Imagine the TOS Starfleet

[CrazyMatt]

• We know there is at least one ship crewed solely by Vulcans (the Intrepid) - do we actually know she's the same type as the Enterprise?

Based on actual spoken dialog, we can also conclude the Farragut ("Obsession") and the Intrepid ("The Immunity Syndrome") are as well.

Just out of curiosity, what is the dialogue you're referring to? I don't recall anything from the episodes themselves that would require either Farragut or Intrepid to be the same class as the Enterprise. (For Intrepid, if you're referring to the 400 Vulcans, I'm not sure that's conclusive.)

Of course, I can't figure out why so many people want Republic to be the same class as Enterprise either. Variety is good!

Actually, that's right! Republic belongs on the list too!

Now, to answer your question:

From "Obsession"

KIRK: Ensign Garrovick is a ship-command decision. You're straying out of your field, Doctor.
MCCOY: Am I? I was speaking of Lieutenant James T. Kirk of the starship Farragut.

From "The Immunity Syndrome"

SPOCK: Doctor, even I, a half-Vulcan, could hear the death scream of four hundred Vulcan minds crying out over the distance between us.
MCCOY: Not even a Vulcan could feel a starship die.

From "Court Martial"

COMPUTER: Ship nomenclature. Specify.
KIRK: United Starship Republic, number 1371.

 

[Praetor]

Good call on all three counts. We can presume from her number being so different that the Republic is a different type, but then again there's that Constellation to consider.

 

[E-DUB]

My personal explanation is that early on the Enterprise is under Earth Command (UESPA) and later under Federation command, much as an American military unit can be assigned under UN auspices today. "Starfleet" might well be a generic term such as "Army", applicable to any armed power's forces.

 

[J.T.B.]

I think Kirk was referring to Starfleet being a combination of the Air Force, Navy, Army, Marines and Coast Guard.

Agreed, Kirk mentioned the "combined service" in response to Christopher bringing up "the navy."

Yes, I was unsure about the Antares because I couldn't remember if it was referred to in dialog as the "S.S." Antares, or if it was just the "Antares." I know for a fact it was never referred to as the "U.S.S." Antares, or as a starship. But yes, there is a possibility that it is Starfleet based on the crew uniforms.

FWIW, according to the memo Harvey posted a while back, the behind-the-scenes intent was for Antares to be a merchant vessel.

 

[Praetor]

Fascinating. I guess that's that, and we should take the Antares uniform shirts as secondhand or coincidence.

 

[Robert Comsol]

Actually, we do not know from TOS (!) whether some of the starships you listed there actually belonged to the Constitution Class.

Er, if you look at what I wrote again, you'll see that I only listed the eight ships as Constitution class that were visually seen as such in the show.

That's not the point. You wrote "Solely from information from TOS, we know: ... (Constitution Class)"

I don't know how you think you/we "know" that some of the starships you listed belong to the "Constitution Class".

All I do know "solely from information from TOS" is that the TOS Enterprise belongs to the "U.S.S. Enterprise Starship Class" according to the bridge plaque.

Where you have my undivided attention are the NCC-registries of "NCC-1864" and NCC-1897" from the starship status chart in "Court-Martial".

With the HD screencap that I used, they looked very much like 1864 and 1897.

I see, so I assume you consider the possibility that it also could be "16" instead of "18"? I wish we had some real high resolution scan of the original negative to settle this uncertainty.

@ Praetor

The merchant marine uniform of the Antares popped up later during TOS and exactly where you'd expect to see such a uniform - on Space Station K-7

Bob

 

[J.T.B.]

Fascinating. I guess that's that, and we should take the Antares uniform shirts as secondhand or coincidence.

Yeah, having similar uniforms would certainly be in keeping with real-world precedent:

 

[Praetor]

Heh, great example. Who are those guys?

 

[J.T.B.]

Heh, great example. Who are those guys?

Captain Ian North of the SS Atlantic Conveyor and Captain Michael Layard, RN. Atlantic Conveyor was used to transport helicopters and supplies for the British forces in the Falklands war. Captain North died abandoning ship after she was hit by missiles.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Ah yes... forgot in particular the Tellarite one. Thanks!

But ship doesn't equal a naval vessel, just that it was of Tellerite origin. Mudd held a Master License and could pilot a spaceship, but that doesn't make him a member of Earth's space fleet. But his ship could be described as an Earth ship.

 

[Dukhat]

That's not the point. You wrote "Solely from information from TOS, we know: ... (Constitution Class)"

I don't know how you think you/we "know" that some of the starships you listed belong to the "Constitution Class".

All I do know "solely from information from TOS" is that the TOS Enterprise belongs to the "U.S.S. Enterprise Starship Class" according to the bridge plaque.

Ok, fine. So there are eight known classes of ship like the Enterprise that were shown on screen, all possibly belonging to the "starship class" of vessels. Is that better?

 

[Praetor]

I'm reminded of the impression I constantly received when I first watched TOS - namely, that the Enterprise type was the biggest and best thing Starfleet had, and moreover, the only real "Starship" design. Sure there were other types of ships, but they were just spaceships, not fancy Starships.

I'm not convinced this was intentional, mind you, as much as a combined result of budget limitations not showing other ship classes, and the effort to make Starships (and by extension, the Captain and crew of said ships) something special. Still, it would be somewhat similar to the Hornblower model which we know was somewhat referenced for TOS.

Still, does anyone know more about the Royal Navy during the time in which Hornblower is set, that we might fight useful in our extrapolation?

 

[Avro Arrow]

I'm reminded of the impression I constantly received when I first watched TOS - namely, that the Enterprise type was the biggest and best thing Starfleet had, and moreover, the only real "Starship" design. Sure there were other types of ships, but they were just spaceships, not fancy Starships.

I dunno... the one episode where they really played up the starship / spaceship difference was "Bread and Circuses", and there they were comparing Enterprise to the non-Starfleet merchant vessel SS Beagle. So while the Enterprise type might have indeed been the cream of the crop at the time, I don't think they were ever intended to be the only real starship design. Any front-line Starfleet vessel probably has the right to be called a "starship".

(I know they only ever showed starships of the same type as Enterprise, but... budget. )

Actually, that's right! Republic belongs on the list too!

Now, to answer your question:

From "Obsession"

KIRK: Ensign Garrovick is a ship-command decision. You're straying out of your field, Doctor.
MCCOY: Am I? I was speaking of Lieutenant James T. Kirk of the starship Farragut.

From "The Immunity Syndrome"

SPOCK: Doctor, even I, a half-Vulcan, could hear the death scream of four hundred Vulcan minds crying out over the distance between us.
MCCOY: Not even a Vulcan could feel a starship die.

From "Court Martial"

COMPUTER: Ship nomenclature. Specify.
KIRK: United Starship Republic, number 1371.

Which is why I don't personally think that any ship referred to as a starship automatically means she's the same class as Enterprise. Sorry. YMMV, of course.

Enterprise's commissioning plaque notwithstanding, of course. Since that was there from the earliest days of the series, I think that's just one of the things that hadn't really been ironed out yet (like Earth vs. Federation ship), and at best refers to "Starship Class" the same way you might refer to a "destroyer class" vessel IRL, but then within the destroyer classification, you'd have, say, St. Laurent or Restigouche class ships.

 

[J.T.B.]

I'm reminded of the impression I constantly received when I first watched TOS - namely, that the Enterprise type was the biggest and best thing Starfleet had, and moreover, the only real "Starship" design. Sure there were other types of ships, but they were just spaceships, not fancy Starships.

I'm not convinced this was intentional, mind you, as much as a combined result of budget limitations not showing other ship classes, and the effort to make Starships (and by extension, the Captain and crew of said ships) something special. Still, it would be somewhat similar to the Hornblower model which we know was somewhat referenced for TOS.

Still, does anyone know more about the Royal Navy during the time in which Hornblower is set, that we might fight useful in our extrapolation?

It was built around having strong fleets in strategic locations, so the biggest, strongest ships spent most of their time on their stations. The vessels that operated independently and undertook the kind of missions that make for interesting stories were usually the smallest types.

 

[T'Girl]

I'm reminded of the impression I constantly received when I first watched TOS - namely, that the Enterprise type was the biggest and best thing Starfleet had ...

I never got that impression, more the Enterprise was just one of many. But I've alway thought of Starfleet as having many thousands of starships.

The vessels that operated independently and undertook the kind of missions that make for interesting stories were usually the smallest types.

Or mid-sized, if you think about it, the Enterprise under Kirk undertook a fair share of little "shit jobs" that the pride of the fleet likely wouldn't have. Transporting princesses to their wedding, doing med exams on isolate archaeologists, making deliveries to penal colonies, etc..

I think a lot of the confusion is that what we would now consider Starfleet in the TOS era really wasn't fleshed out until the second season. Or the UFP, for that matter.

But the thing is we're not just dealing with a small number of references, Earth ships, Earth bases, Earth outposts. Even after the UFP was brought into existence. So they can't just be casually dismissed.

In the first season of TNG there was still mention of Earth colonists.

^ "Journey to Babel" certainly made the TOS Federation look similar to the UN, since they sent Ambassadors to Babel to decide on the Coridan issue. If it was supposed to be a federal government, you think they would have just handled that in the halls of government.

In the (non-canon) comic books and Star Trek Online, the Federation sends ambassador to Federation members. After retiring, Picard is the ambassador to Vulcan.

In TAS's Yesteryear, Federation members exchange ambassadors with each other.

Ah yes... forgot in particular the Tellarite one. Thanks!

But ship doesn't equal a naval vessel ...

True, but it doesn't exclude the possibility. The Enterprise is called a Earth ship and is a naval vessel.

 

[Robert Comsol]

@ Dukhat

Thank you! And also thanks for compiling that list on a short notice.
I guess we have to wonder whether the hull lettering is really useful for spotting numbers from the distance as the similar kind of numbering on the starship status chart makes it rather difficult to tell "6" and "8" apart.

@ Praetor

During Nelson's/Hornblower's era of the Royal Navy the sailing ships were mostly distinguished by the number of guns they carried. A "first-rate" like HMS Victory or the fictional HMS Defiant (wall painting in "In a Mirror, Darkly") would carry 104 guns, a second-rate 90-98 guns and a third-rate 64-80 guns.

All these ships had in common that they were "ships-of-the-line", i.e. they were considered powerful enough to engage the enemy fleet in the traditional parallel lining and broadside exchange (Nelson broke this rule and therefore won at Trafalgar in 1805)

@ Avro Arrow

Here is another reference to add to the list, i.e. "Starship Archon" 100 years prior to TOS.

And Pike's injury occurred on a cadet vessel, "old J-class starship".

I'm very confident that the Matt Jefferies explanation on this TOS pre-production sketch, i.e. Enterprise belongs to the 17th Federation "cruiser" design series, reflects the original TOS pre-production intentions that had the Enterprise be a member of the "Cruiser Class" (The Making of Star Trek). For the series they settled for "Starship Class" and this would make the Archon a member of an older "starship" design series.

By 23rd Century standards - this was discussed in the Oberth Class-missing-link Tech thread - the Archon would, of course, no longer qualify as a starship by contemporary standards ("old J-class starship").
If we want to apply the Hornblower analogy this makes perfect sense, because a ship of the Royal Navy that was considered a "first-rate" by 1600 had been downgraded to a "third-rate" by 1700.

I agree that "Starship Class" (or "Destroyer Class") tells us little.
Of course the first digits on the hull tell us more (e.g. 17th design) and then we had these alphabetic classifications like the aforementioned "J-class" which either is just a letter or a short form of "Jefferson Class" or something like that.

But again, according to "continuity guru" Bob Justman (in The Making of Star Trek) they were talking about the 12 ships of the "Enterprise Starship Class".

And what does the bridge dedication plaque of 17-01 say? "U.S.S. Enterprise Starship Class"

I fail to understand why the class ship's dedication plaque has to read "U.S.S. Enterprise Enterprise Starship Class".

Bob

 

[Praetor]

Yeah, I think you guys have proven my youthful impressions are a dead-end alley as far as extrapolation are concerned.

 

[Darkwing]

So, in the Napoleonic War era of Hornblower, Ships of the Line Of Battle (later abbreviated to "Battleships") were 1st, 2nd, or 3rd rate. Frigates were 4th or 5th rates, Sloops, Snows (rhymes with cows, not crows), Barks, Brigs, and all the other non-SHIP vessels were 6th rate. Frigates were the biggest ships to lie outside the Line, and the most versatile. Battleships went to a station, then stayed there for a deployment, as part of a group. Frigates were assigned in groups and individually. Frigates sent on an independent deployment, or cruise, became known as Cruisers.
So Kirk's Enterprise was definitely NOT the biggest thing Starfleet had. it was the biggest and best ship sailing solo on independent operations. But bigger, better, more capable battleships (with tighter leashes), bigger, better, more capable research ships (with watchdogs), and other types should also exist.

 

[Darkwing]

Not having HD, and 16xx numbers being used so long, I prefer to keep Intrepid as 1631, Excalibur as 1664, etc. It also fits my favored theory melding the hull numbers and sources. As Baton Rouge starships refit to Connie specs, 16xx works, with the FJ numbers being the intended replacements. So when 1664 Excalibur gets scrapped after the M5 incident, 1705 gets built.
But if we go with 18xx, then FJTM is just wrong, and Connies are potentially spread out from 1700 to 1897. It also means Reliant inherited Excalibur's hull number, and that different designs are even more interspersed than previously thought.

 

[Shawnster]

During Nelson's/Hornblower's era of the Royal Navy the sailing ships were mostly distinguished by the number of guns they carried. A "first-rate" like HMS Victory or the fictional HMS Defiant (wall painting in "In a Mirror, Darkly") would carry 104 guns, a second-rate 90-98 guns and a third-rate 64-80 guns.

All these ships had in common that they were "ships-of-the-line", i.e. they were considered powerful enough to engage the enemy fleet in the traditional parallel lining and broadside exchange (Nelson broke this rule and therefore won at Trafalgar in 1805)

Which is why I don't personally think that any ship referred to as a starship automatically means she's the same class as Enterprise. Sorry. YMMV, of course.

Enterprise's commissioning plaque notwithstanding, of course. Since that was there from the earliest days of the series, I think that's just one of the things that hadn't really been ironed out yet (like Earth vs. Federation ship), and at best refers to "Starship Class" the same way you might refer to a "destroyer class" vessel IRL, but then within the destroyer classification, you'd have, say, St. Laurent or Restigouche class ships.

Could this be a possible rationalization of starship vs. Starship Class? The Royal Navy had all kinds of ships in the 18th and 19th centuries; however, only a select few were "Ships of the Line." Those were special ships had their own distinction and, as Robert describes, different ratings.

So TOS has spaceships and starships; however, Starships as in the Starship Class are a distinct breed. They are the 23rd century equivalent of a Ship of the Line. There are only 12 like Enterprise in the fleet because they are so rare and special. Oh, sure, there are other space ships, but they are inferior when compared to the Starship Class.

Just tossing this out there as a possible rationalization.