I'm sure this has been asked here before, in fact I bet it has....... But what is USS and NCC? Do they actually mean something?
Sorry if this is a silly question but what does USS and NCC mean?
- Thread starter Gingerbread Demon
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USS means 'United Space Ship', at least according to Christopher Pike in The Menagerie.
I don't think NCC ever got explained.
I don't think NCC ever got explained.
Thanks...... United Space Ship sounds Ok but really thought that would have something linking it to Starfleet but USS just sounds funny
NCC, at least as far as most of the fandom is concerned, is 'Naval Construction Contract.' NX is 'Naval Experimental,' while the civilian/merchant NAR*... I've never heard what it is in-universe, so I'll just make up one here... 'Naval Adjacent Registry.'
* It actually came from the 'National Association of Rocketry,' which Rick Sternbach and Mike Okuda are members of.
* It actually came from the 'National Association of Rocketry,' which Rick Sternbach and Mike Okuda are members of.
At least that one makes more sense since you could consider Starfleet a kind of navy
Jefferies did it because he liked it:
The original Enterprise model was designed by production designer and model-maker Matt Jefferies, and he spoke with StarTrek.com back in 2001 to discuss the reasoning behind the NCC prefix. Jefferies revealed that he merely ported over WWII-era United States aircraft registry codes. The aircraft country registration code for the U.S. happens to be the letter "N." Prior to 1948, that letter could be followed by a secondary initial to indicate the craft's use. NP was used on private planes, NS was used for state planes, NL was used for limited planes, and NC was used for commercial planes.
So "NC" was just a country code with the second "C" standing for "commercial."
But why include the second "C?" Jefferies admitted that he liked the (now retired) CCCP designation on Soviet aircraft and just tacked on a second "C" for aesthetic reasons. For those unfamiliar with the Cyrillic alphabet, "CCCP" is actually the Russian abbreviation for "Союз Советских Социалистических Республик," or, translated, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
Read More: https://www.slashfilm.com/1736819/star-trek-ncc-meaning-explained/
Paging @Maurice for any additional details. But, it's not ever said to stand for anything.
The original Enterprise model was designed by production designer and model-maker Matt Jefferies, and he spoke with StarTrek.com back in 2001 to discuss the reasoning behind the NCC prefix. Jefferies revealed that he merely ported over WWII-era United States aircraft registry codes. The aircraft country registration code for the U.S. happens to be the letter "N." Prior to 1948, that letter could be followed by a secondary initial to indicate the craft's use. NP was used on private planes, NS was used for state planes, NL was used for limited planes, and NC was used for commercial planes.
So "NC" was just a country code with the second "C" standing for "commercial."
But why include the second "C?" Jefferies admitted that he liked the (now retired) CCCP designation on Soviet aircraft and just tacked on a second "C" for aesthetic reasons. For those unfamiliar with the Cyrillic alphabet, "CCCP" is actually the Russian abbreviation for "Союз Советских Социалистических Республик," or, translated, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
Read More: https://www.slashfilm.com/1736819/star-trek-ncc-meaning-explained/
Paging @Maurice for any additional details. But, it's not ever said to stand for anything.
Yes, the NCC meaning "Naval Construction Contract" was coined in the Enterprise blueprints or tech manual... a good idea but a fan creation, not canonical. I think The World of Star Trek had a paragraph about it had no defined meaning, but was just picked because it sounded semimilitary and seminavigational.
Some of FJ's work was used in screen graphics in movies I-III, I believe one of the pages shows has "Naval Construction Contract" on it.
Making it as canon as Buckaroo Bonzai and all those Anime shows Okuda used to love and reference in graphics during TNG.
If so, it's canonical! Thanks!
Weird. It’s right there on all the ships and I’ve never thought about it before.
That's pretty much it.
United States Ship... technically speaking...
;^D
;^D
It's the prefix used for United States naval vessels, so American shows often use it for spaceships too. While Pike said "United Space Ship," later productions have generally established it as "United Star Ship." I tend to assume it's implicitly "United [Federation of Planets] Star Ship," but of course, the Federation wasn't introduced until "Arena" and wasn't given its full name until "A Taste of Armageddon," so when they established "USS" in the pilot, the concept of the Federation didn't exist yet. (Maybe they were thinking "United [Earth] Space Ship.")
As for NCC, apparently Matt Jefferies based that on aviation registry numbers -- I think he combined the "NC" from American aircraft with the "C" from Soviet aircraft or something to imply an international service. It wasn't supposed to stand for anything in particular. It was fan technical writers (maybe Franz Joseph?) who came up with the "Naval Construction Contract" idea, though others proposed "Navigational Contact Code," and some said it stood for both.
United Space Ship. It was used in TOS,
Nope. Never was.
Okay, going by Chakoteya's transcript site, the ship is referred to as the "United Space Ship Enterprise" in "The Cage," "Space Seed," "The Gamesters of Triskelion," "Patterns of Force," "Assignment: Earth," and "Elaan of Troyius." It's the "United Star Ship Enterprise" in "Court Martial" and "The Squire of Gothos." Kirk calls it the "United Earth Ship Enterprise" in "The Corbomite Maneuver," though that doesn't fit the "USS."
I could've sworn it was given as "United Star Ship" in TNG, but apparently TOS is the only series that spelled it out.
I could've sworn it was given as "United Star Ship" in TNG, but apparently TOS is the only series that spelled it out.
I remember someone sent in a question to the old Star Trek Communicator magazine in the 90s asking what NCC meant, and they said it officially had no meaning. Naval Construction Contract has been used in novels, but apparently is not considered canon by those in authority.
Yeah. Assuming that some background set graphic that nobody would notice without freeze-framing was meant to be as authoritative as actual spoken dialogue is unreasonable. The movie art departments didn't use Franz Joseph graphics because someone in authority wanted to declare them authoritative, just because they were available and it saved them work to reuse existing art. They never expected people would be examining individual frames decades later.
Plus, of course, any large canon contains multiple contradictions, like James R. Kirk/James T. Kirk, or "The Alternative Factor" saying a matter-antimatter reaction would destroy the whole universe when everything else in Trek says M/AM is the power source for warp engines. So just because something appears on a screen once doesn't mean it's gospel. Especially if it's a minor background detail.
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