The Wallenberg-class starship was a large type of transport/tug active in the late 24th century. They were used by the Federation Starfleet, and were described as warp-capable ferries.
A large number of these tugs were constructed at Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards at Mars after the Federation decided to assemble a rescue armada in order to relocate nine hundred million Romulans from the impending supernova of the Romulus. On April 5, 2385, a fleet of synth ships attacked the yards, destroying the armada.
None of these tugs carried a formal registry; however, at least one ship carried a mark of "130/27". (PIC: "Remembrance", "Maps and Legends")
In the 2380s, these transports were used by the Federation for evacuating Romulans from the Romulus system. (PIC: "Absolute Candor")
Ships commissioned[]
Appendices[]
Appearances[]
Background information[]
Originally, the scene of the tugs and container modules over Mars was conceived in the early development stages of Star Trek: Picard to depict the evacuation of Mars during an attack by Romulans, instead of becoming a flotilla being destroyed in a synth attack while it gathered to evacuate Romulus, as eventually depicted in the series. (Star Trek Universe: The Official Starships Collection, issue 7, pp. 9 & 14)
While the Wallenberg-class name was not directly linked to this design in an episode, the name for this class was confirmed by Michael Chabon. [1]
This class was named after Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who saved thousands of Jewish people from the Holocaust in Budapest, Hungary during World War II. [2] [3]
CGI model[]
The Wallenberg-class was designed by John Eaves, who started his work while the original Mars evacuation intent was still in place. Eaves used two of his previously unused designs as a starting point. One was actually created as a tug vessel for an unrealized version of Star Trek Online, whereas the second one was created as the fighter carrier vessel USS Midway for the first season of Star Trek: Discovery. The final version he came up with featured a standard dish-shaped Starfleet primary hull with heavy hull paneling and prominent red highlights to emphasize the industrial nature of the vessel, when he turned over his design to the modelers at Pixomondo. Amusingly, Eaves had intended to use the real-world "Caterpillar Orange" as industrial colors, but discovered that that color was trademarked, forcing him to go with a different shade. The two modelers assigned the build of the CGI model in the company's software package of choice, Autodesk Maya, were newcomers to the Star Trek franchise, and Eaves had to step in a few times to correct points on the detail level of the model to make it conform more closely to what was established for Starfleet vessels.
Nonetheless, Eaves was surprised when he first saw the final production model, as he discovered that the producers had decided to dispense with the saucer section after all, and have it replaced with the triangular shaped bow section (created by shearing off the port and starboard parts of the saucer section) as eventually featured onscreen instead. (Star Trek Universe: The Official Starships Collection, issue 7, pp. 8-14)
After it had premiered in the August 2021 second edition of the Star Trek: Shipyards - Starfleet Ships 2294 to the Future reference book, the publication version of the model became prominently featured in an issue of the Star Trek Universe: The Official Starships Collection released a few months later in the Autumn of 2021, accompanied by a physical display model based off the production CGI model. The model had to be re-rendered in LightWave 3D, as that was the software package of choice for the publisher of the publication, Eaglemoss Collections. The re-rendering was done by publisher mainstay Fabio Passaro, who also created the corresponding CAD files needed for the construction of the master from which the display models were produced.
Apocrypha[]
When he started his design work, Eaves was still under the impression that his design needed to be capable to operate independently under battle conditions, due to the original "evacuation of Mars" brief he was given. Therefore, he envisioned his tug to be armed with phaser arrays (which were lost when the Pixomondo modelers were instructed to shear off the saucer section sides) and the "coupling hook" to be ejactable, so that the fully battleworthy tug could perform on its own in battle. (Star Trek Universe: The Official Starships Collection, issue 7, p. 14)
The design Eaves ultimately submitted to the producers carried the name and registry "USS Hercules NCC-130-27" of which only the registry was retained on the final CGI model as "130/27" without the "NCC" prefix. (Star Trek Universe: The Official Starships Collection, issue 7, pp. 8-9)
Both the Shipyards reference book and the Star Trek Universe: The Official Starships Collection state the length of the tug class as 298,7 meters.
Further reading[]
- Star Trek: Shipyards - Starfleet Ships 2294 to the Future, 2nd ed, pp. 218-221, August 2021
- Star Trek Universe: The Official Starships Collection, issue 7, September 2021
External links[]
- Wallenberg class at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
- Who is the Wallenberg Behind Picard’s Wallenberg Class Ships? at StarTrek.com