Ship Registries Questions

[Herbert1]

I rather like that approach for early Earth space forays, on the basis that the registry of a ship could just as well be its type description: each ship would be an incremental improvement over the former. That way, some of the type designations cum registries in the list Picard studies in "Up the Long Ladder" might make good sense: it would be possible to identify an individual ship by saying that it is DY-432, but OTOH there might also be a dozen examples of DY-500C.

But Picard's list doesn't support an all-out interpretation of all DY numbers as registry numbers, since there are indeed multiple ships labeled DY-500C. An alternate simple approach, then, would be to say that the DY number indeed primarily refers to the model of the ship, and that it can only help identify an individual vessel in those (rare or common) cases when she's the only one of her type.

Did the DY prefix originate from Jefferies himself? Did he intend for it to be Douglas Yakolev for the American Douglas Corporation and the Soviet Yakolev Design Bureau? Or is this fan speculation based on Jefferies explanation of NCC? Is it Dyson Yoyodyne now? Is this from Okuda or Sternbach or is this more fan speculation based on a joke referencing "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension" and Freeman Dyson?

Where does that "NV class" notion come from? (And wouldn't it rather be "Envy class" unless we get it in writing? No, seriously, we could also be looking at a TOS Jay class thematically named after various birds...)

Didn't you use Triton Class for the ENT Intrepid? Is the NV an abbreviation for Naval Vessel? But didn't that originate from a fan ortho drawing of the ship and this was adopted by other fans? How about a Jay Class for American Continental Congress President John Jay?

 

[David cgc]

Where does that "NV class" notion come from? (And wouldn't it rather be "Envy class" unless we get it in writing? No, seriously, we could also be looking at a TOS Jay class thematically named after various birds...)

Fanon. Pure fanon. The show model had no nameplates or numbers, because God forbid the CGI team might have to spend an extra five minutes making a new one for a different guest ship. Much easier just to have them all unmarked. I remember that way back when, someone (possibly me, but the thread's long since pruned, and I don't want to be vain enough to take credit for such a widespread meme without evidence) suggesting the Intrepid might be NV-Class as an arbitrary example, during one of the interminable discussions about the concept of the NX-Class (as opposed to Enterprise-class, or NX being only acceptable in the eyes of God for class ships that haven't finished their shakedowns), and I can only assume it caught on.

I have seen fan models of the Intrepid with an NV registry (like this one) but, again, they're fan-art, and us fans can be a bit more obsessive about not having blank nameplates than the people actually making the shows. In that case, an arbitrary standard is probably better than no standard at all, but it shouldn't be mistaken for gospel.

 

[Forbin]

Wait, somebody actually thought there would be an NV class before the sadly-mistakenly-named NX class?!

 

[David cgc]

As I recall, it was along the lines of, "No, it's not an Enterprise-Class ship, it's an NX-class. Like the J- or DY-Class freighters from TOS. Why, in all likelihood, that other Starfleet ship from "The Expanse" was an NV-class or something. Yes, I realize that "NX" denoted a prototype in the other shows, but apparently things are different in the past, and they use a letter system. Maybe it's a coincidence that the hero ship got NX, maybe later cases are a homage, who knows. No, this has nothing to do with the display alcove in TMP..."

Good times.

 

[aridas sofia]

Did the DY prefix originate from Jefferies himself? Did he intend for it to be Douglas Yakolev for the American Douglas Corporation and the Soviet Yakolev Design Bureau? Or is this fan speculation based on Jefferies explanation of NCC? Is it Dyson Yoyodyne now? Is this from Okuda or Sternbach or is this more fan speculation based on a joke referencing "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension" and Freeman Dyson?

He lived near Douglas Aircraft, and collected a great deal of material from them. Given Douglas' numbering conventions, it seems possible that Jefferies was indicating the DY as a (D) Douglas (Y) prototype. Interestingly, in Carey Wilber's script, it was "CZ" -- one letter off from DY in each direction.

I came up with "Douglas Yakovlev" as a way of getting Douglas back into it, but still including something about US-Soviet cooperation. And as a way of excising that "Yoyodyne" nonsense from my website.

 

[Dukhat]

Some of the background ships had registries of NV, NW, and so on. I used to have some really nice orthos of them, but that computer got lost in the eviction heap.

The pics might still be available on hobbytalk, but you'll have to dig back a few years.

Any orthos you might have had with registry numbers were completely fan-made. The only Earth ships that were ever labeled with registry numbers were the Enterprise, Columbia, Avenger, and the Fortunate. Rob Bonchune specifically stated that the other earth Starfleet vessels were never given numbers. John Eaves made a pencil/ink sketch of the Sarajevo type with the registry of NC-27, but that didn't make it to the final CGI model.

Interestingly, there was a mission patch made with the number "NA-01," which could possibly denote a ship reg, but the patch was made for Tycho Base. (Unless that's were the NA-01 was built).

 

[Captain Robert April]

I guess this sort of thing should be expected when the art department is full of hardcore fanboys while the showrunners haven't got more than half a clue about what they're doing.

 

[Vance]

Well, the thing to keep in mind is that the registrar for ENT and for Star Trek (and forward) are not the same fleet. So an NX designation simply has a different purpose and schema as the NX series from 2245 and onward.

NX-01 Enterprise = NX Series vessel, NX-01. UESPA Fleet
NX-01 Dauntless = Naval Experimental vessel, NX-01, made NCC-01 after trial runs. Federation Fleet (UESPA authority)

Simple enough.

 

[Captain Robert April]

Y'know, it would help a lot if we could disabuse ourselves of this idea that "N" has to stand for something that starts with an "N". In those airplane tail numbers we're all so fond of citing, "N" stands for the United States.

And from what I've been able to glean from all the registry numbers I've seen, "N" stands for the Federation, not "Naval".

 

[Wingsley]

Right, we have no idea what "NCC" means, if it means anything at all.

"NCC" could mean "naval construction contract" or "navigation contact code", or for all we know the N, C and C could be a code signifying Federation Class I star drive vessels, to borrow a term from FJ. We have a very good idea that "NCC-1701" is the registry for the Enterprise, but very little that's concrete beyond that.

 

[Vance]

"Naval Construction contract" was literally signed off on by Roddenberry, so it works fine for me.

 

[Wingsley]

Richard Arnold shot off his mouth n print (I can't remember if it was Starlog or the Official Fan Club magazine) in the early 1990's, insisting that "NCC" does not officially stand for anything. He was still working in the studio when he publicly proclaimed that.

I'm not endorsing Arnold's stance, just pointing out that he has an argument.

 

[Unicron]

I've always kind of liked Naval Construction Contract myself, with NX being Naval Experiment and NAR (seen on some civilian ships) being Naval Auxilliary Reserve (I think).

 

[Vance]

Richard Arnold shot off his mouth n print (I can't remember if it was Starlog or the Official Fan Club magazine) in the early 1990's, insisting that "NCC" does not officially stand for anything. He was still working in the studio when he publicly proclaimed that.

I'm not endorsing Arnold's stance, just pointing out that he has an argument.

It's also a bit of a question as to WHY he answered in that way, since he was more than likely aware of the Blueprints and Technical Manual's use of the acronym. Was this still part of GR's 'erase Franz Joseph' phase? Hard to say... but , in lieu of anything else, it's the only official answer we've ever gotten, and it's one that, as I said, Roddenberry himself signed off on.

 

[darkwing_duck1]

I could not care less what Richard Arnold said or says. He was/is a slimy little opportunistic worm who somehow managed to leach onto the franchise ...

 

[Wingsley]

When did Roddenberry endorse "NCC" as standing for "Naval Construction Contract"?

 

[Robert Simmons]

NCC....No Cover Charge.

 

[Vance]

When did Roddenberry endorse "NCC" as standing for "Naval Construction Contract"?

When he personally signed and endorsed the Franz Joseph Blueprints and declared them 'authentic and official' way way back in 1973.

 

[Dukhat]

I guess this sort of thing should be expected when the art department is full of hardcore fanboys while the showrunners haven't got more than half a clue about what they're doing.

For once I'm in complete agreement with you. Using the D7 Klingon battlecruiser model instead of the new CGI ship originally made for "Unexpected," solely because the producers didn't like the ship's lights, was absolutely ridiculous. According to Bonchune, it was poor choices like that which caused the show's downfall, among other things.

Personally, I like the notion that registries of "N_" denote Earth Starfleet vessels, with NA through NX denoting 24 separate ship classes. If each ship class only had a limited number of vessels (for example, the NX class probably only consisted of six ships named after the shuttles), then the ES would consist of about 100 to 150 ships, not at all unreasonable. That would also explain why the NC-27 Sarajevo looks so much more primitive and different than the NX-01 Enterprise. Perhaps the Intrepid was an NW class ship and the warp delta was, say, an NR class.

 

[Mysterion]

NCC = No Canon Conotation.