ST Generations: A Brief Question about Starbases

[Sanji Himura]

I know that the Next Generation films, especially Generations, rarely touched on the concept of Starbases as it was presented in TNG. My research into official sources have all but ran dry, but, as I am working on another chapter on a TNG fan fiction, I like to place a starbase near the planet of Veridian III, but rather than create my own, I would like to see if I can dig up something official that says that there is a starbase near that planet.

So this brings me to two questions:
1. Is there a starbase near Veridian III?
2. If so, what is it?

 

[Tosk]

If there was one, they sure as heck never mentioned it. And you'd think they would have, given the context.

 

[Timo]

There's a research outpost at Miridian VI, near the RNZ (in one fantasy of TNG "Future Imperfect" at least); given how we lack written references to that place, and how Trek interchanges its vowels at will anyway, this could be the same place as Veridian / Viridian / whatever. But that's as close as we get to anything appearing onscreen.

In the movie itself, we learn nothing concrete about the location of Veridian. But it is just one hop from Amargosa (although not necessarily the very next star over), and Romulans had no problem penetrating to Amargosa. So any starbase with a known RNZ connection could be applied here. As long as this starbase is too far away to do anything about either the Amargosa raid or the threat to Veridian!

Timo Saloniemi

 

[jaime]

Make a starbase out of what's left of the saucer section. It's not like the prime directive applies any more there....Though I believe the planet was unpopulated, I am pretty sure a whopping great sky town falling out of the sky constitutes an irreparable breach of its natural development.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

There are the non-canon Star Trek Star Maps, loads of scans of which are all over the internet. They may be your best bet to get something relatively close to what you're looking for.

 

[Timo]

Though I believe the planet was unpopulated, I am pretty sure a whopping great sky town falling out of the sky constitutes an irreparable breach of its natural development.

What's there to repair that one couldn't? Just lift the thing off the surface (it's more or less intact, apparently) and bulldoze the deep trail roughly level. In a year or so, vegetation will have hidden the marks; in a couple of decades, their nature would have become so obscured that when future Veridian archaeologists stumble onto them, they may be interpreted as just about anything, probably taken as further confirmation for the native theory that the universe is a great golf course where somewhat clumsy gods play.

Curiously, we never saw a starbase built on or next to a planet inhabited by nonhumans. Or by anybody else much, it seems. There were plenty of orbiting starbases of which we never learned what exactly they orbited or why, but the (partially?) surface-located SB11 of TOS fame did not seem to interact with any sort of a native culture, say. Would Veridian get treated differently?

Veridian might instead warrant a Deep Space Station.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Tosk]

Curiously, we never saw a starbase built on or next to a planet inhabited by nonhumans.

What about DS9 and Farpoint?

 

[jaime]

What's there to repair that one couldn't? Just lift the thing off the surface (it's more or less intact, apparently) and bulldoze the deep trail roughly level. In a year or so, vegetation will have hidden the marks; in a couple of decades, their nature would have become so obscured that when future Veridian archaeologists stumble onto them, they may be interpreted as just about anything, probably taken as further confirmation for the native theory that the universe is a great golf course where somewhat clumsy gods play.

Curiously, we never saw a starbase built on or next to a planet inhabited by nonhumans. Or by anybody else much, it seems. There were plenty of orbiting starbases of which we never learned what exactly they orbited or why, but the (partially?) surface-located SB11 of TOS fame did not seem to interact with any sort of a native culture, say. Would Veridian get treated differently?

Veridian might instead warrant a Deep Space Station.

Timo Saloniemi

Farpoint was a starbase 'constructed' and run by non humans, and dialogue implied intended future constructions, and wasn't the outpost with the cleaning array in Picards Die Hard episode a planet based starbase?

Admittedly, starbase as a word implies a space based facility, but episodes like farpoint suggest otherwise. (aside from ds9, which is of course technically a starbase, farpoint is probably the largest amount of on screen exposition for the starbase concept.)

Starbases seem to operate like trading outposts that come under federation command rather than the local populace. Like Hong Kong in ye olden days, or Manhattan in ye even older days. Ds9 very much lives up to that.

I always thought the Ent D saucer when crashed would make a fine starbase ever since seeing the technical manual.

 

[Timo]

Farpoint would be our only example of a starbase with any local population in evidence, really. And Farpoint never came to be.

All other installations called Starbases at best circle a nondescript planet with no local population mentioned, or are seen from the surface side (SB11, Earhart) without insight into locals.

Doesn't mean Farpoint couldn't have been a representative example. But other interpretations are possible as well. Perhaps Starfleet only builds bases where nobody lives, because places where people do live already have starports and Starfleet then rents piers on those?

wasn't the outpost with the cleaning array in Picards Die Hard episode a planet based starbase?

Never called a starbase, although it might have been one. DS9 is not a "true" starbase in dialogue, either, perhaps revealing something about the true meaning of the designation (just like not all star-going ships are starships, for some reason).

Starbases seem to operate like trading outposts that come under federation command rather than the local populace.

We never heard of a starbase doing any trading. Or any other interacting, for that matter. Farpoint tried to become a mall, but failed... I wonder whether Starfleet would have thrown out the peddlers if the place did become a starbase?

Interesting how Picard seems to feel obliged to point out that Farpoint was built by the locals; then considers purchasing their services for future projects of that sort, too. It's as if this were a rare thing, perhaps an all-new phenomenon, even.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[jaime]

So, I Googled it and....
Found an ancient thread on here discussing it which raised the point that characters on screen called it a starbase. That would be in keeping with something like k7, ds9s earlier pre cursor.
I would paste the link, but am probably doing something wrong so my phone won't let me.
It went on for three pages of back and forth.
Interestingly, in the novels, deep space 9 is definitely a starbase...in relevance to here, would the interim ground based facility in the novels also be a starbase?

Farpoint was only unusual in that it was built well and fast, which is why the federation was interested in exporting the expertise as well as leasing the starbase. Granted, this was early Tng when the foreign ferengi ate civilised folk.

There does seem to be consensus reading around that a starbase is basically a port attached and blurring with a local group of amenities, like say, an airbase. Which are almost never found in the air. In this senses ds9 strongly resembles (as well as being referred to as) a starbase. Look at say...okinawa.

On the other hand, there are no amenities on Veridian iii unless you count those in the saucer (a bar, a barber shop, possibly an arboretum, assuming they survive) and the kirk memorial and torpedo fun Park.