Thanks. That registry seems very high for 2380.
Spoilers The Ships of Lower Decks
- Thread starter Tuskin38
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Thanks. That registry seems very high for 2380.
Not necessarily - in order to get as high as 70000 in the 2360s, we have to add about 10k to the registries every decade after getting past the four-digit registries of the 23rd century. We may have missed a few 80000 range regos during the 2370s, much of which we spent away in Delta... Now is the right time to see them.
Timo Saloniemi
Timo Saloniemi
That's an unfortunate choice in names, particularly since there is supposed to be an active Merced class contemporary to this era. Oh, well, I guess that falls into the "Yeager" category of contemporary class-name/ship-name overlaps. I'm sure there are probably others, but that one comes to mind immediately.
I really like the notion of changing the livery colors and pennants on a ship's hull based on mission focus. Great little bit of universe-building that was absent in earlier incarnations. And, they seem to be pursuing their own unique design language for a Trek franchise while still holding true to established period-correct visual queues.
I really like the notion of changing the livery colors and pennants on a ship's hull based on mission focus. Great little bit of universe-building that was absent in earlier incarnations. And, they seem to be pursuing their own unique design language for a Trek franchise while still holding true to established period-correct visual queues.
I don't see the problem: the last known other Merced operated more than a decade earlier, back when the registry of this one would have been inappropriate. So one ship (class) died and another (individual ship) was born.
DSC has done things with decorative paint, and in retrospect we might read some of that into the ST:FC designs as well. Could have been a Starfleet thing for quite some time now, considering we saw a grand total of, what, six or seven actual starships between TOS and TNG, and perhaps another dozen during TNG. Perhaps the Fleet went to war in DS9 with multipurpose ships aka warships only?
Timo Saloniemi
DSC has done things with decorative paint, and in retrospect we might read some of that into the ST:FC designs as well. Could have been a Starfleet thing for quite some time now, considering we saw a grand total of, what, six or seven actual starships between TOS and TNG, and perhaps another dozen during TNG. Perhaps the Fleet went to war in DS9 with multipurpose ships aka warships only?
Timo Saloniemi
The only known Merced class ship was the U.S.S. Trieste which was operating right before the start of TNG in 2364. It had a registry of NCC-37124, which would make it a much older ship than the Galaxy class family. So I’m assuming the namesake of the class was decommissioned or destroyed a long time before this U.S.S. Merced was built. So I don’t see a problem.
Good point. I guess I was skewing my tome zones a bit. FWIW, Ex Astris has a small bit about the class:
Not sure where they got all this information from (some of it sounds apocryphal, as if from various non-canon books), but the implication was that the class lasted well through the Dominion War.
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We have never seen ships in that particular registry range (assuming the purely Okudaic registry really is 37124) that would not have been repeats of earlier designs. So our options there are that this is a TOS movie era style ship, only from a late production batch; or a representative of some intermediate starship design family for which we have no onscreen candidates. I'd love to believe in an "Excelsior family" where this one is a humble vessel, befitting Data's downtrodden status at the time, and possibly something created towards the tail end of that family's heyday. Perhaps even the class of the Centaur, the one known featherweight with Excelsior characteristics?
OTOH, LDS seems hell-bent on showing rather than telling. It doesn't seem all that unlikely that we'd get a proper flashback of the Quito within the season too... Not much left to guesswork regarding eras and designs, then.
Timo Saloniemi
OTOH, LDS seems hell-bent on showing rather than telling. It doesn't seem all that unlikely that we'd get a proper flashback of the Quito within the season too... Not much left to guesswork regarding eras and designs, then.
Timo Saloniemi
There are tons of Miranda class starships with 3XXXX registries. Presumably the Trieste and the Merced class in general were variants of that class.
As for that info from Ex Astris...yeah, it’s all non-canon. The only information we know about the ship other than Data serving on it was that it was ‘too small’ and ‘too slow’ to catch up to the Enterprise-D when the Bynars stole it (although I’m not sure why the size of the ship would have anything to do with its speed.)
As for that info from Ex Astris...yeah, it’s all non-canon. The only information we know about the ship other than Data serving on it was that it was ‘too small’ and ‘too slow’ to catch up to the Enterprise-D when the Bynars stole it (although I’m not sure why the size of the ship would have anything to do with its speed.)
FWIW, Dan Curry did create a Trieste with the appropriate registry (although possibly missing the 1), out of a Miranda hull and Galaxy style nacelles. For shits and giggles, we might believe in that one: its two prominent "turrets" might be related to its recurring pulsar-studying mission, and its engines might have been installed when the original ones vented plasma one time too many.
Or then we could accept this one without accepting the Miranda roots, as the hull is rendered unrecognizable and decorated with TNG style portholes. The registry would be really low for a TNG design, though...
Timo Saloniemi
Or then we could accept this one without accepting the Miranda roots, as the hull is rendered unrecognizable and decorated with TNG style portholes. The registry would be really low for a TNG design, though...
Timo Saloniemi
Ah yes, that thing. Was thinking about it when this particular topic popped up. I did an ortho treatment of it when photos of it emerged a while back:
I'm a firm believer that some designs are so ugly they're pretty. I feel this way about several of the DS9 kitbashes (I'm looking at you, Yeager and Centaur). This one? Nope! It's epic fugly.
I'm a firm believer that some designs are so ugly they're pretty. I feel this way about several of the DS9 kitbashes (I'm looking at you, Yeager and Centaur). This one? Nope! It's epic fugly.
I rather appreciate the engine layout, the turrets and the forward shuttlebay doors all. It's the blending into a whole that requires a bit of squinting, preferably when inebriated. Then again, I'd expect that of anything LDS throws at us, too.
The "real" Trieste has the prominent TNG portholes painted in VFX-compatible translucent green, rather altering the looks, while the TOS movie ones are painted over. The "real real" ship might have somewhat more elegant pylons, and perhaps a more interesting design to the little cupcake molds at the corners. It still shouldn't hog the focus in any episode. But that wouldn't be its dramatic role anyway.
Timo Saloniemi
The "real" Trieste has the prominent TNG portholes painted in VFX-compatible translucent green, rather altering the looks, while the TOS movie ones are painted over. The "real real" ship might have somewhat more elegant pylons, and perhaps a more interesting design to the little cupcake molds at the corners. It still shouldn't hog the focus in any episode. But that wouldn't be its dramatic role anyway.
Timo Saloniemi
FYI, Dan Curry didn’t built that model. It was just one model in a couple Polaroid photographs of other models, but AFAIK the only model Curry built was the eponymous U.S.S. Curry (He might have built the Raging Queen too since they look so much similar, but I don’t have confirmation on that.)
If you do find a name for the actual builder of that particular design, I would be happy to update the credits bit on that picture. 
Love that design! Such a shame it didn't make it to the screen.Ah yes, that thing. Was thinking about it when this particular topic popped up. I did an ortho treatment of it when photos of it emerged a while back:
I'm a firm believer that some designs are so ugly they're pretty. I feel this way about several of the DS9 kitbashes (I'm looking at you, Yeager and Centaur). This one? Nope! It's epic fugly.
I like the different hull markings/colours for different roles, but...
Someone should tell the ship designer that they don't need to invent a new nacelle every time. Using the same nacelles on multiple classes gives some consistency to the designs.
Still, this and the California Class are miles better than anything we've gotten in Discovery/Picard. At least you can tell that the various ships are part of the same Starfleet. I could be wrong but I assume Eaves isn't involved in Lower Decks?
Next weeks episode has a new ship class, which has the Registry at the front Screencap from @NCC-73515
Someone should tell the ship designer that they don't need to invent a new nacelle every time. Using the same nacelles on multiple classes gives some consistency to the designs.
Still, this and the California Class are miles better than anything we've gotten in Discovery/Picard. At least you can tell that the various ships are part of the same Starfleet. I could be wrong but I assume Eaves isn't involved in Lower Decks?
Ive told you like 5 times already, that Eaves most likely isn’t on Lower Decks, he doesn’t have it listed on his website lol.
All he has listed for current projects is Picard and Prodigy.
Also the TNG era shows did the same thing, every new (non-kitbash) design had new nacelles.
I know sorry, I just thought maybe he might have updated his website since then.
Regardless of what TNG did there's a history of classes using the same or similar nacelles (Constitution/Constellation/Miranda and Galaxy/Ambassador/Nebula) and I think that consistency is a good thing. The Ceritos and the ship from next week have a similar look to them and so I think similar nacelles would have been better.
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