I've seen a few fansites call the 22nd century Intrepid "NV-class", but there's nothing on-screen to back it up. AFAIK, the Starfleet guest ship models (Intrepid and "Warp Delta") were unlabelled.
Wow, I just got it! NX-01
- Thread starter Commodore_Rook
- Start date
I've seen a few fansites call the 22nd century Intrepid "NV-class", but there's nothing on-screen to back it up. AFAIK, the Starfleet guest ship models (Intrepid and "Warp Delta") were unlabelled.
Quite so. No ENT "guest ship" apart from the Columbia ever had any painted-on registry.
The closest we got was a John Eaves conceptual drawing for the ship that was later called the Sarajevo, with a registry NC-27 or perhaps NO-27; when the conceptual drawing was turned into a CGI model, all pennants were omitted from that one, too. Nowhere else was a two-letter registry applied on any ENT starships, nor was a two-letter "class name" used (there were Y and J classes but, say, no DY class).
Timo Saloniemi
The closest we got was a John Eaves conceptual drawing for the ship that was later called the Sarajevo, with a registry NC-27 or perhaps NO-27; when the conceptual drawing was turned into a CGI model, all pennants were omitted from that one, too. Nowhere else was a two-letter registry applied on any ENT starships, nor was a two-letter "class name" used (there were Y and J classes but, say, no DY class).
Timo Saloniemi
That's not true. None of the Earth Starfleet vessels (other than the Enterprise and the Columbia) had names or registry numbers printed on them. This comes directly from Doug Drexler. In fact, none of the ships other than the NX class ever even had official class names, ship names, or registries, even in a script or on concept art (with the sole exception of the "NC-27" for the Sarajevo-type ship, which was on the concept art but not on the actual CGI model). Any ship renders or artwork with such monikers as "NV" or "NW" are solely fan-created things.
And to the OP: The "01" in "NX-01" has nothing to do with the TOS Enterprise or even the Space shuttle Enterprise. TPTB chose it simply because it sounded kewl to them (and because they used it previously in Voyager for another ship, the NX-01-A Dauntless, which they though sounded kewl too; the two ships have nothing in common except the registry). Only later did they retroactively come up with explanations for it, like the "NX class" and "NX Project."
Apart from those given in the dialogue, of course. The Intrepid had no name or registry painted on but was canonically named nevertheless. Of the non-UESF ships, the Horizon and the Fortunate did have their dialogue-established names also painted on the hull. The rest of the ships? No pennant paint whatsoever.
Timo Saloniemi
Yep, forgot about the Intrepid. But it still didn't have a name or registry number on the model; it was just mentioned in dialogue.
Named classes is a fairly recent development in Starfleet practice, and apparently applied retroactively, whereas at the time, we got terms like "Class J starship", DY-100, and "Starship Class". In that context, "NX Class" makes perfect sense.
Mind you, I think the Bragaberman stumbled into a correct answer rather than deducing one, but that's just my opinion.
Mind you, I think the Bragaberman stumbled into a correct answer rather than deducing one, but that's just my opinion.
You mean it's a fairly recent development in Paramount practice? In Starfleet, named classes would seem to precede lettered classes - Neptune was an old class while NX was new and the J from TOS must have been newer still.
The various DY models plus the Y-500 class from the ghost story of "Strange New World" in turn precede ENT, but they apparently also precede Starfleet...
Timo Saloniemi
How does "old Class J starship" mean "new"?
It's old from the 2260s vantage point. Nothing directly supports the idea it would be old from the 2150s vantage point, too. Unless it's the same Class J we see in ENT, of course.
In any case, it's not a Starfleet designation in ENT as far as we know. Although there's nothing in ENT to say that Starfleet didn't have a few Class J transports, too.
So, no proof either way. Just possibilities.
Timo Saloniemi
In any case, it's not a Starfleet designation in ENT as far as we know. Although there's nothing in ENT to say that Starfleet didn't have a few Class J transports, too.
So, no proof either way. Just possibilities.
Timo Saloniemi
As long as we're bringing up two-letter allusions to history in the ship's registry, I wonder why so few folks have noticed something that a history teacher would notice right away:
http://www.the-blueprints.com/bluep...0003/view/ryan_nyp_nx-211_spirit_of_st_louis/
DF "Hidden in Plain Sight" Scott
http://www.the-blueprints.com/bluep...0003/view/ryan_nyp_nx-211_spirit_of_st_louis/
DF "Hidden in Plain Sight" Scott
It's been pretty much confirmed that Matt Jeffries was originally inspired by aircraft registries, yes. There was probably major synergy from the registry practices of the US Navy, too, though, since the subject matter was a "starship". "NC" or "NX" would look like an aviation thing, but "NCC" is immediately a more naval allusion, because the USN loves doubling the letters on "generic" cruisers (CC), destroyers (DD) and frigates (FF) and battleships (BB).
The letter X isn't a particularly naval thing, though. It rarely appears in pennant paint - but the ILM/Paramount creators of the Excelsior might have been more aeronautically oriented, and those of Archer's Enterprise could certainly have been looking at pictures of old and new experimental aircraft (or old prototype aircraft, even though X ceased to be used for that purpose in military registries some time ago).
In any case, NX-211 is a good example of there not necessarily being any rhyme or reason to the number part of the registry. The military loves to play tricks with those, too: a number may "allude" to this or that, such as the 1970s project for a nuclear strike cruiser that got publicity with the number 72 (71 having been the last registry allocated for a battleship), or the choice of 1000 for the new stealth destroyer (distancing it from the modern "missile" destroyers and associating it with the older lineage of "gun" destroyers that had run to the high 900s with the Spruance class).
Starfleet would not be obligated to stick to a monotonically advancing registry number scheme, either, and might make counterintuitive leaps and backloops for obscure reasons.
Timo Saloniemi
The letter X isn't a particularly naval thing, though. It rarely appears in pennant paint - but the ILM/Paramount creators of the Excelsior might have been more aeronautically oriented, and those of Archer's Enterprise could certainly have been looking at pictures of old and new experimental aircraft (or old prototype aircraft, even though X ceased to be used for that purpose in military registries some time ago).
In any case, NX-211 is a good example of there not necessarily being any rhyme or reason to the number part of the registry. The military loves to play tricks with those, too: a number may "allude" to this or that, such as the 1970s project for a nuclear strike cruiser that got publicity with the number 72 (71 having been the last registry allocated for a battleship), or the choice of 1000 for the new stealth destroyer (distancing it from the modern "missile" destroyers and associating it with the older lineage of "gun" destroyers that had run to the high 900s with the Spruance class).
Starfleet would not be obligated to stick to a monotonically advancing registry number scheme, either, and might make counterintuitive leaps and backloops for obscure reasons.
Timo Saloniemi
