First canon reference to “Oberth Class”?
- Thread starter youngtrek
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The name ‘Oberth class’ has never been mentioned in dialogue. Its first use was on the dedication plaque of the S.S. Tsiolkovsky in the second episode of TNG, “The Naked Now.”
What most people don’t know, however, was that the ship’s dedication plaque was made by Michael Okuda before he knew what model the visual effects department was going to use for the ship. The ship’s commissioning date on the plaque was the same year as the Enterprise-D’s, the registry number was NCC-53911 (5XXXX numbers being the highest at the time until the switch to 7XXXX later), and there was every indication that Okuda thought the Tsiolkovsky (and the Oberth class in general) was going to be a new design contemporary to the Enterprise-D, and not a reuse of the movie model USS Copernicus NCC-640, as VFX work is done after principal photography of an episode is complete. The model wasn’t even relabeled or re-registered from its use in TVH. Therefore, the name ‘Oberth’ class was never actually meant to represent the Grissom-type ships. That became a retcon.
What most people don’t know, however, was that the ship’s dedication plaque was made by Michael Okuda before he knew what model the visual effects department was going to use for the ship. The ship’s commissioning date on the plaque was the same year as the Enterprise-D’s, the registry number was NCC-53911 (5XXXX numbers being the highest at the time until the switch to 7XXXX later), and there was every indication that Okuda thought the Tsiolkovsky (and the Oberth class in general) was going to be a new design contemporary to the Enterprise-D, and not a reuse of the movie model USS Copernicus NCC-640, as VFX work is done after principal photography of an episode is complete. The model wasn’t even relabeled or re-registered from its use in TVH. Therefore, the name ‘Oberth’ class was never actually meant to represent the Grissom-type ships. That became a retcon.
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Yep. The actual line [https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Oberth_class]:
"I didn't spend seven *bleep*ing years on a goddamn Oberth to get knocked down to station physician!"
– Doctor T'Ana, 2381 ("The Stars At Night")
– Doctor T'Ana, 2381 ("The Stars At Night")
I have even heard it called Garneau class
https://www.deviantart.com/digitalexplorations/art/Federation-Garneau-or-Oberth-class-TSFS-928145313
https://www.deviantart.com/digitalexplorations/art/Federation-Garneau-or-Oberth-class-TSFS-928145313
There was also the 80’s fan-originating Glenn class. I’ve always far preferred this over “Oberth”, naming the ships of this exploration class after famous astronauts.
Uhh, Hermann Oberth was one of the pioneers of rocket science. He was the mentor of Wernher von Braun, the architect of the Saturn V rocket used in the Apollo program. Seems appropriate to me.
Uhh, bully for him. I prefer my Federation starships not to be named after Nazis, thanks. Communists, either, for that matter.
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Oberth was neither. He worked on the German rocket program during WWII, but he was not a member of the National Socialist Party. If anything, he contributed less to that program than Wernher von Braun did, yet von Braun was forgiven and permitted to work for the United States.
I mean, is it any worse than naming Federation starships after the WWII Japanese battleships Kongō, Yamato, and Akagi? And what about the starship Gorkon? Gorkon may have been a famed peacemaker as chancellor, but given his age, he would've been around during the Federation-Klingon War, probably in the Klingon military or government. There's no telling how many Federation deaths he might've contributed to before his turn to peace. Then there's Garak, who committed all sorts of evils and atrocities in the name of the Cardassian Empire before becoming a figure beloved by fandom.
Then there are the Federation ships named Columbia, in honor of Christopher Columbus, a genocidal monster and slave trader.
As you said.
Did FASA refer to it as the Oberth Class? I'm going to have to pull the ship recognition manual and look it up now... (FASA would not have been a canon source, however.)
No, it wasn't named that until the TNG era. According to Memory Beta, FASA called it Gagarin Class, while some fan blueprints called it the Glenn Class.
As I said.
From Wiki:
Oberth was regarded as a security risk for the secrecy of the development work on the A4 in Peenemünde. Therefore he was employed / sidelined from 1938 by a research contract in Vienna and then from 1940 in Dresden. When he wanted to return to Transylvania in 1941, he received German citizenship andwas conscripted to Peenemünde, where the A4 was developed under von Braun. Oberth was not involved in this work, but was included in the patent review and wrote various reports, for example "About the best division of stage aggregates" and "Defense from enemy aircraft with large, remote-controlled powder rockets". Oberth criticized the A4 program because, from his point of view, it could not achieve the desired military effect with enormous production costs. In 1943 he asked for his transfer to in Reinsdorf to develop the anti-aircraft guided missile that he recommended. He fled in 1945, had to go to two different US internment camps, and was released in August 1945 as a “person unaffected by the Nazi era”.
Oberth was regarded as a security risk for the secrecy of the development work on the A4 in Peenemünde. Therefore he was employed / sidelined from 1938 by a research contract in Vienna and then from 1940 in Dresden. When he wanted to return to Transylvania in 1941, he received German citizenship andwas conscripted to Peenemünde, where the A4 was developed under von Braun. Oberth was not involved in this work, but was included in the patent review and wrote various reports, for example "About the best division of stage aggregates" and "Defense from enemy aircraft with large, remote-controlled powder rockets". Oberth criticized the A4 program because, from his point of view, it could not achieve the desired military effect with enormous production costs. In 1943 he asked for his transfer to in Reinsdorf to develop the anti-aircraft guided missile that he recommended. He fled in 1945, had to go to two different US internment camps, and was released in August 1945 as a “person unaffected by the Nazi era”.
Steely eyed missile-men
https://www.shutterstock.com/editor...-toftoyernst-stuhlinger-florida-usa-12107040a
https://www.shutterstock.com/editor...-toftoyernst-stuhlinger-florida-usa-12107040a
Got another one -- FASA's highly inaccurate Star Trek: The Next Generation Officer's Manual from 1988 identifies the Tsiolkovsky from "The Naked Now" as a Sagan Class starship, supposedly a better-shielded, better-armed version of the "weak" Gagarin class. It gives the Tsiolkovsky's registry number as NCC-20001 instead of 53911.
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