Mystery ship in the opening credits

[elver]

Could someone shed some light on the mystery ship shown in the Enterprise opening credits after the Phoenix and before the NX-01?

Here's what it looks like:

click to see

A friend of mine suggested that it's perhaps the NX-01 itself, but that can't be, because the back end of the NX-01 is distinctly different:

click to see

It doesn't seem to be an NX class prototype either, because the warp nacelles are mounted higher than the craft itself and the craft is a lot flatter and wider than the NX-Alpha, NX-Beta and NX-Delta.

What seems to disqualify it as an NX class prototype is also the fact that there's obviously a lot of emphasis on the impulse engines while the purpose of the prototypes was to test the warp engines and not much else. This ship was definitely going somewhere.

But there's no mention of any NX class ships before the NX-01 other than the prototypes.

Anyone got any idea what the mystery ship is called and where else it appears in the Star Trek universe?

 

[TeutonicNights]

According to Berman it's a "planetary shuttle" IIRC

 

[elver]

I think you mean this one, which has been confirmed as a shuttle, but the mystery ship appears in the timeline between Phoenix and the NX-01, which along with the (unlit) warp nacelles would seem to imply that it's a warp ship. A planetary shuttle wouldn't need warp drive.

 

[Roshi]

I think there's a sketch of that ship in the book The Art of Star Trek by Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens. Unless I'm mistaken, it's meant to be Kirk's Enterprise for Star Trek Phase II. One of the many proposed sketches, that is.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Maybe the mystery ship is the SS Valiant mentioned in "Where No Man Has Gone Before".

The timeframe is about right (after the Phoenix but before NX-01), since this particular Valiant was launched in 2065 according to the episode.

It's definitely not one of the phase II sketches, 'cos those ships were a lot 'flatter'. (They do show up as wreckage in TNG's "Best of Both Worlds II" though.)

I also don't think it's a shuttle, since in the Mirror Universe (In a Mirror Darkly) it is shown *firing* at the planet it's flying over.

 

[Captain X]

It's just called the lunar shuttle. The triangular ships seen in The Expanse were actually digital redresses of it, but that's essentially what it looked like.

 

[cooleddie74]

I've always considered it to be the 2065-vintage SS Valiant mentioned in the second TOS pilot. The first manned deep-space warp exploratory vessel launched by the then-new UESPA after Cochrane broke the warp barrier and made First Contact. Berman's "lunar shuttle" explanation makes little or no sense because of the design of the engines and the fact it has WARP nacelles. The moon is one and a third seconds away at Warp 1. Why the hell would you need warp drive to get to the Moon???

 

[Captain X]

They only called it that because the moon is in the background, not just because it only traveled between the Earth and the Moon.

 

[serdogthehound]

I've always like the Valiant idea I think it is fairly strong Fandom that yes that ship is the Valiant

 

[cooleddie74]

And its a theory I myself helped along with my numerous posts about the ship in the ENT threads early on in the show's run. I even posted some stuff on Memory Alpha(the TREK Wiki site)about the Valiant being the mystery ship, but I think the editors pulled most or all of it because it technically wasn't canon and confirmed on-screen.

 

[Matt]

What do you mean, TECHNICALLY wasn't canon? It TOTALLY isn't canonical.

It's an unknown ship, and will remain unknown until there's a movie or TV broadcast with it where they explain what the ship is somehow.

Since that's never going to happen, it'll remain unknown!

All we know:

It's an Earth ship.
It has warp nacelles.
It is slower than a Warp 5 vessel.
It is most likely a pre-NX Starfleet vessel, and not a UESPA vessel. (Evidence: The Delta class starfleet ships seen in "The Expanse," and "Twilight," are based on this design. Also, in "In A Mirror Darkly," the ship fires on the moon, suggesting it's an I.S.S. ship, the mirror of Starfleet.)

Here is a better, official shot of the Delta class. This is the modified version of the ship you see in the opening titles.

http://www.shipschematics.net/startrek/images/federation/destroyer_delta.jpg

 

[Timo]

I have a bit of a problem believing that the "delta ship" was a "modification" of the opening credits vessel in any practical sense. The two are so completely dissimilar that it would make more sense to "modify" the CGI of the NX-01 shuttlepod or the Klingon Raptor into the delta ship than try and tweak the opening credits vessel.

The delta and the credits vessel have a different angle and length to the pylons; they have a completely different stern layout; and the latter has some sort of a saucer or pillbox as the forward hull while the former is a smooth arrowhead. The overall relative dimensions are probably very different as well.

No doubt the two designs were inspirations for each other or something like that, though.

As for having warp nacelles on a shuttle that only goes to the Moon... Well, all shuttles from TOS on seem to have nacelles of some sort, even if they can't or won't go to warp, and don't cross major interplanetary distances. And then there's young Archer's toy ship, which doesn't look very interstellar yet still sports two warp nacelles, or some other gear looking exactly like warp nacelles. There might be a good treknological reason to equip an insystem ship or craft with such nacelles - perhaps those are necessary for efficient impulse propulsion?

However, agreed and acknowledged that there is no pressing onscreen reason to think of the ship as a "Moon shuttle", no matter what nickname the production personnel used for it.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Captain X]

The guy who created the ships said that the delta ship was a modification of the lunar shuttle when he released orthographic renders of several ships used on ENT.

 

[cooleddie74]

As far as I'm concerned it's the Valiant until the creators and CBS/Paramount say otherwise in a new encyclopedia or compendium.

 

[Captain X]

It doesn't remotely look anything like the Valiant.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Captain X said:
It doesn't remotely look anything like the Valiant.

The mystery ship was onscreen; the other image was not. Therefore, the mystery ship could very well be the Valiant.

 

[Captain X]

Those other images are in the Encyclopedia and the Chronology; it's not like it's just some fan design.

 

[P0sitr0nic]

Captain X said:
Those other images are in the Encyclopedia and the Chronology; it's not like it's just some fan design.

And we all know that the chronology got everything right, including the first images of ZC's warp ship, later to be known as the Phoenix.

The images in the chronology arent the be all end all answer.

 

[Captain X]

They are until contradicted by something else.

 

[mythme]

I sense yet another "definition of canon" debate occuring.