Unnamed Galaxy class starships

The painting for the surface was created by Rick Sternbach and Mike Okuda. (Star Trek Encyclopedia, 2nd ed., p. 21)

The intention of the artwork was to depict a Galaxy-class ship under construction. When asked if construction indeed was intended to take place on the surface of Mars, Okuda acknowledged:

"Yes, that was the intent, although I like the suggestion that it might have been a training facility. It was something that Rick and I put together in Photoshop. I don't recall exactly who did what, but I remember that the upper image uses a bunch of simple paper models that we made for use as [...] generic futuristic city buildings for exactly this sort of image. Rick may remember more about this. I do recall that we wondered how the components would be brought into orbit, whether they'd be beamed up, hauled up by space elevator, or carried by a huge orbital tug […]

"It [surface construction] certainly would be difficult, and I personally think that it would be more likely that the major component assembly would be done in orbit. I believe that Rick felt this way, too. Still, impulse engines routinely accelerate starship masses (many tens, even hundreds of thousands of tons) to large fractions of the speed of light in very brief times. This suggests a propulsion technology many thousands of times more powerful than anything we have in the 21st century. Also, structural integrity fields would need to protect against these accelerations, which conservatively would exceed 1,000 gees. As a result, I'd contend that lifting major starship components into orbit from the surface of Mars would be well within the reach of Star Trek's postulated technology." [1]^(X)

In Sternbach's explanation of the painting, he suggested it to be a "systems integration simulator," adding, "the hardware seen on the surface could be the real vessel parts, which were probably only 20% filled with "stuff" and then lifted into orbit for final assembly. If not, then they are flight-quality hardware used as a functioning lab to make sure everything works as designed." [2]

One of the ships was seen enclosed in a drydock similar to Earth Station McKinley from TNG: "Family" while yet another was seen in a drydock not unlike that from Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Additionally, the uncompleted saucer section seen right as the episode opens may be that of a Galaxy-class ship, as suggested in the 2002 Ships of the Line calendar.

Both of these Galaxy-class ships bore the registry of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D.

These Galaxy-class starship filming models used the AMT kits of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D). They are commonly referred to in fandom as the "dark necks" or "war Galaxy", due to their unique paint scheme.