USS Yamato

The USS Yamato (NCC-1305-E/NCC-71807) was a Federation starship that was in service with Starfleet in the mid-24th century. She was the sister ship of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D).

History
Prior to 2365, the USS Yamato, along with her sister ship USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D), was constructed at the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards. During the construction phase, Design Engineer Leah Brahms supervised the implementation of improved subspace field generators onto both starships. 

In early 2365, an unmanned reproduction of the USS Yamato was created by the entity known as Nagilum inside a "hole in space". The reproduction had corridor walls made out of a material similar to tritanium and was created to study the reactions of the Enterprise-D crew. The real USS Yamato was at the time located in another quadrant of space away from the "hole in space" that appeared en route to the Morgana Quadrant from the Rachelis system. Lieutenant Worf and Commander Riker investigated the reproduction before it was erased by Nagilum. 

Later that year, under the command of Captain Richard McKenzie, the real USS Yamato was assigned to patrol the Neutral Zone in Sector 134. (, display graphic)

Prior to stardate 41591.1, the Yamato became the command of Captain Donald Varley. He conducted an archeological dig on Denius III. A device of Iconian origin was discovered and found to contain a historical star chart with the location of Iconia. Captain Varley decided to take immediate preemptive action and took the Yamato into the Romulan Neutral Zone to locate Iconia, before it was discovered by the Romulans. In the Neutral Zone, the Yamato played hide and seek through several star systems and successfully eluded a Romulan cruiser tracking them.

After arriving to Iconia, the Yamato received an Iconian software transmission and was unable to continue the investigation due to random system failures, later on discovered to have been caused by the software. An engineering team of 18 personnel were killed when the force field in a shuttlebay was shut down. The Yamato left Iconia to rendezvous with the Enterprise-D to solve the malfunctions and convince Captain Jean-Luc Picard to continue with the exploration of Iconia. The under cloak detected the Yamato and copied its log transmissions to the Enterprise-D, while it was traveling to the rendezvous.

After the Yamato had arrived closer to the Federation side of the Neutral Zone, a position twelve hours and sixteen minutes away from Iconia at warp 8. The Iconian software caused an antimatter containment failure. The magnetic seals around the dilithium chamber collapsed, and the computer initiated the emergency release system to dump the Yamato's supply of antimatter. However, the program caused the release to halt with antimatter remaining within the ship, resulting in a warp core breach. While the saucer section was thrown free of the breach, the hull disintegrated, exposing all its decks to space. The Yamato was lost with all hands. 

Personnel

 * See: USS Yamato personnel

Related topics

 * USS Yamato dedication plaque

Background information
The name Yamato is pronounced Ya-ma-to. According to Star Trek Encyclopedia, the Yamato was named after the battleship , which served as flagship of the during World War II. According to technical illustrator and modeler Rick Sternbach, the name was not a reference to the Japanese anime series  (or Star Blazers in North America), even though he and several other members of the production staff are fans of Japanese animation. Sternbach [http://groups-beta.google.com/group/rec.arts.startrek.info/browse_thread/thread/ce9ede4e73c2f080/1569ad2829cae743? stated at AnimeCon 1991] that the TNG writers had independently coined the ship's name without his input and he doubts that the writers were aware of the anime connection.

Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual states that during the ship's construction, the starboard pylon phaser array was exchanged for one from the Yamato's sister ship USS Enterprise-D in 2355 for better operational fit. It was also stated that the next ship in the production line after the USS Galaxy was the USS Yamato. (Though this was before the episode introduced the USS Challenger (NCC-71099), with a lower registry number of NCC-71099).

Registry
↑ The Yamato's registry was identified by dialog in "Where Silence Has Lease" by Riker who visually identified it from the hull of Nagilum's reproduction and stated it to be "NCC-1305-E". When the Yamato was listed on a Starship Deploy Status in "The Measure Of A Man", the starship had the registry "NCC-24383". However, with its later appearance in "Contagion", several computer screens, schematics and captain's logs identified the registry as "NCC-71807". In the exploding saucer section model from "Contagion" the registry was "NCC-71806" instead of "NCC-71807". While "NCC-71806" and "NCC-24383" can be clearly seen in the remastered high-definition versions of the episodes, they are not as prominent as the registries mentioned in dialog and the computer screen graphics from "Contagion".

According to Star Trek Encyclopedia (3ed. p.569), the initial NCC-1305-E registry number was a production mistake. It was given to the Yamato by the episode writer Jack B. Sowards who was unaware of the registry numbering scheme developed for Star Trek: The Next Generation. Michael Okuda had intended to correct the number, as he had already finished the decals for the saucer section of the the model for "Contagion", but as the scene was removed from an intermediate draft, he dropped the issue, only to find out the scene had been re-added later on to the final draft, which Okuda realized after the episode had aired.

External link


USS Yamato USS Yamato USS Yamato USS Yamato (NCC-71807) USSヤマト USS Yamato U.S.S. "Yamato" NCC-1305-E