(Spoilers) Star Trek Beyond plothole?

[KhanSolo]

So NX-01 wasn't launched until 2151, and it was the first warp 5 ship. The Franklin was the first warp 4 ship, launched before the Enterprise obviously. So this begs the question, how did a MACO captain lose men in the Xindi war if the Xindi war had not yet taken place with humans?

 

[Dilandu]

Because nothing forbade "Franklin" to serve through the Xindi&Romulan war and being lost after.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Built before Enterprise, lost after (in the 2360's, according to the film)

 

[Guy Gardener]

Spoiler:

"This is the USS franklin sir, can you believe it, the first Earth Ship capable of warp four. It ####### the Gagarin radiation belt in the early 2160s."

"I remember that from the academy. Captain Balthezar Edison. The first heroes of Star Fleet. How did this ship end up here?"

(The words I am listening to are a little garbled, but above is over 90 percent accurate.)

The Gagarin Radiation Belt was an area of space that surrounded the Loracus system. At one time, the radiation belt made travel to the system all but impossible until the system's primary star became relatively stable sometime prior to 2151. (ENT: "Strange New World")

OH! That ####ing place!

 

[Beyond Darkness]

The ship was built before Enterprise's Enterprise and as such before the foundig of UFP, during the days of United Earth. So, it had a different designation number. However, after the founding of UFP the fleets of United Earth, Vulkan High Command, Andorian Empire and Tellar Prime united under the same banner. So, it is safe to say that the designation numbers of the starships that belonged to each of those fleets changed to the new designation numbers of UFP.

 

[Guy Gardener]

If the registry numbers are assigned when you submit plans to build a ship, Henry Archer poached the serial number NX-01 and mothergoose guarded it till the day he died.

Do you really think that pappy thought that it was going to take 35 years to build his engine?

Every three to 5 years someone pulled Hank to one side and said: "Henry it's been a dogs age, the NX 11 through 30 are fine ships, can you please just admit that you can't make a warp 5 engine and release your dibs on NX-01 through NX-10? Our fleet looks really, really wonky because all the Aliens think we start counting at eleven."

 

[Tuskin38]

Trek Core confirmed with someone who worked on the movie that the ship was indeed from before the NX-01.

 

[Kor]

So NX-01 wasn't launched until 2151, and it was the first warp 5 ship. The Franklin was the first warp 4 ship, launched before the Enterprise obviously. So this begs the question, how did a MACO captain lose men in the Xindi war if the Xindi war had not yet taken place with humans?

I'm not sure how Edison's involvement with the Xindi has anything to do with when the Franklin was originally launched.

Kor

 

[BillJ]

I'm not sure how Edison's involvement with the Xindi has anything to do with when the Franklin was originally launched.

Kor

This. We don't know when Edison began serving on the ship.

 

[Klondike307]

Edison wasn't assigned the Franklin until after the the Federation was founded in 2161. He was still a MACO during the Xindi attack and the Romulan War.

EDIT: Here's a timeline I did for a different thread. (I didn't original put it on the timeline but others have pointed out that the Franklin might have been called into active duty and given it's NX-326 designation during the Romulan War when earth need ships and not after the war when the Federation was founded like I listed ):

 

[Gryffindorian]

"Aye, Captain. The Franklin made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs."

 

[Norsehound]

I think an interesting question to ask is why Edison, of every MACO veteran, got this one-off prototype to fly? There must have been other veteran MACOs who ranked as highly as he did. What kind of assignments did they get, if this one-off was assigned to Edison?

And maybe that's why it's a little weird to grasp the chronology of the Franklin, of course in addition to the much higher registry number. If the Franklin wasn't just one member of an entire class but a single ship, why was Edison handed command?

 

[BillJ]

...got this one-off prototype to fly?

Do we know that the Franklin was a one-off prototype? I don't remember any one saying that in the movie.

 

[Klondike307]

I think an interesting question to ask is why Edison, of every MACO veteran, got this one-off prototype to fly? There must have been other veteran MACOs who ranked as highly as he did. What kind of assignments did they get, if this one-off was assigned to Edison?
And maybe that's why it's a little weird to grasp the chronology of the Franklin, of course in addition to the much higher registry number. If the Franklin wasn't just one member of an entire class but a single ship, why was Edison handed command?

Do we know that the Franklin was a one-off prototype? I don't remember any one saying that in the movie.

The NX-Beta (Warp 2) and NX-Delta (Warp 3) were both flown in the early 2140's so the first Warp 4 ship was probably first flown in the mid 2140's meaning the ship would be almost 20 years old with outdated engines and weapons by the time Edison was given command. He probably took it as an insult since they gave him command of an outdated ship as a half-assed "severance package" when they disbanded the MACOs. The Franklin might have been the first of a class of ships (like how the NX-Alpha and Beta looked similar to each other) but more than likely it was a one-off prototype or one of only a couple since the goal of the NX project was reaching Warp 5 with the NX-01 and creating a line of warp 5 ships.

 

[Norsehound]

Do we know that the Franklin was a one-off prototype? I don't remember any one saying that in the movie.

You're right, we don't. But we don't know a lot about the Franklin other than she's older than the NX-01, yet has a higher registry, and she was the first ship to make Warp 4.

She could represent a class of limited-production run ships to fill out a small human fleet before NX-01. We have seen a few other earth ships that were not the Enterprise (The Intrepid), and Franklin may have been the preceding class. Then when all of Earth's fleet ships were imported into Starfleet all of them got re-designated. Her high number might not be because she is newer, but because she entered the fleet later. All the NX prototypes, the Intrepids and others, were inducted into Starfleet before the older Franklins were brought out of storage to fill the fleet, and got a higher number.

Later when the Federation started building unified starships, they stared getting NCCs as their prefix. NX may have remained as "earth-type" until being reclassified for use as experimental ships. Or, we can infer NX means any human-origin ship, suggesting Excelsior was designed by humans until being inducted into starfleet. We don't know, because I think Starfleet hull designation codes are determined by inference, rather than a detailed system.

If there was a Franklin pre-production class, then the unlucky veterans got the older Franklin-class ships to fly, and it's only coincidence herself that the prototype and class ship ended up being lost on Edison's command.

There is something else of interest to note about the Franklin: She has a bridge window to space. If she's from the Pre-nero days but still in the same universe as ENT, it's the first ship from old canon we've seen with a window viewport like this (not counting the Enterprise from the pilot episode, of course). Even if you don't like it I can believe the Earthfleet experimented with this, coming off of the Pheonix, before feeling confident enough to enclose the bridge and use a viewing screen in the NX-01 prototype.

 

[mdtauk]

Guess the Vulcans had a lot of ships which took up hundreds of registry numbers once the Federation was formed, and Starfleet became the single organisation for managing ships and craft.

 

[Guy Gardener]

AG Robinson was the first human to crack warp 2 in 2143.

"NX Program"

Franklin had an earlier version of the Archer Engine?

 

[Kemaiku]

AG Robinson was the first human to crack warp 2 in 2143.

"NX Program"

Franklin had an earlier version of the Archer Engine?

Cochrane Engine, really. They're all his. Apparently.

Well the Delta broke warp 3 and Franklin warp 4, who knows who flew either the first time around.

 

[Guy Gardener]

I was more amazed that Bakula thought that he could play a version of Archer a decade junior, without even changing his hair cut.

The only reason I had trouble understanding this continuity is because Pegg's accent sounded like gargling marbles for a few moments, until it sounded (to me) that the Franklin was launched in 2161, not lost in 2161.

My mind had to jump through some strange hoops for this #### sandwich to keep.

 

[Gryffindorian]

And somehow the NX warp engine evolved into a brewery by the 23rd century.