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The Prometheus is dumb
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Lee: [QB] I've been wondering what a Starfleet deep space exploration (DSE) vessel would even look like. How do we know we've ever seen one? Perhaps like the Explorer class vessels in B5, you never see them because they're way out on or beyond the, er, rim. I have been able to think of one ship by name, anyway: the USS Olympia, from DS9's "The Sound of her Voice." That went off on a 8-year mission into the Beta Quadrant in 2363, returning 2371. And yet nobody in that ep (set in 2374) thought to look up the ship and notice it was three years late, but don't get me started... And then - bear with me here - I got to thinking, why do some ships have four nacelles anyway, when two obviously does most of the time (let's not worry about one- and three-nacelled ships for now)? Increased speed (and duration of same) would appear to be a factor, going by the Prometheus. So maybe having two sets of nacelles gives you increased redundancy, something you'd want when you're literal years of travel from the nearest dry dock. And, while four nacelles presumably gives you all sorts of added options in terms of warp field geometries, I don't see any reason why you couldn't power down one set and just run on one, even alternating the pairs for downtime and maintenance. So let's hypothesize that "Deep space explorer ships have four nacelles." Let's review what those are: - The Prometheus-class - The Cheyenne-class - The Constellation-class - There are also four-nacelled Excelsior and Prometheus study models, which may have appeared in the Wolf 359 scenes, but I feel it's safe to ignore them from serious discussion though might return to them in a minute. - In DSC there are also the Cardenas and Nimitz classes, but do we really want to go there? I don't! So, the Cheyenne. It's one of a small club of Starfleet ships that have just two examples known, the presumed class ship and one example of the class (the USS Ahwahnee). It's always fascinated me a bit (I have my eye on an Eaglemoss model on eBay). Given its rarity, I could easily headcanon it (God, how I hate this term, why am I using it so much?) as being a deep space explorer hastily called into action for the Borg incursion. [Using the same logic, the Nebula & Excelsior study models might represent actual DSEs or concept proving grounds for same] The Constellation is more interesting, for obvious reasons. It's a very old design, and doesn't strike one as being very fast - though in its day it might have been (Chinook helicopters don't strike anybody as anything but cumbersome and ungainly, but those suckers can BOOK). And we know of quite a few examples of this class, though from TNG where they're all in secondaryish roles. But imagine if the Stargazer was a deep space xplorer? The evidence is compelling: - Picard was captain of her for a LONG time, 22 years I think? A few DSE missions of the best part of a decade each might explain that. For context, imagine that since 1998 when most of us who were here then started using Flare in its current form, but having the exact same job all that time... - He was promoted from Lt. (or Lt. Cdr.?) straight to captain, as we all know; suppose that was partly down to their being a long way from home so a new commander had to be found immediately? - Even assuming he commanded some other ship between 2355 and 2364, there has to be some reason he landed the plum gig as captain of the flagship; a prestigious job as a DSE mission commander would play into that. - In one episode he attends a conference on the psychological effects of deep-space exploration missions. Might that not suggest he has some proor knowledge of the subject? Just a bit of idle speculation on my part, what else is there to do in lockdown? [/QB][/QUOTE]
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