Christopher said:
Stag said:
I agree, but it was a bit overdone. Besides the original crew eere supposed to have been legends and the TNG folks are on the same named ship...you expect someone to have a bit of familiarity. Especially with those cheesy gold spray painted model halfs on the wall in the observation lounge.
The idea that the TOS crew were seen as "legends" in later eras, or in their own time, is an invention of fandom, projecting their own affinities onto the fictional characters of the Trek universe. Perhaps to some extent it's also a creation of Roddenberry's TMP novelization. But there's little support for it in canon. Sure, Kirk & co. saved the Earth a couple of times, but they were just one starship crew out of dozens.
And as you mention, there were multiple other starships named Enterprise, both before and after Kirk's ship. There's no reason to assume that everyone who served on a ship named Enterprise would be an expert in the career of James T. Kirk and his crew, as opposed to Archer, April, Pike, Harriman, or Garrett, or the crews of the various oceangoing ships of that name.
I think the fact that the Enterprise crew saved the Earth as many times as they did is enough to make them legends. Unless this was something that many other vessels did as well?
Charlie