8.33 Acknowledgements: Volume 8

Author’s Comments

There is method to my madness in describing this installment of the Federation Spaceflight Chronology the way I do. A lot of TREK tech fans are fascinated by what they call the “pre-TOS era.” These are the starships that must have existed before the time of the original STAR TREK television series. A lot of people have had different ideas about these over the past fifty years and even Paramount has all but ignored this part of TREK history. Who’s to say who’s right and who’s wrong? Goldman and Sternbach’s original SFC seemed to suggest the best approach in bringing everybody’s ideas under one roof as best I could. Per their concept this was a formative time “between generations,” as it were. Instead of lots of a few important classes of starships you get a few of a lot of different kinds of starships. There’s lots of the tried-and-true and lots of experimentation going on in this 25-year window. A similar thing happened in the United States Navy between the First and Second World Wars, where you see a lot of major ship classes with only a few ships in them. That to me seems the best way to account for so many divergent designs in the pre-TOS era. Star Fleet was experimenting simply because it didn’t have any choice in the matter. It was a military organization trying to keep its head above water in a time of peace. It couldn’t afford the massive build numbers of earlier starship classes because the Federation Council saw no need for them. Only when the threat of war reared its ugly head again did they come to their senses. Had they waited another decade or two, then our favorite starship crew might have been speaking Klingon instead of Universal.

For the timeframe covered in this issue I’ve tried to pick what I feel are the best and most consistent designs from the various TREK tech schools of thought. Aridas Sofia (Federation Reference Series) has done some wonderful work in fleshing out the evolution of the Daedalus class, bringing it forward towards the TOS era (as talked about in both TOS and TNG). We might have our differences as to just how long that evolution lasted but his efforts deserve their place here all the same. Todd Guenther’s Caracal, one of the classics of the old TOS blueprint era, has long seemed out of place among the Class I starships but now one can see just where it came from and why. It’s a holdover from the pre-Romulan War design school whose closest cousins in this era are the uprated Patton class destroyer and that debacle of debacles, the Tritium class battlecruiser. Add to that the appropriate civilian ships from the old SFC and you get a nice, varied mix for this issue. Believe me when I say I could have added a lot more in here but I didn’t. Differences with everyone aside, I want to leave everyone plenty of elbow room to “have it their way” on the road to the TOS era. That’s why only a few of the plethora of starships everyone has conceived are represented here.

My apologies for the crudeness of the Tetsujin class ringship. Yes, it’s a hastily doctored “Sternbach ringship” with a significantly larger hull for use as a starliner. That was one of the major gaffes of the old SFC, as Sternbach has since acknowledged. His ringship design was too small to hold hundreds of passengers as described. I both increased the size of the hull and reduced the passenger complement. Maybe someone can sweet-talk Aridas into designing us a new one, eh? You know how he likes ringships.

I’d like to give special kudos to Maeteen Greenway at this time for his 3D model of the Horizon class survey cruiser. Of all the images of the later Horizon floating around out there on the Internet at the time this was published, his was one of only two that even came close to the original design concept by Aridas Sofia. Now if we could just fit some PB-6s on that bad boy!

I realize I’m retconning somewhat on the Horizon and Archon class starships. As I see it the real pros at the Star Fleet Starship Design Bureau and Chausser’s team over at Chiokis had already gotten their act together and were ready to roll on the “real” next generation of starships. Vickers Shipbuilding had quietly been preparing its yards for just such an effort. Everything was in place and awaiting approval when “the word” came down from the Council mandating a proven design. Not to worry, though. Thanks to Chausser the only thing “proven” about the Horizon and Archon classes was their exterior appearance. Everything under those Daedalus-style hull plates was state-of-the-art, with that all-important trititanium frame being the key factor. Hopefully this helps explain what’s about to happen to the Horizon class cruiser Constellation once the next century rolls over. As to why they didn’t go ahead with the “Galileo” style saucer from the 2150s design study — well, it would have probably given away their hand. Besides, they already had another primary hull design in the works, with an eye towards fitting it on a Horizon, and — well, I’m getting ahead of myself, aren’t I? Best save the tale of the “Connie” for the next issue.

The worst is over, folks. Beginning with the next volume we’ll be moving into “established” STAR TREK history, and I know a lot of you have been waiting for that. All the background work is effectively over. The last four volumes of the Federation Spaceflight Chronology are dedicated to the “known pre-TOS” era, as well as all of those TOS/TAS and movie-era starships that we’ve come to know and love.

Until then, — Richard.

In-Jokes and Asides

And now, for those of you who didn’t spot them, here are all of the major “in-jokes” and asides that I put in this volume of the FSC.

• “Admiral William van Anling” held the rank of Commodore when he assigned Robert April as first captain of the starship Enterprise per Star Trek Log 10 by Alan Dean Foster.
• Two of the “personal starship” images are revised versions of the AMT Leif Ericsson shuttle, as redesigned and rendered by Paul Lloyd.
• The “classic starship” pictured in the discussion of the classic starships market is a 3D model of a Swift explorer vehicle from Space: 1999, as available for download from the OrbiterMods web site.
• The image of the Hourglass Nebula used for the Worlds in Evolution timeline entry should be familiar to Captain Harlock fans from its use in the Endless Odyssey OVA series.
• The “Federation police ship” is actually a Cyberman cruiser from Doctor Who, as rendered by Maeteen Greenway. If you’ll go to Maeteen’s web site and look at the original full-sized version, you’ll see that the black square on its aft triangular section is actually the logo of the Cybermen, as seen in the Doctor Who episode “The Tomb of the Cybermen.”
• The “civilian transport” on the left bottom of the page at the end of the timeline section is the Firefly from the series of the same name. Several of Star Trek’s graphic designers worked on both shows.
• The Denevan “experimental materializer” is actually David Klein’s 3D render of the USAF time machine from the old Irwin Allen sci-fi TV series The Time Tunnel. It seemed appropriate and “looked” right for the early “materializer” I was trying to depict.
• The name of the Tetsujin class ringship is an homage to the classic anime TV series Tetsujin 28, aka Gigantor.
• Admiral Thronlev’s model of the never-built NX-Project is — well, you know.
• Yes, Judge “Marla Rhue” is a nod at actress Madlyn Rhue, who played Lt. Marla McGivers in the TOS episode “Space Seed.” Many of you may be unaware of the fact that she suffered from multiple sclerosis in later years, limiting her acting to sitting parts. I remember seeing her several times playing a judge on Murder, She Wrote before her death in 2003. Since Ms. Rhue has always been a fan fave, I wanted to see if I could sneak her back in again.

Special Thanks To

• Steve Baron
• Jason Boguess
• Stan and Fred Goldstein
• Todd Guenther
• Greg Jein
• Michael Okuda
• Neale Pearson
• Timo Saloniemi
• Aridas Sofia

Image Sources

• 3D Starships
• Randy Asplund
• Steve Baron (Vintage Starships)
• Adam Burch
• Var Cauist
• Ted W. Geibel
• Maeteen Greenway
• The Klingon Academy Message Forum
• David Klein
• Paramount Pictures
• Paul Lloyd
• Starship Modeler
• Michael Newlyn “The Red Admiral”
• Sean Robertson
• Rick Sternbach
• The Trek BBS
• Trekmania
• Allen B. Ury

Schematic Sources

• Federation Reference Series Online
• Neale Davidson
• Lawrence Miller
• Starfleet Schematic Database
• Rick Sternbach
• Vintage Starships / Morena Shipyards