Seven U.F.P. starships have carried the name Enterprise and with each ship came a crew of highly skilled individuals dedicated to their duty and captain. In Federation history, only a few of these Starfleet ships had a really distinguished service, notably the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC 1701, U.S.S. Enterprise NCC 1701- A, U.S.S. Enterprise NCC 1701 - D, and the Enterprise NX-01.
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The first Enterprise NX-01 embarked from Earth in 2151 with a high powered innovative warp five engine designed by Zefram Cochrane and Henry Archer. These were exhilarating days for Earth's Starfleet earthies and our pointy eared, Vulchies who forged new friendships in an era that would later form as the United Federation of Planets in 2161. Jonathan Archer drew the lucky straw and got to command the Enterprise NX-01. This sleek revolutionary ship paved the way with impressive technologies commonplace on federation starships today. The Enterprise NX-01 was no longer a literal flight of fantasy.
The U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 is the second starship to bear the name. She was launched in 2245 from San Francisco Yards orbiting Earth and destroyed in 2285 by Kirk's hand to prevent "a lethal weapon of ultimate power" from falling into enemy Klingons hands. The USS Enterprise has become legendary thoughout the galaxy. She has had five captains. Capt Robert April first commanded her. On April 7th 2250 Capt April returned the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC 1701 to Earth.
The Enterprise 1701 was neither lost or destroyed during her first 5 year mission of intergalactic exploration. This fact wasn't lost on Earth's citizens and elevated April's ship and crew to the status of living legends. So you see, this USS Enterprise became every fleshling's symbol of hope and inspiration in the quadrant. Starfleet Academy was swarmed with applications that year.
The USS Enterprise 1701 was the only survivor out of twelve Constitution class starships to return to Earth! Trekkies know starship dangers are commonplace in space. Its not unusual for enemy photon torpedoes and phaser blasts to break the ice between foes, followed by talks and negotiations with Picard doing his "we are a vessel of peaceful exploration" bit and Captain Kirk firing phasers first and asking questions later.
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In 2251, Captain Christopher Pike took the Enterprise 1701 out for two more five year missions at the helm before Kirk. We see Pike in Star Treks "The Cage" TOS and in the Menagerie. Under General Order 7 it was forbidden to visit Talos IV. Why? and heres the shocker....... our benevolent Federation has as of 2267 the only death penalty still left on its books.
Its true! (My heart goes out to those trekkies still in shock by this news) Viewers learn about talosians and their unusual ability to project illusions in the Menagerie Part 1 and 2. (which airs on the 13th and 15th of November in cinemas across America and Canada) Starfleet sees this as a threat and in true military style forbids contact but we can still rely on good old Spock, can't we?
Next, we come to the architect and mastermind Captain James T. Kirk. This guy commanded the U.S.S. Enterprise 1701 during his rein of "peace" against the Klingons, Romulans, mad men, meglomaniac computers, powerful entities, a crazy lizard gorn and many others with the help of federation firepower. Kruge's second in command called Kirk's Enterprise a "battleship" which Kirk has used in combat to eliminate assassins when all else failed. (Not to mention blowing stuff to bits! Yeah!! Go Kirk, Go Kirk, You Are The Man.)
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Commander Kruge saw Kirk's ship as an opportunity to bring the mighty Federation to its knees. The starship had after all "a weapon of ultimate power and destruction." known as the Genesis device, capable of creating and destroying entire worlds. The Enterprise 1701 was equipped with 14 science labs, 23 decks and a skilled crew, a miracle worker, photon torpedoes and phaser banks, Kirk took the Enterprise 1701 where none had ever boldly dared to go before.
James Tiberius Kirk's first five year mission lasted from 2264 to 2269 with Star Trek The Motion Picture and Captain Willard Decker in 2273. In 2286 the constitution U.S.S. Enterprise 1701-A (third starship to bear the name) was commissioned and placed under Captain Kirk's command by the Federation Council and Starfleet Command. Kirk's crew saved Earth on numerous occasions from rogue villains, lunatic machines, and evil space entities. These facts demonstrated to the citizens of the federation just how dangerous starship exploration really was and as a result the starship Enterprise became famous overnight.
Captain Picard's Galaxy Class Enterprise NCC 1701-D was the flagship of flagships. This ship was beautiful. Picard's Enterprise got thrashed in Veridian III space by a defective twenty year old Klingon bird of prey. Lursa and B'Etor ran rings around Commander William Riker and had fun blowing the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC 1701-D to shreds. I was fuming at Enterprise's Number 1 who was calling the shots while Picard was on the Planet below. If I wanted to be mean, I could blame the Flagship of the Federation becoming a sitting duck because counsellor Troi was at the helm. That was Rikers fatal error which eventually condemned the ship. Meanwhile Geordi La Forge was losing it big time in Main Engineering.
What would the real Captain have done? In a nanosecond, Picard would have scarpered over to the helm and warped the Enterprise-D out of danger himself. I have to admit, I had a few emotional outbursts of my own that day. By now, poor Enterprise-D is really shagged and the Duras Sisters luck eventually runs out thanks to WORF, so what does Riker do next? He slams the Enterprise-D into the planet below, So yes, we can totally blame Riker for wrecking the Enterprise-D.
Under Captain Kirk's command the U.S.S. Enterprise 1701 gathered the masses and made the daily Trek News. Our trek heroes explored sci fi's fabric of reality employing faster than light engines, warp speeds, teleportation transporters, shuttlecraft, weapons and defensive systems, turbolifts, matter/antimatter engines, inertial damping fields, jefferies tubes, deflector shields, tractor beams, duotronic computers (designed by Richard Daystrom in 2243,) sensor arrays, medical facilities, engineering systems and crew quarters designed to specific Starfleet specifications.
I think Kirk should definitely have put in a word about the jefferies tubes. Why are they so small? Even Captain Picard should have considered it his duty and put in a special report to Starfleet about the design flaw and health risks to the crew. I wonder why they never did? after all there were five captains of the USS Enterprise NCC 1701 and NCC 1701-A combined. Strange isn't it?
Live Long and Prosper Trekkies!
