posted
No, Interface is a TNG episode. In this episode the USS Nobel, along with the USS Excelsior, took part in a search-and-rescue mission for the USS Hera (the ship of Geordi's mother). According to the Encyclopedia the Nobel had the registry NCC-55012 and was an Olympic-class vessel.
BTW: Was the Pasteur really an Olympic-class ship? An early version of the dedication plaque says Hope-class. Does anyone know, if this was changed and why?
posted
Difficult to say if the plaque was changed, but at least the last digit of the registry was, from 8 to 5...
Personally, I'm not happy with the Nobel and the Pasteur sharing a class. Who would send a hospital ship to perform a SAR mission, as in "Interface"? Hospital ships probably would have inferior sensors and inferior speed, hampering the search efforts. They would also be poorly equipped to cope with whatever had resulted in the loss of the Hera in the first place. The only plus side would be if the Hera was found relatively intact and there were massive yet rescueable casualties aboard - then the medical facilities of the hospital ship would come in handy.
My favorite explanation would be if the Pasteur was of a Hope subclass of the Olympic class, almost as extensively modified from the original Olympic design as the Soyuz was from the Miranda design. Perhaps the original Olympic even had a saucer hull instead of a sphere..? At the very least, the Olympic should have been optimized for a different mission featuring more plausible SAR capabilities.
Hmmm... OTOH, perhaps the definition of a hospital ship in Trek does include superfast speed and high-class sensors? Perhaps the idea is not to deliver a hospital to the battlefield, but to use the ship as a combined SAR chopper and ambulance that collects casualties from all over the battlefield, AND then treats them. Such a concept is alien to today's navies, since ships are too slow to act as ambulances, and hospital ships are too cumbersome to perform SAR.
Plus, having SAR-enabling sensors would be uncomfortably close to having the hospital ships armed, which is a strict no-no today but obviously accepted in Trek. I mean, those big Marine Tarawas and Wasps double as hospital ships, with extensive medical facilities, but they are free game regardless since they are heavily armed. There would be no point in painting red crosses on parts of those ships and saying that these are off limits. A hospital ship featuring search helos and radars would arouse certain suspicions...
posted
Re: The Pasteur being older than the Ent-D...Yah, what they said.
The Olympic class was originally the Hope class, but it was never identified as such on screen or in any other canon or semi canon source that I know of. The only evidence appears to be the plaque, and unless you want to accept the canonicity of a Skywalker Division...I don't tend to count that.
I think the ship "looks" older too. I guess I've always assumed that it was their intention to make the ship a bit less sophisticated. It has obvious harkenings to the Daedalus Class...
Perhaps not all Olympics are hospital ships. Perhaps they perform a variety of similar functions. But I still think they all have phasers as standard equipment.
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posted
I definatly would go with Hope Sub-Class for the Pastuer, since "Nobel" isn't exactly a name you'd expect to see on a Hospital Ship.
Something weird though: The US Navy only has 2 (yes, count them, 2!) hospital ships. They are heavily converted Tankers to form the Mercy Class, and the names of the two ships are USNS Mercy T-AH-19 and USNS Comfort T-AH-20
I wonder why the Pastuer had no hospital symbols on her whatsoever...
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posted
It would make sense that Olympics are "behind-the-lines" ships & that some of them may indeed be outfitted for ESAR ops; this is somewhat analogous to the days in the 70s when several of the USN Iwo Jima-class LPHs were outfitted to act as "sea control ships" by embarking a flight of Marine "Harriers" on them.
There's the thought that perhaps you don't want your best hospital ships running through a battle evacing wounded, especially in a conflict like the Dominion War where the opponent doesn't give a rat's ass about not attacking the helpless & wounded. On the other hand, you don't want them hanging around & waiting until the battle's over, either.
Yes, I've given this a lot of thought. I used it as the basis for the history of my M'Benga-class fleet medical ship. Yeah, I stole the names from FASA & redid the design, even though I really like their design.
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posted
With the Klingons its different, there is no honor in attacking a ship full of injured people. I would only imagine IF the Olympic did have phasers then its for pirates or Ferengi who would like to steal the ship or something. Not powerful enough to engage capital ships but to engage smaller commercial ships.
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posted
Keep in mind that the Pasteur was described as a medical ship, not a hospital ship. There could be a difference...
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posted
Indeed. And the Fleming was a medical transport. Perhaps there's a wide spectrum of "mercy ships", ranging from disaster-relief vessels equipped with huge replicators, to special Mobile Starfleet Surgical Hospitals.
As for Klingons not attacking the wounded... I dunno. They *are* supposed to slay the wounded to save the honor of the said wounded, as per some dialogue in e.g. "The Ship" IIRC. They also did attack the hospital in "Nor the Battle...".
Whether they would actively attack a hospital ship is another matter, but they could be pragmatic about it: what easier way to lower the numbers of enemy soldiers than kill them when they cannot fight back? it's THEIR dishonor for getting into a state where they are helpless, not the attackers' dishonor! The Klingons themselves don't get wounded - they triumph, or they die, thanks to their redundant physique and primitive medicine.
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