Does Starfleet only use Galaxys Now?

[Galileo7]

It is not about all-or-nothing, it is about how much of the STAR TREK filmed multiple series and movies can be accepted as accurate for the viewer. If we see a starship class that we do not think belongs, then just disregard the class? In the Star Trek TOS-Remastered they changed things in the original episodes to correct gaffes or simply enhance the content of the episodes. STAR TREK ENCYCLOPEDIA(Michael & Denise Okuda) has reenforced what we have seen in those official filmed productions. The production team were the creators of the end product so how much can a viewer changed what our lying eyes are seeing?

I wasn't talking about entire classes, but about individual instances where the special effect shown onscreen is clearly a money-saving or logistically unavoidable compromise for something where a different class of ship would be more appropriate -- like using stock footage of the Botany Bay for the robot freighter in "The Changeling" or the Rigel VII fortress matte painting for Flint's mansion (both of which were changed in TOS Remastered, note); or using an unaltered Klingon Bird of Prey model to represent a ship that's described in the script as much larger (which was probably an error); or using a Miranda-class miniature to represent the Lantree, which was described in the script as a supply ship with only 26 people aboard (probably because they didn't have a more suitable miniature available, though it seems an Oberth would've worked okay there); or reusing an Alpha-Quadrant starship design in a Voyager episode (because it's cheaper to reuse an existing model than to build a new one -- and this is apparently just as true of digital models as physical ones). Or the example that started this discussion, the use of a stock D-7 Klingon ship in an ENT episode in place of the earlier model that was intended to go there.

Part of interpreting a visual text such as a television series is recognizing that the execution often represents a set of compromises for budgetary or logistical reasons, so that the end result is more an approximation of the intent than an exact achievement of it. In cases like those described above, I think it's better to favor the intent suggested in the script than to take the images too literally.

Thanks for clarifying, yes, I agree. TOS-R was correct to revise such gaffes. The NITPICKER'S GUIDE FOR TOS, TNG and DS9 books did a good job of exposing such production shortcomings. The written words of the script are always interesting to explore.

 

[JD]

or reusing an Alpha-Quadrant starship design in a Voyager episode (because it's cheaper to reuse an existing model than to build a new one -- and this is apparently just as true of digital models as physical ones)

It is. In one of the behind the scene featurettes on the CGI Star War: The Clone Wars Season 1 DVD, one of the team members talks about how they reused the same room with slight tweaks to represent multiple rooms throughout the movie and first season because it was alot cheaper than having to make whole new rooms each time.

 

[lonewriter]

According to Memory Beta, there have been TONS of galaxy class ships; their list is not feasible in my book. Alpha shows only 6, including Challenger (excluding Trident and Excalibur). Even in the Dominion War, not too many were shown.

I honestly don't expect starfleet to have too many of these massive capitol ships, especially with the sovereign's debut. I'm more shocked that we only saw 3 of the Ambassador class.

Memory Beta is a fan written web site so I wouldn't take to much stock in what it says.

 

[Mage]

I know that too. And I tried explaining that I know that it's all non-canon. All I was saying is, that personally I feel there's a difference between a ship named by an author and a ship named by a computer game, randomly.

What do you mean by "named by a computer game, randomly"? How does that work within the game? It can't really be a computer stochastically assigning letter combinations; the list of possible ship names was presumably entered into the game software by its designers. So there's still human authorship involved, just with a bit more technological mediation.

I suppose that's true. But personally I place more valua on the work of the authors then that of the games. IMO, they have less to with the 'grand scheme'.

Like you said, all of this needs a bit of your own point of view, and to me personally the games are far less important to the non-canon universe then the novells. YMMF.

 

[Idran]

According to Memory Beta, there have been TONS of galaxy class ships; their list is not feasible in my book. Alpha shows only 6, including Challenger (excluding Trident and Excalibur). Even in the Dominion War, not too many were shown.

I honestly don't expect starfleet to have too many of these massive capitol ships, especially with the sovereign's debut. I'm more shocked that we only saw 3 of the Ambassador class.

Memory Beta is a fan written web site so I wouldn't take to much stock in what it says.

No, that description implies it's just stuff made up out of nowhere. It's a fan-contributed wiki of information from other noncanon Star Trek resources. People don't add stuff to Memory Beta completely out of the blue (or at least, they aren't supposed to, and I've never seen a case of it), they just record references in other sources.

 

[Christopher]

I suppose that's true. But personally I place more valua on the work of the authors then that of the games. IMO, they have less to with the 'grand scheme'.

Like you said, all of this needs a bit of your own point of view, and to me personally the games are far less important to the non-canon universe then the novells. YMMF.

Well, it's not Memory Beta's job to impose an editorial bias. It's just there to provide information about the content of tie-in materials, not to endorse it. It's up to you to decide for yourself what tie-ins you favor; Memory Beta's job is simply to catalog the information as thoroughly as possible. Nobody's stopping you from selecting what you want from that body of information, but other people should have the same freedom to select according to their own different preferences, and so the reference site should be as inclusive and neutral as possible.

 

[MatthiasRussell]

I thought they sounded like Nurse Chapel, myself.

Actually, it's Number One. At least, according to (I think) Peter David's The Rift. She installed the Enterprise's new talking computer interface and programmed it to speak in her voice.

Sooooooo, where does Morgan Primus fit into all of this? LOL

 

[Christopher]

The early New Frontier novels hinted that Morgan Primus actually was Number One (heck, it's even in her name, since primus is Latin for "first"). As I understand it, PAD was planning to reveal that at some point, but too many readers figured it out in advance, so he changed his plans so as to keep things unpredictable.

 

[Distorted Humor]

and here I thought the voice sounded like Lady Morella from B5...

 

[JD]

Or Dr. Julianne Belman from Earth: Final Conflict.

 

[Technobuilder]

Or 'Anna Watson' from Spider-Man (Fox Animated Series - Late 1990's)

 

[MatthiasRussell]

Or M'Ress (minus the purr).

 

[Christopher]

Ohh, don't go there. If we're going to bring Majel's TAS roles into this, we'll be here all week.

 

[MatthiasRussell]

^ LOL. But the door is open now.