In the same way that the theme from Star Trek The Motion Picture was reused for the theme from Star Trek The Next Generation (and Star Trek First Contact and probably any other Trek film Jerry Goldsmith does the music for), Star Trek Diplomat makes use of the theme from Star Trek II The Wrath Of Kahn. It's one of my favorite pieces of Trek music, comes from a great movie, is composed by a great composer (James Horner also did the score for Aliens, Sneakers, Rocketeer, Apollo 13, Braveheart, and Titanic), and most importantly includes the Star Trek fanfare, composed by Alexander Courage. This was very important to me - both DS9 and Voyager have the fanfare missing from their themes, and I've always felt that it was important to have it, since it's as much a part of Star Trek as any other component. So the fanfare is restored for the theme from Star Trek Diplomat.

Click here to listen to the theme from Star Trek Diplomat in MPEG3 format

Theme from Star Trek Diplomat in Midi format
(Not actually completely correct, since the midi comes from the end credits of Star Trek II, and the Diplomat theme comes from the opening titles, but it gives you the idea if you can't be bothered downloading the whole MPEG3 format theme- thanks to whoever originally created it!)

(This dedication plaque was fitted after the refit of the U.S.S. Diplomat in 2367-2371. The original plaque was destroyed in 2367.)

Name: U.S.S. Diplomat Class: Galaxy (refit) Starfleet Registry: NCC-71885 Commissioned: 2364 Length: 65.5m Width: 467m Height: 137.5m Decks: 42 Crew Compliment: 1,028

U.S.S. Diplomat, the first ship to bear the name, is the sixth Galaxy-class starship to be commissioned. The Diplomat was commissioned in late 2364, the last of the scheduled Galaxy-class order of six ships, and thus the most advanced. Its first Captain was Steven Reiner, a twenty-eight year veteran of Starfleet.

The Diplomat served without problem for over two years. Its run of service was nearly ended in 2367 during the Battle of Wolf 359, where the Diplomat was a part of the task force assembled to fight the Borg incursion. The Diplomat was severely damaged in the battle, with most of the crew killed and a warp core breach in progress. Then-Commander Quinn Archer and Lieutenant Commander Kel Savolainen managed to eject the warp core before it exploded, but the resulting blast propelled the ship out of the system. Because of the detonation of the Diplomat’s warp core, rescuers initially believed the ship to have been destroyed, along with many other vessels. It was not until much of the salvage work in the system had been done that the ship was discovered.

The Diplomat was recovered and towed back to the Utopia Planitia shipyards, where it was given a thorough evaluation as to whether it was salvageable – it was decided that it was and that work should commence immediately. Commander Archer was promoted to Captain and was promised the command of the U.S.S. Diplomat once it completed its' refit, expected to take eighteen to twenty two months. Structural damage was, however, far more serious than originally thought, which resulted in the ship being stripped down to the bare spaceframe, lengthening the expected repair schedule by a further four months. Halfway through the refit, work was stopped and the refit suspended, due to concerns held by Starfleet Command, that advances in starship technology and changing operational requirements for Starfleet vessels, meant that the ship was now outdated and not worth the effort. Work was suspended for six months before the decision was made to continue the refit. During that time, the design specifications for the U.S.S. Diplomat were changed extensively in order to expand its scope of operation and make it a viable operating platform. With new refit plans drafted by the Advanced Technologies Unit, work was resumed. Due to the radical redesign of the majority of the internal systems, the ship was again stripped down to the spaceframe.

Once the spaceframe had been reconstructed in mid-2370, the ship was moved to the San Franciso Shipyards, where the refit of the interior took place. Further delays were caused with the late addition of bio-neural gel-based computers as the two main computer cores. Previous designs had only one bio-neural gel-based computer core, as an auxiliary system, but the success of such systems on smaller ships like the Intrepid-class prompted a rethink. The previously installed primary computer core was relocated to the engineering section as a fourth computer core and backup system.

In 2371, work was completed and the U.S.S. Diplomat was returned to operational status under the command of Captain Quinn Archer.

Trek-Tech-Talk
An essential tool for any Trek fanfic writer is this nifty little program that will take care of all your technobabble needs. Based on the Technobabble Generator in the Nitpickers Guide For Next Generation Trekkers Volume 2, Trek-Tech-Talk for Windows was created by Brian Jackson, and it creates strings of technobabble terms. You can choose from one to four words and you can either place them yourself from the lists given, or use the randomize function. It gives that wonderful authentic feeling that the audience has absolutely no idea what on earth the characters are talking about when it gets technical!

Click here to download Trek-Tech-Talk