So it just occurred to me that during the TNG production era there is a shift in ship nomenclature:

  • TNG: The Enterprise
  • DS9: The Defiant/Yukon/Danube/etc.
  • VOY: The Voyager
  • (ENT): “Ennurprais” is all that’s left.

Seems towards the later shows they stopped referring to the ship as a, well, ship and just addressed it as a character? Why?

  • Infynis@midwest.social
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    8 months ago

    They do call at least Voyager “the Voyager,” at the beginning, but the crews of the Voyager and the NX-01 lived on their ships, more than the crews of the Defiant and the D. They rarely had shore leave, let alone the option to take a leave of absence, or transfer to another ship. It makes sense they’d be more casual about them. When they were saying “We have to get back to Voyager,” they were basically saying “We have to go home.”

    • VindictiveJudge@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      I think there was a behind-the-scenes decision at some point that The Voyager sounded oddly formal and stilted compared to The Enterprise.

      • Mnemnosyne
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        8 months ago

        Yeah…‘the Voyager’ sounds awkward to me in a way that ‘the Enterprise’ doesn’t. You also hear this in the real life Voyager probes.

        With many other ships, both real and fictional, the same phenomenon is noticeable - if the ship name sounds awkward with a ‘the’ in front, it will usually not be part of the name.

    • GregorGizeh@lemmy.zipOP
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      8 months ago

      Interesting, I hadn’t considered that. Though that would still not explain why even the “formal” guys like janeway and tuvok are using the colloquial form at all times, even when interacting with other species. I’d imagine especially tuvok would use the correct form at all times, just because it is the proper way.

      For ENT I have nothing, only perhaps that the snobby Vulcans were referring to it as just enterprise as well, right from the start. All other non human ships got addressed properly though (the kumari, the dal‘kyr).

      • I_Fart_Glitter@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        “I am Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Star Ship Voyager.” Once it’s been properly introduced she abbreviates with “Voyager.”

  • 👍Maximum Derek👍@discuss.tchncs.de
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    8 months ago

    Riker figured it out in season 2:

    Fate protects fools, little children, and ships named Enterprise.

    If you add the “the” its a jinx and you end up blowing up over and over again in a time loop, or hitting a quantum filament that takes everything offline but the gravity plating.

    • Tolookah@discuss.tchncs.de
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      8 months ago

      What temperature does the nozzle and bed need to be for quantum filament to print right? Every time I tried, it made me a pair of ducks instead of a paradox, and benchy refused to print entirely.

  • I_Fart_Glitter@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    What really gets me is that “Resistance is fyoo-TILE” until Seven shows up and pronounces it “FYU-tl” and then the rest of the Borg do as well.