The D'Var type was a type of scout ship utilized by the Orions during the mid-23rd century. It was also identified as a science vessel.
Technical data[]
This had a unique design, previously unknown to Starfleet, consisting of an oblong primary hull attached by a central "spine" to a large vertical ring, perpendicular to the primary hull, which contained the ship's propulsion system. The propulsion system itself consisted of two four-spoke components, each containing four propulsion units. These two components spun independently of each other while the ship was in flight.
The scout ship's hull was composed of high density trititanium, allowing the vessel to be "cloaked" against Federation sensor probes. This technology was unlike the cloaking device used by the Romulans. (TOS: "Journey to Babel") By the late 24th century, the mean to defeat this deficiency was fairly common knowledge in Federation science. (SNW: "Those Old Scientists")
While moderately armed with standard phasers, the scout ship was capable of evading both phaser and photon torpedo fire, due to its incredible speed; indeed, capable of traveling at warp 10 in combat. (TOS: "Journey to Babel")
Ships of the class[]
- Named
- Unnamed
Appendices[]
Appearances[]
Background information[]
Originally featured as a "spinning wheel of light", or rather as a "faint glowing blip" (Scene 24, Script draft, 14 September 1967, p. 15) or simply as a "pulsing light" (Scene 15a, Script draft, 20 September 1967, p. 16), the original appearance of the Orion scout ship suffered from the series' budget limitations, having to make do with a fairly simple optical effect, but would ultimately be revised for the remastered episode that aired in 2007, when the visual was replaced with a full-fledged CGI model.
While footage of the original "spinning wheel" starship optical was recycled in "Patterns of Force", representing the Ekosian V-2 rocket, the digital artists managed to "remained faithful to the original effect, but embellished it by creating an ingenious ship design that used the spinning lights as a powerful alien propulsion system," this due in part to their having been given a certain amount of leeway in their design creativity.[1](X) Responsible for its design was the remastering project's Visual Effects Producer Michael Okuda. [2] The new, digital model itself was constructed at CBS Digital in the Autodesk Maya CGI software. (Sci-fi & fantasy modeller, Vol. 26, p. 49) In 2015, former Star Trek Producer Dave Rossi made the entire starship database of the remastered Original Series available to Project Manager Ben Robinson for representation in the British partwork publication Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection from Eaglemoss Collections. [3] However, these models, including the Gorn starship, were not quite production and/or print ready as the models needed to be converted into LightWave 3D, the software package of choice for the vast majority of Star Trek digital modelers. Robinson assigned Fabio Passaro, among others, to this chore. [4] The intent of release was made public by Robinson in late May 2015. [5] Thrilled by the prospect that his favorite remastered Original Series design, having coined it an "Orion raider" himself, was considered a prospect for representation in the physical world, designer Okuda was particularly looking forward to this possible outing; "I've always wanted a model of it," he stated. [6]
The variant seen in SNW: "Those Old Scientists" was designed by the series VFX Art Director William Cheng. [7]
Apocrypha[]
The ship was used in the Star Trek Online expansion Agents of Yesterday. In the mission "Return to Babel", players end up boarding the ship to deliver a bomb that the Na'kuhl planted on the Enterprise. The ship's power was revealed to be due to a union with the Na'kuhl themselves. Instead of the ship self-destructing, the bomb that was returned destroyed the ship instead.
External link[]
- Orion scout ship at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works