Amok Time ?

In TOS Episode "Amok Time" the Enterprise was supposed to go to Altair VI along with 3 other starships, were the other starships named?
During TOS run how many times were starships seen or mentioned?

JDW

 

^Yes. Larry, Curly and Moe.

Seriously, I don't know why but for some reason, I think this ought be in the TOS forum. shrugs. Maybe not.

Meanwhile, There's the bunch of ships listed on a screen at one of the episodes on a starbase, supposedly 12 other constitution class starships. I'm sure there are few more we saw, like the daystrom (?) robot that automated the starship, destroying other Starfleet vessels, or the one that were devoured by the thing that destroys planets. Sorry but I'm more of a TNG/VOY person.

 

The other ships in "Amok Time" are not named. Ships mentioned by name or shown in other episodes include Excalibur, Lexington, Potemkin ("The Ultimate Computer"), Constellation ("The Doomsday Machine"), Defiant ("The Tholian Web"), and Intrepid ("The Immunity Syndrome"). See here for a full list.

 

The reason I asked this question is, during the 3 seasons of TOS the only ships we saw were Constitution class heavy cruisers, I was wondering if different explorer classes might have been mentioned as serving along side the Constitution class ships!?

JDW

 

There were some other ships shown, just not Starfleet ships.

The producers were on a *very* limited budget of "only" $200,000 per episode. I guess there wasn't enough money to build ship models unless they were absolutely necessary. The canon excuses for this were silly...such as the cloaked ship in Let That Be Your Last Battlefield, and the Klingons and Romulans even shared their ship designs...

 

We could invent all manner of excuses for what in reality was lack of dough and time. For example, perhaps Constitution class ships tend to operate together because they share the same speed (not necessarily the fastest in the fleet, but still the only ones with those exact speed characteristics) and thus work best together. When Kirk and Commodore Wesley have their M-5 fun, another, slightly faster or slower, newer or older type of exploration-oriented heavy cruiser could flock together elsewhere for wargames of their own.

We could also argue that all the deep space ships at that time were either Constitutions or closely related types, though. After all, Spock in "Tholian Web" identifies the Defiant as a "starship by configuration", in a situation where the only sensor input he gets is vague optical imagery. If Starfleet were operating Miranda or Constellation lookalikes at the time, such identification would be less justified.

I vaguely remember that an earlier script version of "Amok Time" would have given some starship names. Much like an earlier version of "Journey to Babel" spoke of another simultaneous attack against another delegation-carrying starship. Just fanfic, or actual fact?

Timo Saloniemi

 

A draft of the script specified that the other two ships were the Excalibur (seen to be a Constitution in "The Ultimate Computer") and the Endeavor (assumed to also be a Connie by fandom and officially licensed materials).

Likewise, a draft of "Journey To Babel" gave the names of two other starships deployed to the conference as Eagle and Essex. These have been generally assumed to be Connies as well, based primarily on the idea that the term "starship" as used by the TOS writers referred specifically to vessels of the Enterprise's configuration, the behind-the-scenes memos regarding starship names published in Stephen Whitfield's The Making Of Star Trek, and Michael Okuda's inclusion of them as such in the Star Trek Encyclopedia.

-MMoM

 

Certainly. TOS was using the aircraft carrier as the model of the status of starships, and most people can't easily discern one class aircraft carrier from another.

 

I remember from Making of ST that there were supposed to be 12 starships in Star Fleet, that's it.

 

That's 12 Constitution-class starships....

 

Not exactly. She was never identified as a Constitution Class. Indeed, the plaque said "Starship Class"

 

I was able to find the Endeavour & Excalibur mentioned in the novelization of "Amok Time" by James Blish, I couldn't find any mention of any other starships in "Journey To Babel", I always thought that McCoy stated the number of passengers the Enterprise had aboard for the Babel session but in the novelization he didn't say anything!

JDW

 

"There are only twelve ships like her in the fleet."

Take that as you will - I take it to mean 12 ships of the Enterprise's class.