DAEDALUS CLASS

THE CONUNDRUM:  The 'USS Carolina' is probably not of the Daedalus Class, for all were supposedly decommissioned by 2196 (due to Data's line in 'Power Play'), though this vessel was mentioned in an episode of TOS, 'Friday's Child'. But the registry does seem to indicate a Daedalus classification, even though the figure NCC 160 pre-dates my conjectural prototype registry of NCC 170. The fact this the Carolina is active in the mid 23rd century, some 70 years after it was supposedly decommissioned strongly suggests a peculiar mitigating circumstance...

MY THEORY:  The first possibility is that it could have been 'resurrected', taken out of mothballs and brought into 'quasi-service' as a transport ship, freighter, training vessel or something. The second possibility is that it could be of a completely unknown class contemporary with Constitution, (with an unexplainably low registry). Or finally, it could just be an old ship of unknown class from the Daedalus era which has survived into the 23rd century. Either way, the reference in the Star Trek Encyclopedia that states this vessel is a Daedalus Class ship is most likely a simple oversight. All that needed to be done was to take Data's line in 'Power Play' into account and Okuda could've invented another, new class of ship from the 22nd century. That at least would have got us fanboys drooling...

CONSTITUTION CLASS

THE FIRST CONUNDRUM:  It was mentioned in DS9's 'Valiant' that there was a training vessel named Republic. Could this, after all these years, be the same Constitution Class Republic that Kirk served on as an Ensign...?

MY THEORY:  In all probability it is a different ship, being a good century old by this time, but, as I have been reminded recently, Picard alluded to Scotty in 'Relics' that there was a Constitution Class ship in the fleet museum, though he said nothing of there being an existing ship in service. But that brings up the question: would a training vessel be strictly classified as 'in service'......?

THE SECOND CONUNDRUM:  A rarely mentioned continuity error with the Constitution Class, is that it was stated in 'The Search For Spock' that the Enterprise was to be soon retired, it being 20 years old at that time- 2285. Yet we seem to know that this class was first commissioned in 2244, the Enterprise having completed at least two 5, or even 10 year missions under Robert April and then Christopher Pike, before Kirk took command...

MY THEORY:  It was stated during The Original Series that there were only 12 Constitution Class ships in service. Whether this figure can be looked upon as absolutely correct and canon is uncertain, it's just strange that the Enterprise happened across all of them and not any other class ships during this era. This is obviously because the TOS budget (and perhaps imagination) was not in place to conceive of a large scale, multi-class fleet. So I speculated about a great many more Constitution Class vessels being constructed throughout the late 2260's and 70's, and many perhaps lasting until the early 24th century before the last ones were decommissioned.

But I suspect that this line of the Enterprise being 20 years old may refer only to the fact that it was 20 years since the Enterprise was overhauled, with systems being upgraded and totally replaced, with perhaps entirely new warp engines. The only problem is, that 'The Search for Spock' was not set 20 years after the Enterprise refit, it was in fact 14, according to the (sometimes ambiguous) chronology.

THE THIRD CONUNDRUM:  Why was the new Constitution Class refit not continued? And why was the Enterprise-A retired after such a short time?

MY THEORY:  If you think about it, there has to be a explanation why this Constitution Refit just didn't stick with Starfleet top brass. I mean, they went to the bother of overhauling the original blueprints, totally redesigning and upgrading interiors and many key systems to produce a brand spanking new class ship that could have gone on to dominate the early 24th century in matters of exploration. But no, after launching the Enterprise-A in 2287, she was retired only 5 or 6 years later, soon after the events of Star Trek VI. So why was this? For many starships, even during this era are designed to operate for many decades, the Constellation Class from the 2280's for instance is still around 80 or 90 years later. The only explanation can be that the new Constitution Class Refit was a failure, in a similar fashion to the high-concept prototype transwarp Excelsior. Lets speculate as to what might have happened... this is my summary of events following the commissioning of the Enterprise-A 

At first, the Constitution Class refit was a direct replacement of the old Constitution Class, and the jewel in Starfleet's crown. But serious teething problems transpired, such as failed new innovations -particularly the attempt to install Transwarp systems on to the newly refitted USS Constitution, which failed tragically. The Constitution suffered complete system failures, and a subsequent spontaneous core breach after catastrophic field tests 41 seconds after passing the threshold of the transwarp barrier. Serious and in depth investigations ensued, and it was believed the unstable warp field caused a power surge in the core. After making little progress in refining the technology, decisions to halt further research effectively shelved plans for this type of propulsion system, and hopes of the mass production of additional Constitution Class refits, as the Excelsior Class became more popular..

THE FOURTH CONUNDRUM:  Gene Roddenberry once speculated that the refit Enterprise NCC 1701-A was not a brand new vessel but had been in service for some time under the name Yorktown. This was because, in Gene's mind, it was unlikely that Starfleet could build and commission a brand new ship from scratch so quickly. The most likely explanation is that the original Yorktown that was portrayed in Star Trek IV (jury-rigging a solar sail after being damaged by the alien whale probe) did finally escape before returning to Earth for refitting and renaming as Enterprise-A. Yes, is doesn't sound likely but nothing better than that has been submitted.

MY THEORY:  The whole explanation is very odd and implausible, for the main reason the Enterprise was to be retired in 'The Search for Spock' was because of its age, about 40 years at this point, so to commission a second Enterprise using a similarly aged Constitution Class ship is pretty dumb, even though it was fully refitted. They must have known at the time that these new refits would not have a long life-span. In many ways I dispute the Yorktown/Enterprise-A theory totally, and say the Enterprise-A was probably a brand new 'experimental' spin-off Constitution Class ship. One that ultimately did not succeed, and was hence retired after serving for less than a decade. But here, and on the Constitution Class page I've remained faithful to what Gene put forward, even though it wasn't canon. Another good reason for this, is that a new Enterprise vessel, essentially of a different, updated design may have had to have been called Enterprise Class.And many across fandom refute the idea of 'Enterprise Class'.

Also, the fact that the Enterprise-A/Yorktown didn't exactly last very long may have been down to the fact that it was simply an old ship - albeit refitted - but I think by this time the Constitution design was becoming largely obsolete and Starfleet wanted to begin phasing them out. It seems that they became heavily overshadowed by the much more superior Excelsior Class.

THE FIFTH CONUNDRUM: How can the Constitution Class have ships such as the USS Eagle that carry a registry number of NCC 956, and the USS Constellation (NCC 1017) which are lower in registry than the prototype NCC 1700? 

MY THEORY:  This registry screw-up is very hard to explain. But so far I've managed to come up with only one slightly plausible explanation. Firstly, one could say that perhaps the USS Eagle and Constellation are not Constitution Class ships at all. But this doesn't really stick, as the latter was seen on screen in the episode 'The Doomsday Machine', and definitely is of that class. And additionally, there are other, similar registry anomalies in the class, such as the Potemkin (NCC 1657), and the Republic (NCC 1371), amongst others. The only real solution is to say that there was no strict sequential ordering of registries at the time, this would allow the Constitution Class ships to have completely unrelated numbers.

My other solution is to suggest that the numbers are indeed sequential, meaning that the USS Constitution was not actually the prototype, and the 'Constitution Class' was not so named until some time later. Something to support this claim is that the Enterprise dedication plaque strangely states that it is a 'Starship Class' ship, no reference in sight to Constitution. In fact, I am unsure as to where in TOS the very first reference to the class name can be found. If I'm right, I don't think 'Constitution Class' was even mentioned on screen, at any time in the whole of Star Trek, until Picard and Scotty's scene in the holodeck re-creation scene of the Enterprise bridge (TNG's 'Relics'.)

So, summing up, I think it's at least possible that the class' original classification was at some time renamed Constitution Class perhaps twenty years (for the sake of argument) after the first ships of this design were commissioned, of which maybe the Constellation was one. This would allow the earlier ships to have registries which seem to precede the Constitution.

-The Batris, Antares Class Freighter

THE CONUNDRUM:  One is led to assume that it was the Antares Class prototype that was first portrayed in the TOS episode 'Charlie X', but is it the same class of vessel that has been portrayed in The Next Generation and beyond?

MY THEORY:  It is unlikely that Starfleet commissioned a brand new class ship that had the same name as one that had gone before, so I treat this class as a standard freighter that has endured for a very long time after having perhaps one batch replaced by a new refit version, then after a period of time another improved variant comes along, and so forth... It sounds implausible that a Freighter such as the Hermes would be on the front line of the Federation armada on the Romulan Neutral Zone (Redemption -TNG), but Starfleet might have been that desperate - using all and any Federation ship in range to participate in the operation.

Charlie X's ship, the USS Antares, NCC 501, was probably NOT an Antares Class ship - the Antares we know from the 24th century... It's class is unknown.

Other points to consider: dialogue from 'Charlie X' stated the Antares was a 'Cargo Ship'. But also in the episode, Kirk calls it both a 'Transport Ship', and a 'Science Probe Vessel'. Then Spock calls it 'Survey Ship'. A bit of a messed up description! But it is told to us that the ship had a crew of 20. So, in conclusion this clarifies the issue that the Hermes was almost certainly not the same type of ship as the Antares.

THE CONUNDRUM:  It has been noted that it is odd that Soyuz was retired some time in the late 2280's when Miranda Class, so similar, has gone on way into the 24th century.

MY THEORY:  We know Soyuz was decommissioned around this time due to Geordi saying 'they hadn't been in service for eighty years' (Cause and Effect), which was set in around 2369. So why was it retired? From what information we have, we can speculate that Miranda Class is perhaps a few years older than Soyuz. So perhaps the Soyuz Class was a heavily armed offshoot of Miranda, an experimental addition to Starfleet's defensive forces? That's one theory to explain it I suppose. But I have a hard time accepting that Soyuz may be older than I state on the Stats Board (2261), being contemporary to the 2240-50's Constitution Class, even though the Bozeman's registry appears to be of a similar time frame...

Regarding the USS Bozeman briefly heard over radio talk in Star Trek: First Contact: In the listings, I once provisionally specified it as an Ambassador Class ship. This was because it is highly improbable that the 23rd century Soyuz Class vessel named Bozeman (Cause and Effect) would be in operation during the late 24th century, unless it had been infinitely overhauled and upgraded. But I suppose if Miranda Class ships from a similar era can be still in service after upgrades then so can this time travelling Soyuz ship. But it's still quite possible that it's another vessel of that name, hence the 'provisional' Ambassador Class tag at the time. But I eventually deleted that entry and went with the belief that the Soyuz Bozeman did indeed participate in the First Contact Borg battle. Another reason this Bozeman might have been a different ship though is that Bateson's ship was missing for 90 years, so Starfleet would have given up on it long ago, and probably would have since commissioned at least one other vessel by the same name. But the point that Kelsey Grammar (Captain Bateson of the Soyuz Class Bozeman - 'Cause and Effect') did indeed have a brief audio cameo in that First Contact radio chatter, ultimately changes the playing field on this matter. So now I have assumed here that the original Soyuz Bozeman was reintegrated back into service after 'Cause and Effect'.

THE CONUNDRUM:  There is a significant registry conflict with this class, for the NCC 6** would certainly pre-date Constitution Class if the sequential registries law was adhered to, but could Oberth Class hail from the late 23rd Century -and whose registry should really be something like NCC 2*** or 3***...?

MY THEORY:  I don't like this theory at all, but I have little choice: The reason the registry is so low for the older vessels in this class, such as the Grissom (NCC 638), is because it's a very old ship, perhaps dating from the early 23rd, or even late 22nd century. This is based on logic only, but I'm not sure I subscribe to my own theory here, I think something else might be going on, but I haven't figured out what yet. This is why for the time being I've speculated the first Oberth Class construction to be around 2181, with additional refitted batches coming along every now and again. One could say that the Grissom, being an old ship appears in its relatively up-to-date state because it has been refitted. The original 22nd century Oberth design could be more reminiscent of the Daedalus, for example....

Another piece of information to suggest the Oberth is older than many think is the fact that the USS Columbia (a tip of the hat to the NASA Space Shuttle) was briefly mentioned in 'The Motion Picture'. Its registry of NCC 621 (according to the Encyclopedia) ties in with known ships of this class. But there's no information to suggest that this was definitely an Oberth Class ship.

THE CONUNDRUM:  One thing I noticed about this class (and this goes for some others), where is the deflector dish? This is an absolutely essential piece of starship hardware. Without such a device in place, I cannot see how a vessel can avoid serious damage due to the multitude of particle and debris bombardment that would commonly occur in space travel....

MY THEORY:  The simple explanation I came up with for my conundrum is that I don't know where its deflector dish is! Plain and simple. If I had access to some detailed schematics and studied it, I may be provided with a solution as to how the designers got around this problem. For it obviously has to have one, but it may be installed in a less than conspicuous place, or it may have a series of small deflector emitters in different locations which together provide total forward facing coverage. It's also possible that the first Miranda variant (the Reliant) had a special deflector array built into the its suspended overhead photon launcher assembly (dorsal mounting), though succeeding Miranda variants seem to have no observable deflectors.]

The Reliant's 'pod' mounted on the rollbar definitely is a torpedo launcher unit, and not a deflector array.

This screencap here from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan clearly shows two forward facing torpedo tubes. The rear of the pod is the same, and in the lower picture the Reliant is firing a torpedo from its aft launcher, located on the pod also. So I think this area can be ruled out as a likely candidate for a Miranda Class deflector array.

I think the most likely location would be a central/ventral position on the bottom section of the saucer, where the Captain's yacht is normally stored. In Dominion battles I have seen Miranda Class vessels fire phasers from this position. It's possible that a small, compact and possibly experimental deflector array system could be fitted in this area.

THE CONUNDRUM:  The Excelsior Class was hailed the 'great experiment' due to its ambitious transwarp system. So what happened to transwarp in the prototype Excelsior. Did the project fail?

MY THEORY:  Quite simply yes. My theorised chain of events immediately following the initial transwarp trials are outlined in my explanation as to the failure of the Constitution Refit further up the page.