Greetings,
and welcome to my comprehensive listing of all the vessels seen in Star Trek
throughout its many incarnations! This
database concerns itself with the following:
·
Starfleet
(The military organization, originally of Earth and later of the United
Federation of Planets, for which the majority of our heroes in the shows have
served.)
·
Federation
(Ships which are not directly a part of Starfleet, but are owned and/or
operated within the UFP.)
·
Pre-Federation Earth and Vulcan
(Ships whose service predates the founding of the Federation and are not a part
of Starfleet, but are owned and/or operated by Earth citizens and their allies,
the Vulcans. Most ships from the series
Enterprise will be included here, excepting those that are a part of
Starfleet such as the NX-01.)
Primary sources for
this shiplist include the following:
· The six television series. (Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Animated Series*, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, and Enterprise.)
· The ten films produced to date. (Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Star Trek Generations, Star Trek: First Contact, Star Trek: Insurrection, and Star Trek: Nemesis*.)
· The official Star Trek Encyclopedia and Star Trek Chronology by Mike and Denise Okuda.
· The Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual by Rick Sternbach and Mike Okuda and the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual by Herman Zimmerman, Rick Sternbach, and Doug Drexler.
· Star Trek: The Magazine and its European counterpart, the Star Trek Fact Files.
· The databases of the official Star Trek website at www.startrek.com.
Ancillary
sources used as reference for this listing:
· The Star Fleet Technical Manual and Star Trek Blueprints by Franz Joseph. *
· The Making of Star Trek by Stephen E. Whitfield.
· The Star Trek Concordance by Bjo Trimble.
· The Starship Spotter by Robert Bonchune and Adam “Mojo” Lebowitz. *
· Star Trek Star Charts by Geoffrey Mandel.
· The Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion by Larry Nemecek.
· The Art of Star Trek by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens.
· Online fan sources including Spike’s Star Trek Site and The Guardian of Forever. (Additional links are found in individual list entries.)
*See additional notes below.
The
typical format of the list will be as follows:
Ø
Ship’s name
Registry number
Class
A description of the vessel and what is known of it.
(The source
of the vessel’s information.)
Additional notes or information about the
ship. This may come from
behind-the-scenes sources such as interviews with Paramount Studios personnel
or from additional published sources.
Often, there will be a brief examination of the origin of the vessel’s
name. Occasionally, there will be a
note about the vessel in question which comes from a non-canon publication or
sometimes even from a fandom work, but in both cases the information will be
clearly marked as such. Also discussed
in this section will be inconsistencies or errors surrounding the ship.
Links (Online link sources)
Some ships have not been mentioned
explicitly in any official source, but their existence is implied by the use of
a class designation in reference to other vessels. In these cases, the ship’s entry will appear in pink
text. On
other occasions, certain data points for a ship will not have appeared onscreen
or have been printed in an official source, but will have come from within
Paramount (through interviews with employees or press statements, etc.) and are
deemed reliable enough to be mentioned in the shiplist. In such instances, the information will
appear in grey text. Orange text
signifies a ship that does not in fact exist, but was
merely conjured up by some alien menace or by a facetious remark. (As in the U.S.S. Dauntless and U.S.S.
Lollipop.) Finally, lavender
text indicates questionable information from Franz
Joseph’s Star Fleet Technical Manual.
(See note below.)
Additional
Notes:
Canon vs. Non-canon
Within the world of published Star Trek materials, Paramount Studios has divided publications into the categories of “canon” and “non-canon” publications. Canon publications are those whose information is considered to be official and are used as reference for the writers of the shows. There are essentially only four books which fall into this category: the Okuda Encyclopedias and Chronologies, and the TNG and DS9 Technical Manuals. In addition to these there are the official periodicals Star Trek: The Magazine and the Star Trek Fact Files. Non-canon publications are considered to be outside of the general continuity of the films and episodes, and are summarily discounted as reference sources by Paramount. These include the various novels, comic books, computer and role-playing games, and similar works that have been printed under license from Paramount.
Non-canon vs. Fandom
Apart from the “canon” versus “non-canon” issue, there is also that of non-canon as opposed to “fandom” publications. “Fandom” refers to the voluminous body of works produced by fans of the Star Trek franchise over the many years since its inception. These works were published by groups or individuals outside of license from Paramount or permission from any agency or organization claiming legal ownership of Star Trek. As such, their value as reference sources for official Trek is essentially nonexistent. However, occasionally there will be a theory presented within a fandom source that might help to explain a discrepancy within the canon, and in such cases it may be noted in the list purely for the sake of speculation.
Franz Joseph’s
Star Fleet Technical Manual and Star Trek Blueprints
There are, of course, places where the line
between canon and non-canon blurs. Most
notable are the Star Fleet Technical Manual and Star Trek Blueprints
by Franz Joseph. Originally published
in 1975, the Manual was at the time officially licensed and approved by Star
Trek creator Gene Roddenberry as an authentic reference source for fans of
the show. However, in the years since
the book’s publication, the official view of its status has drastically
changed. In recent times, it is
generally considered non-canon and many aspects and concepts of the Star
Trek universe originally presented in the book have been either precluded
or contradicted by later episodes and films.
As such, the main body of the book is essentially useless as a reference
source. However, back during the
production of the first three Star Trek films (1979-1984), the Manual
was still being used as a reference and a number of data points from the book
came to be included in the films themselves.
This, in effect, makes this information a part of the official canon and
useable as a reference for this list.
In some cases, closely connected data points from the rest of the book
become difficult to simply ignore, and deserve to be at least mentioned in the
shiplist. In such instances, any data
that was not explicitly mentioned onscreen will be marked as such.
The same applies to Joseph’s accompanying
work Star Trek Blueprints, a set of detailed plans for the U.S.S.
Constitution NCC-1700, a sister ship of the Enterprise. Sections of the plans have been used in
various places on screen (particularly in the early feature films) and a fairly
high level overall consistency with established facts has been maintained,
(apart from a few minor details like the registry numbers of the other Constitution-class
vessels besides the Enterprise and the Constitution herself,
which were later interpreted by Paramount to be different from those listed by
Joseph) and so a reasonable amount of credibility still lies with them.
The animated Star
Trek series
There has been, over the years, significant
question over whether or not the Animated Series is part of the Star Trek
canon. Reportedly, Gene Roddenberry
instructed Paramount not to consider it as official, and this policy was apparently
adopted by the studio. Consequently,
TAS is absent from the main body of official references such as the Okuda
Encyclopedias and Chronologies.
However, it has come to be noticed that this supposition of TAS being
non-canon has been contradicted on several occasions when the show was
referenced in various episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star
Trek: Voyager. Also of note is the
fact that the official Star Trek website, while still maintaining in its
FAQ page that the animated show is not part of the official record,
nevertheless list the series right along beside its live-action
counterparts. So it seems that
regardless of the show’s previous stigmatization, it may be well on its way to
being reinstated as a valid part of the official Star Trek
universe. Due to this consideration
(and also because I am an enthusiastic fan of the show and cannot see any real
reason why it is any less canon than any of the other series) I have included
TAS in this database.
Star Trek: Nemesis
The tenth Star Trek feature film is
currently scheduled for release in December of this year. I have read what I assume to be a semi-final
draft of the script online, and have included ship information mentioned there
in this list. However, one must
remember that due to the constant revisions that motion picture scripts are
subject to, not every piece of information may be included in the actual
film. On the other hand, there is also
always the possibility that there may be more information yielded in the form of
computer displays and by visual effects shots in the movie. In either case, the Nemesis ship
entries will be revised as is necessary upon the release of the film.
Please enjoy yourself…
Go to:
Starfleet A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z ?
Federation A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z ?
Pre-Federation A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z ?
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