Star Trek: 10 Most Unique Starfleet Ships

The saucer section is a standard feature of Starfleet ships, so it's always interesting when they diverge from that look. The reference book The Making Of Star Trek, includes an early design for the original Enterprise that featured a large sphere in place of the iconic saucer.

Matt Jefferies, who came up with the design, eventually moved on from it because he found it too bulky, but it was turned into a TOS-style model that appeared in Sisko's office and other rooms on Deep Space Nine, and was given the designation Daedalus-class. They finally appeared as actual ships around Starbase 25 in the Lower Decks episode An Embarrassment Of Dooplers.

Jefferies' original design also made a big impression on visual effects artist Bill George, who created an evolved version for the Next Generation era. George seamlessly combined elements of Jefferies’ sketches with the aesthetic of 24th century ships to create the Olympic-class (first seen in the Next Gen finale, All Good Things…).

These two starship classes may be visually similar, but Daedalus-class ships like the USS Horizon were exploratory vessels, whereas Olympic-class ships like the USS Pasteur were better suited for medical missions.