Spoilers The Ships of Lower Decks

[Macintosh]

That was mainly due to https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ViewersAreMorons combined with Riker being relatively young for the substantive rank of Captain. He would certainly have been confirmed as a Captain if he'd remained as CO of the Enterprise.

We certainly see Riker continue as captain in Picard's absence in "Parallels"; and of course there's that fan theory that Riker was deliberately left on the Enterprise as a "backup captain" in case Picard wasn't entirely reliable after he was de-assimilated, instead of being spirited away to be given his pick of the rebuilt fleet.

Riker was 31 at the time of "The Best of Both Worlds", but young captains are hardly unprecedented in Star Trek. Kirk was 32 when he became captain; Picard was 28. Janeway was (probably) 35 when she took command of Voyager, and there's some evidence that she captained another ship beforehand though it's never made clear in the show itself.

Rice, Janeway, Ransom and maybe even Sisko prior to the Dominion War should all have been "Junior Captains" wearing a lower rank (either the existing LCDR and CMDR ranks or the intermediary rank that has mostly been unseen on screen.

Sisko did have a lower rank to begin with; he was commander at the beginning of DS9 only became captain at the end of the third season to reflect the station's increasing importance and the diplomatic role he'd played with Bajor. But yes, I wondered for a long time if this is where commodores and fleet captains might come into play.

 

[The Wormhole]

So did Riker in "The Best of Both Worlds, Part II" after Admiral Hanson gives him a field commission. He's back in commander's pips by the following episode so clearly he was never actually a captain. It would seem that four pips can also be worn by any officer who is officially in charge of and responsible for a ship on a permanent, or at least an indefinite, basis – as opposed to for a specific mission etc.

Riker was promoted to full Captain in TBOBW2, he simply chose to go back to being a Commander afterwards. Had he wanted to remain a Captain, he most certainly would have.

but it seems we have on occasion seen four-pip captains who are not in fact captains by rank, merely by position.

No, we just have a weird habit of constantly seeing four-pip Captains commanding ships which should be commanded by someone of a lower rank. Most likely done for convenience, this person is identified as "Captain" in dialogue, costuming puts four pips on their uniform. Only DS9 attempted to be realistic about this, and that didn't work out too well for them. The first time with Lt. Piersall on the USS Prometheus in Second Sight has turned into one of that show's most argued points of contention, while the next time with Dax during the Dominion War has actually confused fans and other writers in the franchise.

 

[Tuskin38]

According to the commentary, Nick’s ship is based off the shape of an Ocarina. Mike specifically referring the one from the Zelda games

 

[Markonian]

I hope this fits here. The latest Lower Decks comic re-introduces the Bonaventure class from TAS!
Imho, it is rendered beautifully in the LD style. I wish Eaglemoss had made a model of it (although I also love the NCC-1000 version).

 

[Dukhat]

I hope this fits here. The latest Lower Decks comic re-introduces the Bonaventure class from TAS!
Imho, it is rendered beautifully in the LD style. I wish Eaglemoss had made a model of it (although I also love the NCC-1000 version).

They still made the common mistake of having those two black holes in front of the saucer as portholes when in fact they are the two ‘C’s’ of the ship’s registry 10281NCC.

 

[HotRod]

It's hideous.

 

[Markonian]

They still made the common mistake of having those two black holes in front of the saucer as portholes when in fact they are the two ‘C’s’ of the ship’s registry 10281NCC.

Whoa! I had read about that before but completely forgotten. We really need that ship/class in STO. Preferably with the option to give it a ordinarily sorted registry.

 

[137th Gebirg]

It's hideous.

So hideous it’s gorgeous!

 

[HotRod]

So hideous it’s gorgeous!

The Daedalus is so hideous, it's gorgeous. That thing is just fugly. The Bonaventure looks like something that'd be commanded by Mickey Mouse, with Goofy as his First Officer.

 

[Markonian]

I agree it’s fugly.
I love it, though. It works as an early awkward attempt at creating the Constitution shape. Elegance died due to some technologies being bulky.

 

[Tiran O'Saurus]

Ah yes, the Bonaventure. The "first starship with warp drive installed" yet it somehow has the registry number 10281NCC, which makes no sense for two reasons. Does the comic discuss any of this to make it make sense? It's LD, so I expect not.

 

[Dukhat]

Ah yes, the Bonaventure. The "first starship with warp drive installed" yet it somehow has the registry number 10281NCC, which makes no sense for two reasons. Does the comic discuss any of this to make it make sense? It's LD, so I expect not.

Even if they did, it wouldn’t be canon info.

 

[Tuskin38]

The Obena is finally in STO. It can be kitbashed with the Excelsior II from Picard

Few more images here

Thomas Marrone (@thomasthecat.bsky.social)

The new Obena-class model for Star Trek Online was modeled by Tobias Richter, with some polish work done by @ramonmatas.bsky.social, who collaborated with @scorpiondesign.bsky.social to do an "ILM" pass on the design so it felt at home with STO's higher detailed ships. @mikemcmahan.bsky.social

bsky.app

 

[Tiran O'Saurus]

Even if they did, it wouldn’t be canon info.

Sure, but I'd like some kind of answer for my own sanity. The best I've been able to come up with is that "the first starship with warp drive installed" refers to the specific model of warp drive that the Enterprise has, and the weird registry number is because it was more of a mock-up than a real ship, so it was given a fake registry.

 

[137th Gebirg]

Maybe it was a Section 31 experiment.

 

[Dukhat]

Sure, but I'd like some kind of answer for my own sanity. The best I've been able to come up with is that "the first starship with warp drive installed" refers to the specific model of warp drive that the Enterprise has, and the weird registry number is because it was more of a mock-up than a real ship, so it was given a fake registry.

The unfortunate truth is that when TAS was broadcast, the intent was that the Bonaventure was the first ship with warp drive installed. Despite it looking not all that dissimilar to the Enterprise, because the writers and animators had no idea about the history of Earth space travel, the formation of the Federation, etc. Honestly, in my opinion the best thing we can do at this point is to just ignore the line, since it's pretty incompatible with Trek history since then.

 

[Nerys Myk]

The Obena is finally in STO. It can be kitbashed with the Excelsior II from Picard

Few more images here

Thomas Marrone (@thomasthecat.bsky.social)

The new Obena-class model for Star Trek Online was modeled by Tobias Richter, with some polish work done by @ramonmatas.bsky.social, who collaborated with @scorpiondesign.bsky.social to do an "ILM" pass on the design so it felt at home with STO's higher detailed ships. @mikemcmahan.bsky.social

bsky.app

Are the nacelles on a turret?

 

[Tuskin38]

That's a design element borrowed from the Excelsior

 

[Nerys Myk]

Looks they could eject the nacelles and use the "turret" as a bridge to control them

 

[Markonian]

Ah yes, the Bonaventure. The "first starship with warp drive installed" yet it somehow has the registry number 10281NCC, which makes no sense for two reasons. Does the comic discuss any of this to make it make sense? It's LD, so I expect not.

Yes!
As Bernd Schneider explained on Ex Astris, Scientia, the info about the Bonaventure was already nonsense and contradicted within the episode it appeared in.

Lower Decks retcons some stuff. The ship is capable of Warp 2.5, old scale. It is a Federation starship, Bonaventure class, from the era after Archer and before Pike & Georgiou, so late 22nd century or very early 23rd. The Starfleet member on the Elysian Council is confirmed to be a USS Bonaventure crewmember by way of having Captain Moyo wear the same uniform.

Conveniently, that could allow for the 10281NCC and the NCC-1000 to exist in the same continuity, just different decades.

The Obena is finally in STO. It can be kitbashed with the Excelsior II from Picard

Few more images here

Thomas Marrone (@thomasthecat.bsky.social)

The new Obena-class model for Star Trek Online was modeled by Tobias Richter, with some polish work done by @ramonmatas.bsky.social, who collaborated with @scorpiondesign.bsky.social to do an "ILM" pass on the design so it felt at home with STO's higher detailed ships. @mikemcmahan.bsky.social

bsky.app

I got that ship but I'm leaving it packed up on the main server for now. Might sell it on later. But I wanted to try out the kitbash options on the Tribble test server. Unfortunately, there it only has the Excelsior II skin for now. I am so excited about getting both classes as models from Fanhome.