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The USS Enterprise is a fictional starship in the television series Star Trek, the USS Enterprise, (NCC-1701) was the ship in the original NBC TV 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 1966-1969 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 Enterprises configuration (then the largest and most powerful ships in Starfleet) to be "Starship Class" ships (with smaller vessels having different class names). However, the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode ("The Naked Now") later officially revealed that the ship was a Constitution class starship (this had been fanon for many years, although "Constellation Class" had also previously been used as a designation for the Enterprise in various novels and other sources). 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.
Fictional history 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. Star Trek: The Animated Series revealed a previous captain, Robert April, however as TAS was not considered canon by Gene Roddenberry or Paramount Pictures, owners of the Trek franchise, April's tenure as captain remains a matter of fanon, not canon, until a future live-action film or TV series establishes otherwise. (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 was Captain James Tiberius Kirk. It should be noted that although Tiberius has been established as Kirk's middle name, the second pilot episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before" lists his name as James R. Kirk on a tombstone that is created for him by his powerful nemesis and former friend, Lt. Commander Gary Mitchell (Starfleet). Following Kirk's five-year mission, as explained in the 1979 film Star Trek: The Motion Picture, the Enterprise was out of service for 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. However, official canon has never indicated that a second mission occurred. All that is known is 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''). Filming miniatures 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 larger miniature and even appeared on set during "Requiem for Methuselah". The second miniature built for the second pilot "Where No Man Has Gone Before") measures 11 feet 2 inches (3.4 m) long and was built by Richard Datin The ports and running lights were internally illuminated except on the port side of the model which was unfinished. When the series was picked up and went into production, the model was altered. The 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 0-671-00936-2). 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..."). 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 highly-detailed accurate CGI model of the ship was built 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 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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