Antares The " Antares " ( NCC - 501 ) was a 23rd century Federation starship operated by Starfleet . In 2266 , Captain Ramart was the commanding officer of this ship . His first officer - navigator was Tom Nellis . There were an additional eighteen male crew members aboard the " Antares " . In that year , the crew of the " Antares " transferred a young man , Charles Evans , who had been stranded on the planet Thasus for fourteen years and possessed psychokinetic powers , to the , so he could be transported to Colony Alpha 5 to be reunited with his closest living relatives . On stardate 1535 . 8 , the " Antares " was destroyed when young Charlie used his psychokinetic powers to make a baffle plate on the shield of the ship ' s energy pile " go away . " Charlie did not seem to understand the seriousness of his actions , saying simply that the baffle plate had been warped , and that the " Antares " would have blown up anyway . ( ) Appendices . Background information . According to the , the " Antares " was named after , a star in the constellation ( the Scorpion ) and one of the brightest stars as seen from Earth . In the episode , the ship was given four different descriptions : 1 ) cargo vessel , 2 ) transport ship , 3 ) science - probe vessel , and 4 ) survey ship . The fourth edition of the " Star Trek Encyclopedia " described the " Antares " as a science vessel ( vol . 1 , p . 31 ) or as a transport ( vol . 1 , p . 367 ) . At first , however , the " Antares " was a trading ship . In a memo ( dated ) from Robert Justman to Gene Roddenberry regarding the initial story outline of " Charlie X " ( then called " Charlie Is God " ) , Justman advised , " " I would suggest we eliminate the trading vessel in the story . " " He later referred to the " Antares " as a " trading vessel " twice in a memo he wrote John D . F . Black about the episode ' s revised story outline ( the memo was dated , by which time the installment had been renamed " Charlie X " ) . In the same memo , Justman asked , " " Is it necessary that we see this vessel ? " " The final draft script of " Charlie X " ( dated ) made it clear that the " Antares " was indeed intended to be depicted on screen . When first established in the stage directions from that script , the craft was described , in comparison to the " Enterprise " , as a " much smaller survey ship . " However , the scripted stage directions also referred to it as a transport . Additionally , in an ultimately unused line of dialogue from the same draft of the script , the " Antares " was said to have been on " a geological probe " of Thasus when it discovered Charles Evans . In the original final edit of " Charlie X " ( which was first aired on ) , the " Antares " is not depicted on screen , leaving its appearance open to imagination . The " Star Trek Concordance " ( 3rd ed . p . 278 ) , by Bjo Trimble , had an original design illustration from Brian Pimenta of the " Antares " , with registry number NCC - 717 . In the " Star Trek Encyclopedia " ( 3rd ed . , p . 470 ) , though , a registry number of NCC - 501 was given to the " Antares " , based on conjecture by Michael Okuda . The " Antares " was one of the ships that the team who worked on the remastered version of wanted to feature , if doing so would be possible . ( " " issue 63 , p . 12 ) For that project , Mike Okuda used his earlier - conceived registry number of NCC - 501 in the remastered edition of " Charlie X " . In this remastering , the " Antares " is essentially depicted as a CG model of a type of robot grain ship visible in , with an addition of a " crew module . " Commented Okuda , " " I can ' t recall whose idea it was to use the grain ship from " The Animated Series " . It might have been mine , or it might have been Dave Rossi ' s . " " ( " " issue 63 , p . 12 ) The process of adapting the robot grain ship as the design of the " Antares " began with Mike Okuda spending " a couple of days " on examining the layout of the grain ship . He then looked online for any blueprints of the vessel . Though Okuda found some blueprints he regarded as " very fine , " none of them seemed to match how he imagined the craft ' s appearance . " " So I did a 3D drawing of what my interpretation of that ship looked like , " " he continued , " " and turned it over to Neil Wray ( visual effects supervisor for Remastered TOS ) . The key to making it happen was that the blueprints had to be ready if Neil decided there was time to do it . " " ( " " issue 63 , pp . 12 - 13 ) Building the actual CG model of the " Antares " was a case of trial and error , but the creative staff of Remastered TOS knew there wasn ' t a lot of time to perfect the model . " " The " Antares " ship was really a last minute add , even though it was planned ahead , so I simply said to Neil to use the same basic textures as the " Enterprise " , " " Mike Okuda remembered . " " It has a little more relief to the surface texture , but unless somebody was very dissatisfied with it , we were pretty much going with Neil ' s first guess . I gave them the markings , but Neil used the same basic textures that were used to create subtle relief on the " Enterprise " s hull , but exaggerated them a bit . " " Despite the " Antares " being added late in the process , everyone involved was happy with the results . ( " " issue 63 , p . 13 ) The prefix " USS " was never applied to the " Antares " in on - screen dialogue nor appeared on the ship ' s hull . Nonetheless , both StarTrek . com and the " Star Trek Encyclopedia " ( 4th ed . , Vol . 1 A - L , p . 31 ) listed this ship as USS " Antares " . Additionally , in all editions of the " Star Trek Encyclopedia " , the " Antares " was referred to , in a list of Federation starships , as the prototype ship of the " Antares " - class starship , with the also stated to be of this class . According to an article at StarTrek . com , the " Antares " insignia was the Spacecraft Duty insignia . This insignia was worn by personnel assigned to an auxiliary spacecraft in Starfleet ' s Merchant Marine Corps . Apocrypha . An science vessel , also named USS " Antares " , was part of the " " planetarium show , produced in and authorized by Paramount Pictures in conjunction with the " " exhibit . The ship was commanded by Captain Katryana DiChario , and left Neptune Station on a mission to explore a recently discovered , artificially constructed wormhole interstellar transit system that had " jump points " throughout the Milky Way Galaxy at real - life scientific phenomena , such as the Orion Nebula , the Crab Nebula , a flare star , etc . Geordi La Forge was a temporary crewmember during the expedition , along with a group of Starfleet cadet s ( the audience ) .