Star Trek: 10 Secrets Of The First Contact Fleet

10. Akira, Steamrunner, Norway, And Saber, Oh My

Obviously the big star of Star Trek: First Contact was the first new Starship Enterprise since the beginning of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the Sovereign-class USS Enterprise-E.

Designed by John Eaves (if you've read or watched any of our starship listicles before, you know John Eaves), the Enterprise-E set the standard for ships in First Contact, dictating the look and size of every other vehicle designed for the film.

According to ILM Visual Effects Art Director, Alex Jaegar, the film's producers approached him to design a slew of new Federation ships that would be easily distinguishable from the new Enterprise:

The goal with all of those ships was to make them look completely different from the Enterprise as we were introducing the E in that film and they didn't want people going, "wait, which one's the Enterprise?" Therefore the very radical layouts on those four ships, but still keeping true to the basics of starship design...

As requested, Jaegar (only 22 at the time) produced numerous sketches for the fleet, each with a radically different configuration. Producer Rick Berman, director Jonathan Frakes, and production designer Herman Zimmerman selected four of those sketches to be fleshed out, ultimately becoming the Akira, Steamrunner, Norway, and Saber-class starships.