Only Earth names for starships?

[captcalhoun]

maybe you could, but i couldn't.

 

[Kirby]

Where is the USS Shaft? That ship would be one bad mother...

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ Shut yo' mouth!

 

[Kirby]

^ Love it!

 

[Jedi Marso]

Ships like the Defiant, Reliant, Enterprise, etc don't bother me so much, as they are more generic.

The thing there is, the display wall in the Enterprise's observation lounge had a collection of models of Human naval ships and starships. The USS Enterprise wasn't named for a basic generic concept, it was named for a lineage of Human ships.

What would be cool to see is a Starfleet ship with an Andorian name, crewed primarily by Andorians (with a smattering of others, of course), and in the lounge we see the same collection of models depicting former Andorian starships, airships, icebreakers, and so on from Andorian naval history.

Same with the Vulcans, Tellarites, etc.

 

[Sci]

Ships like the Defiant, Reliant, Enterprise, etc don't bother me so much, as they are more generic.

The thing there is, the display wall in the Enterprise's observation lounge had a collection of models of Human naval ships and starships. The USS Enterprise wasn't named for a basic generic concept, it was named for a lineage of Human ships.

What would be cool to see is a Starfleet ship with an Andorian name, crewed primarily by Andorians (with a smattering of others, of course), and in the lounge we see the same collection of models depicting former Andorian starships, airships, icebreakers, and so on from Andorian naval history.

Same with the Vulcans, Tellarites, etc.

Well, I think that would be appropriate for the 23rd Century Starfleet, but I would hope that the 24th Century Starfleet would have greater species integration.

Who knows? Maybe the 23rd Century U.S.S. Kumari NCC-1702 was named in honor of the Kumari lineage from Andor, with Captain Anlenthoris th'Cordithia commanding a mostly-Andorian crew, only to be followed by ships named after her until we reach the Galaxy-class U.S.S. Kumari NCC-1702-D, under the command of an Andorian officer but featuring many different species in the crew, by the 2360s...

Also:

This is just me speculating, but I like to think that the U.S.S. Kelvin's starship class was descended from Tellarite design lineages, and that as such her ship class actually has a Tellarite name. Shallash class, perhaps; or maybe Gora bim Gral class.

(I also like to imagine that the ST09 timeline's Constitution class was influenced more strongly by Andorian designs -- hence the Enterprise's differing livery color scheme, and her greater use of flowing, curved hulls.)

 

[Jedi Marso]

The thing there is, the display wall in the Enterprise's observation lounge had a collection of models of Human naval ships and starships. The USS Enterprise wasn't named for a basic generic concept, it was named for a lineage of Human ships.

What would be cool to see is a Starfleet ship with an Andorian name, crewed primarily by Andorians (with a smattering of others, of course), and in the lounge we see the same collection of models depicting former Andorian starships, airships, icebreakers, and so on from Andorian naval history.

Same with the Vulcans, Tellarites, etc.

Well, I think that would be appropriate for the 23rd Century Starfleet, but I would hope that the 24th Century Starfleet would have greater species integration.

Species integration is great in theory but realistically speaking, it makes sense to crew ships primarily with one type of bioform. Environmental requirements (physical and psychological) are the big factors, and the size of the medical staff you need to carry another. With replicators and such the whole food-stores thing becomes moot, however. I can see mixing crews where the bioforms are very similar, but less so when they begin to diverge.

 

[Sci]

What would be cool to see is a Starfleet ship with an Andorian name, crewed primarily by Andorians (with a smattering of others, of course), and in the lounge we see the same collection of models depicting former Andorian starships, airships, icebreakers, and so on from Andorian naval history.

Same with the Vulcans, Tellarites, etc.

Well, I think that would be appropriate for the 23rd Century Starfleet, but I would hope that the 24th Century Starfleet would have greater species integration.

Species integration is great in theory but realistically speaking, it makes sense to crew ships primarily with one type of bioform. Environmental requirements (physical and psychological) are the big factors, and the size of the medical staff you need to carry another. With replicators and such the whole food-stores thing becomes moot, however. I can see mixing crews where the bioforms are very similar, but less so when they begin to diverge.

On the other hand, what if greater biological diversity turns out to have beneficial consequences? What if the differing life experiences of biologically diverse species lead to insights and therefore command decisions that wouldn't have happened on a more homogenous starship?

I think it's safe to say that Starfleet has often fallen into the habit of a certain level of species segregation, but I think that learning how to accommodate and unify biologically diverse species would itself be one of the great projects for social progress within the Federation and its Starfleet.

In fact, this theme -- Starfleet trying to create more diverse crews and overcome its tendency towards species segregation -- is one of the premises behind the Star Trek: Titan series of novels, in which the Luna-class starship, of which Captain Riker's U.S.S. Titan is one, is a special class of starship explicitly designed to accommodate an incredibly biologically diverse crew.

 

[captcalhoun]

correction: a class of starships specially modified to accomodate an incredibly biologically diverse crew.

none of the background of the novels suggests the ships were anything more than a regular new class of ships which were refit or modified to support a greater amount of biodiversity.

 

[Sci]

correction: a class of starships specially modified to accomodate an incredibly biologically diverse crew.

none of the background of the novels suggests the ships were anything more than a regular new class of ships which were refit or modified to support a greater amount of biodiversity.

Er, no, numerous scenes in Star Trek: Titan make it clear that the Luna class was designed from the start to accommodate a more biologically diverse crew than most Starfleet vessels. Read especially Orion's Hounds.

 

[T'Girl]

What would be cool to see is a Starfleet ship with an Andorian name, crewed primarily by Andorians (with a smattering of others, of course), and in the lounge we see the same collection of models depicting former Andorian starships, airships, icebreakers, and so on from Andorian naval history.

We did see a little something like this in DS9's Take Me Out to the Holosuite, with the primarily Vulcan crewed (exclusively crewed?) T'Kumbra. Vulcan ship name, with a Vulcan crew. It would be easy to imagine their conference lounge with a display wall containing exclusive ships of Vulcan historical lineage.

Species integration is great in theory but realistically speaking, it makes sense to crew ships primarily with one type of bioform.

There is also the possibly of significant species psychology and cultural clash, to the point that decisions simply can not be made within the command crew. The members of the ship's total crew can't be TOO diverse in their psychology, or the ship will cease to function.