The Suurok-class was a type of Vulcan starship designated by the High Command as a science vessel during the mid-22nd century.
In 2151, after Enterprise was disabled by an unknown alien spacecraft, Jonathan Archer was concerned that the Vulcans would have sent a Suurok-class ship to "oh-so-politely" offer to tow them back home. (ENT: "Silent Enemy")
Technical data
Design
The design of the Suurok class possessed a long, cylindrical primary hull and a circular, ring shaped warp drive.
Primary systems
The technology behind this advancement was considered "classified" as of 2151 from Earth Starfleet. (ENT: "Breaking the Ice")
The Suurok-class also possessed tractor beam technology which was considered "classified" from Earth Starfleet. The tractor beam emitter was located on the lower section of the primary hull, in front of the warp drive. (ENT: "Breaking the Ice")
Ships commissioned
- Named
Appendices
Appearances
Background
Name
It is commonly believed that the name of this class is "Surak" class, despite Archer/Bakula clearly pronouncing the name as "Suurok" class in "Breaking the Ice", which also corresponded with the spelling that appeared in the episode's closed-captioning. This spelling was later confirmed as the spelling in the final draft of the script by Mike Sussman, who noted the former spelling may have appeared in an early draft of the script. The former spelling of "Surak" appeared in an article on the design of the ship written by Doug Drexler in an issue of Star Trek: The Magazine, and in an article focusing on the starship written in Star Trek Monthly issue 104.
Original design
The Suurok-class was designed by Doug Drexler, and was the first Vulcan starship design to appear on Star Trek: Enterprise, and first significant Vulcan starship design to appear in the Star Trek series. In designing the Suurok-class, Drexler felt a ship for the Vulcans, one of the primary species that define Star Trek, should be as memorable as possible.
The goal of his design was simplicity, so he went to the most memorable ship designs in Star Trek, those made by Matt Jefferies. One that caught his eye was the USS Enterprise XCV 330, as it was rather different from all other designs in Star Trek to that date. He also remembered that the Vulcan ship from "Unification II" (the T'Pau) had a ring shape. So he based his idea on this, wanting a ship that would pass the "squint test": even when the ship is tiny on the screen, you can still easily recognize it. Drexler further adapted the reddish colors of the T'Plana-Hath, which was featured in Star Trek: First Contact, in an attempt to create as much of a design lineage as possible, using what few references existed.
Other designs he considered using resembled the T'Plana-Hath much more then the final version, and some had spherical primary hulls, similar to the Template:ShipClass starships, another design that was based off of an early Matt Jefferies design (the Template:ShipClass). One of the final decisions of the design process was to flip it upside down, as had been done with several ships previously. For the full story, as well as additional class design concepts, see external links below.
Apocrypha
T'Uerell's ship in the Star Trek: Legacy videogame was a Suurok-class vessel.
External links
- Designing the Ti'Mur - on-line version, by Doug Drexler, of the article that originally appeared in the July 2002 Issue 39 of Star Trek: The Magazine
- Template:NCwiki
- Vulcan starships at Wikipedia