This time for real! Here it is, one of the most mysterious of all the Enterprise ships, the S.S Emmette. Teasingly seen in the notorious title sequence over what appears to be a moon base.
Finding this was like opening Tut’s tomb. A gust of musty air from 2001 rushed out as the scene loaded up.
Look at the massive rocket style motors on the back of this bucket! These giants suggest that perhaps this ship was meant primarily for solar exploration and testing. The reasoning being that you would not devote so much of the ship’s resources to engines like these unless they could made a difference. Set upi like this, if you lost warp drive within the solar system, you were still capable of making it home.
Fascinating similarities to the Romulan Bird of Prey, suggesting some truth to the theory that the Romulan’s had stolen intel on this ship, and built their own version.
(Above) When the gang at Foundation Imaging were working on the title sequence, clearly they only built as much of the Emette as they needed. Note the absence of detail on the front of the model.
(Above) Top View
(Above) Bottom View
(Above) Side View
(Above) Front View
Aft View
Rob, thanks for dropping by to share your insights into the design of the Emmette.
Like ZardoZ, I’m also curious to know which U2 song was used for the alternate cut you mentioned. A lot of folks disliked the very concept of a vocal opening number, let alone the composition “Faith of the Heart”. Not me; I rather liked the idea of a vocal composition, as it grounded the series in a more relatable way to our era (the intent?)than a “typical” generic Trek intro (though I hated the up tempo remix that was used in season 2&3).
The idea that a U2 song was even considered intrigues me; I’m a huge U2 fan and would love to know which one of their songs nearly became part of Trek lore
I think think I have detected something in your design phillosophy for ST.
Later ships have a ‘warp field governor’, but I see no signs of this for the Emmette. I I think you may have hit upon something here. What you have hit upon is the idea that the early warp fields were unstable, and this instability, is what led to the loss of the S. S. Valiant.
That is an unstable warp feild can sift either in to high gear, or low, at random. Meaning the S. S. Valiant was sifted by outside events into high gear, and this was its doom.
Later ships have the governor, but not the early ones. Therefore later ships are more regulated, than the early ones.
Hi Gang,
Sorry for resurrecting this old post, but… The story of the S.S. Valiant was covered in a great novel that told the story of how Jean-Luc Picard became Captain of the Stargazer. Which, I just so happened to be reading (weird…), called “The Valiant” by Michael Jan Friedman.
Anyways, the reason the S.S. Valiant was lost was because the Captain had a super-psychic onboard (similar to what happened to Gary Mitchell in the 2nd pilot for TOS “Where no man has gone before”). The ship had been thrown outside the Milky Way, past the Great Barrier by an ion storm and when they attempted to cross back into the galaxy, the ship couldn’t take it and the last impact that shook the ship wrecked the warp drive completely. So they were stranded, had lost crew men to odd reactions, but one had survived. Time goes on, he starts going all “I’m super powerful puny mortals” and the captain, in a bid to save his crew from this mad man blows all the atomic warheads in the ships armory (they used atomic missiles) after having his crew escape in the life pods.
It sorta jives with what is said in the episode of TOS, but is much more dramatic. It also would fit the bill with how a captain might try to handle a power-crazed lunatic whom he can’t kill by normal means.
Great blog btw!
Hi, I know this is an older post, but I just found this from ex-astris-scientia.org and was fascinated by the profiles of this ship. I’m not sure if anyone has asked this yet or it has been answered, but why was it called the “S.S. Emmette”? Thanks again for the regular updates to the site!