the thread: https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/the-enterprise-as-the-federation-flagship.256186/page-6 had its last few pages devoted to arguing about the two registration numbers of the Yamato.
Memory Alpha discusses the registry problems:
I think that it is possible that the Yamato had several different registries at the same time. I think that it had the registry number NCC-1305-E to honor the starship Yamato NCC-1305. The next starship Yamato had a totally separate registration number -call it NCC-V - but also used the registration NCC-1305-B. The third Yamato might have had the registration numbers, NCC-1305-C, V-B, and a third registration we could call NCC-W.
So the Galaxy-class Yamato could have had six different registration numbers at the same time.
It could be NCC-1305-E, NCC-V-D, NCC-W-C, NCC-X-B, and NCC-Y-A, with V, W, X, and Y being numbers. Or maybe the Yamato only had three registration numbers at the same time: NCC-71807 as the proper construction number, NCC-1305-E to honor the original Yamato, and NCC-24383 to honor one of the four intervening Yamatos. But why doesn't NCC-24383 have number suffix?
Maybe the USS Yamato NCC-24383 listed as patrolling the Neutral Zone under Captain Richard Mackenzie in "The Measure of a Man" was a different and earlier starship than the Galaxy class USS Yamato, both somehow being in service at the same time. In that case the USS Yamato NCC-24383 should have also had the registry number NCC-1305-D.
Or maybe the USS Yamato NCC-24383/NCC-1305-D was decommissioned sometime after "The Measure of a Man" and the USS Yamato NCC-71807/NCC-1305-E was commissioned and sent to the Neutral Zone sometime later and before "Contagion". In that casse the USS Yamato NCC-71807/NCC-1305-E would not have already been in service by the time of "Where Silence Has Lease".
In "Where Silence Has Lease":
Does this indicate the Yamato is already in service but known to be far from the route to the Morgana Quadrant, or does it mean that Wesley knows the Yamato should still be in space dock far away being finished?
I noticed that the discussion in the thread "The Enterprise as Federation Flagship" seemed to assume that the paint or other coating on the surface of a starship can have only one color until being replaced after months or years. Thus a starship can have only one registration number painted on its hull until the hull is repainted. But I believe that the monitor you are reading this on has many thousands of elements that can change color with an electronic signal, in order to form pictures and words. It is speculated that in the future TV screens and computer monitors could become very thin and flexible. Thus the hulls of starships could be sheathed with ultra thin display devices. And forms of "electronic paint" have been invented that respond to electricity. Clearly it could be possible to send signals to patches of paint on different grid sections of a starship's hull to make them change color in various patterns.
Thus if the theory that the Yamato had two or more different registration numbers is correct, a computer system might have been programmed to periodically send a signal to the hull covering to change colors in designated grid sections to change the number from "NCC-71807" to "NCC-1305-E" and back again.
Thus the Yamato's hull might have been displaying "NCC-1305-E" in "Where Silence Has Lease" and displaying "NCC-71807" in "Contagion". And when the Yamato's computer systems were breaking down the hull could have been signaled to display "NCC-71806" instead of "NCC-71807" soon before the ship exploded.
According to this theory the Enterprise should also have two registration numbers, NCC-1701-D and another number that might be similar to the 78107 of the Yamato if registration numbers are consecative.
But whenever the registration number is seen and legible on the hull it says 1701-D. Of course model makers in the 1980s and 1990s didn't have access to the most advanced materials of 2018, let alone the materials of the era of TNG. No naturally they couldn't change the registration number of the Enterprise models by simply flicking a switch. Well, maybe they could have used thousands of tiny LEDs on the the model to display the name and registration number to able to it change when ever depicting another Galaxy class ship, but if they could have they didn't think of it.
Another possibility is that "Where Silence Has Lease" is in an alternate universe where "NCC-1305-E" was chosen as the registration number of the Yamato and "Contagion" is in an alternate universe where "NCC-71807" was chosen as the registration number of the Yamato.
Thus it seems to me that there doesn't have to be any inconsistency about the Yamato registration numbers.
Memory Alpha discusses the registry problems:
I think that it is possible that the Yamato had several different registries at the same time. I think that it had the registry number NCC-1305-E to honor the starship Yamato NCC-1305. The next starship Yamato had a totally separate registration number -call it NCC-V - but also used the registration NCC-1305-B. The third Yamato might have had the registration numbers, NCC-1305-C, V-B, and a third registration we could call NCC-W.
So the Galaxy-class Yamato could have had six different registration numbers at the same time.
It could be NCC-1305-E, NCC-V-D, NCC-W-C, NCC-X-B, and NCC-Y-A, with V, W, X, and Y being numbers. Or maybe the Yamato only had three registration numbers at the same time: NCC-71807 as the proper construction number, NCC-1305-E to honor the original Yamato, and NCC-24383 to honor one of the four intervening Yamatos. But why doesn't NCC-24383 have number suffix?
Maybe the USS Yamato NCC-24383 listed as patrolling the Neutral Zone under Captain Richard Mackenzie in "The Measure of a Man" was a different and earlier starship than the Galaxy class USS Yamato, both somehow being in service at the same time. In that case the USS Yamato NCC-24383 should have also had the registry number NCC-1305-D.
Or maybe the USS Yamato NCC-24383/NCC-1305-D was decommissioned sometime after "The Measure of a Man" and the USS Yamato NCC-71807/NCC-1305-E was commissioned and sent to the Neutral Zone sometime later and before "Contagion". In that casse the USS Yamato NCC-71807/NCC-1305-E would not have already been in service by the time of "Where Silence Has Lease".
In "Where Silence Has Lease":
Does this indicate the Yamato is already in service but known to be far from the route to the Morgana Quadrant, or does it mean that Wesley knows the Yamato should still be in space dock far away being finished?
I noticed that the discussion in the thread "The Enterprise as Federation Flagship" seemed to assume that the paint or other coating on the surface of a starship can have only one color until being replaced after months or years. Thus a starship can have only one registration number painted on its hull until the hull is repainted. But I believe that the monitor you are reading this on has many thousands of elements that can change color with an electronic signal, in order to form pictures and words. It is speculated that in the future TV screens and computer monitors could become very thin and flexible. Thus the hulls of starships could be sheathed with ultra thin display devices. And forms of "electronic paint" have been invented that respond to electricity. Clearly it could be possible to send signals to patches of paint on different grid sections of a starship's hull to make them change color in various patterns.
Thus if the theory that the Yamato had two or more different registration numbers is correct, a computer system might have been programmed to periodically send a signal to the hull covering to change colors in designated grid sections to change the number from "NCC-71807" to "NCC-1305-E" and back again.
Thus the Yamato's hull might have been displaying "NCC-1305-E" in "Where Silence Has Lease" and displaying "NCC-71807" in "Contagion". And when the Yamato's computer systems were breaking down the hull could have been signaled to display "NCC-71806" instead of "NCC-71807" soon before the ship exploded.
According to this theory the Enterprise should also have two registration numbers, NCC-1701-D and another number that might be similar to the 78107 of the Yamato if registration numbers are consecative.
But whenever the registration number is seen and legible on the hull it says 1701-D. Of course model makers in the 1980s and 1990s didn't have access to the most advanced materials of 2018, let alone the materials of the era of TNG. No naturally they couldn't change the registration number of the Enterprise models by simply flicking a switch. Well, maybe they could have used thousands of tiny LEDs on the the model to display the name and registration number to able to it change when ever depicting another Galaxy class ship, but if they could have they didn't think of it.
Another possibility is that "Where Silence Has Lease" is in an alternate universe where "NCC-1305-E" was chosen as the registration number of the Yamato and "Contagion" is in an alternate universe where "NCC-71807" was chosen as the registration number of the Yamato.
Thus it seems to me that there doesn't have to be any inconsistency about the Yamato registration numbers.
