Aren't Registry Suffixes Supposed to be Rare?

[Empress Adria]

So lore suggests starship registry suffixes are only given to exceptionally illustrious ships so their name and original registry lives on beyond the original ship. So in that light, What did Riker's Titan do to warrant its registry being frozen in time? And how does that jibe with the next ship in its lineage being functionally worse? It doesn't make sense to me for Luna-class USS Titan NCC-80102 to be followed by Constitution III-class USS Titan NCC-80102-A.

Unless it's like what happened with the Enterprise NCC-1701 to 1701-A, where the second's registry was changed.

 

[HotRod]

So lore suggests starship registry suffixes are only given to exceptionally illustrious ships so their name and original registry lives on beyond the original ship. So in that light, What did Riker's Titan do to warrant its registry being frozen in time? And how does that jibe with the next ship in its lineage being functionally worse? It doesn't make sense to me for Luna-class USS Titan NCC-80102 to be followed by Constitution III-class USS Titan NCC-80102-A.

Unless it's like what happened with the Enterprise NCC-1701 to 1701-A, where the second's registry was changed.

Could the Titan not have done something exceptional to earn a suffix?

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

It was rare in the early days of Starfleet.
I can imagine after a few decades and a century or so, the exception sort of becomes quite common, especially if the suffixed ships stay around for a while.
And any name that got it once will get it again eventually. mover time their number naturally grows

 

[Sketcher]

Three out of hundreds of ships getting a suffix isn't rare?

 

[F. King Daniel]

By Discovery's future time, they're common (Voyager-J, Excalibur-M etc) and the letters are added to refits too (and don't ask me how it's a refit, but according to the showrunner and show itself, it somehow is). I guess this is the point where things change?

Or maybe Riker's Titan did some of the epic stuff they did in the novelverse and earned that -A

 

[The Wormhole]

By Discovery's future time, they're common (Voyager-J, Excalibur-M etc) and the letters are added to refits too (and don't ask me how it's a refit, but according to the showrunner and show itself, it somehow is).

If you're referring to Disco itself, I thought they only added the A to its registry as a weird attempt to disguise the fact it's from the past and pretend it's a new ship?

 

[Eckauskas]

Was it not the DS9 producers intent to make the São Paulo the Defiant-A as well? I'm sure I read somewhere that there were never any actual shots in show of this, but it was definitely planned.

 

[Tuskin38]

Was it not the DS9 producers intent to make the São Paulo the Defiant-A as well? I'm sure I read somewhere that there were never any actual shots in show of this, but it was definitely planned.

AFAIK Ronald D. Moore was the only one pushing for it.
He makes it sound like the primary reason they didn't was budget, they wouldn't be able to re-use old footage with the old registry.

 

[Eckauskas]

AFAIK Ronald D. Moore was the only one pushing for it.
He makes it sound like the primary reason they didn't was budget, they wouldn't be able to re-use old footage with the old registry.

I did think it would be something like that, with them essentially reusing so much footage from the first battle of Chin'Toka.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

He makes it sound like the primary reason they didn't was budget, they wouldn't be able to re-use old footage with the old registry.

That's exactly the reason.

And sometimes the use of registry suffixes is necessary in-universe as well....

Spoiler: Discovery

When the USS Discovery emerged into the 32nd century, Starfleet basically HAD to give it the "-A" suffix, to cover up the fact that the ship had travelled in time (Starfleet of the 32nd century has banned all time travel). So to perpetuate the illusion that it's a new ship, they gave it the suffix.

As for the Defiant: I suppose it could have an in-universe application also...throw the Dominion off track, make them think they haven't actually destroyed the Defiant when in fact they have done so. It could be valuable to confuse the enemy in that manner.

 

[Noname Given]

So lore suggests starship registry suffixes are only given to exceptionally illustrious ships so their name and original registry lives on beyond the original ship. So in that light, What did Riker's Titan do to warrant its registry being frozen in time? And how does that jibe with the next ship in its lineage being functionally worse? It doesn't make sense to me for Luna-class USS Titan NCC-80102 to be followed by Constitution III-class USS Titan NCC-80102-A.

Unless it's like what happened with the Enterprise NCC-1701 to 1701-A, where the second's registry was changed.

DS9 showed that the Federation has battle fleets of thousands of Starships. So far we know what? There are four or five Starship names with suffixes? Sounds pretty rare to me. Why do we see all these ships on various Star Trek series?

If you're going to do a Star Trek series about a ship, you'd expect that shipping crew to be exceptional, wouldn't you?

 

[mattman8907]

As of the 32nd century

• USS Excalibur (NCC-1664-M)
• USS Voyager (NCC-74656-J)
• USS Tikhov-M

So it seems like the Titan and Enterprise aren't the only ships that later get the letter added to their registry.