BCV Burton

BCV Burton
The wreck of the Burton.
Affiliation	Planetary Union
Class	Battleship
Status	Wrecked (2420)
Appearances
First appearance	New Beginnings, Pt. 1

The BCV Burton was a Planetary Union battleship which served during the war with the Tzel in the early 24th century.

The Burton was destroyed shortly after surviving a vicious battle with the Tzel and was considered lost until its rediscovery in 2420.

Schematics

Battleships of the early 24th century were more angular than their modern counterparts.

The Bridge is similar in design to modern Union ships, though smaller and with flat-backed chairs. The Mess Hall is a large room with two Food Synthesizers. The Burton was capable of faster-than-light travel with a single quantum drive ring. The Burton has a Docking Bay in the rear of the ship.

Armament

Typical of battleships of this time, the Burton came equipped with a very large Particle Beam Cannon located on the ship's center topside. Smaller, rotating cannons can be found on the sides of the ship, both above and below.

Buoys

The Burton's communications buoy.

The ship held at least two communication buoys.

History

The Burton was constructed and commissioned years before 2320 and served in the Planetary Union as a battleship under an unnamed commander.

Some time before 2320, the Burton fought in the Battle of the Chog Homeworld alongside at least one Union ship and probably others against the Tzel.

The location was between 8,750 to 9,000 light years from Earth and deep in uncharted space. The Tzel had fabricated a distress call to lure the Burton and other Union war ships into an ambush.

The Burton survived the battle, but was badly damaged. With all its senior officers killed, Ensign Hodges assumed command of twenty survivors. The Burton launched a distress buoy Bv2. The buoy's log stated the ship was damaged in a battle at a star system three light years away.

Crash-landing on the Chog homeworld

The Burton crash landed on a habitable planet in the system. Damage from the crash exposed the quantum reactor; a leak gradually poisoned the planet, extinguishing "all plant life and most animal life." A group of friendly Chogs attempted to help the survivors; in gratitude, the remaining crew of the Burton repaired the reactor and diverted all power to the Food Synthesizer and Particle Beam Cannon to protect them.

Owing to the distance between Union space and the battle, the Burton and any fellow ships were lost to history.

Rediscovery

Captain Ed Mercer and Helmsman Gordon Malloy discovered the Bv2's "faint" signal en route to a tactical conference in the summer of 2420, and followed the coordinates to the ship.

The Burton's particle cannon had fired at Ed and Gordon's shuttle, nearly destroying the shuttle and almost killing them in the process.

Production

Executive producer and writer David A. Goodman conceived of the Burton for the comic New Beginnings, which was developed by artist David Cabeza. The Burton is similar to the USS Orville, but in the final draft of the Burton, some parts of the ship are not covered in panels (the reason for this is unknown) and, where the Orville has a Shuttle Bay, the Burton has a Docking Bay.

Trivia

• According to Second Officer Bortus' screen, the Burton is "armed" with active "shields" and 72 percent structural damage.
• The name of the ship was taken from Richard Francis Burton, a British explorer believed to have discovered the source of the Nile river.

Appearances

• Episode 1.5x01: New Beginnings, Pt. 1
• Episode 1.5x02: New Beginnings, Pt. 2