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Original 12 Constitution class ships

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I don't know if the commissioning plaque on the bridge was there since "The Cage" but if so it's possible the general thinking on this evolved beyond the first pilot. Even so throughout TOS a "starship" is considered something quite distinct from most everything else we see throughout the series.

I don't believe there is a commissioning plaque there during either pilot episode.
 
To paraphrase a popular Trek acronym. Starships "Go Everywhere and Do Everything." And they do it faster than anything else out there. It's their combination of speed, size, weaponry, medical facilities, and mission capabilities that make starships the best of the best. And they have the best Captains and the best crews available. Usually.
They are the galactic equivalent of a Texas Ranger. One crisis, one starship.
You call a starship if your mission requires:
Blasting a huge asteroid before it destroys a populated planet.
Stop huge artificial or natural phenomena from destroying entire star systems.
Stop an hostile alien incursion into friendly territory.
Stop rampaging maniacal groups from ravaging the Federation.
Develop a cure with your science labs to stop a planet wide plague.
Investigate and open diplomatic relations with previously hostile systems.
Discover and make first contact with previously unknown cultures.
Conduct emergency evacuations of planet-side personnel. And other rescue missions.
Etc., etc., .....Anything you need. A starship can do.
 
[QUOTE="Warped9, post: 11528834, member: 2239"
Merick's vessel was indeed a starship simply because it was a manned vessel designed to travel interstellar distances between starships. The oddity is that he didn't seem to think of it that way.[/QUOTE]


Merrick would disagree with you. He felt his was only a lowly spaceship, not a starship.
 
^^ His feelings are irrelevant in regards to what his vessel actually was.

There was obviously something special about the Connie's. Even in "The Doomsday Machine", Spock says by configuration, a starship. I doubt every FTL craft had the same configuration.
 
There was obviously something special about the Connie's. Even in "The Doomsday Machine", Spock says by configuration, a starship. I doubt every FTL craft had the same configuration.
Merick's vessel obviously wasn't of the same class as the Enterprise--indeed the Beagle was a lowly merchant vessel--but by fact of being a vessel capable of intersteller travel it was indeed a starship.
 
Merick's vessel obviously wasn't of the same class as the Enterprise--indeed the Beagle was a lowly merchant vessel--but by fact of being a vessel capable of intersteller travel it was indeed a starship.

It is obvious that "starship" meant something different inside of Starfleet.
 
They go on about "starship" being something special beyond being FTL in a few episodes.

In "The Ultimate Computer, Daystrom goes on about the prestige of being a "starship" captain...

DAYSTROM: There are other things a man like you might do. Or perhaps you object to the possible loss of prestige and ceremony accorded a starship captain.
 
Merick's vessel obviously wasn't of the same class as the Enterprise--indeed the Beagle was a lowly merchant vessel--but by fact of being a vessel capable of intersteller travel it was indeed a starship.
But perhaps not a Starship.
 
It is obvious that "starship" meant something different inside of Starfleet.
Like, duh! I actually said something quite similar further upthread. The whole point is that TOS somewhat misused the meaning of the word. They applied the term to only (mostly) one specific kind of vessel wherein the real world meaning encompasses a great variety of vessels.
 
Like, duh! I actually said something quite similar further upthread. The whole point is that TOS somewhat misused the meaning of the word. They applied the term to only (mostly) one specific kind of vessel wherein the real world meaning encompasses a great variety of vessels.

I think we all figured out they misused the word when we were first exposed to the show. Not sure what the big deal is now?
 
Perhaps "starship" was mid-23rd century for the equivalent on a mid-20th century "cruiser". A specific style of ship that has a specific meaning that is lost by the mid-24th century since the starships classification has ben rolled up in to other classifications. Much like today, when a destroyer and a cruiser are basically the same thing in the US Navy and the only reason we have a class of ships designated as "cruisers" is because there was a perception that there was a gap between the US and Soviet fleets in number of cruisers. That the cruisers and destroyers of the early 21st century do basically the same thing lessens the meaning of the term cruiser in the modern navy, or perhaps the modern destroyers should be called cruisers based on what they can do relative to the old usage of the term "cruiser".
 
I think we all figured out they misused the word when we were first exposed to the show. Not sure what the big deal is now?
This is one of those things the creators likely thought would never be given much thought particularly over decades to come. Starship Class sounded cool without any notion it would be scrutinized and questioned. Then later scrutinizing fans learned the ship was also Constitution-class and ensuing publications as well as later films and series gave all kinds of classes of starships. There is also the fact that in GR's initial pitch the ship was Cruiser Class (and later changed to Heavy Cruiser).

So even before TMP came along the ship had three designations:

Heavy Cruiser Class
Starship Class
Constitution-class

One could assert Constitution-class is a subset of the first two.
 
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