JJTrek, representing the whole world with ship names

^Yes, I get all that. But that hypothesis is only based on the idea that the Kelvin's registry was some sort of basis for four-digit registries starting with 0001 and working their way up to 1000. But the existence of such ships as the Grissom (NCC-638) do not support this. It would therefore make more sense to hypothesize that sometime during construction of ships with four-digit registries under 1000, Starfleet simply decided to omit the leading zeroes from certain vessels.

 

No, that's not what it means. It means it was previously a 3 digit registry number (100 - 999), and they ran out of numbers, so they switched to 4 digit and added the Zero to the ones still active.

Let's say we started with NX-01 and thought NX-99 would last forever. Then something happened to change it from NX to NCC, and they used enough of 01 - 99, that they figured, might as well make NCC start with 100 and go to 999, that'll last us forever. (And the 20 NX-xx still in Service, we'll call NCC-100 through NCC-119 or we'll add a leading Zero to their original numbers)

Then more ships were assigned Registry Numbers then they imagined and they decided to switch up to 4 digits and the 50 or so NCC-100 through NCC-999 still in use had a Leading Zero added, when they started newly built ships at NCC-1000

 

On a different subject, has there ever actually been a U.S.S. George Washington?

 

In the real world, yes.

 

While I understand what you're saying, it still doesn't explain why the Kelvin has a zero and the Grissom does not, nor why any ship would have a registry of 0001 (which was what someone else brought up, not you).

 

About registries, I suspect the leading 0 has some significance and isn't just a to make the number four digits. Who even says it's definitely a zero? It might even be an O. In the Star Trek: Rivals game, the USS Kobayashi Maru has the registry NCC-S3700, presumably taken from the CG model (which wasn't visible in ST'09)

Fan manuals have been adding letter prefixes to ship registries for decades.

 

Was NCC-S3700 really the ship's registry? First I've heard of this.

 

According to Memory Alpha, that registry comes from the Trek XI customizable card game, so it's not canon.

Besides, we've all seen how I've reacted to a leading zero in the registries. Does anyone really think I'm ready to accept the idea of a leading letter?

 

Under this hypothesis, the official records, would likely have a leading Zero for both The Kelvin and The Grissom, but, the Kelvin, is the only one of the two who has been upgraded/Refit, received a new Paint job, since the switch over to the 4 Digits.

 

Why would you have a problem with that? Letters before numbers would be consistent with TAS.

I don't think the Kelvin had ever been upgraded or refit. Conversely, I'm pretty sure the Grissom was newer than the Kelvin even without the fact that it has a higher registry number.

 

Dont' forget that the Kobayashi Maru in Star Trek 2009 was a simulation. We have no canon information on whether a real Kobayashi Maru ever existed. For my part I take the novelverse's explanation that the E.C.S. Kobayashi Maru was a civilian human freighter captured/destroyed by Romulans in 2155.

 

Hey, you're right. I'll have to ignore it otherwise I have nothing to complain about.

Honestly, I'm always bothered by the theories that there was an actual Kobayashi Maru which the simulator is based on. It really seems like bad taste for Starfleet Academy to base its infamous unbeatable test on an actual tragedy.

 

Depends how many years passed since the incident.

 

I have so many issues with that plot line. They based it upon the backstory from an old fan-made blueprint set (online here: http://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/book-of-ss-kobayashi-maru-plans.php) but rewritten for Archer's era instead of April's. Problem with that is that the Kobayashi Maru is a salvaged Klingon junker they had been using for many years, but according to ENT, first contact with the Klingons had only been made three years earlier! The ECS wouldn't be flying a Klingon ship, Starfleet would have been picking it apart for it's advanced Klingon tech. That, and the book's ridiculous attempt to explain why TOS looks less advanced than ENT by saying it was less advanced (even though we saw in "In a Mirror, Darkly" that ENT tech was no match for TOS, and the mirror-NX crew treated the Defiant as futuristic technology-meets-art, all the explanation it needs) put that book in my fail pile. Such an awesome concept (I'd been hoping to see the KM in an ENT episode) totally wasted.

For what it's worth, the ST'09 version of the KM was inspired by this other set of fan made blueprints here (the producers sent the artists those prints and Julie Ecklar's TOS novel The Koabyashi Maru to draw from, details here)

Huh, concept art at the Eaves' link gives the registry NCC-7999.

 

You should never take registry numbers on any of Eaves's concept art as any kind of official status. He has a tendency to slap any random number onto his artwork with no rhyme or reason behind it.

 

Better question: Why does the Enterprise have a "-D" in its registry while Defiant has a five digit number?

 

Because Kirk is more of a badass than Sisko?

I mean, c'mon, it makes sense. Robau, who was the ultimate badass, got to put a zero on his ship. Kirk had to settle for a lousy A.

 

I nominate the USS Yi Sun-shin, named after a famous admiral in Korean history who repulsed the Japanese (and no, he was no a mass murderer, just a brave man defending his country.)

Another ship I nominate is the USS Nelson Mandela (reasons already known).