Valiant Class

The Valiant was stated to have been lost in 2065, only two years after the flight of the Phoenix. To even build a ship in such a short time I think it would have to be based almost directly on the Phoenix herself, hence I've said that it shares the same engine layout components. The idea of Vulcan help is also intended to explain how the ship was built so quickly.

One big problem with the Valiant is that even if she was launched within a few months of the Phoenix, she would only have a maximum of 2 years to reach the edge of the galaxy. Given that this is a trip of a good 1,000 light years of more, the Valiant should be able to average Warp 10 (TOS scale, warp 7.94 on the TNG scale). This is way faster than the ship should be able to do - hell, it's almost two TNG warp factors faster than a Galaxy class starships average cruise!

I can only think of two ways this could happen. The first is the 'warp highways' theory - there could be 'spacelanes', naturally occurring stretches of space where warp drive works far better than it normally does elsewhere. This idea would also allow for oddities like the Enterprise-A's trip to the centre of the galaxy in "Star Trek V : The Final Frontier". The other possibility is that the Valiant encountered some sort of alien craft which dragged it off at high speed - a variation on what happened to the E-D in "The N'th Degree". Personally I don't like either of these ideas all that much, but I can't think of anything else offhand.

Last updated : 27th August 1998. This page is Copyright Graham Kennedy 1998. Star Trek et al is Copyright Paramount Pictures 1996/97. No Copyright infringement is intended and this page is for personal use only. All of the above classes of star ships and all of the named ships are copyright Paramount 1996/97.