USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)

USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)

USS Enterprise
Registry:	NCC-1701
Class:	Constitution
Affiliation:	United Federation of Planets Starfleet
Status:	Destroyed (2285)
Career
Yard:	San Francisco Fleet Yards
Launched:	2245
Commissioned:	2245
Dimensions
Specifications
Decks:	22
Complement:	203
Speed:	warp 7
Armament:	8 phaser emitters, 2 torpedo launchers
Defenses:	Deflector shields

For mirror universe starship, see ISS Enterprise (NCC-1701).

The USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) was a 23rd century Federation Constitution-class starship operated by Starfleet, and the first Federation starship to bear the name Enterprise. During its career, the Enterprise served as the Federation flagship and was in service from 2245 to 2285.

Service history

Construction and launch

In the early- to mid-23rd century, at least twelve heavy cruiser-type starships, the Constitution-class, were commissioned by the Federation Starfleet. Constructed at the San Francisco Fleet Yards in San Francisco, California, the Federation vessel registered NCC-1701 was christened "the Enterprise" in a long line of ships of the same name.

Captain Robert April oversaw construction of the ship's components as well as its initial trial runs. His wife, Sarah April, designed several tools for the ship's sickbay. Larry Marvick was one of the designers of the Enterprise itself, while Doctor Richard Daystrom designed its computer systems.

Robert April's command

The Enterprise was launched on April 11, 2245, under the command of Captain April. Sarah April served as the ship's first chief medical officer, with Christopher Pike serving as Captain April's first officer.

Christopher Pike's command

Rigel VII

On stardate 2496.4, the Enterprise visit Rigel VII as a routine exploration of a remote class M planet. Captain Pike, along with a landing party consisting of Spock, Yeoman Zac Nguyen, Ensign C. Plummer and M. Aberth and several others went down to the planet where they were attacked by the Kalar. Yeoman Ngyugen, Ensign Plummer and Aberth were killed, while Spock and six others were injured. The mission lasted all of four hours. The remaining members of the landing party returned to the Enterprise and set course to Vega colony to get medical aid for those injured.

Talos IV

While traveling to the Vega Colony, the Enterprise learned there were survivors of the SS Columbia that were marooned on Talos IV nearly eighteen years earlier. Following the stop at Vega, the Enterprise traveled to Talos to rescue the Columbia survivors only to find out it was a trapped devised by the Talosians.

James T. Kirk's command

The Enterprise in orbit, 2267

In 2265, after nearly twenty years of service aboard the Enterprise, Captain Pike would be promoted to fleet captain and command of the Enterprise would be transferred to James Kirk. The Enterprise would also be assigned to another five-year mission of deep space exploration. The ship's primary goal during this mission was to seek out and contact alien life. Captain Kirk's standing orders also included the investigation of all quasars and quasar-like phenomena.

Beyond its primary mission, the Enterprise defended Federation territories from aggression, aided member worlds in crisis, and provided scientific expeditions and colonies in its patrol area with annual examinations and support.

Discoveries

From 2265 to 2270, the Enterprise visited over seventy different worlds and encountered representatives of over sixty different species. More than twenty of those were first contacts with beings previously unknown to the Federation, including stellar neighbors like the First Federation and Gorn, voyagers from the Kelvan Empire in distant Andromeda, and powerful non-corporeal entities like the Thasians, Trelane, and the Organians. Two discovered species were the first known examples of silicon-based lifeforms: the Horta and the Excalbians.

In the barrier void in 2265

The Enterprise was the first Federation vessel to survive an encounter with the galactic barrier. The ship's warp drive and other systems, however, were critically damaged (which later prompted the ship to be refit and repaired, changing its appearance slightly for the rest of Kirk's mission) and casualties totaled twelve crewmembers and officers. By stardate 4657.5, the Enterprise was traveling through space in a region hundreds of light years further than any Earth starship had explored.

The reality of time travel, externally influenced, had been known for over a century, but following two accidental temporal displacements, the Enterprise became the Federation's first deliberately controlled timeship. Observing the death-throes of Psi 2000, the crew suffered from polywater intoxication and the Enterprise nearly lost orbit after an engine shutdown. A previously untested "cold start", via controlled matter-antimatter implosion, saved the ship, but the high-speed escape from the planet's gravity well caused the ship to travel three days into the past.

Orbiting 1960s Earth

In 2267, while escaping the gravitational pull of a black star, the Enterprise was hurled through space and time to Earth of 1969. The crew developed and executed a method to return to their own time, by warping around the sun's gravity well in a slingshot maneuver. A year later, the Enterprise was ordered to repeat the recently proven slingshot effect and returned to Earth's past on a mission of historical observation.

The space amoeba in 2268

Some missions of discovery confronted Enterprise with entities and mechanisms that threatened great swaths of Federation and neighboring space.

An ancient "planet killer", fueled by the consumption of planets it destroyed with its antiproton weapon, approached Federation population centers in 2267. It required the combined efforts of the Enterprise and its "sister ship", USS Constellation, to destroy the invader.

One year later, in 2268, a single-cell organism of colossal scale emitted negative energy, toxic to humanoid life, killing the entire Vulcan crew of the USS Intrepid. The Enterprise penetrated the cell interior and destroyed the organism before its imminent cell division threatened to overwhelm the rest of the galaxy.

Battles

The Enterprise fires a phaser proximity blast

The nature of its mission of exploration meant the Enterprise was frequently the only Federation military asset in a little-known, otherwise undefended frontier. When called into harm's way, the ship regularly did so with little chance of immediate support against previously unknown enemies and threats.

Happily, the Enterprise's earliest engagement of its five-year mission, against a deceptively powerful starship called the Fesarius, ended with an amicable first contact with the First Federation in 2266. Following the destruction of a colony on Cestus III, a surprise attack – from a previously unknown species – led the Enterprise to battle and pursue an evenly matched Gorn starship in 2267.

The Enterprise played the fox for four of its "sister ships" in a war games problem on stardate 4729.4, as part of a series of M-5 drills. Equipped with the new M-5 multitronic unit computer and stripped of most of its crew, the Enterprise became a killing machine – crippling the USS Excalibur and killing its entire crew – before Kirk could re-assert control.

Klingon engagements

The Battle of Organia in 2267

Warships of the Imperial Klingon Fleet were frequent opponents of the Enterprise. Commander Kor held the Enterprise and Kirk in high professional regard and relished the prospect of battle. Lower ranks chose to mock the starship; on one such occasion, Korax compared the vessel to a "garbage scow" before he corrected himself, adding, "It should be hauled away as garbage."

While Starfleet rallied its forces at the outbreak of a Federation-Klingon War in 2267, the Enterprise was sent forward to secure a border region anchored by the planet Organia. The vessel destroyed a Klingon ship and prepared to engage an approaching Klingon fleet, before the Organian Peace Treaty precluded a full-scale war.

The Enterprise sporadically engaged Klingons throughout its voyage. A warship failed in an attempt to blockade the Enterprise from Capella IV in 2267. Sabotaged during a diplomatic mission to the Tellun system in 2268, the ship successfully fought off the assault of a harassing D7. The same year, the Enterprise was forced to destroy a battle cruiser that Kang had commanded but had recently abandoned, and the rescued Klingons (influenced by the Beta XII-A entity) subsequently made an unsuccessful attempt to wrest control of the Enterprise from Kirk.

Romulan engagements

Romulan Bird-of-Prey during the Neutral Zone Incursion of 2266

The Romulan Star Empire re-emerged from a century of isolation to antagonize the Federation with the Neutral Zone Incursion of 2266. The Enterprise responded and was victorious against a new Romulan Bird-of-Prey, which was equipped with a cloaking device and a plasma torpedo system.

In later encounters, the Romulan fleet used strength of numbers in their efforts to overwhelm the Enterprise. When Commodore Stocker took temporary command and violated the Neutral Zone in 2267, up to ten Birds-of-Prey swarmed and pummeled the starship until Kirk's "corbomite" bluff inspired their withdrawal.

In 2268, the Enterprise again violated the Neutral Zone – for the purpose of espionage – and was quickly surrounded by three Romulan D7-class battle cruisers. The Enterprise escaped by becoming the first Federation vessel to install and successfully utilize a (stolen) Romulan cloaking device.

Near Tau Ceti in the following year, Kirk employed the Cochrane deceleration maneuver, allowing the Enterprise to defeat a Romulan vessel.

In the final year of Kirk's original mission, the ship was ambushed by a trio of Romulan battle cruisers while on a routine survey. The Enterprise managed to escape through an energy field that adversely affected the ship's main computer. The malfunctioning systems were corrected by another pass through the field, this time with the Romulan ships in pursuit. The attackers then became incapacitated by the same computer malfunctions, and the Enterprise managed to escape.

Refit of the 2270s

The Enterprise underwent another major refit into what would later be known as the Constitution II-class. The refitting took eighteen months of work, and essentially a new vessel was built onto the bones of the old, replacing virtually every major system. This ensured Enterprise's continued service for the next several years, enabling her to continue to serve in its prominent role.

The Enterprise in drydock, 2270s

Refits and overhauls with new technologies after long deployments were far from unusual in the ship's history. However, the Enterprise's overhaul of the early 2270s became a nearly keel-up redesign and reconstruction project.

The very heart of the ship was replaced with a radically different vertical warp core assembly, linked to new and heavier warp engine nacelles, atop swept back pylons and integrated with the impulse engines. The new drive system allowed for an expanded cargo hold in the secondary hull, linked to the shuttlebay. The deflector dish at the front of the main housing was replaced with an entirely new design, one where it was recessed into the housing.

Weapons system upgrades included the phaser banks having power channeled directly from the warp engines. A double photon torpedo/probe launcher was installed atop the secondary hull.

Extra egress points were added for better access/exit from the ship and now included a port-side spacedock hatch, dual ventral space walk bays, four dorsal service hatches, and a standardized docking ring port, which was aft of the bridge on the primary hull. Also included were four more docking ring ports, paired on the port and starboard sides of the launcher and secondary hulls respectively, and service hatch airlocks on the port and starboard sides of the hangar bay's main clam-shell doors. Unlike from before the refit, these new egress points were not coverewd by retractable hull plating.

A new bridge module reflected the modern computer systems, operating interfaces, and ergonomics that ran throughout the ship.

Following Kirk's promotion to rear admiral and posting as Chief of Starfleet Operations, his successor, Captain Will Decker (whom Kirk himself picked to succeed him), oversaw the refit, assisted by chief engineer Commander Montgomery Scott. (Star Trek: The Motion Picture)

Following its refit, the Enterprise, in the early 2270s, went on to be critical in defending the Federation from several external threats, including V'ger and Khan Noonien Singh.

V'ger

After eighteen months in drydock for refit, the Enterprise was pressed into service, weeks ahead of schedule, in response to the V'ger crisis, once again under Kirk's command.

Making contact with V'ger

Decker was temporarily demoted to commander and posted as an executive officer because of his familiarity with the new design. Incomplete systems had to be serviced during the vessel's shakedown en route to V'ger, including the first test of the new warp engines.

Shortly after launch, a matter/antimatter intermix malfunction ruptured the warp field and led to the Enterprise entering into an unstable wormhole. Commander Decker belayed an order from Admiral Kirk to destroy an asteroid in their path, which had been dragged into the ruptured warp field along with them, with phasers. The refitted phasers now channeled power directly from the main engines at a point beyond the dilithium/magnatomic-initiator stage.

Because of this refitted function, both the intermix malfunction and the resultant antimatter imbalance within the warp nacelles caused automatic cutoff of the phasers, a design change of which Kirk had not been aware. Decker ordered the use of photon torpedoes, instead; as a backup, they had been designed to draw power from a separate system in case of a major phaser loss. Commander Spock arrived at a timely point and brought correction to the intermix problem.

Once the V'ger threat was averted, Captain Decker was listed as "missing in action", and the Enterprise remained under Admiral Kirk's command for an interim period. At some point, Kirk passed command on to the newly promoted Captain Spock.

The new designs and components tested and proven aboard the Enterprise influenced a generation of starship design, from the Miranda-class to the Constellation-class, as well as other retro-fitted Constitutions.

Khan's return

In 2285, the Enterprise had been pulled from the front lines of Starfleet and the Federation and, near the end of its life, was relegated to a training vessel. The ship participated in a low tempo training cycle, based in the Sol system. Admiral Kirk boarded his old command to observe a cadet training cruise.

The Enterprise, engaged with the hijacked Reliant

Meanwhile, Khan Noonien Singh had escaped from exile on Ceti Alpha V and hijacked the USS Reliant, after which he stole the Genesis Device from the Regula I space station.

The Enterprise was tasked to investigate, and Spock deferred his command to Admiral Kirk. Subsequent engagements with Reliant left the ship badly damaged, with cadet and crew deaths, including Captain Spock.

Final mission

Enterprise, heavily damaged, leaving Spacedock One

Upon the Enterprise returning to Earth, Starfleet Commander Fleet Admiral Morrow announced that the starship, at that point forty years old and heavily damaged, would be decommissioned. When Morrow denied Kirk requesting permission to return to the Mutara sector, Kirk conspired with his senior officers and stole the Enterprise from Spacedock One, in order to recover Spock's body from the Genesis Planet – to bring it and Spock's katra, the latter possessed by Leonard McCoy, to Mount Seleya on Vulcan. As part of the plan, Kirk had Scott rig up an automation system to run the Enterprise so easily that "a chimpanzee and two trainees" could have handled the craft.

:"My God Bones... what have I done? " :— Admiral James T. Kirk

At the Enterprise's destination, the ship was attacked by a Klingon Bird-of-Prey operated by Klingon Commander Kruge, an assault that left the Enterprise disabled; Scotty's automation system was not designed for combat and overloaded when the ship was attacked. After setting the auto-destruct sequence, Kirk and his crew abandoned the ship for the surface of the Genesis Planet. Demolition charges in place on the bridge, and elsewhere throughout the ship, exploded, killing a Klingon boarding party. The battered secondary hull (with what was left of the saucer) fell from orbit and blazingly streaked across the planet's atmosphere breaking up.

The Enterprise burning in Genesis' atmosphere

Being forty years old at the time of its destruction, the Enterprise had surpassed its designer's original projected eighteen-year endurance by twenty-two years, when the ship was launched back in 2245. The next USS Enterprise, a Constitution II-class heavy cruiser USS Enterprise-A, was launched a year later.

Legacy

A hologram of the USS Enterprise was displayed in Starfleet Headquarters in 2399

The Enterprise's long history would be remembered for the next century. Captain John Harriman of the USS Enterprise-B would learn of Kirk's missions when he was in grade school.

In 2369, when Montgomery Scott was rescued from the crash landed USS Jenolen, and his surprise that he was found by the USS Enterprise-D, Scott's immediate response was "Enterprise? I should have known. I bet Jim Kirk himself hauled the old girl out of mothballs to come looking for me," even though he, along with Pavel Chekov and Kirk were on the USS Enterprise-B during its maiden voyage when Kirk was presumed killed.

In 2383, Hologram Janeway showed the young crew of the USS Protostar an image of the Enterprise while explaining the history of the Federation and Starfleet to them.

In 2399, retired Starfleet Admiral Jean-Luc Picard observed holographic images of the original Enterprise from 2258 and the Enterprise-D in the central lobby of Starfleet Headquarters.

Kirk's use of the slingshot maneuver using the Enterprise in order to travel through time was mentioned as an example by Picard as one of the methods for travelling back through time in order to repair changes made in 2024 by Q.

List of first contacts

Over its forty-years of service, the Enterprise made first contact with numerous species.

Christopher Pike's notable first contacts

• 2254
  • Kalar
  • Talosians

James T. Kirk's notable first contacts

In most cases, the date indicated is the first-time open communication was initiated with at least one member of the species. Otherwise, it is the first known contact with the species.

• 2266
  • Balok's species
  • Miri natives
  • Thasians

• 2267
  • Greek gods
  • Guardian of Forever Note: While the Guardian is not necessarily a species, the Enterprise did make first contact with the Guardian of Forever
  • Horta
  • Keeper's species
  • Metrons
  • Organians
  • Ornithoids
  • Trelane's species
  • Vaalians

• 2268
  • 892-IV natives
  • Beta XII-A entity
  • Cheron natives
  • Fabrini
  • Gem's species
  • Gorgan
  • Kelvans
  • Melkots
  • Platonians
  • Providers
  • Arretan
  • Scalosians
  • Sigma Draconis VI natives
  • Vians

• 2269
  • Aquans
  • Excalbians
  • Lactrans
  • Matter-energy cloud
  • Megans
  • Phylosians
  • Sarpeidon natives
  • Theela's species
  • Zetarians

• 2270
  • Delta Theta III aborigines
  • Kukulkan's species

Command crew

Robert April's command crew

• Commanding officer
  • Robert April (2245-2250)
• First officer
  • Christopher Pike (2245-2250)
• Chief medical officer
  • Sarah April (2245-2250)

Christopher Pike's command crew

Enterprise under the command of Christopher Pike

• Commanding officer
  • Christopher Pike (2250-2265)
• First officer
  • Number One (2250-2260s)
• Chief medical officer
  • Phil Boyce (2254)
• Navigator
  • Jose Tyler (2254)
• Science officer
  • Spock (2254-)

James T. Kirk's command crew

Enterprise under Captain Kirk's command

• Commanding officer
  • James T. Kirk (2265–2270, 2270s, 2285)
  • Robert April (2270)
  • Will Decker (2270s)
  • Spock (2285)
• First officer
  • Spock (2260s–2270, 2270s, 2285)
  • Willard Decker (2270s)
• Second officer / Chief engineer
  • Montgomery Scott (2265–2270s, 2285)
• Chief medical officer
  • Mark Piper (2265)
  • Leonard McCoy (2266–2270, 2270s, 2285)
  • Christine Chapel (2270s)
• Helmsman
  • Gary Mitchell (2265)
  • Hikaru Sulu (2266–2270s, 2285)
  • Leslie (2266-2267)
  • Hansen (2267)
  • Hadley (2267–2268)
  • DePaul (2267)
  • Spinelli (2267)
  • Kyle (2268)
  • Rahda (2268)
  • Walking Bear (2270)
• Communications officer/Operations officer
  • Alden (2265)
  • Nyota Uhura (2266–2270s, 2285)
  • John Farrell (2266)
  • Palmer (2267–2269)
  • Angela Martine (2267)
  • Lisa (2269)
  • M'Ress (2269–2270)
• Navigator
  • Lee Kelso (2265)
  • Dave Bailey (2266)
  • John Farrell (2266)
  • Kevin Riley (2266)
  • Stiles (2266)
  • Hadley (2267–2269)
  • DeSalle (2267)
  • DePaul (2267)
  • Osborne (2267)
  • Leslie (2267)
  • Painter (2267)
  • Pavel Chekov (2267–2269)
  • Jana Haines (2268)
  • Arex (2269–2270)
  • Ilia (2270s)
  • DiFalco (2270s)
  • Saavik (2285)
• Security chief
  • Pitcairn (2267)
  • Giotto (2267)
  • Freeman (2268)
  • Pavel Chekov (2270s, 2285)
• Tactical officer
  • Hikaru Sulu (2266–2270)
  • Pavel Chekov (2267–2270s, 2285)
• Science officer
  • Hikaru Sulu (2265)
  • Sonak (2270s)
  • Spock (2270s)
  • Saavik (2285)

Crew

Complement

The number of the Enterprise's crew complement more than doubled over the duration of its service.

In 2254, the Enterprise had a complement of 203, this stated following the loss of three crewmembers at Rigel VII.

In 2257, scans showed the entire crew complement was also stated to be 203, yet in a display graphic specifically stated that the crew compliment was 430; 43 officers and 387 enlisted.

In 2265, the Enterprise's complement consisted of "almost a hundred women."

In 2266, Captain Ramart commented to Charlie Evans that the Enterprise was "like a whole city in space," compared to his ship, the USS Antares, which had a relatively meager complement of twenty. Ramart further explained that there were "over 400 in the crew of a starship," which was clarified by Kirk as actually "428, to be exact."

Jadzia Dax observed to Benjamin Sisko, after they transported aboard the Enterprise, that "they really packed them in on these old ships."

Casualties

Service aboard the Enterprise proved to be hazardous duty. Between 2265 and 2269, individuals who were killed while assigned to the ship included at least fifty-eight officers and crew. Nine crew members were killed when the Enterprise encountered the galactic barrier in 2265. Gary Mitchell, Lee Kelso, and Elizabeth Dehner later died on Delta Vega.

Two of seven crewmembers assigned to study Murasaki 312 on the shuttlecraft Galileo – Latimer and Gaetano – both met an unfortunate end, by the hand of a large creature on the planet Taurus II.

In 2267, Enterprise security officers Hendorff, Kaplan, Mallory, and Marple were killed on planet Gamma Trianguli VI. Further incidents with multiple fatalities included four security guards killed by Nomad in 2267, as well as five security guards killed by a dikironium cloud creature on Argus X in 2268. An outbreak of Rigelian fever, in 2269, killed three crewmen and imperiled the rest until a source of ryetalyn could be obtained.

As well, two Enterprise security officers were beamed out into open space while the ship was under the control of Gorgan. Lieutenant Galloway was vaporized by Captain Tracey on Omega IV, but later was somehow resurrected. Yeoman Thompson was reduced to a dry cuboctahedron solid. She was killed when the Kelvan Rojan crushed the object in his hand.

In the mid-2270s, Commander Sonak and an Enterprise officer were killed in a transporter accident while beaming to the ship.

External links

• USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) article at Memory Alpha, the canon Star Trek wiki.
• USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) article at Memory Beta, the non-canon Star Trek wiki.
• USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) article at Star Trek Expanded Universe.