Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site dartvax.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!akgua!mcnc!decvax!dartvax!markv
From: markv@dartvax.UUCP (Mark Vita)
Newsgroups: net.startrek
Subject: Re: ships (The Star Fleet Technical Manual)
Message-ID: <1689@dartvax.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 25-May-84 13:50:21 EDT
Article-I.D.: dartvax.1689
Posted: Fri May 25 13:50:21 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 1-Jun-84 03:14:52 EDT
References: <1877@pur-ee.UUCP> <2790@alice.UUCP> <127@tilt.UUCP>
Organization: Dartmouth College
Lines: 30

    Obviously "The Star Fleet Technical Manual" isn't entirely
accurate, but it is still a pretty amazing piece of work.
Sure the ships drawn in the book aren't exactly elegant-looking,
but then again, The Enterprise wasn't very streamlined back then
either (compared to the new version).  But I like the fact that
the book has it's own internal logic--i.e., all the starships
have the same basic design (primary hull, warp-engine nacelles)
and differ only in configuration and armament.
    But when it comes right down to it, you have to pick 
*something* to be your "reference authority" for design of
starships.  (And everything else, for that matter.)  What 
else is there? I, personally, don't think the Star Trek novels 
are a valid source for reference.  Some of the stories are very 
good, but a dozen different authors all with his or her own 
conception of the Star Trek universe in no basis for a unified 
reference.  I've always considered the descriptions and actions
in these books to be outside of the "real" history of Star Trek.
    What I consider the "real" history is solely what appears in
the original episodes and the three films.  And the films,
at least marginally, have seemed to support some of the designs
which appear in the Technical Manual.  For instance, the
Reliant looks similar to a "Transport/Tug", and the new
Excelsior-class ship looks vaguely similar to the "Dreadnought".

-- 

                            Mark Vita
                            Dartmouth College
                            {decvax,cornell,linus}!dartvax!markv