My mother taught me: if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Starship Museums: why?
- Thread starter Admiral Jean-Luc Picard
- Start date
So did mine.My mother taught me: if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
We didn't grow up in a society where replicators make the idea less needed. It's a different cultural attitude and insisting it makes no sense is not recognizing the bigger implications of a replicator world. It's not going to just mean no hunger or need for possessions. It shifts the attitude to a completely different idea. That objects can be replaced based upon their implication because they carry more meaning than the resources or time used to make them.
A whole new attitude towards such items.
Maybe it seems reasonable for consumer products, but I wouldn't expect a navy to just dump a whole class of starship after 20 years because newer starships are coming online, unless that new ship occupies the same role as the older starship class and does it so much better it really does render the older class obsolete. Maybe Morrow should have told Kirk that the Excelsior class was replacing the Constitution Refit, and so there was no incentive to repair the Enterprise and the entire Connie fleet was going to phased out. But even that's not a given, considering Excelsior, Miranda, and Oberth class ships operated well into the late 24th century, so evidently older Starfleet vessels can be upgraded with more modern tech and still continue to serve.
"20 years old" is a good, it should be 40 years old. Regardless, I think the Enterprise was being retired for being old despite its upgrades plus trashed by the Reliant. Age plus battle damage = time to scuttle her. I don't think the Excelsior was replacing the Constitution-class yet. At the time there was just the one Excelsior. Even if it did, the Constitution-class was the best thing Starfleet had going, so it's presumably second to the Excelsior. Why not keep both going? That doesn't mean build more Constitutions, but it does mean there's not much reason to yank them all. Besides, the Ent-B was likely one of the first five Excelsior-class ships produced.
There is something about those particular types of vessels that made them particularly suitable for long-term service.
I have my own theories on that... I attribute it to the Khitomer Accords. Those vessels are all pre-Accords designs. I believe there me something inherent in their designs, how they were built, etc. that is desirable but no longer available post-Accords. Exactly what that it is, I don't know. But those vessels were basically all grandfathered in while they couldn't make new vessels "like them".
@evilchumlee Yeah, a political solution is always a possibility. There is even a historic precedent or two to draw upon. Like the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty, the result of which, the US scrapped just about half of all the battleships it had (with a few exceptions, hulls 5 - 29)
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Yes, they can but it's not a requirement is my point. STARFLEET is as much about appearances as it is upgrades.
So, I think a huge number of factors influence upgrades vs. retirement and since cost is not as much of a factor they are more willing to retire a ship of deemed appropriate for circumstances, including PR or political ones.
I think the Federation signed a treaty with all the major galactic powers agreeing that the Miranda, Constellation and Excelsior classes looked rad as hell and should continue to be made for another hundred years. Though they also had to agree to continue making Oberths too, because the Romulans thought it'd be funny.
Compare for example the shifting attitude to printed information over the centuries. There was a time when people simply believed things because they were printed in a book. ('They wouldn't print this if it weren't true!') Now, in the time of internet and ubiquitous sources of information everyone has come to understand that anyone can write whatever they want but that that doesn't make it necessarily true. So the entire attitude towards printed media has shifted as well, in a way it has become less highly esteemed.
So, yes, I could certainly believe a similar shifting mindset would occur with the invention of replication technology.
Why have starships then?
Same reason we have trucks, cars, motorcycles, and trains. There is no one size fits all aspect for space exploration. Starfleet utilizes the many tools method to its advantage.
If you can beam a starbase, you don't need starships. Just fly around little transporter ships can beam giant starbases out of nowhere.
They aren’t “out of nowhere”. You really struggle with this whole science fiction thing.
No, but you struggle with English. If Captain Kirk beams down to the planet, from the planet point of view, he beamed "out of nowhere," until they learn the Enterprise is in orbit.
Incorrect any more than other vehicles become unnecessary because of air travel or train or what have you.
Sorry, I can't help but laugh at the image of a mod as HAL 9000.
People stopped riding boats across the ocean once they could fly.
People stopped riding trains once they could drive or take the bus.
Things do become obsolete.
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