-As the show opens, the Pre-E is tooling along when they get a staticcy call rom Adm. Forrest. The comm situation was shaky, but was apparently going to be remedied when they deplyed the first comm relay station (which they were getting ready to do).
-Porthos is back!
-The ship? Y-class freighter ECS Fortunate. Maximum speed of Warp 1.8, crew complement of 23 (not counting anyone who gets born along the way). There were 24 people aboard when they found her. Armament on these ships is typically only one low-yield plasma cannon for anti-meteorduties, though according to Travis many ships tend to upgrade when they can.
-The ship looks fantastic. It's a spial arrangement, with eight seperable pods and twin nacelles tucked between the aftmost sets. The interior is pieced from Pre-E sets and new stuff, and lit differently to cover it up. A pretty good effect, actually, though one of the chairs on thier bridge has been seen on TNG-era bridges for years...
-There are at least two plasma cannons mounted on the pods on the starboard side, and two more on the bow. Effective range is less than ten kilometers (yikes!)
-A few shots from a plasma pistol will cause a breach in the hull. Two shots from the shipboard cannons can disable the long-range sensors on the Pre-E.
-When Starfleet recieved the distress call, the nearest Starfleet ship was three weeks away at its maximum speed, though the Pre-E could get there in a day and a half. But if the Enterprise was so close relatively, why didn't they get the distress call too?
-Travis was concieved and born on the J-class freighter Horizon halfway along the run between Dralax and Vega Colony, and is "a little smaller" than a Y-class. His folks are still alive and aboard the Horizon. Another ship mentioned was the NOrth Star, which met an unfortunate incident that was not detailed.
-Waitaminit - HORIZON? (Dum dum duuummmmm)
-Naussicans are described here as pirates, and had been around for years. Travis's folks had run into them at some point. Anyway, they have relatively small ships, but some pretty good shielding. They also have a really spiffy asteroid base complete with docking arms and stuff.
-There are apparently plans for the next generation of frieghters to be equipped with the Warp 5 engines. The math here is that even at Warp 3, a 5-year frieghter run at 1.8 would be cut down to six months. Anyone care to confirm that? Anyway, the frieghter crew wasn't too thrilled at it - they seem quite content with warp 1.8.
-Chef kicks ass. Hello, children!
-There are three more "NX-class" ships on the drawing boards. Are we seeing a naming convention forming here in this era?
Mark
And NX class it is, eh? Interesting.
Note the Vegan colony, familiar to the viewers of "The Cage".
Anyhow, this letter-class naming convention is a mucho cool idea, and we should all flog ourselves with wet cauliflowers for not having come up with it before. It makes perfect sense now that Kirk and McGivers speak of "DY class" in "Space Seed" - ship classes from that era would indeed be known by letter codes, not only by the geeks who now call a Hornet an "F/A-18" and a B-52 a "Stratofortress", but also by the public who now calls a Hornet a Hornet and a B-52 a B-52, following the CNN pattern. Thus the later generations would also be familiar with that nomenclature.
Furthermore, it's actually *innovative*. I don't think any historical navy has actually used such a designation system so far. Sure, each navy may have "S class patrol boats" or some other such single type at a time, but only amidst "properly" named other classes. And it doesn't appear as if the Starfleet usage would be similar to the British "L class cruisers" where all the cruisers had names beginning with L, either. No, it's something completely new = something very good.
BTW, does anyone have pics of the Fortunate? Vidiot's page doesn't have the usual promo material yet, and for some reason I can't open the promo reel from the site advertised at Trekweb or TrekToday.
Timo Saloniemi
Or then the cubic formula is not really in use. Since we have only travel-time estimates to go by, without any indication of the actual distances, we can't tell from these data alone.
Timo Saloniemi
And for some reason I don't think the Horizon mentioned here could be the same one at Sigma Iotia II, because why would a freighter be exploring a rather archaic civilization like that?
BTW, the "Up the Long Ladder" ships had NAR registries, IIRC. Presumably, NAR is just a regular Earth registry, while NX, J, Y, &c. are Earth Starfleet registries, or something.
Anyway, I guess it was just the one ship that had an NAR. Nevermind.
quote:
When Starfleet recieved the distress call, the nearest Starfleet ship was three weeks away at its maximum speed, though the Pre-E could get there in a day and a half. But if the Enterprise was so close relatively, why didn't they get the distress call too?
That doesn't mean the Enterprise was actually closer. The other Starfleet ship probably recieved the distress call, and informed Starfleet. Starfleet thought, "hmm, this ship is ten lights years away. The Enterprise is 12 lights year away. But! At Warp 5, Enterprise can be there first!"
No error (in my mind, anyhoo)
[ November 21, 2001: Message edited by: Malnurtured Snay ]
Snay, like a reciprocal fraction, cancels himself out.
I mean, yes, love me.
[ November 21, 2001: Message edited by: Malnurtured Snay ]
What I'm saying is that if the other ship were closer relatively speaking, shouldn't the Pre-E have recieved the distress signal anyway, instead of waiting for Starfleet Command to get off their butts and tell them about it? In all likelihood the other Starfleet ship was closer to the Fortunate, but if it recieved the distress call first, then relayed it back to Earth, then got *Earth* to call Enterprise. What was Hoshi up to that week?
Mark
[ November 21, 2001: Message edited by: The_Tom ]
)The DY, the NX, the J wasn't there another shuttle type??
As for the DY-500-A, B etc. why not just upgraded versions of the essential DY-500 class... sorta like the Miranda versions... roll bar, no roll bar etc.