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As any Trekkie will be capable to inform you, the registry variety of the usS. Enterprise is NCC-1701. In “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Dwelling,” a brand new Enterprise was constructed with the registry of NCC-1701-A, establishing canonically that starships can preserve the identical identify and designation over a number of generations. Certainly, on “Star Trek: The Subsequent Technology,” the registry quantity was NCC-1701-D, changed by the Enterprise-E in “Star Trek: First Contact” in 1996.
Though it is not explicitly talked about in “Star Trek,” the presence of a registry quantity provides an excessive amount of canonical depth to the franchise. Sooner or later, starships will nonetheless be numbered and cataloged like modern-day naval vessels whereas additionally being overseen by a navy-like navy. Starfleet, nonetheless — in contrast to trendy navy our bodies — devotes its strict navy system to exploration and research, not warfare or conquest. The registry numbers additionally indicate an unlimited, behind-the-scenes paperwork at work, with unseen pencil-pushers continually working exhausting to maintain an unlimited navy fleet so as. A corporation as giant as Starfleet would, realistically, require hundreds of thousands of bureaucrats preserving it afloat. The registry numbers give “Star Trek” a practical tinge.
As for the usS., that’s a part of a a lot older custom, going again centuries. If Starfleet is to be likened to the fashionable navy, then the starships would observe in the identical nomenclature, and undertake the “U.S.S.” from older occasions. Someday within the early seventeenth century, British ships have been gathered because the Royal Navy, and all of the vessels beneath its purview have been designated His Majesty’s Ship or Her Majesty’s Ship. All of the navy’s vessels have been, therefore, given the prefix H.M.S., as within the H.M.S. Pinafore or the H.M.S. Shock.
When america began constructing a navy, U.S.S. was used, standing for United States Ship. In “Star Trek,” U.S.S. merely stands for “United Starship.”
The true-life Enterprise
U.S.S. can also be an enlargement of one other centuries-old nautical abbreviation. Many smaller ships additionally used the prefix S.S. on their hulls, e.g. the S.S. Minnow on “Gilligan’s Island.” S.S. referred to a single-screw steamship, or screw steamer, a generic time period for any steam-powered sea vessel. One may additionally know in regards to the maritime prefixes S.S.C.V. (semi-submersible crane vessel), S.S.S. (sea scout ship), or S.S.V. (particular help vessel). After 1901, most designations have been deserted by then-President Theodore Roosevelt’s administration.
Each nation has its personal related abbreviations, after all, however Starfleet adopted the American system. It’s because, effectively, “Star Trek” is an American present created by an American man. Additionally, inside “Star Trek” canon, Starfleet was based in america. Federation headquarters and Starfleet Academy are positioned in San Francisco. Had “Star Trek” been created in Canada, say, the ship is perhaps referred to as the H.M.C.S. Enterprise.
The usS. Enterprise on “Star Trek” was named after, effectively, the usS. Enterprise. In actual life, the Enterprise was a Yorktown-class plane provider that was in-built 1938 and fought extensively within the Asia-Pacific Struggle. It was certainly one of solely three plane carriers to outlive the battle, and was finally decommissioned in 1947. When “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry realized in regards to the Enterprise, he was fascinated by its campaigns and determined to make use of its identify on his science-fiction collection. Initially, Roddenberry needed to call his ship the usS. Yorktown, however modified his thoughts. It is a good factor, too. “Yorktown” is particular to Earth. “Enterprise” is extra common.
By the way, “Yorktown” was finally used for different ships and stations in “Star Trek,” together with for the outsize colony seen in “Star Trek Past.”
It does NOT stand for ‘United States Ship’
It appears that evidently Gene Roddenberry as soon as received some jingoistic pushback from studio executives over what U.S.S. ought to stand for. As a result of it was already used on American navel vessels, a number of the higher-ups at NBC assumed that the Enterprise was an American ship and that the long run was dominated by America. “Star Trek,” after all, takes place in a placid future when the Earth has develop into united and nations have roughly been eradicated.
In Stephen E. Whitfield’s invaluable sourcebook “The Making of Star Trek,” the writer defined that NBC executives needed the Enterprise to be described as “a superb, secure patriotic United States spaceship.” Roddenberry evidently personally fought in opposition to this, feeling that the long run belonged to the complete planet Earth, to not america particularly. Whitfield’s e-book lastly states categorically that U.S.S. stands for United Starship, which is in line with the multiculturalism that is at all times been a seminal a part of the franchise.
As for on-screen mentions, within the authentic “Star Trek” pilot “The Cage,” and within the episode “Patterns of Power” (February 16, 1968), dialogue implied that U.S.S. stood for United House Ship. That is a type of particulars, nonetheless, that Trekkies are inclined to half-ignore, like they did when Spock (Leonard Nimoy) referred to himself as Vulcanian, not Vulcan. In an official capability, U.S.S. stands for United Starship.
Whether or not or not U.S.S. remains to be used on seafaring vessels within the twenty fourth century, nonetheless, is just not a element “Star Trek” has ever bothered to deal with.
