dominion. To fill out the numbers of this fleet, they
02:32called for several new ships to be created, one of which was the USS Elkins, which was
02:38named after VFX designer Judy Elkins. The body was based on parts from an F-14 jet,
02:45the nacelle struts were based on the Danube-class runabout, and the nacelles themselves were
02:50borrowed from the Miranda-class.
02:528. Intrepid Type The Intrepid Type appeared in Star Trek Enterprise,
02:58and it's heavily based on Doug Drexler's design for the NX-01. The saucer section itself
03:05was halved, as well as the nacelles being swung up and stuck to that half-saucer section.
03:12This was an example of CGI kitbashing rather than model kitbashing, and by model kitbashing
03:19I mean of course taking pieces that were commercially available. This, according to Senior CG Supervisor
03:26Rob Bonshoon, was a case of having to deal with creating these new designs with precious
03:31little turnaround time. In fact, this one, while it got some of the most screen time
03:36of any support vessels from Starfleet in Enterprise, they didn't really refer to it as anything
03:42until it was named Intrepid Type on screen. It was generally referred to as the one with
03:47the half-saucer right up until it, with its additional numbers, helped us support NX-01
03:54in the various battles against the Zindi and whatever time-travelling nonsense was happening
03:59that week.
04:007. The Challenger Class The Challenger Class, so named by designer
04:05Ed Miarecki, was named after the Space Shuttle, and it was unique among Starfleet starships
04:12at the time that the two nacelles were not perfectly in line with each other. This technically
04:18broke Gene Roddenberry's rule of line of sight. In fact, Miarecki originally designed
04:24the ship with only one nacelle, but Mike Okuda would go on to suggest that maybe adding a
04:30second one would help to fill out the overall design. Okuda then said that actually he regretted
04:36that bit of advice because it made the ship look a bit like a lollipop. The Buran was
04:40one of 39 vessels that were lost at Wolf 359, and you can see it as the Enterprise slides
04:46into the field of destruction in The Best of Both Worlds Part 2.
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05:58Number 6. The Jaeger Class. I'm not going to lie to you folks, I hate this ship. I hate
06:04it. And because of that, I'm kind of delighted to have the model. I mean, I mean, I mean
06:11look at it. The model was designed by Gary Hutzel, and it was actually praised by Mike
06:16Okuda because, I mean, whatever else you want to say about it, it is an immediately recognisable
06:22silhouette. Like you look at this and you know it's not an Enterprise. The model was
06:27built from commercially available Voyager and Mach-E Raider model kits. It was often
06:33seen then in various episodes of Deep Space Nine as a ship that was lazily floating by
06:38the station. Now, this was never shown in a close up, high definition way, so if we
06:45ever do get around to that long fabled remaster of Deep Space Nine, you have to wonder. I
06:54can appreciate the absolute ingenuity of taking these two ships and sticking them together
06:58and throwing them in the back. Doesn't mean that I like it.
07:02Number 5. Curry Class. The Curry Class that was introduced in another of the ships introduced
07:08in Deep Space Nine's A Time to Stand was named after famed artist Dan Curry. He designed
07:13the ship to be one of the fleet that was limping its way back to Federation space with their
07:18tails between their legs. He came up with the kitbash for the Curry Class in just a
07:22few hours, raiding the boxes of model kits and coming up with pieces of Excelsior and
07:27Miranda Class ships. For the overall shape of the vessel, he took inspiration from World
07:32War 2 landing craft. This is, they had the engines toward the back, the saucer section
07:39there, but they had the shuttle craft, or the shuttle bay, right up the front. So think
07:43of those landers on D-Day where the front drops down and, well unfortunately, a lot
07:49of people never came home again. Now despite the ship only being on screen for seconds,
07:55it was one of the ones that Eaglemoss commissioned for their collection. I have to say I really
08:00like it.
08:01Number 4. Cheyenne Class. This four nacelle vessel was, if you like, something of a spiritual
08:06sequel to the Constellation Class, USS Stargazer, USS Hathaway, and USS Constance. This was
08:15another one of those very quick kitbashes that was put together for the Wolf 359 fleet.
08:21It has the legend of being one of the luckier ships. And when I say one of, I mean the luckier
08:28ship. The Owani was the only vessel to survive the Borg invasion and the Borg destruction
08:35at Wolf 359, as it would return as part of Picard's fleet in Redemption. Designer Ed
08:41Miarecki built the ship using commercially available parts of the Galaxy Class and also,
08:48and it will not be the only time on this list, highlighter pens were used as well.
08:54Number 3. New Orleans Class. The New Orleans Class had something of a false start when
08:59it came to Star Trek The Next Generation. When it came to new designs, the Galaxy Class,
09:04the Constellation Class, and even later on the Ambassador Class were all major new designs
09:10for the series, with Excelsior, Oberth, and Miranda Class filling out some of the gaps
09:16in Starfleet. Now, this left the impression that Starfleet was generally staffed by much
09:22older vessels. So, Ed Miarecki was given the task, create something new that we can use
09:29to fill out the gaps. The New Orleans Class is a put together of the Galaxy Class saucer
09:36section and the Galaxy Class star drive section. Now, the nacelle struts are swept back and
09:42up, but it wasn't enough. So, the feedback came down if you've got to give it something
09:47a little bit extra, and those marker pens. Three marker pens were added, two to the top
09:52and one underneath, to give the New Orleans Class its own distinctive look. With this
09:58designed, it was ready to go into service. Once, as the USS Kyushu, the best of both
10:04worlds part two, didn't get a lot of screen time. Number two, Springfield Class. The Springfield
10:10Class was another of the Ed Miarecki kitbashes that were put together for the Battle of 0359.
10:16The only known model that was built was to be named the USS Chekhov, named after Pavel Chekhov,
10:25but it would then only be seen burning in space. The main saucer section was based on the Galaxy
10:29Class saucer section with, you guessed it, some more marker pens used for nacelles. However,
10:35it had a separate secondary hull, complete with its own Galaxy Class inspired deflector dish as
10:42well, giving it quite a distinctive silhouette. Two changes were made to the USS Chekhov in the
10:49best of both worlds part two. The first was that the spelling of the name was changed. So, rather
10:55than C-H-E-C-K-O-F, which is Pavel Chekhov, it was changed to drop the additional C, and then
11:04just became Chekhov as in the playwright. The second change, when it was deemed too depressing
11:10to have the name of an original series character called out among the dead of 0359, is that it was
11:17changed to the USS Tolstoy when being said out loud by Shelby. Number one, Centaur Class. The
11:24Centaur Class went from one of the briefest glimpses to becoming one of the most beloved
11:32extra designs of a starship in the franchise. The story of how it came to be is quite a funny one.
11:38Adam Buckner, who had been working under Gary Hutsell, was tasked with coming up for new
11:44designs for Deep Space Nine's A Time to Stand. Before this, however, between seasons five and
11:50six, he had gone travelling and was using this time to try and come up with new ship ideas.
11:54He was travelling in Spain, and he met a young man named Guillermo. In the course of chatting,
12:00he promised Guillermo a ship of his very own. Flash forward now to production on A Time to Stand,
12:05and the order came in. It's like, look, we need a ship that's going to be seen moving fast.
12:10We don't need massive amount of detail on it because it's going to, you know, it'll be in
12:14shot, but it's going to be zipping in and out and heading off again. So, Buckner,
12:19taking parts of the Excelsior class and the Miranda class, put together with little extra
12:27bits stuck on and some UV strips to create the blue of the nacelles, created what we then found
12:34to be the Centaur. And that could have been the end of it, but it wasn't, because years later,
12:40the Centaur would return in Star Trek Resurgence. It would also appear as part of the unlucky fleet
12:48that faces off against the living construct in Star Trek Prodigy. Now, both times, it was refined
12:55a little in terms of the design, but still, it was that original Centaur. And yes, Buckner did
13:01get a model of the Centaur to Guillermo. That's everything for our list, folks. Thank you very,
13:06very much. What did you think? Do you like lists about these sort of lesser known ships?
13:09Let me know in the comments below. Don't forget to get in touch with us over on Twitter,
13:13on Instagram, on both Blue Sky and TikTok as well. I'm at seanferic on the various socials.
13:21You are wonderful. You are fantastic. Give a bit of love to the editor who looked after this video.
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13:35Everyone look after yourselves. Stay safe. Make it so.