Starship

File:Starship chronology classroom chart.jpg

Silhouettes of several Earth and Federation starships

A starship is any manned spacecraft that was capable of viable interstellar travel, i.e. any manned spacecraft that had the ability to transport and support a crew across interstellar distances. Most starships accomplished this via the employment of some form of faster-than-light spacecraft propulsion technology, such as warp drive.

In the Federation during the 22nd and 23rd centuries, spacecraft of the Starship-class were identified exclusively as vessels operated by Starfleet, or as stated by R.M. Merik, "a very special vessel and crew." By the mid-24th century, though, the exclusivity of the term "starship" essentially fell out of use, and was redefined as a term interchangeable with "spaceship" and "spacecraft".

In keeping with ancient earth naval tradition, Starships are often referred to as female.

At one point in the final draft script of TOS episode: "The Menagerie, Part I", Spock stated, "The Enterprise knows where it's going." In the final version of that episode, though, this line of dialogue is changed to end with "she's going."

Appendices

See also

• Starship classification
• List of classifications
• List of starships
• List of starship classes

External links

• Starship at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.
• Starship at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed canon & non-canon Star Trek works.
• Starship at Wikipedia, the free Terran-based encyclopedia that anyone can edit.