Something I was pondering while watching an episode of Enterprise and I thought it would make for some interesting discussion here.
Estimate the size of Earth Starfleet and try and break it down into what types of ships make up the fleet (NX-Class, Intrepid type, J-Class etc). It should take some thought, why would there be x number of Intrepid type and x number of Iceland type vessels, for example?
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
And while we're at it, how long is a piece of string?
Mark
Posted by aneurysm (Member # 906) on :
Just a bit of fun speculation, thats all.
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
Pointless though. Too many variables. There don't seem to be many of the type of ships we'd traditionally count if we were looking at ship numbers in UFP Starfleet - warp-capable starships. In fact the only extra-System ships we know of are the Enterprise and various civilian freighters (Horizon, Fortunate etc). They seem to have the Solar System pretty much tied up though, and a lot of the ships we've seen in-System have warp capability - Intrepid, Iceland, the Borged Antarctic survey ship, maybe even the title sequence Moonship. So it's six and two threes, you know?
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
Both intrepid and Iceland were seen capable of deep-space operations in "Twighlight". Granted it's possible that this was not their intended mission, but they can certainly leave the backyeard.
Which brings us back to wondering where everyone was at the end of the S3 finale...
Mark
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
"And while we're at it, how long is a piece of string?"
170 meters.
Posted by Austin Powers (Member # 250) on :
No, that was the Defiant... Posted by trekkie (Member # 1377) on :
well from the show for now maybe 10... 2 NX enterprise and the other one, and the rest of them. remember when the first attack on earth and enterprise was called back. he was later attacked by the klingons and then a few starships saved him.
any wonder why during "zero hour" there were no ships to protect earth? i mean you would think that if someone wants to blow up earth you would have patrols around wouldn't u?
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Yes, I believe someone has.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
You lie. No one considered that. Ever.
They also never considered the "search" option.
Next thing you know, you'll be debating unheard of concepts like the graveyard ships from BOBW.
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
Yeah, why doesn't someone try identifying all those ships? Maybe you could email Michael Okuda and ask him about them.
Posted by The Captain from M.I.K.E. (Member # 709) on :
have we become so jaded?
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
Hey, it's the summer. Soon the madness - sorry, the magic - will begin again, and we will be swept away into the dizzying world of Brannon Braga's imagination. I hope you'll all join me.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
quote:Originally posted by Lee: Yeah, why doesn't someone try identifying all those ships? Maybe you could email Michael Okuda and ask him about them.
Speaking of grinding the dead horse into alpo....I'm watching Emissary just now (as TV sucks this late) and noticed the Melbourne has cracks in it's saucer prior to the Borg's tractor beam grabbing it.
In all of fandom, I am the only one to notice this.
My place in history is assured.
Posted by The Mighty Monkey of Mim (Member # 646) on :
OH NO! Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Yes.
All your trek-sites are belong to me.
Posted by Wraith (Member # 779) on :
quote: Speaking of grinding the dead horse into alpo....I'm watching Emissary just now (as TV sucks this late) and noticed the Melbourne has cracks in it's saucer prior to the Borg's tractor beam grabbing it.
That means the Wolf 359 defeat was the result of sabotage to Starfleet vessels, perpatrated by evil right-wing conspiritors within the Federation Council who hoped to use it as an excuse to build more warships and launch an aggressive, unjustified war against the peaceful, kitten loving Borg! It's the only explanation!
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Or that republicans subcontracted the melbourne's construction to their campaign contributors nad they did a shoddy job on the hull.
One more thing to thank Bush for: he prevented us from watching Admiral Hanson make a total ass of himself by lusting after fugly-ass Shelby. I mean...damn. She's beastly.
Posted by Captain Boh (Member # 1282) on :
Couldn't the ship already have taken some hits by this point? I can't remember...
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Yeah,....but that's the logical theory. Fuck that Vulcan-bullshit.
Posted by Guardian 2000 (Member # 743) on :
Shelby? Ugly? With those cute curls and enormous mammaries? I'd tap that ass all day long.
On-topic, "Twilight" can be used to derive estimates of the size of the fleet. Assuming that each of the three convoys had a near-parity of actual accompanying Starfleet ships, then we should expect ~12 vessels survived the Xindi destruction. That doesn't tell us how many there are, though.
The question would be what Starfleet ships would do after the Xindi destroyed Earth. Run like hell, or die in a hopeless cause by trying to fight for what was left? Obviously some ran, but the percentage that stayed to fight or simply couldn't run fast enough cannot be known. I'd assume, though, that ~12 ships would be a significant percentage of the fleet.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
I'd say that Starfleet (with the exceptions of the "Iceland", Intrepid, NX-01 and 02) is all merchant and trader vessels. Recall that while there are "boomers" that have been in space for going on three generations, the known area of explored space is very limited.
Earth has been playing it safe for a looong time if they've not encountered the Andorians or Klingons prior to their Enterprise appearance- possible to the scarcity of ships available.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
None of the freighters on the show have been Starfleet vessels. Mayweather's entire thing was how his brother was upset about him joining Starfleet, remember? Those ships have been under the authority of, or at least licensed by, the Earth Cargo Authority.
Based on that, I doubt Starfleet is running a competing cargo service, beyond what their own out of system supply needs require.
Andorians: I think it's very likely that the Vulcans made sure that the Andorians stayed well away from Earth, and that humans avoided exploring in Andorian directions.
It sure would be neat if we learned a bit more about what the Vulcan's grand strategy is, cultivating all these client species. (My daydream: part of a very cold war with the Romulans, or even suspected Romulans. "We know they're out in this direction somewhere. We better make sure they aren't gathering allies, and gather some of our own." Though I think, strictly, canonically speaking, we don't know for sure whether the Vulcans know who the Romulans are at this point. Was the reference to a war between Vulcans and Romulans from Voyager definitely after the Romulans left, or was it possibly during, with Q just saying Romulans instead of Anti-Surakians, since the name refers to the same people?)
Klingons: Despite the travel time, I'm sure the idea was and is that the Klingons are supposed to be a fair distance away by 22nd century standards.
Posted by ulTRS magDOS (Member # 239) on :
Everyone: Sex! Boobs!
Simon: Nerd Nerd Nerd.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
I mis-spoke: rather than "starfleet" I should have used the term "earth fleet". I think Starfleet (as an organization actually capable of exploring anything) is brand spankin' new at the time of Broken Bow with only the Intrepid nad Iceland (plus a copy or two of those designs) having scoped out the local neighborhood.
We dont even know if any earth ship has been to Vulcan itself yet.
The idea of the Vulcans steering human exploration away from certain areas is valid one. It's possible that the Vulcans have run interference on Earth's behalf iwth other more advanced races as well: some treaty may specify to the Telerites that Sol is off limits or somesuch.
A real question is weither the Klingons and Romulans have met yet.
Posted by J (Member # 608) on :
I would think that the Vulcans grand stategy is to be the dominate merchants in the galaxy by controlling the development of lesser races like the Andorians and Humans. --- They'll get over it, but everyone jokes about Vulcan merchants from then on.
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