Obscure Yet Interesting Starships
It would be dream if all ship types of Star Trek were well-documented: shown on screen from various angles, with additional model photos, orthographic drawings or detailed renderings of the official CG model, and included in the Eaglemoss Official Starships Collection. Actually, several starships are not really well visible in the episodes and little information is available, although they are intriguing designs. Here is a list of such obscure starships, together with pretty much everything we know about them.
Classic Star Trek
Yridian ship
The Yridian ship from TNG: "The Chase" and TNG: "Firstborn" is based on a sketch by Rick Sternbach and was built into a detailed miniature. Memory Alpha has a photo of this beautiful model, but that's it. The whereabouts of the model are unknown.
Rick Sternbach: "The miniature was wrangled by either Bill George or John Goodson from ILM... It came out great, though the filming angle and lighting really didn't do it justice."
DS9 credits ship
A submarine-like ship with blue engine glow can be seen in the DS9 opening credits in seasons 4-7. It is a CG model created by John Knoll. Perhaps the model was not detailed enough to be shown up close, still I would love to know what it looks like.
Sikarian ship
The miniature of the Sikarian ship from VOY: "Prime Factors" was rebuilt to the Serosian ship in VOY: "Revulsion". We have no pictures of its original appearance. The Sikarian ship (or a design clearly inspired by it) shows up as a Tenkai ship in the game Starfleet Academy (released in 1997), giving us a better idea of its look. The design is also included in the first two Starfleet Command games as a Romulan freighter, now in green and without the struts.
Update: There is a rendering of the ship in the book Shipyards: Delta Quadrant - L to Z. It is not clear how well it matches with the original look of the miniature.
Mislen freighter
The Mislen freighter is an early CGI that appears in VOY: "The Swarm" and (as stock footage) in "Hunters", now as a ship of Species 5174. Is seems that the mesh of this design was lost.
Update: Eaglemoss has published detailed views of the ship in the book Shipyards: Delta Quadrant - L to Z, which are supposedly closely based on the original CGI.
Etanian warship
The Etanian warship with its interesting organic shape could be seen in VOY: "Rise". There are no pictures of it at all, except for the few shots from the episode itself.
Noss's ship
The crashed ship of Noss is based on a sketch by Rick Sternbach and is visible in VOY: "Gravity". We never see any other views of this ship (which appears to be CGI).
Rick Sternbach: "The nice thing about multiple modules is that even in 3D they can be copy/paste to save time."
"Renovation Team Nova" ship
Another one-off design, the ship of the "Renovation Team Nova", commanded by Supervisor Yost, can be seen in VOY: "Gravity". No better renderings of the CG model are available to date.
Update: There is a rendering of the ship in the book Shipyards: Delta Quadrant - L to Z but unfortunately no orthographic views.
Onquanii's ship
Onquanii's ship showed up in VOY: "Warhead" and once again at the station in "Survival Instinct". There is one rendering attributed to 3D artist Brandon MacDougall, but further information and better pictures are not available.
Update: This design is featured in the book Shipyards: Delta Quadrant - L to Z.
"Weird Planet" advanced ship
The advanced ship of the "Weird Planet" was designed by Rick Sternbach and shows up at the end of VOY: "Blink of an Eye". We know a bit about the earlier primitive ship but not about this one.
Rick Sternbach: "I think the final alien ships were worked up by Tim Earls."
K'toch-class shuttlepod
The K'toch-class shuttlepod (or what's left of it after the crash in Oklahoma) appears at the beginning of ENT: "Broken Bow". While we have various design sketches by John Eaves, it would be great to see a rendering of the finalized shuttle in its full glory.
On a further note, John Eaves later modified the shuttle to Goroth's Klingon ship for ENT: "Bounty", which could be seen a lot better.
Fraddock's ship
Captain Fraddock's ship appears only in ENT: "Cold Front". It was designed by John Eaves. There are two nice shots of this rugged ship in the episode.
Update: Pierre Drolet has created further views of the ship.
Torothan cruiser
The Torothan cruiser appeared in ENT: "Desert Crossing". John Eaves created detailed drawings of this ship, but all we have of the final model is its blurred appearance in the episode itself.
Unknown ship in ENT: "Anomaly"
This ship was raided by the Osaarians in the Delphic Expanse, its crew of 17 killed by them. This, and a few looks at the presumable top of the ship in the episode, is all we know about the design.
Update: Ron Bonchune provides some good renders of this ship.
Xindi-Primate shuttle
We only have a design sketch by John Eaves of the Xindi-Primate shuttle design from ENT: "The Council". There are no better views of the CG model.
Small Xindi-Aquatic ship
Several smaller Xindi-Aquatic ships (listed as ship type 8 in my database) can be seen alongside the huge type 7 in ENT: "Countdown". There are no known renderings of this forgotten smaller type.
Abramsverse
Starfleet ship in "Star Trek (2009)"
At least two so far unidentified ship classes appear in "Star Trek (2009)". The one marked as "unidentified" is purportedly the USS Realta NCC-0184. The more detailed image and information comes from the game Star Trek: Fleet Command but so far can't be confirmed as identical to the canon ship we see in the movie.
Salcombe type
In "Star Trek Beyond", the USS Salcombe NCC-2107 (named for CGI artist Rhys Salcombe) can be seen in the background as the new Enterprise-A is being assembled at Starbase Yorktown. We never get to see the whole ship.
Update: There are great renderings of the design by Daniel Broadway, more in the Starship Gallery - Abramsverse Federation Vessels.
Credits
Thanks to Alexander Hartmann, Jörg Hillebrand and Andy Kinnear for their comments on Facebook. Thanks to Christopher Havel, StalwartUK and David for further information. Some caps from TrekCore. Special thanks to Rick Sternbach for his annotations, to John Eaves for posting many pieces of concept art and to Pierre Drolet and Rob Bonchune for their renderings.
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