The Enterprise That Wasn't

[FederationHistorian]

Something I just thought of… would cryogenics be in play on this ship? Like, you could have a crew of 24 assigned, but only 8 are needed to operate the ship at a time while the rest sleep on long journeys, and the crew is rotated in and out of cyrosleep. It's not like it would be new tech, since the DY-100 had this tech around the mid-1990s.

The XCV-330 is likely going at Warp 1 – 1.5, meaning the trips between stops take much longer than they would even by the mid-22nd century. So it makes sense to rotate the crew to prevent boredom.

 

[Arpy]

A little closer to what I imagine space stations of the era to look like. I might have overdone the spinning ones. In retrospect, should I have included Babylon 5?

 

[FederationHistorian]

I think Yosemite 3 in "Zero Hour" in ENT was pretty accurate for what a space station would look like in that era.

 

[Arpy]

I think Yosemite 3 in "Zero Hour" in ENT was pretty accurate for what a space station would look like in that era.

Yeah, I thought the model fit better there than in the 24th Century.

 

[Tim Walker]

Technologically, the ring ships may be low hanging fruit. Something that the humans developed on there own (with the Vulcans looking over our shoulders) at quite an early date. Other Trek technologies might be much harder to attain. Transporters (22nd century), for example, or holodecks (24th century).

 

[fireproof78]

A little closer to what I imagine space stations of the era to look like. I might have overdone the spinning ones. In retrospect, should I have included Babylon 5?

I think so because most technological push forward involve a tube rotating.

 

[Arpy]

The really big technologies that seem most fantastical to me are FTL, matter-energy conversion, and artificial gravity. I can maybe Zephram Cochrane FTL because humans are the “weird” aliens who come to that earlier in their scientific inquiry than older species like the Vulcans and Andorians. But I’d like to see older species each discover one of these other techs too, whether by virtue of their alien perspectives or the long hard slag of effort over time. It’s kind of a con to say, “Well, the Vulcans were older than us so they gave us 47% faster energy conversion rates. Or even 347% faster computer processors” — things we don’t really “see.”

Even from a cynical perspective, it makes sense that there’s a reason we all unite (acquire mind-boggling tech) beyond being nice people (which we’re all taught to be but somehow lose the memo, beaten by our not-nice captors).

I’m torn by which tech to give the Vulcans/Andorians. I think transporters are harder so I want to give them to the Vulcans, but artificial gravity seems more necessary (and easier, so you’d think they’d get to it in 2 millennia), since even we in the real world see the inescapable effects of weightlessness on an organic body.

 

[fireproof78]

Transporter tech I give the Vulcans due to the high amount of mathematical precision required.

Artificial gravity I think would come from humanity out of necessity.

 

[Tim Walker]

As I understand it, UFO lore indicates that governments have gotten their hands on crashed UFOs, and have attempted reverse engineering.

Also, the lore has two main hypothesis regarding origin:

1. Extraterrestrial Hypothesis. The Earth is being visited from outer space.

2. Interdimensional Hypothesis. The Earth is being visited from another dimension.

I understand some investigators think both 1 and 2 apply.

If we lump 1 and 2 into a single category, we could call it the Visitor Hypothesis.

Conceivably, all four species-humans, Andorians, Tellarites, Vulcans-might have seen Visitors early in their (respective) development. And possibly, the different species may have gotten their hands on advanced technology.

Also, the different founding species might have come across remnant technology upon visiting other worlds.

 

[Arpy]

Maybe the Andorians discovered ancient Iconian technology (it’d be nice if one of them did) and reverse-engineered that as best they could, then added some of their own know-how to invent transporters. That keeps them a younger species and gives us a bit of reach to aliens of the past — yet another reason to get off this rock and explore what’s out there.

The Vulcans, to give their age and even intellect a bit more caché, maybe invented artificial gravity all on their own? Again 2000 years is a long time.

....though, maybe we should make artificial gravity the remnant tech of one of the galaxy-spanning ancient civilizations to explain how so many aliens in Trek mastered it (beyond the real world budget reason). Much of the Delta Quadrant didn’t have transporters, but I think they still had gravity, no?

 

[Tim Walker]

Interesting ideas, Arpy.. Besides the Iconians, there were a few other ancient civilizations in Trek. The Tkon Empire, for example. The Preservers. The First Federation.....

Initially, reverse engineering may have gone slowly. Then finally, a crude copy is made, with subpar performance compared to the original. Though in itself these crude copies may represent a technological leap.

Later refinements would eventually upgrade performance.

Beside trying to create a copy of another species technology, another part of UFO lore is hybrid technology. That is, a gadget is a hybrid of alien and human technology.

It occurred to me that one might create a hybrid gadget based on the technologies of two different alien species.

Some attempts at reverse engineering might see a fair amount of success (as in creating a crude copy), partial success (resulting in a limited application), or complete frustration.

For a limited application, perhaps subspace radio came from study of a trans dimensional craft, but with no success in creating one's own trans dimensional craft.

 

[uniderth]

Maybe the Andorians discovered ancient Iconian technology (it’d be nice if one of them did) and reverse-engineered that as best they could, then added some of their own know-how to invent transporters. That keeps them a younger species and gives us a bit of reach to aliens of the past — yet another reason to get off this rock and explore what’s out there.

That's a good idea. I personally wouldn't make it be the Iconians, but that would be interesting.

The Vulcans, to give their age and even intellect a bit more caché, maybe invented artificial gravity all on their own? Again 2000 years is a long time.


....though, maybe we should make artificial gravity the remnant tech of one of the galaxy-spanning ancient civilizations to explain how so many aliens in Trek mastered it (beyond the real world budget reason). Much of the Delta Quadrant didn’t have transporters, but I think they still had gravity, no?

Depending on how canon TAS is we know artificial gravity can from reverse engineering a Slaver flying belt. That's one of the point I like, but I'm also willing to disregard TAS whenever it pleases me.

Interesting ideas, Arpy.. Besides the Iconians, there were a few other ancient civilizations in Trek. The Tkon Empire, for example. The Preservers. The First Federation.....


Initially, reverse engineering may have gone slowly. Then finally, a crude copy is made, with subpar performance compared to the original. Though in itself these crude copies may represent a technological leap.


Later refinements would eventually upgrade performance.


Beside trying to create a copy of another species technology, another part of UFO lore is hybrid technology. That is, a gadget is a hybrid of alien and human technology.


It occurred to me that one might create a hybrid gadget based on the technologies of two different alien species.


Some attempts at reverse engineering might see a fair amount of success (as in creating a crude copy), partial success (resulting in a limited application), or complete frustration.


For a limited application, perhaps subspace radio came from study of a trans dimensional craft, but with no success in creating one's own trans dimensional craft.

An interesting direction to take this could be the black box route. Basically the alien tech is a complete mystery that we can't reproduce. But we can provide inputs to it. So we could build the interfaces but we would need authentic alien tech to make it work.
For each copy of the tech we would need to find a derilect space craft to extract the tech from. Ten ships with transporters would mean you need to find ten derilect alien space craft.

 

[Arpy]

I think it’s important, for me, that this period feel very open and vast in many ways, including it overplaying how much life is out there in space. I like the idea of ancient cultures to further show how empty space is (we’re alone in time as well as space) but I don’t want to overplay how many there are or how easily accessible. When some ancient tech is found, it should be as profound as any invention in the history of all human civilization.

And as we do meet aliens and discover alliances, they should still seem far less robust than anything the Federation’s built over 200-300 years of exponential technological and cultural growth.

I mean, maybe this is the season 1 finale.

 

[Tuskin38]

I think Yosemite 3 in "Zero Hour" in ENT was pretty accurate for what a space station would look like in that era.

That was a reuse of the Midas Array model from Voyager.

 

[FederationHistorian]

@Tuskin38 Yes it was, but the model was ideal for a 22nd century station. It's close to the design for a space station today.

 

[Tim Walker]

Another possibility-reverse engineer a Klingon or Roman derelict.

 

[Arpy]

Another possibility-reverse engineer a Klingon or Roman derelict.

“No one expects a Roman battlecruiser!”

 

[Tim Walker]

Oops. I meant Romulan

 

[uniderth]

“No one expects a Roman battlecruiser!”

We can make that work.

 

[fireproof78]

We can make that work.

I mean they had to get to that planet in TOS somehow.