There's a wide assortment of epic, CGI Star Trek vessels to admire and over at Ranker they've decided on the best of the best.
Star Trek enjoys a vast array of specially rendere, CGI-constructed starships to complement the franchise's storytelling, including within the new Paramount+ offering, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. On the show, viewers will see a selection of the initial voyages of the original USS Enterprise 1701, commanded by Captain Christopher Pike.
Trekkers have often debated which starships in all the Star Trek universes and timelines offer the best styling, warp capabilities, and offensive hardware, and while it's difficult to render an accurate tally of which ships take the top prize, the fanboys over at Ranker have compiled a poll.
10 Borg Cube (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
Being one of the Federation's most feared adversaries is an earned title of the Borg largely in part due to their massive vessels' size and intimidation factor. Their green glowing, geometric simplicity gives their arrival an ominous and foreboding presence every single time, whether it's their first appearance in Star Trek: The Next Generation when Q makes his petulant decision to introduce the Enterprise crew to the Delta quadrant, their infamous assault at Wolf 359 as witnessed in person by both Locutus/Picard and Benjamin Sisko, or varied armadas facing Janeway and Voyager. Nobody wants to see a Borg cube in their rear view mirror.
9 Scimitar (Star Trek: Nemesis)
As Jean-Luc Picard notes when first observing Shinzon's flagship, this one was a predator with teeth. Armed with advanced cloaking tech, 27 photon torpedo bays, 52 disruptor banks, and a tharlaron radiation device that could wipe out all planet-side life forms, the Scimitar was a heretofore unknown offensive ship which took the combined might of a trio of less hostile Romulan Warbirds as well as the imminent ramming of the Enterprise-E to overcome it.
It also was the infamous site of Commander Data's long feared demise.While the movie was less than celebrated by fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the primary antagonist's ship was a CGI majesty to behold and one of Trek's most fearsome starships.
8 USS Excelsior (Star Trek III: The Search For Spock)
Trek fans first saw the Excelsior NX-2000 in 1984's Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, as the pursuit vessel in space dock assigned to corral Kirk's theft of the soon-to-be-destroyed-in-action Enterprise NCC-1071. It was a prototype ship, designed with Starfleet's first trans-warp drive, but unfortunately for its crew at the time, Scotty had sabotaged its systems so that Kirk and company could escape uncontested. It would also be seen later on in the franchise in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, captained by a promoted Hikaru Sulu. While the ship's design seemed a bit heavy and clunky and it had a less than auspicious introduction, it was an interesting upgrade from the original series' Constitution class series.
7 USS Vengeance (Star Trek Into Darkness)
While JJ Abrams' Star Trek Into Darkness had a share of detractors, there were an array of high points worthy of note in the Kelvin timeline sequel, including a new portrayal of Kahn Noonien-Singh by Benedict Cumberbatch, a sinister performance from Peter Weller as Admiral Marcus, and of course the CGI behemoth battleship, the USS Vengeance.
Constructed in secret by Section 31 to destroy the Klingon enemy, the Dreadnaught class starship was twice as big as any sanctioned Starfleet vessel, three times as fast, and could fire photon torpedoes while in warp. The sight of the Vengeance barreling down at the comparatively diminutive Enterprise was a jaw-dropping sequence, offering a glimpse of Starfleet's first predatory vessel.
6 Klingon Bird Of Prey (Star Trek III: The Search For Spock)
Klingon battler cruisers are always a fan favorite in the world of Star Trek, and their many classes and renditions have been a part of nearly every series to date in some manner or fashion. Whether it was Lursa and B'etor's craft taking out the original Enterprise-D in Star Trek: Generations, an armada Klingon fleet assaulting the station on Star Trek: Deep Space 9, a newer tweaked design on Star Trek: Discovery, or even Captain Janeway coming across one way out in the Delta Quadrant, birds of prey have been a franchise staple for decades. Their simple yet ominous design evoking an actual bird of prey's wingspan is a signature Klingon calling card.
5 Deep Space 9 Station (Star Trek: Deep Space 9)
While technically not a starship, the fans at Ranker decided to include and vote on the DS9 station since it can move around when appropriate (closer to Bajor or the wormhole on several occasions), albeit at a much slower speed of course. It's likely sentimentality that propels this entry in the Ranker poll to such high position and it's understandable.
Deep Space 9 is a lauded Trek series with its high space opera scripts, epic fleet-wide battles, and frequent social commentary. The station itself, a former Cardassian outpost, consists of the central core, the inner habitat ring, and the outer docking ring, and it is armed to the teeth, boasting over 60 photo torpedo bays and phaser arrays. Admittedly the station looks very cool onscreen when defending itself while under assault from various armadas.
4 USS Enterprise NCC-1701 (Star Trek: The Original Series)
The one that started it all, the original Enterprise 1701 is an odds-on favorite for the most celebrated and globally renown fictional star ship of all time. The Constitution class vessel has been emulated and riffed upon throughout every single Star Trek series, updating it to the Galaxy and Sovereign class ships in TNG and predating it to the NX class in Star Trek Enterprise. It was a sad day indeed for Trekkers when it met its untimely end at long last over Genesis in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. Its name was taken from a Revolutionary War rebranded vessel and has been a military title for several U.S. battleships, Trekkers even pestering President Ford enough to change one of NASA's space shuttle titles to the infamous flagship's name.
3 USS Defiant (Star Trek: Deep Space 9)
Trekkers instantly took to this 'tough little ship' created as a Borg deterrent during the trials of Deep Space 9 and proclaimed it as one of the best Star Trek ships ever. Fans had long waited for Avery Brooks' Benjamin Sisko to get out of the house more often and when Starfleet delivered this prototype, the DS9 crew was no longer limited to station adventures. It became an essential component of the war against the Dominion, featured in many epic battle episodes, and was also seen in the opening of Star Trek: First Contact finally doing what it designed to do, fighting the Borg. It boasted the first cloaking device operating on a Starfleet vessel (outside of TNG's experimental Pegasus), ablative armor, phaser cannons, and quantum torpedoes.
2 USS Voyager (Star Trek: Voyager)
The Intrepid class starship had a lot to prove under Janeway's initial command when it inadvertently found itself sucked out to the Delta Quadrant by the Caretaker in Star Trek: Voyager's pilot episode. Trekkers took to the new vessel's sleeker and more compact design, a smaller Starfleet ship than the usual Constitution or Galaxy class ships they'd been accustomed to seeing. Originally designed as an advanced deep space exploration vessel, it hosted bio-neural circuitry and the now infamous Emergency Medical Hologram program. Because of the need to adapt and survive, Voyager eventually augmented itself with new armor and transphasic torpedoes garnered through encounters with the Borg and time travel.
1 USS Enterprise 1701 D (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
Throughout seven seasons, the TNG Enterprise itself often was a main character, with its Majel Barret-voiced computer providing many a storyline arc. Much sleeker and sexier than its Constitution-class predecessor, the Galaxy class ship had photon torpedoes, phaser arrays, and a deflector dish. Most importantly for ardent Trekkers, it had the ability to separate its living habitat saucer section and its stardrive, which was showcased to great acclaim in the series' pilot episode and perhaps more dramatically the infamous two part episode, Best of Both Worlds. The Enterprise D remains the most celebrated design among all of Star Trek's starships.
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