Howdy! In this thread, I’m going to natter on about my vision of how Star Fleet is put together and what ships exist in it, as a series of posts made by an in-universe writer whose data is good up to Stardate 8000.5. This is headcanon. I’m not making any attempt to explain what we see on screen, nor am I attempting to conform to it outside of fuzzy personal boundaries.
I'm planning on using separate posts for separate subjects. Hopefully this doesn't cross the forum's "spamming a thread" boundaries. If I'm over the line, please just say so - I'm very comfortable with taking correction as long as it's stated clearly and plainly.
Discussion is of course welcome. Art craves an audience, and while this certainly isn’t “high art,” it is a sort of story and definitely creative work. All I ask is you be conscious of your phrasing. Don’t tell me I’m wrong because something here is inconsistent with an on-screen detail. I probably know that, and chose to ignore it. Instead, make an observation about how my choice is different from what’s shown on-screen, or comment about how you might make a different choice, or if you’re actually curious, ask about the logic behind my decisions. Phrase things positively, as opinions and observations, and give me credit for making deliberate choices, and this can be a lovely place to have a chat!
Most of the details should, I hope, emerge from the posts, but a few background things need to be noted (since they’re things the author is assuming the audience knows.)
First, the meaning of “Starship.” In My Star Trek Universe (IMSTU), “starship” is a technical term, and means “a faster-than-light vessel suitable for long-term occupation that has been designed and built specifically for the United Star Fleet.” The term was in fact coined to describe the first ship built specifically for Star Fleet, rather than being transferred from a member nation’s fleets, and to highlight that this was something new and special.
Other kinds of warp-powered ships are “Warpships,” and “warpship” is the most common generic term in everyday speech. “Spacewarp ship” is old-fashioned. “Starship” is just barely starting to displace “warpship” in day-to-day conversation but it hasn’t happened yet. Star Fleet was formed using ships built and operated by the founding nation’s fleets, and these were designated Warpship Type 1 through Warpship Type 8. Since then, Star Fleet has often found the civilian shipbuilding industry already has a design that’s suitable for their needs - especially auxiliary craft like transports - and as these “not designed for Star Fleet” vessels get adopted, they’re labeled Warpships.
This explains why the Constitution-class cruisers are only the ninth mark of starship. As of SD8000.5, Star Fleet is up to the Mark XV Starship, and the Type 17 Warpship.
(As an aside, I’ve since been persuaded that the “Mark IX” label on that diagram of a phaser battery was meant to refer to the phaser, not the starship, but I’ve got too much invested in this system to abandon it now.)
Second, how Stardates work. IMSTU, the “1000 Stardate Units equals 1 year” structure was part of the system from the very beginning. The reason the numbers are so low in TOS is because it’s new. So when Enterprise encounters the galactic rim on Stardate 1312, that’s something happening a mere 1.3 years after the Stardate system was adopted. In this headcanon, that’s because the first century of the Federation isn’t very unified, and there aren’t a lot of common structures, so it takes them over 100 years to agree on a common calendar.
This means that dates before SD0001.0 were recorded in a bunch of different methods. By the time the posts are written, though, academia at least has settled on “Antestardates” or AD. These are just counting backwards, so they’re negative numbers – meaning just like 1000 BCE happened after 2000 BCE, so did Antestardate 1234.5 happen after AD 3456.7; in other words, the bigger the AD number, the further into the past it took place.
Third, nomenclature. As the United Star Fleet was being created, the Federation was eager to avoid any suggestion that this was a military force. Therefore, Star Fleet avoids the use of “aggressive” terms like “destroyer” or “battlecruiser.” Initially, Star Fleet ships were placed in one of four categories:
– Explorers engaged in medium to long-duration missions both venturing into new territory, and in doing detailed surveys of specific worlds and systems. That latter mission is often split out by SD8000.5, with some ships being designated as “Surveyors” rather than “Explorers.”
– Transports moved people, cargo, or data across the Federation. (The last tasking has largely disappeared with the construction of the subspace relay network, but in the early days the fastest way to send information to the border areas was to put it on a ship.) Most Star Fleet ships are in fact some form of Transport. Specialist labels have emerged: a Courier moves a small amount of cargo or passengers at high speed; an Underway Replenishment Ship is equipped with shuttles, gantries, pumps, docking clamps, and so on to allow ships to be refuelled, restocked, and resupplied while deployed; and a Tug is a ship with minimal internal transport capacity, but able to haul standard transport pods or sublight-only ships based on the transport pod profile.
– Frigates are ships focused on the use of force and emergency response. They are used for both border defence and internal security patrols. (Not everyone in the Federation, as an individual, fully aligns with the Federation’s ideals, which are after all more aspirational than obligatory. Also, there are a huge number of systems that are surrounded by the Federation but not actually part of it, and sometimes these get frisky. Still, internal patrols are more focused on law enforcement and search-and-rescue, rather than military deterrence.) Small frigates that dropped firepower and combat resiliency in exchange for fast response times and wide area coverage (similar to how many real-life cities have a large number of paramedics in SUVs and smaller number of actual ambulances) have become known as Cutters. A very new category is the Responder, which is a high speed ship with a deep capability to deal with medical or environmental emergencies; they react to both ships in distress and colonies in crisis.
– Cruisers are maids of all work. They are expected to be fully capable of performing any mission Star Fleet might be called upon to do as well or better than any specialised ship. (Except for Transport tasks, though even there a Cruiser is expected to be able to make do.) They are also expected to stay deployed for years at a time. The very first starship (Starship Mark I) was the first ship designated a “Cruiser,” and by SD8000.5 there have been five types of Cruiser (the Mark I, Mark III, Mark VI, Mark IX, and Mark XI) in service, with a brand new concept (the Mark XV) under construction.
That should cover it. I’ll be building this out if and when the whim strikes me, focusing on a Starship Mark or a Warpship Type that I feel like playing with.
The images that follow, unless otherwise noted, were created using Captain_Mojo’s STLs, converted to OBJ and rendered in DAZ|Studio, then assembled in a very old copy of Photoshop Elements 2.
The STLs can be downloaded from Cults, here:
https://cults3d.com/en/users/Captain_Mojo/3d-models
I'm planning on using separate posts for separate subjects. Hopefully this doesn't cross the forum's "spamming a thread" boundaries. If I'm over the line, please just say so - I'm very comfortable with taking correction as long as it's stated clearly and plainly.
Discussion is of course welcome. Art craves an audience, and while this certainly isn’t “high art,” it is a sort of story and definitely creative work. All I ask is you be conscious of your phrasing. Don’t tell me I’m wrong because something here is inconsistent with an on-screen detail. I probably know that, and chose to ignore it. Instead, make an observation about how my choice is different from what’s shown on-screen, or comment about how you might make a different choice, or if you’re actually curious, ask about the logic behind my decisions. Phrase things positively, as opinions and observations, and give me credit for making deliberate choices, and this can be a lovely place to have a chat!
Most of the details should, I hope, emerge from the posts, but a few background things need to be noted (since they’re things the author is assuming the audience knows.)
First, the meaning of “Starship.” In My Star Trek Universe (IMSTU), “starship” is a technical term, and means “a faster-than-light vessel suitable for long-term occupation that has been designed and built specifically for the United Star Fleet.” The term was in fact coined to describe the first ship built specifically for Star Fleet, rather than being transferred from a member nation’s fleets, and to highlight that this was something new and special.
Other kinds of warp-powered ships are “Warpships,” and “warpship” is the most common generic term in everyday speech. “Spacewarp ship” is old-fashioned. “Starship” is just barely starting to displace “warpship” in day-to-day conversation but it hasn’t happened yet. Star Fleet was formed using ships built and operated by the founding nation’s fleets, and these were designated Warpship Type 1 through Warpship Type 8. Since then, Star Fleet has often found the civilian shipbuilding industry already has a design that’s suitable for their needs - especially auxiliary craft like transports - and as these “not designed for Star Fleet” vessels get adopted, they’re labeled Warpships.
This explains why the Constitution-class cruisers are only the ninth mark of starship. As of SD8000.5, Star Fleet is up to the Mark XV Starship, and the Type 17 Warpship.
(As an aside, I’ve since been persuaded that the “Mark IX” label on that diagram of a phaser battery was meant to refer to the phaser, not the starship, but I’ve got too much invested in this system to abandon it now.)
Second, how Stardates work. IMSTU, the “1000 Stardate Units equals 1 year” structure was part of the system from the very beginning. The reason the numbers are so low in TOS is because it’s new. So when Enterprise encounters the galactic rim on Stardate 1312, that’s something happening a mere 1.3 years after the Stardate system was adopted. In this headcanon, that’s because the first century of the Federation isn’t very unified, and there aren’t a lot of common structures, so it takes them over 100 years to agree on a common calendar.
This means that dates before SD0001.0 were recorded in a bunch of different methods. By the time the posts are written, though, academia at least has settled on “Antestardates” or AD. These are just counting backwards, so they’re negative numbers – meaning just like 1000 BCE happened after 2000 BCE, so did Antestardate 1234.5 happen after AD 3456.7; in other words, the bigger the AD number, the further into the past it took place.
Third, nomenclature. As the United Star Fleet was being created, the Federation was eager to avoid any suggestion that this was a military force. Therefore, Star Fleet avoids the use of “aggressive” terms like “destroyer” or “battlecruiser.” Initially, Star Fleet ships were placed in one of four categories:
– Explorers engaged in medium to long-duration missions both venturing into new territory, and in doing detailed surveys of specific worlds and systems. That latter mission is often split out by SD8000.5, with some ships being designated as “Surveyors” rather than “Explorers.”
– Transports moved people, cargo, or data across the Federation. (The last tasking has largely disappeared with the construction of the subspace relay network, but in the early days the fastest way to send information to the border areas was to put it on a ship.) Most Star Fleet ships are in fact some form of Transport. Specialist labels have emerged: a Courier moves a small amount of cargo or passengers at high speed; an Underway Replenishment Ship is equipped with shuttles, gantries, pumps, docking clamps, and so on to allow ships to be refuelled, restocked, and resupplied while deployed; and a Tug is a ship with minimal internal transport capacity, but able to haul standard transport pods or sublight-only ships based on the transport pod profile.
– Frigates are ships focused on the use of force and emergency response. They are used for both border defence and internal security patrols. (Not everyone in the Federation, as an individual, fully aligns with the Federation’s ideals, which are after all more aspirational than obligatory. Also, there are a huge number of systems that are surrounded by the Federation but not actually part of it, and sometimes these get frisky. Still, internal patrols are more focused on law enforcement and search-and-rescue, rather than military deterrence.) Small frigates that dropped firepower and combat resiliency in exchange for fast response times and wide area coverage (similar to how many real-life cities have a large number of paramedics in SUVs and smaller number of actual ambulances) have become known as Cutters. A very new category is the Responder, which is a high speed ship with a deep capability to deal with medical or environmental emergencies; they react to both ships in distress and colonies in crisis.
– Cruisers are maids of all work. They are expected to be fully capable of performing any mission Star Fleet might be called upon to do as well or better than any specialised ship. (Except for Transport tasks, though even there a Cruiser is expected to be able to make do.) They are also expected to stay deployed for years at a time. The very first starship (Starship Mark I) was the first ship designated a “Cruiser,” and by SD8000.5 there have been five types of Cruiser (the Mark I, Mark III, Mark VI, Mark IX, and Mark XI) in service, with a brand new concept (the Mark XV) under construction.
That should cover it. I’ll be building this out if and when the whim strikes me, focusing on a Starship Mark or a Warpship Type that I feel like playing with.
The images that follow, unless otherwise noted, were created using Captain_Mojo’s STLs, converted to OBJ and rendered in DAZ|Studio, then assembled in a very old copy of Photoshop Elements 2.
The STLs can be downloaded from Cults, here:
https://cults3d.com/en/users/Captain_Mojo/3d-models
