Star Trek: 10 Secrets Of The First Contact Fleet

In case you were wondering, the name USS Thunderchild originated from Star Trek: First Contact's producers who christened the ship after the RMS Thunder Child from H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds". A name for the class itself was left to the ship's designer, Alex Jaeger, who chose "Akira" after the 1988 Japanese anime film.

While outfitting the Akira-class to take on the Borg (including the aforementioned heavy armament of numerous phaser strips, photon and quantum torpedo launchers, and aircraft carrier-like shuttlebay arrangement), Jaeger also considered where the Akira-class fit into Star Trek's larger pantheon of starships.

According to Jaeger, the Akira-class featured Enterprise-E-style escape pods and deflector dish along with Enterprise-D-like hull paneling which the designer intended to indicate the class was commissioned after the Galaxy-class but before the Sovereign-class.

While making only brief appearances in the franchise after Star Trek: First Contact, the design of the Akira-class remained popular with fans and with the producers themselves. Several years after the debut of the Akira-class in Star Trek: First Contact, the design was briefly considered for use wholesale as the 22nd century NX-class Enterprise, but that's a whole other story...