''Enterprise'' or USS ''Enterprise'' (often referred to as the "starship ''Enterprise''") is the name of Spacecraft in Star Trek, several fictional spacecraft, some of which are the main craft and setting for various television series and films in the ''Star Trek'' science fiction franchise. The most notable were Captain James T. Kirk's from the Star Trek: The Original Series, original 1960s television series, and Captain Jean-Luc Picard's from ''Star Trek: The Next Generation''.

Depiction

Pre-Federation era

Two spacecraft with the name ''Enterprise'' predate the United Federation of Planets in ''Star Trek''s fictional timeline. * Registry: USS ''Enterprise'' (XCV 330) * Class: ''Declaration'' * Service: circa 2130s * Captain: Unknown This USS ''Enterprise'' (XCV 330) appears in ''Star Trek: The Motion Picture'' (1979) among a series of illustrations depicting ships named ''Enterprise''. It also appears as a model in ''Star Trek Into Darkness'' (2013), together with models of the ''Wright Flyer'', a V-2 rocket, a Bell X-1, a Vostok (spacecraft), Vostok-3KA capsule, a Space Shuttle orbiter, and some ''Star Trek'' universe starships. A painting of this ship hangs on the wall of Earth's 602 Club in flashbacks that appeared in the ''Star Trek: Enterprise'' episode "First Flight (Star Trek: Enterprise), First Flight" (2003). Star Trek canon, Non-canon sources give more details: The 1979 ''Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology'' describes this "first interstellar liner" as a ''Declaration''-class ship launched in 2123. Its length is given as , and it has a capacity of 100 crew and 850 passengers. The ''Star Trek Maps'' by New Eye Photography Editors, also published in 1979, listed this ship as a Fusion rocket, fusion drive Space probe, probe that was Earth's first attempt to explore another star system. ''The Making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture'', published in 1980, describes the ship as "the very first starship U.S.S. ''Enterprise''". * Registry: Enterprise (NX-01), ''Enterprise'' (NX-01)
* Class: NX * Service: 2151–2161 (10 years) * Captain: Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) United Earth Starfleet's ''Enterprise'' is the main setting of ''Star Trek: Enterprise'' (2001–2005). ''Enterprise'' was the first Earth built starship capable of reaching Warp 5. The ship was commanded by Captain Jonathan Archer and played an instrumental role in the founding of several proto-Federation alliances. ''Enterprise'' had significant engagements with the Klingons, Suliban, Xindi (Star Trek), Xindi and the Romulans and playing a central role in the "Temporal Cold War." It is also featured as a model in ''Star Trek Into Darkness''.

''The Original Series'' era

Three ships named USS ''Enterprise'' are featured in the original ''Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek'' television series and the Star Trek: The Motion Picture, first through Star Trek Generations, seventh ''Star Trek'' films. Registry:
Class: ''Constitution''
Service: 2245–2285 (40 years)
Captains: Robert April (James Doohan [voice], Adrian Holmes), Christopher Pike (Star Trek), Christopher Pike (Jeffrey Hunter, Sean Kenney (actor), Sean Kenney, Anson Mount), James T. Kirk (William Shatner), Willard Decker (Stephen Collins (actor), Stephen Collins), Spock (Leonard Nimoy).
The United Federation of Planets, Federation's first ''Enterprise'' is the main setting of the original Star Trek: The Original Series, ''Star Trek'' series (1966–1969) and ''Star Trek: The Animated Series'' (1973–74). Having undergone an extensive rebuilding and refitting, ''Enterprise'' then appears in ''Star Trek: The Motion Picture'' (1979), ''Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan'' (1982), and ''Star Trek III: The Search for Spock'' (1984) in which the starship is destroyed by its crew to escape capture. Depictions of the ''Enterprise'' made occasional appearances in later ''Star Trek'' series, before being reintroduced as the main setting of the prequel ''Star Trek: Strange New Worlds'', portraying the ship's missions in the decade prior to ''The Original Series''. Details of the ship's appearance differed in the various series and films in which it appears. In the 1965 pilot episode "The Cage (Star Trek: The Original Series), The Cage", whose footage was reused for a flashback to Captain Pike's command in the episode "The Menagerie (Star Trek: The Original Series), The Menagerie" (1966), the ship's bridge (nautical), bridge featured a transparent dome ceiling for the bridge that was absent for the rest of the Original Series. A significantly redesigned version of Captain Pike's ''Enterprise'' appears in ''Star Trek: Discovery''s Star Trek: Discovery (season 2), second season, set several years after the events of "The Cage". The new design for the ''Enterprise'', which more closely matches the aesthetic of ''Discovery'', debuted in 2018 at the conclusion of the Star Trek: Discovery (season 1), season 1 finale, and would go on to become the main setting of the series ''Strange New Worlds''. When the ''Enterprise'' was reintroduced in the 1979 film ''Star Trek: The Motion Picture'', the ship had just completed an extensive refit and redesign that included new slimmer warp nacelles, connected to the secondary hull by angled winglike struts. The updated design would be reused later for the ''Enterprise''s replacement, an identical starship given the name ''Enterprise'' and registry number NCC-1701-A. Registry:
Class: ''Constitution''-class refit
Service: 2286–2293 (7 years)
Captains: James T. Kirk (William Shatner)
This ship first appears at the conclusion of ''Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home'' (1986) and is the main setting in the subsequent ''Star Trek'' movies which use the original crew. The ship is ordered "ship decommissioning, decommissioned" at the end of ''Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country'' (1991). Star Trek canon, Non-canon information concerning this ship includes paperwork included with the model kit, which indicated the ship was reserve fleet, mothballed at the Memory Alpha ship museum, and the Shatnerverse novel ''The Ashes of Eden'' (1996), which depicted ''Enterprise''-A's removal from the mothball fleet before being destroyed defending the planet Chal. Registry: USS ''Enterprise'' (NCC-1701-B)
Class: ''Excelsior''-class refit
Service: 2293–2329 (36 years)
Captains: John Harriman (Star Trek), John Harriman (Alan Ruck), Demora Sulu (portrayed in ''Generations'' by Jacqueline Kim)
The ''Enterprise''-B was launched at the beginning of the film ''Star Trek Generations'' (1994). During the ship's maiden voyage, prior to it being properly fitted with essential systems, the crew encountered an energy ribbon known as the Nexus, through which James T. Kirk – captain of the two former Enterprise starships, NCC-1701 and NCC-1701-A – was officially declared missing and presumed dead. The design of the ''Enterprise''-B is nearly identical to that of the USS ''Excelsior'', which first appeared in the 1984 film ''Star Trek III: The Search For Spock.'' Differences between the ''Enterprise''-B and the ''Excelsior'' include: flarings on the outside of the secondary hull, additional and larger impulse engines, and slight differences between the nacelles as well as the bridge modules. Star Trek canon, Non-canon information concerning the ''Enterprise''-B includes several licensed ''Star Trek'' novels in which Demora Sulu, daughter of Hikaru Sulu, followed Harriman as captain. There are also licensed guides, such as the ''Haynes Enterprise Manual'', in which a list of the ship's captains includes Demora Sulu, William George, and Thomas Johnson Jr.

''The Next Generation'' era

Three ships named ''Enterprise'' are featured in ''Star Trek: The Next Generation'' television series and four ''TNG''-era films. Registry: USS ''Enterprise'' (NCC-1701-C)
Class: ''Ambassador''
Service: 2332–2344 (12 years)
Captains: Rachel Garrett (Tricia O'Neil)
This ship's first and only appearance is in the ''Next Generation'' episode "Yesterday's Enterprise" (1990). It was destroyed attempting to defend the Klingon outpost Narendra III from Romulan attack. Survivors included Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby), whose alternate timeline version from "Yesterday's Enterprise" travels with the ship back in time to the battle over Narendra III. The actions of the ''Enterprise''-C's crew became a catalyst for the alliance between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. Registry:
Class: ''Galaxy''
Service: 2363–2371 (8 years)
Captains: Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), William Riker, William T. Riker (Jonathan Frakes), Edward Jellico (Ronny Cox)
The main setting of ''Star Trek: The Next Generation'' (1987–1994). During ''Star Trek Generations'', ''Enterprise'' was lost in 2371 after an attack by the Duras sisters' renegade Klingon Bird-of-Prey which caused extensive damage, leading to a warp core breach. Although the saucer section was safely separated before the breach, the shock wave from the exploding engineering hull threw it out of control, and caused it to crash-land beyond recovery on Veridian III. The ship also appears in the first ''Deep Space Nine'' episode "Emissary (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), Emissary" and the final ''Enterprise'' episode "These Are the Voyages..." Registry:
Class: ''Sovereign''
Service: 2372–
Captain: Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart)
The main setting for the films ''Star Trek: First Contact'' (1996), ''Star Trek: Insurrection'' (1998), and ''Star Trek: Nemesis'' (2002). As a ''Sovereign'' class vessel, it was the most advanced vessel in Starfleet, and an active participant in the Battle of Sector 001 and the Dominion War. Registry:
Class: ''Odyssey'' (''Yorktown'' refit)
Service: 2409–
Captain: TBD
This ship will appear in Star Trek: Picard (season 3), season 3 of Star Trek: Picard, ''Star Trek: Picard'' (2023). This ship first appeared in the Canon (fiction), non-canon video game, ''Star Trek Online'', and was designed by artist and graphics designer Adam Ihle as part of a fan competition.

Alternate timelines

Alternate future

Registry: USS ''Enterprise'' (NCC-1701-D)
Class: ''Galaxy'' refit
Service: circa 2395
Captain: Full Admiral William T. Riker (Jonathan Frakes)
In "All Good Things... (Star Trek: The Next Generation), All Good Things...", the final episode of ''Star Trek: The Next Generation'', ''Enterprise''-D was shown in an alternate future where it had not crashed during the events of ''Star Trek Generations'', and instead had been made Admiral William T. Riker's personal flagship. A third warp nacelle allowed the ship to reach at least Warp 13, and the ''Enterprise''-D had also been equipped with a spinal phaser lance, large phaser cannons on the saucer section, and cloaking ability, making it one of the most powerful starships seen in the ''Star Trek'' franchise. Registry: USS ''Enterprise'' (NCC-1701-J)
Class: Universe
Service: 26th century
The "Azati Prime" episode of ''Star Trek: Enterprise'' involves time travel and features a scene in which ''Enterprise''-J appears. ''Enterprise''-J operates in a possible timeline during the 26th century. In this timeline, ''Enterprise''-J participated in the Battle of Procyon V, a climactic battle in which the Federation successfully drove the invasive trans-dimensional beings known as the Sphere Builders back into their own realm. The ship's crew included a descendant of the Xindi (Star Trek), Xindi scientist Degra.

Games (non-canon)

Registry: USS ''Enterprise'' (NCC-1701-F)
Class: ''Odyssey'' (''Yorktown'' refit)
Service: 2409–
Captain: Va'Kel Shon
One version of USS ''Enterprise'' (NCC-1701-F) appears in the massively multiplayer online role-playing game ''Star Trek Online''. Its design is based on the entry submitted by Adam Ihle for the 2011 "Design the next ''Enterprise''" contest, a joint venture between Cryptic Studios, CBS, and Intel, which ran shortly before the game went "free to play". ''Enterprise''-F made its first appearance in the mission "Boldly They Rode", at the point where USS ''Enterprise''-F appears to help the player defeat the Dominion fleet surrounding Deep Space Nine. Following its brief appearance in a trailer for Season 3 of ''Star Trek: Picard'' in October 2022, there was speculation that the ''Enterprise''-F would finally become part of the official ''Star Trek'' canon.

Mirror universe

The Mirror Universe (Star Trek), Mirror Universe first appeared in the original series as an parallel universe (fiction), alternate reality where the militaristic Terran Empire exists in place of the regular universe's United Federation of Planets ("Mirror, Mirror (Star Trek: The Original Series), Mirror, Mirror"). A montage in the opening credits of the ''Star Trek: Enterprise'' episode "In a Mirror, Darkly" shows the Terran Empire logo in use by at least World War II, with licensed novels putting the divergence before Shakespeare, or even classic Greek literature. Registry: ISS Enterprise (NX-01), ISS ''Enterprise'' (NX-01)
Class: NX
Service: 2150s
Captains: Maximilian Forrest (Vaughn Armstrong), Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula)
The ''Star Trek: Enterprise'' episode "In a Mirror, Darkly" features a Mirror Universe version of NX-01 ''Enterprise''. This ship is equipped with a cloaking device, deflector shields, a tractor beam, a prototype agony booth, and different exterior markings. It is commanded by Captain Maximilian Forrest, although for a brief time his first officer, Commander Jonathan Archer, takes command following a mutiny. This ''Enterprise'' is destroyed by the Tholians. Registry: ISS ''Enterprise'' (NCC-1701)
Class: ''Constitution''
Service: 2260s
Captains: Christopher Pike, James T. Kirk (William Shatner), Spock (Leonard Nimoy)
A Mirror Universe ''Enterprise'' appears in the original ''Star Trek'' episode "Mirror, Mirror (Star Trek: The Original Series), Mirror, Mirror". The ship is equipped with an agony booth and the mirror in the captain's quarters conceals Captain Kirk's deadly Tantalus device. ISS ''Enterprise'' was originally the same shooting model as the regular ''Enterprise''. The remastered version of "Mirror, Mirror" includes a CGI version of ''Enterprise'' with "ISS" markings on the hull and minor physical differences from USS ''Enterprise'', such as a larger deflector dish, a taller bridge, and altered nacelle details. The ship was also shown orbiting the planet in the opposite direction (clockwise instead of counter-clockwise).

Reboot (''Kelvin'' timeline) films

The 2009 ''Star Trek (film), Star Trek'' film takes place in a Star Trek canon#"Reboot" films (Kelvin Timeline), new reality created when the Romulan Nero (Star Trek), Nero traveled through time via an artificial black hole created by red matter. Registry:
Service: 2258–2263 (5 years)
Captains: Christopher Pike (Star Trek), Christopher Pike (Bruce Greenwood), James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) The main setting for the films ''Star Trek (film), Star Trek'' (2009), ''Star Trek Into Darkness'' (2013), and ''Star Trek Beyond'' (2016). ''Enterprise'' is shown during its construction phase at the Riverside Shipyard in Iowa during the first film. A brief shot of the NCC-1701 is seen as the shuttlecraft carrying Kirk and the new recruits into space departs the shipyard later on in the movie. At the end of ''Star Trek Into Darkness'', ''Enterprise'' started its five-year mission. The ship was later destroyed by Krall and his alien swarm attack during the events of ''Star Trek Beyond''. Measurements of this ship's length have ranged from 295 meters to 910 meters. In an article about the 2009 film's visual effects, ''Cinefex'' wrote, "The reconfigured ship was a larger vessel than previous manifestations – approximately long compared to the ship of the original series", and quoted Industrial Light & Magic art director Alex Jaeger discussing the design's growth in size during early production of the film: "Once we got the ship built and started putting it in environments it felt too small. The shuttle bay gave us a clear relative scale – shuttlecraft initially appeared much bigger than we had imagined – so we bumped up the Enterprise scale, which gave her a grander feel and allowed us to include more detail." A special feature on starships in the Blu-ray Disc, Blu-ray (BD) version of the movie gives the length as , which would be larger than the ''Next Generation'' D and E versions, making it the largest USS ''Enterprise'' in the franchise history (not counting the pre-Federation era #Pre-Federation era, ''Enterprise'' (XCV 330), seen only as a model). This would result in a height of 167m, and a beam of 339m. Registry:
Class: ''Constitution''
Service: 2263–ongoing
Captains: James T. Kirk (Chris Pine)
''Enterprise''-A first appears at the end of ''Star Trek Beyond'' after the destruction of the original ''Enterprise'' when the crew resume their five-year mission. Sean Hargreaves stated that he was given the brief to "beef up the neck and arms" on the Ryan Church design, but went further to give the ship echoes of Matt Jefferies' original design.

Development

According to ''The Star Trek Encyclopedia'', the registry number NCC-1701 was devised by Matt Jefferies, art director of the first ''Star Trek'' series, inspired by an old science fiction cover that Gene Roddenberry liked, with a starship flying through space. Jefferies, who was a pilot, based NCC on aircraft registration#United States, United States aircraft pre-1949 registration codes. In such pre-1949 usage, an "N" first letter refers to an aircraft registered in the United States. A "C" for a second letter refers to a civil aircraft. Jefferies added a second "C" because he thought it looked better. The Franz Joseph (artist), Franz Joseph ''Blueprints'', the book ''The Making of Star Trek'', and a handful of ''Star Trek'' novels speculate that NCC is an initialism for "Naval Construction Contract". In an interview with the BBC, Jefferies explained that NC is the designation for U.S. commercial aircraft and the Soviet Union's space program used the CCCP (disambiguation), CCCP designation. He concluded that any major future space projects would likely be a combined international effort, thus he invented the combined designation NCC. The 1701 had two functions, it represented the first (01) ship of a 17th federation cruiser design, and that the digits were unlikely to be misread, unlike 6, 8, or 9. In Gene Roddenberry's original ''Star Trek'' pitch, the starship is described as a "United Space Ship", and in two episodes of ''The Original Series'' (TOS), Kirk refers to the "United Space Ship ''Enterprise''".

Redesign for ''Star Trek: Planet of the Titans''

In 1976, before ''Star Trek: The Motion Picture'', Paramount had planned a ''Star Trek'' film to have been named ''Star Trek: Planet of the Titans''. Early in the production, Ralph McQuarrie had been hired to redesign the ''Enterprise''. The major feature of the redesign was to replace the cigar-shaped secondary hull with a larger, triangle-shaped "delta wing" section. McQuarrie's design was discarded in favor of keeping the general shape of the ''Enterprise'' intact for the redesign unveiled in ''Star Trek: The Motion Picture''. Three decades later, the McQuarrie design for the ''Enterprise'' was adopted as the basis for the design of the USS ''Discovery'' in ''Star Trek: Discovery'', a 2017 series that takes place ten years earlier than the original ''Star Trek''.

Captain's yacht

The captain's yacht is a large auxiliary starship built into the design of several Federation starship designs including the ''Galaxy''-class and ''Sovereign''-class. It was docked to the underside of the saucer section. On USS ''Enterprise''-E, the name of the captain's yacht is the ''Cousteau''. In 2375, the crew of USS ''Enterprise''-E used the ''Cousteau'' to travel to the surface of the List of Star Trek races#Ba'ku, Ba'ku homeworld, in the film ''Star Trek: Insurrection''. Designer Andrew Probert came up with the concept of the captain's yacht while designing the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D), USS ''Enterprise''-D. Although it was never seen in use, it is labeled on the master systems display screen in main engineering, docked at the bottom of the saucer section almost directly opposite the main bridge. Probert suggested possible ways for the yacht to be used during the first season, including not showing the yacht but mentioning it in dialogue, but his ideas were rejected. The producers almost used the yacht in the episode "Samaritan Snare", but decided to use an "executive shuttlecraft" due to budgetary constraints. According to Patrick Stewart, the yacht would have been called the ''Calypso''. Producer Ronald D. Moore noted in the ''Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual'' that real-life naval tradition would insist on calling such a craft the captain's gig, rather than the captain's yacht. Rick Sternbach later designed similar craft for USS ''Voyager'' and USS ''Equinox'', known as the aeroshuttle and the waverider, respectively. As on the ''Enterprise''-D, however, these vessels were only depicted on technical schematics and never seen in operation or referred to in dialog.

Reception and influence

Gizmodo's Io9 blog ranked the original design of the as the best version of the ''Enterprise'', characterizing the original as still superior to 11 later versions of the ''Enterprise'' that had appeared in the ''Star Trek'' franchise. By contrast, in 2019, Syfy, SyFy ranked the refit design of the ''Enterprise'' (NCC-1701 and NCC-1701-A) as the franchise's best, ranking the original design as only the fourth best version of the starship. ''Time (magazine), Time'' described each iteration of the ''Enterprise'' as "a character in its own right". Over many decades, the starship has influenced real-life activities of NASA and the U.S. Navy: * In 1976, as the result of a successful letter writing campaign by fans, NASA named the initial flight-test Space Shuttle Space Shuttle Enterprise, ''Enterprise''. However, the shuttle itself was never intended to fly in space, to be used only for initial atmospheric flight tests. * For three days in October 1994, the aircraft carrier hosted half-hour tours for thousands of fans attending a ''Star Trek'' convention in Norfolk, Virginia, and ''Star Trek'' memorabilia could be found throughout the ship. * In 2014, NASA named its IXS Enterprise, IXS ''Enterprise'' advanced propulsion concept vehicle after the ''Star Trek'' vessel. Celebrity astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has spoken highly of the influence and legacy of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), original ''Enterprise'' on other fictional spaceships. Drawing a parallel to comparing athletes between eras, he said of spaceship design, "What matters is not what they look like now, but what they looked to others at the time that they prevailed... There is only one spaceship that's earlier than [the original ''Enterprise''], and that's the flying saucer from ''The Day the Earth Stood Still''. So, what matters here is, what did [the ''Enterprise''] look like at the time it came out (1966) compared with anything that had been imagined before? And when you consider that, that is the most astonishing machine that has ever graced the screen." On the ship's influence upon scientists, Tyson wrote, "The ''Enterprise'' was the first ever spaceship represented in storytelling that was not designed to go from one place to another; [it was] only designed to explore. It was revolutionary in terms of what we would think space would, and should, be about." NetDragon Websoft, a gaming and mobile Internet company in Fuzhou, China, based the architectural design of its headquarters building on the ''Next Generation''-era ''Enterprise'' (primarily the ''Enterprise''-E), under an official license from CBS.

References

External links

{{Authority control Star Trek spacecraft, Enterprise, ISS Star Trek lists