Starfleet’s Deadliest Posting: Science Edition!

Oberth-class starships have a high failure rate when seen on various Star Treks, only occasionally involved in combat situations (where a single torpedo might be enough to kill it). As pictured above your ship could be destroyed by a rogue Klingon, or sacrificed to give another ship a few more seconds (don’t worry, you’re long dead after a variation of the Psi-2000 virus swept through your ship), wrecked in a black cluster (for science!), trapped in a plasma streamer (However, you might survive inside a transporter matter stream as a snake), called in to boost up a fleet at Wolf 359 (ha. ahhahahahah!), or just half stuck inside an asteroid when an experimental phasing cloak failed.

Select Starfleet Ships, Vol. 6: TMP Edition

Top to bottom:
Miranda-class U.S.S. Reliant “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan”
Oberth-class U.S.S. Grissom “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock”
Miranda-class U.S.S. Saratoga “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home”
Oberth-class U.S.S. Copernicus “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home”
Excelsior-class U.S.S. Excelsior “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country”
Excelsior-class refit U.S.S. Enterprise “Star Trek Generations”

USS Grissom science ship gifs, Star Trek: The Search for Spock

The first new Starfleet design after the Enterprise (& refit) and Reliant.  Based on this trajectory, Starfleet could have ended up with some crazy designs, no?