T's Trek Trivia Tuesday: "Ships of the Line"

Some of the vessels from STAR TREK: PICARD

The starships of Star Trek are some of the most iconic pieces of technology in the franchise. Famously, when designer Matt Jeffries showed the first model of the Enterprise to Gene Roddenberry, the Great Bird of the Galaxy held it upside-down and liked it better! Though Jeffries’ vision of the starship eventually won out, with the nacelles facing up instead of down, he was horrified when, a few months later, TV Guide’s cover sported a picture of the vessel - once more upside-down.

Since then, Starfleet ships have followed the same basic design (although there have been some with downward-facing nacelles) and this look is one of the things that sets the Star Trek universe apart from other science fiction properties. This week, we’re giving some love to Starfleet and its vessels. Let’s see hw much you know about them.

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After the first Star Trek’s cancellation in 1969, the series became a syndication sensation. Reruns were constantly shown, undoubtedly making the network executives wonder what had possessed them to put it out to pasture. By 1976, several ideas for reviving the series had been propsed, including a new TV series (Star Trek Phase II) and a film, tentatively titled Star Trek: Planet of the Titans.

The Titans in question were a technologically advanced race who were believed extinct. In the script, their planet is being pulled into a black hole and it is up to Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise to rescue it and claim the tech. Eventually, the ship itself must venture into the black hole, and gets hurled thousands of years into the past. Orbiting ancient Earth, the crew introduced fire to the primitive Humans there (because why not) and discovered to their shock that they, themselves, were the mythical Titans.

It’s kind of a zany plot and was ultimately scrapped in favor of what became Star Trek: The Motion Picture, but some of the design work had already been done by then, including Ralph McQuarrie’s new design for the Enterprise, based on a concept by Ken Adam, which can be viewed below. But, while the film was never made, the design eventually wound up being used.

What series used the old design?

Ken Adam and Ralph McQuarrie’s design for the Enterprise in STAR TREK: PLANET OF THE TITANS

Two models of the redesigned Enterprise were built. One can be seen in the spacedock in Star Trek III: The Search For Spock, the other in Star Trek: The Next Generation’s “The Best of Both Worlds,” as one of the many ships destroyed by the Borg at Wolf 359 and again in “Unification.” One of the concepts also became the inspiration for the look of the hero ship in Star Trek: Discovery.

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When the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode emergence opens, Data is once again exploring humanity through the works of Shakespeare. This time, he’s playing the role of Prospero in The Tempest. His performance is cut short, however, when he and Captain Picard are nearly flattened by a locomotive that has no place on a Mediterranean island in the seventeenth century.

Things get weirder when the holodeck seems to take on a mind of its own and the crew find themselves on the Orient Express with an armored knight cutting out paper dolls, a couple of flappers, a hayseed, and a dude building a jigsaw puzzle. Along with the train conductor, these characters seem to be trying to tell our heroes something, albeit in coded language.

The holodeck strangeness may only be a symptom of what’s going on, though. The Enterprise suddenly goes to warp speed of its own volition and Geordi and Data can’t stop it. Plus, new circuit nodes are popping up all over the ship, linking systems together. And finally, Cargo Bay 5 depressurizes and a strange object has begun to form, one that looks strangely similar to the picture in the puzzle on the holodeck…

What the heck is going on?

Riker (Jonathan Frakes), Crusher (Gates McFadden), Picard (Patrick Stewart), and La Forge (LeVar Burton) examine the mysterious object in Cargo Bay 5

The new circuit nodes are a clue as to what was going on. They’re forming in a pattern similar to the human brain. The Enterprise, it seems, is forming its own intelligence and the object in Cargo Bay 5 is a new lifeform. In essence, the Enterprise is breeding. With this in mind, the crew helps to midwife the lifeform into existence and it flies off into space, while the ship returns to normal.

It’s a weird episode, and, given it was two from the end of the show’s run, probably simply an excuse for the writers to put in one last “holodeck goes wrong” episode. Still, it’s strange to think that the Enterprise has some offspring floating around out there, and a little sad when you realize that the Enterprise is a mommy when it’s destroyed less than a year later in Star Trek: Generations.

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It’s a happy day aboard the USS Voyager when Tom Paris and B’Elanna Torres get married. But strange things are afoot as Voyager’s structure begins to distort, starting with the Jeffries tubes. It turns out that a section of the ship is losing its molecular cohesion. Without that, the vessel’s molecules can’t…cohese. Not only that, but the crew is starting to become violently ill. The solution may be in the fact that the only items aboard the ship not showing the strange effects are items brought aboard the ship within the last year.

The solution to what’s happening must have something to do with something that happened prior to a year ago, but what can it be?

Torres (Roxann Dawson) and Seven (Jeri Ryan) investigate the odd things happening to a Jeffries tube in STAR TREK: VOYAGER's "Course: Oblivion"

A year earlier, the Voyager had made contact with biomimetic lifeforms, or in plain Federation Standard, an organizm capable of imitating other objects or people. Turns out, this crew, and even the ship, are not “our” Voyager and her crew, but rather biomimetic imitations, down to their very memories. Once they realize who and what they are, they begin the hunt for the original Voyager to ask for help, but it’s too little, too late and the imitation Voyager ultimately tears itself apart.

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The newly-commissioned USS Solvang is so new that they haven’t even taken the plastic screen protectors off of the consoles yet, and don’t even think about wearing shoes on the carpet! Its first mission under Captain Dayton is to scan a star’s plasma ring. This also happens to be its last mission when a mysterious ship drops out of warp and attempts to capture the Starfleet vessel using a grappling arm. In an attempt to flee, Dayton orders the ship to go to warp and it is torn apart, which probably would have dismayed her if she weren’t so dead.

When the USS Cerritos is ordered to investigate, they encounter the same mysterious ship, and when Commander Ransom orders a retreat Captain Freeman countermands him, figuring Dayton made that mistake and paid the price. Instead, she orders an engine shutdown. The enemy vessel grabs the ship with its grappler, yanking off one of its nacelles, but keeping the rest of the ship intact.

Who keeps attacking Starfleet ships, and why???

The USS Cerritos in the grasp of the enemy in STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS' "No Small Parts"

Star Trek: Lower Decks’ season one finale, “No Small Parts,” saw the return of those pesky space scavengers, the Pakleds. The race had mostly been a joke after their one and only appearance on Star Trek: The Next Generation’s “Samaritan Snare.” Leave it to LD to bring a silly race back and make them a threat, while keeping them silly! The Pakleds, of course, have no technology of their own; rather, they steal other races’ tech so they can enjoy the advancement without all the work. They’re kind of the perfect arch-foe for a series centered around a ship with the mission of “Seond Contact.”