#star trek ships of the line

[spacecadet2k]

TREKYARDS - Star Trek Starships 101

The USS Ursula NCC-TX07

The Ursula's dedicated design and mission is to Find, Assess, and report on alien aquatic life-forms on any planets deemed suitable for aquatic life.

The Ursula has the unique ability to both sail on the surface or routinely separate the saucer from the rest of the ship and submerge for low clearance deep water expeditions and deployment of her many smaller shuttles, subs, and unmanned probes.

The Ursula has two fully functioning bridges at a single given time so that both sections can be independently utilized for many different uses.

Both sections of the ship are capable of impulse flight in space and on the surface, but she can only reach warp speed when paired.

With a single aft low profile nacelle she originally was only capable of reaching warp 2. But after some tinkering from the starfleet engineering division, she can now reach warp 5.

Specs:

Crew compliment:

-250

Weapon Systems:

-Phase cannons

-Photon torpedoes ×4

-multi-phasic mining lasers

Hangar capacity:

-standard starfleet shuttles ×2

-specially outfitted deep sea exploration shuttles.

X10

-Larger cloakable deep sea observation subs x2

-scientific unmanned probes ×20

[youngpettyqueen]

I do love it I do love it very much and it gives me brain rot but Julian running through fire to get to Garak isnt even like a Garashir thing to me because thats just how Julian is. Julian would run through fire for just about anybody- whether he knew them or not, tbh, he would be the first one running into a burning building to save a stranger if he thought he had a chance. the nature of Julian Bashir is that he will risk life and limb to help people because he is, at the very core of his being, a doctor and a healer

[steakout-05]

ok so i was in the shower one time and my brain trailed off and i just started imagining what if the Enterprise got a distress signal that has been sent from the 21st century and when they look at it it's just stupid ancient meme shitpostery. like they think they've come across a really weird time-travelling anomaly and they put it on main viewer and they just get colossally rickrolled from 300 years in the past. it hasn't left my head for the past few days so now you must witness my vision

Data: Captain, it appears we are somehow receiving an unusual distress signal originating from the ancient year of 2024.

*Picard and Riker exchange looks*

Riker: 2024..? That's impossible.

Picard: Hm... Unusual indeed. Put it on main viewer.

Data: Aye sir.

and then the viewscreen activates and it's just this

[alphamecha-mkii]

Star Trek: Ships of the Line - 2004 - They Came Screaming Out of the Sun by Jose Perez

[mnemonicpneumaticknife]

Deanna Troi: "Just FYI, my mom is way more sexual now that she's getting older."

Doctor Pulaski: "Oh, I just saw your mom going to the captain's quarters."

Deanna: "She's going to eat captain Picard alive- should we do something?"

Pulaski: "As chief medical officer, I think your mom absolutely crushing that would be healthy for our captain."

[sshbpodcast]

Character Spotlight: Reginald Barclay

By Ames

We’re at the end of our Voyager characters to spotlight here on the blog, but don’t worry! A Star to Steer Her By has made sure to save some room on our plate for Broccoli! Between The Next Generation, First Contact, and Voyager, we got a pretty decent helping of the lieutenant, so let’s pick some of the remnants out from between our teeth and see just what makes Reginald Barclay the character he is.

Interestingly, most of Barclay’s best moments come in Voyager and his worst moments are more weighted to TNG. I guess it took a little while for him to start to agree with our palette, as he starts off as a holo-addicted, hypochondriac, transporter phobic conglomeration of mental health conditions. But the guy grew on us so it’s only fair to have a taste. So join us below for the best and worst of Reg, listen to our chatter over on this week’s podcast episode (beam over to 1:06:25), and pass the Broccoli!

[Images © CBS/Paramount]

Best moments

All for one and more for me! While we definitely found a lot to cringe about in Barclay’s debut episode “Hollow Pursuits” (and you’ll hear more about that later), what we definitely appreciate are his swordsplay skills! Holodeck or no, Reg has got the moves to take on not one, not two, but all three musketeer crew members! En guard!

What if, what if, what if one of us is the connection? Reg is also the one in “Hollow Pursuits” to discover the invidium infection that was plaguing the ship, and then works with the team to put a stop to it. It’s a learning moment for the lieutenant because he also gets a little confidence boost from the experience after some unceremonious exchanges between him and La Forge.

You’re in for a bumpy ride We’ve also got to hand it to Reg for overcoming his transporter phobia and saving those crewmen from the transporter buffer in “Realm of Fear.” No one else would be brave enough to go face to face with the weird turd things in the ether, let alone think there might actually be people in there somewhere. It must’ve been all that plexing he was doing under Troi’s care.

What would happen if we tried to beam a holodeck object off the grid? While he, Data, and the captain were held captive in the holodeck program by that mastermind Professor Moriarty, Barclay comes up with the idea to try to beam the two hologram characters out of the holodeck and into the actual ship in “Ship in a Bottle.” Sure, it didn’t work because that’s just plain impossible, but it was a clever enough idea to keep the professor busy.

Why don’t you come with me, little girl, on a magic carpet ride Barclay shows up briefly in First Contact during the repair work on the Phoenix. Reg drops by to show La Forge some component he found to replace the Phoenix’s warp plasma conduit – definitely needed to save the day and ensure first contact. We’re pretty sure it was some tubing from a brewery still, but that might just be a guess because Zephram had been drinking.

Project Voyager is just beginning, thanks to you By the time we get to Voyager, we really get Barclay at his best. It’s clear that he’s grown a little bit and his engineering ingenuity is on full display in “Pathfinder” when he literally runs the gamut to put his plan in motion to use the MIDAS array to create an artificial micro-wormhole to make contact with the Voyager. He has to break the rules to do it, but he finally gets through!

Neelix the Cat, the wonderful, wonderful cat You’re always going to get extra points with the hosts of A Star to Steer Her By if you’re a cat person, and it turns out that Barclay is a kitty lover! We see in “Pathfinder” that he has a sweet kitty named Neelix whom he seems to spoil rotten. And you’ll also remember that back in “Genesis” Data remarks that Reg is the only crewmember whom Spot actually likes!

The first transgalactic phone call The application of the MIDAS array gets better and better until Voyager is using it to send correspondence back and forth to the Alpha Quadrant once a month by “Life Line.” And that’s all thanks to Reg, whose dedication to the Pathfinder Project turns out to be just beginning. There’s still a long way out of the Delta Quadrant to go!

You brought a Mark One thirty thousand light years to treat me? With the MIDAS array set up, the EMH transmits himself over to cure an ailing Dr. Zimmerman later in “Life Line.” However, it becomes clear that the EMH’s creator is too stubborn to accept the help of the obsolete model with his own face. And that’s when Reg steps in, first enlisting the help of Counselor Troi, and then successfully tricking Dr. Z into working with his creation.

Check, raise, or geodesic fold? Speaking of tricking people! When the Ferengi have taken over the MIDAS array in “Inside Man” and sent a nefarious hologram Barclay to the Voyager, the real deal Barclay impersonates himself and foils their plan to steer the ship into a geodesic fold. Turns out Reg is pretty good at playing a cockier version of himself!

Eleven minutes are better than none One final leap forward in how the MIDAS array progresses in its communication usage comes in “Author, Author.” Finally, we’re close enough to home (and to the end of the series) that Reg has helped to set up the brief daily windows during which the crew can talk live with their loved ones after about seven years apart. Or set up a book publishing deal, whatever floats your boat.

Before I met you, my only friends were my own creations If you haven’t checked out our Voyager fanfics, you’ve really got to give Jake’s story “Hollow Gestures” a read or listen. He pairs Barclay and Doctor Zimmerman together as two typically solitary geniuses in a lovely tale that’ll have you giggling one moment and tearing up the next. It's the slash we didn't know we needed.

—

Worst moments

I’m tired of seeing your name on report The first impression that both we and the Enterprise-D crew get of Reg, however, is just plain bad. We learn in “Hollow Pursuits” that he’s chronically late, underperforms, and otherwise seems antisocial and pathetic on the job. La Forge even attempts to get this loser crewman transferred. No wonder Wesley started calling him Broccoli – no one wants him on their plate!

Cast off your inhibitions and embrace love, truth, joy Even worse than being a bad coworker on the job, Barclay definitely crosses the line and should be reported to HR for what he does in the holodeck in “Hollow Pursuits.” While manipulating the likenesses of his crewmates is enough of an affront, making Troi into the Goddess of Empathy turns him into a sexual predator, even worse than Geordi with Leah Brahms.

The big brain am winning again! I am the greetest! After the Cytherians have ker-zapped Reg’s brain in “The Nth Degree,” the usually shy and introverted engineer evolves quickly into a hypergenius. But with great brain power comes great brain responsibility, and Reg just can’t handle the sudden knowledge jump gracefully and turns into an egomaniacal dick even after the Cytherians turn him back.

Fiddle-dee-dee! That will require a tetanus shot. Before Reg figures out the transporter issue we mentioned above, he finds his arm glowing from one of the beings touching him while in the buffer. And my dude takes so long to tell anyone about this obvious medical malady. I mean, no one likes doctors, obviously. But when your arm is literally glowing blue, let someone wave a tricorder over you, bro.

Rated E for Everyone Except Alexander We may not see Barclay in “A Fistful of Datas,” but he wrote the cowboy holoprogram for Alexander. I could say this is a bad moment because it forces another Alexander episode upon us, but there’s more! When an old-timey prostitute gestures at the two Klingons, Worf rightly comments that he’ll need to talk to Reg about what goes into a kid’s program. Yeehaw.

The game is afoot! Okay, while most of this blame goes to Picard for leaving Moriarty in limbo for so damn long, we’ve also got to pick on Reg a little bit for releasing the Professor from the holodeck in “Ship in a Bottle.” Frankly, asking someone with a holodeck addiction to go fix it seems like a mistake in the first place because Moriarty is able to trick the engineer practically right away.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Spiders Almost nothing in “Genesis” makes any sense: Spot turns into an iguana, Picard starts turning into some kind of tamarin, and Barclay turns into a spider, all while the episode tries to frame it all as “de-evolving,” which isn’t a thing. And all of it is because of Reg when his Barclay Protomorphosis Syndrome spreads across the ship, which sounds pretty spidery to me.

It’s Terrelian Death Syndrome, isn’t it? Barclay’s hypochondria turns into a sort of running joke across The Next Generation, with Barclay constantly self diagnosing with more and more preposterous ailments that Bev has to talk him out of. From transporter psychosis in “Realm of Fear” to Terellian Death Syndrome in “Genesis,” it all seems like a bit of a stretch in a future when tricorders can cure what ails you.

Don’t meet your heroes, kids Okay, the little Barclay cameo we got in First Contact was cute and all, but yet again, he’s just an off putting and weird nerd who fanboys all over Zephram Cochrane. He might have freaked Big Z out in the ten seconds he was on screen as much as La Forge and everyone else did over the course of the entire movie. No wonder Zeph tries to flee from responsibility.

From where I stand, it looks like you’ve had a relapse Reg is a bit more toned down and mature by the time we get to Voyager, but frankly, creating a holo-version of the Voyager crew who all worship and adore him in “Pathfinder” seems fraught. For someone who has such a problematic history with creating counterparts of real people on the holodeck, Reg may have backslid. At least none of them were the Goddess of Empathy.

What About Bob? Also in “Pathfinder,” we find that Reg just abuses his doctor-patient relationship with Deanna Troi to effectively turn her into his own on-call therapist even though she’s typically busy on the Enterprise-E at this point. Even worse, in “Inside Man,” he follows Deanna while she’s on vacation like a creep, something that definitely should be out of bounds for a patient to do!

What exactly is a broken heart worth these days? Finally, it seems like Reg was so enamored with the idea of having a girlfriend who isn’t a hologram for a change in “Inside Man” that he ignores all sense. Anyone could take one look at Leosa and see that she is only giving the dorky engineer the time of day in order to to trick him. Easily. Maybe he should stick to the holodeck after all.

—

Computer, erase all programs filed under Reginald Barclay. Except program nine. And that’s it for character spotlights until we circle back around to the crew from Enterprise! Speaking of which! We’re finally wrapping all of Enterprise over on the podcast next week, so make sure you’re warping along with our banter over on SoundCloud or wherever you listen, follow the blog for the upcoming season and series wrap posts, chat with us over Facebook and Twitter, and stop making your coworkers in the holodeck!

[remholder]

completely unintentional that it looks like Kathryn is dragging Seven but i think that makes it funnier now

KAThryn, get it

original by @andyleighr (who seems to no longer be on tumblr rip)

[ilovefredjones]

[ID: two pictures of la’an noonien-singh and jim kirk from star trek: strange new worlds. they are standing in a corridor on the enterprise, which is lit red.

in the first image, la’an is leaning against the corridor wall with a serious expression and looking to the left. jim stands slightly behind her, looking right, also serious.

in the second image, they stand closer together. la’an has her hands balled into fists and jim has his relaxed. again, they both look serious and look in opposite directions. / END ID]

THEYRE ALREADY MAKING ME CRAZY

[spacecadet2k]

Shuttlecraft Goddard 🪐

[anguilliforme]

Theoretical semiotics is a fantastic start but we need more insane linguistic subfields that are seen as viable career paths in the star trek universe

[variousqueerthings]

noticing in a somewhat outside-view kind of way that while I come at star trek with a lot of ships of all kinds, with MASH I really don’t “ship” anyone and I’m wondering where the distinction lies for me between going “xyz has interesting/funny/heartbreaking/etc tension of some kind, so I could ship it” in star trek and “xyz has interesting/funny/heartbreaking/etc tension of some kind, and I do not define that under shipping” in MASH 

[alphamecha-mkii]

Ships of the Line - 2020 - Desperation, Struggle, and Death by Madkoifish

[clonememesfrikyeah]

WAKE UP EVERYBODY WAKE UP RIGHT NOW

STAR TREK CLONE WARS AU STAR TREK CLONE WARS AU STAR TREK CLONE WARS AU STAR TREK CLONE WARS AU STAR TREK CLONE WARS AU STAR TREK CLONE WARS AU STAR TREK CLONE WARS AU STAR TREK CLONE WARS AU STAR TREK CLONE WARS AU STAR TREK CLONE WARS AU STAR TREK CLONE WARS AU STAR TREK CLONE WARS AU STAR TREK CLONE WARS AU STAR TREK CLONE WARS AU STAR TREK CLONE WARS AU STAR TREK CLONE WARS AU STAR TREK CLONE WARS AU STAR TREK CLONE WARS AU STAR TREK CLONE WARS AU

[thesconesyard]

One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Temporal Anomaly

Part 6

“So,” McCoy got out slowly, “you’re me?”

“Yup,” said the older man.

McCoy stepped back to the bedside, studying the man’s face.

“You can’t be. I don’t have blue eyes.”

The older McCoy stuck his arm out.

“Eyes change. Test my blood. I promise I’m you.”

McCoy nodded and looked at Christine. She moved quickly and returned with a hypo to draw blood. McCoy took it and pressed it carefully to the older man’s arm. He looked at the vial when he finished, before handing it back to Christine.

“Run that now, quick as you can Chris. I want answers,” McCoy said. “If you’re me,” he turned back to the man as Christine left the room, “why’s your ring on the wrong finger?”

The older McCoy grabbed McCoy’s hand.

“Oh. You haven’t married’em yet?” he asked.

McCoy’s eyebrows furrowed. Kirk let out a loud guffaw. McCoy saw Spock raise an eyebrow. Scotty’s mouth opened in surprise and shut.

“Married who? Jocelyn? That’s long done,” McCoy answered.

The older man laughed. “No, not Jocelyn. You’re gonna get remarried.”

Kirk laughed harder. “You do know this is Mr. Grumpy himself, right?”

“Shut up Jim!”

“Doctor McCoy,” Spock said.

“Yes?” Both McCoy’s answered at the same time.

“Oh,” said Kirk, “that’s going to be confusing.”

“Just call me Leo,” the older man said.

“Leo then,” said Spock. “Should you be giving away details of your future to yourself?”

Leo shook his head and chuckled. “Spocks never change. I probably shouldn’t, but I’m old and don’t give a damn.”

“Sir—”

“I didn’t say who he’s gonna marry did I? And I don’t plan on telling him. He can figure that out for himself, just like I did.”

The medbay doors opened then, and Keenser walked in with a PADD. Leo’s eyes followed the small alien as he made his way to Scotty’s side.

“Now who’s this? We didn’t have one like him on our Enterprise.”

“That’s lieutenant Keenser,” Kirk said. “He’s Roylan.”

“Nice to meet ya,” Leo called to Keenser.

Keenser nodded, and handed the PADD to Scotty. The chief engineer scanned through it.

“Excuse me Captain,” Scotty said. “We’ll be heading back for a better look through the doctor’s- I mean, Leo’s ship.” Scotty looked at the man on the biobed again before leading Keenser out.

“Doesn’t look anything like my Scotty,” Leo muttered, watching Scotty and Keenser leave.

[harmcityherald]

A fun little star trek book.

[physalian]

What No One Tells You About Writing Fantasy

Every author has their preferred genres. I love fantasy and sci-fi, but began with historical fiction. I hated all the research that historical fiction demands and thought, if I build my own world, no research required.

Boy, was I wrong.

So to anyone dipping their toe into fantasy/sci-fi, here’s seven things I wish I knew about the genres before I committed to writing for them.

1. You still have to research. Everything.

If you want any of your fantasy battle sequences, or your space ships, or your droids and robots, or your fictional government and fictional politics to read at all believable.

In sci-fi, you research astronomy, robotics, politics, political science, history, engineering, anthropology. In fantasy, you have to research historical battle tactics, geography, real-world mythology, folklore, and fairytales, and much of it overlaps with science fiction.

I say you *have to* assuming you want your work to be original and unique and stand out from the crowd. Fanfic writers put in the research for a 30k word smut fic, you can and will have to research for your original work.

2. Naming everything gets exhausting

I hate coming up with new names, especially when I write worlds and places divorced from Earthly customs and can’t rely on Earthly naming conventions. You have to name all your characters, all your towns, villages, cities, realms, kingdoms, planets, galaxies, star systems.

You have to name your rebel faction, your imperial government, significant battles. Your spaceships, your fantasy companies and organizations, your magic system, made-up MacGuffins, androids, computer programs. The list goes on and on and on.

And you have to do it all without it sounding and reading ridiculous and unpronounceable, or racist. Your fantasy realms have to have believable naming patterns. It. Gets. Exhausting.

3. It will never read like you’re watching a movie

Do you know how fast movies can cut between scenes? Movies can balance five plotlines at once all converging with rapid edits, without losing their audience. Sometimes single lines of dialogue, or single wordless shots are all a scene gets before it cuts. If you try to replicate that by head-hopping around, you will make a mess.

It’s perfectly fine to write like you’re watching a movie, but you can’t rely on visual tricks to get your point across when all you have is text on a page – like slow mo, lens flares, epically lit cinematic shots, or the aforementioned rapid edits.

It doesn’t have to, nor should it, look like a movie. Books existed long before film, so don’t let yourself get caught up in how ~cinematic~ it may or may not look.

4. Your space opera will be compared to Star Wars and Star Trek

And your fairy epic will be compared to Tinkerbell, your vampires to Twilight, your zombies to The Walking Dead, Shaun of the Dead, World War Z. Your wizards and witches and any whisper of a fantasy school for fantasy children will be compared to Harry Potter. Your high fantasy adventure will be compared to Lord of the Rings.

You can’t avoid it, but you can avoid doing it to yourself. When people ask about your book, let them say “oh, you mean like Star Wars” to which you then can say, kind of, except XYZ happens in my book. These IPs will never fade from the public consciousness, not while you exist to read this post, at least, but Harry Potter isn’t the only urban fantasy out there. Lord of the Rings isn’t the only high fantasy. Star Wars isn’t the only space opera.

Yours will be on the shelves right next to them, soon enough, and who knows? You might dethrone them.

5. Your world-building is an iceberg, and your book is the tip

I don’t pay for any of those programs that help you organize your book and mythos. I write exclusively on Apple Notes, MS Word, and Google Suite (and all are free to me). I have folders on Apple Notes with more words inside them than the books they’re written for.

If you try to cram an entire college textbook’s worth of content into your novel, you will have left zero room for actual story. The same goes for all the research you did, all the hours slaving away for just a few details and strings of dialogue.

There’s a balance, no matter how dense your story is. If you really want to include all those extra details, slap some appendices at the end. Commission some maps.

6. The gatekeeping for fantasy and sci-fi is still very real

Pen names and pseudonyms exist for a reason. A female author writing fantasy that isn’t just a backdrop for romance? You have a harder battle ahead of you than your male counterparts, at least in the US. And even then, your female protagonist will be scrutinized and torn apart.

She’ll either be too girly or not girly enough, too sexy, or not sexy enough. She’ll be called a Mary Sue, a radical feminist mouthpiece, some woke propaganda. Every action she takes will be criticized as unrealistic and if she has fans who are girls, they will be mocked, too.

If you have queer characters, characters of color, they won’t be good enough, they won’t please everyone, and someone will still call you a bigot. A lot of someones will still call you a bigot.

Do your due diligence and hire your army of sensitivity readers and listen to them, but you cannot please everyone, so might as well write to please yourself. You’re the one who will have to read it a thousand times until it’s published.

7. Your “original” idea has been done before, and that’s okay

Stories have been told since before language evolved. The sum of the parts of your novel may be original, but even then, it’s colored by the media you’ve consumed. And that’s okay!

How many Cinderella stories are there? How many high fantasies? How many books about werewolves and witches and vampires? Gods and goddesses and celestial beings? Fairies and dragons and trolls? Aliens, robots, alien robots? Romeo and Juliette? Superheroes and mutants?

Zombies may be the avenue through which you tell your story, but it’s not *just* about zombies, is it? It’s about the characters who battle them, the endurance of the human spirit, or the end of an era, the death of a nation. So don’t get discouraged, everyone before you and everyone after will have written someone on the backs of what came before and it still feels new.