Star Trek Shipyards: Federation Members

by Ben Robinson, Marcus Riley

Overview

The latest volume in the Shipyards series features ships of the United Federation of Planets, including Vulcan, Andorian, Tellarite, Bajoran, Trill, and Earth Civilian ships.

Each vessel is illustrated in CG artwork, with original VFX models made for the TV shows, alongside a technical overview and operational history. Featuring 27 ships! Starships include the Vulcan D'Kyr, the Vulcan cruiser and the T'Plana Hath; the Andorian battle cruiser, the Bajoran solar-sailor, the El-Aurian S.S. Lakul; and Civilian Federation Ships The Festoon, the S.S. Xhosa, and Harry Mudd's Class-J starship, the Norkova.

Federation Members is latest volume in the Star Trek Shipyards Encyclopedia series - the very first set of books to collect all of the ships from Star Trek film and television shows in chronological order. series - The very first series of books to collect all of the ships from Star Trek film and television shows in chronological order. Each ship profile features artwork from the original visual effects models, detailed technical specifications, service history, and annotated views of the ships features.

Written by Ben Robinson, author of the USS Enterprise and Klingon Bird-of-Prey Haynes Manual books.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781858755762
Publisher:	Eaglemoss
Publication date:	11/19/2019
Pages:	168
Product dimensions:	8.90(w) x 11.40(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	14 Years

About the Author

Ben Robinson is best known as the man behind the Official Star Trek Starships collection, which in the last three years has become the largest and best-regarded collections of model Star Trek ships ever produced.

He has been involved with Star Trek for 20 years. Ben was the launch editor of the huge Star Trek Fact Files reference work, which sold over 50 million units. Then he went on to edit the US Star Trek: The Magazine, which ran between 1999 and 2003. He has co-written two Haynes Manuals, the first featuring all seven Enterprises, and the second focusing on the Klingon Bird-of-Prey. Ben is particularly passionate about the writing, design, and visual effects behind the series. In the last two decades he has conducted extensive interviews with many of the most significant figures in the history of Star Trek from Dorothy Fontana and Matt Jefferies to Michael Piller, Ira Steven Behr, Ron D. Moore, and Bryan Fuller.

Read an Excerpt

Foreward

The ships in this book were all operated by members of the United Federation of Planets, the vast organization that is at the heart of STAR TREK. The line between Starfleet and the Federation has always been a fuzzy one. Starfleet’s crews are drawn from the countless races that make up the Federation, but every now and again we have seen ships that clearly belong to the individual member races. Many of those vessels are described as freighters or science vessels, and are operated by organizations such as the Trill Science Academy and the Federation’s civilian citizens, including Harry Mudd and Ben Sisko’s wife, Kassidy Yates.

For those who like to quibble, we’d like to acknowledge that many of those ships made their debuts in STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE, which is set in the decades before the Federation was formed. That show introduced us to most of the Vulcan, Andorian and Tellarite ships you’ll find on the following pages. Technically, these aren’t Federation vessels, but, despite our concerns about the timeline and their place in history, we’ve included them because this is where they seem to belong. We made the decision to treat similar vessels from Earth’s history differently, and they can be found in the sister volume to this book, which covers the early years of Starfleet. We’ve also included ships that are operated by the Federation’s closest allies – the Bajorans, again because this seemed like the best place for them.

This book should be seen very much as part of a series, and ideally should be consulted alongside the other volumes, which cover Starfleet, the Klingons, and the other alien races that fill the STAR TREK Universe. Together the goal is to create a comprehensive reference to all the ships that have appeared in STAR TREK. We hope that this volume in particular provides a glimpse of the wider world of STAR TREK, which has often only hinted at the depth and richness of the cultures that make up the Federation.
 
Chapter 1
VULCAN COMMAND FLEET

VULCAN SURVEY VESSEL D’VAHL
 
The D’Vahl was a Vulcan survey ship that landed on the primitive planet Earth in the 20th century.
By the mid-20th century in the Earth calendar, Vulcan was a warp-capable civilization that had begun to expand and explore the Galaxy. Survey vessels of varying classes and capabilities began cataloguing the technological progress of many far-flung worlds, assessing for first contact potential. One such world was Earth, the attention of the Vulcans attracted by the launch of the planet’s first orbital satellite, Sputnik. This ultimately brought the Vulcan survey vessel D’Vahl to the Solar System in the year 1957, responding to a distress call from a sister survey ship that experienced a catastrophic system failure.

INTER-PLANETARY SURVEY SHIP

The D’Vahl was under the command of Captain Tellus in this period of history, his ship undertaking a wide variety of survey missions around the galaxy during this time. The D’Vahl displayed the typically sleek aesthetics common to Vulcan starship design, leaning towards an aerodynamically efficient dart-like construction. The D’Vahl was not a large ship, with only a limited number of decks, crewed by a handful of survey officers under Tellus’ command. It was warp capable, the necessary warp field generated by three engine pods – one mounted on the aft dorsal section with two further pods ranged to the lower port and starboard aft sections.

Although warp capable, the D’Vahl was able to enter a planet’s atmosphere when needed. Its flight at impulse speeds and in planetary atmospheres was stabilised by forward-ranged wings to port and starboard, held in a swept back configuration. Unlikely to possess transporter capability in this early period, the D’Vahl regularly made planetfall on survey worlds, its landings made secure on varied terrain by three retractable landing gears in a three-point formation. When locked in the open position, the forward landing gear uncovered a powerful landing/searchlight.


In the Earth year 1957, an unnamed Vulcan survey ship of a different class to the D’Vahl came under flight difficulties while in orbit of the planet to engage in a survey of the Sputnik satellite. The ship’s warp manifold failed during the third week of the mission, forcing the four-person crew to effect an emergency landing on the continent known as North America. During the landing, the captain was killed and the ship damaged beyond repair. Surviving crewmembers T’Mir, Stron and Mestral were stranded on this primitive world, not knowing whether their distress call had reached Vulcan High Command. With no other option available to them, the three Vulcans attempted to integrate covertly with the local human mining settlement of Carbon Creek. They awaited a rescue that may never arrive.

RESCUE MISSION

It transpired the Vulcan distress call was successfully sent and intercepted by a Tellarite freighter. Ignoring the extreme urgency of the situation, it took the Tellarites some time to forward the distress call on to the Vulcan High Command. As soon as it was received on Vulcan, Captain Tellus and his survey crew were assigned the rescue mission, setting course for the voyage to Earth aboard the D’Vahl.

With the survey team out of communications range, it was unclear if there were any survivorsto rescue. Three days out from Earth, the D’Vahl finally made contact with the survivors. Tellus advised T’Mir and her comrades to rendezvous with the D’Vahl at the crash site.

The D’Vahl made planetfall on Earth at the appointed time without alerting the nearby mining settlement. On rendezvousing with the survey team survivors, Tellus found only two of the four awaiting rescue. T’Mir informed Tellus that their captain and Mestral had perished in the crash, their remains cremated.

T’Mir and Stron joined Captain Tellus aboard his ship. Its rescue mission accomplished, the D’Vahl left Earth, ready to return the survivors to Vulcan.

FIRST CONTACT?

The arrival of the crashed survey ship and, later, the D’Vahl, on Earth predates Zefram Cochrane’s breaking of the warp barrier by just over acentury, and in real terms marked the first contact between Vulcans and humans. According to the earth starship Enterprise’s Vulcan science officer T’Pol, details of the incident were readily available in the Vulcan Science Directorate and Space Council. However, for the sake of history, little attention has been drawn to this relatively minor incident.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

This volume features ships belonging to the interstellar federal republic known as the Federation, with chapters on the Vulcan Command Fleet, Alpha and Beta Quadrant Species, and Civilian Federation Ships. Each ship is illustrated with CG artwork, including original VFX models made for the TV show, and includes a technical overview and operational history. Chapters include size charts, showing the ships to scale, and an appendix of class listings.

From the Publisher