star trek insurrection captain's yacht

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What are your thoughts on dedicated Captain's Yacht designs?

Discussion in ' Trek Tech ' started by KamenRiderBlade , Nov 3, 2020 .

KamenRiderBlade Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

Personally, I don't see the value in having the Captain's Yacht designed to fit aboard a cut-out within the StarShips hull. It's just a giant waste IRL and "In-Universe". Why even bother wasting time to implement a one-off custom Shuttle Craft? What value does that little vessel bring that another one of your Shuttle Complement can't fulfill? Honestly, we can just use more internal space within the Saucer and reserve one specific Shuttle Craft within the StarShips Shuttle Complement as the "Captain's Yacht" and give it a unique livery and ID # on board the vessel. Existing Captain's Yacht vessel designs should be re-purposed for other uses within the UFP civilian market or for other purposes IMO.  

NCC-73515 Vice Admiral Admiral

It has ceremonial purposes when it's a yacht, and other purposes when it's a waverider or aeroshuttle  

In my head canon for the 26th century: The Calypso design I re-purposed as a reward for making it to Captain's Rank. It's a civilian use gift for when the Captain is on Vacation and Off-Duty. The moment you earn Captain's Rank, you get to go to a Specialized HoloDeck Customization Program and customize your version of the "Calypso" design and make it personalized to their own Aestheitics on the inside & out. The Cousteau design I re-purposed as the standard Shuttle Craft for UFP Government (Representatives/Senators/Executive Officials/Judges/etc) to travel around the Planetary System in. The AeroShuttle design I re-purposed as the standard Bus-Style mass transit for UFP Government employees.  

Timo Fleet Admiral Admiral

In navies of yore, the gig formally dedicated to the Captain was basically the opposite of what the Starfleet Yachts are to the usual shuttles. The gig would have been the smallest of the boats, often nested inside the others, and useless for anything but serving as the Captain's water taxi. In contrast, the E-E Yacht is more like a longboat or at least a pinnace, a larger-than-usual auxiliary that a sailing navy would have used for heavy hauling and amphibious warfare. Perhaps that's exactly what the E-E Yacht is, then? It is well armed, capacious, but not particularly luxurious. It can be quickly deployed, and the one time it gets used, it indeed engages in amphibious warfare/planetary assault (albeit of the unopposed kind - but few sailing navies would have dared attempt an opposed landing!). Picard actually flies around in standard shuttles that have plush couches. His putative Yacht on the E-D may have been an assault craft, too. Or then the E-D never had a Yacht. By which I mean a) the bump at the bottom of the saucer always was an energy emitter for giving CPR to space jellyfishes, or b) the bump was an auxiliary, but not a Yacht, and looked exactly like the Probert design and its Sternbach/Okuda reproduction, that is, it was a nearly immobile barge that could drop down on a planet and become an instant UFP Consulate. Other ships would have other auxiliaries for other purposes, and the one at the bottom of a Nova is for planetary surveys, while the one at the bottom of an Intrepid is <insert preference>. They are then named accordingly. Timo Saloniemi  

C.E. Evans Admiral Admiral

I tend to see captain's yachts as being more a part of the actual starship than just an auxiliary craft. By its very nature, it could indeed be considered superficial and the times it may actually be needed may be few and far between, but Starfleet seems to have long ago embraced a policy of better to have something and not always needed it than to need something just once and not have it. The need of a yacht is debatable, but then so much of Starfleet is debatable as well. In my own personal view, captain's yachts are really only ideal for special missions that will require the captain to be away from the ship for an extended period of time. Rather than have the entire ship be stuck in one location for who knows how long, the yacht can allow the ship to carry out another mission during that time and then allow the captain to catch up with it later. Sure, a personnel shuttle or a runabout could do the same job, but I do think the yacht is meant to be a superficial vehicle, Starfleet's equivalent of a limo. That could be all there is to it possibly. It's also possible that while Picard may not have had much use of a yacht while in command of the Enterprise , other captains of similarly-equipped ships may have used it more regularly, IMO.  

Which raises the possibility that Picard did not have a yacht on the E-D, but chose to have a nifty sensor package plugged in that socket instead... A yacht is only confirmed for the E-E, and even there only for Insurrection (in First Contact, it seemed to be a q-torp turret instead, perhaps supporting the modularity idea), while OTOH other blatant saucer-bottom auxiliaries are given names other than yacht (even if only off screen). Timo Saloniemi  

Markonian Fleet Admiral Moderator

In the Eaglemoss book on the Picard’s D, the Calypso yacht was a luxury craft for diplomatic transfers where beaming was inappropriate. Eaglemoss is bringing a model of it in an upcoming release, so we might learn more from the included magazine. In STO, the Aeroshuttle is a combat pet - a craft that can be deployed to aid its mothership in combat. The Aeroshuttle is effective in that. Also in STO, the Enterprise-F has the Aquarius, a small escort (warship) tugged at the rear of the engineering hull. It is so large it can be flown as its own starship. It’s Klingon equivalent is a bird of prey resting on the dorsal “hump” of the imperial flagship. Side note, in STO the captain’s yacht is for Starfleet, the general’s chariot for the Klingon Defense Force, and the Romulans have the commander’s gig.  

Because of Timo, I included the Captain's Gig, Captain's Yacht, & Admiral's Barge as personal Auxilliary Vessels for each level of Captain or Flag Officer to use.  

matthunter Admiral Admiral

Once we got the Ent-D having runabouts (or the capacity to have runabouts), the idea of a "larger, more comfortable shuttle" as a dedicated captain's yacht went out of the window.  

Go-Captain Captain Captain

The fact we see a captains yacht used only once in several hundred hours of Star Trek really says everything about how useful the craft is. I like the idea of making it a mission specific small craft, because that fits how the Delta Flyer is used, and it should have been the Aeroshuttle. The only problem is, the shuttles are so versatile I don't really see an issue with just stating the normal shuttles are adjustable and versatile enough to handle any situation a shuttle would be needed. The standard shuttle has too weak a hull to survive a gas giant? Then slap more shield emitters on, and fill the cargo area with a power source. Shuttle too slow? Slap bigger warp engines on it. Still too slow? Give it a bigger warp core. Need to infiltrate a contested structure, provide close air support, and deliver combatants? Wrap a shuttle in a high power phaser array, give it transporters, and a tractor conveyor to drop combatants in case of transporter inhibitors.  

The standard shuttle props still suffer from being small - but the partial builds of the Delta Flyer or the Yacht don't exactly help. The problem is the small and clumsy doorways, so that the shuttles are hard pressed to haul even the usual Trek cargo of man-handleable barrels and boxes, let alone classic military gear like burly guys and gals with a dozen pieces of equipment hanging from them. The ST5:TFF prop and its TNG development work the best there; the rest just can't portray effective embarking or disembarking, no matter how impressively large their CGI-faked exteriors, since there are no proper doors. I could very much see the need for special shuttles for special plot purposes, then, budgets allowing. Only, the Yacht(s) so far seen won't be the answer. Timo Saloniemi  

XCV330 ★ Premium Member

My suggestion: Making captain's yachts gives Starfleet designers a place to flex their imagination and try out new ideas while waiting for the next design generation of ships of the line.  

UssGlenn Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

KamenRiderBlade said: ↑ Honestly, we can just use more internal space within the Saucer and reserve one specific Shuttle Craft within the StarShips Shuttle Complement as the "Captain's Yacht" and give it a unique livery and ID # on board the vessel. Click to expand...

valkyrie013 Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

Depends on the ship and its Mission enterprise-d probably had a luxurious yacht. For first contacts more formal occasions where the E was more combat oriented and Voyager and the Nova more scientific so it's probably more sturdy craft heavy duty craft that's stuck on. Or the enterprise-d being a luxury craft shuttle up dignitaries and VIPs probably presidents prime ministers excetera  

F. King Daniel Fleet Admiral Admiral

It exists separately to a shuttle because someone thought the idea of a detaching shuttle was cool. If JJ Abrams introduced it everyone would be furious  

Arpy Vice Admiral Admiral

I like Probert’s yacht painting . Can you spot Jean-Luc and his tea?  

Arpy said: ↑ I like Probert’s yacht painting . Can you spot Jean-Luc and his tea? Click to expand...

KamenRiderBlade said: ↑ I love the Calypso Captain's Yacht design, but it's meant to be a Civilian vessel IMO. It doesn't feel like it matches the rest of the StarFleet design aesthetics of it's era IMO. Click to expand...

Well, "yacht" is exclusively a civilian term today, just like "freighter" is. Navies just plain don't do those, or if they do, they are very special civilian vessels under naval protection, such as the Royal Yacht. Might be the Yacht has diffused down to the lowly level of mere Captains in the future, of course. Or then our single reference to a Captain's Yacht in the Star Trek universe is sarcasm - I mean, Troi's INS line otherwise is nothing but. It would be pretty cool for Picard to have his own civilian yacht carried aboard. I mean, he has his own saddle; this isn't qualitatively different... Timo Saloniemi  

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20 Things You Never Knew About Star Trek: Insurrection

Smooth as an Android's bottom: behind the scenes on the ninth film to bear the name Star Trek.

Star Trek: First Contact was an undeniable high-point in the franchise, with terrific stakes, wonderful guest stars, and a fantastic performance from star Patrick Stewart. With a sequel guaranteed, how then was Star Trek to follow up the 1996 hit? Inspiration was taken from Star Trek IV: The One With The Whales.

The Voyage Home had adopted a much lighter tone and had cleaned up at the box office. Paramount, hoping to strike gold twice, opted to go the same route with Insurrection. The result was a film with a mixed tone, much lighter than First Contact had been, yet still featuring some body horror in the form of the S'ona.

Financially, it did reasonably well, at least enough to ensure another sequel. However, this time around critical reception was mixed. The story was thin, some of the acting was wooden, and the pacing was slightly off. Franchise heavy hitter Jerry Goldsmith returned to score the movie, with Jonathan Frakes again taking the reign as director. The overall result was a divisive affair - far from the lows of Star Trek V, but gone were the days of the Wrath Of Khan or The Undiscovered Country.

20. Patrick Stewart Didn't Want 'Television' Picard To Return

Patrick Stewart had felt a bit let-down by the direction in which Star Trek: Generations had taken his character. For him, he felt that Picard was far too much like his television-self, rather than a movie role.

When Star Trek: First Contact was released, he felt that the character achieved the movie-start, action-hero status that he wanted. Specifically, the scenes between himself and the Borg Queen in engineering helped to sway him. So, when the script for Insurrection came along, he was able to request additional changes be made so that he wouldn't be going backward.

This included the love story between Picard and Anij, along with the scenes featuring the evacuation of the Ba'ku, the deployment of the Captain's Yacht, and all of the scenes on the Collector with Ru'afo. Michael Piller said that for Picard to truly be the hero, he had to be morally and ethically in the right - even though he was effectively leading a mutiny against both Admiral Dougherty and Starfleet itself.

Writer. Reader. Host. I'm Seán, I live in Ireland and I'm the poster child for dangerous obsessions with Star Trek. Check me out on Twitter @seanferrick

Sunday, December 15, 2013

Star trek: insurrection captain's yacht "cousteau" commissioning plaque.

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Star Trek Cousteau (Captain's Yacht - Enterprise E) with Magazine #75 by Eaglemoss

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IN STOCK AND READY TO SHIP TODAY!

This ship has been painstakingly recreated in die-cast and plastic materials then hand painted with an incredible level of detail. The vehicle also comes with a full color collector magazine. Vehicle measures approximately 5 inches long x 3 inches wide x 2 inches tall (mounted on base).

The  Cousteau  was a  Federation   captain's yacht  that was in service with Starfleet  in the late  24th century , attached to  USS  Enterprise -E .  Cousteau  was a large  auxiliary craft  which normally docked on the  ventral  side of the saucer section , opposite the  bridge , and immediately below the saucer  torpedo launcher . When connected to the  Enterprise , only the bottom side of the yacht was exposed to space; the top of the craft was concealed by the  Enterprise  and the  warp nacelles  were folded against the hull. Upon launch, the  Cousteau  nacelles folded downward and the entire ship dropped away from the  Enterprise .

The fully illustrated magazine includes details of the Cousteau's capabilities, design, and appearance in Star Trek: Insurrection. 

The collection features a full range of Federation and alien vessels including seven incarnations of the Enterprise; all the major Klingon vessels including the Bird-of-Prey; Dominion; Borg; and Romulan ships and is slated to include about 130 ships in total.

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Locarno is the perfect choice for a Lower Decks villain, and his arc from “The First Duty” through today is a fitting one. He’s the Lower Decker who has broken bad. In “The First Duty,” Locarno is a self-obsessed jerk who uses notions of duty, honor, and a higher calling to pressure his fellow members of Nova Squadron into covering up their activities and saving his career. In Lower Decks , Locarno is a self-obsessed jerk who is using notions of a higher calling to feed his own ego. It’s the right arc for Locarno, not least because the “Robert Duncan McNeil character who has made mistakes and evolves into a better person” is a space already occupied by one Tom Paris.

Locarno’s arc also contrasts well with Mariner, because the dark side of many of her personality traits could easily have set her on a Locarno-like path. Combined with last week’s revelations in “The Inner Fight,” it makes for poignant viewing. It’s not that Locarno is Mariner’s Khan — even though the episode has a lot of fun with homages to The Wrath of Khan — it’s more that Locarno is what happens if Mariner makes just a few more bad choices.

Locarno is just such a good choice all around for a Lower Decks villain, and I am so happy that Mike McMahan chose to revisit him.

Honestly, this episode is excellent, but it’s totally worth it just for the opening teaser. Returning to Starfleet Academy in the mid-2360s to see Mariner interacting with her hero, Sito Jaxa (Shannon Fill returning!), as she, Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton returning!) and Josh Albert (who we meet for the first time!) discuss the idea of the Kolvood Starburst maneuver for the first time was so wonderful.

It was exactly the right way to bring back Sito, without stepping on the character’s eventual fate in TNG’s “Lower Decks” episode. And to finally get to meet Josh Albert, who is only talked about in “The First Duty” but never actually seen, was an extremely welcome addition to the Star Trek canon. The next time you watch “The First Duty,” you’ll now know that Mariner was just off screen the whole time.

The action set pieces in this episode are so well done, and on par with the best of live action Star Trek . Mariner hiding from the Nova Fleet in an asteroid field, Locarno chasing her through an ion storm, the Cerritos crashing an Orion battlecruiser into the shield protecting the Detrion System… it’s exciting, it’s visually gorgeous, and it revels in the joy of Star Trek’s specific action tropes in the most fun way.

I had a big grin on my face this whole episode, just enjoying the hell out of it and everything that had been set up not just in “The Inner Fight,” but the whole season.

McMahan appears to have intentionally included callbacks to most of the previous episodes this season — even the Mark Twain gag I didn’t like at the time, but chuckled at here — to make Season 4 feel like more of a serialized story than the previous seasons of Lower Decks . While the finale creates a through-line of serialization to the season’s previous episodes, that does not do anything to diminish those episodes as great standalones stories.

The Lower Decks team struck a great balance for the season.

But “Old Friends, New Planets” is not just a big episode for Mariner, it’s a big episode for Tendi (Noel Wells) as well, continuing to evolve the Mistress of the Winter Constellations story arc for her character as we return to Orion and her family (introduced in “Something Borrowed, Something Green”).

The season ends on a question mark for Tendi, who bargained away her Starfleet career to save Mariner, requiring her to pledge her service to her sister back home. I am fascinated to see where Tendi’s story goes next season – what a tease!

Lastly, even though he didn’t get a big share of the focus, this was also a big episode for Boimler (Jack Quaid). His pivotal scene is the obvious one — commanding the Cerritos while the senior staff works to break down the Trynar Shield. The Boimler of the first three seasons would not have been in a position to take command like that, nor politely and firmly dismiss a Starfleet admiral. Boimler has grown a lot, become more confident in himself, and actually began to earn some of the things he has always said that he wanted for himself.

TREK TROPE TRIBUTES

• This episode continues one of my favorite tropes, that Lower Decks has kept to pretty slavishly: if characters are in San Francisco, or anywhere around Starfleet Academy or Starfleet Command, the Golden Gate Bridge must be visible in every single shot.
• This episode uses a Trek Trope that was previously listed as a number one Trek Trope on the TrekRanks Top 5 Trek Tropes episode: when a higher-ranked officer orders our heroes to do nothing — and they disobey that order to rescue a friend — that usually gets the ranking officer to admit they were wrong for trying to stop them. (See Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Star Trek: Insurrection, or DS9’s “The Die is Cast” as examples.)

CANON CONNECTIONS

• The opening moments flashing back to Starfleet Academy is set in the weeks prior to the events of TNG Season 5’s “The First Duty,” where Wesley Crusher and Nova Squadron face a tribunal following the accidental death of cadet Joshua Albert.
• This episode marks the first in-canon appearance of Joshua Albert, who died off-screen prior to “The First Duty.”
• Cadet Mariner wears a single rank pip (indicating her status as a first-year cadet) in the flashback scene, putting her a year behind Wesley Crusher (who wears two pips). If Mariner entered the Academy at age 18, this would put her date of birth in 2350 — making her 31 during the events of Star Trek: Lower Decks  Season 4 (set in 2381).
• Starfleet Academy of the 2368 was lovingly re-created in animation, using the Tillman Water Reclamation Plant and its Japanese Gardens — where all the 90s era Star Treks filmed their Starfleet Command scenes — for inspiration. There’s even a tiny Boothby on the grounds in the big establishing shot of the Academy campus.
• Mariner discusses learning about the Preservers (“The Paradise Syndrome”) and the Xindi ( Enterprise season 3) in her Academy classes.
• Boimler references the Maquis as being a prior independent fleet operating in the Alpha Quadrant, which is made funnier by the knowledge that the not-quite-Locarno character Tom Paris spent a short amount of time working for the Maquis.

• Goodgey from “A Few Badgeys More” briefly appears while Captain Freeman is addressing the Cerritos crew.
• The ion storm in the Detrion System is level 7; Voyager’s “Once Upon a Time” established that level 8 or higher are the most dangerous kinds of ion storm.
• A number of the shots of Mariner battling Locarno in the ion storm (as well as the  accompanying musical score!) are direct homages to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan . As is the shot of the Genesis Device exploding a new planet being created as our hero ship escapes from it at warp. These shots looked gorgeous in animation.
• Boimler’s adoration of Captain Riker is a recurring joke throughout the series (and in Strange New Worlds ), so it appears to be no coincidence then that Boimler’s captain’s chair posture appears to mimic his favorite Starfleet officer.
• The Cerritos captain’s yacht appears to be the same design as the captain’s yacht from Star Trek: Insurrection.

OBSERVATION LOUNGE

• Jerry O’Connell voiced the “Previously on Star Trek: Lower Decks” at the episode’s opening, and even though it wasn’t the classic Majel Barrett Roddenberry introduction it was so welcome to get that voiceover (along with “And now, the conclusion”).
• Continuing the precedent set by “wej Duj,” we see that ships of other races also have a “towel guy,” this time aboard the Tamarian ship.

• Shannon Fill reprises her role as Sito Jaxa, the Bajoran she portrayed in TNG’s “The First Duty” and “Lower Decks.” I am so curious to know how they found her and convinced the actor to return, as her last acting credit is dated 1995.
• Wil Wheaton does a great job of emulating his 1990s era performance as Wesley Crusher, with a slightly exaggerated Lower Decks. This was a nice way to get Wil onto Lower Decks , something that McMahan has previously discussed.
• I really liked the quick, but hilarious way the show nodded to the “Tom Paris and Nick Locarno are two similar characters played by the same actor” thing, with the Boimler/Rutherford conversation during Locarno’s transmission.
• Detrion is a great name for a Star Trek star system. A similarly named system (the Detrian system) was the setting for TNG’s “Ship in a Bottle.”
• The three Bynars don’t get any more character development this episode than they did in their debut a couple of episodes ago, but the indestructable Trynar Shield is absolutely their handiwork.
• T’Lyn’s “I believe the only response in this situation is: Cerritos strong.” feels like a direct play on Spock’s “I believe if I were human my response would be: go to Hell” from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
• The Steamrunner -class ship that Mariner steals from Nova Fleet is the USS Passaro (NCC-52670), named for digital artist Fabio Passaro who made a number of contributions to the Star Trek franchise — including to the line of now-defunct Eaglemoss starship models. Passaro passed away in 2022 at the age of 52, and the ship’s registry number is his birthday (May 26, 1970).
• Mariner pilots the  Passaro using the same manual joystick system used by Commander Ransom during the events of “First First Contact.”

• Since Admiral Vassery says that no Federation ships were kidnapped into joining Nova Fleet, I wonder if the USS Passaro is a decommissioned Starfleet ship in use by independent contractors — perhaps Locarno obtained it legally? We have very recent precedence for this from Picard Season 3, as Beverly Crusher’s SS Eleos was a former Starfleet vessel.
• Captain Freeman’s command code override is “06107.2.”
• The Orion names from recent episodes — D’Erica and B’Eth — are hilarious to me.
• We get two new additions to the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition in this episode. Rule 91: “Your boss is only worth what he pays you,” and Rule 289: “Shoot first, count profits later.”
• Migleemo’s down fluffing reminds me a lot of Dr. Phlox’s puffer-fish type instinctive defense from “Home.”
• Love, hate, or confused by the Mark Twain gag, “Illogical tactics can sometimes lead to logical solutions” is a great Vulcan line.
• There’s a lot of Paul F. Tompkins in this episode: he plays Migleemo of course, but also one of the Romulans and one of the Ferengi. He even shares a scene with himself when Locarno is communicating with the Nova Fleet.
• The Ferengi putting a paywall on deactivating the Genesis Device is a delicious and hilarious bit of worldbuilding.

“Old Friends, New Planets” is so great because it feels like an episode that would only have been possible at this point in the show; paying off four seasons of character development and delivering a giant episode of Lower Decks .

Star Trek: Lower Decks will return to Paramount+ for a fifth season in 2024.

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Screen Rant

Star trek brings back voyager’s delta flyer & captain picard’s yacht.

Star Trek: Lower Decks' Ensign Rutherford brings back the Delta Flyer and the Captain's Yacht, two of the coolest ships in the franchise.

Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 3, Episode 5 - "Reflections"

The mysterious origins of Ensign Samathan Rutherford's (Eugene Cordero) implant allowed Star Trek: Lower Decks to bring back two of the coolest ships in Starfleet, the Delta Flyer and the Captain's Yacht. Rutherford's implant has malfunctioned since Star Trek: Lower Decks season 1, and the Ensign's body was taken over by his previous, more aggressive and rebellious personality, which was eliminated when Rutherford received his implant. The sides of Rutherfords' psychic battle for dominance led to a spectacular race across the Romulan Neutral Zone , and the return of Star Trek: Voyager ' s Delta Flyer as well as the USS Cerritos' Captain's Yacht.

The Delta Flyer was a new shuttlecraft-sized starship unique to Star Trek: Voyager that became a signature vehicle of the series alongside the USS Voyager itself. Designed by Lt Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeil), the Delta Flyer was built as a more versatile and powerful support ship that was more maneuverable and effective than Voyager's class 2 shuttles in the increasingly hostile Delta Quadrant. Thanks to Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), the Delta Flyer was also equipped with Borg weaponry including photonic missiles. The original Delta Flyer was destroyed during an encounter with the Borg, but Voyager 's crew constructed a second Delta Flyer with even more bells and whistles. Meanwhile, the Captain's Yacht was a warp-capable support craft for the use of starship Captains that was first seen in Star Trek: Insurrection , although the USS Enterprise-D also had a Captain's Yacht.

Related: Star Trek Shows The Other Side Of First Contact's Coolest Scene

In Star Trek: Lower Decks season 3, episode 5, "Reflections," the original Rutherford tried to escape capture by Lt. Shax (Fred Tatasciore) by beaming into the USS Cerritos' Captain's Yacht. However, he was still apprehended and brought to Dr. T'Ana's (Gillian Vigman) Sickbay. In their shared psyche, the original Rutherford persona challenged Ensign Rutherford to a dangerous race across the Romulan Neutral Zone , with the winner gaining ownership of their body. Ensign Rutherford built himself a Delta Flyer for himself and simulations of his fellow Lower Deckers to pilot while the original Rutherford built a sleek, Star Trek equivalent of a Star Wars-like podracer. In the end, Ensign Rutherford's Delta Flyer won the race. It's also curious that Samanthan claimed he "always wanted" a Delta Flyer; the USS Voyager only returned to Earth a couple of years before Star Trek: Lower Decks began, but Rutherford must have quickly learned about the Delta Flyer and craved building one of his own.

Why Star Trek Rarely Uses The Captain's Yacht

The Captain's Yacht is a rarely seen vessel even though one is equipped in the USS Enterprise-E and other starships . Surprisingly, support-level starships like the California -class USS Cerritos also have a Captain's Yacht. Star Trek: The Next Generation had a Captain's Yacht docked beneath the saucer of the USS Enterprise-D all throughout the series, but it was never utilized. In truth, the Captain's Yacht has to serve a story purpose in a given Star Trek TV series or movie, and it wasn't until Star Trek: Insurrection that they could justify using the Captain's Yacht. Ultimately, the ship was destroyed when Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner) piloted it in a battle against the Son'a.

Star Trek: Voyager 's Delta Flyer is a welcome sight in Star Trek: Lower Decks , and it continues the animated comedy's many shout-outs to the beloved 1990s Star Trek series. Lt. Tom Paris himself appeared in Star Trek: Lower Decks season 2, and the season 3 premiere updated Trekkers on the whereabouts of Commander Tuvok (Tim Russ). In the future, perhaps Ensign Rutherford will be able to build his own Delta Flyer in real life the way he did in his mindscape, and Star Trek: Lower Decks will show the USS Cerritos' Captain's Yacht in action as well.

Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 3 streams Thursdays on Paramount+.

Aeroshuttle

• View history

A graphic of an aeroshuttle also appeared in Daniels ' database while it was being viewed by Captain Archer and T'Pol in 2152 . ( ENT : " Future Tense ")

• 2.1.1 Specifications
• 2.1.2 History
• 2.2 CGI model
• 2.3 Apocrypha
• 2.4 External link

See also [ ]

• Captain's yacht

Appendices [ ]

Background information [ ].

The aeroshuttle was initially not represented on Voyager' s master systems display as devised by Doug Drexler , seen in the early episodes, but showed up in the graphic from " Phage " onward. Dexler clarified, " I drew the original MSD for the back of the bridge. After that, Wendy cut and pasted it to suit episode specific situations, " [3] (X) to which designer Rick Sternbach half jokingly added, " The screenshots that do show the AeroShuttle (outline or filled) seem to be of the early shape that I can only describe as looking like George Jetson's flying car. I don't believe the true elevation was ever inserted into the cutaway art. " [4] (X) Details regarding the aeroshuttle appear in Star Trek: The USS Voyager NCC-74656 Illustrated Handbook . According to the title, the craft was intended as a "high-speed reconnaissance ship that was capable of atmospheric travel" and also intended for defense and evacuation purposes. For unspecified reasons, not noted in the ship's log , the vessel was never used during the seven years Voyager spent in the Delta Quadrant . The manual suggests that it may have been never used because the destruction of a vehicle that formed an integral part of the outer hull could pose a serious long-term problem and that the vessel was further rendered obsolete by the development of the Delta Flyer type vessels.

Specifications [ ]

Sternbach's original design for the Aeroshuttle of March 1994, listed the following specifications: [5] (X)

• Starfleet styling
• Evolved runabout -type structural elements
• Integrated impulse and warp reactors
• In-wing embedded warp nacelles
• Side and aft entry hatches
• Shuttle underside contiguous with Voyager hull bottom
• Wingtip lift engines
• Forward microtorpedo launcher
• Standard Starfleet features; phasers , maneuvering thrusters , sensor strips, windows, and hull markings

History [ ]

The official name of this spacecraft was changed from AeroWing because of an existing Mighty Ducks trademark. [6] According to the Voyager writers' guidebook, Star Trek: Voyager Technical Manual , when detached, its aeroshuttle was capable of atmospheric flight as well as interstellar travel at speeds up to warp 3 . The cockpit was designed for a crew of four.

Despite this description, the writers never used Voyager 's aeroshuttle, prompting Rick Sternbach to develop the following explanation for his in-universe Starfleet Technical Database article " Intrepid -Class Lineage" in Star Trek: The Magazine :

"The Aeroshuttle was the only upgraded component to the Intrepid -class that remained in the development cycle long after the other major systems had been frozen and released for fabrication and assembly. Based on the existing Starfleet runabout platform, the Aeroshuttle was given a 450 percent increase in atmospheric flight and hover endurance over standard shuttlecraft. This was accomplished through the use of hybrid microfusion and EM driven airflow coil engines. Although the Aeroshuttle spaceframe and basic systems were completed by Stardate 46875.3, final outfitting of mission-specific hardware was delayed until simulations and flight testing with the USS Intrepid could be completed." ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 3, Issue 1 , pp. 52-53)

Sternbach revisited the aeroshuttle in far more detail in Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 3, Issue 12 , pp. 82-85:

• Mission requirements: Independent warp flight operations, defense of home vessel, extended planetary landing, and reconnaissance tasks and crew evacuation
• Design based on the Danube -class runabout hull, without the modular approach
• Construction started in 2369 with an initial procurement order of two prototypes and fifteen production vehicles, of which seven were slated to be integrated into the Intrepid -class starships, while the remaining eight others were assigned to other starships (as shuttles), miscellaneous Starfleet installations, or as independent flyers
• Unlike the Danube -class, aeroshuttles were not to be designated unique vessel class status and thus did not receive registry numbers
• Status report on the units whose missions were not classified as per stardate 56734.21:

CGI model [ ]

Three-quarter view of unrealized aeroshuttle

Bonchune's CGI model

The aeroshuttle originated as a design by Rick Sternbach who conceived it as early March 1994 as part of the design process of the USS Voyager , labeling his design "Manta Shuttle". [7] (X) As to the function of the wings, he stated, " Wings aren't so much wings in the 24th century when we have EM field effect lift and impulse thrust and mass-reduction technology. The AeroShuttle appendages are more pylons for the warp nacelles and landing gear and RCS gear. They look cool, but they aren't designed to be aerodynamic. " [8] (X) Sternbach purposefully endowed his design with a Danube -class cockpit so that use could be made of the existing interior cockpit sets from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine of that class. " The original proposal drawing of the "Manta" shuttle was included in the ton of other Voyager drawings for the producers, and the idea for using at least the Runabout cockpit was part of that. Foundation requested the Manta art as a starting point for the Aerowing (more properly called the AeroShuttle due to a toy licensing conflict), so that was provided, along with the ventral outline from the 5' Voyager blueprints. It's really too bad that we couldn't have used the AeroShuttle somewhere, but we can chalk that up to weird decisions about captain's yachts, money, and segregation of the different series' assets. " [9] (X)

The envisioned aeroshuttle disembarking

Sternbach shortly revisited his design, as the aeroshuttle was tapped to make an appearance, not in the show, but in the licensed book, Star Trek: Starship Spotter , " Basically, I did the original "Manta" sketch and the bottom view (more for the Voyager miniature than anything else at the time). I think I pretty much just eliminated the protrusions in the front and bobbed the tail; sometimes something just looks better or fits the originating culture more consistently. Foundation extrapolated the full AeroShuttle from both bits of art, with the bottom view driving some minor shape changes like the nacelle fronts. I didn't do any revising after that and there was no real feedback related to the original art bits. " [10] (X) Rob Bonchune , who eventually created a full rendering of Voyager 's aeroshuttle, added, " In a nutshell, back at Foundation, we got into our heads that it would be cool to see the " captain's yacht " of the Voyager , that being the AeroShuttle. Rick Sternbach gratuitously did a prelim design and I used part of that and designed the ship you see here. Mojo and I did a whole launch sequence, on spec, meaning "free" and then had it shown to Rick Berman . The response: Mr. Berman thought it was nice, but didn't want to trump the captain's yacht launch sequence from the upcoming film Star Trek: Insurrection . As you remember that was a VERY dramatic, epic and cool launch sequence. " [11]

With regards to the design, Bonchune stated, " Well, I remember Rick Sternbach saying that the four protruding rectangles represent landing pads. Seems silly as in scale they are way oversized. But, for the big Voyager miniature, I guess it was added detail. " [12] As for what happened to the initial project, Bonchune said that " if we had aired the ship, I was going to refine the wings to be a little less "blunt trauma" to the aerodynamics. But when we got nixed, we moved on... so, it stands as is. " [13] Rob Bonchune's website features a video of an aeroshuttle launch, likely from the original proposal.

The CGI model was first presented to the general public in 2001 , in the Star Trek: Starship Spotter to which co-author Alex Rosenzweig commented, " When I worked on aeroshuttle text for Starship Spotter , I had a whole paragraph that I wrote, talking about how the Voyager 's aeroshuttle hadn't been ready when the ship went on its mission into the Badlands, and how the completed shuttle was finally fitted to the refitted Voyager with great ceremony and circumstance after the ship's return from the Delta Quadrant. Alas, the rule from Licensing was that we weren't allowed to invent stuff like that, which hadn't been established on the show, so nothing came of said idea. But it was very much based on my agreement with you that a vehicle like the aeroshuttle would have made the Delta Flyer utterly unnecessary. Oh, well... " [14] (X) Rosenzweig's notion was partially followed by Sternbach in his later Starfleet Technical Database article.

Orthographic views of the model were published in 2003 , in the Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 3, Issue 12 , pp. 83-85. Bonchune's render of Voyager 's aeroshuttle was featured in the April spread of the Star Trek: Ships of the Line (2007) calendar, entitled "Deployed".

Apocrypha [ ]

The aeroshuttle, called an "aerowing", was used in the comic book Star Trek: Voyager - Splashdown issue 2.

While the playable Intrepid -class science vessel in Star Trek Online initially didn't feature the Aeroshuttle, it was added as an optional console that came with the Tier 6 Pathfinder -class variant in the Delta Rising expansion.

External link [ ]

• Aeroshuttle at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works