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The USS Challenger NCC-2032, USS Korolev NCC-2014, USS Springfield NCC-1963, and USS Whorfin NCC-1024 were listed on displays in "Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country". It is a common suggestion that these three ships are the class ships of Challenger, Springfield and Whorfin class, respectively.
Challenger: The Challenger class USS Buran NCC-57580 at Wolf 359 is supposed to be a modified Constitution class with nacelles directly attached to the saucer rear end. The appearance of Constitution engineering hull debris in TNG: "Best of Both Worlds" seems to confirm this. The registries of all three known ships, however, are in the 57xxx range. So the design is probably much newer than the old USS Challenger, unless a complicated theory is created to explain the use of a very old design for ships with new numbers.
Springfield: There is no design for this class, although the class was present at Wolf 359, so it could be any of the study models for the Excelsior or the Phase II Enterprise, for instance, which were all used for the graveyard scenes. The registries are the only evidence, and they suggest the ship from the 2280's is probably not the class ship for the USS Chekov with 53xxx registry.
Korolev. Basically the same argument (registry too high) as for the Springfield, except that there is almost definitely no studio model.
Whorfin: The two transport ships from "Star Trek: Generations" are Whorfin class ships. Since they are contemporary to the USS Whorfin featured a few years before in the real and Trek timeline, this is probably the class ship. Otherwise the class ship must have been decommissioned or destroyed before its time, which is (hopefully) not the normal case, or the Whorfin class must be brand new at the time of ST:G, which is improbable because of the diverging registries. An objection to this theory is that, the two ships from ST:G being civilian, Starfleet does not necessarily have a Whorfin class [link to class names civilian vs. SF].
*Frank's and Tthe359's arguments below included*
[This message was edited by Bernd on June 08, 1999.]
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*comments included above*
Registered: Mar 1999
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Trinculo
Ex-Member
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High Registry determines a ship class is newer is wrong.
There are at present at least two ship classes from the 2280's which have very high registries-the Oberth and the Excelsior. The Oberth Class has the NCC-50331 USS Biko, NCC-53847 USS Pegasus, and the NCC-53911 USS Tsiolkovsky. The Excelsior Class has NCC-50446 USS Crazy Horse and NCC-62043 USS Melbourne. Considering that these two classes from the same decade have high registries, there could be other classes from the same decade that have high registries.
My view on the four classes mentioned- Structural components indicate that at least two are from the 2280's-the Challenger and the Springfield. I do not know about the Korolev. As for the Whorfin, there is a civilian Whorfin Class. And there could be a civilian SS Whorfin and a Starfleet USS Whorfin. There is no law or rule which states that if a name is used by one agency-civilian, Starfleet-then the other agency-civilian, Starfleet-cann't use the name.
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Trinculo: You're right about the Oberths and Exceliors, but the point is that we've only seen Challenger and Springfield registries that are relatively high. The Obs and Exes we've seen spanning a large range...
------------------ "I ran into Charlie Fogg. He blacked my eye, and he kicked my dog. My dog turned to me, and he said, 'Let's head back to Tennessee, Jed.'" -The Grateful Dead, "Tennessee Jed"
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The Challenger and Springfield Classes could still be constructed in the 24th Century. There is nothing in the canonical sources that argues against this. Every argument that can be made against the Challenger and Springfield Classes can be refuted by the evidence of the Excelsior and Oberth Classes. And vice versa.
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Trinculo
Ex-Member
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TSN: I am going by structural features-what are the nacelles supposed to look like? what is the saucer like? what is the secondary hull like? The structure of a ship dates a class' construction and design to a particular era.
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Trinculo: Do you know what the Springfield class is supposed to look like?
My point about the Springfield and Korolev class is that it is more probable the class ship were not operational as early as in the 2280's. There could have been two or three design generations (and Springfields and Korolevs) in the 75 years until Wolf 359. I'm not so sure about the Challenger, because the Constitution-like design is pending.
One more argument is that is's improbable that three class ships have registries in the same narrow range and are listed on a display of operational ships.
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The USS Whorfin is from the Mission Assignment okudagram from ST VI. Hence it has a mission assigned to it. If we can find out what that mission is we may be able to decide whether it belongs to the same class as the (civilian but Federation) Whorfin class transports in ST VII.
If the mission is at odds with the ship being a transport then the most likely explanation is that the Whorfin class is entirely civilian and unrelated to the USS Whorfin.
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