Relative age of the Oberth class starship

   The Oberth class. One of the more unique designs in Star Trek, very modern looking for its era. This design was used from the 2280's to the 2370's, clearly a very successful ship type. However there are a few factors which draw into question its age. I will use this page to review and analyze these factors.

Registry:

The registry of the U.S.S. Grissom (NCC-638) is the lowest on-screen registry of any ship seen until the NX-01 Enterprise. We know the original Enterprises registry (NCC-1701) is that of a ship of at least the 2260's and it is considerably higher than that of the Grissom. Were we to go by the registry alone, and assume that they are all sequential, then the Grissom herself could be far older than her first on-screen appearance.  The next highest registry of the Oberth class is (NCC-640) (Seen on a ship in Spacedock in Star Trek IV: The voyage home and later in Star Trek: The Next Generation). 

 

The Grissom model being shot for an episode of Star Trek: TNG. Notice the registry on the boat hull.

Design:

   The design, first seen in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), looks very modern and fits in perfectly with the ships designed for that movie including the U.S.S. Excelsior (NX-2000) with many horizontal grilles and vents being a very prominent design feature of the both ship types. The ship looks like it belongs in the Star Trek movie era. Speculation: Take away the decals and pennants, shoot it with the camera and SPFX technology of the 1960's; would the ship still appear as modern? Could it pass for a ship of the TOS era? Also notice the design does not feature a deflector dish, many MSD's (Master systems display) have the deflector behind the lower dome of the boat hull (Secondary hull or Engineering section). I find this location to be perfect and wonder,  from an in-universe perspective, why it would be hidden behind a cover? That to me suggests that it has one less weakness than the Enterprise and those of her Ilk. We also can't use that to determine the ships age, does it have a lit/glowing deflector? Or does it have an Antenna-style deflector?

Interiors: 

The interior of the Grissom is exactly that of the movie-era Refit Enterprise, only with the chairs and some consoles rearranged to suggest a smaller vessel. As we've seen with other Starships, such interiors could be plug-in, plug-out affairs. They could also be beamed in, so no real way of determining age that way. Let's look closely at the Oberth classes first appearance on Star Trek: The Next Generation, that of the .S.S. Tsiolkovsky. (The .S.S. registry may point to a reason for the ships internal appearance). 

The SS Tsiolkovsky's interiors were fairly normal by TNG standards, corridors and the miniature bridge set all fall within the norms of early-TNG. There is however one glaring design detail which may suggest an Oberth class far older than one might think...

Look at the picture above, notice to the left of Geordie - the TOS style Burke chair. Were the set designers trying to tie this ship to the original series era? This, to my knowledge was the one and only use of TOS style set dressings in TNG.  It's tenuous, but this plus the relatively low registries of the early Oberth class starships we saw; I think, make these points fodder for the argument of these ships having been, if not built and produced in that era, at least present during that time. And that subsequent appearances of these ships were possibly of ships that were either refitted with new technology or newer builds.

1960's style "tulip" chair seen to the right of Geordie

 My own opinion is that these ships were likely new as of the 2280's, possibly brand new as of the first appearance of one with the U.S.S. Grissom. However, I do fancy the idea of these ships having been designed and built in the 2260's and why not? Being science ships they wouldn't need the power and technology of those ships on the 'front line' or those meant to explore the outer reaches of space. Even if they're new as of the 2280's they clearly had longevity having lasted at least a century.

The ship looks kind of 60's-ish and lacks a great deal of detail, like ships of the original series era (2260's). I'd love to build a model of one with TOS style registry and pennants.

- Spaced out blogger