All-Alien Federation Starships

[StarFleetVeteran]

Nearly every starship we've seen on screen has had a mostly human crew. Likewise, most of the ships seen are all named after things from Earth and human culture.

However, on at least one occasion we've seen a Federation vessel with a mostly or all Vulcan crew (the U.S.S. T'Kumbra). Would it be reasonable to assume that since we've only seen a fraction of the starships in the Federation, there are others that have mostly or totally alien crews and that are named after alien cultures, for example, the U.S.S. Shran might have an all Andorian crew. With so many cultures that make up the Federation, I find it hard to believe that nearly every ship in Starfleet would be named after Earth's culture and have mostly human crews.

Any thoughts?

-cc

 

[Mysterion]

I don't really see the Feds having an all-(race) crew very often. I could see maybe crews that are (as you point out we've seen) mostly human, or mostly vulcan, or whatever. But having a crew totally made-up of one race or species would seem to fly in the face of the Federation's whole diversity vibe. Altough I could see some races being a bit more isolated in assignments due to various environmental requirements (methane breathers, water-dwellers, etc.)

My question: on ships that we've seen, what percentage of the crew was non-human? Is there a quota or guideline handed down from Starfleet Personnel? Or does the admiralty just assign personnel on merit without regard to species?

 

[Tigger]

The USS Intrepid in TOS also had an all-Vulcan crew.

And Troi noted in "The Offspring" that (at least at that time), the Enterprise D did not have any Andorian crew members.

 

[Lyon_Wonder]

Fed starships with all or mostly alien crews were probably more likely in TOS and earlier though, as seen on DS9, not unheared of in the TNG era.

 

[Mysterion]

Fed starships with all or mostly alien crews were probably more likely in TOS and earlier though, as seen on DS9, not unheared of in the TNG era.

Why more likely in the TOS era?

 

[MarianLH]

Diversity is all well and good, and that's presumably what TMP and later Trek was going for with their integrated crews. At the time, I thought that was a good thing. Show that the Federation isn't a "homosapiens-only club"!

But now I kinda wish they'd stuck with the separate crew idea. First, monospecies starships have a practical benefit: the interior environment can be designed around their needs. For a Vulcan (for example), the Enterprise interior is chilly, the gravity's too low, the light's the wrong color, the air's too thick...it'd be like working in a meatlocker. A stuffy meatlocker. Meanwhile, an Andorian might find the ship uncomfortably warm. Would you want to work in a sauna? And any alien would have a different circadian rhythm, and thus might find it difficult to adjust to the 24-hour Human day.

And second, the "integrated" crews show far too many Humans relative to the other races. In a way, adding token aliens to the TMP and later crews has actually worked against the idea of diversity, by implying that Humans do dominate the Federation, or at least Starfleet.


Marian

 

[hellsgate]

I don't see the benefit of homogenized-crew starships. It goes against EVERYTHING Roddenberry envisioned for Trek.

"When the future comes, you'll all be there."

I'd rather have (pro & amateur) literature with diversified crews. (Tellarites, Humans, Andorians, Edoans, Vulcans, Caitians, et al.) If there's a problem beyond that scope, call in the Starfleet Diplomatic Corps & talk to your department supervisor, X.O. or The Captain in the right order & under the right circumstances.

 

[Butters]

I'd always assumed there would be localised crews. If every world in the Federation was similar to Earth, ie a few people billion people, there must be thousands of ships we just haven't seen, with crews focused on species we've never heard of. I also imagined Federation Starships that didn't follow the saucer, hull and nacelle configuration. We only see the Earth centric stuff.

Beyond environmental comfort reasons for wanting to serve on ship with your own species, you might not want to serve with humans. They might smell funny to you or go on about things you're really not interested in. If you've nothing in common, if our music sounds like an irratating noise, if our customs are a bit unsettling, no amount of social engineering is going to get people to mix that way. Why force people to feel isolated in the name of diversity? You can have the same common purpose without liking eachothers' company.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

My assumption (in possible violation of canon) was that the Federation Starfleet was actually a joint command that coordinated the starfleets of all other Federation members. The Starfleet we're familiar with is actually Earth Starfleet under Federal jurisdiction. The Vulcans have--perhaps--a probe agency or something that maintains their fleet, the Andorians have their own starfleet, the Bajorans (when they join the Federation) would still have their militia and their own ship designs and technology.

The only intermixing of races in this case would be special circumstances. Troi, for example, is half human; Worf was raised by humans; Data was found and befriended by humans; Spock was half human. It only becomes weird when you get to Voyager times when some of the ship's crew are actually ex-Maquis, and yet the only exception to the Human Connection pattern is--apparently--Tuvoc, who is neither half-human nor is he married to a human woman. His only connection to Starfleet seems to be Janeway and his sordid past on the Excelsior, and it's never really explained why he joined Starfleet instead of serving on a Vulcan ship (unless his specialty is weapons and counterintelligence, and the Vulcans are pacifists). In this concept, alien crewmembers on "Starfleet" ships are actually Earth citizens, emigrated--for whatever reason--from their various homeworlds (or they're aboard the ship on some kind of exchange program like the Benzites).

The all-Vulcan crew in "Take Me Out To the Holosuite" would seem to violate this rule, as would the Intrepid in TOS. On the other hand, neither vessel was explicitly described as a particular class of vessel so I might interpret the "Intrepid" as simply being the translation of a vulcan name while the ship from the DS9 episode may have been an unseen Vulcan ship acting as a support vessel for the Earth fleet.

 

[roguephoenix]

i brought up a similar point about ship design. seems all designers are humans. no ships show any design influences from the other races.

 

[Unicron]

FASA's RPG referenced the "Blue Fleet" which was composed of ships crewed primarily by Andorians and using several designs that were said to have Andorian design influences, but they didn't give many details as to what design aspects these were or how large the Blue Fleet was.

 

[Dayton3]

FASA's RPG referenced the "Blue Fleet" which was composed of ships crewed primarily by Andorians and using several designs that were said to have Andorian design influences, but they didn't give many details as to what design aspects these were or how large the Blue Fleet was.

According to the same source, Starfleet ships designed by the Andorians tend to use the "single engine lock" design which means that hull extensions from the engineering hull protect the warp engines and pylons from enemy fire from certain directions.

The Andor class missile cruiser (meaning lots of torpedo tubes) being the most famous of these.

The Northampton class frigate also uses this design feature although the Ship Recognition Guide notes that Northampton was designed on Mars and simply adopted the single engine lock from the Andorians.

 

[Unicron]

Yes, that's true. Though admittedly, I do see where that could be problematic if you wanted to jettison a damaged nacelle, since a design like the Andor doesn't leave a lot of space for that kind of emergency procedure.

 

[Dayton3]

Yes, that's true. Though admittedly, I do see where that could be problematic if you wanted to jettison a damaged nacelle, since a design like the Andor doesn't leave a lot of space for that kind of emergency procedure.

Very true.

But from what we've seen on air in Star Trek, jettisoning damaged nacelles is almost never done anyway for various reasons.

And I would wonder why one would want to.

In modern Trek, it isn't the engines themselves that are a danger to the rest of the ship but the matter/antimatter core itself which is in the heart of the ship.

 

[Richard Baker]

I remember reading somewhere (it could have been the novel from the Motion Picture (ST1) that the Enterprise refit had too many alien race crewmwmbers on it- McCoy was having a problem in sickbay trying to keep all the biological diversity accounted for in medications and treatments- something like 'they took this diversity business too far..."
I would love to see some real alien ship designs with std Starfleet markings- or bilingual like Spock's warp shuttle in the first movie. The closest we ever came to seeiing a racial diversity in a combined fleet was the Xindi story arc.
The Enterprise D had a dual environment system for the Dolphin crew (like what we saw in SeaQuest I presume). It is shown in the blueprints and mentioned in the tech manuals, but we never saw it on screen.

 

[Tigger]

The Enterprise D had a dual environment system for the Dolphin crew (like what we saw in SeaQuest I presume). It is shown in the blueprints and mentioned in the tech manuals, but we never saw it on screen.

The Tech Manual also noted that a small percentage of the quarters aboard ship could be configured for atmospheres other then (predominantly) nitrogen-oxygen.

 

[JNG]

I don't see the benefit of homogenized-crew starships. It goes against EVERYTHING Roddenberry envisioned for Trek.

"When the future comes, you'll all be there."

I'd rather have (pro & amateur) literature with diversified crews. (Tellarites, Humans, Andorians, Edoans, Vulcans, Caitians, et al.) If there's a problem beyond that scope, call in the Starfleet Diplomatic Corps & talk to your department supervisor, X.O. or The Captain in the right order & under the right circumstances.

I'm with you, and if not for budget costs of makeup, I think this is what Trek would "actually" show. I can rationalize the use of Roman letters on hulls and stuff, but I will always consider Starfleet to be by, for, and of all the Federation members, and will always pull for more alien ship names and so forth to be included in the fiction as well.

 

[captcalhoun]

i tend to assume, as do the books, that many starship crews are human dominated, but there are plenty of aliens on the ships.

i also assume, there's plenty of alien-named vessels, we just never see them...

 

[Marie1]

A starfleet ship on DS9 had a Vulcan crew... in "Take me out to the Holosuite."

Forget the name of the ship tho.

 

[Mysterion]

A starfleet ship on DS9 had a Vulcan crew... in "Take me out to the Holosuite."

Forget the name of the ship tho.

USS T'Kumbra, Nebula Class.