*Spoilers* U.S.S. Franklin Design?

[The Mighty Monkey of Mim]

Just returned from seeing the movie a second time. Regarding the Franklin busting through Yorktown Base's door, the door's structural integrity was indeed already compromised (had a sizable hole in it) and the ship was visibly damaged by the collision. Chekov also explicitly mentioned multiple hull breaches from the impact.

 

[Timo]

...Actually, doesn't Chekov's report on exactly three hull breaches get used as evidence that the three enemy vessels hit those spots? Kirk immediately orders a search for boarders at those locations.

This indirectly suggests that nothing else got breached, i.e. the door-busting created no breaches on its own. Although no doubt a whole lot of stuff got broken for good!

Timo Saloniemi

 

[gerbil]

...Actually, doesn't Chekov's report on exactly three hull breaches get used as evidence that the three enemy vessels hit those spots? Kirk immediately orders a search for boarders at those locations.

This indirectly suggests that nothing else got breached, i.e. the door-busting created no breaches on its own. Although no doubt a whole lot of stuff got broken for good!

Timo Saloniemi

I'm gonna guess that there a lot of hull breaches all around.

I'm down with the terminal velocity stuff because Scotty's comments imply the ship was never supposed to lift its own weight off the surface of a planet from a dead stop. We never saw a ship do that in the Prime Universe except Voyager who was specifically designed for it. Hovering or compensating, sure. But it stands to reason a ship built in space would have some atmospheric capabilities (given the everyday occurrences in the Trekverses) but wouldn't be designed to take off from a dead stop.

 

[Timo]

Why would the teeny weeny speed difference between "dead stop" and "circling around Chrysler Building" / "Formation flying with an F-104" be significant? That isn't even a thousandth of a percent of the speed range supposedly available to a starship at impulse.

Also, gravity of one gee can't be a concern for a ship that routinely copes with hundreds or thousands of gees. The ship in other words must be capable of lifting hundreds or thousands of times her own weight, or alternately taking off from the surface of a planet or star with superhigh gravity.

...Except if some key systems were temporarily down. But it's difficult to find a reason why they couldn't be turned on before takeoff - yet that seems to be the very problem with either the thrusters or the impulse engines or both in Beyond.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

Forgive me if I missed it, but was there a specific historical Franklin this ship was named for? The one that comes to mind would be Benjamin Franklin, obviously, especially since Starfleet isn't known for giving its ships full names (save one apparently, the USS Albert Einstein)... OTOH, Scotty would be marooned with a Franklin in an alternate history...

Mark

 

[Tuskin38]

No it is never said in the movie.

The IRL reason was it was named after Frank Lin, Justin Lin's father.

 

[gerbil]

Why would the teeny weeny speed difference between "dead stop" and "circling around Chrysler Building" / "Formation flying with an F-104" be significant? That isn't even a thousandth of a percent of the speed range supposedly available to a starship at impulse.

Also, gravity of one gee can't be a concern for a ship that routinely copes with hundreds or thousands of gees. The ship in other words must be capable of lifting hundreds or thousands of times her own weight, or alternately taking off from the surface of a planet or star with superhigh gravity.

...Except if some key systems were temporarily down. But it's difficult to find a reason why they couldn't be turned on before takeoff - yet that seems to be the very problem with either the thrusters or the impulse engines or both in Beyond.

Timo Saloniemi

Well, it doesn't really matter. We can go round and round with it but at the end of the day it just couldn't.

 

[Morpheus 02]

No it is never said in the movie.

The IRL reason was it was named after Frank Lin, Justin Lin's father.

I have hated how a lo of Trek Federation shipnames have been so European --- but in THIS case, that's just awesome! I wont look at it the same

 

[Timo]

Well, it doesn't really matter. We can go round and round with it but at the end of the day it just couldn't.

But that's just it - she could, with ease. We saw it happen. So why did our heroes claim she couldn't, even taking near-suicidal steps based on the false claim? Are the heroes stupid or just incompetent?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Tuskin38]

I have hated how a lo of Trek Federation shipnames have been so European --- but in THIS case, that's just awesome! I wont look at it the same

It is still Franklin though, no space. In the context of the universe it is still 'European', but BTS it isn't.

 

[nx1701g]

It is still Franklin though, no space. In the context of the universe it is still 'European', but BTS it isn't.

And on the dedication plaque. There is a small space.

 

[Morpheus 02]

And on the dedication plaque. There is a small space.

Indeed...and I think on the ship too...so I accept the name with enthusiasm

 

[Tuskin38]

Everything official says Franklin without the space. Including the QMx model which was made from renders from the film.

Though I do agree that the Plaque does appear to have a space, wouldn't be surprised that it is on purpose. But everywhere else it is one word.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I recall reading on Trekcore that the tiny space on the plaque (and more direct reference to Frank Lin) was intended to be a result of crash damage.

 

[publiusr]

The Phoenix, also, wasn't meant to fly in an atmosphere and had to be lofted by an ICBM before it could fly.

Titan II from the looks of it.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

^ Titan IV from dialog

And a Titan-II wouldn't be able to put something the size of the phoenix into orbit no matter what it's fueled by.

 

[Shadowknight1]

So, here's my thinking. The Franklin didn't have a registry when first launched. She was a prototype intended to test the upgraded warp engines and ended up being the first ship to hit warp 4. After the formation of the Federation and the subsequent "absorption" of Starfleet, they recommissioned it as the U.S.S. Franklin with the registry NX-326 and was given to Captain Edison. Not that much of a stretch really.

 

[The Mighty Monkey of Mim]

Titan II from the looks of it.

^ Titan IV from dialog

And a Titan-II wouldn't be able to put something the size of the phoenix into orbit no matter what it's fueled by.

Titan V actually (stood-in for by a real Titan II for the shots inside the silo), although this was not in fact mentioned in dialogue. Mike Okuda explains (via Ex Astris Scientia):

"I had a couple of sets of lettering made up for the set, to label the ship as a Titan V vehicle. This was not only because the Titan II wouldn't have had the power to carry the Phoenix into space, but also because the prop rocket motors seen in the missile silo scenes were clearly different from a Titan II. (Under the terms of international treaty, the Air Force has removed the rocket engines from the missile.) I picked Titan V because the Air Force officer assigned to the film told me that there were no plans for the Air Force to build a vehicle by that name, but I wanted to keep the legacy of the Titan name. I think there's at least one set of lettering that's visible—if not legible—in the film. This one was a set of small white letters near the base of the vehicle."

 

[Markonian]

About the missing shuttlebay:
There's room at the rear of the saucer, or it has a bay like the NX-01.

In the ship's log video we can see a pair of dropships approach the Franklin crew. Are these shuttlepods from ENT, or a different design?

 

[Timo]

My impression was of slightly longer craft of the same general shape, but we really need screencaps...

Timo Saloniemi