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Vulcan Ship Classes

20th and 21st Centuries - 22nd Century - Uncertain Vulcan Class - Unknown Vulcan Class

20th and 21st Centuries

D'Vahl type	General description The D'Vahl is a cone-shaped Vulcan ship, capable of planetary landings. It was in service during Earth's 20th century.	Known ships D'Vahl
	Annotations The D'Vahl appeared at the end of ENT: "Carbon Creek". It is quite obviously a design different than the survey ship that had crashed on Earth.	Class specifications None available

Survey ship	General description This is a small spoon-shaped Vulcan survey ship. It was in service during Earth's 20th century.	Known ships No name given
	Annotations This is the type of ship on which T'Pol's great-grandmother served and that crashed near Carbon Creek. No class name or ship name was mentioned.	Class specifications Crew complement: 4

T'Plana Hath type	General description The T'Plana Hath is a small survey ship of unknown class from the 21st century. It is capable of landing on a planet.	Known ships T'Plana Hath
	Annotations 1) While there is no evidence in "First Contact" itself, the secondary literature (namely ST Magazine and Fact Files) makes it clear that it is the entire starship that lands on Earth, and not a shuttle or dedicated landing module. The name T'Plana Hath wasn't mentioned in the movie either, but only in the script. 2) Well, the design with its many movable parts and the incredibly complicated procedure of just opening the door doesn't seem to be very logical...	Class specifications Survey ship Diameter: approx. 43m

22nd Century

D'Kyr type	General description The D'Kyr is a member of a yet unnamed class. The ship is significantly larger than Enterprise. Like on the Surak class and the Sh'Ran, an annular warp drive is employed, but here the hull of the ship splits, thereby forming a second ring that wraps horizontally around the engine ring. The (inner) engine ring may be tilted until it is horizontal and hence completely covered by the outer hull. Gallery: Alien Ships of the 22nd Century	Known ships D'Kyr Tal'Kyr Seleya
	Annotations 1) The D'Kyr may be of the yet unseen Maymora class, but this is only speculation. 2) It is noteworthy that the Tal'Kyr of the D'Kyr type from ENT: "Future Tense" is explicitly called "combat cruiser", just as the Sh'Ran of about the same size shown in "Fallen Hero". But unlike we previously speculated, the Sh'Ran probably wasn't just a stand-in for the not yet finished D'Kyr type but was built especially for "Fallen Hero". 3) The crew complement is stated by T'Pol in "Impulse". 4) We can see the D'Kyr type with an inclined engine hoop in ENT: "Future Tense", "Impulse", "Bounty" and "The Awakening". In the first two episodes this may be because of the battle damage. Still, it points to a hinge between the outer and the (inner) engine ring that the inner ring doesn't simply fall off when the ship is heavily damaged. In "Bounty" the inner ring is completely horizontal and submerged. We can safely say that the inner ring is not simply missing because it is glowing blue on the inside -- we know from all other appearances that the outer ring is never illuminated. Actually the ring may have been brought to horizontal position to launch the support craft (read on below). A sketch by John Eaves depicted in the German Star Trek Communicator (issue #88) corroborates this notion. 5) The D'Kyr was originally designed by John Eaves as D'Vahl ("Carbon Creek").	Class specifications Combat cruiser Length: approx. 600m Crew complement: 147

D'Kyr support craft	General description Vessels of the D'Kyr type have a support vessel with a smaller version of an annular warp drive. This shuttle normally docks inside the ship's engine hoop. On the D'Kyr the engine hoop may be inclined up to the point where it is horizontal and completely inside the outer ring in order to release the shuttle.	Known ships No name given
	Annotations 1) We can see the support vessel in most appearances of the D'Kyr class, most clearly when we look at the ship from the aft, as for instance in ENT: "Cease Fire". The support craft is docked at its forward end in the center of the two rings. As a matter of fact, the three times when the engine ring of a D'Kyr type was not in vertical position, in ENT: "Future Tense", "Impulse", "Bounty" and "The Awakening", the support craft was missing too! In the latter episode we may see the support craft alone on the lower left (#3 on the screen cap), but it is barely recognizable even on the DVD caps. 2) John Eaves envisioned the support craft as a kind of rescue vessel comparable to the US Navy's DSRV.	Class specifications Length: approx. 180m

Fighter	General description The fighter is used in the Vulcan orbital defense in the 22nd century.	Known shuttles No name given
	Annotations These small vessels could be seen in ENT: "Awakening". They sport three engine pods separated by 120° and they are somewhat larger than an Enterprise shuttlepod, maybe 12m long. They are better shielded against the geomagnetic field near the Forge on Vulcan than the Starfleet shuttle too. The model is a modification of the D'Vahl from "Carbon Creek" (see above). The most obvious difference is that the fighter has three engine pods whereas the D'Vahl had four. This is crucial since the fighter evidently can't be the same design as a much larger interstellar ship from 200 years ago.	Class specifications None available

Maymora	General description This starship class is at least several years old as of 2151.	Known ships Yarahla
	Annotations Archer mentions this ship class to the Vulcan captain in ENT: "Breaking the Ice".	Class specifications None available

Satellite	General description Satellites like this one form the orbital detection grid of Vulcan.	Known satellites No name given
	Annotations A picture of the satellite could be seen on a display when Soval and Trip were talking about how to disable it in ENT: "The Awakening". It may be a simple cut&paste work using parts of the Surak class.	Class specifications None available

Shuttle	General description Starships of the Sh'Ran type are equipped with this type of large shuttles.	Known shuttles No name given
	Annotations The shuttle could be seen in ENT: "Fallen Hero". It has a similar annular drive section as the larger vessels. The same type of shuttle was visible on a landing platform on Vulcan in ENT: "The Forge".	Class specifications Length: approx. 35m

Small cruiser	General description These cruisers are considerably smaller than the ones of the D'Kyr type.	Known ships No name given
	Annotations In ENT: "Awakening" two of these small cruisers appeared together with one ship of the D'Kyr type to attack Enterprise in Vulcan's orbit. The model is a modification of the Vahklas type (see below). The Vahklas herself, according to T'Pol, "hasn't been used for a long time", so the small cruiser has to be a different class.	Class specifications None available

Sh'Ran type	General description The Sh'Ran is a Vulcan combat ship type around 2151. The ring around the needle-shaped hull holds the warp drive. The ship is equipped with much more powerful weapons than on Enterprise NX-01.	Known ships Sh'Ran
	Annotations 1) The CGI model used for the combat cruiser Sh'Ran in ENT: "Fallen Hero" is clearly based on that of the Surak class. But it is an entirely new mesh with dissimilar proportions (most obviously not quite as elongated) and dissimilar details. Doug Drexler needed just two days for his Surak class (below). It could not be shown up close, but a high-resolution version would have taken about two weeks. Pierre Drollet later built the Sh'Ran in high resolution. 2) Isn't the Sh'Ran simply a more detailed version of the Surak, with perhaps a few detail changes, but essentially the same ship class? 3D artist Rob Bonchune on the issue: "The original model was just not up to snuff for what we needed. So it was superseded. They are theoretically the same ship, not two different classes or types." However, the many obvious changes to the model are a clear sign that it is indeed a distinct class, and the smaller windows insinuate a larger size. Aside from the visual differences the two ship types also have different roles and different top speeds. Doug Drexler: "I like to think that they are two different classes."	Class specifications Combat cruiser Length: approx. 600m Speed: Warp 7

Surak Ni'Var variant	General description The Surak class is a Vulcan ship type around 2151. The ring around the needle-shaped hull holds the warp drive. The ship is equipped with a tractor beam and with more powerful beam weapons than on Enterprise NX-01. Gallery: Alien Ships of the 22nd Century	Known ships Ni'Var Ti'Mur
	Annotations 1) Doug Drexler quickly built this model for use in the background: "It was my first pass concept model. Like all the concept models, it's low to medium resolution. Usually I only take 2 days to build something like that, because Herman [Zimmerman] needs it pronto for approval. A high rez version was built later by Pierre [Drollet] so that they could get close to it." This better detailed model would appear as the Sh'Ran in "Fallen Hero" (see above). 2) The Surak class is a positive surprise, because here is a starship that reconciles different design lineages instead of screwing them up even more. First of all, it helps to rationalize the SS Enterprise with its odd ring structure. Secondly, the T'Pau from TNG: "Unification" has some sort of ringed warp drive too. Thirdly, the color of the Surak is similar to the one of the T'Plana Hath. We can hardly expect more consistency of a starship design. Cordial thanks on behalf of all concerned fans! Yet, from an engineering viewpoint it is quite adventurous and little logical to connect the ring to the hull at only one point at the bottom. Enormous lever forces would act upon the ship which could have been significantly lowered just adding a few tiny spokes. A preliminary version by Doug Drexler had additional struts, but they were removed on the final model. 3) The Surak class first appeared as the science ship Ti'Mur in ENT: "Breaking the Ice", then as the Ni'Var in "Shadows of P'Jem". The color was switched from red to brown between the Ti'Mur and the otherwise identical Ni'Var, in addition the lighting of these two ships is not quite the same. 4) The Surak class is depicted upside down in Daniels' files in ENT: "Future Tense". I assume this is accidental and not yet another ship class (some other vessels on that display are upside down too, if I recall correctly). 5) The class name of the Ti'Mur may have been supposed to be "Suurok" as in the close-captioning of the episode "Breaking the Ice", and the Fact Files confirms that. On the other hand, a more prominent article about the ship in Star Trek: The Magazine makes it clear that the name was indeed supposed to be "Surak". This class name is no problem, if it remains an exclusively Vulcan design, as opposed to the later Surak class of Starfleet. I take it that "Suurok" is simply a tentative spelling or something alien-looking made up based on the pronunciation in the episode because a part of the script was accidentally not available. The latest suggestion about the name comes from the Japanese Fact Files, where there are suddenly two classes, the science ship Suurok and the combat cruiser Surak. The author obviously turned the name dispute into an advantage. Yet, it seems idiotic that the two classes would have names that sound the same, even if there may be a slight difference in the original Vulcan pronunciation.	Class specifications Science ship Length: approx. 350m Speed: Warp 6.5

Vahklas type	General description This Vulcan starship class is in service at least for eight years as of 2151. Gallery: Alien Ships of the 22nd Century	Known ships Vahklas
	Annotations The civilian ship, not under control of the Vulcan High Command, appears in ENT: "Fusion". T'Pol says that "this class of vessel hasn't been used for a long time". The ship is somewhat shorter than Enterprise's saucer.	Class specifications Length: approx. 110m

Various shuttles, visible in Vulcan's atmosphere ENT: "Home"

Uncertain Vulcan Class

Future cruiser	General description This Vulcan starship class with three intersecting engine rings will be in service some time after 2152.	Known ships No name given
	Annotations T'Pol and Archer spot a diagram of this vessel on the display device in Daniels's quarters in ENT: "Future Tense". Considering the similarity to the Surak class, it shouldn't be commissioned too far into the future. The label next to the ship reads: "RetroFitted Dorsal Carrier, Design XRT-55D, Commission Date 3125". This doesn't make much sense, and it could refer to anything else on the chaotic screen.	Class specifications None available

Unknown Vulcan Class

Nyran, Vulcan ship, commanded by Captain Tavek, interior seen in ENT: "The Seventh"

T'Plana, Vulcan ship, lost with all hands in a class-5 neutronic storm in the 21st century (ENT: "The Catwalk")

Vankara, Vulcan ship, lost in the Delphic Expanse (ENT: "The Expanse", "Impulse").

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	Last modified: 26.06.09
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