In an episode of DS9 (the name of which I cannot recall) we briefly glimpse a Constitution class ship in the foreground.
Any ideas which ship this was supposed to be and if it was given a history?
After reading Memory Alpha, it occured to me that it could always be the Exeter, which was last seen in orbit of a primitive planet and considered "lost with all hands". I'm considering this based on the fact that any ship surviving until the Dominion war would have to be in pretty good material condition and to have had a pretty easy early life that didn't stress or strain it too much. Just as submarines have a limited number of deep dives they can achieve before needing a major overhaul or being decommissioned, or having an artificial safe limit imposed on them because the hull can't take the stress anymore, so would a starship that was pushed hard wear out. There might be only so many times it can take the strain of maximum warp, or so many times it can suffer the microscopic damage caused by intense radiation from heavenly bodies, and that's not even considering battle damage inflicted by the kind of weaponry that can sterilise a planets surface!
I'm presuming that the Exeter is eventually recovered at Starfleets leisure and brought up to refit standard, but that by this time things like Excelsior are taking the lime light so the Exeter tools around in the backwaters and hinterlands, doing security patrols and colony support and cadet training for most of it's career, staying well away from things that cause hull fatigue like extreme velocity, radiation exposure and battle damage, and after growing old gracefully is eventually mothballed, only to reactivated for the Dominion war effort (where she probably suffers a very quick, messy, explosive and unedifying demise beneath a swarm of bug ships!)
Plausible?
Cheers,
Any ideas which ship this was supposed to be and if it was given a history?
After reading Memory Alpha, it occured to me that it could always be the Exeter, which was last seen in orbit of a primitive planet and considered "lost with all hands". I'm considering this based on the fact that any ship surviving until the Dominion war would have to be in pretty good material condition and to have had a pretty easy early life that didn't stress or strain it too much. Just as submarines have a limited number of deep dives they can achieve before needing a major overhaul or being decommissioned, or having an artificial safe limit imposed on them because the hull can't take the stress anymore, so would a starship that was pushed hard wear out. There might be only so many times it can take the strain of maximum warp, or so many times it can suffer the microscopic damage caused by intense radiation from heavenly bodies, and that's not even considering battle damage inflicted by the kind of weaponry that can sterilise a planets surface!
I'm presuming that the Exeter is eventually recovered at Starfleets leisure and brought up to refit standard, but that by this time things like Excelsior are taking the lime light so the Exeter tools around in the backwaters and hinterlands, doing security patrols and colony support and cadet training for most of it's career, staying well away from things that cause hull fatigue like extreme velocity, radiation exposure and battle damage, and after growing old gracefully is eventually mothballed, only to reactivated for the Dominion war effort (where she probably suffers a very quick, messy, explosive and unedifying demise beneath a swarm of bug ships!)
Plausible?
Cheers,
) I can't recall any such ships appearing in DS9. Several Ambassadors did appear throughout the series though.
