The Mystery of the Enterprise-A: three theories on where she came from

[@jamesknauer540]

"The bureaucratic mentality is the only constant in the universe. We'll get a freighter." -- Leonard McCoy

[@harryzimmerman7991]

" No Doc, we wouldn't do you or your little group of misfits that way, not getting a freighter, but a nice, shiny 'new'🤭 hunk of shit courtesy of a few Starfleet personel who weren't exactly clapping and cheering when they heard the news and put their creative heads together, So....Ya still want that frieghter, Doc?"

[@voornaam3191]

@@harryzimmerman7991 Blaise Pascal explained all problems in this world: why can't people simply stay in their Zimmer? Instead they go out and start discussions and fights and wars. Stay in your own Zimmers! A Zimmer is a room, in case you refused to learn any basic German.

[@harryzimmerman7991]

@@voornaam3191 Really?🤦‍♂️🤔😒

[@moonbaby6134]

Well I’m hoping for Excelsior.

[@KRAFTWERK2K6]

Apparently when they showed that movie in Russia for the premiere, everyone in the audience laughed to that joke. Bureaucracy really is an universal issue, no matter what country or culture x3

[@johnthrasher4477]

The Enterprise A was not decommissioned at the end of Star Trek VI. The command crew was to be “decommissioned “. Ie replaced from active space service not necessarily retired. Kirks closing monologue at the end of the movie “This is the final cruise of the Starship Enterprise under my command. This ship and her history will shortly become the care of another crew. To them and their posterity will we commit our future.”

[@claytonpaddison6721]

I do agree that this was the intension of this line, but "Generations" seems to contradict this. In the opening of "Generations" (also set in 2293, the same year and shortly after the events of ST:VI), the Enterprise B is being commissioned. This suggests that the Enterprise A had already been decommissioned in order to release the name and registry number from the Starfleet Registry list between ST:VI and Generations.

[@timchorzempa6637]

@We Travel by Night: I think it was necessary to destroy the Original Enterprise in Star Trek 3 from a story telling perspective- The themes of death, loss, sacrifice, friendship, family, home and growing older were what linked “The Wrath of Khan” and “The Search for Spock.” In order for Spock’s sacrifice of his own life for the family that were his crew mates and friends in the Wrath of Khan to have emotional and narrative weight and meaning, considering that the Genesis device’s detonation reanimated Spock, Kirk had to sacrifice his career, ship/home, and had to experience the loss of his son David who saved the resurrected Spock as a substitute for losing him, for Spock’s earlier sacrifice to save kirk and crew, and for Kirk’s reciprocal sacrifice to save Spock to have emotional weight and meaning. It was sort of a balancing of the scales of friendship, loss and sacrifice.

[@jonathanjones3623]

Enterprise A was definitely not in service after the events of Undiscovered Country she was extensively damaged and she was not worth retaining or repairing every source that is official and involvement are quite concise her service ended after events of the Six film she certainly not in service anymore when the Excelsior class Enterprise B is commissioned in 2292 2293 whenever it was. Generations outlines it but definitively they never explicitly stated what date the ship left service and what the fate of the actual Starship was I could totally see the practical application of making her a museum ship or part of a space museum exhibit but given real life Naval Tendencies and film mimicking life it's very possible the Enterprise a was simply dismantled and used for scrap. one of these days I would like to know her actual fate hell Picard just recently alluded to the fate of the Enterprise D saucer it was recovered from the radian 3 and then placed in a museum real world USS Enterprise CBN 65 is being dismantled because the expense of taking the nuclear reactors out of the ship and then putting it back together would just be prohibitively expensive and plus once that's done even if that was the case the ship does not have a power plant anymore so how would you get it toad or used facilities

[@jonathanjones3623]

@@DanBen07 right scheduled for decommissioning but I would imagine it already happened by certainly the events of Star Trek generations there's even some speculation that a ship resembling the old NCC 1701 Alpha has been seen docked at the star base in the third season of Star Trek Picard could be the Enterprise a if it is that wouldn't surprise me but it's like so many other things in service to the plot of whatever was going on at Star Trek at that time after that's concluded it gets written off

[@James-rm7sr]

@@claytonpaddison6721 This made me kind of wish they had just had gone the route of giving the crew the Enterprise B at the end of the Voyage home. Although, I love ST VI. The line from Kirk then would make sense that the vassal would keep going, but the crew was stepping down. The ship did have a massive whole in the saucer from the torpedo. So it would have taken time to repair.

[@DJHannu]

The other theory is that the Yorktown’s crew didn’t survive their encounter with the whale probe, so Starfleet removed all the dead crew, renamed the ship and gave it to Kirk. 😮

[@jasonparis5635]

The Yorktown command crew survived and were transferred to different ships The Yorktown was renamed enterprise -A

[@canisblack]

@@jasonparis5635 This is what I've long understood to be the case as well.

[@Area51byDaveReale]

Kirk: *sniff-sniff* Anyone else smell rotten meat?

[@TheSuperhomosapien]

@@Area51byDaveReale They missed some bodies in the Jefferies tubes...

[@kellysavage7073]

@@jasonparis5635 your right I read this in a canon star trek book. of were the ship came from. They couldn.t build a new one in time from the keel up so they took the yorktown and renamed it enterprise -a and kirk got his new ship.

[@johnmiller7682]

There's actually a fourth option. The Constitution class is 50 years old. We don't know how many, other than the Enterprise, were left in service. But they probably had most of the parts pre-made. We also know (through TNG) that Starfleet has scrap yards for old ships. All they needed to do was take an old, scrapped Constitution, and refit that. That would explain why there were so many problems with the Enterprise A. It doesn't take years to refit a ship, only months.

[@DragoonMS]

And this is even alluded to by Scotty in The Motion Picture when he was about to take Kirk over to the newly refitted Enterprise-01... Scotty: "I've spent eighteen months redesigning and refitting the Enterprise, how in the hell do they expect me to have her ready in TWELVE HOURS!?" Kirk: "Take me over, please..." Scotty: "She needs more work, sir...a shakedown!!" Last I checked, 18 months is just a mere year and a half. A complete refit that changed the design completely, in just a year and a half. Wild, ain't it?

[@mattdavis9601]

In the TOS episode "The Ultimate Computer" Enterprise is given an advanced computer that promptly goes crazy and in the ensuing battle cripples 3 or 4 Connies. If Star Fleet, for whatever reason, decided that it wasn't worth repairing all of them at that time, then they'd have some relatively "low mileage" Constitutions just kind of floating around waiting to be fixed and refitted at some unknown later date.

[@johnmiller7682]

@@mattdavis9601 Exactly.

[@theunknownone5990]

@@mattdavis9601 Problem with that theory is they were in a detente with the Klingons at the time. So they would have been highly motivated to either get those ships back into service or strip them to the bone for usable parts as quickly as possible.

[@Turboy65]

Actually if you will look carefully, the changes between the Enterprise and the Enterprise-A are so enormous, that no ship was ever refit to the A standard starting with the original Constitution class. When the Enterprise was refit, it was a highly experimental process resulting in a unique ship. "This is an almost totally new Enterprise." said Captain Decker. No other refit Constitution was built. Think of the refit as the proof of concept for the A version. The refit was very similar to the A version, but even then, there are clearly visible external differences and internal differences are considerably more dramatic.

[@eliotanders3488]

I have a different theory. I do not think the decommissioning of Enterprise-A was for the ship (she being only 7 years old) but for the crew. They wanted the Enterprise senior staff bumped to desk duty or retired, which the crew resisted. The scene at the end of Undiscovered Country makes more sense if you look at it in that light: "If I were human, my response would be 'Go to Hell.' If I were human." Captain Spock.

[@danm6499]

Indeed. The final log entry at the end of ST6 included, "This ship and her history will shortly become the care of another crew." It's obvious that the crew is to be decommissioned, not the ship.

[@j-2-532]

Spock tells Valeris that he is recommending her to replace him as First Officer. Agree; the ship was to stay in service while the crew retired.

[@GrendelMTL]

The end of Star Trek 6 is only a few months before the Launching of the Enterprise B from the beginning of Generations (both happen in 2293)

[@olympicnut]

Unfortunately, this theory (while quite good) is not supported since the Enterprise B entered service a year after TUC. The refit Enterprise was also only around 14 years old and her decommissioning in ST3 was probably a silly plot contrivance to make her unnecessary destruction in that film less painful. The "Genesis Trilogy" essentially destroyed everything and then put it together again by the end. The writers relied more on surprising the audience than making sensible plot lines.

[@FynneRoke]

Given that the original Enterprise had been relegated to the role of a training vessel by the start of Wrath of Khan, I'd propose that it's possible she was already slated to be decommissioned soon. It makes sense given all the ship's been through, and the extent of the refit she had undergone prior to The Motion Picture, that starfleet may have decided by ST2 to lay down a new ship that was constructed from scratch with all the improvements that had essentially been modded onto the original, but that they ended up rushing the construction and commissioning after the ship was damaged during ST2 and then destroyed in 3. It would also explain, as much as it pains me to acknowledge ST5 as canon, why the ship was in such poor condition at the start of the film. They'd essentially pressed it into service with no shakedown and many of its systems not fully installed.

[@gregsmall5939]

USS Nimitz, CVN-68, was launched in 1975. The LAST ship in the class USS George Bush CVN-77 was launched in 2006. 30 years apart. It's not even slightly inconceivable that Enterprise A IS a Constitution II class. Though considerably more sophisticated than her predecessor. OR that the ship was on the builder's ways during the events of ST: III-IV and was renamed at the last minute. this happened SEVERAL times with aircraft carriers in WWII. The Essex class "replacements" for Yorktown (originally Bon Homme Richard), Hornet (originally Kearsarge), Lexington (originally Cabot), and Princeton (originally Valley Forge) ALL were renamed. Plus, Hancock and Ticonderoga actually swapped names. Also, the timeline would support the idea of the Enterprise being twenty years old (give or take a couple of years) since her 2270 refit. Which, if we continue the Carrier analogy, is about how long a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier can operate on its nuclear fuel. Before being refitted. This has always been MY understanding of the events.

[@johnarhallel5935]

Actually the Bush is her own new class.

[@marqsee7948]

@@johnarhallel5935 no, it's the last of the Nimitz class. Not identical, quite different from each other, but is the same class. The Gerald R Ford is the first of the new Gerald R Ford class.

[@SonnyThomasShow1]

Well stated!👍🏻

[@KCKingdomCreateGreatTrekAgain]

@@marqsee7948 is tripping and falling mandatory???

[@nunya3163]

And the Nimitz is still in service. The Enterprise CVN-65, was commissioned in 1958, and service until 2012, and was decommissioned in 2017. So clearly, a 50 year+ life span for capital ships is not unreasonable, even in the modern era.

[@johnrichmond7739]

I remember the end of star trek 6 that Kirk's comments after the radio message about decommissioning was that the "Enterprise would be the care and legacy" of another crew. So the 4th option is the Enterprise A continued on after Kirk with a new crew and new command. Even Spock said that the escorting the klingon chancellor mission would be his last. Kirk eluded to his retirement at the beginning when he confronted Spock on being volunteered for the mission. I think the Enterprise A continued on with at least a new crew.

[@paulwillard5924]

According to something I read, the Enterprise A was originally being built as the U.S.S. Ti-Ho, after the loss of the original Enterprise, she was re-named, with the A added to her registry.

[@Adam_Gunia]

Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise. I have the same book and that's where I read it too.

[@tommystone4563]

I have that book too...

[@Randall1001]

When it was said that the Enterprise was "20 years old," I felt it had to mean that he was measuring its age from that last big refit, (from The Motion Picture) which essentially had made it a completely new vessel. The ship is really 40 years old at that point, but he was being fair about -- kind of can't count those first 20 years against its age. But the 20 year remark was still an exaggeration---he was "rounding up," because at that point it would have only been about 11-13 years after the big refit. Maybe the admiral just got his years mixed up. Maybe he was confusing the Enterprise with Kirk--it would have been about 20 years or so, at that point, since Kirk had taken command of the Enterprise originally. Anyway, I like theory 3 here. The Yorktown, having gone through the same refit as the Enterprise in TMP (but maybe a little later?) finally returned from whatever its latest five year mission had been (the captain of the Yorktown seen in The Voyage Home is way too young to have been the same captain from the TOS days) and they started another, more minor refit on it for... whatever reason. Crew of the Yorktown was dispersed, their captain maybe was up for a promotion or an Excelsior class ship once they were ready (and maybe his crew would go with him) and Starfleet pawned off the now-refitted (so "new") Yorktown onto Kirk and crew and called it "Enterprise" in their honor. Yeah, it was a way to both honor Kirk and punish him at the same time. We'll demote you, but put you back in the captain's chair, because you're the greatest captain there is. If you survive that bout, we'll retire you as an admiral. In the meantime, we ain't giving you an Excelsior-class ship, because that would be too much reward. Here. Have this slightly improved Constitution class vessel. And stay out of trouble for once.

[@barrybend7189]

The Yorktown went through the two refits. One from block one to phase 2. Then went from phase 2 to TMP refit.

[@chrissmith7669]

If you count captains and assume each was captain for five years it fits the refit being 20 years old. As long as Decker was supervising the retrofit at the end of his 5 year term that is.

[@mattsarnecky2552]

Exactly. The Enterprise had already had two captains before Kirk and was 20 years old in TOS.

[@jonathanjones3623]

@@mattsarnecky2552 again not necessarily you have to realize until Star Trek strange new worlds Robert April if that's who you're counting before Pike that was not canonical until just recently what was Canon is the original television show in its original syndication and the films with the corresponding cast and crew if that were correct then Robert April wouldn't necessarily count not from the perspective of the original series and the original films he made a debut in the Animated Series but Gene Roddenberry always said the anime series was not considered Canon so there's some give and take there though April is now Canon he was not before

[@jonathanjones3623]

@@chrissmith7669 well that is a subject of debate the actual Antiquity of the Enterprise NCC 1701 originally when they started making the movies they had just simply concluded to simplify the chronology of the films and the real life actor so when Admiral Monroe in the Search for Spock says the Enterprise is 20 years old he is correct from 1967 to 1984 85 whenever the movie was shot that is correct now since Enterprise Star Trek Enterprise we have known that the constitution class Enterprise was launched in 2245. But that's after the fact that was not the case in 1985 when the Search for Spock made its debut in the theaters William Shatner none of the cast could have told you in the Enterprise was launched certainly Pike had been established but you see what I'm saying the Enterprise A actual Antiquity was never flashed out in its entirety as far as refits in yard. Borrowing from real life Naval lore it can never be verified if it wasn't explicitly stated on screen and in dialogue and then of course the Enterprise a herself. I am concluded that Gene Roddenberry was correct the enterprise-a was originally the USS Yorktown but other than that we don't really have a peg to understand how old she is and how much mileage she has it could explain why after the Undiscovered Country she is decommissioned after occurring such damage because while she may have only been commissioned as the Enterprise They since 2286 it doesn't mean that she's only 6 or 7 years old she's not a brand new ship he's a member of the Constitution class and lineage so she's a Survivor she was not from the ground up built I don't believe so comparable or not mileage and lifespans may not mean the same thing to Modern Interstellar Starships as they do to real world Naval vessels. But certainly mileage use and fatigue can take their toll and their May indeed be a point of no return where a Starship just isn't worth repairing anymore or retaining

[@PetesGuide]

I kinda like theory 3 as a starting point. That crew, having saved the ship, was rewarded with a brand new ship. Kirk and gang, always breaking the rules and generally being on the outs with starfleet, had to be rewarded for their good deeds, but still punished by the pointy-haired bosses somehow. So they were given a fixed and slightly upgraded 40-year-old Yorktown, with the name and hull number changed. This kept Kirk and gang in the game, but with a very public insult that they were nonetheless comfortable with, owing their great familiarity with the design.

[@jeffery7281]

Exactly what I thought🤣🤣

[@princecharon]

Going with this, and extending it a little: The Yorktown crew were already (before the incident with the whale probe) scheduled to transfer to other ships when the old Yorktown was to be decommissioned, with the Captain and selected others going to a new Excelsior-class USS Yorktown. The only problem here is Mr. Scott calling her a 'new ship.'

[@PetesGuide]

@@princecharon Hmmm. Maybe she was built from spare parts, just like the Endeavour shuttle? Would explain why things were so wonky with it. And still punishes the crew with a ship Starfleet can technically call a new build, but everyone knows it’s a 40-year-old design/insult.

[@earlware4322]

​@@princecharonWell, she was a new ship to Scotty. 😁 Also, since it did have at least some upgrades installed, if not a full refit, so she (Enterprise-A, nee Yorktown) was basically a "new" ship...technically speaking.

[@lesliejas]

If you watch Star Trek 6 closely, you’ll see a lot of wear on the cabinets in the mess hall when they are searching for the magnetic boots. I remember back then questioning my dad as to why they would decommission a ship that was only 5 years old (1986-1991 in the real world; 7 in the Star Trek world). He always believed the Ti-Ho theory that it was an older ship renamed, and the wear on the cabinets caught his eye. So, no question, the Enterprise-A was older than a “new ship” and was only “new” for the original crew. But, the punishment thing I believe is true and makes sense. Kirk and company really screwed up in Star Trek 3 and probably all should have been dishonorably discharged. But, the probe saved their careers. However, Star Fleet did reward them with a “new” Enterprise and then had these convos, “All right, they saved the Earth. We’ll give them a pass. But, give them a ship that is totally outdated and screwed up to make them work their butts off and spend copious amounts of time on shore leave. Then assign them to tasks, whether they want to go or not, until we can force them into retirement. Start the build on the Excelsior Class Enterprise and let them come visit, then take their asses back home. We are DONE with them. Hopefully, there won’t be anymore annoying crews of the Starship Enterprise after this.” Oopsie…😂🤦🏻‍♂️🖖🏻

[@robertphillips6296]

She had been completed before Star Trek 4 the Voyage Home. She was in Space Dock when the Alien Probe reached Earth. She had a different name and hull number. She was renamed Enterprise and her hull number was changed to NCC-1701A prior to Kirk and company where assigned to her. At the end of The Undiscovered Country the Crew was to be decommissioned. Kirk even says that a new crew will take over the ship.

[@jonathanjones3623]

There is no canonical source that illustrates that Robert they never said it on screen and they never have said it in any of the technical manuals or encyclopedias Gene Roddenberry there are accounts of him contending the Enterprise A was originally the USS Yorktown in film. I don't believe they were building brand new refit style Constitution class Starships by the events of the film The Constitution class were aging they were no longer the flagship class that they had been the excelsior's were coming online if they were building new Starships they would have been excelsior's not Connie's. I think there's a lot of logic to roddenberry's discretion given how Starships Are constructed in the future at least in that continuity in depiction there's no way they could have laid keel and had her completed by the conclusion of the films events not without some sort of time lapse explanation but it's never been definitively said on screen but that was roddenberry's truthful account I do like the little vignette scene in Star Trek Beyond when they show the Enterprise a literally being built from the ground up or rather the ships already under construction she's a new generation Constitution class ship that the Admiral alludes to when the Enterprise arrives at Starbase Yorktown there's that word again LOL but it was presumably not going to be named Enterprise but another name who knows what Starfleet retained from the USS Vengeance and that continuity but it's pretty hard to argue that from Star Trek Beyond as opposed to Star Trek 4 we literally see what would become the Enterprise a completed and launched and goes to Warp Star Trek the Voyage Home it's pretty solid and pretty forthright So for the rest of us I think we're all content with the idea that the Yorktown was renamed to Enterprise whether behind the scenes or some other explanation is relevant to the plot of some other medium we're just going to have to accept that Kirk and crew were rewarded with a new ship at the conclusion of the movies events where it came from cannot be certain.

[@robertphillips6296]

@@jonathanjones3623 I see your points.

[@jonathanjones3623]

@@robertphillips6296 I do like their simplification of the stardate matched with the consecutive year of the release of the film it gives authenticity and geneality to the franchise but from everything I've ever observed and that we've ever seen on screen that does appear to be the case the Constitution's were superseded by The Excelsior and then you do get a constellation class starship series of ships and the BS reason why they didn't just use the Constitution model. I don't know if you're aware Robert but the USS Stargazer was supposed to be a constitution class starship in the script originally for that episode of TNG but the producers intervened and felt that seeing a constitution class ship whether it was Excalibur or Stargazer or whatever LOL would confuse the audience and ricksternbach and Andy Probert got to work on a new model and they came up with this intermediary Starship between the Excelsior and the Miranda LOL. I think it was unnecessary but canonically it does establish the ships were out of service by the 24th century Kirk's speech at the end of Undiscovered Country certainly resonated with the fact that the care of another crew and another Starship Enterprise I think at the time Shatner was talking about the Next Generation series that was on the air at the time. but it goes consecutively to all those who dare to set foot into outer space so all those who sought to find the final frontier and all the Undiscovered countries eventually taking us where no one has gone before and to see things with human eyes that have not yet been seen I think Star Trek has gotten away from that. But I'm hopeful that exploration as well as the occasional gun battle we'll play a big part in future series exploration is the primary mission of the imagination and when we have finally traversed every corner we will know the universe for the first time :-)

[@gouryg4774]

Well the most commonly accepted story is that a just completed Constitution II class starship was renamed.

[@willstikken5619]

@@jonathanjones3623 While i generally agree with you the re-christening of the Ti-Ho was covered in Mr Scotts guide to the enterprise. While not canon it was a sanctioned technical manual from the era.

[@James-rn7dx]

Gene Roddenberry said the ship was the Yorktown it was even written into the TNG season 4 bible, also the Hayne's manual told us the same thing so that's good enough for me! This is the explanation that makes the most sense as the ship was taken out of service after only seven years. As for the Yorktown's crew getting moved, this kind of thing happens all the time in the service, it's part of the job and those people don't own that ship.

[@marklechman2225]

Yup 👍

[@Spamsmoothie1701]

I actually disagree with this. Refitting the original Enterprise wasn't a practical exercise and was likely done more out of reverence for the vessel's history than anything else. I seriously doubt all the Constitution class ships were refitted as it would literally take longer to refit a ship that you have to completely tear down than to simply build a new one. Furthermore, in Star Trek V, dialog clearly indicates that the ship is brand new as they are in the middle of repairs from problems encountered during a shakedown cruise. The only real on screen support for the idea the ship is an older ship, is the talk of decommissioning the ship after the battle at Khitomer. However, Kirk's final narration at the end talks about the ship becoming the care of another crew. It is very common for ships to be renamed in the real world with many cruise ships and military vessels being renamed multiple times throughout their service life. It is very likely that Starfleet Command simply changed the name on a newer Constitution class ship that had been built recently and then after seven years, repaired and rechristened the ship under another name. Possibly even its original name prior to it being renamed Enterprise. I believe this theory not only fits naval traditions of which some of Star Trek is based on, but fits the on screen evidence and is the most logical explanation for the ships origin and ultimate fate. The Yorktown is one of the original constitution class ships as well with its own history. Assuming it was refit the same was as the Enterprise, It seems unlikely that Starfleet would simply rename a ship that was 40 years old and that it would suddenly have so many problems which looked like bugs being worked out of a new ship. Mr. Scott's guide to the Enterprise states that the ship's name was Ti-Ho and that it was a newer Constitution class ship rather than a refit of an older vessel. Again, I think this is more likely. Gene Roddenberry may have created Star Trek, but things he said were not necessarily the end all be all as he had very little control over the franchise a lot of the time. He was overridden by studio executives on more than one occasion and took a lot of issues with the final product of many episodes of the various series and the films. Yet, no one would argue that these things he objected to are cannon. During the production of TOS, the ship's name was to be the U.S.S. Yorktown but it was changed to Enterprise at some point. I'm not sure if people are confusing this fact with the origin of the Enterprise A or not.

[@nickryan4126]

Star Trek 5 makes it pretty clear that the ship is brand new. The ship could have been decommissioned due to the amount of damage it received or that they were retiring the class altogether.

[@DarthVader-1701]

Gene Roddenberry had a habit of changing his mind at a whim so I take what he says with a bag of salt even though he created the IP. One minute the Franz Joseph ships were official the next they weren't. Franz Joseph was part of the official Star Trek personnel so IMO his technical manual is as official as it gets.

[@tonys623]

Exactly, after saving the planet for the second time the Yorktown crew considered it an honor to have their ship given to Admiral Kirk.

[@TairnKA]

It was my understanding that the Excelsior and Ti-Ho (#2) was in competition of what design of trans-warp drive was better so giving Kirk a ship that was faster, but maintained the classic look seems appropriate to me. Than again, we know what happened after Kirk said; "Let's see what she's got"... \\ Both the Excelsior and Ti-Ho trans-warp tests failed, thus the Ti-Ho's trans-warp test drives were replaced with the newest warp drives available (next Tuesday). ;-)

[@Th0ughtf0rce]

The "kinder" version of theory 3 is that the Yorktown solar sail failed, and the crew perished, but the ship was located and salvaged. As to the reason Scotty was still working out the kinks as of ST V, it was because the Yorktown herself was newly refitted when they encountered the probe. It was highly implausible that all the connies were recalled and refitted at the same time, and the Yorktown was simply part of a later batch than the Enterprise.

[@joebaranski1996]

Even if the sail worked and the crew was saved, there's no telling where the ship was in its lifecycle so it may have been due for decommissioning itself. Hell, just *getting* the ship home could have likely earned promotions for most the senior staff, the ship was brought in for some upgrades and the timing was good enough for them to slap a new name on it and throw Kirk & Co in command.

[@GarfieldofBorg]

To me, the Enterprise-A always seemed like it had been built from the ground up (so to speak). The ship's departure from Spacedock at the end of "Star Trek IV" was probably intended to be its shakedown cruise, which the ship was probably not yet ready for as it appears to be implied by the ship's broken down state at the beginning of "Star Trek V". As for why the Enterprise-A was to be decommissioned at the end of "Star Trek VI", the most likely reasons are: one, the Enterprise-B was a more advanced ship that was also nearing completion within weeks of the Khitomer Incident and assassination attempt; and, two, I had always thought that it wasn't just the Enterprise-A that was being decommissioned, it was also Kirk, himself, (and maybe at least some of his fellow TOS crew members) was being forcibly retired, probably as punishment (by the conspirators, one of whom is the one who said that the original Enterprise was intended to be decommissioned) for Kirk's involvement in the Khitomer Incident. Also, the Enterprise-A did suffer a lot of damage from the attack by General Chang's Klingon Bird-Of-Prey, so Starfleet, in general, probably didn't want to keep repairing the ship anymore.

[@brianjl7477]

I agree. The 1701-A has too many newer systems to be a straight refit. I think it was probably cobbled togetehr from some leftover parts, etc. and used as a testbed of sorts to see if the old Constitution II class should be continued. Considering Excelsior was running into development issues, it may have been to "light a fire" so to speak with a competing platform. Having served it's purpose, they just gave it to Kirk and crew. It might even be the only one of its kind.

[@jonathanjones3623]

To which I would counter that by saying don't you think by the 2280s Starfleet had perfected Starship technology the Enterprise a seem to be a technological disaster half the doors didn't work systems weren't online I mean the ship seemed like a dead to me from what I remember watching it a Shakedown Cruise is only as essential for ships working The Kinks out the ship was not serviceable LOL. that's more striking of a vessel experiencing fatigue from Decades of service not a brand new ship laid down from the ground up Gene Roddenberry had always contended the Enterprise a was a previous Constitution class starship that was a good thing to the original NCC 1701 referencing the Undiscovered Country doesn't hold ground for Star Trek 4 or 5 because that's a later film that didn't establish the vessel on screen the Voyage Home introduced the ship and then the final frontier demonstrated that the ship was in a constant state of technological disarray. so being a veteran myself I could tell you at first glance the Enterprise A even though we only knew her for three out of however many films there are she seems to be suffering from the effects of Murphy's Law the Undiscovered Country she's in proper working order but she's got a lot of mileage on her her command crew and certainly better members of her crew have aged so that was her last Rodeo. At that point Starfleet were just hanging on to them because they were usable as you mentioned in your post the damage from the Battle of of kiddamer with the Klingons the Enterprise a is not worth repairing it's an aged design an Old Ship where spare parts for it just don't exist anymore and with the Excelsior coming on the scene why would you waste your time

[@jonathanjones3623]

@@brianjl7477 I can see that if she's not an original ship entirely certainly spare parts left over fitted together I do however contend she was as Gene Roddenberry said the original USS Yorktown of the Enterprise's bloodline in 2286 when the Voyage Home took place if it wasn't for the whale probe the Kirk and crew would not have been rewarded with their starship Enterprise a so I love the opinion the ship was either assembled from leftover spare parts or she was a renamed Starship certainly not a brand new ship from the ground up they weren't building them anymore

[@KertaDrake]

At the end of Star Trek IV it definitely had a brand new ship feel to it on the bridge, at least... That bridge was just too spotless and unlike prior Constitution-class ships to be anything else... but I could easily see it having been thrown together in haste from whatever they had laying around. Starfleet was probably hurting for functional ships and probably just tore out some mothballed parts and threw them together mixed in with newly-built parts and accidentally created a technological clusterf*** of legacy systems not able to properly interact with modern systems.

[@SvendleBerries]

My theory for option 2 is that the Ti-Ho/Enterprise-A was built at the infamous Bethesda Shipyard. Scotty did what he could to fix the bugs, but in the end the ship proved too unreliable to remain in service.

[@martykarr7058]

I forget which book it was, but the crew that had worked on the "A" were part of the team for the Excelsior project, and the bugs were in the "A" were revenge for Scotty making them look bad by easily sabotaging the Excelsior.

[@SvendleBerries]

@@martykarr7058 lol That does sound familiar. Would be funny if that was actually the case.

[@ashleyl3861]

There is definitely a Bethesda ship yard, explains all the Miranda class ships being constantly churned out 😂

[@lawrencewalston2272]

@@martykarr7058 Probably courtesy of Excelsior NX-2000, Captain Styles.

[@jonathanjones3623]

Whether it was tejo or Yorktown or Ticonderoga it's anybody's guess but Roddenberry had always contended it was originally the USS Yorktown I am certain that they didn't build a brand new ship nothing that they ever said from that point on or in the lower established by the series or the films ever made mention of the ships previous history it does explain the why she is decommissioned after the events of Undiscovered Country because like her sibling NCC 1701 the Enterprise a herself is a vessel with similar mileage and antiquity and like the original Enterprise once she gets damaged to extensively we're not talking about fit and finish here Nick nacks were talking about actual structural damage she's not worth repairing Starfleet makes the correct decision and saying the ship's not worth repairing it would be better just to build a brand new shift from scratch with materials

[@workonesabs]

The 2nd theory is more plausable, as it happened is DS9, when the Defiant was destroyed and another defiant class was already made and was called "Sao Paulo", which when gifted to Ben Cisko, he renamed is "Defiant", after his favourite lost ship.

[@jeseod]

I recall a line where Kirk and either McCoy or Scotty were talking with spock about the designer of the new ship having pointy ears.. I recall the implication being Spock designed it...though apparently somewhere between him designing it and the ship being built.. a few flaws crept in along the way.. must be the contractors fault.. just like the exposed exhaust port leading directly to the main reactor on the death star...

[@jakearmitage7811]

@@jeseod They were talking about the ships holding cells being designed by someone with pointy ears not the ship itself.

[@pickeljarsforhillary102]

@@jeseod Not watch Rogue One?

[@leondillon8723]

In real life, a newly built ship would be launched with the name.

[@nunya3163]

@@leondillon8723 In real life, we know that re-christening a ship is a bad omen, and will doom the ship.

[@princecharon]

My own theory is that she's a hybrid if parts that they had in the shipyard, with perhaps the primary hull coming from the Ti-Ho and the secondary hull from the (scheduled for decommission anyway) Yorktown, or vice versa. The warp nacelles might be a part that gets replaced often enough that they always have a lot in storage. More speculative: Integrating the parts of the old Yorktown with the new Ti-Ho did not go well, causing a range of unexpected problems that ended up in future manuals, starting a trend in making parts more interchangeable parts that in the 24th century would allow the creation of the Frankenstein Fleet.

[@d_jedi1]

Yeah, it's (basically) still got a TOS shuttlebay So there's some weirdness with the E-A

[@canon1753]

Good theory.

[@NellWatson]

That would explain the ‘put together by monkeys’ elegantly, despite being an older vessel(s).

[@richardryley3660]

I do like this theory. Of course, the Yorktown was probably badly damaged so having problems would make sense. But if it was a hybrid of refit and brand new parts, trying to work together as a whole... Kind of a metaphor for the movies prior to TNG coming out.

[@cursedcanine8414]

@@richardryley3660 from what i was able to find out is that the enterprise A was the yurktown but the intire crew died

[@Timasion]

One other possibility. It could be that by late 23rd century, Starfleet decided to slowly phase out of the Constitution class starships as a class to be replaced by the Excelsior class . This isn't too unusual in our modern military. Planes or ships are built but retired before their end of service date because a new class of vehicle has replaced it entirely. This is because it takes more effort to train engineers, build older replacement parts, et cetera, then to mothball the entire ship for a new class. And, I know some Constitution class starships are seen as late as mid 24th century, but that could have been a unique circumstance. The scenario could be that Starfleet notes the damage to the Enterprise A and determined that it would take a major refit to keep the ship running. A ship that will ultimately be replaced by an Excelsior class in short order. So, rather than spend the resources for a major refit on a ship that will be replaced, decommission it now. Edit: Just an update to this response. We can see a live example of this situation with the F-22 Raptor. It was developed in 1997 and put into operational status in 2005. Typical operation life of a fighter jet would be 30 years, such as the F-15, F-16, and F-18. The F-35, its cousin, is expected to be around until 2070. However, the F-22 is slowly being put out to pasture, despite being a highly effective fighter jet. Why? Because its took expensive to maintain and the next generation is coming out soon.

[@theunknownone5990]

There was also the treaty they just signed. Most treaties between major powers are followed by large military reductions. When that happens, not even the new stuff is safe if it becomes redundant.

[@Kaliburz]

Yup, peace between the Federation & Klingons.... an arms reduction. The Constitution class was during their cold war. As a sign of progress, the Federation politicians probably agreed to decomission the Constitution as a sign of good will... knowing the newer Excelsior class will replace them in due time..... a bigger & newer ship. And the Excelsior & Miranda would last a long long time

[@Wedgekree]

Yeah, we see her taking a photon torpedo through the saucer that leaves a full hole in it. That would have been only closed by bulkheads, emergency force fields, etc. Blasted through several decks means that having to reconstruct the entire saucer is necessary. At the point the ship is old, the Constitution class as a whole has been in active service for ~ 50 years. Between new designs (such as the Miranda and the Excelsior), the treaty with the Klingons.. The class is very possibly nearing the end of it's service life. Ships are being put in mothball status, training duties, etc. It's just not worth it at that point to go through the refits/upgrades necessary to keep the class operational and up to date. So (my personal headspace) is that you see a gradual phaseout/retirement of the last of the ships around this time. We know that in TOS the Connies had a very rough survival rate. The Enterprise's engine room has also undergone another refit sometime between ST V and ST VI (as they used the Enterprise-D set for it).

[@theunknownone5990]

@@Kaliburz It's not even good will. Just simple resource management. There was no longer a large Klingon Neutral Zone to actively patrol, and the Klingons were going to have to scale their fleet back due to resource issues. Even though they didn't use money, keeping a wartime fleet at the ready uses a lot of resources that could be better used elsewhere. Wars almost never start overnight. So they would probably have a few years of rising tensions to build their fleet back up if they needed to. Given the dialogue from "Relics", they probably kept Enterprise and much of the fleet in mothball for a few years. Once it became apparent that those ships were going to be hopelessly obsolete whenever the next war finally came, they were scrapped.

[@paulrasmussen8953]

​@@theunknownone5990likely not scrapped but near permanent mothball.

[@roscop.coltrane8532]

Navies usually have a supply of ships in mothball status. Since Enterprise was an old ship it is a reasonable assumption that Starfleet just pull a ship out of Mothballs and renamed it.

[@RoballTV]

Yorktown was a slightly younger ship, but likewise confronted with the Excelsior class earlier in it's lifespan as a result. So maybe the Yorktown Crew transfer to a new Excelsior class, perhaps one called the Yorktown. Heading development and training for the new ship, Archer and Cisko style. And Starfleet 'gift' Kirk the old Yorktown, for a few more years, maybe until it's comparatively as old as the Enterprise was. No one loses out, Yorktown gets to adventure as long as Enterprise did. Bada Boom.

[@markmcclain2315]

I was thinking the same thing.

[@Krahazik]

Except at the time of the refit, an Excelsior Class Yorktown would not have existed yet. The Excelsior herself was a first-run ship. Bran new and ready to show off what the new class can do. So the only place for the surviving Yorktown crew to go to would be the Excellsier herself unless they were n extended recovery for some reason which was long enough to bench them until an Excelsior Class Yorktown could be built. If I recall, the Enterprise was the 2nd Excelsior class to be built later on. That's a long time for a crew, even a command crew to be benched waiting on a new ship.

[@jonathanjones3623]

I concur the Enterprise a was not a new ship from the ground up she was either a sibling to the original ncc-1701 or a ship that was assembled from leftover spare components ricksternbach and Doug Drexler when I met them at a trek convention back in 2015 said the same Gene Roddenberry had always maintained the Enterprise a was the USS Yorktown renamed and recommissioned the long those lines I mean good stuff we have built a new constitution class starship for Kirk and crew certainly but I don't think that would have worked with the time frame or the in Universe explanation simply put she was a pre-existing ship that Starfleet recommissioned as the USS Enterprise is a thank you to Kirk and a few more years of service either way

[@markmcclain2315]

@@Krahazik That's what happens when we try to make sense out of something fictional that was written over several decades by many people. If you want something reliable, read the Bible! Written over hundreds of years by many authors and still consistent.

[@knightaries13]

@@Krahazik In the Navy crews are formed and start training long before the ship comes off the slipways and is ready to receive her crew. If they went through a harrowing experience: Some down time with some counseling time then add in training to operate/maintain a whole new class of vessel. You can figure a few years before the ship is ready.

[@MatthewCaunsfield]

A good explanation of the various theories. There's also the option that Starfleet command deliberately gave Kirk a cobbled together rustbucket (with a fresh coat of paint) in order to stop Kirk from getting into further shenanigans! (I may have made that up)

[@mxg75]

In TNG and DS9, We see plenty of Miranda, Excelsior, and Oberth class ships in active service, but never a Constitution class. My theory: the Constitution refits were seen as a failure by Starfleet. This also explains why the original Enterprise has become a training ship so soon after spending five years being overhauled, and why the A is decommissioned after Khitomer . The A had pulled from the mothball fleet for the disgraced Admiral Kirk. It’s sort of a compliment, giving him a sister ship of his beloved Enterprise, but at the end of the day it’s an obsolete ship in poor condition.

[@jonathanjones3623]

The end Universe explanation is they weren't the Enterprise or hero ships so they had no qualms about reusing those models but the in Universe explanation as I've always interpreted it was the constitution was phased out of service replaced by The Excelsior and that vessel lineage the Miranda is more Compact and less expensive by comparison easier to build but if you're going to have a medium white Starship then I thought that's what the constellation class was for and the Constitutions were the yesteryear ship that got superseded by The Excelsior

[@jimdigitalvideo]

I like this explanation. The Constitution class ships were just as capable as the Miranda class ships. But the Miranda was designed to be more modular and versatile to make up for the shortcomings of the Constitution class. And the Excelsior class was designed as a testbed first and a starship second. This made the Miranda and Excelsior classes easier to maintain, repair and refit. So as the decades passed, the Constitutions were phased out. The Mirandas and Excelsiors were continuously updated over the decades, so although they looked the same, parts of them were brand new. They could only update them so far, and they should have been replaced before the Dominion war, considering how poorly they did there.

[@jonathanjones3623]

@@jimdigitalvideo basically an accurate assessment the Miranda's utilize many of the same components as the Constitution's classes of ship but more compact frame overall smaller but it had greater internal volume so it was naturally more attractive and then the Excelsior was a test bad ship but she eventually became a fully operational ship of the fleet and was twice the size of a constitution class Picard stargazer I just think it's interesting from TNG was supposed to be a constitution class so kind of nodding to the fact that they had another life but nope the producers had yet another intermediary Starship to fill the role

[@jonathanklein383]

In the ds9 footage of wolf 359 we see a wrecked constitution class.

[@jonathanjones3623]

@@jonathanklein383 yes and it's appearance could extrapolate two things one there was a singular Constitution class ship still in service whether it had lower high mileage can never be known unless they say otherwise or it was simply an Easter egg to see if the audience would notice it for background shots I mean the Stargazer in next generation was supposed to be a constitution starship. but then at about the halfway period during finishing production on that episode you see the entire Interiors were shot so it meant the cast and crew had already filmed the episode with the ship being referred to as a constitution class starship LeVar Burton said Constitution then when they did the ADR additional dialogue record at this point the producers felt that it would confuse the audience to see a constitution class shift resembling the original 1701 Alpha and before on screen on the television series there was a understanding that a film hero ship would not make a cameo appearance on the television show so that's the Genesis of the constellation class of which the Stargazer would ultimately be a member of in the final product. but it was intended to be a vessel from Kirk era and given its registry number it very well may have been in service around Kirk's time but they replaced it I could go either way but you know I don't see a problem with a vintage Starship if it's got life left in it Starfleet still using it if it's like anything else they make as many of them as they need and then the retain them as long as is viable but TNG is about 90 years removed from the motion picture era If they had the CG Tech they do today I doubt we would have seen in the 100-year-old design still in service again longevity of designs space frames it's entirely possible given as the Miranda and the Excelsior we're still in service but the chronology and setting of The Star Trek franchise pretty much concludes the Constitution for aging designs that were updated and then ultimately disposed of after the end of their tenure It's Kind of a Funny elasticity but the director of The Wrath of Khan when he had had the Miranda commissioned when it was built he said when you see it on screen it looked the way you see it when it was built nowadays we have retro Miranda's conceptually but what I think happened is the Miranda's came online with newer Tech and they trickle down into the Constitution's after their long-term service

[@robertjenkins3308]

I've always felt that the "USS Ti-Ho" theory in Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise held the most water. She was indeed decommissioned at the end of The Undoscovered Country, but not because of age or damage. It was because, thanks to the end of hostilities with the Klingons, Starfleet reduced the fleet size somewhat, and so 1701-A was decommissioned early as p-art of that. She then subsequently became an honored exhibit in the fleet museum, as established in the credit scenes of Picard Season 3.

[@superdave6889]

my personal theory (in universe) about the early decommissioning of 1701 - a is that the design eventually proved to be ill fitting for the new vertical warp core, (the core ran just behind the nav dish from the bottom of the secondary hull all the way up through the neck, and was DANGEROUSLY close to the skin of the neck. case in point, look at what khan did with just one salvo of phasers) with the Excelsior class coming online soon, it was probably cheaper to decommission the connie class as a whole once they had enough excelsior class ships to fill the gap.

[@LTDLimiTeD1995]

Agreed. The Connie Refits were a stop-gap proof of concept, and the feedback is why we see such a robust design in the Excelsior. I also choose to put more years between TMP and TwoK, just because despite Kirk's comment, it makes more sense for other things.

[@jonathanjones3623]

I can see that technology sometimes flies past designs and some Styles and executions don't work out so well give or take more likely though I just feel like the excelsior's were a superior design to the Constitution class with the accepted debut being in the 2240s and then the Excelsior made her debut though we don't know exactly when the ship was launched she was definitely a contender by 2285 and if that's the case then there's 40 Years of advancement between them as it should be an ideal practice and with the Advent of the USS Excelsior and her siblings constitutions were put out to pasture

[@jonathanjones3623]

@@LTDLimiTeD1995 I don't think the Constitutions like the Enterprise or in their original configuration were inherently flawed ships are designs are not effective I just think they were ancient they had aged in service with multiple border conflicts political turmoil chaotic Galaxy then like a lots of things whether it's Societies or Tech they outlive their usefulness and once the USS Excelsior came along as I commented on Dave's post there they just get subsumed had the Enterprise not suffered damage during her battle with con had the Enterprise a not been so damaged during the events of Star Trek 6 the Undiscovered Country they likely would have continued to serve until they absolutely disintegrated or something :-) but extensive structural trauma damage Starfleet makes the correct decision and decides to scrap them

[@edwardparker5843]

I can see this may have been mentioned already but if you listen to Kirk's final recording at the end of star trek 6 he says the ship will become the responsibility of another crew, and if you pay attention to the dates given in star trek generations, the timeline to when the excelsior class was more widely introduced makes more sense

[@pchowardltd2437]

Being a child of the 80s I loved the original refit enterprise, wasn't too keen on the changes made in the second movie yet that was nothing compared to the writers blowing it up completely.

[@galenjoyce8895]

What changes were made in the second movie?

[@johnruschmeyer5769]

One other item that favors the Yorktown theory is the departure from Spacedock at the end of TVH. The Bridge of the Enterprise-A is a refit bridge, not the newer design we see in ST V and VI. Personal headcanon- The Enterprise-A is a rename of a sister ship to the Enterprise (Yorktown or some other) and was due for refit or decommissioning. In the rush to "punish" Kirk, the ship is renamed and renumbered but little else is done. The trip at the end of TVH is more of a cruise "around the block", say to Vulcan and back. At this point, the rest of Starfleet's plans for the Enterprise-A kick in as the ship is returned to Spacedock for a refit with updated technologies developed for the Excelsior class and a future Miranda class refit (possibly even for the Constellation class as we know the USS Hathaway is already in service by this point). This explains the discrepancies between the end of VI and the beginning of V while only adding a few weeks to the timeline between the two movies. It would also explain the issues with the ship as they would be from the integration of technologies from different ship generations. Final thought- It may be that the decommissioning decisions are driven, in part, by the amount of damage to the spaceframe at the time and historically. Think of it like the moment when the insurance adjuster decides that your car is totalled because it's not worth fixing at its age and mileage. In the case of the Yorktown, we don't know much of its history other than the fact that we can assume it is newer than the original Enterprise because it has a later hull number. It leaves open the possibility that Yorktown was not yet slated for decommissioning as it may have had an overall less stressful service life and may also have incorporated structural improvements in both its initial construction and TMP-era refit.

[@rbarger71]

Wrong. Go watch the first 3 movies over again and then the end of 4. Every station on the bridge in the first 3 movies have actual buttons and switches. The bridge in 4-6, there is not a console that has any physical buttons, every panel is flat.

[@PhilDrury]

The Enterprises A origin is classified. She was a new build ship, but was probably another random test-bed for transwarp. One that ironically worked, but opened the doors to all sorts of problems just like every other transwarp project.

[@liontone]

It obviously has transwarp. The speeds in V and VI are immense. They reach the edge of Federation space while Kirk is unpacking. They also reach the center of the galaxy very swiftly. We also don’t know the time lapse between Kirk landing the Bounty, and his trial. Could have been a while.

[@damouze]

That cold second opening with Scotty gets me every time and always results in me bursting out laughing.

[@cb-gz1vl]

It may not be a smack in the face for the Yorktown crew because they too knew the Yorktown was to be decommissioned. So instead of moth balling it, they took it, renamed it and gave the other captain an new ship.

[@draco-amercon]

Fantastic, absolutely wonderfully nuanced theories of the discrepancies in the Star Trek films surrounding the ncc-1701a !

[@s2k997]

I've always felt that the rapid retirement of the Enterprise A was explained by the earlier dialogue of the movie - some Star Fleet officials openly questioned the peace process (and apparently objected enough to it that some involved themselves in the movie's central plot to sabotage any chance for peace) and specifically raised the point that it involved the "mothballing the star fleet". With hindsight that was obviously an exaggeration, as there are plenty of ships around in the TNG era, it meant that many Star Fleet ships would be retired from active duty and stored, some never to reenter service. Hence, the Enterprise was one of those ships, and probably for multiple good reasons: The Constitution class was not exactly young at this point, considering they were willing to scrap the original Enterprise due to battle damage rather than repair it in the third movie, they didn't seem to be particularly valued even before the peace scheme. On top of this was the arrival of newer ships, like the Excelsior, meant those were always going to be favoured if it came down to who to select to retain. Combined with its age was the obvious political significance - the immediate retirement of such a ship showed that the Federation was not just giving empty promises about dialing down its military presence before a weakened Klingon Empire, it was actually and rapidly making moves, the names Kirk and Enterprise were both well known to the Klingons and to have them essentially sidelined, no longer being out there, it would have been a noticeable gesture. When politics and convenience coincide, there's little that can stand in their way. Pairing up with the in universe explanation would be the intentions of the writers - they were obviously keen to hand the torch to the TNG crew, Kirk's final monologue of the movie is pretty much openly stating this. But furthermore, Roddenberry was keen to put across a moral aligning with the state of the world at the time of the movie's release, a parallels to how the Cold War ended/ought to end. Back then, there were officials on both sides, the 'doves' and the 'hawks', to pursue conciliation or confrontation. There were some that pushed for 'no step back', that the US shouldn't make military cut backs in the face of the Soviet collapse, that many US Navy ships shouldn't be retired, just like Star Fleet's Enterprise in the movie. But peace prevailed, and those ships were a sacrifice to show that intent was genuine and sincere. The movie was meant to hammer home that, in the name of a greater victory, of a true peace, even a great ship like the Enterprise was worth parting with.

[@olympicnut]

That was a silly Cold War reference. Starfleet still had plenty of enemies. The Constitution Class were also highly versatile ships.

[@xenniealsentinel1800]

Nah he nailed it. The actual answer is.above.

[@douglasmitchell5033]

The A was a renamed ship. I remember when I read the book of the Voyage Home. When they see the new Enterprise. There was a crew painting on the A. And it stated the ship was a remaned ship. I believe it said Yorktown in the book. But it has been 30 years since I read the book.

[@James-rn7dx]

I just read Star Trek 4 and you are correct about the A being painted on, but they didn't mention it having been the Yorktown.

[@leondillon8723]

The NCC 1704.

[@Jim-Mc]

The "A" was to get another crew after the original casts "final cruise." But the real question is who was the captain of this Enterprise for the short time between this, and the disastrous launch of the B?

[@TheDogGeneral]

I've heard that many people over the years I think they misunderstand the line quoted by Kirk the ship and her history will become the care of another crew meaning there would be another USS Enterprise not necessarily Kirk's battle damaged ncc1701a which was Pastor Prime Star Trek Picard has confirmed the Enterprise they did become a museum ship eventually so she was not in service after the events of the Undiscovered Country the appearance of the enterprise-b in Star Trek generations confirms this Enterprise a was retired from service and the enterprise-b succeeded her and unfortunately for Kirk that's where he stepped out of the Limelight

[@ravenwolf8632]

Refuted in Generations with the B being launched in the same year the A was decommissioned. Furthermore in Picard season 3 when the A is seen in the Fleet Museum.

[@TheDogGeneral]

@@ravenwolf8632 that is correct I think a lot of people simply misinterpret William Shatner's line that the care of the ship will come under another crew if you take the line and dialogue at its entirety he's talking about the Next Generation more figuratively and the next Enterprise the Enterprise a was done after the events of the Six film it did not go on service it was placed in the fleet Museum and I'm certain the plate Museum did clean it up but the Enterprise a was a done ship at this point and people that keep wanting believe that it had yet another adventure or trailblazing Mission afterwards I don't think it did there is no evidence or proof that that shift saw any further service after the events of Kirk & Crew it was retired it was decommissioned and the enterprise-b came along

[@Mist3rData]

To my mind the second theory is the most plausible and indeed most kind. Thereby the Constituition class is my all time favorite starship design. Well done!

[@anthonybernacchi2732]

I find the Ti-Ho theory the most likely, especially since it's very similar to the origin of the real-life Space Shuttle Enterprise, which NASA rolled out in 1976 with Gene Roddenberry and the TOS cast present. NASA changed the shuttle's name at the last minute due to a letter-writing campaign by Star Trek fans, and the contractors were on the verge of stenciling the name "Constitution" on the fuselage when the word came down to name her "Enterprise" instead.

[@darkguardian1314]

Using the US Navy as reference, there have been a number of ships that had brief (less than 10 years) deployments in the fleets only to be decommission. Some were tech demonstrators while others were simply victims of cost cutting under a new adminstrations. Others had issues like bad workmanship, critical design issues or obsolete weapons/shiels making them cannon fodder in a fast evolving battle field. USS Defiant had issues with her power plant and was likely a newly commissioned mothballed ship. If Captain Sisko hadn't saved her she would likely have been scrapped.

[@mikemalo47]

There was another theory out there at the time the movie was released. That it was one of the other Constitution class ships which had been partly decommissioned, and had been used as a test before for the new Trans warp drive. The clues were Kirk's line lets see what she's got, and the different warp FX at the end. Just rewatched the movie , and noticed something i forgot , the bridge FX is from ToS.

[@timduggan1461]

I truly enjoy how you think this through, and analise (or analyze in American English) these concepts. Very entertaining.

[@vic5015]

There's a similar problem with the Enterprise-E. Many fans think it was already under construction when the Enterprise-D was destroyed and it was simply re-named to be the new Enterprise.

[@chacaf22]

its stated by the producers.... E-E Spaceframe wasn't meant to be an Enterprise; until MsD was blowed up over Veridian III

[@JRGProjects]

The USS Sovereign was built in response to the Borg and Starfleet needed a flagship after Viridian III plus the Dominion War just kicked off. So Starfleet needed a new Enterprise desperately. The Enterprise E was finalized quickly and having a cmdr like Picard without a starship would not have gone over well. The same thing happened for Sisko and the Defiant II. They rushed out a Defiant for Sisko before the Invasion of Cardassia. By the time First Contact happened the Dominion was in a "Cold War" with the Federation. Shortly after the Borg incursion of 001, the Jem'hadar started their invasion.

[@theunknownone5990]

Theory 2 with the Ti-Ho seems most plausible. A relatively new ship being decommissioned is not unheard of. Military draw-downs are a common practice when hostilities end between major powers. For example, both world wars ended with many relatively new ships being mothballed, and eventually scrapped. There was also the severe damage she took in her final battle. Even if she was worth fixing, she wasn't coming out of the repair yard anytime soon. And the end of hostilities with the Klingons probably freed up numerous starships that could take on her role.

[@raphie8488]

Former USS Yorktown as mentioned in Star Trek V. The Excelsior was still an NX Class during Star Trek IV. The crew of the former Yorktown died propably doe the damage caused by the probe. The quirks of the Enterprise A in Star Trek V are most likely because the to be decommissioned Yorktown was instead refited with tech not intended for the class. Edit: The Enterprise A was probably still finetuning the refits during Star Trek V

[@JoelMcLaughlin]

No Excelsior was NCC-2000 in Star Trek VI.

[@raphie8488]

@@JoelMcLaughlin Yes but not in Star Trek IV

[@klopferator]

When in Star Trek V is the Yorktown ever mentioned?

[@steveg5122]

Option IV: The Yorktown was a test bed for a mark II Refit, with the later touch screen computer systems. And the ship was on a test cruise in the voyage home. She had some crew aboard, but it was mostly to test out the modified space frame. She could have been a older constitution-class that was mothballed and brought out of retirement to serve as a prototype for the later duotronic systems.

[@Elucidarian]

I always thought about a more sci-fi explanation. The timeline they return to has been slightly altered by their stint in the past. In this new timeline, a new Enterprise was already commissioned and nearly ready for service. I mean, Kirk was deemed the major repeat offender by the Department of Temporal Investigations.

[@ErokCherokee]

My Yorktown theory I've had for over a decade is the crew didn't survive and the ghost ship was towed back to spacedock. Since no one wants to serve on a ship that lost her whole crew Starfleet renamed her and gave her to Kirk and senior staff as their presence would be reassuring. This refit of the Yorktown must have been recent for Scotty's comments. This theory also explains why there are so many glitches in the ship as damage from the whale probe encounter. The ship's crew had not been fully replaced by the time ST:V happened.

[@TheDogGeneral]

I concur with that theory the reason the ship had so many malfunctions is she was an aged Starship pasture Prime we look at real world Naval vessels for comparison things simply start to break down once they reach a certain age vintage and mileage and whether she was the Yorktown before or not I think she was she was suffering from neglect and fatigue

[@ripley7t429]

I thought I read somewhere it was the Yorktown and the crew perished due to the failure of the sail and their life support. It would make sense, as they would not decommission an newly refit ship due to this issue. They would simply recrew her. Wasn't there a short story or something, maybe fan fiction about the ghosts of the Yorktown?

[@TheDogGeneral]

@@ripley7t429 something they never explicitly said what the fate of Yorktown or her crew was I suppose they could have been reassigned or found other jobs organocide with different ship hard to say

[@alexandernorman5337]

I always just assumed that Starfleet built several extra hull modules in an almost finished condition so that they could quickly make a replacement or incorporate those modules into badly damaged ships, just like what they did with the later Galaxy class. So, when they lost the Enterprise, they just fit a new hull together. By monkeys.

[@jasonhayes238]

Yorktown is one of the ships in the plans to rescue Kick and McCoy from the Klingons by Starfleet in Star trek 6. You can see it on the plan submitted to the president of the Federation .

[@BossyGuyMike]

Good eye.

[@jeremyfogarty348]

Read the book Star Trek:Sarek. It has Sarek, the crew of the Enterprise and a few others dealing with the fallout from the events of ST6. I like to think of this as cannon.

[@jasonwalton1985]

It never mentioned that the crew of the Yorktown actually survived and brought the ship home. Here's a theory, Enterprise A is actually the Yorktown. Starfleet had to recover her and remove the dead crew. Then renamed her and gave her to Kirk. And all the problems and gremlins Enterprise A had, was actually the angry spirits of the Yorktown crew screwing with everything.

[@richardscathouse]

Exactly

[@trainglen22]

NCC-1701A was originally going to be the Tiho. It was in the book The engineer's guide to the Enterprise.

[@Arfarf69]

That’s not canon

[@jonathanjones3623]

correct the engineering Guide to the Enterprise is not canonical Gene Roddenberry is more canonical than a book published by another author and he always contended it was the USS Yorktown previously as opposed to a new ship under construction At the end of the day it doesn't really change the subjective nature of the plot or the film but the USS Tiho as opposed to USS Yorktown I don't believe they were building a new ship I love the opinion that the Constitutions were Obsolete and they were only being retained as they were still functional I don't believe the explanation from the engineering Guide to the Enterprise it was written and published by a different author may not have had his own opinions about material and wanting that name but I think Gene Roddenberry trumps the author of that book any day of the week whoever it was

[@TheSmalltownhick]

Theory Two is the correct answer. And the reason it was decommissioned after 7 years is right there in Scotty's log - it was a problem ship, in which nothing worked right. We see problems with the systems in both Star Trek 5 and 6.

[@GregsVlog]

I've always gone with the Ti-Ho theory since I read that book first. I think it's been accepted as the Yorktown now though.

[@glrider100]

My theory.. Ti-Ho.. And to dovetail on to others' posts, the "new" design had inherit flaws, which Khan had exposed. The Enterprise and the Ti-Ho were the only two Connie's refitted in this manner. The Excelsior class design was progressing and becoming a more reliable, robust design. So when the Enterprise-A was retired shortly after the events of "The Undiscovered Country", plans for the Enterprise-B were already in the works... Just like CVN-80 will be the next Enterprise in the US Navy. That ship was already planned when CVN-65 was retired.

[@danielhall5364]

If I remember correctly the Yorktown was Gene's idea. @ the time Gene had very little to do W/ Trek just a 'consultant' to production after TMP. @ the time of ST4 Ent -A also had Trans warp drive as seen w/ the set photos of the Engineering system display from Ms. Johnson's book and in the movie... the displays match up w/ the photos in the book. I can't see Starfleet putting an experimental drive in a old space frame. Trans warp wasn't a failure until Gene was brought back into control of Trek. Also the same time that the Reliant went from the Avenger Class to a Miranda Class and the Refit went for the Enterprise subclass of the Connie to a 'Connie 2" class and the warp scale was redone. Remember the A wasn't a POS until ST:V the same time Gene was basically back in charge... I remember putting the print of ST: V together back in the day W/ the TNG trailer attached to it. A lot of things were put out in the 10 years Gene was not in charge that was red conned when Gene came back in. TAS went from canon to not canon to one episode being canon etc..

[@Jager1967]

First of all, Admiral Monroe said in ST: III, and I quote 'The Enterprise is almost forty years old; we feel her time has come.' end quote. This statement is made in part due to the tooth pulling difficulty of her refitting and the early promising results of the Excelsior class as a whole. That's why its established in the canon that all the other surviving Constitution class Heavy Cruisers were instead decommissioned and scrapped for raw materials with the new vessels built to the refitted standard from the keel up, despite the cost in time and additional resources. The general consensus has been that the crew of the U.S.S. Yorktown which encountered the Whale Probe, the ship's emergency power reserve/life support didn't last long enough to be rescued by Starfleet and the crew perished. They were subsequently buried in space via torpedo casing caskets by the squadron of salvage/recovery vessels. The ship was towed back to Earth Space Dock, to remove the former crews' personal belongings, and conduct necessary repairs. That's also the reason why the Enterprise is so buggy in ST: V, due to some lingering effects of the Whale Probe's transmissions. Remember what Admiral Cartwright said to the Federation President in the situation room/Starfleet Command Center in ST: IV, "It's using forms of energy our best scientists do not understand." during the emergency communication message from the Yorktown scene.

[@img00]

I'm almost certain that the Admiral says that the Enterprise is 20 years old in that scene

[@davidcappelletti5814]

Yea the line is "Jim, the Enterprise is 20 years old, we feel her day is over "

[@TheDogGeneral]

Yeah the reason that Moreau said 20 years in Star Trek 3D Enterprise was 20 years old it was like that Jones guy was saying earlier in the channel 20 years from the events of the movie from the debut the original series chronology wise nobody in 1983 or 84 could have told you when the original USS Enterprise was launched in the canonical Universe of which Star Trek originated from they pegged it by the cast and Crews Antiquity Star Trek had been around for about 20 years at that point and well so they logically concluded that must be how old Enterprise was now with Cannon and Laura We Know Better 2245 is the accepted launch date of the ncc-1701 when the Search for Spock was filmed when the Voyage Home was filmed or any of the films with the cast and crew or even on the original run of the original series nobody knew William Shatner himself routinely flunks Star Trek trivia questions and I've been at conventions where he I heard him literally say It's Entertainment or that doesn't matter whether it's blue or it's green the man himself is an Entertainer

[@ThreeFiddy1701]

ST V inferred the ship was new, put together in time for it to be christened Enterprise but was not up to the standard Scotty was familiar with. Perhaps one of the last if not the last of the Connie classes constructed by Starfleet, hence it being called in for decom a few years later

[@donh8833]

The enterprise was the last of the constitution class to survive. Explanation 4: revived the hulk of one that was sitting in scrappers yard. Same thing happens to Navy ships when called out of mothballs for wars.

[@GrendelMTL]

Accepted Canon states that the Enterprise was the only Constitution 1 Class to get the refit as Star Fleet realized it was faster and cheaper to built them from scratch than to strip the other connies down to their frames so Enterprise A would likely have been a new ship. In 2285 The Excelsior was still an Experimental Class and would not have been in wide production yet. But by Star Trek 6, the Excelsior class was in production and the Enterprise B was launched later the same year (2293) so Enterprise A would have been recalled for Decommissioning because its replacement was nearing completion. And given the penchant of Star Fleet to rename their ships (as seen a handful of times throughout the shows) I'd imagine Enterprise A ended up re-commissioned under a new name.

[@straker454]

Wasn't it a bit too early by Star Trek 4 for the Excelsior to be the next new class? I was under the impression that she was inaugurated as a new class some years after they realized Transwarp didn't work but the ship was still an excellent frame for a new class of ship. If I remember right, even though it was recycled footage of the model, Excelsior still had her NX designation in Star Trek 4.

[@canisblack]

Star Trek IV happens only a few weeks or months after Star Trek III so it SHOULD still have the NX designation. Even if the failure hadn't been because of Scotty's sabotage the Excelsior would still be undergoing trials and testing for the transwarp system at that point and wouldn't get the NCC designation until either the transwarp drive had the kinks worked out and entered into full service or - as happened in canon - the ship was refit with a standard warp drive.

[@straker454]

@@canisblack Yeah, I thought so. That being the case the comment about a new Enterprise being an Excelsior Class wouldn't make sense. Personally I like the Yorktown idea best. My thinking would be that the majority of the crew of the Yorktown DIDN'T survive and they had refit her into the new Enterprise after the remaining crew, if any were reassigned.

[@johnbockelie3899]

The Excelsior was the " hanger queen" of Starfleet still full of bugs, the Enterprise A could have just been the Yorktown renamed and numbered. Remember as Yorktown, she had a close brush with the power sucking whale probe, might explain her condition in Star Trek 5. "Oh I'm sure you can whip her back in shape". Commander Uhura to Captain Scott, Star Trek 5, 1989.

[@hextechhades5762]

@@straker454 the Enterprise-B was an Excelsior class

[@straker454]

@@hextechhades5762 Yes, but in the video he said the new ship should have been a new class like the excelsior Class,but Excelsior wasn't a class just yet when A was made, so it wouldn't have made any sense for the A to be Excelsior class. Yes, the B was but that ship wasn't what we were talking about.

[@sacyrus]

“The second ship to bear the name enterprise” Johnathan Archer is rolling over in his space-grave

[@michaelcalico8702]

In Star Trek 5, the ship is still being fixed. In 6 it is probably fixed, but if you remember, they kept telling Starfleet there were problems. That is why Starfleet decommissioned it. The same with Enterprise-D it kept breaking, hence there were only ever 6 Galaxy classes.

[@vintagethrifter2114]

Two things to consider. In American navy tradition, when a ship is lost to combat, the next ship coming down the slip can be renamed after the lost ship. Examples would be the Essex class carriers Yorktown and Lexington during WWII. They wouldn't have to build a whole new ship in such a short time, they could have still been building the Enterprise class and one was about to be launched. This would have worked if the Ti Ho hadn't been launched a year earlier. The other thing to consider is the reason for decommission. People think that it is the end of the ship. It isn't. It means that the ship isn't active. It could be in the reserve fleet or in storage. The American Iowa class battleships are a prime example. They were decommissioned and recommissioned several times before being decommissioned for the last time. The Enterprise had extensive damage to it. It may have been decommissioned and put into storage until they decided what to do. Since it was no longer a commissioned ship, the name could be transferred to the Excelsior class. The decommissioned Enterprise could have been recommissioned with a new name.

[@austinlevreault6211]

I think the Enterprise-A was most likely put together from a collection of spare parts like the Space Shuttle Endeavor was after Challenger.

[@stevenewman1393]

🖖😎👍Very nicely well done and very well informatively explained and executed in every way and detail indeed👌...

[@joeswift403]

I'd always assumed she was a recently built ship that was badged Enterprise as a last minute rename to keep the legacy going. The short shelf life being due to her being of old design and specs so was only going to be short lived till the next generation of ships came along giving us the B

[@wills2140]

The book 'Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise' did name the "donor" ship turned into the Enterprise - A , though for some reason it does not ... match some of the current time lines, it can not be fully dismissed ( maybe? ). Thanks for the video!

[@pepperVenge]

Great video! I feel a more realistic solution in Trek lore would have been for Starfleet to give Kirk and crew an already existing ship, but not renaming it. They could have been given the Yorktown without a rename, or have been given the Excelsior. But I think it isn't unreasonable to rename the ship either. Personally, I subscribe to the idea that the Enterprise-A is the Yorktown renamed. It makes the most sense. But the idea of the Enterprise-A being a freshly built Constitution-class ship that was quickly renamed before it's commissioning is also reasonable. But I can't imagine Starfleet just retiring a new ship after just 7 years.

[@FloatingOnAZephyr]

The Yorktown explanation is the one I thought was accepted. Crews move on, as we saw on the Enterprise herself with only Spock making it to Kirk's era. If the Yorktown was badly damaged in Voyage Home, she would maybe need that refit anyway. Perhaps Starfleet simply changed their policy on these older vessels, but the Enterprise was gone, so they renamed Yorktown. The Enterprise destruction in Search for Spock must have been hard to watch for adult fans at the time, but I was a kid. I think it's one of the scenes in Star Trek, so for me it's worth it.

[@Whalewraith]

When I first saw 'The Voyage home' I was left wondering if all that time travel had resulted in a butterfly effect where in The Enterprise had not actually been destroyed in the 1st place and A was a refit.

[@tripsadelica]

I remember hearing at a Convention (wherein one of the modellers was asked this question) that the original usable prototype of the "17" line was the USS Constitution, NCC1700. I believe this ship was kept at Star Fleet as the reference prototype for all the ships of that line to follow so it makes sense that the ship was quickly renamed and painted and hauled out for Kirk to Captain.

[@Pekingesejedi]

USS Yorktown re-christened as the Enterprise. NOT USS Ti-Ho as in “Mr. Scott’s Guide To The Enterprise”, which was not published by Paramount Pictures. She was a NEW built Constitution II Class vessel, NOT the Yorktown in “IV TVH”.

[@kjorlaug1]

I always took it as 20 years since her major refit started

[@marcharkness6101]

Despite the say of Gene Roddenberry, I do not think the Yorktown theory works. Roddenberry was Air Force, not Navy and sailors will tell you that renaming a ship after she has been commissioned is a very ill omen. And as you say, it's a deliberate slap to Yorktown's command staff. And does not fit with Scotty's comments in STV. Obviously, the intended replacement theory doesn't work. So that leaves us theory 2. In WW2, ships named Lexington, Yorktown, Hornet, and Wasp were all replaced after loss in battle with new ships then under construction. This fits. As to why not an Excelsior? Remember Excelsior was a one of a kind experiment and hertranswarp drive ultimately did not work as planned. So the Constitutions weren't obsolete yet. BUT even though Ent-A was only 7 years old in 2293, She was both damaged AND a symbolic sacrifice in the scaling back of StarFleet with the treaty with the Klingons. An example of a ship on our Earth which had equally brief a service was the battleship USS Washington, which was not quite six years old when she was decommissioned.

[@ironsides982]

For an even shorter service life look at the Alaska class battlecruisers. They were completed in 45', put into reserve in 47' and scrapped in 61'. The new cold war technologies essentially made the big gun battlecruiser concept obsolete, and large ships like this would have been expensive to refit and costly to operate.

[@mattgallagher4924]

The best theory is that it's the Yorktown and their crew didn't survive. They were in very dire straits and a solar sail wasn't going to do anything. Here's why this is the best fitting theory. One, the Enterprise-A had system-wide problems. This can easily be attributed to the Whale Probe. The end of the Voyage Home made it seem like once it left everyone's power came back on, but that's not how power works. It wasn't dampened, it was drained. Power shooting back could easily have shorted systems. Two, when a new captain takes command of a ship he will usually bring his bridge crew, but warrant officers and crew typically stay with the ship. The original Enterprise crew had long ago been reassigned, but the Yorktown crew, if they were alive, should have stayed aboard. But we saw that the Enterprise-A had a skeleton crew. Where was everyone? Lord knows how many crews were wiped out by the Whale Probe, so they didn't have anyone who could even transfer over.

[@BandenIndarys]

My thought is the Enterprise -A as the TI-HO was probably a test bed for the new style of warp core that replaced the previous horizontal/vertical warp core seen in Star Trek II, with a strait up vertical one as seen in Star Trek VI. That is why not much effort was put in finishing the construction as seen in Star Trek V.

[@radioflyer68911]

Another thing that gets overlooked is the bridge of the Enterprise seen for just a few seconds at the end of 'Search For Spock.'. There's very little seen of it. It's interesting that it's totally replaced and forgotten in the very next movie.

[@Voodoomaria]

According to one book, the NCC-1701A, Unlike the 1701 refit, was built, from the keel up. There were supposedly several years between the Motion Picture, and Trek 2-3-4. It stands to reason that the refit was a prototype for the next generation of constitution class, that were all new builds. So, the 1701-A was either one of the existing new generation ships rechristened [I understand from the standpoint of naval tradition Renaming a ship is bad luck, and an insult to the prior captain, and crews] Or one of the latest ones out of dry-dock. Pardon the pun, but it's not really rocket science figuring that one out. Hardly a mystery.

[@ryanjones2297]

Theory 2 would be the best option, since its in source material for one, and 2 the decommissioning makes sense considering the level of damage it sustained in its somewhat short life.

[@yoshiforpm]

Well, I think that theory 2 can work with the whole “end of the Cold War” thing. There were a bunch of USN ships in that era with short service lives. If an FFG-7 or the like was wrecked in late 1991, they probably would have retired it.

[@doct0rnic]

I like the Ti Ho theory, it makes the most sense honestly with the new interiors shown and there are real world examples of why it would have been retired early. Being it was an old design they didn't feel the need to continue a ship when there was excelsior class ships in full production. The real world examples would be in the railroad industry. Railroads retired and scrapped steam locomotives that were still in their useful life cycle, some just a few years old for more efficient diesel locomotives, a train engine like the excelsior which had developmental issues but became the longest serving equipment in the industry and still reliable

[@quantisedspace7047]

11 years, 5 months, 4 days. Spock had served under Pike for that time. I don't think it was all supposed to be on the Enterprise.

[@ceemichel]

It was obviously one of her sister ships that was rechristened Enterprise and recommissioned as NCC-1701A. The US Navy has renamed ships for a number of reasons over the years. The Enterprise was refitted at the time of ST TMP, so it makes sense that other ships would go through that process in the years following. It makes a lot of sense that they might have refitted a ship that was otherwise heading for mothballs

[@Werewindle]

The novelization says she was USS TI-HO, so that's what I'm sticking with.

[@williamsimkulet7832]

Option 2 is the only one that makes sense. The ship was a new Constitution Class, and the Excelsior class was in the experimental stage, so they hadn't decided to go with it as the norm, let alone replace the Constitution with it. The ship is set to be decommissioned at the end of Star Trek IV. Why? Well, there are a few options: 1) All constitution classes were set to be retired for newer ships. 2) (more plausible), the damage from the battle, combined with the older model of ship, made decommissioning her appropriate. 3) The Enterprise is the flagship of the federation for some time and they wanted the Enterprise B to hold the name. Coupled with the battle damage, which was extensive, decommissioning it made the most sense.

[@scottjgray83]

The YorkTown was renamed to Enterprise A. Pretty sure that's cannon

[@TimberWolf429]

I believe that canon has the Enterprise A, being the USS Yorktown, who was in for refit, and was re named to Enterprise, during refit, and then commissioned as the 1707-A.

[@tsugambler]

For me, if it's not on-screen, it's not canon.

[@tag1462]

I would go with a mash up of #2 and #3. In canon it would make some sense to have an Enterprise. So yeah, rename a new ship Enterprise. Tie that in with the real world production of the movies where the producers wanted a newer look, an updated look, and you get the new ship. Third star to the right.

[@alomalley222]

There's a book called Mr. Scott's Guide To The Enterprise that came out back in '87 printed by Pocket Books that sheds light on the whole topic of where Enterprise-A came from. Keep on Trekkin' !! 🙂🖖

[@mikedicenso2778]

Which he mentioned in the video. However, that book isn't canon and is mostly speculation.

[@JohnDoeXYZ]

Perhaps the captain of the Yorktown got promoted and his ship was given to Kirk, which seems more like a slap in the face to Kirk. But then again, Kirk preferred to remain captain, so it's all good. Also, the Enterprise looks a bit different in "The Cage" than it does later on. So, perhaps it underwent a two-year refit prior to Kirk's five-year mission, thus making it a "new" ship in 2267.

[@danclark1348]

Enterprise and crew did much to save the entire universe in the original series. The Alternate Factor- where this corridor to another universe of antimatter, Lazarus, if his alternate self met, would be total anililation of both universes, and Enterprise was tasked to deal with it alone. Then the giant amoeba-11,000 miles in length, about to become two and would kept going, had to be stopped. Other such dire emergencies, honored the crew with a renamed Yorktown as 1701-A. Then with new technologies for ships, Enterprise Constitution class, outdated, so a shorter time till decommisioned.

[@Trygvar13]

Captain April is not semi-canonical. He became canon in STD and SNW. I've always assumed the Admiral was referring to the refit time frame and not the actual age of the ship. To me the only theory I accept is the fact that it was a refit Yorktown. After all this is what Gene Roddenberry himself said so that is enough for me.

[@sharonebradley4324]

my theory as being a military vet and watched a lot of real naval videos is that Star Fleet started building several ships because throughout history of the show and movies and even books, ships were lost and when they deem that the model is not needed anymore and decide on using the new model, old models get stopped in mid construction. They also tend to build them in different locations. So for my understanding is that they had at least three locations. That would mean that they built 3 ships at a time. You then would have finished one ship that had the better percentage completed. That became the new Enterprise. When Star Fleet went against the Borg in later cinema they had some old ships and I thought I seen one of mixed variety. That would also mean the other 2 remaining incomplete ships got unscheduled upgrades that were improvised to make them combat worthy.

[@carter358]

Enterprise's age was likely 18 years and a few months. Admiral Morrow was likely just rounding up and speaking in general terms when he spoke to Kirk.

[@rickytoddbotelho9555]

Excellent job 👍👌💯

[@pault1520]

Here is a more positive spin on #3. The plan to rig the solar sail on the Yorktown was successful, so much that the captain and chief engineer were promoted and given better assignments (after all Excelsior needed a new captain of engineering and an admiral's position had just opened up) Kirk and co were essentially demoted to take an old and half repaired Yorktown. As for the -A getting retired, a Klingon torpedo punched a hole through the saucer section from bottom to top during the final battle on ST VI. That damage on an already aging ship may have been the final blow where the resources needed to make the ship fully operational again would not be worth the effort.

[@jakeblack212]

They took another Star Ship being built and named it Enterprise

[@eddiehancockii]

If the Enterprise A was the Yorktown, it wasn't disrespectful to change crews. You give an aging ship to a crew on the way out. And assign a hero captain to a newer class of ship, promoting his first officer go captain and second officer to first officer. As a reward for valiant efforts in star trek 4.

[@RandallHallKaizenReiki]

Or, the Yorktown's crew didn't survive, and the ship was salvaged.

[@Derekloffin]

I think you could make the latter two theories work. For the Ti Ho, which I think works best with the notion that it is in rough shape when they take her out, the biggest issue seems to be the early decommissioning. It has been suggested that just meant the crew which I think was the original intent of the scene given the dialog, but we know the B took over not long after, so maybe the damage was deemed just too extensive to be worth repairing and they did fully decommission her. For the York Town, the issue there is what happened to the York Town's crew? Darkly it was suggested maybe they died, but that seems grim, so let's ignore that one. Instead we could simply say the crew at the time was a early shake down crew, essentially temps, or thrown together quickly to confront the probe. They were never intended to be the final crew and thus it wouldn't be that big a deal to hand it over to Kirk, especially if we add the extra bit that the temp crew was the command portion of such, and the rest stayed on. Even the first theory I think you could make work. We really don't know when they consider a star ship 'started' and having received its initial registration. For all we know a ship gets is registration basically on the day of completion making a new enterprise easy to pump out as they may have had one ready to go. Heck, given how supposedly modular these ships are supposed to be, it may even be a surprisingly short building time as they may just be putting the major components together and even the short time between 3 and 4 could have been enough. So, this makes this theory very similar to the Ti Ho theory actually.

[@AbelMcTalisker]

It's also possible that the ship was reassigned as a training ship and reverted to the name Ti Ho.