USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A)

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USS Enterprise <tr> <td align="center" colspan="2"> The USS Enterprise-A </small></td> </tr>
First appearance	Star Trek: IV <tr> <th>Last appearance</th> <td> Star Trek: VI</td> </tr><tr> <th>Affiliation</th> <td>Starfleet</td> </tr><tr> <th>Launched</th> <td>2286</td> </tr><tr> <th>Decommissioned</th> <td>2293</td> </tr>
General Characteristics <tr> <th>Class</th> <td>Constitution</td> </tr><tr> <th>Registry</th> <td>NCC-1701-A</td> </tr><tr> <th>Maximum speed</th> <td>Warp 9 (Cochrane scale)</td> </tr><tr> <th>Auxiliary craft</th> <td>Shuttlecraft</td> </tr><tr> <th>Armaments</th> <td>Photon torpedos Phasers</td> </tr><tr> <th>Defense</th> <td>Deflector shields</td> </tr><tr> <th>Propulsion</th> <td>Impulse engines Warp drive</td> </tr>

For other starships with this name, see Starship Enterprise.

The USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A) (or Enterprise-A), commissioned in 2286, is a Constitution class starship in the Star Trek fictional universe. It is the second starship commissioned since the Federation's founding to bear the name. It is placed under the command of the newly demoted Captain James T. Kirk at the end of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home in gratitude for his role in saving the Earth from an alien probe and as "punishment" for his and his crew's actions in the rescue of Captain Spock in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. It replaces the original USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), destroyed in Star Trek III, and is outwardly similar to the earlier vessel. The ship, although also a refit Constitution class like the previous Enterprise, featured new technology similar to the touch-pad consoles used in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Ironically, older style switches and buttons were used for Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. New systems also include an automated photon torpedo launcher (Star Trek VI) and an "advanced" brig (Star Trek V: The Final Frontier). The ship appears with a different bridge in each of its three movie appearances.

The ship's command structure is unlike anything portrayed elsewhere in Star Trek in that the senior staff consists of three officers with the rank of captain: commanding officer Captain James T. Kirk, first officer Captain Spock, and chief engineer Captain Montgomery Scott.

1 Origin
2 First mission
3 Final mission
4 Fate
5 External links

[edit] Origin

No internal evidence in the show or films exists about the ship's history prior to its initial appearance. Spin-off books generally agree that it was not a new build, but some other ship that had been renamed.

Series creator Gene Roddenberry stated that the ship was originally the USS Yorktown (NCC-1717) and was rechristened as the Enterprise-A after the Probe incident in Star Trek IV^{[citation needed]}. Both the Star Trek Encyclopedia and the Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual repeat this assertion, as does documentation included with Bandai's Enterprise-A model.
Conflicting with this is Michael Jan Friedman's novel Crossover, which features the Yorktown as an unrefit Constitution class ship mothballed at some point after the events in Star Trek IV.
The technical guidebook Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise states that the USS Ti-Ho (NCC-1798), equipped with a transwarp drive, was re-christened Enterprise.
FASA Corporation's Star Trek IV Sourcebook states that the NCC-1701-A's former identity was the USS Atlantis, in spacedock at the time of the Whalesong crisis, and later redesignated as the new USS Enterprise.

Between the fourth and fifth films, the Enterprise returns to spacedock for refitting. The existing Enterprise sets from the first through fourth films were redressed for use on Star Trek: The Next Generation, so some new sets were constructed for the fifth film. The producers explained that the reason the bridge appears so different between the fourth and fifth films is that the bridge module was replaced during this refitting^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] First mission

Main article: Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

In The Final Frontier, the ship is dispatched to rescue hostages on Nimbus III despite having only a skeleton crew and numerous technical problems. It is hijacked by the Vulcan renegade Sybok and his followers, who take the ship to a planet at the center of the galaxy where they encounter a powerful alien masquerading as God. Sybok is killed and Kirk becomes stranded on the planet. After a brief skirmish with a Klingon bird-of-prey, the Klingons are convinced to rescue Kirk.

No film or television episodes are set in the six-year span between the fifth and sixth films, although many novels and comics explore this period.

[edit] Final mission

Main article: Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

In the next film, The Undiscovered Country, the ship is dispatched to escort the Klingon chancellor to a summit on Earth. A renegade Klingon general in command of an experimental bird-of-prey and assisted by a traitor aboard the Enterprise makes it appear that Kirk's ship fires on the Klingon chancellor's vessel. Kirk and McCoy are taken prisoner by the Klingons; Spock and the rest of the crew (less Hikaru Sulu, who has been given command of the USS Excelsior) disregard Starfleet orders and rescue Kirk and McCoy. Kirk and Spock identify and interrogate the turncoat, and Sulu informs them of the location of a new summit, which they suspect the renegade general may also target. The Enterprise encounters the experimental bird-of-prey, which can fire while cloaked. With the Excelsior's help, they manage to destroy it, although the Enterprise suffers significant damage, and the crew protects the Federation president from an assassination attempt. The film concludes with Starfleet ordering the ship to return to spacedock to be decommissioned. Starfleet's decommissioning order lends credence to the suggestion that the Enterprise-A was a renamed, older (but refitted) vessel. However, the decommissioning order appears to surprise Kirk, so the reason for the vessel being taken out of service (especially within moments of the end of a successful mission) remains a puzzle. The age of the starship class itself, coupled with the extent of the damage it suffers in the film, may also contribute to Starfleet's decision to decommission rather than repair the vessel.

[edit] Fate

There is no canon information about the ship's fate beyond the end of Star Trek VI. The Bandai model documentation states that the ship was displayed in the Starfleet Museum at Memory Alpha.

In the beginning scenes of 'Star Trek VI, Kirk refers to the fact that the Enterprise-A crew "is due to stand down in three months". Kirk's captain's log at the end of the movie reads:

Captain's log, stardate 9529.1. This is the final cruise of the starship Enterprise under my command. This ship and her history will shortly become the care of another crew. To them and their posterity will we commit our future. They will continue the voyages we have begun and journey to all the undiscovered countries, boldly going where no man... where no one has gone before.

This implies that the ship will be passed on to another crew after Kirk's crew retire. However, this contradicts with Starfleet's orders moments earlier for the Enterprise to return to spacedock for decommissioning. The Enterprise-B is commissioned at the beginning of Star Trek: Generations, set shortly after Star Trek VI.

According to the non-canon novel The Ashes of Eden, written by William Shatner, the Enterprise-A was decommissioned at the behest of Starfleet Commander-in-Chief Androvar Drake, a rival of Kirk's since their early careers. The Enterprise-A was to be destroyed during war games and weapons testing, but the Chal government's intervention saves her. She is subsequently destroyed to prevent Drake's completion of a disastrous personal agenda.

In another non-canon work, the fan-created Star Trek New Voyages series, the Enterprise-A makes a cameo appearance in the episode "In Harm's Way," for which Eugene Roddenberry Jr. acted as consultant producer. The ship appears to be the NCC-1701 at first glance, however it is NCC-1701-A in other shots. The New Voyages homepage specifically states that this is the Enterprise-A.

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)