Thoughts, musings and observations of the Sovereign class and her predecessor(s)

                                        Sovereign class U.S.S. Enterprise


      What does one first think of when thinking of the Galaxy class U.S.S. Enterprise? That of course varies depending upon the person, but I think of families and her massive size. A large community in Space. Were I to imagine a Starship traveling past the furthest star and exploring the Galaxy, I think of the original Starship Enterprise and the Galaxy class Enterprise; they just exude purpose and an understanding of what one might need to explore the outer reaches. However, that is not what I think of when I imagine their Sovereign class counterpart. What I see when I look at the Enterprise-E is speed. There is a point where streamlining reaches a point of absolute literalism and that is where the Enterprise-E begins and ends.

     The Sovereign class co-exists(ed) with the Galaxy class. The Galaxy class is clearly supposed to be an Explorer; the ship that gets sent out into the Universe on her own, without support and comes back a decade later to relay her findings; it's size and accouterments makes it the most obvious type of ship to do so; so with that in mind, what then is the mission parameter/ purpose of the Sovereign class? Is it supposed to be a successor? The Galaxy class was still fairly new having only been introduced less than a decade earlier. Per conversations with Ronald D. Moore back in the late-90's, the Enterprise-E had no families on board (Thankfully since she was partially assimilated). So no families, slightly faster than her predecessor, heavily armed per Star Trek: Nemesis and with less mass. How many Explorer-type vessels does Starfleet need? Does the Sovereign have to be an explorer? Could it instead be a cruiser? A patrol ship?

   Given all 'facts' of the class stated above, I assert that the class is rather a light-to-heavy cruiser, fulfilling a more generalize role; allowing the Galaxy and other-larger classes to fill the role of Explorer.  So in reality, I can see the Sovereign being a successor to the Excelsior class. Which would stand to reason since they were ancient yet still in service at the time of the Sovereigns introduction.

So there it is, some random ramblings about fictional ships and their place in a fictional future; naval-gazing I be.

-Spaced out blogger