The Fesarius was a starship built and operated by the First Federation, encountered in the mid-23rd century. It was described as the flagship by its captain and only crewmember, Commander Balok.
The Fesarius initiated first contact between the Federation and the First Federation in 2266, when it was encountered by the Federation starship USS Enterprise. (TOS: "The Corbomite Maneuver")
Technical details and capabilities
The Fesarius and the Enterprise at 5000 meters
The Fesarius was very large and spherical, with the surface made up of smaller, dome-like features, arranged in a distinct pattern based on triangles. The ship was able to dispatch at least one small craft, described as a "pilot vessel", and could be controlled by just one crewman using a very simple-looking interface.
The mass of the Fesarius was beyond the ability of 23rd century Starfleet instruments to register. Commander Spock estimated the vessel to be "a mile in diameter."
The vessel was able to scan the entirety of the USS Enterprise in a few seconds, in sufficient detail to then override and shut down some of its systems, a level of control that was described as "extremely sophisticated" and "brilliant." (TOS: "The Corbomite Maneuver")
Appendices
Background
Neither the Fesarius nor any other vessel of the First Federation has been seen since "The Corbomite Maneuver".
According to the Star Trek: Star Charts (pg. 36), one possible source for the name of the starship was that it was named after Fesarius. Fesarius was a planetary system. This system had one primary, named Fesarius, and at least one planet. Fesarius was a Class K star with a magnitude of +3, which was ten times brighter than Sol. This planet was inhabited by a warp capable species. This unnamed planet was the capital of the First Federation. The system was located in the Alpha Quadrant.
Studio models
CGI version.
Original studio model.
The CGI-Fesarius and Enterprise in close-up.
The special visual effects involved in depicting the Fesarius kept "The Corbomite Maneuver" from airing as the first episode of Star Trek. Jerry Sohl, the writer of "The Corbomite Maneuver", explained, "They were having such a difficult time with the special effects for the starship Fesarius... such an enormous ship... and this held them up for so long that it became the tenth episode to be shown." (The Star Trek Interview Book, p. 128)
The Fesarius miniature was designed by Matt Jefferies. (Star Trek Encyclopedia 2nd ed., p. 153) The construction of the model has been attributed to Wah Chang among others on the IMDB site and the Hero Com website. According to Star Trek History the model was a big ball endowed with "a pair of dimmers to make the model ship pulsate with power. The model was covered with sliced ping-pong balls."
When it came time to render the Fesarius as a CGI model for Remastered TOS, the visual effects artists tried to stay as close to the original as they could while also adding a level of detail that VFX Line Producer Michael Okuda stated "probably should have been there at the beginning," thus showing, though not overtly, an internal infrastructure beneath each of the ship's many domes. (Spacelift: Transporting Trek into the 21st Century, TOS Season 1 Blu-ray special features)
Apocrypha
In the series of books by William Shatner, this is a class of ship which is destroyed to prevent them from being captured by the Kirk from the mirror universe.
External link
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