News Ships of the Line 2026 Calendar

[The Wormhole]

Good god, seriously? The Reliant is the most well known Miranda class ship in the franchise, as such its name and registry are likely default on the CG meshes used for these calendars. And these calendars aren't canon anyway, meaning we don't need to clutch pearls over how the Reliant can exist at the same time as the Enterprise A. And since they're not canon, they're not meant to be taken so damn literally anyway. But even putting that aside, even onscreen material makes these kinds of mess ups all the time. There's the aforementioned Prodigy S1 finale where all the ships of a particular class had the same name and registry and there's Voyager's Message in a Bottle where both Defiant class ships sent to retake the Prometheus have USS Defiant NX-74205 on their hull.

And that's before we get into other oddities, like he Bellerophon on DS9, where in some scenes they used stock shots of Voyager meaning it had Voyager's name and registry clearly visible on those shots while having its own name and registry visible in others. Or Tom and Stadi's shuttle in Caretaker, which changes registry numbers in every shot we see of it. Or there's the Prometheus, which has a different registry number on the dedication plaque than the hull. Really, the amount of registry number mistakes made onscreen are so vast which no one gets bent out of shape over that it feels like hypocrisy to call the calendar out for doing the exact same thing.

 

[Christopher]

Starfleet decides what registry numbers are supposed to be and what traditions they have.

Starfleet doesn't exist. It's a fictional entity invented by TV and movie writers. Registry numbers are a real thing that serve a practical purpose, and if writers don't understand that purpose and depict them in a nonsensical way, that's a failure of writing. A lot of writers over the years have depicted Starfleet doing things that no real service would do, like, say, giving command of the Kelvin Enterprise to a cadet. Some things are just bad ideas.

And come on, how does it make any sense to have the names and the numbers serve the same purpose? That's redundant. Why even use numbers in that case?

The pattern is: every successor to a hero ship gets a letter except for the Defiant, which couldn't because of stock footage. Those are the ships legendary enough to go into the museum, among others.

First off, there's no way to prove such a pattern with a limited sample. Second, the very idea of a "hero ship" is elitist and shallow, an insult to the crews of Starfleet vessels that didn't happen to get famous through the vagaries of history and publicity, let alone those who died unacknowledged.

I mean, look at how many later ships are named after crews that died in TOS episodes -- the Defiant, the Lexington, the Hood, the entire Constellation class. Were all those crews who gave their lives in the line of duty not "heroic" enough because their successor ships weren't given the same registry numbers? That's going way too far to handwave an excuse for a bad creative decision.

Good god, seriously? The Reliant is the most well known Miranda class ship in the franchise, as such its name and registry are likely default on the CG meshes used for these calendars. And these calendars aren't canon anyway, meaning we don't need to clutch pearls over how the Reliant can exist at the same time as the Enterprise A. And since they're not canon, they're not meant to be taken so damn literally anyway.

I don't think anyone's taking them literally, just speculating about whether there's a way the posited scenario could be justified in-universe. Speculation is not an expression of belief, simply an exercise of imagination.

But even putting that aside, even onscreen material makes these kinds of mess ups all the time. There's the aforementioned Prodigy S1 finale where all the ships of a particular class had the same name and registry* and there's Voyager's Message in a Bottle where both Defiant class ships sent to retake the Prometheus have USS Defiant NX-74205 on their hull.

True. While speculation is valid, we can still recognize that some things are just mistakes or bad ideas and don't really have plausible explanations.

Really, the amount of registry number mistakes made onscreen are so vast which no one gets bent out of shape over that it feels like hypocrisy to call the calendar out for doing the exact same thing.

Again, I don't think just having a conversation constitutes being "bent out of shape" about something. Issues can be discussed and debated without strong emotion being involved.

And the difference is that the examples you cited were allowed through because they were blink-and-you'll-miss-it glimpses that most viewers wouldn't notice, or because the producers had to settle for inconsistent stock footage because they didn't have the time or money to get it right. A calendar image is meant to be noticed and studied, to be on clear display for at least a month. So any inconsistencies stand out rather more.

 

[David cgc]

There are thirteen other images in the calendar to talk about.

 

[Tallguy]

I'm glad it's not another "Best Of". No Bill Krause?

Very nice to see 21st century Trek represented. I mean, TOS guy through and through, but lovely to see the Disco and the Cerritos. And the Protostar! I'll even begrudgingly be happy about the SNW ship for them what like that sort of thing. (Love the show, hate the ship.)

 

[Krupp]

Getting the last few days of "What are you?" mirrored TOS Connie in April before turning the leaf to May. Though the calendar wasn't available domestically, I had to order it for forward shipping from the US and became an unlucky one selected for customs, so I'm pretty sure my calendar cost €50 this year, all told! If it isn't available for European shipping I'll leave it aside this year coming, but hopefully it'll crop up somewhere.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

There are thirteen other images in the calendar to talk about.

Yes. Let's talk about that scout on the cover, that, without a navigational deflector, would turn into Swiss cheese before it hit quarter impulse?

I kitbashed one, in my teens, from AMT parts (and the business end of a cheap plastic 1ml measuring pipette, of all things). Used another pipette (I think they came in a 6-pack) when I kitbashed a tug.

Getting the last few days of "What are you?" mirrored TOS Connie

Yes. Did that picture originally run sometime in . . . 2001?

And does anybody else see a face in the picture? With the primary hull and its reflection as eyes, and a shadow on the Monolith as a nose?

All these worlds are yours, except Europa. Attempt no landing there.

 

[Tallguy]

Yes. Let's talk about that scout on the cover, that, without a navigational deflector, would turn into Swiss cheese before it hit quarter impulse?

Obviously there are deflectors on either side of decks 6 and 7 behind hull that is marked "transparent to radiation".

 

[Christopher]

Yes. Let's talk about that scout on the cover, that, without a navigational deflector, would turn into Swiss cheese before it hit quarter impulse?

It always bugged me that ILM designed the Reliant without a deflector dish. Apparently the after-the-fact handwave is that those structures on the top of the saucer that resemble the ones flanking the refit-Connie deflector dish are the deflector beam emitters, or else that the shields incorporate a navigational deflector function. I don't care for either of those, though, since they feel like papering over ILM's mistake after the fact. I never liked ILM's starship designs much; it seems they threw out Jefferies's commitment to plausible design logic in favor of "Does it look cool?" Although I never thought their designs looked cool either.

 

[XCV330]

Starfleet decides what registry numbers are supposed to be and what traditions they have.

The pattern is: every successor to a hero ship gets a letter except for the Defiant, which couldn't because of stock footage. Those are the ships legendary enough to go into the museum, among others.

Reliant is legendary, just for the wrong reasons.

 

[Detached Nacelle]

Reliant is legendary, just for the wrong reasons.

Reminds me of the low resolution assumption there was the Reliant-M in the 32nd century and it being very confusing as to why it got an illustrious dash.

 

[Markonian]

In STO, all Fed ships have a deflector dish. It’s just that the deflector isn’t always visible from the outside. Examples include Miranda class and Centaur class Mk. I. Perhaps the scout also has a deflector just inside the top of its saucer.

 

[Dukhat]

I'm curious as to the legality of clearly using a FJ design for the calendar (which has happened before, when Drexler used the Ptolemy class tugs in his artwork.) Does removing the deflector dish all of a sudden allow CBS/Paramount to use the design without paying royalties to FJ's estate?

 

[Tallguy]

I'm curious as to the legality of clearly using a FJ design for the calendar (which has happened before, when Drexler used the Ptolemy class tugs in his artwork.) Does removing the deflector dish all of a sudden allow CBS/Paramount to use the design without paying royalties to FJ's estate?

Karen S seems to be up on this stuff, so I'm actually assuming they paid her. But what do I know? I don't know how the budget for these things work.

 

[Tuskin38]

I don't think anyone's taking them literally

The memory beta editors do for some reason

 

[Tuskin38]

Reliant is legendary, just for the wrong reasons.

I just hand wave it as being in honour of the crew killed by Khan

 

[Dukhat]

Karen S seems to be up on this stuff, so I'm actually assuming they paid her. But what do I know? I don't know how the budget for these things work.

Who is Karen S.?

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Who is Karen S.?

I'm guessing that would be Karen Schnaubelt, his daughter, aka Karen Schnaubelt Taylor Dick.

(I had a professor whose last name was Dick. For some reason he had a very strict policy of never making fun of anybody's name.)

 

[Dukhat]

I'm guessing that would be Karen Schnaubelt, his daughter, aka Karen Schnaubelt Taylor Dick.

(I had a professor whose last name was Dick. For some reason he had a very strict policy of never making fun of anybody's name.)

Ah, ok. Still, I'm curious as to how this got through, because I'm going to go out on a limb and say that I think CBS didn't pay her squat.

 

[Enterprise1701]

Good god, seriously? The Reliant is the most well known Miranda class ship in the franchise, as such its name and registry are likely default on the CG meshes used for these calendars.

This reasoning is nonsense which makes no sense in context of freshly-generated artwork.

 

[Tallguy]

Ah, ok. Still, I'm curious as to how this got through, because I'm going to go out on a limb and say that I think CBS didn't pay her squat.

If the rumors are true then somebody did pay. I've heard tell that she is polite but firm about Paramount using her dad's stuff for free. (If someone knows otherwise, please fill me in so I don't go on repeating this.)