Why no Enterprise class?

[Commodore_Rook]

Of course the main ship in any of the main Trek shows and films is called USS Enterprise, but over the course of 300 years, there really hasn't been an Enterprise class per se! There is some small debate that the refit Constitution was nick named the Enterprise class and actually some tech manuals actually call it that (as it should have been since it really was a whole new ship) but there has not been really a true Enterprise class! Now, perhaps with this Enterprise-F contest going on, that class could be called the Enterprise class? Can we get a ruling on this?

 

[C.E. Evans]

If there ever would be an Enterprise-class, then the first ship should have an all-new hull number, IMO. Lose the NCC-1701 tradition and assign that Enterprise a new Starfleet registry.

 

[F. King Daniel]

According to the official TMP blueprints, the refit was called the Enterprise-class. In Wrath of Khan, Saavik's Kobayashi Maru simulator is labelled "Enterprise class"

The revisionist technical manuals and blueprints of the 90's ignored it, but it's right there on-screen.

 

[C.E. Evans]

^^^
With the almost equally long-held idea that it was a reference to the particular class of cadets that would be training aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise at the Academy.

 

[Sam_I_Am]

If there ever would be an Enterprise-class, then the first ship should have an all-new hull number, IMO. Lose the NCC-1701 tradition and assign that Enterprise a new Starfleet registry.

A theoretical Enterprise class could use the series of registration numbers NCC-170xx, with the first ship (presumably the latest Enterprise) being the 1701-G or whatever letter we would be up to by that point in time.

 

[F. King Daniel]

If there ever would be an Enterprise-class, then the first ship should have an all-new hull number, IMO. Lose the NCC-1701 tradition and assign that Enterprise a new Starfleet registry.

Some of the TMP concept art featured the hull registry NCC-1800 on the refitted Enterprise.

 

[C.E. Evans]

If there ever would be an Enterprise-class, then the first ship should have an all-new hull number, IMO. Lose the NCC-1701 tradition and assign that Enterprise a new Starfleet registry.

A theoretical Enterprise class could use the series of registration numbers NCC-170xx, with the first ship (presumably the latest Enterprise) being the 1701-G or whatever letter we would be up to by that point in time.

I really don't like that idea at all (they would have to change the registry from NCC to NX for awhile anyway, IMO). I think they should just start over with an all-new number and begin a new Enterprise lineage from there.

Some of the TMP concept art featured the hull registry NCC-1800 on the refitted Enterprise.

Yeah, it was basically going to be a totally new ship and that it warranted its own class.

 

[The Wormhole]

The Enterprise is Starfleet's pride and joy. The one ship that keeps the same registry as its original predecessor, Starfleet's flag ship, and the one ship officers fight for a posting on. Starfleet is not going to use the name Enterprise for an experimental untested ship. They're going to reserve it for a ship of a worthy design, one that has proven itself as durable and reliable and is also the most advanced state of the art starship in the Federation. For this reason, there can never be an Enterprise class.

 

[Satyrquaze]

^^^
With the almost equally long-held idea that it was a reference to the particular class of cadets that would be training aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise at the Academy.

Agreed, there's nothing that technically links the actual starship with that class-name other than the spelling.

 

[Patrickivan]

The Enterprise is Starfleet's pride and joy. The one ship that keeps the same registry as its original predecessor, Starfleet's flag ship, and the one ship officers fight for a posting on. Starfleet is not going to use the name Enterprise for an experimental untested ship. They're going to reserve it for a ship of a worthy design, one that has proven itself as durable and reliable and is also the most advanced state of the art starship in the Federation. For this reason, there can never be an Enterprise class.

It's a decent reason why they'd never do it. Though I wouldn't say never. They can always rename a class in honour of the ship.

As for reserving it for the best. Spock was using it as a training ship for a bit. Personally, it's not a bit of history I'd associate that ship with.

Maybe there was a rotation of ships that had to do that. Those under refit, or something... Anyway- for another thread I suppose.

 

[Timo]

I'd argue Starfleet already had an Enterprise class and feels it can not return to that name. After all, regardless of what the United Earth Starfleet called its pioneering exploration vessel NX-01, the United Federation of Planets Starfleet would probably systematically regard her as the class ship of a class named after said class ship, if you catch my drift.

There could be all sorts of "subclasses" that repeat previous names - after all, by the 24th century, each and every starship is probably a subclass of one, since TPTB cannot afford to store and reuse interior sets the same way they reuse exterior scale models, and thus every Miranda out there has a differently sized and shaped bridge. But "real" class names might be sacrosanct, so there could be new Excelsiors after NCC-2000 is gone, but not a new Excelsior class.

The USN historical precedent is rife with destroyer classes that either are or aren't divided into subclasses, some of which may have oddly overlapping names mainly due to the names of fallen destroyers being recycled during WWII. Some sunken cruisers and aircraft carriers were also "reborn" within the same war, sometimes into the very same class the original loss had represented (say, two Atlanta class cruisers named Juneau, except the latter featured mods that may or may not make her count as the class ship of the Juneau (sub)class). Yet in this whole mess, care is taken to avoid actually reusing a class name. Starfleet could well operate the same way.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Brian]

To have an Enterprise class, the first ship of that type would have to be named Enterprise.

Which introduces the risk that a ship which ultimately sucks and is deemed a failure would be named Enterprise, sullying the legacy. A risk I wouldn't be keen on assuming, if I lived in that universe.

 

[Dukhat]

The Enterprise is Starfleet's pride and joy. The one ship that keeps the same registry as its original predecessor, Starfleet's flag ship, and the one ship officers fight for a posting on. Starfleet is not going to use the name Enterprise for an experimental untested ship. They're going to reserve it for a ship of a worthy design, one that has proven itself as durable and reliable and is also the most advanced state of the art starship in the Federation. For this reason, there can never be an Enterprise class.

To have an Enterprise class, the first ship of that type would have to be named Enterprise.

Which introduces the risk that a ship which ultimately sucks and is deemed a failure would be named Enterprise, sullying the legacy. A risk I wouldn't be keen on assuming, if I lived in that universe.

Entirely agree. (Although the Excelsior initially being a dud didn't stop the engineers from mass-producing a shitload of them)

Also, it's possible that the NX class, once the Federation Starfleet was formed, dropped the NX moniker when it went to class names with actual names, and it was renamed the Enterprise class. That would be a precedent as to why there wouldn't be an Enterprise class in the future.

The only problem with the TMP Enterprise refit being called "Enterprise class" is that the ship's dedication plaque clearly says "Constitution Class."

 

[C.E. Evans]

The Enterprise is Starfleet's pride and joy. The one ship that keeps the same registry as its original predecessor, Starfleet's flag ship, and the one ship officers fight for a posting on. Starfleet is not going to use the name Enterprise for an experimental untested ship. They're going to reserve it for a ship of a worthy design, one that has proven itself as durable and reliable and is also the most advanced state of the art starship in the Federation. For this reason, there can never be an Enterprise class.

It's a decent reason why they'd never do it. Though I wouldn't say never. They can always rename a class in honour of the ship.

As for reserving it for the best. Spock was using it as a training ship for a bit. Personally, it's not a bit of history I'd associate that ship with.

Maybe there was a rotation of ships that had to do that. Those under refit, or something...

It does seem that by the time of TWOK, the Enterprise was in her twilight years and had been reassigned to Starfleet Academy as a cadet training vessel. It's not the worst way for a distinguished ship to end its career--providing experience for the next generation of Starfleet officers--and it may have actually held off its decommissioning for a few more years for all we know...

 

[Timo]

Where and when do we see that plaque?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Therin of Andor]

According to the official TMP blueprints, the refit was called the Enterprise-class. In Wrath of Khan, Saavik's Kobayashi Maru simulator is labelled "Enterprise class"

Of course, those plans were in a simulation, so may have been deliberately fictitious.

The revisionist technical manuals and blueprints of the 90's ignored it, but it's right there on-screen.

The refit was called "Constitution II Class" on TMP media releases, IIRC - but, of course, ST II was free to ignore these and the tie-ins. Both TMP and ST II used scans of Franz Joseph's TOS deck plans (not the TMP blueprints) in on-screen graphics, meaning that several now-canonical graphics showed not-particularly-useful images for the crews.

 

[SchwEnt]

^^^ I am familiar with the "Constitution II" nomenclature.

But it seems to be used in some sense of "Constitution (uprated) class" or "Constitution, Part II class".

If it's the class name, then strictly speaking there should have been an actual first-vessel of the class named "USS Constitution II".

And while the class-name "Constitution II" is familiar, some such starship named "USS Constitution II" is very much less common--particularly since we've seen the -suffix honorific in use rather than "Constitution II" or "Enterprise II" or "Valiant III" or "Farragut IV".

 

[Dukhat]

Where and when do we see that plaque?

My bad. I just looked at Memory Alpha, and their information about the Ent-A's plaque does not have any class info. I must have though Okuda did something for the Encyclopedia for it.

 

[The Wormhole]

As for reserving it for the best. Spock was using it as a training ship for a bit. Personally, it's not a bit of history I'd associate that ship with.

The original 1701 wasn't Starfleet's flag ship, it was just another ship, and reaching the end of its service, it was used for cadet training. Remember, it was in honour of saving Earth from the whale probe that the Enterprise A kept the 1701 registry, thus beginning the tradition. I don't really know if the Enterprise A was the flag ship or not, but I'd say given the publicity for its launch, the B definately was, and all its successors were.

Although the Excelsior initially being a dud didn't stop the engineers from mass-producing a shitload of them.

The Excelsior wasn't really a dud. The transwarp experiment was a failure, the design of the Excelsior itself proved to be capable thus resulting in the class being mass-produced.

 

[Bishop76]

The Constitution refit was referred to as the Enterprise class in the old FASA tabletop RPG and starship combat strategy game. But that's about the only time I've seen it used.