Starship design history in light of Discovery

[Burning Hearts of Qo'nos]

The 2nd edition of the Star Trek: Shipyards - Starfleet Ships 2294 - The Future book reveals the names and registry numbers of Starfleet ships of the year 3189.
One of these is the four-nacelled (but unpyloned) USS Curie NCC-81890-J. Named after Kirsten Beyer's Merian-class USS Curie NCC-81890 from the Project Full Circle VOY novels!
Memory Beta link: https://memory-beta.fandom.com/wiki/USS_Curie_(NCC-81890)

The Merian-class explorer (= modern Miranda counterpart): https://memory-beta.fandom.com/wiki/Merian_class

I LOVE THIS. This is great for headcanon as well! Since both the Curie and Voyager are up to Js and their original registry numbers are within the same ballpark, then perhaps both ships, indeed, were part of the Full Circle Mission/Fleet and did amazing things in the Delta Quadrant, enough for their registries to be immortalized.

 

[Agony_Boothb]

I just want class names for the Curie, Thant and Dresselhaus

 

[DEWLine]

I just want class names for the Curie, Thant and Dresselhaus

That's fair.

 

[Tuskin38]

Maybe they'll be in the book.

 

[Agony_Boothb]

Maybe they'll be in the book.

Most likely. I wonder why we didn't get the class names for them when they released the concept/promotional art a few months ago.

 

[Markonian]

I wonder if the Tikhov-M also has a specific class name beyond "seed vault ship". It wasn't until the Chapter 5 preview picture I first saw that it has tiny little warp nacelles.

 

[Timo]

Ditto. And I thought we got pretty good all-around views in the episode? Perhaps that nasty space storm had ripped the nacelles away...

I'd think the first couple of Tikhovs would be conversions of existing starship types, perhaps of damaged or worn-down individuals. At some point, the idea of having the seed ship around might prompt the UFP to start creating dedicated designs, and by -M, the ships would all be one-offs for this sole purpose.

The dialogue doesn't quite exclude the possibility of the Federation at some point running fifty seedships in parallel, with a single pathfinder and perhaps a single -A and -B but then an increasing number of sisters - and then again a narrowing down to one when the UFP collapses. All the other ships might have been lost in the Burn or stranded too far away to be of use. But it would be quite a coincidence for the Tikhov-M herself to be the sole survivor within range!

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Markonian]

It’s probably dumb luck that the Tikhov-M survived the “Fall of the 12 Colonies”-style cataclysm, but presumably it would’ve been kept close to the new FedHQ on purpose afterward.

 

[Dukhat]

I saw the Tikhov’s nacelles in the episode. They were there.

Also of note: the original namesake of the Tikhov was a 23rd century ship, as was the Reliant, both of which have 32nd century name equivalents with the suffix ‘M.’ This would imply that a surviving or brand-new 32nd century Enterprise would probably have the ‘M’ suffix as well.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

I saw the Tikhov’s nacelles in the episode. They were there.

Also of note: the original namesake of the Tikhov was a 23rd century ship, as was the Reliant, both of which have 32nd century name equivalents with the suffix ‘M.’ This would imply that a surviving or brand-new 32nd century Enterprise would probably have the ‘M’ suffix as well.

Enterprises tend to be snakebitten. Maybe "W" would be more likely.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Enterprise-X. The most eXtreme Enterprise ever! *cut to captain on the bridge crotch chopping*

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Enterprise-X. The most eXtreme Enterprise ever! *cut to captain on the bridge crotch chopping*

That Captain will need a seriously edgy catchphrase. No "make it so" or similar will do.

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[Markonian]

That Captain will need a seriously edgy catchphrase. No "make it so" or similar will do.

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An ironic, knickers-twisting arm thrust and energetic outcry of "Engineering, get woke or go broke!"

 

[cooleddie74]

Enterprise-X. The most eXtreme Enterprise ever! *cut to captain on the bridge crotch chopping*

Kelvin Timeline Sulu might agree.

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[Timo]

It’s probably dumb luck that the Tikhov-M survived the “Fall of the 12 Colonies”-style cataclysm, but presumably it would’ve been kept close to the new FedHQ on purpose afterward.

Ships of this type might spend relatively little time at warp, so they could have better chances of surviving the Burn than other ship types. That is, they might have their cores shut down altogether, there being so little need for them to move, while most ships would be on standby for warp even at sublight and would blow up.

Why move a seed bank at all? The Tikhov seemed to have sought proximity to that storm, perhaps in order to better hide from threat forces. Possibly post-Burn paranoia, but potentially standard practice in the preceding centuries already.

Aaanyway. The pic above suggests fairly significant size; the "Die Trying" scene with the tractor beam, not so much...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Deks]

Why move a seed bank at all?

I can see the need to make a mobile seed bank... but the UFP would likely have one on each UFP member world. After all, it seems like its not huge. And in addition to that, the HQ would definitely have to have one too... along with a few seed ships spread across the Alpha Quadrant.

 

[137th Gebirg]

Did they have actual physical seeds or were they replicator patterns? If the latter, you wouldn’t need much space at all, just enough to house the computer containing the seed database and a massive set of redundancies to keep from losing said patterns and I suspect that replicator tech had advanced considerably by the 32nd century. I honestly can’t remember how they were stored.

 

[Tuskin38]

Can the replicator make living things?

 

[137th Gebirg]

DNA is just another kind of matter, made up of atoms and molecules organized in a certain way. Plant seeds are quite simple, genetically, compared to advanced animal organisms. I wouldn't have any problem at all accepting that they figured out how to do that by the 32nd.

That opens up an interesting ethical question, however. Replicating live plant matter is one thing - replicating animals and sentient beings is quite another (although it has been argued that's exactly what the transporter does, hence double Kirks, double Rikers, etc.) As technology advances, the question always changes from "Can we do something" to "SHOULD we do something". The whole notion of the post-Khan-era genetic engineering ban becomes rather quaint by comparison.

 

[Timo]

In TNG and VOY, the doctors replicated living tissue in order to repair bodies (both dead and living ones). The EMH couldn't replicate a proper lung for Neelix, though, suggesting mere ethics aren't stopping that particular show at that time. Or at least it takes more than a starship replicator to create a living puppy or helmsman.

But nobody in Trek ever outright says replicators can't do living matter or indeed entire living beings of some complexity. It's just that even alien machinery that the TOS heroes consider advanced is generally limited to making copies, rather than new entities. Perhaps the complexity involved is indeed a showstopper, in the sense that when only copying is possible, ethical considerations that already relate to cloning and such kick in.

Timo Saloniemi