Sovereign type escape pod The " Sovereign " - type escape pod was a type of escape pod used aboard starship s . History . The was equipped with these pods . When the ship traveled back in time from 2373 to 2063 to stop the Borg from altering Earth ' s history , the ship was boarded by Borg drone s , forcing Captain Jean - Luc Picard to set the " Enterprise " to self - destruct . As a result , all crew were ordered to abandon the ship in these escape pods . The pods landed at various remote points on 21st century Earth , where Picard hoped the crew would " stay out of history ' s way . " One of the pods had the designation H - 47 . Fortunately , the Borg were defeated without the need to destroy the " Enterprise " - E , and the crew – along with the escape pods – were returned to the ship before it journeyed back to the 24th century . ( ) " In an alternate timeline where the returned to Earth in 2394 , refit s of the were using this type of escape pod . " ( ) Background information . The numbers of the known escape pods were either seen on an okudagram or on the pods as the vessels departed the " Enterprise " . The " Star Trek Fact Files " had an illustration of H - 95 , and the had a dorsal profile , ventral profile , and side profile of H - 101 . Studio model . Design . The script for " Star Trek : First Contact " called for a scene where the crew was ordered to leave the " Enterprise " - E by way of the escape pods , something that was not seen earlier . Unbeknown to each other , both John Eaves ( tasked by Herman Zimmerman ) and Alex Jaeger ( he being tasked by his supervisor , Jeff Mann ) started design on the shape and launch sequence in the opening months of . " " Lifeboats were never used on the last " Enterprise " , but this time a number of them are jettisoned from the ship when Picard orders the evacuation , " " said Jaeger . " " They had been incorporated into the ship design – as triangular shapes on the hull – but we had to determine whether those shapes represented some kind of a hatch covering a lifeboat or the actual exterior surface of the lifeboat itself . We went with the latter idea , with the exterior surface serving as a kind of reentry heat shield . " " ( " Cinefex " , issue 69 , p . 116 ) The producers decided upon Jaeger ' s approach in . Eaves , who originally started out from a " grenade " style form , came up with a design that was remarkably similar to Jaeger ' s , but with a covering hatch . Eaves remarked , " " I liked the the beauty and simplicity of Alex ' s creations , and how he utilized the top of the pod as a heat shield for planetary re - entry . " " ( " " , p . 114 ) It was further theorized by Jaeger that the pods were automated and had parachutes for landing . On a later occasion , Jaeger returned the compliment to Eaves and elaborated further on his thought processes by noting , " " I personally like the depth and detail in your version , I wasn ' t thinking too much of giving the people much room to move , just enough space for a couple of seats ala apollo capsule . Part of the idea of using the outer ' door ' as the heat shield came from the look of the exterior panels which you had already done nicely and just for the speed of exit . You don ' t want to get stuck if the exterior door panel on your pod doesn ' t work ! Also out of VFX simplicity , we didn ' t want hundreds of door panels flying around banging into the pods etc … Therefore the simple solution of using that outer panel as the heat shield . Also I just loved the idea that even though you ' ve left the E behind , you still bring a piece of her with you . " " Study and CGI model . Once the design was approved , ILM ' s Bill George built a study model , needed as reference and texture extraction for modeler Michael Bauer , who built and mapped the CGI model . Animation and lighting of the model was done by Habib Zargarpour . " " Having used for awhile , I figured there had to be a way to extract the motion data from a pod and calculate its acceleration , " " Zargarpour observed , on the choreographed movements of the flotilla of pods leaving the ship . " " After establishing the position and direction of the retros , we could then figure out which thruster groups would be firing at any given time to change the lifeboat ' s attitude . I did some R & D , a lot of math , and wound up with fully automatic retrorocket animation on each pod , using Dynamation software . " " ( " Cinefex " , issue 69 , pp . 116 - 117 ) The ice crystal particles and the gaps left on the hull of the " Enterprise " - E were added digitally . Aside from the " Sovereign " - class , Jaeger also intended his escape pod design to be in use on the four ship classes he designed for , especially the , " " You ’ ll also notice that the Akira class utilizes the escape pods from the Sovereign Class , but the panel details more like the Galaxy class . That ’ s because I imagined this ship was commissioned right before the “ E ” and served as a testbed for the new escape pods . " " In , Foundation Imaging ' s modeler , Robert Bonchune , paid subtle homage to Alex Jaeger ' s design as he modeled the " Sovereign " - type escape pod hatches onto the alternate timeline version of the CGI model for the . " " I also tried to tie it in to the Enterprise - E ( or a Standard Starship ) in some ways , " " stated Bonchune , " " in terms of smoothness and escape hatches , intercoolers etc . " "