What's new - Nov 2002

Justin Moody has sent a few corrections to the USS Enterprise page - I hadthe launch date down as the commissioning date, listed it as the second nuclearpowered vessel instead of the second nuclear powered surface vessel,I hadn't listed the Sea Sparrows as RIM-7s in the table, and the CVX whichshould replace it will - probably - be the another CVN by then. Thanks Justin!

After a considerable campaign of good-natured badgering by Adam Broughton,I've re-worked the Keldon and Galor entries somewhat. The sizes of the shipson the specs entries previously didn't match the sizes on the comparison section,the number of beam weapon emitters didn't match that seen on the models, andthere were a few bits and pieces that I have taken info from the DS9 TM toreplace my own speculation. Thanks to Adam for his gentle prodding to fixthese issues.

I've put a picture of the Sh'Ran onto its page.

Okay, after endless cross-checking of obscure lists against even more obscurenumbers, the strengths calculator is finally fixed. I think. I hope. Pleasetell me if there are any more problems (and yes, I know it rounds the numbersto integers. We're working on that.)

After looking over a few episodes of Enterprise I've done an overhaul of various ships from this era.

The Sh'ran class has been added.

The Conestoga has been added.

The Surak class has been somewhat tinkered with, cutting its strength to 70.

I've weakened Polarised armour with respect to the other types; Enterprise's hull was a bit too strong for the period. I've also cut its agility a little, knocking its overall strength from 55 to 40.

The early Klingon ships have been tinkered with yet again, weakening the D7 a little in some areas.

The Valiant's speed has been cut to Warp 1, since it's now canon that there were no Human warp 4 ships when Valiant was launched.

The Olympic has been given a couple of phaser arrays. Although it is a medcal ship, dialogue in "All Good Things" makes it clear that this ship is indeed armed. Thanks to the half dozen or so people who have pestered me about this over the last few months!

I've created a few new torpeo tube and weapon types - nuclear missiles, that kind of thing - so as to give a bit more flexibility in the early ships. I've also simplified the way I calculate the strength of a torpedo system somewhat. This is pretty much invisible as far as the site is concerned, but I have re-written the comments page on the Strengths part of the Fleets section to reflect the changes.

I've also re-arranged the Other Ships list, taking the the 8472, Human and Vulcan ships out of the Miscellaneous section and giving them their own sections.

As yet some of these changes have not made it to the strength Calculator. I've said a few times that we're working on a way of centralising all the info concerning the ships - we're trying to make a database which can spit out specs pages, fleets pages and update the calculator all in one go. It's slow going, and until it's done expect to find various bits of the calculator and fleets page out of synch with the rest.

Thanks to a recent email, I have fixed a small nit in the Human species page- changing my speculative date of 2158 for first contact with the Romulansto the now canonical 2152. The Endgame ep guide has had another date correctedthanks to Maarten De Feyter. Many many people wrote to tell me that the What'sNew header on this page had 2000 rather than 2002 - Nick Boragina gets a specialmention for this because although he wasn't the first, he was the most insistent!.Chris Mortimore points out an error in the TOS guides - I had Flint listedas dead rather than dying. Thanks to Ryan Felsen an interesting new fact hasbeen added to the ST VI review.

Update to today's earlier stuff - I've got the calculator pretty much fixednow.

And a request - somebody sent me some vidcaps of the Vulcan Sh'Ran classship a few weeks ago, which I lost in my recent computer problems. Since Ican't find my tape of the episode, I can't scan my own pics - would the personwho mailed them mind re-sending them?

A whole new article goes up today, concerning the depiction of religion in Star Trek. Religious types who are very easily offended might want to give this one a miss...

The phaser article has also been expanded again; this time the phaser array thoughts have been re-written, and some discussion of power figures has been included.

The Orbital Office from TMP has been given a full entry. Considering howmany stations this ended up being shown as, I can't think why I never putit up before!

After a recent email from Sammy Francois, I've updated the Klingon species page. This had previously used the (implied) TOS date for First Contact, and assumed that Klingons had been smooth headed when that contact occurred. The page now reflects the new information from Enterprise, and also mentions Gowron's death and Martok's succession to Chancellor.

Thanks to Maarten De Feyter who pointed out that the Hierarchy page was a little out of date. It has now been updated through the end of Voyager.

A nit has been fixed in the TNG season 3 guide after Johnathan Emery pointed out that Picard told his security guard to follow Q whilst they were in Sickbay, not the Brig.

The Vulcan Vahklas type ship has been added to the Additional Ships page.

Thanks once again to Maarten De Feyter who pointed out an incorrect date in the Wells class comments page, which is now fixed.

Thanks go to Stephen Stumbke, who pointed out that the Skin of Evilentry on the TNG episode guides had the wrong text on it.

The quiz in the Recreation section has been expanded slightly - aboutthirty or so Enterprise questions have been added to the General and Episodecategories.

Gab points out that the "I'm a doctor, not a database" linecomes from Future's End Part II and not Prophet Motive as I had thought, soI have altered the relevant list.

The images I recently took from TMP for the Constitution page have been replacedwith better scans. I've also replced most of the K'T'Inga images, replacedthe Work Bee image and added a second one, added a new image to the Warp drivereaction chamber imaes page in the sci tech section, replaced the Drydockimages, replaced the Air Tram images and added another one from, replacedthe travel pod images, replaced the Warp Sled images and added a new one,and replaced the Epsilon IX images. All of these are snapped from the DVDspecial edition, so they are lovely and clear. Take a minute to have a lookat these, people, some of them are easily amongst the best quality imageson the whole site.

And take a moment to think about just how long a list that is, consideringthat it's all from the same movie. And it's just a fraction of what this much-malignedbit of the franchise gave to Trek.

The phaser article has been updated with some discussion of phaserarrays and a few details about power outputs. The Constitutions article hasbeen reworked slightly to include more insight on the USS Yorktown after DanielMauel pointed out more evidence that this ship was a Constitution class starship.