- 24/05/2025
10 Legendary Star Trek Ship Kit-Bashes
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00:00Hello, Ellie here. Today's video is brought to you by Surfshark, but more on that in a bit.
00:06Hello my friends, how are you? Sean Ferrick here for TrekCulture. I've said it before,
00:09I'll say it again. You know me, I love ships. I love playing with model ships,
00:14I love seeing them fly around. Good lord, didn't any of you build ships in a bottle
00:19when you were kids? Please tell me you get the reference. I'm sure you do.
00:23With all of that, we are going to have a look at those ships that had a bit more of a,
00:27shall we say, rushed production schedule. Some of them may surprise you, others may
00:34haunt and scar you the rest of your lives. I'm Sean Ferrick for TrekCulture and here are 10
00:39Legendary Star Trek Kitbashes. Number 10, the Proto-Nebula Class.
00:44The USS Melbourne was introduced in the Best of Both Worlds Part 2. Well, I say introduced.
00:51The ship itself had been introduced by name in Part 1, with the appearance happening in
00:57Part 2. We have come to understand and expect a Nebula Class now to have that triangular shaped
01:04sensor dome, for want of a better word, above the very Galaxy Class saucer section,
01:10but that was not always the case. In fact, the Proto-Nebula Class had two smaller warp nacelles
01:17where that triangular piece was going to be. Two physical models of this Proto-Nebula, USS Melbourne,
01:25were built. One was going to be heavily damaged and destroyed to be shown in the debris field after
01:31the Battle of All 359. The other was then kept and used for a display piece in Captain Riker's ready room
01:39in the episode Future Imperfect. It's also the only kitbash that was seen in both the Best of Both
01:45Worlds Part 2 and Emissary as it was glimpsed through the window of Cisco's escape pod from the Saratoga.
01:52There is the longstanding story of Emissary also introducing an Excelsior Class USS Melbourne,
01:57so in the universe, the Excelsior USS Melbourne was already in service, with this new USS Melbourne
02:04being rushed into release to face the Borg, and I bet they'd wish they'd left it in space dock.
02:10Number 9, USS Elkins. The Elkins is barely shown on screen in the Season 6 opener of Deep Space Nine,
02:18a time to stand. The script called for a battered Federation fleet to be limping back toward their
02:24territory after having seven levels of shite knocked out of them by the Dominion. To fill out
02:31the numbers of this fleet, they called for several new ships to be created, one of which was the USS Elkins,
02:38which was named after VFX designer Judy Elkins. The body was based on parts from an F-14 jet,
02:44the nacelle struts were based on the Danube class runabout, and the nacelles themselves were
02:50borrowed from the Miranda class. Number 8, Intrepid type. The Intrepid type appeared in Star
02:57Trek Enterprise, and it's heavily based on Doug Drexler's design for the NX-01. The saucer section
03:05itself was halved, as well as the nacelles being swung up and stuck to that half saucer section. This was
03:12an example of CGI kitbashing rather than model kitbashing, and by model kitbashing I mean of course
03:20taking pieces that were commercially available. This, according to senior CG supervisor Rob Bonchoone,
03:27was a case of having to deal with creating these new designs with precious little turnaround time.
03:33In fact, this one, while it got some of the most screen time of any support vessels from Starfleet in
03:39Enterprise, they didn't really refer to it as anything until it was named Intrepid type on screen.
03:45It was generally referred to as the one with the half saucer right up until it, with its additional
03:51numbers, helped to support NX-01 in the various battles against the Zindi and whatever time traveling
03:58nonsense was happening that week. Number 7, the Challenger class. The Challenger class, so named by designer
04:05Ed Miareki, was named after the space shuttle and it was unique among Starfleet starships at the time
04:13that the two nacelles were not perfectly in line with each other. This technically broke Gene Roddenberry's
04:20rule of line of sight. In fact, Miareki originally designed the ship with only one nacelle, but Mike
04:26Okuda would go on to suggest that maybe adding a second one would help to fill out the overall design.
04:32Okuda then said that actually he regretted that bit of advice because it made the ship look a bit
04:38like a lollipop. The Buran was one of 39 vessels that were lost at Wolf 359 and you can see it as
04:44the Enterprise slides into the field of destruction in the best of both worlds part 2. What up my dudes,
04:51it's Chad Tarka. Some people think I might be a famous meteorologist, I like to think I'm just a friend of
04:57the weather. Right now I'm back on Ryza looking after my mom and I'm about to head out there again,
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05:58Number 6, the Jaeger class. I'm not going to lie to you folks, I hate this ship. I hate it. And because
06:05of that, I'm kind of delighted to have the model. I mean, I mean, I mean, look at it. The model was
06:12designed by Gary Hutzel and it was actually praised by Mike Okuda because, I mean, whatever else you want
06:19to say about it, it is an immediately recognisable silhouette. Like you look at this and you know it's
06:25not an Enterprise. The model was built from commercially available Voyager and Mackie
06:30Raider model kits. It was often seen then in various episodes of Deep Space Nine as a ship that was
06:37lazily floating by the station. Now, this was never shown in a close-up, high-definition way, so if we
06:45ever do get around to that long fabled remaster of Deep Space Nine, you have to wonder. I can appreciate
06:54the absolute ingenuity of taking these two ships and sticking them together and throwing them in the back.
07:00Doesn't mean that I like it. Number five, Curry Class. The Curry Class that was introduced in
07:06another of the ships introduced in Deep Space Nine's A Time to Stand was named after famed artist
07:12Dan Curry. He designed this ship to be one of the fleet that was limping its way back to Federation
07:17space with their tails between their legs. He came up with a kit bash for the Curry Class in just a few
07:22hours, raiding the boxes of model kits and coming up with pieces of Excelsior and Miranda-class ships.
07:28For the overall shape of the vessel, he took inspiration from World War II landing craft.
07:34This is, they had the engines toward the back, the saucer section there, but they had the shuttle craft,
07:40or the shuttle bay, right up the front. So think of those landers on D-Day where the front drops down
07:47and, well, unfortunately, a lot of people never came home again. Now, despite this ship only being on
07:53screen for seconds, it was one of the ones that Eagle Moss commissioned for their collection.
07:58I have to say, I really like it. Number four, Cheyenne Class. This four nacelled vessel was,
08:05if you like, something of a spiritual sequel to the Constellation Class USS Stargazer, USS Hathaway,
08:12and USS Constance. This was another one of those very quick kitbashes that was put together for the
08:19Wolf 359 fleet. It has the legend of being one of the luckier ships. And when I say one of, I mean
08:27the luckier ship. The Awani was the only vessel to survive the Borg invasion and the Borg destruction at
08:35Wolf 359 as it would return as part of Picard's fleet in redemption. Designer Ed Miarecki built the ship
08:42using commercially available parts of the Galaxy Class and also, and it will not be the only time on
08:49this list, highlighter pens were used as well. Number three, New Orleans Class. The New Orleans
08:56Class had something of a false start when it came to Star Trek The Next Generation. When it came to new
09:02designs, the Galaxy Class, the Constellation Class, and even later on the Ambassador Class were all major
09:09new designs for the series, with Excelsior, Oberth, and Miranda Class filling out some of the gaps in
09:16Starfleet. Now, this left the impression that Starfleet was generally staffed by much older vessels,
09:24so Ed Miarecki was given the task, create something new that we can use to fill out the gaps. The New
09:30Orleans Class is a put together of the Galaxy Class Saucer section and the Galaxy Class Star Drive
09:38section. Now, the nacelle struts are swept back and up, but it wasn't enough, so the feedback came down
09:45if you've got to give it something a little bit extra, and those marker pens, three marker pens were
09:51added, two to the top and one underneath, to give the New Orleans Class its own distinctive look. With this
09:58design, it was ready to go into service, once, as the USS Kyushu, the best of both worlds part two,
10:06didn't get a lot of screen time. Number two, Springfield Class. The Springfield Class was another
10:11of the Ed Miarecki kitbashes that were put together for the Battle of O359. The only known model that was
10:18built was to be named the USS Chekov, named after Pavel Chekov, but it would then only be seen burning in space.
10:27The main saucer section was based on the Galaxy Glass Saucer section with, you guessed it, some more
10:33marker pens used for nacelles. However, it had a separate secondary hole, complete with its own
10:40Galaxy Glass inspired deflector dish as well, giving it quite a distinctive silhouette. Two changes were made
10:47to the USS Chekov in the best of both worlds part two. The first was that the spelling of the name
10:54was changed, so rather than C-H-E-C-K-O-F, which is Pavel Chekov, it was changed to drop the additional C,
11:04and then just became Chekov as in the playwright. The second change, when it was deemed too depressing to
11:10have the name of an original series character called out among the dead of Wolf 359, is that it was
11:17changed to the USS Tolstoy when being said out loud by Shelby. Number one, Centaur Class. The Centaur
11:25Class went from one of the briefest glimpses to becoming one of the most beloved extra designs of a
11:33starship in the franchise. The story of how it came to be is quite a funny one. Adam Buckner, who had been
11:39working under Gary Hutzel, was tasked with coming up for new designs for Deep Space Nine's A Time To
11:46Stand. Before this, however, between seasons five and six, he had gone traveling and was using this
11:52time to try and come up with new ship ideas. He was traveling in Spain and he met a young man named
11:58Guillermo. In the course of chatting, he promised Guillermo a ship of his very own. Flash forward now
12:03to production on A Time To Stand and the order came in. It's like, look, we need a ship that's going to be seen
12:08moving fast. We don't need massive amount of detail on it because it's going to, you know, it'll be in
12:14shot but it's going to be zipping in and out and heading off again. So Buckner taking parts of the
12:20Excelsior Class and the Miranda Class put together with little extra bits stuck on and some UV strips to
12:30create the blue of the nacelles created what we then found to be the Centaur. And that could have been the
12:36end of it. But it wasn't because years later the Centaur would return in Star Trek Resurgence.
12:44It would also appear as part of the unlucky fleet that faces off against the living construct in
12:51Star Trek Prodigy. Now both times it was refined a little in terms of the design but still it was
12:58that original Centaur. And yes, Buckner did get a model of the Centaur to Guillermo. That's everything for
13:04our list, folks. Thank you very, very much. What did you think? Do you like lists about these sort
13:08of lesser-known ships? Let me know in the comments below. Don't forget to get in touch with us over
13:12on Twitter at TrekCulture, on Instagram at TrekCultureYT, on both BlueSky and TikTok as well.
13:19I'm at SeanFerrick on the various socials. You are wonderful. You are fantastic. Give a bit of love
13:24to the editor who looked after this video. Zeti Dovo if Prostvitati. And to our friends in the Middle East,
13:29we pray for a quick and safe ceasefire. Everyone look after yourselves. Stay safe. Make it so.
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