Star Trek’s New USS Voyager: First Full, Detailed Look
Star Trek: Discovery season 3 brought back the USS Voyager for the first time since the 90s TV show named after the iconic starship ended. When Disco did it, they gave us a new futuristic version and then proceeded to only put it on screen in extremely blurry, far away shots where you couldn't tell at all what it actually looks like.
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Star Trek: Discovery season 3 brought back the USS Voyager for the first time since the 90s TV show named after the iconic starship ended. When Disco did it, they gave us a new futuristic version and then proceeded to only put it on screen in extremely blurry, far away shots where you couldn’t tell at all what it actually looks like. Now, months later, we finally have a detailed, full look at the USS Voyager-J.
The images below come from the game Star Trek Online. They were given the CGI models for the Voyager-J used by Star Trek: Discovery and allowed to add detail to them. Detail which the always slipshod Discovery team didn’t bother to add. Luckily, the people in charge of Star Trek Online actually care about Star Trek. So they delivered this…
By way of comparison, this is what the crack team at Star Trek: Discovery gave us the first time around…
But Star Trek Online is for actual Star Trek fans, so they’ve released detailed specs on the vessel. For Star Trek Online purposes they’re calling the ship a “Janeway class” starship. On Star Trek: Discovery however, they called it an Intrepid class, the same class of ship that the original Voyager was. The reason for the change is that Star Trek: Online already has an Intrepid class, the one that Captain Janeway actually flew around on in Star Trek: Voyager, so they had to call it something else.
Here’s Star Trek: Online’s detailed description of their new Janeway class vessel…
In a distant future timeline, Federation starships have undergone a number of interesting evolutions of both technology and aesthetics. Some still reflect elements of their original lineage though, as is true with the Janeway-class Command Science Vessel. Drawing its original inspiration from the Intrepid-class starships of the late-24th century, this ship has been updated to focus on speed and maneuverability in local space, without sacrificing its scientific capabilities. Unlike classic science vessels, this ship focuses its power output on hull integrity rather than shield capacity, and has also been specifically outfitted to serve as a fleet command vessel.
And to go with it, they’ve delivered a detailed flyby of the ship in motion…
If you’re wondering what’s up with the Voyager-J’s detached nacelles, they’re all the rage in the much farther and more distant future Discovery is flying around in. There, they’ve come up with something called “memory metal” which makes actually connecting things together pretty unimportant. What advantage there is to leaving things floating free isn’t known, but as a high-tech style choice it does look kind of cool…
If you’re wondering how the Voyager-J’s crew members get to a bathroom in the saucer section if they’re working in the engineering section since there’s nothing connecting the two together, the answer is transporters. In Discovery’s way farther off future everyone has personal transporters built right into their combadge. A tap of the badge and you’ll find yourself sitting directly on the toilet. Another tap and you’re back at work with toilet paper stuck to your shoe. Some things never change, no matter how far into the future you go.
Star Trek: Discovery season 4 is slated to show up on Paramount+ some time in 2022. When it does, hopefully they’ll give us more of the USS Voyager-J.
