I FINALLY realized why the Enterprise-A was a clunker in TFF.

[enterprisecvn65]

So one of the great unanswered questions in the TOS films is why was the Enterprise-A plagued with so many problems in TFF. Part of the confusion was it has never been explained, in canon, if the "A" was a whole new ship at the end of "TVH" or another 1701 refir they just renamed.

Either way it was confusing as hell. A veteran ship shouldn't have these issues. And even if the "A" was a new ship It's assumed years passed since her voyage in TVH and TFF so certainly they would worked out the teething kinks in that time.

But the Enterprise was in Kirk's words "A disaster" for no explained reason.

But I FINALLY GOT IT!!!!!! IT'S SHATNER FINE HAND AT WORK AGAIN.

It wasn't enough for Shatner to make himself like he was the only person who could be counted on to be completely rational during the story, but he also had to show that not even the Enterprise could be counted on and it wasn't as strong as he was.

Think of it. Spock lets Kirk down by not killing Sybok and putting the whole ship and crew in possible danger. Most of the supporting characters let Kirk down by joining Sybok after he does his mind magic. Scotty frees them but he fails Kirk by being clumsy and knocking himself out before he can help further. Even McCoy is about to leave Kirk before he has a guilt attack and stays by his side.

The whole crew, including security, lets Kirk down by just standing around like morons as Sybok addresses them over the PA and apparently not one person thinks "Hmmmmm who is this guy, where is the captain validating these orders? We should check this out.

And finally even the good old Enterprise herself can't be counted on because it's in such poor material condition and plagued with issues.

So when all is said and done only James Tiberius Kirk can be counted on at ALL TIMES to make the rational decision and not betray him in one way or another!!!!!!

I can't believe I didn't see it sooner. I realized Shatner made himself look like the only loyal crew member a long time ago to stroke his ego. But even an inanimate object like the Enterprise, who was a character in a way, was a threat to Shatner's ego and he had to make it look inferior.

Again don't know how every character except Scotty and maybe Kelley aren't tried for mutiny or how Kirk could ever trust any of them again because they all apparently the just discarded their loyality and committments they'd made to starfleet for some hippy Vulcan who could feel their pain....but whatever. At least one question has been answered.

 

[Smellmet]

The enterprise breaking down was used as a prop for some of the film's dumb comedy - I don't think it's any deeper than that.

 

[C.E. Evans]

It was just a ship that needed to be broken in at the beginning. Whatever final teething problems she had were resolved halfway through the movie with the exception of her transporter (and even that worked briefly before being taken out again during battle).

 

[MacLeod]

Isn't it implied that only weeks that passed between TVH and TFF.

Kirk has a line at the end of TVH something like "Let's see what's she got" and in TFF Scotty has a line something like "Let's see what shes got the Captain said, and we found out didn't we"

 

[Firebird]

I can't believe I didn't see it sooner. I realized Shatner made himself look like the only loyal crew member a long time ago to stroke his ego. But even an inanimate object like the Enterprise, who was a character in a way, was a threat to Shatner's ego and he had to make it look inferior.

Even though I'm pretty sure he was all for the idea of the Enterprise being Kirk's de-facto mistress during the whole drydock sequence in TMP?

Methinks you're way overanalyzing what is, like Smellmet said, a simple gag that David Loughery shoehorned into the script.

 

[TheSubCommander]

^^+1. Just poor comedy relief is all.

AS for my personal canon\in universe explanation, I think the Enterprise-A was a decommissioned connie pulled out of mothball for Kirk and crew. Not a newly built ship.

 

[Christopher]

Isn't it implied that only weeks that passed between TVH and TFF.

That's the impression the film gives, but I believe Harve Bennett has said there was a 6-month shakedown cruise between films. (The three weeks Kirk said he gave Scotty for repairs probably came after their return from that shakedown, although without that information, it certainly does sound like only three weeks elapsed between films.)

 

[DonIago]

Hm. Maybe during the shakedown they suffered some sort of massive computer failure. Perhaps part of that six-month period involved them being towed back to Earth.

 

[Lance]

The real world reason (IMO) is simply that Shatner wanted to suggest a slightly cynical "used universe" feel to the picture -- everything from the ironically named 'Paradise City' being a lawless wild west town and the last assignment any self respecting ambassador would want to get, right through to the Enterprise-A being an unreliable bucket of bolts that can't flush a toilet without losing half it's hull integrity. It was Shatner's way of suggesting that all is not rosy in the Star Trek universe.

Personally, my fan theory for the Enterprise's problems in TFF is that it was an old ship, but that it was being refitted with all new interfaces that got bolted on top of the old ones between the two movies, and which has led to software/hardware incompatabilities, which is what Scotty is dutifully trying to fix at the start of the picture.

It's kind of like installing a newer version of the software directly over the top of the old one: not advisable. Poor old 1701-A is terribly confused in that movie.

 

[Smellmet]

It's kind of like installing a newer version of the software directly over the top of the old one: not advisable. Poor old 1701-A is terribly confused in that movie.

They made the rest of the cast look like bumbling buffoons so hey why not the ship too?

 

[wjaspers]

The constitution class is a refitted class ship. In case of the 1701, Scotty himself oversaw the refitting. In case of the 1701A the refitting was done by monkeys.

 

[enterprisecvn65]

I can't believe I didn't see it sooner. I realized Shatner made himself look like the only loyal crew member a long time ago to stroke his ego. But even an inanimate object like the Enterprise, who was a character in a way, was a threat to Shatner's ego and he had to make it look inferior.

Even though I'm pretty sure he was all for the idea of the Enterprise being Kirk's de-facto mistress during the whole drydock sequence in TMP?

Methinks you're way overanalyzing what is, like Smellmet said, a simple gag that David Loughery shoehorned into the script.

I have no idea what Shatner thought about the scene where Kirk falls in love with the Enterprise in TMP.

But keep in mind two things:

1. Shatner had input obviously but Roddenberry was calling the shots in TMP and Roddenberry a former navy man understood the bond that sailors have with their ships so he played it to the hilt. By TVH Shatner was in control and seemed determined that no character, living or not, was going to approach his greatness.

2. This was the Enterprise A, not the original NCC-1701 so the emotional connection wasn't there from the past 20 years between Kirk and his ship.

Yeah I'm being overly dramatic when I lay out my Shatner theory on the A being a clunker. It was mostly an awful gag shoehorned into an awful film, but on some level it does make sense. Shatner goes to any length possible in TFF to make sure Kirk looks like the only completely rational and loyal man in the film, not to mention a complete macho stud who can climb El Cap with his bare hands. It's not totally out of the realm of reality to think that somewhere in Shatner's diva mind he thought "I can't have the Enterprise upstaging me either with its heroics, so let's make her in poor condition". Not that this was ever a possibility given the script and the poor effects, but with Shatner anything is possible.

 

[DaddlerTheDalek]

The Enterprise was just in a bad mood.

 

[Dude111]

The enterprise breaking down was used as a prop for some of the film's dumb comedy - I don't think it's any deeper than that.

I think the ORIGINAL enterprise was a masterpiece!! (The One Kirk was in)

 

[Christopher]

I don't think it was about Shatner's ego. I think it was simply that, since TVH had been hugely successful going the comedy route, the studio insisted that TFF play up the comedy as well. Movie executives always think this way, parroting the surface attributes of any successful film in the belief that they were the key to its success. So TFF would've been required to emphasize the comedy no matter who directed it. Now, TVH had drawn humor from the characters' fish-out-of-water struggles with their environment, so they tried to continue that dynamic in TFF. But the kind of struggles that came about naturally when they were adjusting to an alien place and time had to be more artificially contrived once they were back in their own element, and this was done by having their technology turn against them and by having them appear generally less competent.

 

[Smellmet]

The comedy in TVH worked because of the situation they were in - 'fish out of water' if you will. TFF made everyone look foolish or incompetent, and that's why the bulk of the humour falls flat for me.

 

[Christopher]

^Yes, exactly. But my point is that it wasn't about Shatner's ego, it was about movie executives' perpetually imitative nature and their desire to copy TVH's formula.

 

[urbandefault]

^Yes, exactly. But my point is that it wasn't about Shatner's ego, it was about movie executives' perpetually imitative nature and their desire to copy TVH's formula.

Like the man said: "monkeys."

 

[Richard Baker]

I think the Enterprise had to be in poor shape with a skeleton crew for the movie plot to work. If it was a fully operational starship with a full crew most of the events in the film would have been handled a lot differently.

 

[FormerLurker]

^For starters, Sybok would have never gotten near the Great Barrier, and would have survived the experience.