The USS Enterprise, (NCC-1701) is a fictional starship in the television series Star Trek, which chronicled the vessel's most famous assignment, a five-year mission of exploration and diplomacy under Captain James T. Kirk's command. It is the first Federation starship to bear the name Enterprise, and possibly the most famous spaceship in history, real or fictional.The Enterprise was a Constitution-class heavy cruiser that was commissioned in 2245.During the run of the show, the ship's dedication plaque (which could be seen in the turbolift alcove on the main bridge) listed it as "Starship Class", since the show's creators originally intended ships of the Enterprise's configuration (then the largest and most powerful ships in Starfleet) to be "Starship Class" ships (with smaller vessels having different class names). Early fan and backstage sources established it as a Constitution class starship. This was confirmed in the TNG episode "The Neutral Zone".The particular combination of letters and numbers for the ship's registry, NCC-1701, was chosen because it would be easily readable at a glance by television viewers. "NCC" (unofficially known as ' Naval Construction Contract ' was chosen by analogy to modern civil aircraft identification codes. In a popular video game by Interplay, Starfleet Command, NCC is known as 'New Command Cruiser'.Fictional history
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
The first officially known commanding officer of the Enterprise was Christopher Pike, who served as captain for more than a decade prior to Kirk's fabled voyages.The Star Trek: The Animated Series revealed a previous captain, Robert April. Although the animated series is not recognised as official canon by Paramount, many other spin-off works recognise April's first year mission. (It has been reported that April is identified as the first captain of the NCC-1701 on a computer display visible in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "In a Mirror, Darkly", however this has not been verified.)The second captain of the Enterprise was Captain Christopher Pike which was chronicled in the original pilot episode "The Cage" and the later episode "The Menagerie". A Vulcan science officer, Mr. Spock, came to serve on the Enterprise under Captain Pike's command.The third captain of this ship is James T Kirk, who commanded the ship on a five-year mission of exploration.Following Kirk's five-year mission, as explained in the 1979 film Star Trek: The Motion Picture, the Enterprise was out of service for around two-and-a-half-years, undergoing an extensive rebuild and upgrade while in dry-dock orbiting Earth under the command of Willard Decker. When it was recalled to service prematurely in order to deal with the V'ger threat, Kirk, now an admiral, took command of the vessel from Decker who subsequently disappeared with V'ger.It is a commonly held belief among fans that, following the events of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Admiral/Captain Kirk commanded a second mission (possibly for another five years), and a number of novels and reference works have assumed this. This has not, however, been depicted or mentioned on screen. Approximately 5-9 years after the V'ger incident, the Enterprise was under the command of Captain Spock and being used as a training vessel.In Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Khan Noonien Singh stole the U.S.S. Reliant and used her to disable the Enterprise. The ship had been on a training mission under the command of Captain Spock. Kirk, who once again took command of the NCC-1701 at the urging of Spock, employed a strategy to equally disable the Reliant. Khan planned to use a weapon, called "Genesis", to destroy the Reliant and the Enterprise, but the Enterprise and her crew were able to survive, partly because of the self-sacrifice of Mr. Spock. The vessel, heavily damaged and with a skeleton crew, limped back to Earth.In Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, which immediately followed Khan, Starfleet decided to scrap the ship, thinking that the age of the ship wouldn't make a repair worthwhile. (There is a continuity error involved in this decision; see Trivia, below.) Nevertheless, the command crew stole the ship and took it to the Genesis Planet, to bring Spock's body back to Vulcan. At the Genesis planet, the Enterprise was attacked by a Klingon Bird Of Prey under the command of Commander Kruge. Despite being able to inflict some damage on the Klingons, the control systems of the Enterprise began to fail, and a torpedo from the Klingons disabled the ship completely. Faced with being captured by a Klingon boarding party or being killed, Kirk, Chekov, and Scott set the ship to auto destruct. The primary hull was blown apart, and the secondary hull fell into the Genesis planet's atmosphere and was incinerated, taking with it all of the Klingons except for Commander Kruge and one officer, Maltz, who remained on the Bird Of Prey.Following the destruction of the NCC-1701, Kirk and his officers were instrumental in saving Earth from a mysterious probe (as chronicled in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home). As a reward, Kirk (who was demoted to captain as punishment for disobeying orders and taking the NCC-1701 to the Genesis Planet) was given command of a new U.S.S. Enterprise, a virtually identical (from the outside) vessel with the registry number NCC-1701-A. This began a long tradition of continuing the NCC-1701 registry number through successive generations of Enterprise which in some timelines continues until at least the 26th century (see Starship Enterprise).Age
The age of the vessel at the time of its destruction has never been firmly established, although there have been some non-canon and semi-canon conjectures. The early Making of Star Trek book claims the ship is 40 years old during Kirk's five year mission. The series has Pike commanding the ship for around 10 years before Kirk took charge, and the Animated Series posited its first captain was Robert April. This gives what is now a commonly accepted age of around 20 years : the Star Trek Encyclopedia, based on the Okuda timeline, gives a launch year of 2245, one year after the USS Constitution.The first on-screen reference to the age of the ship occurs ..rek III: The Search for Spock; just prior to its destruction when the ship is said to be 20 years old which is given as Starfleet's rationale for scrapping the vessel. The film is set around 15 years after the original series episode "Space Seed", and thus this figure contradicts Pike's decade-long command of the ship. Okuda's chronology sets the film just 14 years after the ship had undergone a major refit.Unseen artwork for the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "In a Mirror, Darkly" depicts a computer screen confirming Okuda's date for the commissioning of the Enterprise as 2245.Filming miniatures
A comparison of the Enterprise with other ships and buildings. (See image description for more detail.)The original Enterprise was designed by Star Trek Art Director Walter M. "Matt" Jefferies. The first miniature built for the pilot episode "The Cage" measured approximately 3 feet (91.4 cm) long. It was unlit. It was modified during the course of the series to match the changes eventually made to the larger miniature, and even appeared on set during "Requiem for Methuselah". The second miniature built for the first pilot measures 11 feet 2 inches (3.4 m) long and was built by Richard Datin. Initially, the model was totally static, and had no electronics of any kind installed. For the second pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before", various details were altered, and the window ports and running lights were internally illuminated, except on the port side of the model, which was left unfinished. When the series was picked up and went into production, the model was altered yet again. These alterations included the addition of translucent domes and blinking lights at the forward ends of the engine nacelles, smaller round domes at the stern end of the engine nacelles, a shorter bridge dome, and a smaller deflector/sensor dish. Save for re-used footage from the two pilot episodes, this was the appearance of the ship throughout the run of the series. The larger model, restored by Ed Miarecki in 1992, is currently in a display case on the lower level of the gift shop of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. The smaller model was presented to Gene Roddenberry after the series was cancelled. It was later loaned to someone who did not return it and its present status is unknown.Another model of the original Enterprise seen on screen was Greg Jein's, built for the Deep Space Nine episode "Trials and Tribble-ations." Jein's model was built to be exactly half the size of the larger of the two original models, and has since appeared in the 1998 Star Trek wall calendar (ISBN). In addition, a CGI model of the ship made a brief cameo at the very end of the final episode of Star Trek: Enterprise ("These are the Voyages..."), and another CG version was created for the remastered episodes of the original Star Trek series that began airing in syndication in September 2006 (the model was then revised, with more accurate detailing added, in November 2006).The Enterprise as it appears in the first three Star Trek films was designed by Mike Minor, Joe Jennings, Andrew Probert, Douglas Trumbull, and Harold Michaelson, all based on conceptual sketches done by Matt Jeffries for the never-filmed Star Trek: Phase II TV series. It is approximately 8 feet (152 cm) long. (The model was re-used as the Enterprise NCC-1701-A beginning with the fourth feature, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.For the "Director's Cut" DVD release of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, a CGI model of the ship was built by the visual effects company Foundation Imaging to add footage as envisioned by director Robert Wise during the original 1970's filming, but never shot because of budget and time constraints. This CGI model can be seen most notably at the end of the "wormhole" sequence, when the "Ilia Probe" stops outside the hull of the bridge before entering, and just prior to the "V'Ger Bridge" scene, where V'Ger creates a landbridge between its command center and the saucer section of the Enterprise.Trivia
Replica of the Enterprise, Vulcan, AlbertaThe NCC-1701 may or may not have had a bowling alley for the recreational use of its crew. Such a feature is mentioned by Lt. Riley in the first season episode "The Naked Time" though it's hard to tell if this was intended a joke since Riley was under the influence of an alien virus at the time. In 1973, an officially licensed set of blueprints of the ship, drawn by Franz Joseph, was published (ISBN), and a bowling alley was indeed included on the plans. Whether this makes the bowling alley canonical or not is a matter of debate.
Construction began on the first Space Shuttle on June 4, 1974. Designated OV-101, it was originally planned to be named Constitution. However, a write-in campaign caused it to be renamed after the Enterprise. The Space Shuttle Enterprise was used as a test vehicle and was never refitted to become a space vehicle.
Before the era of the Federation & the NCC-1701, the first deep-space starship named Enterprise was the smaller, warp-5 capable NX-01 of the 2150s.
According to The Making of Star Trek, by Stephen Whitfield and Gene Roddenberry, the bridge design of the NCC-1701 was once considered for use by the real-life United States Navy, due to the efficiency of its style and layout.
The Enterprise makes a brief appearance at the end of pilot miniseries to the new Battlestar Galactica. The ship appears in the background of a shot featuring the rag tag fleet in the upper right of the scene. The reuse of the shot as stock footage for the series has led to the Enterprise appearing in many Galactica episodes. The presence of the ship is an in-joke on producer Ronald D. Moore, who previously worked as a writer ..rek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager.
In a similar brief appearance, an AMT model of the Enterprise appeared as one of the derelict ships in the "Spider's Web Graveyard" in the Space: 1999 episode Dragon's Domain, along with the TARDIS from Doctor Who. Although filmed, these scenes were cut from the aired version of the episode. Pieces of the Enterprise model kit were used as "kitbashing" parts for many of the miniatures used in Space: 1999, most notably as the underside of a landing pad on the Centuri Space Dock in the episode Breakaway.
The wreckage of the Enterprise can be very briefly glimpsed among some floating space junk in the film Heavy Metal.
The saucer section of the Enterprise is detachable, as stated in episode 34,"The Apple", but this ability was never demonstrated on screen. (The later Enterprise NCC-1701-D also had this feature.)
The novel Enterprise: The First Adventure by Vonda N. McIntyre erroneously refers to the NCC-1701 as a "Constellation" class vessel.
In episode 14 of the Heroes TV series, NCC 1701 is the license plate number of a car owned by Hiro Nakamura's father (played by George Takei).
In episode AABF06 of The Simpsons, NCC-1701 is the license plate number of a car owned by Comic Book Guy.
In the movie Airplane II: The Sequel, Commander Buck Murdock (William Shatner) looks through a periscope in the lunar control room and sees stock footage of the Enterprise from the original series. This is a play on the fact that Shatner played Captain Kirk. Other Enterprise and Star Trek references and parodies are present in the movie as well such as the "voice-activated doors" on the moonbase that are activated by making the "shhh" sound that the doors on the Enterprise make.
Star Trek ships named Enterprise
USS Enterprise (XCV 330) – Enterprise (NX-01) – USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) – USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A)
USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-B) – USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-C) – USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D)
USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-E) – USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-J)
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