Starbase 11

Starbase 11
Owner:	United Federation of Planets
Operator:	Starfleet
Location:	M-11 Alpha Quadrant ~2 light years from Talos IV
Status:	Active (2401)

Starbase 11 was a Federation starbase administered by Starfleet. This starbase, located on planet M-11, was in the Alpha Quadrant. The base had repair and maintenance facilities for starships and at least some facilities were located on the planetary surface. In 2267, command of Starbase 11 passed from Commodore Stone to Commodore Mendez. Starbase 11 was located two light years away from Talos IV. (TOS: "Court Martial", "The Menagerie, Part I"; DIS: "If Memory Serves")

Location

In 2259, it was listed as located in the region surrounding the Kiley system, located in the vicinity of such star systems that contained warp-capable civilizations as the Algol system, the Scalos system, and the Talos system. That year, the location of this system was labeled on a stellar cartography chart that was seen on the USS Enterprise's ready room viewscreen. (SNW: "Strange New Worlds", "Children of the Comet", "Spock Amok")

The starbase's location was labeled in a Federation star chart that was in Fleet Admiral Kirsten Clancy's office at Starfleet Headquarters in 2399 and on the bridge of the USS Titan-A in 2401. Starbase 11 was in or near to Federation space. (PIC: "Maps and Legends", "The Next Generation", "Disengage")

History

Starbase 11 in 2256

In 2256, Michael Burnham saw the starbase during a demonstration of the spore drive in the USS Discovery's engineering test bay alpha. (DIS: "Context Is for Kings")

A year later, Captain Christopher Pike set Discovery on a course for Starbase 11 in an attempt to disguise his true destination of Talos IV from NCIA-93, to protect Commander Michael Burnham and Lieutenant Spock. After believing that he had captured Burnham and Spock, Section 31 Captain Leland ordered Pike and Discovery to report to Starbase 11 for disciplinary action. (DIS: "If Memory Serves")

In 2267, the USS Enterprise diverted to Starbase 11, then under the command of Commodore Stone, in order to undergo repairs due to damage sustained during an encounter with an extremely powerful ion storm. While the Enterprise was there, Starbase 11 served as the site of a court martial against the vessel's commanding officer, James T. Kirk, the first such proceeding against a starship captain, for Kirk's apparent role in the death of Lieutenant Commander Benjamin Finney. It was later discovered, however, that Finney was not, in fact, dead, but had rather faked his own death in an effort to frame Kirk. (TOS: "Court Martial")

Later that year, the Enterprise returned to Starbase 11, which at this point was under the command of Commodore Mendez. Although it had initially appeared as if Captain Kirk had received orders to divert to the starbase, subsequent investigation concluded that the facility had sent no such message, and that the orders were, in fact, forged by the Enterprise's first officer, Lieutenant Commander Spock, as part of a plot to gain access to Fleet Captain Christopher Pike, Spock's former commanding officer, and illegally transport him to the forbidden planet of Talos IV. (TOS: "The Menagerie, Part I", "The Menagerie, Part II")

In 2328, this was the destination for passengers traveling from Sherman's Planet Spaceport via commercial transport. Sarah Paul, Robert Blackman, and Molly Tranya traveled to Starbase 11 on the SS Kogin. (TNG-R: "Inheritance" okudagram)

In 2369, Geordi La Forge, when investigating the murder of Lieutenant Keith Rocha, requested a display of the lieutenant's personal records from the Relay Station 47 computer for stardates 46455 to 46460. One of these records mentioned this starbase. In his log entry, Rocha wrote, "Spent most of the day recalibrating the new antenna array for Starbase 11. Ran several TB throughput tests, but we still can't seem to crack the median performance level. We'll try again on Friday." (TNG: "Aquiel" okudagram)

For the remastered episode "Aquiel", the log entry stardate was changed from 46455 to 45455. The log entry, with the starbase's name, was new to the episode, having replaced the pre-remastered entry.

An aerial view of Starbase 11 at night

Ground level view of Starbase 11 at day

Ground level view of Starbase 11 at night

Resources and facilities

In addition to its starship repair facilities, Starbase 11 also housed a medical section with an intensive care area dedicated to the treatment of seriously wounded individuals. One of its patients was Fleet Captain Christopher Pike, who was left an invalid subsequent to exposure to massive amounts of delta rays. (TOS: "The Menagerie, Part I") The starbase also maintained a computer center, and at least one office (for the portmaster), a courtroom, one set of quarters, an officers' lounge (namely, the M-11 Starbase Club), a computer center, and one shuttlecraft, the Picasso. (TOS: "Court Martial", "The Menagerie, Part I")

In an ultimately omitted line of dialogue from the final draft script of "Court Martial", Starbase 11 was referred to as additionally having a mall. The aforementioned set of quarters were said to be on the other side of the mall from the officers' lounge.

The commodore's office

M-11 Starbase Club officers' lounge

A courtroom at Starbase 11

The base's computer center

A room in the medical section

The quarters entrance area

The quarters working area

The quarters living area

List of personnel

• See: Starbase 11 personnel

Appendices

Appearances

• DIS:
  • "Context Is for Kings"
• TOS:
  • "Court Martial"
  • "The Menagerie, Part I"

Background information

Starbase 11 was the first named starbase in Star Trek.

This facility was called "Star Base 811" in early story outlines for "Court Martial" (written while the narrative had the working title "Court Martial at Star Base 811"). The episode's first draft story outline, which identified it with this name (and was dated 2 May 1966), described the facility as "a supply and maintenance base." A revised story outline for the installment (dated 26 June 1966) characterized it thus; "Star Base 811 is a galactic maintenance station, and also a command post. Here starships put in periodically for repairs, and here, also, is the sector command post, where men are sent pending assignment to ships, where certain training functions are performed."

In the script of "From the First Day to the Last, Part II" (a developmental precursor to TOS: "The Menagerie, Part II", written by John D.F. Black, and submitted on 12 August 1966), the starbase where Christopher Pike, before being taken to Talos IV, resided was called "Trium Supply Base".

While still named "Star Base 811", this facility, among other aspects of the episode "Court Martial", was written about by Gene Roddenberry in a six-page memo of script notes he sent Gene L. Coon (on 15 August 1966). Concerning the installment's first draft script (which also had the working title "Court Martial at Star Base 811"), the memo proposed that the starbase's exterior could be portrayed using a pre-existing local building, enhanced with a matte painting of the planet surface for the background. Roddenberry also used the document to recommend that most of the base's interiors be depicted by "doubling over our starship interiors." He went on to say, "Matt Jefferies should give us a quick estimate of this possibility." Though the script later called for the exterior establishing shots of the base to be shown using firstly a moving matte shot and secondly a view of an administration building, Roddenberry minimized how the facility would be depicted for budgetary reasons. Among his other notes in the memo, for instance, were suggestions that some of the base's interiors could be filmed on Desilu Stage 10, and that there be only one exterior shot of the facility in the entire episode. "We could possibly then keep the outside alive with a limited, carefully planned, group of exterior views through windows," he commented. Roddenberry also suggested amortizing the majority of the sets by additionally using them in the filming of "The Menagerie, Part I" and "The Menagerie, Part II", and arranging for that story to be filmed next.

In the final draft and the revised final draft of the script for "Court Martial" (dated 26 and 29 September 1966 respectively, while Starfleet was instead called "Galactic Command"), the matte painting of Starbase 11 was described thus; "Seen in forced perspective, it is a huge complex serving the dual role of repair base and Galactic Command outpost." By comparison, in the final draft script of "The Menagerie" (dated 7 October 1966), the facility was still named "Star Base 811" and its exterior was characterized as "The huge gleaming Star Base building, a strange, lonely contrast against [the planet landscape]" and the base was to have a sign identifying it as a "United Space Agency" facility.

The matte painting of Starbase 11 was created by Matte Artist Albert Whitlock, who had an affinity for illustrating futuristic landscapes. He painted the image with oils on Masonite. (Star Trek: The Original Series 365, p. 089) Doug Drexler commented about the matte painting, "It was done very fast. You could look at Starbase 11, and you could see the brush strokes in it. And you step back from it, and it's like bam! It has such incredible power and depth and creates such a feeling of a place. And meanwhile, you could take the CG image that's got all the bells and whistles and all the technology, and it still isn't as successful. I mean, why is that? That's absolutely amazing. That's incredible genius." (Strange New Worlds – Visualizing the Fantastic, Star Trek: The Original Series - The Roddenberry Vault Blu-ray Disc) After Drexler made this remark in an interview for the 2016 Blu-ray release Star Trek: The Original Series – The Roddenberry Vault, a CGI version of the starbase was actually depicted in "Context Is for Kings", a 2017 episode of Star Trek: Discovery.

The Star Trek Compendium (4th ed., pp. 46-48) mistakenly referred to this starbase as "Starbase 12" (in the case of "Court Martial") and "Starbase 6" (as regards the "The Menagerie" two-parter).

Toddman's view

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine featured two homages to Starbase 11. In DS9: "The Die is Cast", the background of Admiral Toddman's office is very similar to the starbase, and in DS9: "Far Beyond the Stars", the cover image of Galaxy magazine was a re-use of the matte painting from "Court Martial".

Apocrypha

According to the Star Trek Online tie-in novel The Needs of the Many, Commander Harry Kim became the chief of security of Starbase 11 in 2400 (the same year he would have become captain of the USS Rhode Island and left for a four-year deep space mission in an alternate timeline depicted in VOY: "Endgame").

External link

• Starbase 11 at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works