By: Mark L. Compton
So, I just got through watching the Season 2 finale of Lower Decks. And in it, we were introduced to the Obena-class U.S.S. Archimedes, NCC-83002 (Meaning she is the third ship in the line). This ship has some very familiar lines.
The ship class is named for Lower Decks art director Nollan Obena, and is perhaps one of the prettiest we have seen in a while. It’s as if an Excelsior and a Sovereign had a baby. Everything below is pure conjecture on my part, but after seeing this beautiful lady on screen, I had to get this article written.
OBENA-CLASS
ENTERED SERVICE: 2380
OVERVIEW: ‘The Great Experiment’ that was the Excelsior-class may have been a failure when it came to transwarp drive, but the class proved to be so dependable that it still remains in service. With such a dependable design, Starfleet Command wanted to do a ground-up redesign that would push forward into the next hundred years of service. Shortly after the Dominion War, the design and production of the class began with the U.S.S. Obena NX-83000 being launched shortly after the Shinzon crisis. A few months later the U.S.S. Sostratus NCC-83001 and her sister ship the U.S.S. Archimedes NCC-83002, captained by former Enterprise-D engineer Sonya Gomez, was launched. Starfleet expects to field two of these vessels a year for at least the next five to ten years, and if successful will start to phase out production of the Excelsior-class.
CAPABILITIES: Like the ship, she draws inspiration from, the Obena-class can produce a substantial warp field for prolonged maximum high warp speeds. During trials, she matched speed records set by the Luna and Intrepid-class designs. Tactical systems have been updated to modern standards, with phaser arrays covering various firing arcs, and torpedo tubes capable of firing both photon and quantum torpedos. Like most modern Starfleet vessels, the Obena-class is fitted with the Duotronic M-16 Bio-Neural computer network, allowing her to support the extensive sensor suites aboard.
SYSTEMS
Comms: 09 Engines: 10 Structure: 10
Computers: 10 Sensors: 09 Weapons: 10
DEPARTMENTS
Command: +1 Security: — Science: +1
Conn: — Engineering: +1 Medicine: —
SCALE: 6
ATTACKS
Phaser Arrays
Photon Torpedoes
Quantum Torpedoes
Tractor Beam (Strength: 5)
TALENTS
Improved Impulse Drive
Improved Warp Drive
Secondary Reactors
Quantum Torpedoes
If the Obena is the same size as the Excelsior, shouldn’t it be Scale 5 instead?
According to Mike McMahan, it is larger which is why I upped the scale.
“We have a cool new ship in this week’s Lower Deck’s finale: the USS Archimedes, an Obena class ship. Inspired by the Excelsior class (which is still in service) but larger with some other changes.”
Nah, is only thicker, not large enough to jump to Prise-D size. Sane thing with that sexy refit of the Ambassador class.
As I stated previously, per the show creator, the Obena is “Larger” than an Excelsior. *Shrugs*
Just because the Obena is larger than an Excelsior doesn’t mean it’s large enough to be a Scale 6. There’s a margin between Scale 5 and Scale 6, after all. I guess we’ll have to wait on Eaglemoss to give us the official measurements in a couple of years.
Love this ship!
I kind of freaked out at this episode, as one of my main characters in STO has been flying an Excelsior class named the Archimedes for the last several years.
I feel like this is not only designed to replace the Excelsior, but to be more common than the Sovereign.