"NCC-1701" never said onscreen?

[Timo]

Is there an official definition of what "NCC" stands for?

As said, nothing official. But we have plenty of other registry letter triplets in evidence, most of those beginning with N, and most of those clearly being civilian or at least nonmilitary Federation registries. So N probably stands for Federation, then - either as a "nationality" identifier, or then as sorting out government vessels from private ones. We have had a couple of N-free Federation vessels, such as the colony transport Santa Maria with BTR.

Foreign vessels have sometimes been identified with TLAs, too, but those appear to be the equivalent of "USS", not of "NCC" - say, IRW in front of the names of Imperial Romulan Warbirds is often seen on DS9 Okudagrams.

Or even "USS"?

Could be a mouthful that different speakers abbreviate in different ways. Something like "Unitedfederationofplanets Starfleet Spaceship", lending itself to abbreviations "United StarShip" and "United Spaceship" alike.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Nerys Myk]

Nothing in Continuity or Canon. Why does it have to stand for something?

It doesn't have to, maybe it's a word by itself, pronounced nnc.

Enn Cee Cee

 

[Maurice]

Or maybe NCC is like NC in civil aviation and just a designation of "ships from the Federation" and the letters don't stand for anything more than the "area". Heck, maybe NCC just means 622 like an old telephone exchange. The "real" designation is 622-1701.

 

[diankra]

The registry was never spoken or referenced on TOS, and it never needed to be.

Yep. In present-day-ish terms, how often would someone working for NASA need to say "OV-102, not CM-107," to make it clear they were referring to the Shuttle orbiter rather than the Apollo 11 CSM? 'Columbia' and the context would be enough info in most verbal discussion.

 

[Daddy Todd]

Or maybe NCC is like NC in civil aviation and just a designation of "ships from the Federation" and the letters don't stand for anything more than the "area". Heck, maybe NCC just means 622 like an old telephone exchange. The "real" designation is 622-1701.

Now I wanna call that number. In every area code.

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

Or maybe NCC is like NC in civil aviation and just a designation of "ships from the Federation" and the letters don't stand for anything more than the "area". Heck, maybe NCC just means 622 like an old telephone exchange. The "real" designation is 622-1701.

Now I wanna call that number. In every area code.

Looks like we've got another 867-5309 on our hands.

 

[Kemaiku]

I was going to say the registry might be visible in Commodore Mendez's file on the Talos incident from The Menagerie.

But on finding it again, the official file only states USS Enterprise, no other details.

http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x11hd/themenageriepart1hd180.jpg

 

[Nerys Myk]

Or maybe NCC is like NC in civil aviation and just a designation of "ships from the Federation" and the letters don't stand for anything more than the "area". Heck, maybe NCC just means 622 like an old telephone exchange. The "real" designation is 622-1701.

Now I wanna call that number. In every area code.

Looks like we've got another 867-5309 on our hands.

Ask for Jimmy.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

This is why I don't like the later custom of naming new Enterprises NCC-1701-A or -B or -C, as if the registry number were another part of the name. It's not. Names and numbers serve different purposes. The numbers are for the sake of catalogs and identity verification and formal, technical matters like that. Assigning the same registry number to another ship named Enterprise would be like giving Joe Chang Jr. the same Social Security number as Joe Chang Sr. but with an "A" at the end. It's a nonsensical, pointless practice. The fans have fetishized the number NCC-1701 because we saw it on our screens so often, but it was wrong of the films' and shows' makers to have the characters in-universe follow suit. It was never supposed to be that important, except perhaps as a handy visual cue to distinguish different ships of the same class.

I completely agree. Every Enterprise should have had a new number [and should there ever have been so many Enterprises?].

It all started with the final scene of Star Trek IV and the Enterprise-A. Someone around here must know whether that was done as a shortcut, i.e. to have a simpler decal change, or was the 1701 sentimentalism in place already?

Had it been up to me, the refit in ST:TMP would have had a new number all its own.

 

[Maurice]

This is why I don't like the later custom of naming new Enterprises NCC-1701-A or -B or -C, as if the registry number were another part of the name. It's not. Names and numbers serve different purposes. The numbers are for the sake of catalogs and identity verification and formal, technical matters like that. Assigning the same registry number to another ship named Enterprise would be like giving Joe Chang Jr. the same Social Security number as Joe Chang Sr. but with an "A" at the end. It's a nonsensical, pointless practice. The fans have fetishized the number NCC-1701 because we saw it on our screens so often, but it was wrong of the films' and shows' makers to have the characters in-universe follow suit. It was never supposed to be that important, except perhaps as a handy visual cue to distinguish different ships of the same class.

I completely agree. Every Enterprise should have had a new number [and should there ever have been so many Enterprises?].

It all started with the final scene of Star Trek IV and the Enterprise-A. Someone around here must know whether that was done as a shortcut, i.e. to have a simpler decal change, or was the 1701 sentimentalism in place already?

Had it been up to me, the refit in ST:TMP would have had a new number all its own.

Andy Probert suggested the ship number in TMP be NCC-1800.

Mind you, Navy ships with extensive conversions or modernizations got some change to their letter identifiers but their number stayed the same. The Hornet CV-12 was converted and become CVA-12 (A for Attack) then became CVS-12 (S for Support when switched for antisubmarine support duties).

 

[Hartzilla2007]

I was going to say the registry might be visible in Commodore Mendez's file on the Talos incident from The Menagerie.

But on finding it again, the official file only states USS Enterprise, no other details.

http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x11hd/themenageriepart1hd180.jpg

What the heck does third quadrant of the vernal galaxy mean?

Because that sounds like Talos IV is in another galaxy.

 

[NTRPRZ]

Or maybe NCC is like NC in civil aviation and just a designation of "ships from the Federation" and the letters don't stand for anything more than the "area". Heck, maybe NCC just means 622 like an old telephone exchange. The "real" designation is 622-1701.

Actually, when we were living in New York state, my phone number was 562-1701. I checked with the phone company to see if it was available, and the rest is history.

 

[TOSalltheway]

Scotty said NCC-1701 in Relics, but that was TNG.

 

[Christopher]

[and should there ever have been so many Enterprises?].

Don't see why not. In the past 215 years there have been five US Navy ships named USS Enterprise, and a sixth is scheduled to be commissioned in 2025.

It all started with the final scene of Star Trek IV and the Enterprise-A. Someone around here must know whether that was done as a shortcut, i.e. to have a simpler decal change, or was the 1701 sentimentalism in place already?

Actually, ILM spent weeks repairing and repainting the miniature (totally annihilating the gorgeous, intricate pearlescent paint job of the original in favor of a much simpler matte coating), so it would've been just as easy to paint on a new registry number as it was to paint on the "1701-A" number. So it must've been out of misplaced nostalgia.

 

[albion432]

Star Fleet does not seem to be very consistent with their system of reusing ship names and registry numbers. On the one hand they give every new ship named Enterprise from the Constitution Class onward the same registry number, along with a hyphenated letter, but when they reused the named of another Constitution class ship, the Defiant, they gave the new ship a completely new registry number. Shouldn't the Defiant in DS9 have had a registry number of NCC-1764-A (or maybe even B,C, or D for all I know), instead of NX-74205?

 

[Maurice]

My recollection is that ILM didn't do a major repaint until Star Trek IV, when the model was so beat up they needed to do a lot of repairs. I can ask Bill George to clarify that.

 

[Hober Mallow]

What the heck does third quadrant of the vernal galaxy mean?

Because that sounds like Talos IV is in another galaxy.

I still get a kick out of the "half-Vulcan science officer" bit.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I was going to say the registry might be visible in Commodore Mendez's file on the Talos incident from The Menagerie.

But on finding it again, the official file only states USS Enterprise, no other details.

http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x11hd/themenageriepart1hd180.jpg

What the heck does third quadrant of the vernal galaxy mean?

Because that sounds like Talos IV is in another galaxy.

How about the third quarter of the part of the galaxy that lies on the celestial sphere centered at Earth in the hemisphere that has the vernal point at its center? That would be a part of the galaxy lying in a quarter of half of the sky, and could simply be an octant. Under that nomenclature, the autumnal galaxy would constitute the other part.

 

[Timo]

Works for me, among other alternatives. "Vernal" certainly sounds like astronomy jargon, and it would make sense for future astronomers and space travelers to adopt new terminology for their future needs.

As for "3XY phagrin level-mass", that's the sort of nonsense I would expect to see on a classified document, right alongside "Duck flies at midnight" and "Afghanistan banana stand"...

What really interests me about that document is the use of ellipsis (or double full stop or whatever) at the conclusion of the two significant paragraphs. Why would an official document contain ellipsis endings? Are those perhaps microdots that expand when you touch them, or links to further pages also working by touch, what?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[ZapBrannigan]

The prop document was written as something the audience would never see on standard-def CRT screens, and the text amounted to a minor in-joke for the cast. It was funny in the same sense as a gag on The Simpsons, when a character says something casual and stupid-sounding, and then we see those exact words written out on a sign or a printed page.

This is especially evident in the "Half-Vulcan Science Officer" bit, because Mendez had just uttered that phrase as a casual, rhetorical way to emphasize that Kirk's Spock was the very same Spock mentioned in the report. And then the document absurdly prints out that highly informal and personal verbiage. It was a private joke.