The Enterprise-J was from an alternate future where the Sphere Builders expanded into the Alpha Quadrant from the 2150's to the 26th century. So the ship does not exist in the Discoverse.
Enterprise-J future thoughts and questions
- Thread starter somebuddyX
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The Enterprise-J was from an alternate future where the Sphere Builders expanded into the Alpha Quadrant from the 2150's to the 26th century. So the ship does not exist in the Discoverse.
Just because the battle didn't happen doesn't mean the ship didn't exist.
Oh the Enterprise-I was destroyed, we need to build a new one! - Wouldn't that be the J then? - Of course, so let's build the J! - But the sphere builders are not a threat anymore! - Oh I see, then let's end the line.
Oh the Enterprise-I was destroyed, we need to build a new one! - Wouldn't that be the J then? - Of course, so let's build the J! - But the sphere builders are not a threat anymore! - Oh I see, then let's end the line.
Actually, the entire line of Enterprises would be different than the prime universe. Since in the alternate timeline the Federation was at continuous war with the Sphere Builders from 2154 through the 26th century, every Enterprise from the 1701 to the 1701-J would have been a dedicated warship, not the ships of peace that the prime universe Enterprises were. And they would have been destroyed far more times than their prime universe counterparts. So there’s no reason to think that by the 26th century, the J would even exist in the prime universe. The next few seasons of PIC will take place at the beginning of the 25th century, and for all we know the Enterprise-E still exists. I don’t really see six more Enterprises being built between PIC and the 26th century of the prime universe.
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Star Trek in 2020, where the classic Enterprise now looks different, and where a relatively short in-universe divergence in the 2009 movie led to a very different looking and much bigger 1701 in that timeline pretty much means that if we do see the Enterprise-J it can look like anything.
The average age of the first five Enterprises (nil to D) is 21.2 years (assuming there is no break in service between Enterprise-B and C). If there's a comparable average timeline and no break in service between Enterprises E through J, then the Enterprise-J should launch in 2499. If there's a 19 year gap in between each ship, like the one between C and D, then that adds 95 years, i.e. 2594. That's a very unlikely gap to be repeated so often, especially since there's no gap between Nil and A, A and B, and D and E, but there may be very long gaps between some of the legacy registries that average out to 19 overall.
The 25th century is, by most estimates, the most likely home for a ship registered NCC-1701-J. Any longer, and we'd have to assume that ships have extended lifespans. Any shorter, and we'd have to assume that several ships were destroyed/retired extremely early in their operations.
While I appreciate your calculations, what the math doesn't take into account is the longevity of other ships with the same names as the other TOS Constitution classes:
1. USS Hood, Excelsior class, NCC-42296
2. USS Intrepid, Excelsior class, NCC-38907
3. USS Lexington, Excelsior class, NCC-30405
4. USS Potemkin, Excelsior class, NCC-18253
5. USS Excalibur, Ambassador class, NCC-26517
6. USS Exeter, Ambassador class, NCC-26531
7. USS Constellation, Constellation class, NCC-1974
8. USS Republic, unknown class & registry number but believed to be the original or refit Constitution class
All of these ships were on active duty during the run of TNG and/or DS9. Assuming that most of these ships were only the first or second successors of their Constitution class counterparts, they all tended to have much higher lifespans than the Enterprise. So assuming there's nothing inherently different between these ships and the Enterprise (just that ships named Enterprise were unlucky enough to have shorter times between their decommissioning/destruction for whatever coincidental reason), then it's entirely possible that whatever the present Enterprise is (either the E or F, the former now being in service for 27 years if it's still currently active), that it could potentially be around for the next 50-75 years just like those other namesakes of the Constitution class.
Conclusion: We just don't know how many Enterprises there will be between the current 2400 one and the 26th century one.
There could always be a Babylon 4 situation, skipping a letter.
Actually, there is a precedent IRL for letter/number combinations to not use the letter “I” because it’s often mistaken for the Roman numeral “I” and the small letter “l.” Therefore there might not be an Enterprise-I.
I'm liking the idea that Starfleet will eventually do away with the very concept of starships' registry numbers and names being visible on the outer hull.
(I got to thinking about this in the battle scene from ST:PIC's final episode, as none of the Starfleet ships in that fleet had names or numbers on their hulls.)
It's obviously useless in-universe, as all starships have unique tranasponder codes that anyone can read. So logically the only reason ships have had visible names and numbers is for the viewer at home. Well, I think we can figure it out anyway - dialogue will take care of that.
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Ide like to think that in the 24th century people still do thinks sometimes just cause it looks good
The gap between ships probably is down to how the old one went down and weather the had plans in place for a new one.
Aw retired with her crew and
C died with her captain so no rush until Fed had a fancy new line of ships like the galaxy class where as when D went they needed to give Picard a new ship so quickly stuck Enterprise on the biggest thing coming out of utopia at the time
Like the Disco Enterprise, day? I can see that myself... with a surviving sphere somewhere
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