[martok2112]

Originally Posted by kevin

I get the idea of the ship being the silent additional character............but Star Trek isn't about the ship as such. It's the people ON that ship.

The ship becomes a part of the show in the same way that Galactica does in BSG, or the Falcon does. But it's not the series as a whole. It's important it works as a setting of course.

Exactly. Star Trek/Star Wars/Battlestar Galactica....any sci-fi/space fantasy worth its salt is not about the ships/technology/wow factor stuff...it's definitely about the characters, the people involved. But it is a nice little side effect that the ships eventually get regarded by fans, and even by the writers, as sort of a character unto themselves.

They may be silent characters, but when their guns fire up, or their warp engines/hyperdrives/FTL's kick in, those silent characters speak volumes.