[SPOILER]New movie ship looks familiar

[F. King Daniel]

My guess is that it's going to be a test ship that vanished on its maiden voyage, not unlike the Bonaventure from TAS: "The Time Trap" (another problematic bit of early warp technology)

And Captain Archer was, like, "Let's never mention those guys. Never."

 

[Michael]

Not that anyone actually watching the movie will care.

Not sure what you are saying. I will definitely see the movie and I do care. Not to a point where it'd ruin my enjoyment of the movie or anything like that, but I will care how Beyond will make Enterprise look.

 

[eyeresist]

I struggle making it fit with Enterprise being deep space pioneers, after Vulcans held us back a century... when a Warp 4 ship like that could get to all the places Archer could have... just taking a fraction longer.

Earth also had warp 2 ships at that time. I believe fanon has it that warp speeds increase exponentially, so warp 5 would be much faster than warp 4, i.e. not just "warp 4 plus 1".

If the Franklin is found so far out of known territory, my guess is it suffered some sort of unstoppable acceleration problem, which took it so far out it could never return home.

 

[F. King Daniel]

A quick USS Franklin/Enterprise NX-01 comparison

 

[eyeresist]

^ Thanks for that. I think you can actually buy the lineage, based on the photos. The only quibble is the uniforms - the Franklin uniform looks a bit more futury (and less practical) than ENT's earthy overalls.

Looking at the Franklin badge, I'm wondering what the orange dots mean? Seems to represent sites in western US and eastern Canada.

BTW, the Franklin seems to be missing its deflector....

 

[ChristopherPike]

Forget it. I'll only end up giving myself a brain aneurism over how none of this fits together anymore.

 

[Michael]

Looking at the Franklin badge, I'm wondering what the orange dots mean? Seems to represent sites in western US and eastern Canada.

How can you make that out from an image like that? I'm not even sure I can make out whether this is supposed to be Earth on the badge, let alone particular continents.

 

[Timo]

If anything, it looks like a view of the Pacific to me, with dots in the Japanese and Indonesian neighborhood, and then in Alaska and Hawaii...

They've gotten the U.S.S. prefix wrong, given the ENT era ships don't have that.

Sure they do. Witness USS Enterprise and USS Columbia in "Divergence". It's just that they don't want to pay for the extra paint on the outer hull (heck, typically they don't even bother to paint registries there, except for the above two ships).

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Dukhat]

Sure they do. Witness USS Enterprise and USS Columbia in "Divergence".

That was an acknowledged mistake on the Art Department's part (from Memory Alpha):

The graphic designers mistakenly added the USS prefix to both the Enterprise and Columbia in episode artwork. Neither of the ships were ever designated USS.

 

[Timo]

Whatever. It was on screen, it's part of the Trek universe. If it helps us along accommodating what we now see, all the better.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Dukhat]

Whatever. It was on screen, it's part of the Trek universe. If it helps us along accommodating what we now see, all the better.

Wrong. It was a mistake (and an acknowledged one at that) and should be taken as seriously as "James R. Kirk" or the U.S.S. Zhukov being labeled as a Rigel class ship on a display screen when in fact it was an Ambassador. And it doesn't help anything because it's in direct contradiction to everything else that has been shown with pre-Federation Starfleet vessels.

 

[Timo]

It's in no contradiction with anything except foolish fan fixations. And a "mistake" is still a done deal - most of Trek is one big mistake that the later writers and directors would wish to undo, and they often do their damnedest, but all they ever manage is add to the big pile that is the Trek universe.

Really, "authors" are just about the least influential element in the making of Trek. They come, they do, and then they go. Even actors hang around longer and have more say, never mind characters or concepts.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Dukhat]

Sometimes a mistake is just a mistake, and there's no need to rationalize it. And I'm not sure what you mean by "foolish fan fixations," since that has nothing to do with what was established on screen. The pre-Federation Starfleet vessels (at least the NX-class) have no U.S.S. prefix and have their class names as part of their registry, both on the hulls of the NX-class and on their dedication plaques. "U.S.S." was never once spoken in dialogue in ENT when the ships were named. The ONLY thing that ever contradicted that was the mistake you pointed out, which was on a display screen for a few seconds and is easily forgettable. I didn't even know about it until you pointed it out.

 

[LisbonPlayer]

Looking at the Franklin badge, I'm wondering what the orange dots mean? Seems to represent sites in western US and eastern Canada.

If anything, it looks like a view of the Pacific to me, with dots in the Japanese and Indonesian neighborhood, and then in Alaska and Hawaii...

North Atlantic Ocean with the Americas on the left and Europe and Africa on the right.
The dots seem to indicate Caracas, Bogotá and Georgetown in South America and Coruna, Paris and Trondheim in Europe.

 

[Timo]

But who did the "clearing up" that gives us the North Atlantic interpretation, and on what basis? The actual source material doesn't appear to provide for that.

The pre-Federation Starfleet vessels...

...Come in all sorts of formats. Some have their names on, some have names and registries, some have nothing written on the hulls. There is no single format that would be capable of being contradicted or adhered to. And assuming that USS goes in front of all the names but is left out for the same reason that the registry is missing from the Intrepid is the simple and safe assumption that leaves no contradictions in existence. Heck, it happens again with the Raven.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Dukhat]

But we're talking specifically about the NX-class, since that's what was shown on the computer screen mistake in that episode. And as far as that class is concerned, the evidence of non-U.S.S. prefixes overwhelms the one little mistake shown for a few seconds.

The example of the Raven is non-evidence. The original intent was that it was a civilian ship. A later episode retconned it into a Starfleet vessel.

 

[LisbonPlayer]

But who did the "clearing up" that gives us the North Atlantic interpretation, and on what basis? The actual source material doesn't appear to provide for that.
Timo Saloniemi

You’re right. The available photos show a different picture. Perhaps it's Earth or a generic planet with some constellations.

 

[F. King Daniel]

A couple of spectacular shots of the Franklin in the new Star Trek Beyond trailer. It's so cool to see a design so heavily inspired by Enterprise NX-01.

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[Saul]

It is interesting. There is definitely a clear 22nd century design linage that has emerged. If we look at the NX-Class, Intrepid & Franklin they all lack the secondary hull. We might imagine most ships from Starfleet in this era were the same.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Spoilers clarifying where the USS Franklin fits into the Trek timeline:

Spoiler: Star Trek Beyond

Launched in the 2160's, the USS Franklin has the registry number NX-326. It appears the "first ship to reach warp 4" tidbit in Popular Mechanics was erroneous?