A Tamarian starship (2368)
With a Galaxy-class starship.
The bridge.
Tamarian starships were advanced starships utilized by the Tamarians. Tamarian starships were armed with phasers and were comparable in size and power to that of a Federation Galaxy-class starship.
Tamarian technology allowed Tamarian starships to create a particle scattering field in the ionosphere of a planet. By projecting a particle sustaining beam into the upper atmosphere of said planet, they could effectively inhibit transporter and communication technology to or from the planets surface. The field was created with a polarity coil generator, which was located on Tamarian starships in a heavily shielded section, aft of the warp drive.
Between 2268 and 2368, Tamarian starships had encountered Federation vessels seven times. Each meeting was without incident, but formal relations were never established because communication was not possible.
In late 2367, a Tamarian starship arrived at El-Adrel IV where they began transmitting a subspace signal toward Federation space. Three weeks later they were approached by the Federation starship USS Enterprise-D. After a failed attempt at communication, the captains of both vessels were beamed to the surface of El-Adrel IV, whereafter, the Tamarians projected their particle scattering field around the planet. The Enterprise-D was finally able to disable the polarity coil generator of the Tamarian starship before the two ships exchanged phaser fire.
In the brief exchange between the two vessels, the Tamarian ship inflicted damage that resulted in the loss of forty-eight percent of the Enterprise-D's starboard shields and a complete loss of its forward shields. In the Enterprise-D's retalitory attack, it caused no damage to the Tamarian vessel. However, a second volley from the Tamarians completely disabled the shields of the Enterprise-D. (TNG: "Darmok")
- The model for the Tamarian starship was a partial reuse and heavy modification of the Talarian observation craft from TNG: "Suddenly Human". This model would later be redressed to represent several other vessels throughout Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager.