There was a scene in Voyager involving the Prometheus where a single Akira took on two to Romulan warbirds. That was probably the biggest testament to its power as a warship.
@@prestonroberts2941 the Defiants went after the Prometheus while the Akira charged the Romulans without hesitation all on her own. Enterprise D saw a single Romulan warbird as a major threat while an Akira attacked several of them like it's just another Tuesday. It doesn't get more badass than that.
@@Alpha_Digamma Well, I didn't say it wasn't bad ass, but it wasn't unaccompanied. The Defiants' opening volley was at the Prometheus, but they obviously weren't just concentrating on it the entire time. I'm not trying to be contrary; I love the Akira, personally.
@@prestonroberts2941 shhh. As a professional contrarian I can tell you that you're being both contrary and a "yes ander" Please do keep it up, I love nerd fights. ^•^
One of my favorite stories about the Akira is found in the Startrek Adventures Rule book. Long story short, a single Akira dropped out of warp and destroyed a sizable pirate fleet in a single volley of torpedo's, then it's fighters rounded up all of the smaller vessels. An Orion "trader" vessel was in the area and was asked for it's sensor logs after the fight so the Akira could see what happened before it arrived. The Orion was in such awe of Starfleet using " deliberate and devastating force" for the first time, he handed them over without question.
Presumably the USS Raven was named after the specific, fictional raven from the Edgar Allen Poe story, as opposed to the general corvid species... What amuses me, though, is that the creator of the comic book the "Akira" movie was based on said in an interview once that he chose the name because it was so common in Japan, like John in Britain or America, and he was making the point that the character was anonymous - an everyman - and that the body-horror they went through could basically be imagined to be happening to anyone... the reader themselves, someone they knew, or some random stranger. It was supposed to indicate that there was nothing intrinsically special about Akira, he wasn't picked for any particular reason to undergo the torture he experienced... he was just the unlucky guy who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. My point being, this awesome combat powerhouse vessel which drove fear into Starfleet's deadliest enemies is basically just called John... John, fearless defender of the Federation. Johnny, the happy, friendly turbocharged Borg-killing gunship of doom. "This is the stalwart, indefatigable USS Helios - she's a Johnathan-class."
The Akira class has always been a great design, and one of the most powerful ships star fleet has ever made. This design is definitely in my top three starfleet ships. Love this kind of content, I hope you will do more breakdowns of some lesser known but awesome ships.
I fell in love with the Akira when I played Dominion Wars and Starfleet Command III as a kid. Just looked really cool, and was always a very effective warship. All these years later, I love her even more. She's absolutely beautiful, rivaling the Sovereign as my all-time favorite canon Starfleet ship for looks alone. I also have a huge weakness for carriers, so I love how the Akira doubles as a light fighter carrier for use in larger battlegroups.
I always thought the Akira-class was the most amazing of Federation starships. The sheer power it holds, the fighter bays, the modular design... Not to mention those twin tails that remind me of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning. Not to hate on the humanitarian and scientific focus that Starfleet prefers, but this ship class was truly revolutionary for them. The Federation always had clever engineers and science crews that could make the most out of a little, but give them way more to play with, give them something that could actually bite back HARD, and you'll see their true potential come to fruition.
A fighter bay. Now that's something new that I learned about this ship today. Cool thank you. I also never gave any thought to how those long bars on the side recessed the bridge in. Very neat.
Actually, we do see some fighters in DS9, in "Fortune favors the bold" i think, where they retake DS9 from the dominion, and again later during the battle of cardassia. As for the Akira class, it's a nice looking ship, though i do feel like they copped out just flipping it over and swapping out the necelles to make the NX class. As for the Norway, that's a rather sad history to that ship, as the reason we never see it again after First Contact (other than a couple of games) is the fact that the digital model used for the movie was lost, there was never a physical prop, and to my knowledge, they never tried to make another movie/tv quality model.
As soon as I saw the Thunderchild class was available in STO I had to have one. In _War of the Worlds_ the ironclad battleship HMS Thunder Child stopped three Martian tripods that were threatening a refugee convoy, but was destroyed in the attack. Considering how often I get blow'd up in STO, it seemed fitting. (I just realized something: reading that book was the first time I ever encountered an escort mission. I hate escort missions.)
We all hate escort missions. In any genre, in any game. Alone, it's possible to prevail, to destroy the opponents and to achieve the objectives. But being leashed to a bunch of stupid-AI weaklings just sucks. It shouldn't be your problem if other units stubbornly insist on moving straight into combats they can't survive.
Most definitely my favorite ship class of the late 24th century, and has been used way to little than she deserves. I also recall reading an article on how the huge hangar space could be used to install extra facilitets for conducting science and carry lots of auxiliary crafts in peace time. I would really have liked to see her as a hero vessel in a tv series of her own; too bad it didn't happen.
I’ve always loved this battlecruiser. She’s quick, hits hard, can carry a lot of auxiliary craft, and has the space to fit those systems and upkeep them. It’s a lean, mean, killing machine. If you’re doing videos on starships now, can you do one on the defense of the X-301? I know it’s usually dismissed as a very poor first step for the Tau’ri, but compared to what it was made from: that thing was a leapfrog on an amazing scale. I always headcanoned the Tok’ra ended up stealing the thing later to begin updating their own Death Gliders into an actual fighting force, given it would actually be a competent vessel instead of a symbolic image projector.
Akira has always been my favorite background ship. I always felt that the Defiant class was the prototype Starfleet warship, the Akira was the next generation of warship.
That's what I like about the new breed of starships like the Akira, Steamrunner, Norway etc...They can all still fulfill Starfleet's mandate of exploration, scientific discovery and everything else to varying degrees depending on the ship but they have more teeth and are better equipped to defend themselves should the need arise. It's almost like the message is "We don't want to fight, we are peaceful but will defend ourselves if need be and we have the tools to do so"
I've always wanted to see a full spread of torpedoes come from this ship. If it has 15 tubes, and each fires at least 3 torpedoes in a spread like the Galaxy class, then that's at least 45 torpedoes launched at one time! Woo!
I was thinking it would be even more limited than the Defiant due to how many resources are spent on the shuttlebay, but then I realised they could be put to use regularly in planetary orbit, as well as charting the nearest dozen-or-so systems with those dozen-or-so shuttlecraft. Voyager did it with a handful of shuttles, charting the neighbouring system or two, and they only didn’t launch all of them because they didn’t want to risk losing all of them at once. Operating near Federation space there is no reason not to launch all of them every time and probably get a quite high-productivity ship for science and logistics missions.
The 15 torpedo tubes are visible on the original studio CGI model. The one that was featured in the Star Trek magazine way back when. There are 4 in the upper part of the weapons pod (forward), 3 in the lower part of the torpedo pod (forward), 3 under the leading edge of the saucer (forward), 1 under the deflector (forward), 2 on the dorsal saucer, facing port, 2 on the dorsal saucer facing starboard. 15. The Typhon Fleet didn't just 'hold it's own' against the Cube. When the Enterprise scanned it, Data reported that it had sustained heavy damage to it's outer hull and was so badly damaged that it was experiencing fluctuations in it's power grid. It also featured heavily in the Dominion War. We saw a lot of them, unlike less-combat-capable ships like the Intrepid and Nova.
If you are commanding an Akira type for the STO Kobayashi Maru, then I *highly* recommend Jack White's performance of 'What's the trick?' @ Rough Trade East courtesy of his RUclips channel. . . If we strive together, we can save the Kobayashi Maru from certain destruction!
Please start doing breakdowns on ships. You’re content is spectacular and I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking it would be a great addition to your content
I'm playing in a game of Star Trek Adventures, a TTRPG, and serving on an Akira class as the Ops manager. I looked for this kind of video specifically, so thank you for doing it!
I always love the Yorktown and Oddessy class is a mobile space station ship that carries a corvette with it its sleek design the Yorktown class is the best ship for exploration and sciencetific tasks it's a beautiful ship design love your channel certifiable in-game keep it up my man the Akira class is more like a heavy frigate of star trek
Fantastic videos. From one voice artist to another, I found myself losing track of your information because I was enjoying your voice. New subscriber and happy I have lots to binge. Keep it up, pal. And thanks
The "Borg Era" of Trek design is among my favorite in the franchise. Akira, Sovereign, etc. are beautifully designed ships that look like they have teeth.
the Raven i believe was actually meant as a literary reference to Edgar Alan Poe, i also remember reading somewhere that there was an Akira class vessel named the Innsmouth. a reference to Lovecraft's Shadow Over Innsmouth.
i recall reading that in pre-production of ST: Enterprise, the network producers wanted them to use the Akira design, unchanged, as the nx-class. This was due to its fan popularity, and to save money from not having to create a new design and 3d model. luckily, the show's staff convinced them to go with a new design, but the network insisted it be based on the popular Akira. hence we got the "Akira-prise", lol. not sure if a true story, but a believable one.
What a great design the Akira Class is! It sure would've been nice if we could've seen some awesome battle scenes of multiple Akira warping into a battle space and disgorging dozens and dozens of fighters like something you saw in Battlestar Galactica and also in Babylon 5!! It would be great to see videos covering the other contemporary ships to the Akira class, the Sabre, and Nova, and also the Steamrunner class ships too!
It seems the Akira and other ships from the same times are designed around supporting each other in little battle groups, so you could have a scene with a bunch of Sabers and a couple Steamrunners, too. :)
My headcannon sees the Luna and the Akira as taking the lessons learned during the development of the Sovereign and then pushing them a bit more in one direction or the other while shrinking the costs. Love the Akira. She's the best looking design in the series IMO
I was never really a fan of the Insurrection era ships (audience gasps), but I think it's because I always preferred the Rodenberry vision. I'm glad the Federation finally saw sense and building ships with some real ass, and really some purpose built ships, but I prefer the Galaxy Class' themes. Still, the Akira is bad ass. Can't take that away from her.
IIRC the Akira class was supposed to work in tandem with other Starfleet 'Escorts' such as the Defiant, Norway, Sabre and Steamrunner class ships. Starfleet later tried to integrate the functionalities of all of these classes into the arguably successful Prometheus class escort cruiser.
I absolutly love this ship, together with the Sovereign and Luna class defenetly my top Starfleet ship designs. It´s so good looking and super bad ass.
The Raven could be named after the Edgar Alan Poe work of the same name. Just as the Thunderchild is named after "something" in a literary work too. One thing I could speculate though is that different naming conventions could apply to vessels commissioned at a different shipyard. Which I think might also explain things like different Miranda Class Derivatives too. I personally like to head-canon that Starfleet moved it's facilities for maintenance and construction of legacy types to outlier worlds so they got some well understood and easy to fix vessels - so that might explain who was churning out Mirandas still in the 24th Century rather than requiring them to be 80+ Year old vessels. Perhaps after decades of this one of them got good enough to start work on new variations of their own too. Otherwise all Starfleet do is keep ship construction entirely in the core systems. Which is both a good and a bad thing I guess.
Nice video, I never realized there was Constitution wreckage at Wolf-359! It reminds me of an fan-fiction I read about a Constitution that was refurbished to be a museum ship and ended up going to the battle and the old systems still proved to be useful and robust, allowing it to collect survivors (breaking from the show canon where the Ent-D says there are non). Still a good story, but I don't remember the title.
I appreciate the fact that the designers go through a lot of effort to make different classes of starships, but some of them seem really impractical. The Akira class for example, has two large pylons on both sides of the ship. If you want to get from one side to the other you have to walk all the way down to the saucer section and back up to the other pylon. Not even talking about space travel, but just buildings alone, that's very impractical.
Greetings. I have a suggestion for a lore video. "Federation Popular Culture". I did read somewhere that the federation is a stagnant society. The only reason they explore new worlds and seek out new life is because they are bored. Entertainment is apparently reading Shakespeare and watching reruns of friends and old baseball games. Surely this can't be all true. I have few thoughts but would be interested to see what you can dig up. And as usual, excellent work! Keep it up.
Hrm, as the name scheme goes, maybe they were working on a literary character theme, 'Raven' from Poe, Helios from... Blake? Tennyson? But 'warships' also tend to get named after other ships or after people.
A related feature to Akira-class ships that was not mentioned is the "Chain reaction pulsar weapon" and described as follows: The chain reaction pulsar weapon (also known as the chain pulsar or pulsar torpedo) is a type of highly-enhanced weapon that was introduced as an optional ship-mounted armament for Akira-class starship in the year 2376. Fired as a torpedo, when launched continuously drawing energy from its target becoming more and more powerful, until it impacts the target with the energy it absorbed. When used against multiple targets, it moves from target to target absorbing energy, until it unleashes its combined accumulated force on the final target. The USS Jupiter was the first Starfleet vessel to employ this system. (ST video games: Armada, Armada II)
I am just surprised that at this point, Star Fleet ship design doctrine doesn't just design for warships at the base hull design, but when launched, it is kitted out for science and exploration, keeping the weapons and such in reserve. Then when war happens, they have quick-to-refit 'kits' for that hull design of ship that would make it war-ready realitively quickly.
Yeah the Akira was originally designed as a torpedo boat and light carrier in one. They kept the options for both but decided to quick push them into a more front line aggressive role instead. Only in the later refits like we see in STO did the original designs and variations there-of come apparent. But damn if the Akira isn't one of the best designs.
I love the sidebar that accompanies the Akira spaceframe in Star Trek Adventures. An Orion 'merchant' responds to a distress signal from a Federation outpost/colony. Some Ferengi were testing a device from orbit that was causing massive flooding on the surface of the planet. Before the Orion captain could decide what to do, or how he could turn he situation in his favour, an Akira-class drops out of warp, and unleashes a massive barrage of photon torpedoes at the Ferengi ship absolutely clapping it. They then hail the Orion asking for sensor logs. The captain decides it's best to just hand over the logs quietly and forget about any schemes at all. Honestly, all of the sidebars in the Adventures sourcebooks are fantastic. The one that accompanies the Nova-class spaceframe is by the Queen of the Gorn. She's angry that after decades of building bigger and bigger ships, a brinksmanship game the Gorn understood and were happy to play, the Federation decides to see how _small_ they can build a ship. She's only mollified by the fact that the Nova-class seems to be a science vessel with a flaw in its engine design.
Wait wait wait ... hold on a second here ... "USS Thunderchild"??? Great, now I'm never going to watch the Battle of Sector 001 without Jeff Wayne's song playing in my head :P
Love the Akira class, I'm a sucker for underslung nacelles. The shuttle bay design would have made an interesting basis for a show, we could have some focus on Federation fighter pilots which would have been neat.
First time I ever saw the Akira class starship I was OMG that so so F**King cool! The only thing that kept me from losing my teenage nerdy lil mind, was the fact I had already done that over the Sovereign class Enterprise. Which to this day is still my most favorite Starship, with Voyager next, and then the Defiant. But I know for sure number 4 is the Akira Class Starship
Always wanted to see a series or mini-series staring this class. Set it in the later half of DS9 so you get both the Klingon and Dominion Wars. It would be perfect to expand the perception of the wars like they did with Siege of AR-558.
Always love how the federation forgets that it has enemies. No nation can stand without the military might to ensure it, even if you never want to use you military might, you need to have it.
Blame Roddenberry. I’m certain Star Trek succeeded despite him. And his asinine futuristic views. “Humans don’t mourn tbe dead in the future.” Is particularly stupid and downright evil of him to think. What kind of psychopath sees THAT as a failing?
There was a scene in Voyager involving the Prometheus where a single Akira took on two to Romulan warbirds. That was probably the biggest testament to its power as a warship.
It was an Akira and two Defiants vs three Warbirds.
It's like "How many torpedo tubes?" "More." :)
@@prestonroberts2941 the Defiants went after the Prometheus while the Akira charged the Romulans without hesitation all on her own. Enterprise D saw a single Romulan warbird as a major threat while an Akira attacked several of them like it's just another Tuesday. It doesn't get more badass than that.
@@Alpha_Digamma Well, I didn't say it wasn't bad ass, but it wasn't unaccompanied. The Defiants' opening volley was at the Prometheus, but they obviously weren't just concentrating on it the entire time. I'm not trying to be contrary; I love the Akira, personally.
@@prestonroberts2941 shhh. As a professional contrarian I can tell you that you're being both contrary and a "yes ander"
Please do keep it up, I love nerd fights. ^•^
One of my favorite stories about the Akira is found in the Startrek Adventures Rule book. Long story short, a single Akira dropped out of warp and destroyed a sizable pirate fleet in a single volley of torpedo's, then it's fighters rounded up all of the smaller vessels. An Orion "trader" vessel was in the area and was asked for it's sensor logs after the fight so the Akira could see what happened before it arrived. The Orion was in such awe of Starfleet using " deliberate and devastating force" for the first time, he handed them over without question.
I mean, that's a valid reaction if the most tame superpower in the Quadrant suddenly sheds its veneer of civility.
@@chrisdufresne9359I'm sure the Akira asked for those pirates to surrender first.
@@adcon00 Seems legit.
I would love to see in Akira class ship as the hero ship of a series
Presumably the USS Raven was named after the specific, fictional raven from the Edgar Allen Poe story, as opposed to the general corvid species...
What amuses me, though, is that the creator of the comic book the "Akira" movie was based on said in an interview once that he chose the name because it was so common in Japan, like John in Britain or America, and he was making the point that the character was anonymous - an everyman - and that the body-horror they went through could basically be imagined to be happening to anyone... the reader themselves, someone they knew, or some random stranger. It was supposed to indicate that there was nothing intrinsically special about Akira, he wasn't picked for any particular reason to undergo the torture he experienced... he was just the unlucky guy who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
My point being, this awesome combat powerhouse vessel which drove fear into Starfleet's deadliest enemies is basically just called John...
John, fearless defender of the Federation.
Johnny, the happy, friendly turbocharged Borg-killing gunship of doom.
"This is the stalwart, indefatigable USS Helios - she's a Johnathan-class."
Actually, that's USS Rabin NCC-63293, @kdisley , which is assumed to be named for Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
John Wick Class
I was thinking of Raven as in Norse or American Indian/Canadian First Nations peoples beliefs or even Norse mythology.
The Akira class has always been a great design, and one of the most powerful ships star fleet has ever made. This design is definitely in my top three starfleet ships.
Love this kind of content, I hope you will do more breakdowns of some lesser known but awesome ships.
I wish you did more ship reviews; your style is so informative and memorable
I agree.
Agreed
Agreed. Prob smaller vids with less views, but fuck the algorithm, diversify, your bonds.
It's all because of his great British accent... 😆
I remember playing the first Star Trek: Armada in the early 2000s and this ship was immediately my favourite. Looked like and played like a badass.
"Okay, but what if the torpedoes were b o u n c y"
Chain Reaction Pulsars!
Yeah those were... Bomb. 🤭
I fell in love with the Akira when I played Dominion Wars and Starfleet Command III as a kid. Just looked really cool, and was always a very effective warship.
All these years later, I love her even more. She's absolutely beautiful, rivaling the Sovereign as my all-time favorite canon Starfleet ship for looks alone. I also have a huge weakness for carriers, so I love how the Akira doubles as a light fighter carrier for use in larger battlegroups.
what i read about the aft pod was it was a rotating magazine allowing very large rapid torpedo deployments.
I always thought the Akira-class was the most amazing of Federation starships. The sheer power it holds, the fighter bays, the modular design... Not to mention those twin tails that remind me of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning. Not to hate on the humanitarian and scientific focus that Starfleet prefers, but this ship class was truly revolutionary for them. The Federation always had clever engineers and science crews that could make the most out of a little, but give them way more to play with, give them something that could actually bite back HARD, and you'll see their true potential come to fruition.
A fighter bay. Now that's something new that I learned about this ship today. Cool thank you. I also never gave any thought to how those long bars on the side recessed the bridge in. Very neat.
The Akira and Sovereign have always been my favorite classes, and I wish we saw a lot more of them on screen.
I agree!
Actually, we do see some fighters in DS9, in "Fortune favors the bold" i think, where they retake DS9 from the dominion, and again later during the battle of cardassia. As for the Akira class, it's a nice looking ship, though i do feel like they copped out just flipping it over and swapping out the necelles to make the NX class.
As for the Norway, that's a rather sad history to that ship, as the reason we never see it again after First Contact (other than a couple of games) is the fact that the digital model used for the movie was lost, there was never a physical prop, and to my knowledge, they never tried to make another movie/tv quality model.
I believe the Starfleet fighters are called the 'Peregrine Class Attack Fighter' and were designed by Doug Drexler.
Actually Norway class is in Star Trek Picard
Aww. That sucks
@@dragoontype00alphaz19 think an Akira was too, plus a couple of Steamrunner class starships
There were also about a dozen Defiant class visible during the siege of ESD.@@marksouthwell4490
As soon as I saw the Thunderchild class was available in STO I had to have one. In _War of the Worlds_ the ironclad battleship HMS Thunder Child stopped three Martian tripods that were threatening a refugee convoy, but was destroyed in the attack.
Considering how often I get blow'd up in STO, it seemed fitting.
(I just realized something: reading that book was the first time I ever encountered an escort mission. I hate escort missions.)
I prefer the Armitage-class and Alita-class, honestly.
We all hate escort missions. In any genre, in any game.
Alone, it's possible to prevail, to destroy the opponents and to achieve the objectives.
But being leashed to a bunch of stupid-AI weaklings just sucks. It shouldn't be your problem if other units stubbornly insist on moving straight into combats they can't survive.
Most definitely my favorite ship class of the late 24th century, and has been used way to little than she deserves. I also recall reading an article on how the huge hangar space could be used to install extra facilitets for conducting science and carry lots of auxiliary crafts in peace time. I would really have liked to see her as a hero vessel in a tv series of her own; too bad it didn't happen.
I’ve always loved this battlecruiser. She’s quick, hits hard, can carry a lot of auxiliary craft, and has the space to fit those systems and upkeep them. It’s a lean, mean, killing machine.
If you’re doing videos on starships now, can you do one on the defense of the X-301? I know it’s usually dismissed as a very poor first step for the Tau’ri, but compared to what it was made from: that thing was a leapfrog on an amazing scale. I always headcanoned the Tok’ra ended up stealing the thing later to begin updating their own Death Gliders into an actual fighting force, given it would actually be a competent vessel instead of a symbolic image projector.
Always loved its special weapon in Armada.
I wouldn't mind seeing more of these ship type breakdowns!
Akira has always been my favorite background ship. I always felt that the Defiant class was the prototype Starfleet warship, the Akira was the next generation of warship.
That's what I like about the new breed of starships like the Akira, Steamrunner, Norway etc...They can all still fulfill Starfleet's mandate of exploration, scientific discovery and everything else to varying degrees depending on the ship but they have more teeth and are better equipped to defend themselves should the need arise. It's almost like the message is "We don't want to fight, we are peaceful but will defend ourselves if need be and we have the tools to do so"
Great video, love the background story of federation being so resistant to creating warships until they were knee deep in scientific vessel wreckage.
Using this thing in STO and firing full torpedo spreads while blasting phasers makes you feel like the strongest little ship in the whole quadrant.
the akire, coolest of the 5 new starfleet design in " first contact"
My favorite Starfleet class of ships. So beautiful.
I've always wanted to see a full spread of torpedoes come from this ship. If it has 15 tubes, and each fires at least 3 torpedoes in a spread like the Galaxy class, then that's at least 45 torpedoes launched at one time! Woo!
This is what real Trek is.
I was thinking it would be even more limited than the Defiant due to how many resources are spent on the shuttlebay, but then I realised they could be put to use regularly in planetary orbit, as well as charting the nearest dozen-or-so systems with those dozen-or-so shuttlecraft. Voyager did it with a handful of shuttles, charting the neighbouring system or two, and they only didn’t launch all of them because they didn’t want to risk losing all of them at once. Operating near Federation space there is no reason not to launch all of them every time and probably get a quite high-productivity ship for science and logistics missions.
I love these ship breakdown vids, I'm an sto player myself and these are a nice tie in for me
The 15 torpedo tubes are visible on the original studio CGI model. The one that was featured in the Star Trek magazine way back when.
There are 4 in the upper part of the weapons pod (forward), 3 in the lower part of the torpedo pod (forward), 3 under the leading edge of the saucer (forward), 1 under the deflector (forward), 2 on the dorsal saucer, facing port, 2 on the dorsal saucer facing starboard. 15.
The Typhon Fleet didn't just 'hold it's own' against the Cube. When the Enterprise scanned it, Data reported that it had sustained heavy damage to it's outer hull and was so badly damaged that it was experiencing fluctuations in it's power grid.
It also featured heavily in the Dominion War. We saw a lot of them, unlike less-combat-capable ships like the Intrepid and Nova.
This is my favourite class too, great job!
This is definitely my favorite ship in Star Trek and in Star Trek online it’s tough versatile and extremely maneuverable.
Did they call an Earth battleship going toe to toe with a massive alien war machine “Thunderchild”?
I absolutely love that.
Best. In STO many non-Federation players benefit from the practicality of this design. Thanx Rick!
If you are commanding an Akira type for the STO Kobayashi Maru, then I *highly* recommend Jack White's performance of 'What's the trick?' @ Rough Trade East courtesy of his RUclips channel. . . If we strive together, we can save the Kobayashi Maru from certain destruction!
Definitely one of my favorite designs ever.
Akira is my favorite Starship.
Please start doing breakdowns on ships. You’re content is spectacular and I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking it would be a great addition to your content
I'm playing in a game of Star Trek Adventures, a TTRPG, and serving on an Akira class as the Ops manager. I looked for this kind of video specifically, so thank you for doing it!
This is my absolute favorite star trek ship. I hope the gentleman that makes videos about the intirior of ships an each deck makes one about the akira
Always loved this design..
0:32 Saber and Norway classes--names from Cherryh's "Faded Sun" trilogy and Alliance-Union series?
“ One “ “ Of “ “ A “ “ Few “ “ Favorite “ “ Ships “
This is my favorite Star Trek ship of all timelines.
I always love the Yorktown and Oddessy class is a mobile space station ship that carries a corvette with it its sleek design the Yorktown class is the best ship for exploration and sciencetific tasks it's a beautiful ship design love your channel certifiable in-game keep it up my man the Akira class is more like a heavy frigate of star trek
Ever since Star Trek Armada, I loved to Akira class
I chose this as my ship when I reached commander in sto. I love how the way it looks and how nimble it is
Fantastic videos. From one voice artist to another, I found myself losing track of your information because I was enjoying your voice. New subscriber and happy I have lots to binge. Keep it up, pal. And thanks
amaizing all those star trek ships videos are so cool cheers from venezuela sir AWESOME job congrats !
The "Borg Era" of Trek design is among my favorite in the franchise. Akira, Sovereign, etc. are beautifully designed ships that look like they have teeth.
the Raven i believe was actually meant as a literary reference to Edgar Alan Poe, i also remember reading somewhere that there was an Akira class vessel named the Innsmouth. a reference to Lovecraft's Shadow Over Innsmouth.
Love the Akira class! Along with the Sovereign and Luna classes respectively, it is a great example of harmony of form and function.
i recall reading that in pre-production of ST: Enterprise, the network producers wanted them to use the Akira design, unchanged, as the nx-class. This was due to its fan popularity, and to save money from not having to create a new design and 3d model. luckily, the show's staff convinced them to go with a new design, but the network insisted it be based on the popular Akira. hence we got the "Akira-prise", lol.
not sure if a true story, but a believable one.
I'd love to see you do more breakdowns on Starfleet ships. There also an Akira-class ship in Apocrypha called the USS James T. Kirk
When Starfleet asks their Klingon allies "Hey, if *YOU GUYS* could design a Starfleet ship, what would it look like?"
the fighters you're talking about were shown in Sacrifice of Angels, DS9 season 5.
"How many torpedo launchers do you want?"
"Yes."
What a great design the Akira Class is! It sure would've been nice if we could've seen some awesome battle scenes of multiple Akira warping into a battle space and disgorging dozens and dozens of fighters like something you saw in Battlestar Galactica and also in Babylon 5!!
It would be great to see videos covering the other contemporary ships to the Akira class, the Sabre, and Nova, and also the Steamrunner class ships too!
It seems the Akira and other ships from the same times are designed around supporting each other in little battle groups, so you could have a scene with a bunch of Sabers and a couple Steamrunners, too. :)
Love any ship bearing the name “thunderchild”
Love the ship breakdowns!! Been loving ST new horizons for making my own
My headcannon sees the Luna and the Akira as taking the lessons learned during the development of the Sovereign and then pushing them a bit more in one direction or the other while shrinking the costs. Love the Akira. She's the best looking design in the series IMO
I like Akira class and Steamrunner... they were both ships that got a "What is that?!" out of me during the movies.
My favorite class
I was never really a fan of the Insurrection era ships (audience gasps), but I think it's because I always preferred the Rodenberry vision. I'm glad the Federation finally saw sense and building ships with some real ass, and really some purpose built ships, but I prefer the Galaxy Class' themes. Still, the Akira is bad ass. Can't take that away from her.
IIRC the Akira class was supposed to work in tandem with other Starfleet 'Escorts' such as the Defiant, Norway, Sabre and Steamrunner class ships. Starfleet later tried to integrate the functionalities of all of these classes into the arguably successful Prometheus class escort cruiser.
One of my favorite ships.
The Akira class, putting warheads on warp cores while unleashing a frenzy of fury since first contact. Gotta love that torpedo boat/fighter carrier...
I absolutly love this ship, together with the Sovereign and Luna class defenetly my top Starfleet ship designs. It´s so good looking and super bad ass.
This is one of my favourite starships. I like the image thay used of it in Lower decks season 3 episode 1.
The Raven could be named after the Edgar Alan Poe work of the same name. Just as the Thunderchild is named after "something" in a literary work too.
One thing I could speculate though is that different naming conventions could apply to vessels commissioned at a different shipyard.
Which I think might also explain things like different Miranda Class Derivatives too.
I personally like to head-canon that Starfleet moved it's facilities for maintenance and construction of legacy types to outlier worlds so they got some well understood and easy to fix vessels - so that might explain who was churning out Mirandas still in the 24th Century rather than requiring them to be 80+ Year old vessels. Perhaps after decades of this one of them got good enough to start work on new variations of their own too.
Otherwise all Starfleet do is keep ship construction entirely in the core systems. Which is both a good and a bad thing I guess.
Right?! Has no one else heard of Poe's famous literary work...?
"Nevermore"
Nice video, I never realized there was Constitution wreckage at Wolf-359! It reminds me of an fan-fiction I read about a Constitution that was refurbished to be a museum ship and ended up going to the battle and the old systems still proved to be useful and robust, allowing it to collect survivors (breaking from the show canon where the Ent-D says there are non).
Still a good story, but I don't remember the title.
I appreciate the fact that the designers go through a lot of effort to make different classes of starships, but some of them seem really impractical. The Akira class for example, has two large pylons on both sides of the ship. If you want to get from one side to the other you have to walk all the way down to the saucer section and back up to the other pylon. Not even talking about space travel, but just buildings alone, that's very impractical.
Greetings. I have a suggestion for a lore video. "Federation Popular Culture". I did read somewhere that the federation is a stagnant society. The only reason they explore new worlds and seek out new life is because they are bored. Entertainment is apparently reading Shakespeare and watching reruns of friends and old baseball games. Surely this can't be all true. I have few thoughts but would be interested to see what you can dig up. And as usual, excellent work! Keep it up.
Ill always be a hardcore Sovereign class fan, but the Akira is up there
The Akira, Alita and Armitage are really good designs.
Love the informative diagram view of the akira, telling whats what and where. Great video on one of my favorite ships
I loved it in star trek Armada
I love the Akira class on STO. Once i unlock it, i always use it to entertaining effect.
Yessssss, one of my favourite ships.
I love the video! More please!
Hrm, as the name scheme goes, maybe they were working on a literary character theme, 'Raven' from Poe, Helios from... Blake? Tennyson? But 'warships' also tend to get named after other ships or after people.
One of my favs too!
A related feature to Akira-class ships that was not mentioned is the "Chain reaction pulsar weapon" and described as follows:
The chain reaction pulsar weapon (also known as the chain pulsar or pulsar torpedo) is a type of highly-enhanced weapon that was introduced as an optional ship-mounted armament for Akira-class starship in the year 2376. Fired as a torpedo, when launched continuously drawing energy from its target becoming more and more powerful, until it impacts the target with the energy it absorbed. When used against multiple targets, it moves from target to target absorbing energy, until it unleashes its combined accumulated force on the final target.
The USS Jupiter was the first Starfleet vessel to employ this system. (ST video games: Armada, Armada II)
I am just surprised that at this point, Star Fleet ship design doctrine doesn't just design for warships at the base hull design, but when launched, it is kitted out for science and exploration, keeping the weapons and such in reserve. Then when war happens, they have quick-to-refit 'kits' for that hull design of ship that would make it war-ready realitively quickly.
God i love this ship
Thank you, Rick . Loved the upload & your thoughtful narration as ever 🙏🏻 💚💚💚
The Akira remains as my favorite Starfleet ship.
Yeah the Akira was originally designed as a torpedo boat and light carrier in one. They kept the options for both but decided to quick push them into a more front line aggressive role instead. Only in the later refits like we see in STO did the original designs and variations there-of come apparent. But damn if the Akira isn't one of the best designs.
I've been waiting so long for this one
Also AYE Rick. More starship class explorations, please!!!! 😁
I love the sidebar that accompanies the Akira spaceframe in Star Trek Adventures. An Orion 'merchant' responds to a distress signal from a Federation outpost/colony. Some Ferengi were testing a device from orbit that was causing massive flooding on the surface of the planet. Before the Orion captain could decide what to do, or how he could turn he situation in his favour, an Akira-class drops out of warp, and unleashes a massive barrage of photon torpedoes at the Ferengi ship absolutely clapping it.
They then hail the Orion asking for sensor logs. The captain decides it's best to just hand over the logs quietly and forget about any schemes at all.
Honestly, all of the sidebars in the Adventures sourcebooks are fantastic. The one that accompanies the Nova-class spaceframe is by the Queen of the Gorn. She's angry that after decades of building bigger and bigger ships, a brinksmanship game the Gorn understood and were happy to play, the Federation decides to see how _small_ they can build a ship. She's only mollified by the fact that the Nova-class seems to be a science vessel with a flaw in its engine design.
This seems like the "aircraft carrier" of starfleet
Wait wait wait ... hold on a second here ... "USS Thunderchild"??? Great, now I'm never going to watch the Battle of Sector 001 without Jeff Wayne's song playing in my head :P
Great review! Would love to see more!
Love the Akira class, I'm a sucker for underslung nacelles.
The shuttle bay design would have made an interesting basis for a show, we could have some focus on Federation fighter pilots which would have been neat.
Thats a good idea, a sequel to Star Trek: Invasion would be interesting, I always enjoyed the fighter design in that game
First time I ever saw the Akira class starship I was OMG that so so F**King cool! The only thing that kept me from losing my teenage nerdy lil mind, was the fact I had already done that over the Sovereign class Enterprise. Which to this day is still my most favorite Starship, with Voyager next, and then the Defiant. But I know for sure number 4 is the Akira Class Starship
Aaah yes, the Thunderchild, and it's valiant heart ☺️
Always wanted to see a series or mini-series staring this class. Set it in the later half of DS9 so you get both the Klingon and Dominion Wars. It would be perfect to expand the perception of the wars like they did with Siege of AR-558.
Nice review Rick.
I'd love to see more breakdowns
Love this ship! Would love to see some in game combat during the videos Rick.
Best ship reviewer on RUclips!
Always love how the federation forgets that it has enemies. No nation can stand without the military might to ensure it, even if you never want to use you military might, you need to have it.
Blame Roddenberry. I’m certain Star Trek succeeded despite him. And his asinine futuristic views.
“Humans don’t mourn tbe dead in the future.” Is particularly stupid and downright evil of him to think. What kind of psychopath sees THAT as a failing?