Hey there, my sedentary friends! In the U.S. we’re all overeating and napping so the idea of warp engines is nauseating. With that in mind, do you want some more space station options? Of course you do! While the Sigma-class operational base is seen over and over again in the Star Trek series, the most iconic space station is easily Earth Spacedock.
First seen in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Earth Spacedock is an easily recognizable part of the Star Trek universe and appeared in the next three movies as well (and, possibly, in a Voyager episode). It’s easy to imagine how the “space top” design hanging above Earth could facilitate starships docking and it’s even easy to imagine living in since it resembles a big floating skyscraper with a mushroom top. The original intention for the space station would be that it was three miles from bottom to top, meaning that it would be easily recognizable and visible to Earth residences in the Star Trek universe.
Aside from the most famous version of this design, however, the Stardock design model was used in four episodes of The Next Generation for other space stations. In Ensign Ro the Enterprise-D visited Lya Station Alpha to get new personnel and new intelligence, and the ship also visited Starbase 74 in 11001001 when they were hijacked by Bynars and it’s mentioned again in Conspiracy as part of the suspicious reassignments. Starbase 84 appears in Heart of Glory and in Phantasms, in both cases for major engineering projects. In Remember Me the Enterprise-D visited another Stardock-class station, Starbase 133, to pick up a senior medical officer who was retiring from Starfleet.
The common theme here is that Stardock-class stations are important. They are the major hubs of Federation activity and they are big. If the dimensions given in Star Trek IV commentary are right, the design is almost three times as long as Deep Space Nine is wide and it’s solid all the way through. If you want a space station with a ton of people in it, positioned in an important location with plenty of ship traffic and colorful tourists, then a Stardock-class is a great choice.
Click on the image below for the PDF!
FYI the link is actually a JPG not a pdf
Just noticed this, thanks! It’s fixed now.
According to the Eaglemoss Official Starship Collection, who have made jpegs of (almost) all the Star Trek ships at an In-Universe scale, there are two different-sized versions of Spacedock/Stardock. (Just FYI, my head-canon is that the smaller station is a “Spacedock-class” while the larger one is a “Stardock-class.”) Earth Spacedock has the diameter of 3,800 meters with a corresponding height/draft of 5,500 meters, while Starbase 74 (and likely all the other Stardock-class stations seen in TNG) have a diameter of 9,200 meters and a corresponding height/draft of 13,461 meters. See the link here: http://wixiban.com/images/eaglemoss/em-ships-scale-chart-s-l.jpg Look for the “Massive Ships” section on the bottom half of the page. When you remember that these are top views that don’t actually show the shafts of the Spacedock/Stardock station, you’ll realize that a Stardock (larger version) is *significantly* more massive than a Scale 15+ Voth City ship!
I’ve guesstimated that Spacedock is Scale 14 while Stardock is Scale 17(!). Is there somewhere like a forum or other website where I can discuss the in-game STA Scale of Eaglemoss-rendered ships with members of Continuing Missions in further detail?