Hello and welcome to another episode of Truth OR Myth, a Star Trek web series that looks at the Truth, or canon information to dispel the myths that have surfaced on any given topic. Today’s episode continues our journey through Beta Canon, this time taking a look at the U.S.S. Titan itself.
When the U.S.S. Titan was launched in the year 2379, no one could have predicted the impact this little ship would have on Starfleet and the United Federation of Planets. But what made this one ship such an important and influential part of the fleet? Well today, we find out Of course there isn’t a lot of information available on this class in Alpha Canon, the class itself only recently even becoming canon, thanks to Star Trek: Lower Decks. So, what I’ve done is thoroughly researched the Class through Beta Canon, combined it with established Alpha Canon and filled in some of the gaps with my imagination, all to give you good “Trinaries” a little bit more information on this amazing starship.
As a result though, this video should pretty much be taken with a grain of stardust, and only considered a little bit of Star Trek Fun! And so, with all that out of the way, lets begin.
The U.S.S. Titan was a Luna Class starship, standing at a length of approximately 450 meters, and a width of 200 meters, the Luna class was designed to operate with a crew of 350 officers and crew members. With a normal cruising speed of warp factor 8 and a maximum emergency speed of warp 9.975, utilizing a new “double refracting warp core matrix with twin intermix chambers.” The original intent for the Luna Class design was to explore the Gama Quadrant after the Bajoran wormhole was discovered.
However, when the war between the Federation and it’s allies against the Dominion broke out, construction on this class was suspended, with remaining starships of the time under construction modified to a more tactical nature to assist with the war effort. And once the war was complete, construction resumed on the Luna class, though it was decided that most of these starships would remain in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, conducting long-range scientific and exploration missions.
The Class itself was never intended to have a large number of vessels constructed for it, and as such, earned the name of Luna class as every starship of the class was to be named after a moon in the Sol System, something which garnered a lot of backlash from some of the Federation Member worlds, as they felt the class itself was far to human-centric in its terms, however, this could not be further from the truth.
In fact, at it’s launch in 2379, the U.S.S. Titan itself was one of the most diversely crewed starships in Starfleet history, with fewer then 15% of the Titans Crew members of the human species.
The Luna Classes exceptional environmental systems, allowed for a far more diverse crew then was possible in earlier Starfleet Starship designs. After the Enterprise-E’s return to Earth for refit and repair following the Shinzon incident, the U.S.S. Titan was officially given to newly-promoted Captain William T Riker by Admiral Kathryn Janeway. Though initially hesitant to leave his first officer position on the Federation Flagship, Admiral Janeway, an admirer of the Commander’s Career, eventually was able to convince Riker to accept the Captaincy as Starfleet needed good Captains to replace all those lost during the Dominion War.
The U.S.S. Titans first assignment was to lead a diplomatic mission to the planet Romulus, home world of the Romulan People.
After the coup on their homeworld by Shinzon of Remus and his subsequent defeat, the Romulan Star Empire was in a vulnerable, best described as chaotic, state, with a temporary civilian government in place during this time. And Admiral Janeway, along with the Federation in general, felt a civilian government in control of the star Empire, would be more beneficial to the Federation, and so when diplomatic overtures were sent out by the said government, Janeway jumped at the chance to both solidify that new government and establish peaceful relations with a new free Romulan Empire.
Though this was the U.S.S. Titan’s primary mission, Janeway also had the Titan on a secondary covert mission to retrieve a Starfleet Officer, Commander Tuvok, from the planet itself. Tuvok had been imprisoned on Romulus while working undercover for Starfleet Intelligence, and thanks to Ambassador Spock’s help, the Titan was successful in retrieving the Vulcan Commander. So impressed was Captain Riker with Tuvok’s performance, that he asked the commander to remain on board the Titan as the ships tactical officer. And after agreeing to allow Tuvok’s wife to live aboard the starship as well, Tuvok eventually agreed, also becoming the Titan’s first officer not long afterwards.
Nothing much came of the diplomatic mission, though Federation Historians do believe the U.S.S. Titan was instrumental in opening the doors for peaceful relations with the Star Empire.
After this mission, the U.S.S. Titan engaged in several exploration missions. During one such mission the starship itself was caught in a spatial anomaly, which transported the Titan to the Small Magellanic Cloud where it made the first contact with the Neyal and eventually returned to Federation Space using the same anomaly.
In 2380, the U.S.S. Titan came to the aid of the U.S.S. Cerritos which was under attack from a group of Pakled ships. The Titan was able to fend off the Packleds and was instrumental in rescuing the Cerritos, later towing the starship back to Spacedock for repairs. Due to Captain Riker’s love for 20th century Earth jazz and its varieties, he had all the shuttles aboard the U.S.S. Titan christened with the names of musicians from that era, a tradition still honoured to this day aboard the starship.
In 2382, while attempting to decipher a data stream received by the starship, the U.S.S. Titan came under attack from a Klingon Ship. Since Captain Riker was away from the starship for a debriefing at the time, Commander Tuvok and Chief Engineer Wesley Crusher were forced to deal with the situation and defeat the Klingon vessel.
In September of 2385, in recognition for his exemplary years of service, Captain William T. Riker was promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral. And, After being promoted, Admiral Riker was assigned as Sector Commander of the Alpha Quadrant Area which was known as the frontier zone. To assist in his command of the area, Riker retained command of the U.S.S. Titan as his personal flagship, and used the Titan as a mobile base of operations.
In 2386, Christine Vale was promoted to captain and assigned as the Titan’s permanent commanding officer, after having served as acting captain since Riker had received his promotion. In 2391, the success of the Titan’s diverse crew inspired Starfleet Command to consider a motion brought forward to expand the admission standards at Starfleet Academy to allow races that are formally allied with the Federation, but are not full member worlds, to join and serve in Starfleet.
This decision was seen as another monumental turning point in Starfleet history.
The U.S.S. Titan continued to push the boundaries of Federation Knowledge and understanding, while at the same time defending Federation Space and it’s citizens with the honour and courage expected of the best of Starfleet.
As a result of this, and this alone, the U.S.S. Titan, and it’s crew, have earned their place in Federation and galactic history…
Thank you for watching today’s episode of Truth or Myth, what do you think of the Luna Class and the U.S.S. Titan? Are you glad that Star Trek: Lower Decks has propelled this design into Alpha Canon? Well leave your comments in the section below and don’t forget to like the video and subscribe to the channel, hitting that little bell icon so you won’t miss a single video we release.
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