text: why does starship interprise have such a rediculous design? its outer hull design is impractical,non functional,flimsy,and full of design weaknesses while the romulan warbird and the klingon battle cruiser are more sleek ,intimidating,impressive,and practical.if starfleet protects planet earth then how can we not worry?are we safe? is anyone else worried? lets look at this.. outer hull design is impractical, and non functional?  humm gotta differ with you on this, the original enterprise ncc-1701 is very practical, the crew is housed in the saucer section (which gives max area inside while maintaining minimum outer surface area and material, very practical) the saucer section is away from the secondary hull which contains most of the equipment, power, recyling, and the warp engines. this means it can separate from it in emergencies and people are away from any dangerous padiation leaks, if they occur.(i would call that functional)  flimsy? well being in space there is no need for aerodynamics, a brick wall would fly just as well as an arrow. so i don't see your point there.  full of design weaknesses? ok, how about you name some? how about some of the reasons it was designed that way. the saucer is made so that the entire bridge can be swapped out for a new bridge, depending on the mission. as can the weapons systems on the lower side of the saucer. this means it is easily upgraded (a good desing feature) the engines on the naucells are made to be upgraded and exchanged without having to disassemble the ship, we saw this happen severl times throughout the series( would you not call this practical and functional) if some of the ship were too far damaged, the other parts are made to be easily placed on newer parts.  all of this sounds nothing like a design flaw to me.  as for the romulan and klingon designs, well we saw them blow up alot, so i would have to say they had some major weaknesses.  abby, where did you get that the klingon ships have only one engine? they have two! one on each side, like the bird of prey. are you referring to the rear photon torpedo tube below the impulse engines