Talk:USS Zheng He

Name

The closed captioning has the name spelled as "Zheng He". I am going to wait and see what Michael Chabon has to say about this ship before I raise the possibility of renaming it.--Memphis77 (talk) 14:02, March 26, 2020 (UTC)

Yes, closed captioning is a poor source for spellings. 31dot (talk) 14:05, March 26, 2020 (UTC)

Commanding Officer?

Riker says he's an "acting Captain" in the episode and was established as retired in "Nepenthe." As such, can we really call him the Commanding Officer of this ship? 162.95.216.222 16:48, March 26, 2020 (UTC)

There is no rule that says an acting Captain cannot command a ship. Riker said he was retired but available as a reserve officer, he was clearly recalled(perhaps at his request). 31dot (talk) 16:55, March 26, 2020 (UTC)

For the sake of clarity, Riker never said he was "retired." In "Nepenthe", he was quite specific to say he was "still on active reserve," which is a very different thing, especially in military-style organizations. Active reserve is closer to an extended leave of absence. Based on what he says in the finale, he put that leave aside to resume active duty (even if temporarily) to command the fleet. --TimPendragon (talk) 18:37, March 26, 2020 (UTC)

Class?

It doesn’t look like the Zheng He quite matches up with the outline of the Curiosity-Class seen on Rios’s trunk. 74.128.237.113 08:11, March 27, 2020 (UTC)

Michael Chabon is working on an explanation for the discrepancy. He also confirmed that four different classes are actually seen in the fleet scene (both in his Instagram stories). Let's give him a little time. --Jörg (talk) 11:51, March 27, 2020 (UTC)

He also clearly said that the Zheng He is the newest, most advanced kind of ship, which tracks with what Riker said in the episode, and clearly does not apply to the Curiosity class, which is at least a decade older.--TimPendragon (talk) 12:53, March 27, 2020 (UTC)

Indeed. --Jörg (talk) 14:10, March 27, 2020 (UTC)

Yet, Michael Chabon did identify the Zheng He as a Curiosity-class on 3/26. It's a mess because Chabon wasn't interested in starships. He was running a Ramen shop, not a Pita shop.--Memphis77 (talk) 14:39, March 27, 2020 (UTC)

I'm not saying he didn't say it, but I couldn't find it in the stories when I looked. It's quite likely he realized he misspoke, and decided to remove that panel while he sorts it out. You're right that he's definitely not that interested in ships and tech, at least not compared with character and story, and that's perfectly fine. Either it's going to be that ibn Majid was something else, or Zheng-He isn't Curiosity class (I'm betting on the latter) - based on the ten year gap between the two and Riker's dialogue in the episode, both can't be true (without some MAJOR stretches of logic and the definition of "new and most advanced"). We'll see which way it goes. --TimPendragon (talk) 14:46, March 27, 2020 (UTC)

I have included the link to the 3/26 Instagram, where the panel is still there, on the talk page for the Zheng He type.--Memphis77 (talk) 14:51, March 27, 2020 (UTC)

Let’s just wait a little. I think the discrepancy has been brought to his attention and now he’s trying to fix it for the benefit of all us starship lovers and Memory Alpha contributors who want order. ;-) Here are all the posts were he talks about there being 4 different types of ships in the armada and that he is working on something: here. Before we do not get that information, I think we should not talk about the merging of pages. The discrepancy between the ibn Majid and Zheng He were brought to his attention on Instagram. He is working on something to address all of that. --Jörg (talk) 17:35, March 27, 2020 (UTC)