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Description

Ported to OBJ from the game stock model created by Totally Games for Star Trek: Bridge Commander (BC). Based on the original design created by John Eaves, with assistance from Michael Okuda and Herman Zimmerman, for the feature film Star Trek: First Contact (STFC) and subsequently reused in other and later Franchise media and products. Preview picture posed in XNALara XPS. While I am not making my port of the original gaming model available for public download, you'll be happy to learn that there are plenty of fan CG recreations out there and many of them are absolutely free. Two of the best are by Dave "First Fleet" Metlesits, his original effort and a later refurbished version, and you can get them both at the links below:

Maestro, the music please! (YouTube link):

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GF5CL…

The launch of the prototype starship USS Sovereign (NX-73811, later NCC-73811) within a decade or two of the start of the TNG/DS9/VOY era (exact date depends on source consulted) marked the breakpoint for many between the first and second halves of the era in terms of Federation Starfleet starship design. It was also a radical departure from the earlier Galaxy class (see separate entry) that had defined both the start of the era in the first place as well as the Galaxy generation of starships. Sovereign's design reflected many hard-learned lessons with early members of the Galaxy generation of starships, which on the whole were deemed too ... what is the best word? ... soft, perhaps? ... when it came to potential conflict with hostile alien species given their design and despite their space battleship class armament. Thus Sovereign flipped-flopped Galaxy's designed purpose as an explorer first and major space combatant second. Sovereign was clearly and unmistakably a space combatant first and explorer second. It also sported all the latest innovations in Federation starship technology to further aid it in its intended purpose. Both of these factors go a long way in explaining Sovereign's more sleek and aggressive "look" as compared to the older and more staid (or "stodgy?") Galaxy class design. While this was anathema to those within the Federation who had always maintained that Starfleet's primary mission was that of peaceful space exploration, the more violent times of this era all but demanded that Starfleet swing in this direction -- just as had the escalation in tensions among the various powers leading up to the earlier TMP era had also heavily influenced an entire generation of Starfleet starship designs back then. In the end both Sovereign and the Sovereign generation it spearheaded proved themselves in their day as the right choice, just as their predecessors two eras before had also done in their time.

The most storied member of the Sovereign class is of course the USS Enterprise-E (NCC-1701-E), the fifth Starfleet vessel to bear the name and whose celebrated service career you can look up elsewhere (grin-and-wink). Others have also waxed eloquent on the Sovereign class, its capabilities, and the finer details of its long service history with Starfleet, and I'll let you look up those too.

There were at least 38 members of the class built throughout the back half of the 24th century (all documented by on screen sources) and it is quite likely that there were more, although how many more is not currently known. Sovereign was still considered a viable front-line starship class even at that late date (PIC), with all surviving class members either having received their first ELSP refit or were scheduled to get one by the time the 24th century rolled over into the 25th in order to ensure their continued service with Starfleet for as long as possible. I have no further data on the Sovereign class at this time.

This is unquestionably and indisputably canon. 'Nuff said.

Live long and prosper.

Description

Ported to OBJ from the game stock model created by Totally Games for Star Trek: Bridge Commander (BC). Based on the original design created by John Eaves, with assistance from Michael Okuda and Herman Zimmerman, for the feature film Star Trek: First Contact (STFC) and subsequently reused in other and later Franchise media and products. Preview picture posed in XNALara XPS. While I am not making my port of the original gaming model available for public download, you'll be happy to learn that there are plenty of fan CG recreations out there and many of them are absolutely free. Two of the best are by Dave "First Fleet" Metlesits, his original effort and a later refurbished version, and you can get them both at the links below:

Maestro, the music please! (YouTube link):

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GF5CL…

The launch of the prototype starship USS Sovereign (NX-73811, later NCC-73811) within a decade or two of the start of the TNG/DS9/VOY era (exact date depends on source consulted) marked the breakpoint for many between the first and second halves of the era in terms of Federation Starfleet starship design. It was also a radical departure from the earlier Galaxy class (see separate entry) that had defined both the start of the era in the first place as well as the Galaxy generation of starships. Sovereign's design reflected many hard-learned lessons with early members of the Galaxy generation of starships, which on the whole were deemed too ... what is the best word? ... soft, perhaps? ... when it came to potential conflict with hostile alien species given their design and despite their space battleship class armament. Thus Sovereign flipped-flopped Galaxy's designed purpose as an explorer first and major space combatant second. Sovereign was clearly and unmistakably a space combatant first and explorer second. It also sported all the latest innovations in Federation starship technology to further aid it in its intended purpose. Both of these factors go a long way in explaining Sovereign's more sleek and aggressive "look" as compared to the older and more staid (or "stodgy?") Galaxy class design. While this was anathema to those within the Federation who had always maintained that Starfleet's primary mission was that of peaceful space exploration, the more violent times of this era all but demanded that Starfleet swing in this direction -- just as had the escalation in tensions among the various powers leading up to the earlier TMP era had also heavily influenced an entire generation of Starfleet starship designs back then. In the end both Sovereign and the Sovereign generation it spearheaded proved themselves in their day as the right choice, just as their predecessors two eras before had also done in their time.

The most storied member of the Sovereign class is of course the USS Enterprise-E (NCC-1701-E), the fifth Starfleet vessel to bear the name and whose celebrated service career you can look up elsewhere (grin-and-wink). Others have also waxed eloquent on the Sovereign class, its capabilities, and the finer details of its long service history with Starfleet, and I'll let you look up those too.

There were at least 38 members of the class built throughout the back half of the 24th century (all documented by on screen sources) and it is quite likely that there were more, although how many more is not currently known. Sovereign was still considered a viable front-line starship class even at that late date (PIC), with all surviving class members either having received their first ELSP refit or were scheduled to get one by the time the 24th century rolled over into the 25th in order to ensure their continued service with Starfleet for as long as possible. I have no further data on the Sovereign class at this time.

This is unquestionably and indisputably canon. 'Nuff said.

Live long and prosper.