What I think the U.S.S. stands for in Star Trek

[Doggyforce]

I know its always been a problem for Roddenbery fans, (misspelled??) anyways, that the name "U.S.S. Enterprise" has been said an awful lot, and its always a hidden problem for Star Trek fans, that the term "U.S.S." was taken directly from "United States Ship" because thats where the name "Enterprise" origionally comes from, an aircraft carrier in the pacific in the '40s. Anyways, what I think it should mean (cause I was making scripts for this hawt new star trek show I wanted to make.... /sigh!!P) anyways, in the 1/2 script, it goes into the Christening of a ship named the U.S.S. Iroquois, and it is introduced not as the "U.S.S. Iroquois," but as the "Universal Space Ship Iroquois." The difference, I figured, was that early in space travels, if there were any (as Khan left earth-space in a sleeper ship) they would not be called "Universal space ships" because they were not equipped with any kind of technology which could logistically propell them to realistic space travel. However, since Conchrane introduced Warp technology, and with the Vulcan arrival on earth, space faring ships became incredibly more practical, so I coined the term "Universal Space Ship" (cause its U.S.S. and it fits) to describe this phase of space faring vessels, how they are much more capable for deep-space navigation.

P

 

[The Ace]

Just a small point, but there has been a USS Enterprise for as long as there has been a US Navy, in the same way that HMS Ark Royal and Hood faced the Spanish Armada. The name HMS Victory, hasn't been used since Nelson's flagship because she is still in service and you can't have two ships with the same name.

 

[Doggyforce]

ha, ya. I just forgot that, (was there a wooden boat in the turning of the 'States independence?) I just remembered on the back wall of the meeting room in the NCC-1701D, that there was an aircraft carried as the earliest looking ship there.

 

[Pyan]

Watch the opening credits of "Enterprise" (NX01) - that shows lots of Enterprises.

was there a wooden boat in the turning of the 'States independence

Write out 100 times:
"A boat is something that's picked up and put on a ship"

 

[mosaix]

Watch the opening credits of "Enterprise" (NX01) - that shows lots of Enterprises.

Write out 100 times:
"A boat is something that's picked up and put on a ship"

Pyan - nice try but you'll never be anything more than a mere shadow of Chris.

 

[j d worthington]

Someone actually went to the trouble to track them all down... Here you go:

A History of Ships Named Enterprise

Complete with a brief description of each....

 

[Dave]

I shall move this to the Star Trek forum.

You are correct that Roddenberry took USS from 'United States Ship'. I read that he thought USS just sounded better. His first original printed work connected with the series, dated March 11th 1964, mentioned the SS Yorktown. It wasn't until the 8th September that a story draft first used the USS Enterprise as the name.

 

[Doggyforce]

Write out 100 times:
"A boat is something that's picked up and put on a ship"

I dont think you've said anything "about" boats...

but what I was really getting at was not the history of the name Enterprise, it was a telling of what I thought the abbreviation USS on a federation starship should mean, even the heads in operation of the franchise believe it should have been UFPS for "United Federation of Planets Ship."

 

[Pyan]

Pyan - nice try but you'll never be anything more than a mere shadow of Chris.

I know, I know - we are all but shadows under his cloak.

 

[j d worthington]

I dont think you've said anything "about" boats...

but what I was really getting at was not the history of the name Enterprise, it was a telling of what I thought the abbreviation USS on a federation starship should mean, even the heads in operation of the franchise believe it should have been UFPS for "United Federation of Planets Ship."

It's been a looong time since I watched any of the original ST shows, but... weren't the vessels of that class called "star ships"? It's a vague memory, and I could be wrong, but wasn't there something of that sort with "The Cage"? And (again I'm going on an ancient memory here) wasn't it "United" rather than "Universal" in the original series? (for United Federation of Planets, yes)....?

 

[Dave]

Captain Pike (in 'The Cage') says it stands for 'United Space Ship'. But that was an unbroadcasted pilot. Some elements of the show were still in flux throughout the first year. Fans prefer 'United Star Ship'. I think it is 'Tomorrow is Yesterday' when they say 'United Space Services' rather than 'Starfleet'. I think you can take your pick actually.

 

[Doggyforce]

Good call, Dave. I didn't know that...

omg, poor captian Pike!!

didn't he end up in a box???

 

[Dave]

poor captian Pike!!

didn't he end up in a box???

A seriously low-tech wheelchair.

One of the worst examples of Star Trek mis-judging future-tech. Compare his flashing lights for "yes/No" communication with even the now old fashioned computerised voice synthesizer that Stephen Hawking used.

 

[manephelien]

Still uses as far as I know. Mr Hawking is still alive.

I think Roddenberry used the USS to make American fans feel comfortable. It's something they're familiar with, even if the letter combo means something different in the Trek universe.

 

[Dave]

Still uses as far as I know. Mr Hawking is still alive.

I didn't think he had died, but I read somewhere that he has a more modern voice synthesiser now (don't know if that is true.) Anyway my point was that those voice synthesisers are fairly ubiquitous today, they even ship them with Windows XP Professional.

 

[manephelien]

Yeah. I had an e-book app on my XP Home edition (including voice synth) but lost it when my hd crashed and I couldn't recover it for some reason, even if the rest of the system works as normal. So point taken.