When you think about the coolest Star Trek ships you’re naturally going to think first about the U.S.S. Enterprise. Art Director Matt Jefferies created an immediately iconic design that has never warped its way out of the public eye. The original studio model is a bona fide cultural institution, having earned a berth in the Smithsonian Institution!
But as beautiful as the Enterprise was and is, it’s by no means the only awesome space vessel seen in Star Trek: The Original Series. Each of the show’s three seasons brought us fantastic craft that fired viewers’ imagination as they “flew” across TV screens.
Here are the three coolest ships Star Trek showed us, other than the Enterprise, in its first season (September 1966 to April 1967).
The Fesarius (“The Corbomite Maneuver,” first aired November 10, 1966)
Flagship of the mysterious First Federation, the Fesarius is a beautiful behemoth. This globe of glowing, pulsating lights is so large it defies even Mr. Spock’s ability to measure its size and mass accurately.
The remastered visual effects for “The Corbomite Maneuver” suggest innumerable geodesic domes cover the Fesarius’ hull. But while designer and blogger Ged Maheux thinks the redesign “adds a definite sense of wonder and awe” to the ship, I respectfully disagree. It’s the original lack of detail and abundant light that make Fesarius such an imposing manifestation of the unknown.
Whichever version you prefer, there’s no denying the Fesarius belongs on any list of coolest Star Trek ships!
The Galileo (“The Galileo Seven,” first aired January 5, 1967)
If the Enterprise had shuttlecraft before “The Galileo Seven,” we never saw or heard about them. (Sulu and his fellow freezing crewmates stranded on Alfa 177 in “The Enemy Within” sure could have used one!)
Though Matt Jefferies envisioned a sleek craft reminiscent of a rocket you might see on the cover of a pulp sci-fi magazine, automotive designer Gene Winfield’s boxier version carried the day.
Model-making company AMT (Aluminium Model Toys) built both the studio miniature and the full-scale set of the Galileo in exchange for the right to produce and sell their bestselling Enterprise scale model kit.
You can compare AMT’s handiwork with that of the TOS remastering team in the video below.
Both versions give the sense the Galileo is a sturdy, hard-working craft. It meets an untimely end in “The Galileo Seven,” but the circumstances are extreme. (Besides, it shows up again four times in season two and once in season three!)
The Galileo proved hardy in the real world, too. The model suffered decades of neglect before Star Trek memorabilia collector and expert Adam Schneider spearheaded a restoration effort that unveiled the Galileo reborn in 2013.
The S.S. Botany Bay (“Space Seed,” first aired February 16, 1967)
Not a criminal transport as Captain Kirk first supposed, the Botany Bay was an atomic-powered DY-100 class sleeper ship launched from Earth in the late 1990s. (What, you missed those headlines?) It’s slow and unsophisticated compared to the Enterprise, but Scotty’s admiration for it is understandable.
The remastering team created new shots of the Botany Bay to show off the wear and tear it endured during its centuries of spaceflight, and to increase the ship’s motion.
It might have been better for Kirk had he let this ship’s passengers go right on sleeping. (It proved great for the franchise that he didn’t!) But the Botany Bay design itself is a nifty 1960s projection of what model designers and builders thought might be just around the bend in the Space Age.
What do you think are the coolest Star Trek ships in the original series’ first season? Let us know on Twitter, on Facebook, or in the comments!