Twenty ships I want to see in two more years of the Starships Collection

Today marks the second anniversary of the publication of the first issue of Eaglemoss' Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection. With over fifty issues already out, and the series due to continue until at least a ninetieth issue (plus a few specials and bonus issues here and there), there are still loads of cool Star Trek starships designs I would love to see added to the line-up, should the series continue on into the hundreds. So to mark the second birthday, here's my wishlist of twenty ships I would like to see included as the series continues over the next two or more years!

Ringship Enterprise

Almost all the starships Enterprise have already been done, leaving just the Enterprise-A, Enterprise-J, and this, the mysterious ringship Enterprise. First seen among the historical Enterprises images in The Motion Picture, images of this ship were also seen in Enterprise, and a model of it appeared in Into Darkness. That model was based on the Mark Rademaker version of the ship which appeared in the Ships of the Line calendar. An unusual design, with a long history throughout the series, how could the Starships Collection be complete if it omitted one of the Enterprises?

Earth Spacedock

To me, this is the iconic design of the TOS movie era. The sheer scale and utter beauty of Spacedock really helps sell the scope of Starfleet and the Federation as organisations; this universe is way bigger than one ship boldly going. Spacedock is as important design as any of the movie-era ships, and while it's obviously not a ship itself it still deserves a place in The Collection - Hopefully a nice big special-sized space to really do this thing justice.

Hierarchy ship

The Hierarchy were one of the handful of recurring species in Voyager, and they brought with them a rather unusual ship design. The lumpy organic arrangement of pods gives this ship a unique form among Star Trek ships which I think makes it worthy of inclusion in The Collection.

Scimitar

Whatever you think of Nemesis, it's hard to deny it had a great space-battle, and at the heart of that was the huge Scimitar. I want a suitably huge model of this, surely deserving of special treatment, especially as I think this ship has to come with the wings deployed, to give us that beautiful lion-fish like design.

Borg Diamond

The idea of Borg ships is pretty cool, but when it comes to turning those grey and green geometric shapes into models... not so exciting! The exception surely would be the Borg Queen's ship. With its intricate cut out shapes, and glowing purple core this would be one of the most interesting models in The Collection.

Orion pirate ship

I think we must be careful not to forget that The Animated Series is absolutely as much a part of the Star Trek universe as any of the live-action series. So we must get some ships from it in The Collection! There are plenty to pick from, but I think one of the most interesting designs is the Orion ship seen in The Pirates of Orion. The ship is only shown from two quite similar angles, so it would be a bit of a challenge to extrapolate the full 3D design - But then that would make it even more of a treat to see it fully brought to life!

Orion interceptor

While only seen a few times over the series, the Orions have managed to establish themselves as one of the major Star Trek races. They've not established a very consistent ship style though! Completely different to the TAS design, the remastered TOS introduced an Orion ship that The Collection's manager, Ben Robinson, has already hinted might be included. And Enterprise also offered two Orion ships, including my favourite of all the Orion ships we've seen, the vicious and fast looking Orion interceptor.

Enterprise shuttlepod

I'm hoping the four shuttlecraft on the way will just be the start of semi-regular series of shuttles, released in parallel to the starship series. Candidate number one for the second wave has to be the Enterprise shuttlepod. I imagine only the Enterprise itself had more screen time than these had over any other ships in the series, and their critical role in the very character of the series surely earns them a place in The Collection.

Cheyenne class

There were several barely visible new ships seen in the wreckage of the Battle of Wolf 359, and some of them were really nice designs. My favourite is the Cheyenne class, the four-nacelled ship clearly in the same design family as the Galaxy class, but firmly establishing its own identity.

New Orleans class

And my second favourite is the New Orleans class, a bit closer in form to the Galaxy class, but still very much its own thing. What I think is important about both of these ships (and the other Wolf 359 wrecks) is that they give us just about the only glimpse at a period in Starfleet design, the pre-Borg 24th century era. They are barely seen, but lovely designs, that give a window into a period of Starfleet history little explored.

Xindi Reptilian ship

If you really boil own Enterprise's Xindi arc it's Earth vs the Xindi Reptilians, so naturally the Reptilian ships saw plenty of action that season, as the main bad-guys. Not only are these one of the most prominently featured ships from Enterprise, but it's also a great unusual design; like some sort of stripped back manta ray. We've already got the Xindi Insectoid ship, and the Aquatics on the way; surely we can't miss out this star of their fleet.

Starjelly

There are a few space-based lifeforms in the series that you could just about get away with calling ships too, and surely the most prominent of them all are the starjellies from Encounter at Farpoint. Making their ropey arms might be a challenge, but I think surely one that has to be taken on, as they would be a bit boring in their saucer-only form. Making them seem glowy and translucent might also be tricky, especially while keeping a die-cast metal element in the model - My suggestion would be to use the metal to make the interior details, and encase it in a translucent plastic shell to bring the whole thing to life. Could it be done?

Jellyfish

Another jellyfish of sorts comes from the first nuTrek movie. Ben has hinted before that a model of this could have moving parts, and if any ship could use that sort of feature it's the Jellyfish, with it's rotating elements being a critical part of the design. Moving or not, this strange Vulcan design is an important part in the history of Trek, helping to establish the alternate timeline, surely worthy of inclusion.

T'Pau

We've already had two Vulcan ships from Enterprise in The Collection, and there are still several more from that series that could (and I hope will) join the series. But I'd like to see a Vulcan ship from another era get in too, the T'Pau, as seen in Unification, pleasingly gives continuity to the Vulcan use of ring-ships, while also providing a very different take on the Vulcan starship aesthetic.

V'Ger

While it was fully designed for The Motion Picture from the start, we didn't really get a good look a V'Ger until the director's cut DVD. But it was worth the wait; this unusual design fuses together organic forms and technological details, perhaps reflecting the final fate of V'ger itself. It could be a really interesting model if the prints can bring to life energies visible on the hull.

Daedalus class

Strangely this class that we've never seen in action on-screen feels like one of the most important in Starfleet history. While the adventures of the Daedalus class might be told in non-canon tales, the ships are canon so much as models have been seen on sets in the show. Another case of an obscure corner of Starfleet design deserving its time in the spotlight.

Son'a battleship

Insurrection delivered quite a lot of new ship designs, four different ones for the Son'a alone! My favourite has always been the larger battleships, with the atypically wide and boomerang shaped hulls making them quite distinctive.

Night ship

Unusual orientation is also the source of my desire for this very obscure ship seen in the Voyager episode Night. Tall thin ships are very uncommon indeed, and that's just the start from this strange iridescent glowy design. I imagine deep-sea marine animals inspired the look of these aliens that live in a dark void, and I think the model would be a real treat if it featured glow in the dark paint to bring that effect to life!

USS Titan

A ship that could happen if we make it so! The USS Titan is a canon ship, but probably also the best established of the non-canon designs, having only been mentioned on-screen, but seen in books, comics, video games, and more. If any (mostly) non-canon ship deserves a place in this collection it is surely the Titan. Ben told me last year, if we could find five-thousand people willing to commit to pre-order, then a special extra issue could be commissioned - So far, one year on, we're just a few names short of four-thousand on the petition set up to gather those names. If you share my desire for a model of the Titan, then please sign that petition, and share it far and wide. We're tantalisingly close now!

USS Aventine

And finally, also possible with a bit of fan love, the beautiful Vesta class USS Aventine. She's not been around as long as the Titan, but she's quickly become a major presence in the Star Trek lit-verse. Plus she has the cool factor of being a slipstream drive enabled ship! There's a petition going to get this non-canon ship included too; it's not been running as long, and has much further left to go than the Titan at the moment. So lend your name there as well. If we can get both ships, along with the Enterprise-E, we'll have the Destiny three!


So those are my top twenty. Several other ships have been confirmed by Ben as planned for the The Collection already, so I've not included those in the above list, but if they don't make it, I would certainly lament the loss of the Enterprise-J, T'Plana Hath, and D5 class. What ships are you eager to see models of?

For a listing of all the ships in the Starships Collection, including links to all my previous previews and reviews, see my index page.

Image sources: Screencaps from TrekCore, other images from the Star Trek Encyclopedia, Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Continueing Mission, Star Trek: Fact Files, Ships of the Line, Star Trek Magazine, and Ex Astris Scientia.