I'm a bit curious as to what some of my fellow Trek enthusiasts have to say about this. Although the series tended to have mostly human crews and starship names, the novels have done a brilliant job in making the crews much more diverse. However, I'm a bit disappointed in the naming process for the Vesta-class (Rome in the Vesta's case, hills of Rome for the others) and Luna-class (moons of the Sol sector), because I would like to think that Starfleet would want ALL of its members' cultures represented in the names of its vessels. Maybe those two themes were just for the "first run" in the production of those ships? Don't get me wrong, I love the names Vesta and Aventine for Mark's awesome design, and I liked the thought that went into extrapolating the "Luna-class" from the mention of Titan in ST: Nemesis, but wouldn't Starfleet want its most advanced vessels to represent all of its people? Maybe future Luna-class ships would have names from the moons of other members and colonies? The Vesta-class could be even broader, stretching to other Earth cultures and beyond? I apologize for my nitpicking, but I'd love to hear some thoughts on this from any fans and authors.
Question to fans & authors about the Vesta- and Luna-class ships
- Thread starter Argrathi
- Start date
The people of Sol do make the most of their disproportionate influence over starship production, don't they? 
Nothing leaves the shipyards of Earth or Mars without a Human name, apparently.
I wonder if other major shipyards like Beta Antares have first approval on the names of ships produced there? Although they've given us the USS Prometheus, etc., so apparently the iron hand of the Humans reaches there as well.
Kira Nerys managed to commission a runabout named for a Bajoran river, the Yolja. Explicitly we're reminded that the runabouts are otherwise named for Earth rivers. I don't think Earth firebombed Bajor as punishment for Kira sneaking away with Yolja, but still. One of the Stargazer books mentions a ship named for a great liberator of the Vobilities (one of the go-to aliens whenever Friedman depicts the Federation). A USS Kumari has been mentioned, and of course USS Sitak, USS T'Kumbra, USS ShiKahr and USS Sarek are canonical, so 40 Eridani Yards are apparently getting in on it.
I do hope the next production run of Luna-class starships is named for moons or binary companions of other member worlds. USS T'Khut (Vulcan) USS Kera, USS Phinda (Tellar) USS Seyann, USS Cinera (Delta), USS Derna (Bajor), etc.
I'm surprised Frane the Neyel, in The Red King, didn't bring this up as part of his "Human supremacist" stance (or did he? He would have had he known more about where all the names come from, I assume).
Nothing leaves the shipyards of Earth or Mars without a Human name, apparently. I wonder if other major shipyards like Beta Antares have first approval on the names of ships produced there? Although they've given us the USS Prometheus, etc., so apparently the iron hand of the Humans reaches there as well.
Kira Nerys managed to commission a runabout named for a Bajoran river, the Yolja. Explicitly we're reminded that the runabouts are otherwise named for Earth rivers. I don't think Earth firebombed Bajor as punishment for Kira sneaking away with Yolja, but still. One of the Stargazer books mentions a ship named for a great liberator of the Vobilities (one of the go-to aliens whenever Friedman depicts the Federation). A USS Kumari has been mentioned, and of course USS Sitak, USS T'Kumbra, USS ShiKahr and USS Sarek are canonical, so 40 Eridani Yards are apparently getting in on it.
I do hope the next production run of Luna-class starships is named for moons or binary companions of other member worlds. USS T'Khut (Vulcan) USS Kera, USS Phinda (Tellar) USS Seyann, USS Cinera (Delta), USS Derna (Bajor), etc.
I'm surprised Frane the Neyel, in The Red King, didn't bring this up as part of his "Human supremacist" stance (or did he? He would have had he known more about where all the names come from, I assume).
The people of Sol do make the most of their disproportionate influence over starship production, don't they?
I wonder if other major shipyards like Beta Antares have first approval on the names of ships produced there? Although they've given us the USS Prometheus, etc., so apparently the iron hand of the Humans reaches there as well.
Kira Nerys managed to commission a runabout named for a Bajoran river, the Yolja. Explicitly we're reminded that the runabouts are otherwise named for Earth rivers. I don't think Earth firebombed Bajor as punishment for Kira sneaking away with Yolja, but still. One of the Stargazer books mentions a ship named for a great liberator of the Vobilities (one of the go-to aliens whenever Friedman depicts the Federation). A USS Kumari has been mentioned, and of course USS Sitak, USS T'Kumbra, USS ShiKahr and USS Sarek are canonical, so 40 Eridani Yards are apparently getting in on it.
I do hope the next production run of Luna-class starships is named for moons or binary companions of other member worlds. USS T'Khut (Vulcan) USS Kera, USS Phinda (Tellar) USS Seyann, USS Cinera (Delta), USS Derna (Bajor), etc.
I'm surprised Frane the Neyel, in The Red King, didn't bring this up as part of his "Human supremacist" stance (or did he? He would have had he known more about where all the names come from, I assume).
There's also the Gorkon. In fact, wasn't it the first canonically established Starfleet vessel named after a non-human?
Yeah, I can obviously understand why Earth names are predominant, considering you literally have a whole world of choices haha. The Vulcan and Klingon examples from the series are excellent, and the novels have done a wonderful job expanding the naming practices. In addition to the Yolja, there's the Glyrhond too I believe. But to me, the Luna-class (which was designed to have integrated crews) would seem a prime candidate for multi-species names. The Vesta, the future of the fleet and (with slipstream) a class that will be greeting many new cultures, would also seem to be a class that the Federation would want to represent all its members. Of course, diverse crews accomplish that purpose too... but if a Federation showed up and all the ship names were from a single species, you might not think equality was part of their society haha.
There was Spock's shuttle Surak in TMP.
But it wasn't mentioned on screen. All that was said was that it was a "Courier" ship.
Yeah, I wasn't even sure if more Vestas or Lunas would be made, but given the size of the Federation, Starfleet, and the galaxy left to explore it makes sense that they would go into widespread production. I believe one of the novels (possibly in the Cold Equations trilogy) mentioned the Federation launching a new slipstream vessel each month.
I thought I remembered seeing in some novel that the rarity of benamite kept the general availability of slipstream low?
I think you're right, there was a reference like that (I believe). They left wiggle room, though... because "rare" might be enough to power 20 ships... or enough to power 200 instead of a whole fleet of 10,000
Or a new source could be found or the benamite somehow replicated. You're right though, with the exception of mentioning a new slipstream vessel each month (not sure if this meant new ships or refitted ones like Voyager), I do remember the benamite question being mentioned as possibly prohibitive of a fleet of slipstream ships.
As there has never been any official word on the design background of the 29th century Wells class timeship U.S.S. Relativity, I think it is conceivable that the Wells class has some non-human/Earth elements in its physical configuration. After all, it looks nothing whatsoever like anything else we've seen.
Mudang Harada
Lieutenant Commander
What percentage of the Federation is human?
While ship names like USS Cha'*click* kfnn' *click* agd'yrudxizZ might satisfy some, I prefer human names. Yes, it works out racist in-universe, but the franchise is aimed at humans!
Mudang Harada
Lieutenant Commander
P;enty of aliens have names that we can pronounce.
And alien ship names could always be translated into English for the speakers' or listeners' convenience, if they're named for concepts rather than people or places. For instance, I mentioned in A Choice of Futures that the Andorian ship name Vol'Rala could be translated as Enterprise (or vice-versa, I guess).
Exactly. I consider names like Enterprise, Defiant, etc. to sort of be neutral since those words can exist in other languages as you pointed out. While the Enterprise was named after historic human ships, it can also be seen as Federation Standard for the word in other native tongues.
Another point I forgot to make involved Federation colonies or member worlds settled by humans. For example, if the Luna-class is in continuous production, and moons of other Federation members are utilized for names, it's possible that this situation could arise: a Federation colony or member world that was colonized by humans has a moon and the first settlers name it after a city on Earth (we'll call it "City" for simplicity). So, you could have a Luna-class named for that moon (USS "City"). Even though it would be a Terran name, to me that would at least be including more member worlds. Although, obviously, the true spirit of my point was including Trill, Betazoids, Vulcans, Andorians, Deltans, Tellarites, etc.
Well clearly there's not going to be a USS Cha'*click* kfnn' *click* agd'yrudxizZ. I think everyone would rather forget him. Far too controversial!
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