{"id":13105,"date":"2019-01-25T08:25:29","date_gmt":"2019-01-25T16:25:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/?p=13105"},"modified":"2019-12-24T11:50:49","modified_gmt":"2019-12-24T19:50:49","slug":"star-trek-doesnt-exist-within-star-trek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2019\/01\/25\/star-trek-doesnt-exist-within-star-trek\/","title":{"rendered":"Star Trek Doesn\u2019t Exist Within Star Trek"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:2326,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/en.wikipedia.org\\\/wiki\\\/Space_Shuttle_Enterprise#Service&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20260228214238\\\/https:\\\/\\\/en.wikipedia.org\\\/wiki\\\/Space_Shuttle_Enterprise&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-04 08:58:25&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-04 08:58:25&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:2327,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/memory-alpha.fandom.com\\\/wiki\\\/Constitution_class&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20260301130742\\\/https:\\\/\\\/memory-alpha.fandom.com\\\/wiki\\\/Constitution_class&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-04 08:58:26&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-18 11:36:30&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-18 11:36:30&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p>Occasionally in <em>Star Trek<\/em> \u2014\u00a0at least twice that I can easily think of, possibly other times \u2014\u00a0we are shown displays of prior ships named <em>Enterprise<\/em>. The first time this happens, in <em>Star Trek: The Motion Picture<\/em>, this display includes the first space shuttle.<\/p>\n<p>(The second time I can easily come up with is the display cabinet in the observation lounge on the Enterprise-E in <em>First Contact<\/em>, but that display jumps directly from the aircraft carrier to the first appropriately named starship. A shuttle model is seen on display in <em>Star Trek Into Darkness<\/em>, but that\u2019s contained in a lineup of notable space exploration milestones, not of ships of a specific name, so that passes \u2014 except for the fact that that entire film should be struck from the Trek canon, but I digress\u2026.)<\/p>\n<p>However, since the Star Trek universe wouldn\u2019t include the fictional <em>Star Trek<\/em> universe, the shuttle shouldn\u2019t be included in these displays. The first space shuttle was originally planned to be named <em>Constitution<\/em>, but the name was changed to <em>Enterprise<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Space_Shuttle_Enterprise#Service\" title=\"WikiPedia: Space Shuttle Enterprise\">after a campaign spearheaded by fans of the show<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Now, the <em>Enterprise<\/em> is a <a href=\"https:\/\/memory-alpha.fandom.com\/wiki\/Constitution_class\" title=\"Memory Alpha: Constitution Class\">Constitution-class starship<\/a>, but in ST:TMP, Decker specifically tells Ilia that \u201call those vessels were called <em>Enterprise<\/em>\u201d, so it still wouldn\u2019t make sense for the shuttle to be part of that display, and there was no known Constitution-class ship actually named <em>Constitution<\/em> that might have included a display with a shuttle named <em>Constitution<\/em>. There was, however, a shuttle named <em>Discovery<\/em>, so the <em>Discovery<\/em> in the current show could have such a display. But the <em>Enterprise<\/em> shouldn\u2019t have the shuttle included in its historical lineage (unless, of course, a suitable in-universe explanation was given for why the first shuttle had its name changed).<\/p>\n<p>Taken more broadly, there are other potential implications for Trek not existing within its own universe. Roddenberry either never created a hit science-fiction show in the \u201860s, or did so in a very different manner. Shatner, Nimoy, Kelley, and the rest of the TOS crew wouldn\u2019t be the household names they are, or at least not for the roles we primarily know them for.<\/p>\n<p>Many scientists have credited Trek for inspiring them on their path to their chosen careers. What paths would they have taken without Trek? How would our technological progress have been affected without Trek as an inspiration, given how many of today\u2019s devices, from flip phones (communicators) to iPads (PADDs), have been inspired in some manner by Trek\u2019s visions of the future?<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m not really going anywhere major with this. I just like playing with what fictional universes are like when you remove them from their own universe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As Star Trek doesn\u2019t include itself, historical displays on the Enterprise shouldn\u2019t show the first space shuttle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13104,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2047],"tags":[1661,4097,1588],"class_list":["post-13105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-star-trek","tag-enterprise","tag-star-trek","tag-tos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}