Changes in ship design and technology

[JuanBolio]

I read that the engineer who originally did the Constitution-class was sucked out of a hull breach during the Kelvin attack, and the project was put on hold when originally it would've been completed in 2245. It was then picked back up again in the 2250's by the guy who in the prime universe would've done the refit Enterprise, which explains why the new ship looks like a cross between the two.

Your probably reading this excerpt that has been on the web, Until some official book or something tells otherwise, it's as good as anything else.

The Constitution class was conceived by a team of designers led by Janice Newfield, a brilliant engineer and visionary. The project was at the conceptual stage in 2232 and was targeted to have working products in 10 years time. While working on improving the USS Kelvin's engines in 2233, the ship was attacked by an unknown Romulan ship. Janice was killed when a bulkhead near her was destroyed and she was sucked out into space.

When Janice died, the project was put on hold for a decade until a very bright engineering student (who, in the original timeline, many years later, oversaw the Constitution refit) named Tsi Sang helped restart the project submitting his own unique changes that were never included by the original designer, Janice Newfield (this is why the ship is more advanced looking in the movie). The project was restarted in 2244 under Sang's supervision.

The 17xx registry number set was held for the Constitution class, the prototype, the USS Constitution - 1700, tested in 2252 had many issues, while most were resolved a structural support issue could not be, so the ship was decommissioned in 2253. Sang resolved the structural issue and all the other issues and Starfleet decided to build the next Constitution (1701) on Earth where it could give the structure better gravity stress tests.

Starfleet was so impressed with this new ship that they made the first one (The Enterprise) the flagship and assigned veteran captain Chris Pike as it's commander. The Enterprise was so new in fact, that only few Starfleet personal were trained in her systems. Realizing this, Starfleet Academy started to train its students on these new systems in 2257, so by 2258 many of the older academy students could be a part of the Enterprise's crew.

According to Janice's logs it was always her intention for the first production Constitution to be named the Enterprise after the famous pre-Federation ship from the mid 22nd century. Starfleet did, respectfully, name the first production ship (1701), Enterprise even though Sang wanted the name to be The USS Yorktown.

Yep, that be it. Works well, I think.

 

[Timo]

This all sounds a little bit overcomplicated. Why should we think there was a design change, as opposed to a name change?

For all we know, the ship class familiar from TOS was built just as is. There just was a random fluke wherein the name Constitution was given to another, larger ship class which may or may not have existed in the TOS timeline. The TOS ships simply got named differently in the STXI universe.

Starfleet wouldn't be in the business of designing, constructing and operating names. They procure designs, and then slap more or less random names and registries on them for bookkeeping purposes. Nothing much need have changed between the TOS and STXI universes to alter minor naming details.

In STXI, the Enterprise is supposed to be some sort of a flagship that has a big reputation even before her maiden voyage. In TOS, we followed the adventures of a relatively undistinguished Enterprise instead - the adventures that made the name distinguished. What if the STXI ship was named after a preceding famous Enterprise, more specifically after the ship we saw in TOS?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[JuanBolio]

This all sounds a little bit overcomplicated. Why should we think there was a design change, as opposed to a name change?

For all we know, the ship class familiar from TOS was built just as is. There just was a random fluke wherein the name Constitution was given to another, larger ship class which may or may not have existed in the TOS timeline. The TOS ships simply got named differently in the STXI universe.

Starfleet wouldn't be in the business of designing, constructing and operating names. They procure designs, and then slap more or less random names and registries on them for bookkeeping purposes. Nothing much need have changed between the TOS and STXI universes to alter minor naming details.

In STXI, the Enterprise is supposed to be some sort of a flagship that has a big reputation even before her maiden voyage. In TOS, we followed the adventures of a relatively undistinguished Enterprise instead - the adventures that made the name distinguished. What if the STXI ship was named after a preceding famous Enterprise, more specifically after the ship we saw in TOS?

Timo Saloniemi

I don't think that's quite what they were going for, but if that works better for you, that's awesome.

 

[USS Excelsior]

That would mean that NuRobert April would have commanded a ship like from TOS but with a different ship and class name, and maybe even in the NuTrek Universe that NuSpock and NuPike served on that same ship and also went through The Cage with the Talosians just like in the Prime Universe.

No way to know if there'll be a crippled Pike to have to go back to Talos in the NuTrek Universe though.