Where was Kirk's Enterprise built?

I'm watching this exchange between two YouTubers in the video comments for the fan film about "Axanar".

Someone is desperately asking "Where is it established that Kirk's Enterprise was built in San Francisco?"

This guy doesn't even care if it's onscreen. He'll even take a novel as a source, but I have no idea what to tell him.

Personally, I thought the ship was built IN ORBIT above San Francisco, but have no idea where that came from either.

Help?

 

The dedication plaque on the bridge, located next to the turbolift:

USS Enterprise
Starship Class
San Francisco, Calif.

Kor

 

Like many tidbits of TOS lore that never actually appeared onscreen, the first reference is probably The Making of Star Trek, 1968. Page 171:

"The unit components were built at the Star Fleet Division of what is still called the San Francisco Navy Yards, and the vessel was assembled in space."​

 

That's good news. I had a nightmare that it was built in a power plant outside of Des Moines, Iowa.

 

I always thought the components were built on the surface and assembled in orbit, perhaps I read this in The Making of Star Trek?

 

Well, as Kor said, San Francisco is specified on the bridge plaque, so what you're saying makes sense.

******************************​

By the way, guys, thanks. Especially Kor's simple reply. Onscreen and all. Canon for sure. (Please ignore my sig for this one post. )

 

^ And it also means the ship wasn't originally supposed to be "Constitution Class," but "Starship Class."

Well, J.T.B. quoted the relevant passage from The Making of Star Trek in his post above.
That is one of my favorite Trek books. I wish I knew where my copy went.

Kor

 

As for what I guess was a debate on where Enterprise was during "Prelude to Axanar" the production people hinted that the wording on the screen is specific while the visual is also specific, yet both not actually the same thing.

(Meaning, the Klingons get false intelligence that the Federation's new heavy cruisers are being built at Axanar. This is a Starfleet trap after all. This of it as Midway where the Allies provide false reports to trick the Japanese into telling the Allies were they are going to attack. Enterprise is shown over an M-class world...which is you look at the interview shots with Earth in the background, is the same M-class planet. Enterprise is over Earth, but will likely show up at Axanar...ready or not.)

 

If we are to take ST:Axanar as being "pan-canonical", taking in influences from all sorts of noncanon sources (after all, the very concept of the 4YW is from FASA), we may just as well include the backstory of the Constitutions, and the Enterprise specifically, as laid out in various novels and comics.

Obviously, every Trek writer has wanted to dip his or her pen in this particular inkwell, and many have managed to get published. A common theme is that the Constitutions are such important vessels that many have been sent on crucial missions even before being actually launched, and have engaged in adventures that have resulted in heavy damage. So a Constitution often needs to be launched twice, thrice or even four times!

The Enterprise is credited with three or four "false" launches in various novels and comics; the Constitution herself is said to have fought Klingons at Donatu, Axanar and whatnot basically "fresh out of the launch ramp" and was probably thrashed in each engagement thoroughly enough to require rebuilding and relaunching. And if Garth of Izar sees it fit to assign Axanar as the site of the latest repairs in order to entrap the Klingons, he can at least rest assured that the actual repairs will proceed as planned, what with Starfleet having lots of experience with such things!

As for the San Francisco thing, is that the site of construction, the name of the dockyards, or merely the homeport of the vessel? The first option is never quite confirmed; the second one need not mean that the yards would be anywhere near San Francisco; and the third would disassociate the construction with San Francisco altogether.

We do know that Constitutions are quite at home within atmospheres, and certainly have enough engine power to take off from Class M planets (heck, the Enterprise once basically takes off from a black hole!), so that doesn't exclude any options...

Timo Saloniemi

 

Of course in 1965 the San Fransico Naval Yard was still active at Hunter's Point. Was until 1974.

 

Providencia Ave., Burbank, California.

 

If I recall the quote correctly "What a dump".

~Bette Davis on Laugh-In (1977)

 

Post of the month...if not the year!

Sincerely,

Bill

 

I was hoping someone would say that.

 

It seems to me that whatever scenario is the correct one, that we have to be talking about San Francisco in California as the dedication plaque does read "San Francisco, Calif." which, unless there is an Arabian space colony somewhere called the San Francisco Califate, must narrow down the reference to the actual city.

--Alex

 

True - it doesn't sound analogous to "Antares Fleet Yards" which might well be located at Arcturus. The original TOS plaque is just about the only one that is this vague and this unambiguous in its formulation of the "site of origin" or "homeport".

Timo Saloniemi

 

This makes me want to go back and watch the TAS. Kind of cool reference. I had expected that the episode may have been written by David Gerrold but it was written by Fred Bronson under a pseudonym. Interesting tidbit on his request to write an episode on ST Memory Alpha

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/John_Culver

 

<bows>

 

I didn't see JTB's post concerning TMOST, for some reason, and ended up repeating the same information.