Bernd, As I was visiting your website, I noticed those infamous Star Trek files gave you names and registries of a few Akira class starships. My question is, are they all from ST-FC or are they from VOyager and Deep Space Nine as well? Thanks in advance.
------------------ Remember when we used to be explorers? - Capt. Jean-Luc Picard - Star Trek Insurrection
Posted by Bernd (Member # 6) on :
One was from MiB, I'm not so sure about the others. Honestly, I don't have the issue yet, I only got the list. Maybe you should look at Steve's website:
Posted by Federation Shipmaster (Member # 15) on :
Men in Black?
------------------ What bloke invented signatures?
Posted by Aethelwer (Member # 36) on :
Message in a Bottle.
------------------ http://frankg.dgne.com/ Quintesson: "You are the Autobot named Kup. You are Cybertron's chief of security." Kup: "Nah, my name's Teaspoon, and I'm Cybertron's chief dishwasher."
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Wow. The Police were really ahead of their time.
------------------ "I'm sick, like Nixon was sick, my defeated heart keeps beating on. I won't die, like Chucky won't die." -- They Might Be Giants
Posted by Trinculo on :
The Fact Files are official. Paramount recognizes and endorses the files. In the announcement for the new Star Trek magazine, the official Star Trek Web Site mentions their counterpart-the Fact Files. I believe this resolves the issue of the official-ness of the Fact Files.
Posted by Shipbuilder (Member # 69) on :
I think they are endorsing the new Star Trek The Magazine which is said to be similar to the Fact Files (maybe it is the Fact Files in Britain??) I don't think they endorse the ealier issues of the Fact Files, in fact I think I remember that Sternbach posted a message about this and said something to the effect that they do pretty good work for not having official info. He's also stated that recently he has provided official info for the Star Trek the Mag. people to use.
Posted by Montgomery (Member # 23) on :
Paramount recognises anything it can make a buck from. They'd call a Danube a Sovereign so long as they get their used notes.
(Is on an anti-Viacom tip today)
------------------ "I AM THE SPIDER!!!!" - Vic Reeves
Posted by Identity Crisis (Member # 67) on :
As my page (linked to above, thanks Bernd) points out the Fact Files do screw up the registies a bit.
And "USS Spector"? Named after the music producer or a typo of Spectre/Specter? (Or even of Spectator?)
------------------ -->Identity Crisis<--
Posted by Bernd (Member # 6) on :
Unless the producers have become a bit more "creative" lately (I have just received issue #65, and it's around #110 in Britain), there a only few facts in the Fact Files. They seem to include only information that has been confirmed again and again. I didn't spot any major errors, despite the paper weight of some 10kg. On the other hand, regarding the "error vs. information density rate" it is rather a bit worse than the Encyclopedia.
The Akira article (in #119 I think) is a real break from the norm. Lots of text and some of it seems to completely new. They tend to follow the DS9 TM but even point out one instance where the TM doesn't make sense (number of forward torp tubes).
There are mistakes: they give the Thunderchild a different registry than the Encyclopedia. They say that the USS Spector is the ship from MiaB (okay, possible, but it's still an odd name) but give it the registry that we normally associate with the Thunderchild. And which episode is the USS Rabin from?
The large picture is gorgeous. It clearly shows that there are four forward torp tubes in the weapons pod. Harder to make out how many rear tubes there are, it could be 2, 4 or even 6! The accompanying schematics are very accurate when compared to the imagery from the Star Trek magazine pictures.
One mystery is where are the other three phaser strips (the article copies the DS9 TM by saying there are six, but only three are visible, and we have schematics of all five views). Similarly there isn't an obvious lower torp tube, but torp tubes are easier to hide than phasers strips so that's no real problem.
All five shuttle bay doors (two aft, three forward) are clearly marked. They seem confused as to where the shuttle control tower is, the text places it at the rear of the saucer but the schematic places it in the weapons pod.
They mention saucer separation - an idea I first saw at UPII but they keep the bridge on the saucer rather than taking it (and a slice of the saucer) with the enginering hulls as UPII did. The don't tell us where the warp core is which is vital to understand if saucer separation is to make sense.
------------------ -->Identity Crisis<--
Posted by Identity Crisis (Member # 67) on :
Oh, and they also say that the class was in service long before first contact with the Borg, which is a great big up yours to sites like UP (and LUG) which seem to think that this is some sort of Borg killer. :-)
------------------ -->Identity Crisis<--
Posted by The First One (Member # 35) on :
Oh, C'mon, Steve, we all know that the UP idea of the Akira as a really new ship when it was seen in First Contact was abandoned as soon as the registry number of the Thunderchild was confirmed in the Encyclopaedia II! Don't be bitchy. . . 8)
How recent was #119? Anything that contains 'gorgeous Akira pictures' is a must for me!
Posted by Identity Crisis (Member # 67) on :
#119 was about two or three weeks ago.
I can't scan the picture as it's bigger than my scanner.
And the UP idea (making all the ships seen for the first time in FC brand-new-super-borg-killers) was stupid. There are still web sites out there that say this and LUG have even recreated this idea. Grrr.
------------------ -->Identity Crisis<--
Posted by The First One (Member # 35) on :
Cool, thanks. I'll pop into Forbidden Planet, they usually have the last few ones there.
But seriously, you can hardly blame people for thinking that the FC ships were all new. It was a hypothesis as good as any other at the time, albeit one that was swiftly disproved. But it put the whole idea of starship-watching 'on the map' and got a lot of people, including me, interested in the subject for the first time.
Remember, before, you hardly ever saw any starships, just interminable stock footage of Excelsiors. All of a sudden you had these new ships, 4 new classes (at one point there were thought to be 6) all kicking ass and, as it were, taking names. . . It was obvious that labelling them all 'brand-new-super-borg-killers' was a real stretch, but so what?
Posted by deadcujo (Member # 13) on :
Seeing as how the ship that really was made to fight the Borg was nearly destroyed in FC, but the others weren't, that really wasn't that bad of an idea :P
Anyone who insists that the Akira etc. must be old classes should be bludgeoned to death with the Prometheus, Phoenix, and a few Sovereign escape pods.
------------------ http://frankg.dgne.com/ Rodimus Prime: "No more jokes, Springer. Cybertron's in deadly danger. We're heading back there. Now." Springer: "Yes sir, Mister Leader, sir."
Posted by The359 (Member # 37) on :
What registry did they give the Thunderchild? For all we know, they may have gotten the Spector and Thunderchild registries backwords, and that Thunderchild registry may be the real Spector registry
------------------ "The one, the only, THE 359!"
Posted by The First One (Member # 35) on :
Eek! That is rather impressive.
Posted by Pedro on :
BTW, does anyone else think that the boxy things in the cutouts near the edge of the saucer are side launching torpedo tubes? I had thought they were windows, which they clearly aren't...
Posted by deadcujo (Member # 13) on :
You mean right below the phasers on the side? It looks like a docking port or something.
The lines around it could be for formation when docking with a ship or something.
------------------ The Unknown Vulcan
[This message was edited by DeadCujo on April 27, 1999.]
Posted by Brigman on :
More important than registry numbers, I should think, are the design features. It is obvious from an artist or designer's point of view that the Akira is a stablemate of the Sovereign, NOT the older Galaxy class. Now, the Nebula, New Orleans, etc, are obviously of the Galaxy-class stable. But while the Akira may have preceeded the Sovereign, it would not have been of a different school of design altogether.
------------------ Peace! Brigs
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
As you mentioned, Brigman, it would appear to be standard procedure in Starfleet to test new ship designs on smaller scales before committing to the "flagship" classes. The Galaxy family, for instance.
It seems like a good idea to have more than one design philosophy in use at a time, just in case.
------------------ "It was sweet, like lead paint's sweet, but the aftereffects left me paralyzed." -- They Might Be Giants
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
My opinion has always been that the four FC ships were all being refitted, which is why there were so many of them Earth, they were practically the only ones at Earth, and they look newer than their registries suggest.
And the Prometheus is an exception. It would be preferable to have as few exceptions as possible...
------------------ "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." -George Orwell's Animal Farm
Posted by Trinculo on :
The encyclopedia gives two registries for the USS Thunderchild. The first is the NCC-63549. The second is the NCC-65549. This registry is seen on a diagram of the ship.
Posted by Aethelwer (Member # 36) on :
You're just misreading the diagram. It's 63 anyway. Some did say 83, though.
------------------ http://frankg.dgne.com/ Rodimus Prime: "No more jokes, Springer. Cybertron's in deadly danger. We're heading back there. Now." Springer: "Yes sir, Mister Leader, sir."
Posted by Bernd (Member # 6) on :
Impressive Akira pic.
Either the people who designed the FC ships didn't look into the Encyclopedia for a suited registry range. Or it was intentional, yet illogical, and they thought "Let's design fecking new ships, but give them old numbers, so we don't have to explain there are four new ship types at a time".
If the numbers were strictly chronological, the Akira would be the only ship of the four where a 6xxxx number is justified. Maybe the ships have been refitted with new (Sovereign) escape pods, but I rather assume there are several standard types of escape pods that are used for more than one decade.
The Akira is clearly of the same family as the Galaxy, etc. The eliptical saucer, the similar warp nacelles and so on. No way is it part of the Sovereign family. Only the Norway with it's pointy saucer can be a post-Galaxy starship design.
------------------ -->Identity Crisis<--
Posted by The First One (Member # 35) on :
For all it's unusual design features, the overall 'look' (the livery, as it were) does seem more reminiscent of the Nebula family. The others, including the Norway regardless of its pointy nose, have a very retro look, in terms of their colours etc.
A long time ago, someone suggested that these ships might be recent converts from the armed forces of a new Federation member. I mean, the Sabre's nacelles look rather like those on Klingon ships, and the Norway's seem very old-fashioned.
Posted by Montgomery (Member # 23) on :
I think I may break with standard policy and investigate this issue #119... That Akira pic would look just peachy on my bedroom's hall of fame!
------------------ "I AM THE SPIDER!!!!" - Vic Reeves
Posted by Identity Crisis (Member # 67) on :
#117 not #119 I was going from memory earlier.
It's hard to miss. It's got an akira on the cover.
------------------ -->Identity Crisis<--
Posted by Montgomery (Member # 23) on :
OK.
------------------ "I AM THE SPIDER!!!!" - Vic Reeves
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
Well, as for the escape pods, the DS9TM suggests that there are currently two types of pods in use: 6-seaters (like the Defiant's) and 8-seaters (which I assume are the Sov. type). Now, as for why Galaxys still have square ones, I assume that they still just have the same covers on the hull, but the pods underneath are the new ones...
------------------ "I'm not stubborn. I'm just right." -me
Posted by Identity Crisis (Member # 67) on :
The Akira seems to have two sizes of escape pods. The ones on the saucer are larger than the ones on the top edge of the nacelle pylons.
------------------ -->Identity Crisis<--
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
Hm... They also look to be the same truncated-triangle shape as the big ones. Perhpas each size of lifeboat comes in different designs...
------------------ "I'm not stubborn. I'm just right." -me
Posted by The359 (Member # 37) on :
What happened to that registry they gave the Thunderchild in the FF that I requested?
------------------ "The one, the only, THE 359!"
Posted by Identity Crisis (Member # 67) on :
FF registries:
NCC-62497 USS Akira NCC-63293 USS Rabin NCC-63549 USS Spector NCC-65549 USS Thunderchild
------------------ -->Identity Crisis<--
Posted by Aethelwer (Member # 36) on :
(Okay, does that convince everyone that the Fact Files are not only inaccurate, but a bit loopy?)
------------------ http://frankg.dgne.com/ Rodimus Prime: "No more jokes, Springer. Cybertron's in deadly danger. We're heading back there. Now." Springer: "Yes sir, Mister Leader, sir."
Posted by bear (Member # 124) on :
This is off the subject , but here I go... I WISH that we would get to see Galaxies regain the prestige of their former TNG fame. In other words I would like to see the Galaxy class be the unstoppable ship that they were in TNG.
Thoughts?
Posted by monkeyboy on :
Psst What is LUG?
------------------ I did'nt do it.
Posted by Aethelwer (Member # 36) on :
Last Unicorn Games, makers of a Trek RPG.
------------------ http://frankg.dgne.com/ Rodimus Prime: "No more jokes, Springer. Cybertron's in deadly danger. We're heading back there. Now." Springer: "Yes sir, Mister Leader, sir."
Posted by The First One (Member # 35) on :
The Vorlon has been cleaning up the existing Akira diagrams and now has some excellent schematics. Here is a combined view. Individual ones are available, if you ask him nicely. . . 8)
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
Well, the only reaction I can come up w/ is... HOLY CR*P! :-)
------------------ "I'm not stubborn. I'm just right." -me
Posted by The First One (Member # 35) on :
You should see the individual pics. MASSIVE high-quality PNGs. I have the full set, natch. � )
Posted by Excalibur on :
Does this vorlon guy have a web page?
And does anybody know where I can get a subscription to these fact files?
------------------ "Walk softly and carry a big stick"-Theodore Roosevelt
Posted by The First One (Member # 35) on :
His website is here - but it's still in development.
Look at the thread titled Star Trek: The Magazine for info on the US version of the Fact Files. . . I don't think the UK or German versions are available on subscription.
------------------ "Adventure? Excitement? A Jedi craves not these things!" - Silent Bob
