Bread and Circuses (Star Trek: The Original Series) entertainment. In the episode, Captain Kirk and his companions are forced to fight in gladiatorial games on a planet resembling the Roman Empire, but possessing mid-20th century Earth technology. The Federation starship USS "Enterprise" is on routine patrol when it finds wreckage of the SS "Beagle". The "Beagle" was under the command of Captain R. M. Merik (William Smithers), whom Captain Kirk (William Shatner) knew during his academy days. First Officer Spock (Leonard Nimoy) traces the path of debris back to a planet in the previously unexplored system 892. The "Enterprise" picks up a 20th-century-style television news broadcast, reporting in
Starship Enterprise D. Moore noted in the "Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual" that real-life naval tradition would insist on calling such a craft the captain's gig, rather than the captain's yacht. Rick Sternbach later designed similar craft for USS "Voyager" and USS "Equinox", known as the aeroshuttle and the waverider, respectively. As on the "Enterprise"-D, however, these vessels were only depicted on technical schematics and never seen in operation or referred to in dialog. "Time" described each iteration of the "Enterprise" as "a character in its own right". Over many decades, the starship has influenced real-life activities of NASA and