So how good a ship was the Franklin (when launched and when lost in the Gagarin Radiation Belt?)

[Andy Hong]

http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/USS_Franklin

So....memory alpha says "The Franklin was launched from the San Francisco Fleet Yards sometime between 2145 and 2151." And, when she was launched, she was the first Warp 4 starship. So...is she a First rate ship or second rate or what? Both when she was launched and when lost in 2161?

1. How does she compare overall to the NX-class? (NX-01 Enterprise etc.) As in, how much worse is she?
2. Was she ever re-fitted to bring her more into line with the NX-01 class's capabilities? She seems to have some similarities (phase cannons, spatial torpedoes, polarized hull plating) and differences (although making the ship faster than Warp 4 might have been difficult, refitting the transporters for living beings should have been easier?)
3. Was she initially or later used more as a freighter? "According to the designer, the Franklin was intended to resemble a freighter and was 450 feet long." Although he says resemble rather than is a freighter, I can't see why a freighter would have these sort of tactical systems, unless she started as a first rate ship/ship of the line and later was effectively demoted to cargo/supply ship as newer designs went into service (but her tactical systems were never removed).
4. Would Balthazar Edison been happy to be in command of a ship that mainly did supply runs and was not a front line/first rate ship? (Note: I just wrote a fanfic short based off how unhappy how would have been) https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/kra...ment-would-have-been-useful-in-beyond.287779/)
5. So...the Franklin was between 10 and 16 years old when it was lost?

 

[F. King Daniel]

Designer Sean Hargreaves says the Franklin was a warp engine testbed turned cargo ship, based on the script he was given mentioning "first ship capable of warp 4" and that she featured a cargo transporter. Writer Simon Pegg, however, says she was an exploration ship, in service to the MACO and then the Federation.

A lot was in flux during the somewhat rushed design process. Franklin began as the USS Pioneer, it's size fluctuated between one deck and six during the design process (hence the bottomless turboshaft) before they settled on three decks and a 450ft length. The nacelles were originally underneath, but a late change in script (sliding off the edge of a cliff instead off rising from a sand dune) necessitated having them above the ship. We know the ship has two NX-type shuttlepods on board as seen in the crew vLogs, but Hargreaves says he was never told to but a shuttlebay on the model so there isn't one.

I'm sure there's an awesome way to reconcile everything. I'd say she was designed as a warp testbed, then was a MACO cargo ship transporting important cargo during the Romulan war, then finally a Federation exploration ship when she was lost - but that's just guesswork.

 

[Tenacity]

My personal "head canon," majority of the pre-NX Earth starships would have been retrofitted with NX type reactor and engines, once those systems were proven out.

 

[Timo]

I'd like to lose the MACO connection altogether, as the story point is supposed to be that Edison hates his new career at Starfleet and prefers his old one at MACO. While the Franklin is an "old friend" to him, he's originally supposed to hate her and everything she represents. Although we could also argue that he hates the fact that this old warhorse was neutered and forced to perform exploration missions...

Also, Archer's ship received photon(ic) torpedoes in the 2150s, while the Franklin still has spatial missiles to go with her phase guns. This might suggest a significantly less exalted status and lower priority of upgrading, perhaps indeed unarmed status during the war (the warp testbed interpretation) and installation of cheap surplus guns after the fighting was over - or then merely bulkiness of torpedo machinery of the day, making it unsuited for small ships like the Franklin.

How does she compare overall to the NX-class? (NX-01 Enterprise etc.) As in, how much worse is she?

* Clearly much smaller on the outside - but the spacious mess hall suggests the crew still lived in great comfort.
* Clearly less potently armed.
* Potentially less capable of deploying teams on planetary surfaces from orbit - if the shuttles cannot be stowed aboard and the transporter is only cleared for cargo, then the ship herself must land, and Scotty has reservations about that.
* Yet potentially more capable - the shuttles are specifically labeled as belonging to the ship, the transporter does move people, and the ship does operate from surface to orbit (and earlier did get intact from space to surface) with apparent ease, plus features dedicated lifting engine nozzles where Archer's ship has none.
* Speedwise... No way of telling. Might be after breaking the record for warp 4, she proceeded to sailing at warp 6 for her brief UFP Starfleet career, while Archer's ship never attained that. Might be after breaking the record for warp 4, she never dared attempt that again, and puttered along at warp 3 till the end of her days.

Was she ever re-fitted to bring her more into line with the NX-01 class's capabilities? She seems to have some similarities (phase cannons, spatial torpedoes, polarized hull plating) and differences (although making the ship faster than Warp 4 might have been difficult, refitting the transporters for living beings should have been easier?)

We know she didn't get the torpedoes - Scotty specifies missiles. We don't know if the transporter required any sort of a refit even aboard Archer's ship, as "Broken Bow" merely mentioned the device having been "cleared" for biotransport. Scotty supposedly transported dozens if not hundreds people with it without a hitch, so it might always have been capable of that. It would merely be that it was originally built with cargo transport in mind, and man-rated merely on paper rather than by going through all the gadgetry with a fine comb, which would make Scotty concerned.

Was she initially or later used more as a freighter? "According to the designer, the Franklin was intended to resemble a freighter and was 450 feet long." Although he says resemble rather than is a freighter, I can't see why a freighter would have these sort of tactical systems, unless she started as a first rate ship/ship of the line and later was effectively demoted to cargo/supply ship as newer designs went into service (but her tactical systems were never removed).

We see what ENT era civilian freighters looked like. The Franklin doesn't look like that, and has no obvious means of bringing cargo aboard or holds for carrying it. Then again, TAS and TOS-R give us supposed military transports like the Antares design, and those are no better in the hatches-and-holds department. Plus, perhaps that luxurious mess hall cum motorbike garage was originally a cargo hold?

Even the civilian ENT freighters had guns, and needed them often enough. Starfleet no doubt would wish to arm its transports as heavily as possible (in structural and financial terms), just like any navy engaged in fighting. But we get no combat history for the Franklin, so no telling here.

Would Balthazar Edison been happy to be in command of a ship that mainly did supply runs and was not a front line/first rate ship?

Storywise, we want Edison to be unhappy. But we don't know of any connection between Edison and this ship until after the founding of the UFP, and the mission described there involved "pushing the frontier", which sort of rules out supply runs.

How Edison's mission would have pushed frontiers is unclear, though. Perhaps he was supposed to explore deep space? Or perhaps he was supposed to break further speed records, which resulted in this wormhole mishap and pushed him into deep space against intent? The third method of pushing, that of conquering more territory for the UFP with hot phasers and speeding missiles, seems highly unlikely.

So...the Franklin was between 10 and 16 years old when it was lost?

Or potentially much older, but merely gained prominence 10-16 years before her loss by breaking that speed record. Perhaps she got new engines at that time, and those were bolted on an already old and decrepit ship because that was affordable and practical?

Timo Saloniemi