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Why is Enterprise the only line to keep it's registry number?
tacofangs
Member Posts: 2,951 Cryptic Developer
Is "Enterprise" the only ship line to get lettered incarnations?
In other words, There was a Constitution Class Defiant, and there was a Defiant Class Defiant, but they had separate and distinct registry numbers.
Why? Shouldn't it have kept the same reg number, and our well known Defiant be the Defiant-A?
Browsing through the Memory Alpha Ship List shows many other reused names, but with distinct registries. (Hood, Intrepid, Endeavour, Constellation, etc.)
In other words, There was a Constitution Class Defiant, and there was a Defiant Class Defiant, but they had separate and distinct registry numbers.
Why? Shouldn't it have kept the same reg number, and our well known Defiant be the Defiant-A?
Browsing through the Memory Alpha Ship List shows many other reused names, but with distinct registries. (Hood, Intrepid, Endeavour, Constellation, etc.)
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Post edited by tacofangs on
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1. Its seems that normal government policy is, "if it makes sense, don't do it"...
2. Its fiction written by many different writers and artists over a long period of time, and therefore is wrought with continuity errors...
I can't really think of an in-universe reason. The reason is, of course, that the Enterprise was the hero ship for most of the Star Trek incarnations.
If the NX-74205 hadn't been the prototype vessel for the Defiant class, you would probably be right. I believe it's the only instance of an on-screen named vessel reappearing as the namesake for a ship class.
No facts here, just personal thought.
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Bad example. Air Force One has had numerous different registry numbers over the years. Not to mention any Air Force craft with the President onboard becomes Air Force One for the duration of the flight.
For example, they knew in DS9 that the romulan and klingons were in the beta quadrant, yet everyone only talked about defending the alpha quadrant from the dominion. despite most trek fans knowing what is what, they did not want to confuse people by adding an extra quadrant name in, so everyone ending up coming from the alpha quadrant. nice and simple.
same with the defiant probably. calling it the Defiant A will have confused people who did not see that one particular TOS episode. The Enterprise in TNG needed it because not having the registry number change would have confused casual watchers as to which ship this was. They specifically needed to know its a later model.
It leaves an inconsistency that annoys hardcore fans, but makes life simpler for everyone else.
Yup, but when it comes to this I always remember a discussion I once had with friends:
does it have to a be self-powered aircraft to count?
Because if not, then theoretically a hang glider could be called "Airforce One" when the president happens to be stuck under one.
Mostly, it seems to have been a matter of the writers assuming (until ENT, anyway) that if they didn't give their Enterprise the same registry number each time, the viewers would be confused. (In fact, the ones who actually paid attention to registry numbers wouldn't have a problem, and the ones who'd have gotten confused probably couldn't have told you the ship's registry number at gunpoint.)
OTOH, that did give us a nice sight gag in BSG, when the five Cylons aboard Galactica set up their regular meeting spot in cargo hold 1701D...
> <
> <
>
That was the same ship, and the change was due to a TRIBBLE up by the VFX crew (apparently both numbers actually appear on-screen concurrently).
But it does reinforce the notion that a prototype ship didn't take the registry of any previous holders of the name (there was a Nebula class Prometheus that popped up in DS9).
If ship is named the USS Tacofang, its named it after you. Lets say that ship is eventually decommissioned, and some years later we build a second ship by the name of USS Tacofang, it has a different registry number, but is still named after you. however this ship becomes very famous. We build a third ship, USS Tacofang, but this ship is now named after the second USS Tacofang, and this ship also shares the registry number.
Or
USS Tacofang, NCC-002323 - named after Taco
USS Tacofang, NCC-014567 - still named after Taco
USS Tacofang, NCC-014567-A - named after the ship above, not named after Taco
anyways that's my 2 cents
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The first Bellerophon's defining accomplishment was fighting at Wolf 359, while the second appears to have been a diplomatic ferry more than anything, it was Ross's ship, but he appears on a different bridge when we see him on the viewscreen in battle.
The first Defiant's defining accomplishment was getting trashed by the Tholians (It's not clear if the Federation knows the role it then played in the Terran Empire, but we probably wouldn't consider that a good thing either way). The second and third played key roles, often leadership ones, in almost every phase of the Dominion War and its related conflicts, however, and STO appears to have given it the suffix treatment for that record.
Now, the Enterprise, before the registry was immortalized we know there were three ships called Enterprise - XCV-330 (of which we know nothing), NX-01, and NCC-1701. NX-01 and NCC-1701 both went farther, accomplished more, learned more, and met threats no single ship should be expected to meet, and came back victorious. I'm not even sure the Defiant's record really matches up if you account for how ill prepared the NX-01 and her crew were or just how much longer the NCC-1701 was in service.
Only after those two ships (and possibly the first was just as accomplished for its time), was the registry immortalized, distinguishing the Enterprise line as truly legendary, a cut above the merely extraordinary and outstanding.
It could just be because the NCC-1701 had an exceptional number of historical achievements attributed to it during its various missions. Though you could argue that your ship also has to have saved the Earth, the heart of the Federation, to get such a prefix attached. The Enterprise-A was given after Kirk and crew saved Earth from the Whale Probe after all.
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You completely misunderstand what the Air Force One designation means. It's a callsign. Not a name for the plane. Not a name for a person. A callsign used to delineate that the President of the United States is on board a USAF aircraft. As De pointed out, put the President in a USAF training glider and even it becomes Air Force One.
Similarly, Marine One and Navy One, or Air Force Two/Marine Two/Navy Two for the Vice President.
It in no way means a single, specific aircraft or a single specific registry number (Truman went through I think three different aircraft, all with different registries and names, and all of which carried the callsign Air Force One while in use by the president). The given name of the plane doesn't change based on who sits in the chairs, only the callsign.
Argue colloquialisms all you want, but it doesn't change the fact that there is a very specific meaning to the term that isn't what you want it to be.
Airforce 1 is a call sign, not an aircraft identifier. it was mission and personnel specific. If I remember correctly the aircraft that is typically Airforce 1 would not be called such if only the first lady/man and the kids were aboard.
I think the Enterpise refit of TMP was 1701, it was traumatically scrapped in Search 4 Spock, thena new ship was named enterprise, but it was a recommissioning of an existing Constitution refit class, so it is to distinguish it as not the original "chasis" that flew into VGER.
I think the Enterprise B, C, D, E, F, G, H, W, PP, etc would ahve different registries, but there was a break down in thought between the end of the Original Series movies and the release of TNG.
We were typing at the same time
I didnt know Trumen went through 3 different aircraft. He must have been hard on them.
To make this even more clear: when the plane that he flew around with during his presidency flew George W. Bush back to Texas after he had left the office, it wasn't called Air Force One during the flight.
And W Bush on an aircraft would not be called AF1 at this point, that is only reserved for the current president. The old Miss America's are not the current Miss America. Its like Highlander, there can be only 1!
He was I think the first president to use military aircraft. Before him everyone flew commercially. If memory serves the first two were retrofitted bombers, while the third was a custom built craft based off a bomber chassis.
Makes sense with the cold war firing up and nukes out there. I bet bombers had longer legs. I will have to look up when mid air refueling started.
What if the president jumps out of AF1 in a parachute, is the chute then referred to as Airborne 1?