Kirk Enterprise - the Enterprise(a)?

Something to do with the shipyards there?

 

Some armchair research:

UTF-8 (binary) for 0718 is 11011100:10011000

Hmmm...

 

Ericson was too obvious? How so?

 

Probably the line from Space Seed comparing Khan to Lief Ericson.

 

I see. Harrison is kind of a giveaway too though since that crew man was mentioned in the same episode.

 

In an early draft of Space Seed, Khan was named Ericson, if I recall my Star Trek Compendium correctly.

 

The 718 actually refers to the telephone area code for Brooklyn, NY. I think it's a reference to JJ Abrams' place of birth (he was born in NYC).

 

http://io9.com/inside-secrets-of-the-making-of-star-trek-ii-wrath-of-457250013

Relevant quote: "In Wilber's original ["Space Seed"] proposal, the Botany Bay contains a criminal named Harold Erickson, who's a blond, Aryan character."

 

My theory: The Connies were probably in development when the Narada came out of the wormhole. In the prime time-line, the Federation never felt the need to develop a bigger, stronger ship and so the Connies were the best they had. In this time-line, however, they rushed R&D on a supership--much bigger, much stronger, much faster. The Connies, in this timeline, are probably considered light cruisers. The first of these super ships is the Enterprise we see. (Of course, we also see the primary hull of an even bigger ship in the wreckage around Vulcan but then, Starfleet almost certainly never had an R2 class so we can chalk that up to poetic license.)

 

I don't see any evidence there was any Enterprise between the NX-01 and the NCC-1701. Absence of evidence doesn't mean it didn't exist. Just look at evolutionary biology. We didn't know that dinosaurs had feathers till recently. But as for Star Trek, I tend to go with:

*NCC-1700 is the USS Constitution, launched in the 2240s
*NCC-1701 is the USS Enterprise, launched in 2245 under Robert April. Then Pike had 2 5-year missions (Spock served under him 11 years, so some time for refit there before Kirk). then Kirk.
*USS Constellation, Exeter, Excaliber, Potemkin, and Intrepid were upgraded from a prior ship's class to Constitution class; or the registries were reserved and for various reasons, re-assigned to new-build Constitution-class vessels. Starfleet was either in need of ships in the 2240s to refit to a new class, or their numbering system was not managed well.

To me, that seems to be the simplest explanation, contrary to yenny's hypothesis of a new, unknown, Enterprise with a registry between NCC-01 and NCC-1701.

 

In the Abramsverse, there was.

 

There were also plans for a pre-TOS Enterprise in the unmade movie Star Trek: The Academy Years. Cadets Kirk, Spock, Scotty and McCoy would have ended up taking over on a training cruise gone wrong and save the day. Click for story. Click for concept art.

 

Has anyone ever fleshed that concept out into an actual design?

 

Yes, they made a whole series out of it called "Enterprise"

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFGfWrJR5Ck

Damn you, sir.

 

The rumor was that the ship that the Narada destroys at the start of the film was supposed to be the original TOS Enterprise under April's command (and the nuEnt would then have been the Enterprise-A), but Paramount had an edict that they didn't want any ship named Enterprise to be destroyed, so they changed the ship to the Kelvin and changed April to Robau.

However, I personally have never seen any quotes from production personnel or related proof that this rumor is actually true.

 

^Thanks for that clarification, M'Sharak. So from how I read that Newsarama interview, it was the nuEnterprise that Orci & Kurtzman were considering to get destroyed halfway through the battle with Nero, not the ship that would eventually become the Kelvin. What Paramount then stated about not wanting the Enterprise destroyed makes way more sense.

So it sounds like some fan took what was said out of context, and the Internetz ran with it. Gee, that never happens with Star Trek fans...