Star Trek: Every Starfleet Starship Class Ranked Worst To Best

40. Freedom Class (22nd Century)

star trek beyond franklin
Paramount

The USS Franklin was the first Starfleet ship capable of reaching Warp 4. It was a precursor to the NX class, armed with pulse phasers and spatial torpedoes. The Freedom class was a deep space ship, though it was not invulnerable by any means.

Once the USS Franklin came into contact with the Gagarin radiation belt, it vanished from Starfleet's scanners. It had crash landed on Altamid, though no rescue mission ever discovered the vessel in more than 90 years. The captain - Balthazar Edison - believed that Starfleet had abandoned them and was driven mad.

In the alternate reality created by the Romulan Nero, the Franklin was discovered by Captain Kirk and Lt. Commander Scott. They, with Jaylah, managed to get the ship operational again, getting them off the planet and back to Federation space in time to save Starbase Yorktown from Edison's mad plans to destroy them all.

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Seán is the host and head writer/presenter for TrekCulture, as well as a writer/presenter on WhoCulture and WhatCulture Horror. He has authored two novels, dozens of short stories, and hundreds of articles for WhatCulture. He holds a Master of Arts in Creative Writing from University College Dublin. As part of his work with TrekCulture, Seán has been invited to participate in collaborations with Roddenberry Entertainment, as well as contributing to several Star Trek community projects. An avid fan of Star Trek, Doctor Who, and the horror genre at large, Seán's expertise has helped develop these channels to the successes they are today. As host of the Ups & Downs series on TrekCulture, Seán has become internationally recognised for his positive yet critically informed approach to reviewing every episode of modern Star Trek, ensuring he is one of the go-to voices in the Trek community. Favourite Quote to describe himself: "I'm serious about what I do, just not always about the way that I do it"