50 years

[Wingsley]

Franz Joseph Schnaubelt's impressive work in the 1970s was (and still is) inspiring and insightful. He engrained many interesting ideas into STAR TREK lore. He was a pioneer, adding a new dimension to TREK terminology, literature and art. I don't think anybody else was doing anything like that before he did.

That having been said, the pioneering nature of his work also made it quirky from our vantage-point. He did all that at a time long before VCR's, the consumerized internet, or even the Web. There was no on-demand video viewing, no freeze-frame, no downloadable transcripts or anything like that. It was like listening to a radio show; as soon as it is said, it is gone ("the mysterious medium"). FJ's fixation on "Whom Gods Destroy" is an excellent example: from Kirk's conversations with Garth, FJ derived that the Federation wasn't officially organized as a working entity until James T. Kirk was a young man at the Axanar Peace Conference. (Strangely, Kirk and Garth alluded to a battle at Axanar, with Garth's command abilities apparently tested in that battle; plus Kirk was said to be a cadet or young officer at Axanar. In order for this to be the case, there had to be some organization of planets, plus some space armada, already in existence prior to the Federation. Could it be Archer's Coalition of Planets???) Other mentions of Federation history muddy the waters, like the Starships Horizon and Archon having been lost 100 years prior to TOS, were never mentioned in FJ's work. So it could be said that some things were either very loosely interpreted or just plain "fell through the cracks" of FJ's records.

 

[Ithekro]

One wonders just how many Constitutions were built. Were they one batch, or multiple batches over the course of decades? Did they really have several class names for different refits and modifications (or just Batch numbers).


We know that by Picard's time, they are seemingly all lumped together as "Constitution-class".

There could be any number of explanations. None are more correct than another unless it comes out on screen someday.

One version is that the ships usually called Constitution-class are older than we think, and simply Enterprise is a newer ship in the class at 1701 verses the older ships like Constellation at 1017 or presumably Eagle in the 900s. 1700 being the ship model closest to Enterprise in design.

However the linear numbering system FJ has never seems to work with Starfleet ships. Only a few of the constitutions seem to line up, while other are spread out. Same with later classes of starships. The Galaxy class ships are mostly In the 71000s, but not in sequential order.


I proposed once for the Constitutions that their hull numbers were suppose to provide information of some kind. Since the Constitution has generally been labeled NCC-1700, and it is suppose to be the class ships, one needs a reason for so many ships to have earlier numbers. What I came up with was that the hull number gives the location the ship was built. This way, all those ships can be built at the same relative time, or have newer ships with lower hull numbers than expected, just because it was built at a yard that sees less production than other yards.

Sol has 1700s. This is known by the place of construction for Enterprise and Defiant. Both ships in the 1700s. Enterprise was built at Earth while Defiant was built over Luna. (Also all the Enterprises are built in the Sol System. Be it Earth or Mars.) The 1600s could have been built in another star system (Vulcan or Andor, though other stars are available). The 900s, 1000s, 1300s, and 1800s could also be anywhere. The 1800s might be Sol, if the 1700 range ran out before other planets caught up to take that next set of hundred ships. 2000s are also Sol as that is were USS Excelsior is built.

It gives the hull numbers some sort of meaning rather than just a random number with NCC stuck in front of it.