The USS Tian An Men (NCC-21382) was a 24th century Federation Miranda-class starship operated by Starfleet.
In early 2368, the Tian An Men was docked at Starbase 234's spacedock for repairs. The ship joined Captain Jean-Luc Picard's fleet that blockaded the Klingon-Romulan border during the Klingon Civil War. It was prematurely deployed, despite the yard superintendent's belief the ship was not ready for launch. Experienced officers from the USS Enterprise-D augmented the crew of this ship. The ship was one of twenty-three assembled for the fleet and was one of the seventeen chosen for the tachyon network. Identified by its name and registry number, the ship's position in the network was monitored from the Enterprise-D.
Picard devised a plan that he hoped would lure the Romulans through the detection grid. When Gowron launched a full attack against the forces of the House of Duras, the Romulan ships would rush to their aid. During this, the USS Excalibur would fall back with feigned engine troubles, taking the USS Akagi and the USS Hornet. In doing so, this would open up a small gap in the detection net for the Romulans to attempt to pass through. As their ships passed through the gap, the Enterprise-D and the Tian An Men would swing around, close the gap, and catch the Romulans in the act.
The plan was foiled when the network was disrupted by a high-energy burst released by the Romulans; the net was no longer effective in a radius of ten million kilometers around the USS Sutherland. Subsequently, Picard ordered the fleet to proceed to Gamma Eridon at maximum warp, where the fleet would attempt to reestablish the net before the Romulans got there. (TNG: "Redemption II")
In late 2373, the Tian An Men was assigned to patrol along the Federation's border with the Cardassian Union. It was reported missing, possibly due to action by the Jem'Hadar. (DS9: "In the Cards")
The ship later fought in the Dominion War at the First Battle of Chin'toka in late 2374. It was in this battle where it, the USS Hood, and the USS Nautilus assisted the USS Defiant in destroying the moon that supplied power to the Cardassian orbital weapon platforms protecting the Chin'toka system. (DS9: "Tears of the Prophets")
| Miranda-class starships |
|---|
| USS Antares • USS Brattain • USS Lantree • USS Late • USS Majestic • USS Nautilus • USS Reliant • USS Saratoga (NCC-1887) • USS Saratoga (NCC-31911) • USS ShirKahr • USS Sitak • USS Tian An Men • USS Trial • NCC-4186 • NCC-31720 • Unnamed |
Appendices[]
Background information[]
The Tian An Men was incorrectly spelled "Tian Nan Men" in the okudagram in "Redemption II." It was also on this okudagram that the registry of this vessel was revealed. This mistake was corrected for the remastered episode.
The Tian An Men's appearance in "Tears of the Prophets" was confirmed by John Gross and Karen Sickles of Digital Muse in a 25 June 1998 post, by DS9 Visual Effects Supervisor David Stipes, on the newsgroup alt.tv.star-trek.ds9.
One of the Miranda-class ships that appeared in this sequence quite clearly bore the registry of NCC-1864.
According to the Star Trek Encyclopedia (4th ed., vol. 2, p. 397), the Tian An Men was named in honor of those who lost their lives during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 in Beijing, China, a glimpse of which fleetingly was seen in the resetting time stream in the Star Trek: Enterprise season four episode "Storm Front, Part II". It compares Starfleet's choice of name to the United States Navy naming the USS Lexington after the first battle in the American struggle for freedom.
External link[]
- USS Tian An Men at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works