USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)
In the fictional universe of
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
Enterprise's 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.
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.)
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. 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.
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).
The original
Enterprise was designed by
Star Trek Art Director
Walter M. "Matt" Jefferies. Two filming miniatures, one approximately 3 feet (91.4 cm) long and the other 11 feet 2 inches (3.4 m) long were built by
Richard Datin for the pilot episode "
The Cage". When
NBC ordered a second pilot ("
Where No Man Has Gone Before") be filmed, the models were slightly altered, the larger model being wired for electronic lighting effects. The first regular series episode filmed ("
The Corbomite Maneuver," actually the tenth episode broadcast) saw still more alterations made, including the addition of translucent domes and blinking lights at the forward ends of the engine nacelles on the large model. 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 disappeared some time after the cancellation of the series.
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). (The first image on this page is from the center spread of that calendar.) 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. 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 to add footage as envisioned by director
Robert Wise during the original 1970's filming, but never shot because of budget and time constraints.
* The 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, and a bowling alley was indeed included on the plans. Whether this makes the bowling alley canonical or not is a matter of debate.
* 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 first on-screen reference to the age of the ship occurs on
Star Trek 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. This, however, is clearly erroneous since the film takes place roughly 15 years after the events of the original series episode "Space Seed", and it is known that
Christopher Pike commanded the vessel for at least a decade prior to Kirk taking command. And this doesn't even take into account the conjectured command of Robert April. It can be safely speculated that the age of the NCC-1701 at the time of its destruction was closer to 40 years, a fact later confirmed by the
Star Trek: Enterprise episode "
In a Mirror, Darkly" during which a computer screen displays the commissioning year for the NCC-1701 as 2245. It may be that "20 years old" referred, in round terms, to the time since the ship's last overhaul and refit after Captain Pike's mission (or perhaps since Captain Kirk's initial voyage in the pilot episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before," since after that episode the ship, its crew, and even the uniforms changed noticeably).
*
Space Shuttle Enterprise is named after the spaceship Enterprise.
* 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.
* The bridge design of the NCC-1701 was once considered for use by the real-life United States military, due to the efficiency of its style and layout.
*
