Flare Sci-Fi Forums: USS Olympia- Oberth?

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Posted by USS Vanguard (Member # 130) on :

Don't know if this is old or not, but I saw "The Sound of Her Voice REcentlY" and as they pan across the screen at the end of the episode, it looks like there's an oberth reckage, thought it could be just be the landscape. Anyhow, it could explain why STar Trek: Ships expanded chooses to refer to the Olympia as Oberth. Does anyone have any screen caps?

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Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :

I haven't seen any screencaps recently, but I couldn't really identify any wreckange when I watched the show last. (And I paused it a couple of times to see if I could recognize something.)

IMO, though, the Oberth wouldn't be a good choice for a mission like this -- I believe it was eight or ten years that they were gone? That would be a VERY long haul for one of those tiny Oberths.

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Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :

I've seen a screen cap and it seems to indicate that, whatever type of ship she was, she had refit Connie style nacelles. There's one semi-visible in the screen cap that I saw. She also appears to have a TMP era type saucer shape, IIRC correctly.

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Posted by Dukhat (Member # 341) on :

The guy who posts the Star Trek:Expanded ship list had absolutely no information to back up the statement that the Olympia is Oberth class. I think he just guessed.

The screencaps are pretty awful. The only thing that can positively be identified is the saucer wreckage, and even the type is unknown. Someone here once pointed out that it vaguely resembles the refit Constitution saucer used in BoBW, but again we don't know for sure.

Besides this saucer, the only other things that can be seen are what looks to be the front of a refit Constitution nacelle sticking up out of the ground at a 45 degree angle, and a very long piece of wreckage which *could* be a nacelle, but it's very hard to tell.

And, of course, neither the newest version of the Encyclopedia nor the DS9 Companion gives any class info on the ship at all.

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[This message has been edited by Dukhat (edited April 11, 2001).]

Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :

In DVD we trust, then.

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Posted by Matrix (Member # 376) on :

It could be a Miranda if it has Connie refit nacelles and a Connie saucer...

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Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :

I like to think she was a Constellation.

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Posted by Timo (Member # 245) on :

Some random musings:

We know that the ship was sent on an exploration mission, presumably into faraway unknown space where she could be expected to stay ignorant of the start of a major war, yet the crash site was within reach by the Defiant which had just finished escorting a convoy. Convoys would have little business in unexplored space, unless it provided a shortcut between two locations related to the UFP war effort. And surely they would have no business "far away" in terms of travel times. So presumably the crash site was relatively close to DS9 or other central war theater.

How to solve the apparent contradiction - near yet far? Perhaps the target was low-priority, so Starfleet sent a rather slow ship. Thus, in terms of travel time for the Olympia, the planet was far away, but in terms of travel time for the Defiant, not all that far.

But the Defiant isn't a very fast ship, so the contrast would have to be strong here - the Olympia should be a rust bucket of Oberth caliber. Perhaps we could jiggle things a bit and say that the status of the region had changed: back when the Olympia sailed out, it was uninteresting backwater space near the uninteresting backwater planet Bajor, but by the time the Defiant responded to the SOS, the area was of great military interest (even though it still hadn't been carefully mapped, or sown with enough comm relays to allow the Olympia to be in constant contact with Starfleet).

Then I'd happily accept Constellation as the identity of the Olympia. She'd be relatively slow and rather old, yet would have enough teeth to be cruising in unknown space near the formerly hostile Cardassians. She's also been implied to be one of those deep space solo exploration type of things, at least under Picard's command. I wouldn't expect to see a latter-day Miranda out there - she's more like a fleet support asset, not all that independent. And I don't want to think that Constitutions were still being sent into deep space at that time of age. If they still served, it would be closer to home.

Timo Saloniemi

Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :

Thing is though, the ship was on it's way BACK from the mission. The mission was complete and they were heading home. True, at the time (9 years ago was it) there was no war, and Bajor was a Cardassian territoy. That part of space would have had little Federation presence, if any. They may have still been a week or so out of contact range with Starfleet when they crashed.

Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :

In a way it's the biggest problem with the episode - that over several days' worth of conversation, not once did the date come up, or the fact that the Olympia would surely have been classed as several years overdue by now, or loads of other little conversational tidbits that might have given someone a clue. O'Brien stating how many years it's been since the end of the Cardassian War, Bashir mentioning the year he graduated medical school, Captain Cusack expressing a desire for a more local posting next, maybe on one of those new Galaxy-class starships when they finally get rolled out. . .

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Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :

I agree. Even the mention of where the Dominion was from would've sparked a date -specific conversation.

"Oh, when was a wormhole discovered near Bajor?"
"23XX, after the Cardassians left."
"But...it's only [23XX minus 2]...what year is this...?"

Posted by Dukhat (Member # 341) on :

Wasn't the time difference, like, two years or something? IIRC, in the communications point of view, Cusack was already running out of air not long before she thought the Defiant was nearing the planet. I think it might have been more realistic in terms of the argument above if the time difference was only a few days or weeks. That way, there still would have been the dramatic effect of her death, but without such a long span of time between.

(Actually, I always felt this "time difference" thing was just a big cop-out. I think it would have been more moving if the Defiant had simply been a few minutes too late to save Cusack, instead of TPTB throwing in more time travel technobabble to justify things.)

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Posted by Joshua Bell (Member # 327) on :

As one of the co-authors of the Ships: Expanded list (albeit the one who doesn't do much), let me jump in:

Neither of us (me or D. Joe Creighton) can recall why the classification was made. Usually that means it's obvious from the episode, but neither of us have a copy handy to verify. If those of you with access to DVD/VHS copies of the episode can nail down the class or declare it officially "unknown" we'll happily update the FAQ.

I'll try and keep an eye on this thread, but if you don't see a post from me saying "okay, FAQ updated" then send me email ([email protected]).

Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :

The time difference was the twist that made the whole thing pretty cool. It was like they were talking to this ghost who helped them all even though she was already dead.

Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :

I agree with Aban, that whole twist - was what made the episode... it was a real kick in the guts...

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Posted by Timo (Member # 245) on :

Agreed on that...

So what are the real figures given in the episode?

The mission of the Olympia was supposed to last for what, eight years? Or nine?

The time difference was, what, three years? Or two?

Was the ship really on her way back? Cool, I didn't remember that tidbit. Would indeed explain a lot.

Timo Saloniemi