USS Ariel (23rd century)

The USS Ariel was a 23rd century Federation starship operated by Starfleet. 
Classified either as a survey ship or as a science ship, the Ariel had a crew of six scientists who were described as either being a "science crew" or "scientific contact team".
In 2269, the Ariel was on a survey mission to planet Lactra VII under the command of Lieutenant Commander Tom Markel. When a three-person landing party went missing on the surface, Markel ignored Starfleet orders and beamed to the surface with his remaining crew, biologist Randi Bryce and navigator Nancy Randolph.
Six weeks later, the abandoned Ariel was found in orbit by the crew of , who searched the ship and its log entries. An Enterprise landing party subsequently discovered and managed to free the crew from a Lactran zoo. ()
== Crew ==
* See USS Ariel personnel
== Appendices ==
=== Background information ===
In dialogue, this ship was identified simply as "the Ariel." However, StarTrek.com refers to it separately as the USS Ariel and the Ariel. 
In the script, the Ariel was to be shown and was described, in comparison to the Enterprise, with the statement, "This is a smaller scientific-exploratory spaceship." However, the craft wasn't storyboarded to appear and doesn't actually appear in the final version of the episode.
The text commentary for this episode supposes that the USS Ariel may have been named after the character of from the Shakespeare play .
=== External links ===
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