[net.startrek] USS

edtking@uw-june (Ewan David Tempero) (12/30/84)

I was watching 'The last battlefield' ( or some such, the one with the
ultimate in racial hate. The "half whites" against the "half blacks" )
and I noticed Kirk refer to the Enterprise as the "USS" Enterprise.
Now the Lettering on the Enterprise clearly says "NCC" Enterprise so 
what's the story? And if they are all part of the United Federation
of Planets why isn't it "UFP" Enterprise? Sorry if this has been 
done before but ....

Another couple of points.
I'm sure the shuttle allegedly stolen from starbase 4 had the lettering
NCC 1701 ( going back to previous discussions )
I was ....ah... interested in the 'destruct sequence' used. Wonder what
it does, disrupt the mag bottles? Also it seems too easy to duplicate,
just record the appropiate people saying their thing and....

		Ewan Tempero                     "Oh no, not again"
		...!uw-beaver!uw-june!edtking    
		edtking@washington

alb@alice.UUCP (Adam L. Buchsbaum) (12/30/84)

USS stands for United Space Ship (a takeof on the current Earthly
	meaning of United States Ship)
NCC stands for Navy Contract Code
UFP stands for United Federation of Planets

merchant@dartvax.UUCP (Peter Merchant) (12/31/84)

> I was watching 'The last battlefield' ( or some such, the one with the
> ultimate in racial hate. The "half whites" against the "half blacks" )
> and I noticed Kirk refer to the Enterprise as the "USS" Enterprise.
> Now the Lettering on the Enterprise clearly says "NCC" Enterprise so 
> what's the story? And if they are all part of the United Federation
> of Planets why isn't it "UFP" Enterprise? Sorry if this has been 
> done before but ....
> 
> 		Ewan Tempero                     "Oh no, not again"
> 		...!uw-beaver!uw-june!edtking    
> 		edtking@washington


Oh yes, again.

U.S.S. stands, rather weakly, for "United Star Ship" (compared with an 
un-united star ship where everyone argues about what to do)
I believe the U.S.S. was thrown in as something that present day audiences
could relate to.  You know, the good ol' U.S. of A out there seeking out
brave new worlds.

--
"Any other questions,                             Peter Merchant
 while I'm right here in the neighborhood?"

msj@gitpyr.UUCP (Mike St. Johns) (01/01/85)

In article <3217@alice.UUCP> alb@alice.UUCP (Adam L. Buchsbaum) writes:
>USS stands for United Space Ship (a takeof on the current Earthly
>	meaning of United States Ship)
>NCC stands for Navy Contract Code
>UFP stands for United Federation of Planets


USS stands for United STAR ship
NCC stands for Naval Construction Contract
-- 
Mike St. Johns
Georgia Insitute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332
...!{akgua,allegra,amd,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo,ut-ngp}!gatech!gitpyr!msj
StJohns@MIT-Multics.ARPA  (404) 982-0035

pritch@osu-eddie.UUCP (Norman Pritchett) (01/02/85)

> Now the Lettering on the Enterprise clearly says "NCC" Enterprise so 
> what's the story? 

In a presentation held at OSU by Gene Roddenbery, he was asked by a member
of the audience about why NCC was picked as the prefix for serial numbers on
Federation starships.  His reply was that he saw it on U.S. Navy ships and
it seemed like a neat thing to use.

-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Norm Pritchett - The Generic Hacker
"Let's give it to normie, he'll hack anything"
osu-eddie!pritch

john@moncol.UUCP (John Ruschmeyer) (01/02/85)

>From: edtking@uw-june (Ewan David Tempero)
>Message-ID: <2094@uw-june>
>
>... I noticed Kirk refer to the Enterprise as the "USS" Enterprise.
>Now the Lettering on the Enterprise clearly says "NCC" Enterprise so 
>what's the story? And if they are all part of the United Federation
>of Planets why isn't it "UFP" Enterprise? Sorry if this has been 
>done before but ....

The ship is called the U.S.S. Enterprise. U.S.S. stands for "United
Space Ship" (or, alternately "United Star Ship")

The number on the ship is NCC 1701. This stands for "Naval
Construction Code".

The U.F.P. designation would be interesting, but.....

>I was ....ah... interested in the 'destruct sequence' used. Wonder what
>it does, disrupt the mag bottles? Also it seems too easy to duplicate,
>just record the appropiate people saying their thing and....

The problem of voice recording would seem to be a valid consideration.
However, we know from other episodes that the computer is able to
recognize a voice duplication and presumably a recording.

In "Star Trek III: TSFS", the computer does a retina scan to verify identity.
This would be absolute proof as a retina pattern is supposed to be as
sure an identifier as fingerprints.

-- 
	John Ruschmeyer		...!vax135!petsd!moncol!john
	Monmouth College
	W. Long Branch, NJ 07764

"The more they overthink the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain."

dwhitney@uok.UUCP (01/08/85)

..Now the ships marking clearly says "NCC" Enterprise....

No, it does not.  It says, "U.S.S. Enterprise", and below that,
"NCC-1701".  

U.S.S. is an acronym for either United Space Ship, which was used
frequently by Kirk, and United Star Ship, equally vague but not 
used as frequently.  NCC is for Naval Construction Contract, and
the Contract Number for the Enterprise is 1701.

The United Federaition of Planets designation was not used on the
original vessel; yet, in the drydock sequence of "Star Trek
The Motion Picture" a label imbedded in the pinstripe of the secondary
hull is labled "United Federation of Planets", as is the aft end of each
warp engine nacelle.

David Whitney
ctvax!uokvax!uok!dwhitney
/.

cjn@calmasd.UUCP (Cheryl Nemeth) (01/14/85)

I heard somewhere that the network forced ST to use "USS" rather than
a UFP designation. Is this true?
-- 
Cheryl Nemeth
All opinions expressed in this article are my own, and do not necessarily
reflect the opinions of Calma Company or my cats.

"Life is a series of rude awakenings"
				R. V. Winkle [Robert Asprin]