This D7-class Klingon battle cruiser was used during the Federation-Klingon War. The design was also used as a prison ship. (DIS: "Battle at the Binary Stars", "Choose Your Pain")
History[]
One of these ships fought in the Battle of the Binary Stars in 2256. (DIS: "Battle at the Binary Stars"). A D7 of this design was able to intercept a shuttle containing Starfleet Captain Gabriel Lorca en route back to the USS Discovery. At the time, Harcourt Fenton Mudd and Ash Tyler were incarcerated on this ship. Lorca and Tyler were able to eventually escape, leaving Mudd behind. (DIS: "Choose Your Pain")
Technical data[]
This type of vessel had a crew complement of between 30 and 40. It was equipped with holding cells and interrogation areas, and carried compliment of at least three Klingon raider auxiliary craft. (DIS: "Choose Your Pain")
Ships commissioned[]
- Unnamed D7-class starships
Appendices[]
Appearances[]
Background information[]
The class was described as "D7" in the dialogue of "Choose Your Pain", while the name Sech-class was conceived by writer Kirsten Beyer. [1]
The intent of the Star Trek: Discovery showrunners (of whom Beyer was one) was to entirely "reinvent" Klingon culture as part of their re-imagining of Star Trek as a whole, which also encompassed the complete abandonment of adherence to established starship lineage design of not only Federation origin but those of Klingon origin in particular as well, including the design of the D7-class. It only netted them criticism from classic Trekdom which reached such an intensity level, that it eventually forced the showrunners to backtrack (or "course-correct" as as Star Trek franchise head Alex Kurtzman himself had euphemistically called it [2]) on their ill-conceived intent (see here in this regard). It resulted among others in the unplanned yet speedy introduction of a D7-class battlecruiser, redesigned along more traditional lines, though it did cause a canon discrepancy with its early dialog namedropping in "Choose Your Pain". The reference book Star Trek: Shipyards - Klingon Fleet (p. 89) made a valiant effort to provide an in-universe explanation for the discrepancy by stating that it had been a misidentification by Starfleet intelligence due to the rumored introduction of a new Klingon shipclass. That notion however, has neither been confirmed in canon nor by any official behind-the-scenes production source.
As the Sech-class, this design was slated for its very own outing in the Star Trek: Discovery The Official Starships Collection partwork publication from Eaglemoss Collections. But that intent came to naught due to lack of customer interest in the re-imagined Klingon ships as partwork project manager Ben Robinson who, as if to concede the preceding point, had later stated, "To be honest, these Klingon ships don’t sell brilliantly (…)". [3]
Apocrypha[]
According to the above-mentioned Shipyards book (p. 160), the length of this D7-class version was 558.8 meters.
External link[]
- Sech class at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works