posted
I can accept that shuttles would double up on names... but I have a hard time accepting that runabouts do. Personally, I think Sisko's line about getting to name the ship was a big mistake on the writer's part. They didn't really think that one through.
posted
For that matter, Sisko could have very easily researched the name from the starfleet starship database the night before and had very easily had a name picked out from a preappoved list of available names. That isn't so hard to swallow.
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posted
Given that Sisko worked at Utopia Planitia for several years, I think it's reasonably to assume that he was well aware of the Danube naming scheme, with or without a database.
Hell, he probably knew the project leader and decided to keep his tradition of naming them after earth rivers as a sort of personal courtesy, or private joke.
Other Captains and Admirals in Starfleet might not have been so accommodating.
posted
In the tradition of "Hell, it might even be"...
...That Sisko was responsible for creating the Danubes himself. There is an amazing amount of customizing going on with starship auxiliaries - there are more mothership-specific designs than shared ones. The Danube could be a "pet project" out of hundreds or thousands of similar ones, something Sisko fancied doing, perhaps as a masterpiece during his apprenticeship.
I'm not saying Sisko did all the work described in the DS9 TM by himself. I more suspect that he had the authority to order a "custom job", to a slightly greater degree than Picard had the authority to order customized bridges for his starships, or perhaps customized shuttles and land vehicles...
And just like the Defiant, the Danube was a piece of work that was adequate for Sisko from the practical point of view, but very dear to him personally. Had Commander Benteen gotten the assignment, she would no doubt have ordered six Mount Kilauea class patrol boats instead of three Danube runabouts, with just as rational-sounding a request to Starfleet as the one Sisko submitted.
Such personal indulgence would be perfectly within the realm of possible in the society of wealth Sisko and Picard live in. And in the best traditions of a no-money society, the brainchild of one man would be freely available to others as well, if they found the Danube to their liking.
quote:Originally posted by Sol System: Personally, I think "runabouts get named by the person in command of them" sounds perfectly reasonable.
Not to me, it doesn't. Shuttles, sure, since they're solely auxiliary craft---but the Danubes are full-fledged starships, with U.S.S. names and NCC registry numbers.
So no, not unless the commander is acting in an official, authorized Starfleet capacity and the vessel is officially commissioned by them. With that caveat, I could accept it, but otherwise no way. It cannot be some informal "we'll call it such-and-such" process...
-MMoM
-------------------- The flaws we find most objectionable in others are often those we recognize in ourselves.
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posted
I dunno about that Mmom, they may be starships, but they are not quite full fledged. They are primarily deployed on missions where using a fully-fledged starship would be a waste of resources, whereas a standard shuttle would be too small to cope. They moreso fit the genre of uber-auxiliary craft as there never seems to be shortage of them. It seems whenever one was destroyed in DS9, they seemed to mention the replacement within the next couple episodes. So there certainly isn't any shortage of availability, for Sisko/DS9 at least.
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posted
As has been mentioned, runabouts may get registered like starships, but they don't seem to be used like starships. In my mind they definitely occupy a hazy middle ground.
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quote:As has been mentioned, runabouts may get registered like starships, but they don't seem to be used like starships.
Actually this much of my last post:
quote:'They are primarily deployed on missions where using a fully-fledged starship would be a waste of resources, whereas a standard shuttle would be too small to cope.'
...came directly out of the runabout article from "ST: The Magazine", so that much of it carries some modestly canon weight about their 'fledgity'.
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posted
Just to toss in... Back in DS9's first season, I came up with a Runabout for my Trek writing to include in the adventures I was working on. I named it Orinoco. Then I saw "The Siege". I was annoyed. So I changed the name of the Runabout to Rubicon. Guess what. So I am publicly stating that I claim Saint Lawrence. So there.
--Jonah
-------------------- "That's what I like about these high school girls, I keep getting older, they stay the same age."
--David "Woody" Wooderson, Dazed and Confused
Registered: Feb 2001
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posted
Only the Rio Grande survives the series. It was Sisko's runabout in the pilot episode so mabye it's good luck or blessed by the Prophets or something.... I recall Kira having a smart-ass remark about "It's a good thing Earth's got a lot of rivers". Earned her a stern look from Sisko.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
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