Question about starship naming legacy.

posted on August 28th, 2010, 4:37 am

The Defiant IS a Defiant class, but its classified as an escort just as the Galaxy class is an explorer. As far as the registry goes, so far the ONLY ship canon wise that I know of that keeps the same number is the Enterprise. Possibly due to the fact that it is the federation flagship. I dont believe that length of time between classes has anything to do with it as the time between the Enterprise C being destroyed and the Enterprise D being commissioned was something like 20 years.

posted on August 28th, 2010, 5:12 am

The Defiant IS a Defiant class, but its classified as an escort just as the Galaxy class is an explorer. As far as the registry goes, so far the ONLY ship canon wise that I know of that keeps the same number is the Enterprise. Possibly due to the fact that it is the federation flagship. I dont believe that length of time between classes has anything to do with it as the time between the Enterprise C being destroyed and the Enterprise D being commissioned was something like 20 years.

For alittle help on the Defiant and the Defiant-class, I thought it would be a good thing for me to be helpful because even according to Captain Ben Sisko, the Defiant is classified as a escort vessel (yes) but unofficially, she's a warship nothing more, nothing less. (From Star Trek Deep Space Nine - The Search pt. 1).

You are right about the Enterprise though, its a tradition for a ship (usually sometimes the newest class) to be comissioned with the name USS Enterprise NCC 1701 - (then any letter, the next in line after the previous one, most as a legacy to the original and that the Flagship of the Federation bears the name "Enterprise") Just like the Enterprise NX-01 started everything out. I don't know where I read or heard this line, but "Every generation has its "Enterprise." What would the Federation be without the Enterprise anyways? That reminds me, what do people thing about the USS Enterprise NCC 1701-J?

posted on August 28th, 2010, 5:30 am

As far as I remember, it was never called defiant class either.  according to the Dominion wars game, it is the Escort Class.  and didn't it get destroyed, and another ship named the defiant instead of the defiant A?

I believe you are talking about the USS San Palo, another Defiant-class vessel. When the Breen destroyed the USS Defiant at the Second Battle of Chin'toka, the USS San Palo was assigned to DS9 with a special depesition from Star Fleet Command to rename the ship USS Defiant (with the same registry as the one the Breen destroyed) the reason for this the shows creators gave was becuse they were going to use stock footage featuring the destroyed Defiant and they didn't want to have a new model and ship made with different registries just for one scene.

(I have been researching these type of things for a Star Trek novel I have been writting that is now currently into revisions but I went to look for the type of information that like this (and the Enterprise lineage) was relevant for my unfolding story.

[Equinox1701e]

posted on August 28th, 2010, 6:54 am

Last edited by Equinox1701e on August 28th, 2010, 6:59 am, edited 1 time in total.

For alittle help on the Defiant and the Defiant-class, I thought it would be a good thing for me to be helpful because even according to Captain Ben Sisko, the Defiant is classified as a escort vessel (yes) but unofficially, she's a warship nothing more, nothing less. (From Star Trek Deep Space Nine - The Search pt. 1).

Yes Sisko states its classified as an escort but its NOT an escort class ship, it is a DEFIANT class ship. As far as that quote is concerned, the federation doesnt believe in pure warships (which the Defiant class is), so to maintain that image the dont refer to it as a warship,  they all sleep better at night because she is called an escort. Note the unofficially part, that basically says the Defiant class of starship is a dedicated warship. Class and classification are two separate things.

Heres a real life example of the same situation. In the US we have ship classes and classifications in the Navy. The Navys battleships (most recent ones anyway, and yes they arnt in service I know) arent called battleship class, they are Iowa class battleships.

posted on August 28th, 2010, 9:19 am

I just thought of a nice in-character explanation of the Defiant issue.  When she was blown up and replaced, the new one got an identical registry as a means of psychological warfare.  After all, the Cardassians and Jem Hadar already had good reason to fear that little gunship.  If Starfleet could make it look like she was only hurt, not destroyed, that would help foster a legend of the invincible warship, and help make Defiant's mere presence on the battlefield damaging to enemy morale.

posted on August 28th, 2010, 9:36 am

The way I see it, names are re-used. Just like in the modern navies of the world. Registry numbers are not.

There are only two exceptions to this:
The USS Enterprise, which, in 2286, began the re-usage of it's registry number when the new USS Enterprise got renumbered NCC-1701-A. Leading to B,C,D,E,...,J.
There was only one other exception, the USS Yamato (NCC-1309-E, I think. I can't remember exactly), the Enterprise-D's sister ship. Obviously the first Yamato had an equally legendary crew and history.

Other ships get their names reused, but to keep a number is extremely rare.

posted on August 28th, 2010, 2:42 pm

Yeah they Yamato is kind of an inconsistancy as in the episode here Riker stated the number it was actually different then the number on the ship itself. The ship did not have a letter on the end of it. In reality the line with Riker stating the number was taken out of the scene but later put back in, but the writers didnt know that and thus he states the incorrect number. The actual registry of the Yamato is NCC-71807 which is how it appeared on the model in the episode "Contagion".