Antares


 * This article refers to the Federation starship. For other meanings, please see Antares (disambiguation).

The Antares (NCC-501) was a Federation freighter that was in service with Starfleet in the mid-23rd century. In the 2260s, the Antares was commanded by Captain Ramart, under whom served his first officer and navigator Tom Nellis. Antares had a crew of twenty.

In 2266, the crew of the Antares transferred a young man, Charles Evans, who had been stranded on the planet Thasus for fourteen years, to the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), so he could be transported to Earth Colony Alpha V to be reunited with his closest living relatives.

On Stardate 1535.8, the Antares was destroyed when young Charlie used his psychokinetic powers to make a baffle plate on the shield of the ship's energy pile "go away." Charlie did not seem to understand the seriousness of his actions, saying simply that the baffle plate was warped, and that the Antares would have blown up anyway. 

Antares personnel

 * See Antares personnel

Background
According to the Star Trek Encyclopedia, the Antares was named after Antares, one of the brightest stars in the northern night sky.

In the episode, the ship was given four different descriptions: 1) cargo vessel, 2) transport ship, 3) science-probe vessel, and 4) survey ship.

The crew of the Antares wore old-style Starfleet uniforms left over from the original pilot episodes. One of these uniforms was worn by an individual appearing in.

The second edition of the Star Trek Concordance, by Bjo Trimble, had an original design illustration from Brian Pimenta of the Antares with registry number NCC-717.

In the Encyclopedia, a registry number of NCC-501 was given to the Antares based on conjecture by Michael Okuda. Okuda later used this registry number in the remastered version of "Charlie X." In this remastering, the Antares was essentially seen as a CGI model of the robot grain ships seen in, with an addition of a "crew module." The prefix "USS" was never mentioned in dialog nor appears on the ship's hull. 

Additionally, in the second edition of the Encyclopedia, the Antares was listed in the list of Federation starships as the prototype ship of the Antares-class starship, with the USS Hermes also stated to be of this class.

StarTrek.com listed this ship as USS Antares.

Apocrypha
An science vessel, also named USS Antares, was part of the Star Trek: Orion Rendezvous planetarium show, produced in  and authorized by Paramount Pictures in conjunction with the Star Trek: Federation Science exhibit. The ship was commanded by Captain Katryana DiChario, and left Neptune Station on a mission to explore a recently discovered, artificially-constructed wormhole interstellar transit system that had "jump points" throughout the Milky Way Galaxy at real-life scientific phenomena, such as the Orion Nebula, the Crab Nebula, a flare star, etc. Geordi La Forge was a temporary crewmember during the expedition, along with a group of Starfleet cadets (the audience).