BlackStar: It's Been A Long Time...

Recently my wife and I have rewatched Star Trek: Enterprise. We have been and are huge Trek fans, but we didn't watch it much when it first came out because, at the time, we had small children, and I had just started a new career track after leaving academia.  So free time was not something we had a lot of.

Much to our delight, we discovered it was not only good Trek, but it was great Trek.  I had not considered making it a part of my "BlackStar Universe" until recently. And by that, I mean last week.

We had some returns from Christmas still lingering, so with a gift card in hand I picked up another model.  Yeah my arthritis is going to make this a little more difficult (thankfully this is a "kids" model) I am still going to have some fun!

I am going to opt for the refit design, something we didn't get to see on TV.  I just have to figure out if the ship is supposed to be white or stay gunmetal gray.

My oldest has been running a Trek game in addition to his D&D games and he has been setting it in my BlackStar Universe.  So my motivation for this is also pretty high.

The scale on the box says this is 1/1000th scale and my Protector is 1/1400 scale, but holding them up side by side they look about right.

The Protector is over 650 meters (if I remember right) and the NX-01 is 225 meters. 

Of course this won't be the NX-01 Enterprise. This is a later Starship that came out of space dock with the refit in place. So it could be longer. 

Following the history of the Space Shuttle the first NX Warp 5 ships were Enterprise (NX-01), Columbia (NX-02), Challenger (NX-03), Discovery (NX-04), Atlantis (NX-05), and Endeavour (NX-06).  We later see the USS Franklin (NX-326) with similar weapons and defenses. 

The NX-01 was launched in 2153, NX-02 in 2154.  The Franklin was actually an earlier ship, launched between 2141 and 2151, and was capable of Warp 4.  

This gives me some room to play around.  

I had originally thought to set Star Trek: Mercy as a Post-Enterprise (2151) and Pre-TOS (2265) era game. But instead, Mercy ended up in the equally fertile time period between the last of the TOS movies and the start of TNG.  I do like it better at that time since it gives me a little more flexibility.

This new NX ship can then be set anytime after 2161, likely after the foundation of the United Federation of Planets.  I might even work in some ideas with UESPA. Given the events in Star Trek: Enterprise I will likely say this is a Warp 6 or Warp 7 ship. But in truth, I know nothing about this little ship yet! It could even become my Ghost Ship at some point.

One thing I do know, it gives me an excuse to use Fleet Admiral Lucille Ball, Commander of Starfleet Operations.

How Lucille Ball Helped Star Trek Become a Cultural Icon

Will my new NX ship be connected to Mercy? Will it be connected to the Protector?  I like the Protector connection, but the big deal with the Protector is that it is it's Warp-13 engines that bring the Cthulhu horrors into our universe. Mercy is largely a peacetime mission.

Here is my working timeline with select items from the cannon:

2123: The SS Mariposa (NAR-7678) leaves Earth (DY 500 class)
2139: NAR-7539 SS Inspiration leaves Earth (DY 500 class)
2151-2161: Enterprise
2156-2160: Federation-Romulan War
2161-xxxx: My New Ship
2164: USS Franklin reported lost
2167: The USS Archon and USS Essex both reported lost (unrelated)
2168: USS Horizon lost

2247-2250: First Klingon War
2256-2258: Discovery
2256-2257: Second Klingon War
2259-2264: Strange New Worlds
2265-2295: Star Trek: TOS & Movies
2295-xxx: Star Trek: Mercy, USS Mercy NCC-3001

2351-xxxx: Star Trek: BlackStar, USS Protector NX-3120
2352: Protector is sent to the Inverness system
2363-2378: Star Trek: TNG, DS9, Voy
2380-xxxx: Star Trek: Lower Decks
2384: USS Protostar (NX-76884) lost
2399-2401: Star Trek: Picard

I can't help but notice that there is a large number of ships lost in the 2160s. The Archon, Essex, and Horizon were all Daedalus class ships. Franklin was a Freedom class.  What was going on then?  So my refit is part of the NX-Class. But let's nod to the FASA Star Trek RPG and The Wrath of Khan, and say they were renamed the Enterprise class. Certainly, the refit could be an Enterprise-class, though a solid argument could be made to call it the Archer-class.

Personally, I like the idea of the refits as the Archer-class. I can see Jonathan Archer NOT wanting it but Starfleet Comand saying it would be to honor him and his father. I can see the Andorians being more forthcoming; if you want our weapons systems, you will name the class after a member of the Andorian Imperial Guard. The Vulcans would see it as the logical choice.  I can also see Archer conceding if one of the ships is named "The Beagle" after the ship that Darwin made famous, but mostly because of his favorite dog bread.  I could call it the NX-31 or even the NCC 831; for 1831 the year Darwin set out on the HMS Beagle.  I'll need to see what numbers I have in decals.

Maybe that is my ship! The NX-31/NCC 831 USS Beagle.  An exploratory vessel launched at the end of the Romulan War to return to Starfleet's first mission. To explore strange new worlds. 

I can do far worse, to be honest.