D7 class

From Memory Alpha, the free Star Trek reference.

D7 class
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Affiliation:	Klingon Empire, Romulan Star Empire
Type:	Battle cruiser
Length:	228 m
Crew complement:	430
Speed:	Warp 9+
Armament:	2+ heavy disruptor cannons, 1 magnetic pulse/photon torpedo launcher, phaser emitter
Defenses:	Deflector shields
Starboard profile Starboard profile
Aft view Aft view

The D7 class battle cruiser was a 23rd century warship that was originally designed by the Klingons that was also utilized by the Romulans during the late-2260s.

Contents 1 History 2 Technical data 2.1 Physical arrangement 2.2 Tactical systems 2.3 Cloaking device 2.4 Propulsion systems 2.5 Other systems 3 Interior design 3.1 Crew complement 3.2 Main bridge 3.3 Conference room 4 Ships commissioned 5 Appendices 5.1 Appearances 5.2 Background 5.2.1 Name origins 5.2.2 Model 5.2.3 Inconsistencies 6 External links

[edit] History

The D7 class Klingon battle cruiser served as the backbone of the Klingon Imperial Fleet for several years during the 23rd century. (TOS: "Errand of Mercy" remastered, etc.)

By 2267, they were prominently featured in the Klingon-Federation Cold War, where they posed a serious threat to the security of Starfleet and the Federation. (TOS: "Elaan of Troyius"; TAS: "More Tribbles, More Troubles")

The Romulan Star Empire later began using the same the design by 2268. (TOS: "The Enterprise Incident")

According to the Star Trek Chronology the line regarding a Romulan-Klingon Alliance was added to TNG: "Reunion" to explain the Romulan use of D7s.

The K't'inga-class battle cruiser began to replace the D7 class during the 2270s. The D7 was finally "retired decades" prior to 2377. (Star Trek: The Motion Picture; VOY: "Prophecy")

Interest in these vessels by the Federation continued to appear well into the 2370s, as data on this class was commonly found within numerous Starfleet files. (TNG: "The Naked Now", "The Last Outpost", "Conspiracy"; VOY: "Drone", "The Voyager Conspiracy")

[edit] Technical data

[edit] Physical arrangement

The D7 class was almost predatory in its appearance, with a spread-wing primary hull, long neck and head-like command pod. The early Romulan variants had a large bird-of-prey design painted on the hull, identical to what was found on the Bird-of-Prey. (TOS: "The Enterprise Incident")

The D7 bird-of-prey paintings have only appeared in the D7s of the remastered version of "The Enterprise Incident".

The bulk of the ships overall mass was incorporated in the aft section of the ship. The bridge was located on the bulbous head, which was separated from the aft section by a relatively thin neck that flared out into the wings. Jutting from below these wings were a pair of outboard warp nacelles. The ship's impulse engines were located on the caudal section of the ship. (TOS: "Elaan of Troyius")

This design had evolved from a classic design lineage dating back well into the 22nd century with the early D5 class battle cruisers. (ENT: "Judgment") In terms of dimensions, it was comparable in size to the Federation's Constitution-class starship. (TOS: "The Enterprise Incident")

[edit] Tactical systems

During the mid-23rd century, the D7 class posed a significant threat to the Federation with the classes impressive armament consisting of dual wing-mounted disruptor cannons, a forward-mounted phaser emitter, and a forward launcher capable of firing photon torpedoes as well as magnetic pulses. (VOY: "Prophecy"; TOS: "Errand of Mercy"; TAS: "More Tribbles, More Troubles")

Unlike preceding and proceeding classes, the D7 does not appear to have possessed any aft firing torpedo tubes.

Firing disruptors

Firing magnetic pulse

Firing phasers

Firing photon torpedoes

While often viewed as a threat to a Constitution-starship a D7 cruiser, under certain circumstances, it was possible for a Constitution to destroy a single D7 with a barrage of phaser fire. Following such an instance at the outbreak of the Federation-Klingon War in 2267, the USS Enterprise encountered a fleet of eight D7s, which was considered by Captain James T. Kirk to have superior odds. Despite these odds, Hikaru Sulu was confident the Enterprise could have defeated them. (TOS: "Errand of Mercy" remastered)

In 2269, the Klingons developed a prototype weapon, described as a projected stasis field, which was first encountered on the IKS Gr'oth by the Federation. The field could be projected in up to three different directions at one time. The weapon, which was extremely powerful, was capable of completely paralyzing an enemy vessel, including all its vital systems. It was however equally crippling to the firing ship itself. Ultimately, it was determined by the Federation that this was so impractical in standard combat, that it posed no real threat. (TAS: "More Tribbles, More Troubles")

By the late 24th century, these vessels were considered rather antiquated, and were identified as being inferior in firepower to a Federation Intrepid-class starship. (VOY: "Prophecy")

[edit] Cloaking device

Like its predecessor, the Romulan Bird-of-Prey, the Romulan D7 was equipped with cloaking technology.

Klingon ships were outfitted with cloaking devices as late as 2269. One of the first Klingon vessels to acquire the new technology was the IKS Klothos. (TAS: "The Time Trap"; DS9: "Once More Unto the Breach")

According to the Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Journal the cloaking device was acquired by the Klingons as an exchange to several D7s with the Romulans during the Romulan-Klingon Alliance.

[edit] Propulsion systems

Some Klingon ships in the 23rd century were equipped with an S-2 graf unit, which was roughly equivalent to the warp drives in the Federation's Constitution-class starships. The warp drive of the D7 enables it to reach the speed of warp 9. (TAS: "The Time Trap"; TOS: "Elaan of Troyius", "The Enterprise Incident")

The only glimpses we have seen of the D7's warp core were briefly shown in "More Tribbles, More Troubles".

In addition, D7s impulse drive consisted of four-port engines, presumably giving the ship enhanced maneuverability at sublight speeds. (TOS: "Elaan of Troyius")

In its appearances in TOS, TAS and DS9 the D7 did not appear to have distinct impulse engines. In the remastered versions of "Elaan of Troyius" and "The Enterprise Incident" the ships were given four blue impulse "glows".

[edit] Other systems

Romulan D7s were outfitted with food synthesizers. (TAS: "The Practical Joker")

[edit] Interior design

[edit] Crew complement

The average crew compliment of a Klingon D7 was comparable to a Constitution-class, and consisted of around 430. (TOS: "Day of the Dove")

The interiors of the Romulan ship seen in "The Enterprise Incident" were the corridors of the Enterprise set with all wall props removed and a different lighting scheme.

[edit] Main bridge

Referred to by the Romulans as "Control Central", the bridge was the nerve center of the D7 class. (TOS: "The Enterprise Incident")

Romulan Bridge, 2268

Viewscreen of the D7 class Klothos, 2269

Romulan Bridge, 2270

Klingon Bridge, 2377

Klingon Bridge, 2377

Viewscreen, 2377

[edit] Conference room

The conference room was used as a meeting place for the ship's senior staff for mission briefings. It contained a triangular table embossed with the emblem of the Klingon Empire, with each side of the table having its own set of chairs. Surrounding the table are various computer consoles. (TAS: "The Time Trap")

[edit] Ships commissioned

Named

• IKS Gr'oth
• IKS Klothos

Unnamed

• Unnamed D7 class starships
  • Kang's battle cruiser
  • Kohlar's battle cruiser
  • Kuri's battle cruiser

[edit] Appendices

[edit] Appearances

[edit] Background

[edit] Name origins

The term "D7" remained the speculated designation for the Klingon battle cruiser for many years, with origins rooting to an incident Gene Roddenberry recalls in The Making of Star Trek, which is linked to how he likened the cast's relationship to that of a family:

I went to the stage one day, and they were all ready and waiting for me, because they knew I was really exhausted from some long rewrite sessions. As soon as I walked up to the set, Bill and Leonard blew a scene, but they blew it on purpose and began arguing very violently. Bill was shouting at the top of his voice, "Leonard! What do you mean saying this is a D-7 Klingon ship! It's a D-6!" Leonard shouted back, "No, you idiot, the D-6 has four doors over here and the D-7 only has two!" Bill immediately shouted back, "No, no, no – it's the other way around. You've got it all wrong."

While all of this is going on, I'm standing there, beginning to get frustrated, watching the minutes tick by and mentally counting the money we're losing in expensive crew time, because the cameras aren't rolling. And as the argument continued, I'm thinking to myself, "What are they talking about? They've gone too far!" Then I remembered thinking that I should remember which is the D-6 or the D-7. Finally I couldn't stand it any more, and so I walked in between them and said, "Come on, fellows, it really doesn't matter. Let's get on with the scene." Then the whole crew broke up laughing. This was their way of saying to me, "Hey, time is not that serious. Relax a little."

The designation was not actually referenced on screen until Star Trek's 30th anniversary, in the DS9 Season 5 episode "Trials and Tribble-ations". The designation would later be written into the VOY Season 7 episode "Prophecy" by Mike Sussman.

[edit] Model

The D7 class studio model was originally designed by Matt Jefferies. Its design was explored in the Star Trek: The Original Series Sketchbook (by Herbert F. Solow and Yvonne Fern Solow) where it was explained that in Jeffries' attempt to create the D7, he "had to design a ship that would be instantly recognizable as an enemy ship, especially for a flash cut. There had to be no way it could be mistaken for our guys. It had to look threatening, even vicious." Taking an aerodynamic approach to his design, he ultimately "modeled it on a manta ray, both shape and color, and that's why it looks as it does in the original series."

The ship's design was perfected by the twenty-fourth sketch on 20 November 1967. The sketch was then sent to American Model Toy Corporation (AMT), and they returned the "master tooling model" that was used in the show. The original model for the D7 was given to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum along with the original model of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701).

In 1996, a new model of the D7-class, IKS Gr'oth, was created by Greg Jein for DS9's "Trials and Tribble-ations." While referenced, but not seen, in the original version of the "Trouble with Tribbles," the model featured an amalgam of detail from both the Original Series model and the K't'inga-class seen in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The newer model bore a pale green coloration, in line with future Klingon vessels.

Yet another model of the Gr'oth, this time built entirely digitally, was created for the 2006 "remastered" version of numerous TOS episodes listed above. In regards to this model, during those appearances, Michael Okuda noted that "the Klingon ship was basically in two forms. In early episodes, when it was very small on the screen, it was the original version of the ship, which had essentially no surface detail. In "The Enterprise Incident," "Elaan of Troyius," and "Day of the Dove," the ship was reworked somewhat to add surface texture. And, of course, in "The Enterprise Incident" we added the Romulan bird markings."

[edit] Inconsistencies

In writing the DS9 Season 7 episode, "Once More Unto the Breach", Ronald D. Moore stated that he intentionally included a nod to The Animated Series by means of a reference to the TAS Season 1 episode "The Time Trap". [1]

In this reference, the elderly Kor recalled the time when he commanded the Klothos during the Battle of Caleb IV, a vessel he described as being "one of the old D-5 cruisers." While the reference the cloaking device-equipped Klothos matched the Klothos that appeared in "The Time Trap", the design itself had actually appeared as a slight variant of the D7 class, rather than the D5 class design that was later introduced in the ENT Season 2 episode ENT: "Marauders".

The designation of the Klingon battle cruiser that appear in the VOY Season 7 episode "Prophecy" was misidentified in the script during the ship's appearance.

Writer Mike Sussman later explained the mistake in a response to an article. [2] He assumed that the physical model built by Jein from "Trials and Tribble-ations" could be reused in the episode. However all the effects were apparently to be computer generated. To his knowledge, a CGI version of Jein's D7 did not exist at the time and it would have cost a fair amount of money to design one. Had Sussman been aware of this, he would have simply changed the script.

As a result, this usage may be interpreted as a transitional predecessor to the K't'inga in the D7 lineage.

[edit] External links

• The Everlasting Klingon Battlecruiser at Ex Astris Scientia
• Klingon/Romulan Battle Cruiser at Curt Danhauser's Guide to Animated Star Trek
• D7 class at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works