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Pre-Federation era
Two spacecraft with the name Enterprise predate the United Federation of Planets in Star Trek's fictional timeline.
XCV 330
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-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" (2003).
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.[1] Its length is given as 300 metres (980 ft), and it has a capacity of 100 crew and 850 passengers.[1] The Star Trek Maps by New Eye Photography Editors, also published in 1979, listed this ship as a fusion drive 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".[2]
NX-01, main setting of Star Trek: Enterprise
Registry: 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 and the Romulans and played a central role in the "Temporal Cold War". It is also featured as a model in Star Trek Into Darkness. As of 2401, it appears, heavily modified, at the Starfleet Museum above Athan Prime, in season 3 of Star Trek: Picard (2023).
The Original Series era
Three ships named USS Enterprise are featured in the original Star Trek television series and the first through seventh Star Trek films.
NCC-1701
Registry: USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)
Class: Constitution I/II[3][4][5]
Service: 2245–2285 (40 years)
Captains: Robert April (James Doohan [voice], Adrian Holmes), Christopher Pike (Jeffrey Hunter, Sean Kenney, Anson Mount), James T. Kirk (William Shatner), Willard Decker (Stephen Collins), Spock (Leonard Nimoy).
The Federation's first Enterprise is the main setting of the original Star Trek series (1966–1969) and Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973–74).[6] 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.[6] 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.[7]
Details of the ship's appearance differed in the various series and films in which it appears. In the 1965 pilot episode "The Cage", whose footage was reused for a flashback to Captain Pike's command in the episode "The Menagerie" (1966), the ship's bridge featured a transparent dome ceiling 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 second season, set several years after the events of "The Cage".[8] The new design for the Enterprise, which more closely matches the aesthetic of Discovery, debuted in 2018 at the conclusion of the season 1 finale,[8] 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.[9] 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.
NCC-1701-A
Registry: USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A)
Class: Constitution II
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 "decommissioned" at the end of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991).[6] As of 2401, it resides at the Starfleet Museum above Athan Prime, appearing in season 3 of Star Trek: Picard (2023). Non-canon information concerning this ship includes paperwork included with the model kit, which indicated the ship was 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.
NCC-1701-B
Registry: USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-B)
Class: Excelsior-class refit[10]
Service: 2293–2329 (36 years)
Captains: 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.[11]
The design of the Enterprise-B is similar to that of the USS Excelsior, which first appeared in the 1984 film Star Trek III: The Search For Spock.[9] 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. 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. Two additional Enterprise ships appear in the third season of Star Trek: Picard, in which TNG's command crew are reunited.
NCC-1701-C
Registry: USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-C)
Class: Ambassador
Service: 2332[12]–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).[11] It was destroyed attempting to defend the Klingon outpost Narendra III from Romulan attack.[11] 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.[11] The actions of the Enterprise-C's crew became a catalyst for the alliance between the Federation and the Klingon Empire.[11]
NCC-1701-D
Registry: USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D)
Class: Galaxy
Service: 2363–2371 and 2401–2402 (9 years)
Captains: Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), William T. Riker (Jonathan Frakes), Edward Jellico (Ronny Cox)
The main setting of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994).[11] During Star Trek Generations, Enterprise-D 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 on Veridian III.[11] The ship also appears in the first Deep Space Nine episode "Emissary" and the final Enterprise episode "These Are the Voyages...". It appears in a dream sequence in the pilot of Star Trek: Picard, and after its saucer section was retrieved and placed in the Fleet Museum, it is revealed to have been reconstructed in full by Geordi La Forge as a working ship in the penultimate episode, set in 2401. In the final episode, Enterprise-D engages the Borg one last time and is returned to the Fleet Museum the following year.
NCC-1701-E
Registry: USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-E)
Class: Sovereign
Service: 2372–2384 (12 years)
Captains: Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), Worf (Michael Dorn)
The main setting for the films Star Trek: First Contact (1996), Star Trek: Insurrection (1998), and Star Trek: Nemesis (2002). She also appeared in the season 1 finale of Star Trek: Prodigy (2022), set in the mid-2380s. 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.
NCC-1701-F
Registry: USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-F)
Class: Odyssey
Service: 2386–2401 (15 years)
Commanding officer: Fleet Admiral Elizabeth Shelby (Elizabeth Dennehy)
This ship appeared in season 3 of Star Trek: Picard (2023), set in 2401, where it was set to be decommissioned following the Frontier Day festival. This ship first appeared in the non-canon video game, Star Trek Online, and was designed by artist and graphics designer Adam Ihle as part of a fan competition.
NCC-1701-G
Registry: USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-G)
Class: Constitution III
Service: 2396–2401 (as USS Titan), 2402– (as USS Enterprise)
Captains: Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan)
Originally designated the USS Titan (NCC-80102-A), the Enterprise-G appeared in season 3 of Star Trek: Picard (2023), set in 2401. In honor of the crew of the USS Enterprise-D following its final confrontation with the Borg, the former Titan was rechristened as the Enterprise in 2402.
Alternate timelines
Alternate future
NCC-1701-D refit
Registry: USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D)
Class: Galaxy refit
Service: circa 2395
Captain: Full Admiral William T. Riker (Jonathan Frakes)
In "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.[13]
NCC-1701-J
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 scientist Degra.[14]
Games (non-canon)
NCC-1701-F
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. In 2018, the in-game appearance of the ship was changed to that of a "Yorktown Class" vessel, after the ship was damaged and refit as part of the game's story.[15] The original, Odyssey class version of the ship would later appear in Season 3 of Star Trek: Picard in February 2023, making the Enterprise-F part of the official Star Trek canon.[16][17]
Mirror universe
The Mirror Universe first appeared in the original series as an alternate reality where the militaristic Terran Empire exists in place of the regular universe's United Federation of Planets ("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)
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".[6] The ship is equipped with an agony booth and the mirror in the captain's quarters conceals Captain Kirk's deadly Tantalus device.[6] ISS Enterprise was originally the same shooting model as the regular Enterprise.[6] 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).[18]
Reboot (Kelvin timeline) films
The 2009 Star Trek film takes place in a new reality created when the Romulan Nero traveled through time via an artificial black hole created by red matter.
NCC-1701
Registry: USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)
Service: 2258–2263 (5 years)
Captains: Christopher Pike (Bruce Greenwood), James T. Kirk (Chris Pine)
The main setting for the films 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[19] to 910 meters.[20][21][22][23] In an article about the 2009 film's visual effects, Cinefex wrote, "The reconfigured ship was a larger vessel than previous manifestations – approximately 1,200 feet (370 m) long compared to the 947 foot (289 m) ship of the original series",[24] 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."[24]
A special feature on starships in the Blu-ray (BD) version of the movie gives the length as 2,379 feet (725 m), 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 Enterprise (XCV 330), seen only as a model). This would result in a height of 167m, and a beam of 339m.
Registry: USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A)
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.[citation needed] Jefferies, who was a pilot, based NCC on 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.[11]
The 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. civil aircraft and civil aircraft in the Soviet Union used the designation CCCC. 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.[25]
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
Ralph McQuarrie's redesigned Enterprise from 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.[26]
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 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-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.[27] According to Patrick Stewart, the yacht would have been called the Calypso.[27] 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.[27]
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 USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) 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.[28] By contrast, in 2019, 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.[9]
Time described each iteration of the Enterprise as "a character in its own right".[29] 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 Enterprise.[30][31] 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 USS Enterprise (CVN-65) 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.[32][33]
In 2014, NASA named its IXS Enterprise advanced propulsion concept vehicle after the Star Trek vessel.[34]
Celebrity astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has spoken highly of the influence and legacy of the 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."[35] 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."[36]
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.[37]
See also
VSS Enterprise, proposed first commercial spacecraft
References
Goldstein, Stan; Fred Goldstein; Rick Sternbach (1980). Star Trek, Spaceflight Chronology: The Human Adventure Beyond Our World—from the First Small Steps to the Voyage of the New U.S.S. Enterprise in the Twenty-Third Century. New York: Pocket Books. p. 112.
Sackett, Susan; Roddenberry, Gene (1980). The Making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Pocket Books. p. 93. ISBN 978-0-671-25181-9.
"General Plans – Constitution Class: U.S.S. Enterprise". Star Trek Blueprints. CBS Paramount. Archived from the original on June 14, 2013. The following ships of this class were constructed under authorization of the original articles of the United Federation of Planets ... Enterprise – NCC-1701
"Star Trek: The Motion Picture Official Blueprints". CBS Paramount. p. 1. Archived from the original on February 6, 2007. The refitted Enterprise is more powerful than any vessel in Starfleet because of its linear inter-mix chamber, which not only boosts the magnatomic-initiator stage of the new nacelles, but also fires directly into the deflection crystal of the new nacelles.
"Star Trek: The Motion Picture Official Blueprints". CBS Paramount. p. 6. Archived from the original on February 6, 2007. Normally patrolling in 'packs' of three, the cruisers are deadly for a single Federation starship. The new Enterprise class, however, promises to even those odds.
Asherman, Allan (1993). The Star Trek Compendium. Titan. ISBN 978-1-85286-472-9.
Goldberg, Lesley (May 15, 2020). "'Star Trek' Pike and Spock Series Set at CBS All Access". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on May 15, 2020. Retrieved May 16, 2020.
Adams, Nathan (March 24, 2018). "7 Things We Learned About 'Star Trek: Discovery' Season 2 at WonderCon 'Visionaries' Panel". TrekMovie.com. Archived from the original on August 26, 2018. USS Enterprise design evolved and grew to match Discovery universe — Production designer Tamara Deverell and VFX supervisor Jason Zimmerman offered some insights into the approach for developing the look of the USS Enterprise seen at the end of the season one finale:
Tamara Deverell: For the Enterprise, we based it initially off of The Original Series. We were really drawing a lot of our materials from that. And then we particularly went to more of the Star Trek movies, which is a little bit fatter, a little bit bigger. Overall, I think we expanded the length of it to be within the world of our Discovery, which is bigger, so we did cheat it as a larger ship.
Jason Zimmerman: It starts with them giving us designs to work with and then there is a lot of back and forth between VFX and [Tamra's] department to make sure that we get everything right. There were a lot of conversations and more emails than I could remember about how the design would evolve and sort of match our universe, and that is how we sort of arrived where we are now.
Brigden, Charlie (January 21, 2019). "From one generation to the next: Ranking the Starships Enterprise". SyFy Wire.
"Enterprise-B, U.S.S." StarTrek.com. CBS Paramount. Retrieved May 20, 2009. An upgrade of the Excelsior-class
Okuda, Michael; Denise Okuda; Debbie Mirek (1999). The Star Trek Encyclopedia. Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-53609-5.
Bick, Ilsa J. (November 2003). Star Trek: The Lost Era: Well of Souls. Pocket Books. ISBN 0-7434-6375-7.
"Star Trek: The 20 Most Powerful Ships In The Galaxy, Ranked". CBR. December 17, 2018. Retrieved July 10, 2019.
"Azati Prime". StarTrek.com.
"Jayce's Navy Interstellar: Through the Valley | Star Trek Online". www.arcgames.com. Retrieved April 14, 2023.
Tyler, Josh (October 8, 2022). "See The Enterprise F, Just Unveiled By Star Trek: Picard". Giant Freakin Robot. Retrieved October 9, 2022.
Britt, Ryan (February 16, 2023). "The Best Star Trek Easter Eggs in the Picard Season 3 Premiere". Den of Geek. Retrieved April 14, 2023.
Sternbach, Rick (November 16, 2006). "Review of Mirror Mirror Remastered". TrekMovie.com.
Revell GmbH (2013). "U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 – Star Trek Into Darkness". Revell – Build Your Dream (image of model kit box). Bünde, Germany. Archived from the original on September 6, 2018. Retrieved September 6, 2018.
McGorry, Ken (May 1, 2009). "Cover Story: 'Star Trek' Returns". Post magazine. The Enterprise is 3,000 feet (910 m) long but bad guy Eric Bana's ship is designed to appear a humongous five miles long. Quote from Russell Earl, co-VFX supervisor for ILM.
Robertson, Barbara (May 13, 2009). "Reinventing Star Trek's VFX". Film & Video. The Narada was six miles long and the Enterprise is 2,000 feet (610 m). Quote from Bruce Holcomb, Digital Model Supervisor for Star Trek.
Dunlop, Renee (May 26, 2009). "Star Trek: Production Focus". CCGSociety. Archived from the original on May 29, 2009. Retrieved June 12, 2009. One challenge was to sell the weight and scale of the ships that ranged from a 30 foot shuttle to the new Enterprise at 2,357 feet (718 m) long, to the nemesis ship, the Narada, five miles long. Source: Russell Earl & Roger Guyett, co-VFX Supervisors at ILM.
"Experience the Enterprise". Paramount Pictures & CBS Studios Inc. Length: 2,500 feet (760 m).
Fordham, Joe (July 2009). "Star Trek: A New Enterprise". Cinefex (118).
"BBC Online - Cult - Star Trek - Matt Jefferies - Why NCC-1701?". Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved August 21, 2013.
Collura, Scott (August 11, 2016). "Star Trek: Discovery's Ship Design Still Evolving". IGN. San Francisco: IGN Entertainment Inc. Archived from the original on August 12, 2016. Retrieved October 17, 2016.
Sternbach, Rick; Okuda, Michael (1991). Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual. Simon and Schuster. p. 145. ISBN 978-1-4391-0856-7.
Whitbrook, James. "All 11 Versions of the U.S.S. Enterprise, Ranked". io9. Retrieved July 9, 2019.
Conway, Richard (May 16, 2013). "Star Trek, Before Darkness: 47 Years of Starship Designs". Time. ISSN 0040-781X. Archived from the original on September 27, 2016.
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Phillips, Chaka (June 22, 2014). "Warp Speed Tests: NASA Advanced Propulsion Names Latest Model Enterprise After Star Trek". Latin Post. Archived from the original on August 20, 2018.
Plumbline Pictures (July 16, 2012). "Neil deGrasse Tyson at the Starship Smackdown, Comic-Con 2012". YouTube. Archived from the original on November 17, 2021. Retrieved August 17, 2018.
National Geographic (November 27, 2015). Millennium Falcon or Starship Enterprise? - Fan Question. StarTalk. YouTube. Archived from the original on November 17, 2021. Retrieved August 17, 2018.
Pachal, Pete (May 19, 2015). "Make it so: Chinese building looks just like Star Trek's USS Enterprise". Mashable. Archived from the original on December 19, 2017. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
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ISS Enterprise at Memory Alpha
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These are the voyages...
Space: the final frontier...
Star Trek is a long-running science-fiction franchise with eleven television series (eight live-action shows and three animated series), and thirteen live-action movies spanning three generations of characters and over six decades of television. And it's still going with a couple of new additions in development.
The setting in every series is sometime in the distant future featuring a collection of broadly similar rubber-foreheaded polities spanning (fairly small) segments of the so-called 'quadrants' of the Milky Way galaxy, with the stories centered around an Earth-based interstellar government called the United Federation of Planets and the exploits of its fleet of starships, Starfleet. Every series dealt with a particular crew, mostly of various ships named Enterprise. As originally envisioned by its creator, Gene Roddenberry, the science fiction nature of the series was just a method to address many social issues of the time that could not have been done in a normal drama. As such, it was not above being Anvilicious or engaging in thinly-veiled social satire, but considering its origin during The '60s, sometimes they couldn't afford to be subtle.
It is, for the most part, way on the idealistic side of the Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism, at least partially because of its solid allegiance to the Enlightened side of Romanticism Versus Enlightenment. While the ships and officers of Starfleet use Frickin' Laser Beams, Deflector Shields, Photoprotoneutron Torpedoes and essentially invented Technobabble, the main way they solve problems is by talking, and by finding out the Commonality Connection between us humans and the Monster of the Week. That said, there are still shades of a more cynical future. In general, Star Trek portrays a future you hope will come true, albeit after humanity endured terrible troubles like the Eugenics Wars led by the genetically enhanced conqueror Khan Noonien Singh, and a third world war, and rose above them. All series have sought to show that while you may think the world is falling apart and there is no chance of global unity, all this crap will eventually work itself out. However, that future will of course still have serious problems like hostile interstellar powers and horrific threats like deadly alien monsters and diseases to deal with — though it's nothing that Starfleet can't handle.
The series has also had a profound impact on modern culture and media. Everyone with any exposure to Western pop culture has heard of the Starship Enterprise, and the series predicted (and possibly inspired) the PC, tablet, automatic doors, cell phones, natural-language AI and more, decades before their invention. The first African-American woman in space was inspired to become an astronaut because of Nichelle Nichols' pioneering role. And the prototype Space Shuttle was named after the iconic starship NCC-1701,note as is Virgin Galactic's first commercial spacecraft.
And finally, while there were previous antecedents (such as the case of Sherlock Holmes and The Man from U.N.C.L.E.), Star Trek effectively gave rise to Fandom as we know it: when Star Trek: The Original Series began to pick up steam in syndication, fans organized conventions, wrote fanfiction, dressed in costume, and generally made lots of noise. Case in point, the Space Shuttle prototype was going to be named the Constitution until then-President Gerald Ford received "hundreds of thousands of letters" from Trekkies who had different ideas on the subject. A similar letter-writing campaign granted The Original Series a third season. Every fandom since has taken its cues from that original outpouring of activity and devotion.
The franchise consists of:
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In total, to watch every minute of canon Star Trek would require 23 days and 25 minutes of your time. Of Science Fiction franchises, only Doctor Who and its various canon spinoffs are even within a week, and the Super Sentai franchise, which started later than Star Trek or Doctor Who, but has been running continuously since 1979.
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See also
The Trek Verse — a discussion of internal Trek history as viewed from a real-world perspective as well as how it affected modern culture.
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...To boldly go where no one has gone before!
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The Complete Star Trek Timeline Explained
BY
DUSTY STOWE
PUBLISHED NOV 15, 2020
From James T. Kirk to Jean-Luc Picard, from Kathryn Janeway to Michael Burnham, we're breaking down the full chronological timeline of Star Trek.
Star Trek Shows
Star Trek has been one of the premiere science fiction franchises in the world for over 50 years, but the sprawling timeline can sometimes be intimidating to new viewers, so we're laying out the definitive guide to the final frontier.
Over its half century of existence, Star Trek has rarely told its stories in a straight, chronological line; time travel tropes, alternate realities, and massive jumps into the future are all commonplace. Whether it's the era of Kirk and Spock or Picard and Data, Star Trek's timeline is a rich tapestry of compelling characters and science fiction parables, and it's still going strong.
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Here's a definitive look at the important milestones in the Star Trek timeline, across the franchise's many movies and TV shows.
Star Trek: Enterprise (2151-2155)
The main cast of Star Trek Enterprise looking into the camera
After Zefram Cochran's warp speed breakthrough and confab with Earth's first alien visitors, the Vulcans, humanity made slow steps toward rebuilding itself after the fallout from World War III, becoming worthy of being a citizen in a larger galactic community. Star Trek: Enterprise chronicled the adventures of Captain Jonathan Archer and the crew of the Enterprise NX-01, the first human ship capable of warp 5.
The show dealt with humanity's growing pains with ostensible allies like the Vulcans and Andorians, as well as the introduction of classic species like the Klingons. The show ended with a bizarre, roundly criticized holodeck flashforward, which saw Archer and friends present at the creation of the Federation in 2161.
Star Trek: Discovery Seasons 1 and 2 (2256-2259)
Star Trek: Discovery begins with a disastrous meeting between Starfleet and the Klingon Empire, which leads to a long, bloody war that nearly cost the Federation its soul. Centering on Commander Micheal Burnham, Discovery deals with the personal prices of war, as well as the themes of redemption and empathy. The first season dealt almost exclusively with the Klingon War, while season 2 took a more thoughtful approach - partially by borrowing the once and future captain of the Enterprise, Christopher Pike. When faced with a homicidal artificial intelligence called Control, the crew of the Discovery realized the only way to save all organic life in the universe would be to jump significantly into the future - but we'll get to that in a bit.
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Star Trek: The Original Series (2266-2269)
The USS Enterprise was launched in 2245, under Captain Robert April, before Pike took command somewhere around 2254, which is the year of the show's initial, rejected pilot episode "The Cage." A new pilot - now featuring William Shatner's iconic Captain Kirk and a little more action - was set in 2265, while the first season of Star Trek: The Original Series was largely set in 2266.
The show would take some time travel detours - including the stone cold classic "City On The Edge Of Forever," which saw Kirk and Spock faced with an impossible choice when they find themselves thrown back to the 1930s. But this is the show whose era would define Star Trek for decades - bright colors, multicultural Starfleet crews, and more than a little silliness.
Star Trek: The Animated Series (2269-2270)
Star Trek The Animated Series
While Star Trek: The Original Series was unceremoniously cancelled after its third season, the show would go on to become a phenomenon in syndication. The first hint that Star Trek would outlive its somewhat humble beginnings was Star Trek: The Animated Series, an Emmy winning cartoon that aimed for a family friendly vibe without sacrificing what made The Original Series work.
It's been debated for years whether or not The Animated Series is a proper part of Star Trek canon - franchise creator Gene Roddenberry tended to vacillate on the issue, but current Star Trek head honcho Alex Kurtzman says it is. It even got a couple of brief references in Star Trek: Picard - so we're including it here.
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Star Trek: The Motion Picture (2273)
Star Trek The Motion Picture cast
Following a few years as head of Starfleet Command, Admiral James T. Kirk retakes the reins of the newly refitted USS Enterprise to stop a mysterious, sentient cloud from consuming everything in its path, including its eventual final destination - Earth. Spock, now studying on Vulcan to purge himself of all remaining emotion, finds himself in direct contact with the alien entity, which turns out to have more to do with humanity than the crew could ever guess.
The first film in the franchise is a long, cerebral story, with a significantly colder, more serious vibe than The Original Series, taking many of its cues from the classic 2001: A Space Odyssey. It received something of a mixed reaction from audiences, but greater things were just around the corner for Kirk and friends.
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (2285)
Kirk and Spock in Star Trek The Wrath of Khan
Set over a decade after The Motion Picture, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is still widely considered the gold standard of Star Trek films. Admiral Kirk - now many years removed from his salad days on the Enterprise - is enduring something of a midlife crisis on Earth when an enemy from his past returns. Khan Noonien Singh, the superman who menaced the Enterprise in the classic TOS episode "Space Seed," is looking for vengeance against Kirk, and plans to utilize the technology of the Genesis project to continue his destiny of conquest.
After a pitched cat and mouse battle in space, Kirk comes out on top, but at a terrible cost - Spock sacrifices his life to save the Enterprise. Spock's death would define the next two films in the franchise.
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Star Trek III: The Search For Spock (2285)
star-trek-iii-the-search-for-spock
Set immediately after the events of the previous film, The Search For Spock finds Kirk and friends stealing the Enterprise in an effort to save Spock's katra - essentially his soul - after the wily Vulcan transferred it to Dr. McCoy just before his death. The crew would eventually save Spock, but at great price; Kirk would not only lose his adult son, David, to a Klingon attack, but also the Enterprise, destroyed in an effort to trick those same Klingons.
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (2286/1986)
Kirk and Spock in a car in Star Trek The Voyage Home
As the crew of the late USS Enterprise prepares to leave Vulcan and return to Earth to answer for their crimes, a massive alien ship appears over Earth, causing massive climate disruptions on the planet's surface. In their stolen Klingon vessel, Kirk and Spock are able to determine that the alien ship is trying to contact humpback whales, which were extinct by the 23rd century. They decide that to save Earth, they have to go back in time to retrieve a pair of humpback whales.
The crew travel back to 1986 and have one of their more lighthearted adventures along the way. They're eventually able to retrieve the whales, return to the future and save Earth. For their trouble, all charges against the crew are dropped except one, against only Admiral Kirk, whose "punishment" is demotion to Captain. Kirk and his faithful crew are assigned to a brand new ship - the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-A, and the adventures continue.
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Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (2287)
Spock Sybok Star Trek V
Less than a year out of space dock, the new Enterprise-A is something of a mess, but Kirk and crew are still called into action when a mysterious Vulcan named Sybok takes a group of diplomats hostage, demanding a starship in exchange for their release. Sybok would be revealed as Spock's half-brother who rejected the teachings of Vulcan logic to embrace emotion.
Sybok was able to commandeer the Enterprise and take it to a far away planet he calls Sha Ka Ree, essentially Eden. But the God of Sha Ka Ree proves to be a villainous alien attempting to free itself from an ancient prison. Sybok dies in the ensuing battle, but the alien entity is fought off by an unlikely Klingon assist. Spock mourns his brother, but takes comfort in the family he's made for himself on the Enterprise.
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (2293)
Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country
After a cataclysmic mining accident, the Klingon Empire finds itself in generational peril. The Federation takes the opportunity to open peace negotiations with the warrior race, with Spock volunteering the soon to be retired Enterprise crew for one final mission, much to Captain Kirk's horror. Kirk still blames the Klingons for the death of his son and has trouble separating his personal feelings from his mission. But when the Klingon Emperor is mysteriously killed after meeting with the Enterprise crew, Kirk and McCoy find themselves accused of his murder.
Spock is able to uncover a vast conspiracy within Starfleet and the Klingon Empire - including his hand-chosen successor, Lieutenant Valeris - which is intent on destroying any chance of peace. Kirk is eventually able to put his own prejudice and fear of the future aside, paving the way for the eventual peace that the Klingons and the Federation would enjoy in the 24th century.
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Star Trek: The Next Generation (2364-2370)
Taking place a century after the events of The Original Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation was the franchise's great leap forward. Set on the brand new Galaxy class USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D, TNG would follow the adventures of Captain Jean-Luc Picard and his crew of bright eyed overachievers. Produced two decades after TOS, Star Trek: The Next Generation told more sophisticated stories, and thankfully jettisoned some of the overt misogyny from its 1960s predecessor. Fan favorites like Data and Worf became household names in the same manner as Spock and Bones.
Running in syndication for seven seasons, Star Trek: The Next Generation was a bigger and more consistent hit than The Original Series, and solidified Star Trek as an A-list franchise for most of the 1990s.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (2369-2375)
Star Trek Deep Space Nine
Set on a stationary space station, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine would break new ground for the franchise in more ways than one. It featured Avery Brooks as Commander Benjamin Sisko - the first person of color to lead a Star Trek crew, and a young father questioning his place in Starfleet as he takes on this new mission. He would eventually find himself revered as a religious figure by the people of Bajor, a deeply spiritual society that was occupied and enslaved by the fascistic Cardassians.
Deep Space Nine would go to some surprisingly dark places, and its later seasons even focused on the Federation entering a bitter war against the Dominion, a sort of dark mirror of the Federation intent on galactic conquest. While a modest success in its time, it has become a fundamentally important part of the Star Trek universe.
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Star Trek: Voyager (2371-2378)
Voyager - Complete Guide to Star Trek
When the brand new USS Voyager - commanded by the steely Captain Kathryn Janeway - finds itself thrown into the Delta quadrant, decades away from home, Star Trek suddenly became a story of survival. More than most series in the franchise, Star Trek: Voyager's crew thought of themselves as a family, enduring years away from the protection of the Federation as they encountered new and old challenges in the Delta quadrant - including the nightmarish cybernetic threat, the Borg.
A former Borg drone, Seven of Nine, would join the series halfway through, and her relationships with Janeway and the ship's suspiciously sentient Emergency Medical Hologram - called simply The Doctor - would come to define the series in its later years.
Star Trek: Generations (2371/2293)
Star Trek Generations Kirk Picard
Set immediately after the final season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, this was the first movie in the franchise to feature that show's cast. The film actually begins almost a century earlier with the launch of the Enterprise-B, which happens to be the mission on which Captain Kirk was presumed dead. However, the good captain was actually pulled into a mystical energy ribbon called The Nexus, which was a gateway to a kind of manufactured paradise reality.
A madman named Soran attempts to destroy a star so that he can change the path of The Nexus ribbon and re-enter paradise. He accidentally takes Jean-Luc Picard with him, who brings Kirk back with him to defeat Soren and save untold millions. Kirk dies in the battle, spending his final moments with Picard, who assures him he made a difference. Generations not only sees the end of James Kirk, but the destruction of the iconic Enterprise-D as well. The sleeker, battle ready Enterprise-E would debut in the next film, Star Trek: First Contact.
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Star Trek: First Contact (2373/2063)
Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the USS Enterprise-E must travel back over 300 years from the 24th century to stop the villainous Borg from changing the timeline so that humanity never harnessed warp speed and therefore never made first contact with an alien species, making thm ripe for assimilation. The Earth of this era was still recovering from both the Eugenics Wars a generation earlier and the nuclear fallout from World War III.
After dispatching the Borg, Picard and crew get a rare treat, as they get to be witnesses to the first meeting between Zefram Cochrane - the alcoholic inventor who first harnesses warp speed - and the Vulcans, fittingly humanity's first introduction to life among the stars.
Star Trek: Insurrection (2375)
Star Trek Insurrection Cast
Reeling from Dominion and Borg attacks, the Federation puts its ideals to the test when it locates a planet with natural healing abilities, something akin to the fountain of youth. Starfleet plans to move its inhabitants off world so they can exploit the planet's inherent powers, to the loud protestations of Picard, who believes Starfleet is betraying its principles.
Eventually Picard would discover that the Federation had inadvertently involved themselves in a blood feud between the Son'a and Ba'ku; after defeating the Son'a's efforts to harvest their homeworld, Picard returned peace to the Ba'ku.
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Star Trek: Nemesis (2379)
The (seemingly) final big screen adventure for the cast of TNG, Nemesis saw some big changes for the crew of the Enterprise-E. Commander William Riker and Counselor Deanna Troi got married, with Riker promoted to captain of the USS Titan. The film's main plot revolves around a clone of Picard called Shinzon - played by a young Tom Hardy - who takes control of the Romulan Empire with the help of the Remans, the species that inhabits Romulus' sister planet, Remus.
In a last ditch effort to save both Picard and the Enterprise, Data sacrifices his life, destroying Shinzon's ship as he stands on its bridge. Data's sacrifice would deeply affect Picard, and represent something of a turning point in the captain's life.
Star Trek: Lower Decks (2380)
Star Trek Lower Decks
Set a year after the events of Nemesis, Lower Decks offers a lighthearted take on the final frontier, focusing on the lower ranked crew members of the USS Cerritos. Lower Decks primarily follows Ensigns Brad Boimler and Beckett Mariner as they attend to menial tasks and worry about promotions and making their bosses happy. The show has only had one season so far, but has already established itself as a fun, worthy entry in the Star Trek canon.
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Star Trek (2387/Kelvin Timeline 2233/Kelvin Timeline 2258)
Zachary Quinto & Chris Pine in Star Trek
This one is tricky. Directed by JJ Abrams, Star Trek was framed as something of a reboot, but was in fact the beginning of an alternate reality story. In 2387, a star explodes and threatens to wipe out billions of people, including the entire planet of Romulus. Spock vows to save as many lives as he can by creating a black hole in the heart of the supernova, but he's too late to save Romulus. A Romulan mining ship, commanded by the vengeful Nero, intercepts Spock after he creates the black hole, and in the altercation both ships are pulled into the black hole and thrown back in time.
Nero arrives first, in the year 2233, where he immediately decimates the USS Kelvin, a Starfleet ship carrying the parents of James Kirk. Kirk's mother survives and gives birth to the future captain, but Kirk's father is killed, altering his future considerably and establishing what would be known as the Kelvin timeline. But fate has a way of intervening, and by 2258 - when Spock finally comes through the wormhole - Kirk is well on his way to becoming the captain we all know and love, despite having lived a very different life.
Star Trek Into Darkness (Kelvin Timeline 2259)
Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto in Star Trek Into Darkness
Set a year after the events of Abrams' first alternate reality film, Into Darkness sees the crew of the Enterprise take on a new version of Khan, who has had a massively altered life as well. Rather than being discovered by the Enterprise in 2267, Khan's derelict ship was discovered much earlier by Starfleet's Section 31, essentially the black ops wing of the organization. Section 31 - led by the shady Admiral Marcus - awakens Khan and keeps his follower in cryogenic freeze as the threat by which they can control him.
Things, of course, go very badly, and Kirk and Spock switch roles from The Wrath of Khan as Kirk sacrifices himself to save the Enterprise. With the help of Khan's superhuman blood, however, Kirk is revived, already having defeated one of his most cunning enemies - for now.
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Star Trek Beyond (Kelvin Timeline 2262)
Chris Pine as Captain Kirk in Star Trek Beyond
About halfway into their five year deep space mission, the crew of the Enterprise find themselves under attack by the mysterious Krall, who has a dangerous drone army at his disposal. Krall actually manages to destroy the Enterprise (yet again) - taking most of the crew hostage in the process. Kirk, who was able to avoid capture along with Chekov and Scotty, eventually frees the Enterprise crew and defeats Krall, who turns out to be a former Starfleet officer who feels the Federation failed him. Beyond is a fun, exciting entry in the franchise, and if it is indeed the final installment in the Kelvin timeline, it's a great way to go out.
Star Trek: Picard (2399)
Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: Picard
Set 20 years after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis, Star Trek: Picard finds its titular character still deeply affected by Data's death, as well as the destruction of Romulus by the supernova. A mysterious young woman named Dahj - with an unexpected connection to Data - darkens Picard's doorway, on the run from Romulan agents, and the good captain finds himself back in action once again.
The show would also reintroduce fan favorites like Riker and Troi, as well as Voyager's Seven of Nine, who has been changed drastically by the intervening years. Star Trek: Picard is the first entry in the franchise since Nemesis that moves the primary timeline forward, and closes out the 24th century in shocking, rewarding ways.
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Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 (3188-3189)
Star Trek Discovery season 3 poster
After jumping into the future to stop the rogue artificial intelligence Control from destroying all organic life in the galaxy, Michael Burnham and the USS Discovery find themselves in an unfamiliar era. The Federation - and interstellar space travel in general - were ravaged by an event called The Burn, which happened about a hundred years prior to Discovery's arrival. The Burn was the day that almost all dilithium - the energy source that powers all warp engines - detonated, destroying most starships in service and massively changing the galactic power structure.
It's yet to be seen how the Discovery will cope in this new world, but it seems likely they'll bring the hope and progressivism inherent in the best of Star Trek with them into this dark new age.