Enterprise, the character

[Shat Happens]

I occasionaly read the ship is a character. These two examples come from the DVD commentaries if I'm not mistaken

In ST1 every main character gets to "make an entrance", and the much criticized scene in drydock ith the ship's; The ship engines performs better after Spock joins because it's "happier".

In ST3 the ship arrives to spacedock with damage from the battle in the previous movie "wounded"; The destruction of the ship was refered to as "death".

(compare the several main ship destructions (and replacements) that came in the other series)

I don't think TOS emphasized that so. Then again, I seem to remember some instances of Kirk calling the Enterprise "his first love" or something like that

 

[EmperorTiberius]

I occasionaly read the ship is a character. These two examples come from the DVD commentaries if I'm not mistaken

In ST1 every main character gets to "make an entrance", and the much criticized scene in drydock ith the ship's; The ship engines performs better after Spock joins because it's "happier".

In ST3 the ship arrives to spacedock with damage from the battle in the previous movie "wounded"; The destruction of the ship was refered to as "death".

(compare the several main ship destructions (and replacements) that came in the other series)

I don't think TOS emphasized that so. Then again, I seem to remember some instances of Kirk calling the Enterprise "his first love" or something like that

It was Kirk's only real love.

The ships were characters in every series, that's why they had to be grandiose and good looking.

This is not confined to Star Trek only of course. Many successful movies had characters where cars, airplanes, ships, etc were characters.

 

[Warped9]

In TOS.

Kirk: "Never lose you. Never." ("The Naked Time")

Kirk: "She's a beautiful lady and we love her." ("I, Mudd")

Add the signature music whenever the ship appeared on-screen in TOS.

The ship's reveal in TMP.

The reaction to the damaged Enterprise returning in TSFS.

The death of the ship in TSFS.

No successive ship in Trek has ever been given that same sense of character. After the original Enterprise it was all largely just hardware.

 

[Clark Terrell]

No successive ship in Trek has ever been given that same sense of character. After the original Enterprise it was all largely just hardware.

They tried with the Enterprise-E, but it wasn't the same.

 

[OpenMaw]

McCoy makes a reference to the Enterprise already having Kirk's heart in Elaan of Troyius I believe.

The original Enterprise very much tied into old sailing ships, and the bond felt between ship and master.

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eXB1Yj05Fw[/yt]

Oh. Of course, also "The Naked Time"

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-S4JpRkvUE[/yt]

There's more there then that clip shows, but I think it makes the point that in TOS, The Enterprise very much was a character of her own.

I don't think it started out that way. In the first pilot, and handful of episodes it was simply the thing that carried the crew from place to place. At least, when I watch "The Cage" I don't really feel a tie to the ship as a character.

 

[Shat Happens]

This is not confined to Star Trek only of course. Many successful movies had characters where cars, airplanes, ships, etc were characters.

Sure, but with the Enterprise it was not the same as with Herbie the bug, or K.I.T.T.. For example, the Enterprise's computer speaks, but nobody cares. I can't put in words exactly what makes it (her?) special.

 

[plynch]

So many instances of Kirk caring about the ship. He also means his crew, but he often thinks in terms of the ship, and over 79 eps that gets imprinted on us and makes her special to us too.

 

[Warped9]

So many instances of Kirk caring about the ship. He also means his crew, but he often thinks in terms of the ship, and over 79 eps that gets imprinted on us and makes her special to us too.

Yes.

 

[C.E. Evans]

No successive ship in Trek has ever been given that same sense of character. After the original Enterprise it was all largely just hardware.

They tried with the Enterprise-E, but it wasn't the same.

I don't even think it was tried with that ship. Picard's refusal to self-destruct the Enterprise-E in First Contact had less to do with his love of the ship and more with his not wanting the Borg to take anything else from him again, IMO.

But in a way, we really have to look at the captains that came after Kirk as well. Kirk was, well, something of a romantic in the sense that his ship was the most important thing to him; Picard was more objective and reserved in nature; Sisko had a space station to run, a family to protect, and ultimately a war to fight; Janeway was focused more on her crew and trying to get them home; and Archer barely knew the name of his ship (okay, I'm kidding about that last part--he was more of a mission-oriented guy). In comparison, Kirk was the only one with a mad crush on his ship.

 

[Alrik]

In TOS Enterprise became almost as important of a main character as the big three for many of us. I remember going to the hobby shop with my 2 best friends back in 71'. Being 3 years older than me, they both chose the AMT Explorer set so that they could have phasers and tricorders and be Kirk and Spock when we played Star Trek. I chose the AMT Enterprise. So even though I was stuck filling in whatever part that was needed for what we were playing out (McCoy, Scotty, etc..), I always got to fly my Enterprise to whichever planet we were going to next. That was a big deal for a 5 year old.

I know that TMP gets a lot of grief for the extended dry dock scene now, but back in 79', that scene could have lasted another 10 minutes as far as I was concerned. After a very long 10 years, she was back and better than ever. I remember being completely awestruck during that scene.

Conversely, I remember feeling like I'd been sucker punched in the gut when they blew her up in TSFS. Sure the death of Spock in TWOK had an impact, but I knew Spock would be back. You can't have Star Trek without Spock. So with TSFS we got Spock back, but Enterprise was gone. It felt more permanent. I think that is probably why I never completely warmed up to TSFS.

At the end of TVH I thought I had been proven wrong. When the shuttle flew over Excelsior, the A comes into view and Kirk says, "My friends, we've come home.", I thought "She's back. They made it right." She looked like Enterprise. She flew off at the end like Enterprise. All is well.

Then came TFF. This Enterprise was piece of crap. At the end of TVH she was new, pristine, worked fine. Now she's in pieces and looks like a disaster waiting to happen. I don't know if this was all a conscious decision on Shatner's part, but now it was clear that Kirk's Enterprise truly was gone forever. No bloody A, B, C, or D. There was no going back, Enterprise died over Genesis.

By the time TUC came out, it was nice to see a Connie named Enterprise on screen again one last time. But now it was just another ship named Enterprise. She looked great, but there wasn't anything that made me care about what happened to her during the final battle. So long as our beloved crew made it through okay, that's all that mattered. But the bottom line was, Enterprise stopped being a character that I cared about at the begging of TFF when it was clear that this wasn't THE Enterprise.

 

[Richard Baker]

I agree with most of the above, but for me the Refit just did not seem to be the same ship. I did not feel any bond t it and I don't recall any of the crew referring to it the same way they did the original version.
The ships that followed were more fancy machines instead of characters- Picard/Janeway/Archer/Sisko used them but the did not seem to identify to them the same way Kirk did his TOS-Enterprise.

I

 

[xvicente]

and the producers kept blowing them up as if that's what would made their movies end tv episodes memorable.

 

[scotpens]

In TOS.

Kirk: "Never lose you. Never." ("The Naked Time")

Kirk: "She's a beautiful lady and we love her." ("I, Mudd")

McCoy makes a reference to the Enterprise already having Kirk's heart in Elaan of Troyius I believe.

And there's Harry Mudd's admonition to Eve McHuron in "Mudd's Women":

"You'll find out that ship's captains are already married, girl, to their vessels. You'd find out the first time you came between him and the ship. You'll see."

. . . I know that TMP gets a lot of grief for the extended dry dock scene now, but back in 79', that scene could have lasted another 10 minutes as far as I was concerned. After a very long 10 years, she was back and better than ever. I remember being completely awestruck during that scene.

Two words: Spaceship porn!

 

[2takesfrakes]

and the producers kept blowing them up as if that's what would made their movies end tv episodes memorable.

Boy, you said it, xvicente. And, of course, since J.J. Abrams was denied that impact, because it had been done so often, prior, he was intent on blowing up an entire planet! Oh, wait even STAR TREK had that happen, already. Oh, dear. What to do? Blow up the entire GALAXY? No ... the Earth's in this Galaxy, can't do that and the other galaxies are too far away, in any timeline. You know what? Screw it, then ... I'm blowing up Mister Spock's planet, that's it! What's it called? "Vulcan"? And just for the hell of it ... throw in his mother, too. HA!!! No other director's done THAT before, am I right? Let's see them top THAT! Never happen ... Abram's did it first!

 

[HIjol]

As I said in the "Would you be ok with a different Enterprise?" thread, she has always been a character, and very often a Main character...every bit of violence, danger, speed, power lack, triumph and so much more that has been delivered upon the members of the crew has been visited upon the Enterprise...she has taken it like a Lady and a Warrior, and come back through numerous incarnations...different "flesh", to be sure, but no less in spirit...

Her name is Enterprise...

 

[plynch]

Yeah, I teared up when she blew up in TSFS. Ent-A is like B4 in the last tng flick. A different character who looks like the old one.

 

[Lance]

No successive ship in Trek has ever been given that same sense of character. After the original Enterprise it was all largely just hardware.

They tried with the Enterprise-E, but it wasn't the same.

I don't even think it was tried with that ship. Picard's refusal to self-destruct the Enterprise-E in First Contact had less to do with his love of the ship and more with his not wanting the Borg to take anything else from him again, IMO.

But in a way, we really have to look at the captains that came after Kirk as well. Kirk was, well, something of a romantic in the sense that his ship was the most important thing to him; Picard was more objective and reserved in nature; Sisko had a space station to run, a family to protect, and ultimately a war to fight; Janeway was focused more on her crew and trying to get them home; and Archer barely knew the name of his ship (okay, I'm kidding about that last part--he was more of a mission-oriented guy). In comparison, Kirk was the only one with a mad crush on his ship.

Agreed, I never really felt they did that kind of thing with 1701-E.

I expect that Picard's romanticism was completely reserved for the Stargazer. He was always less passionate about Enterprise, or maybe more "professionally detached" would be a more appropriate phrase, but I reckon losing Stargazer really *meant* something to him.

 

[Cyke101]

This is not confined to Star Trek only of course. Many successful movies had characters where cars, airplanes, ships, etc were characters.

Sure, but with the Enterprise it was not the same as with Herbie the bug, or K.I.T.T.. For example, the Enterprise's computer speaks, but nobody cares. I can't put in words exactly what makes it (her?) special.

That's not quite the same as positing that the Enterprise is a character. Herbie and KITT have a degree of consciousness, the Enterprise does not. If you want to compare it to pure devices, better examples would be, say, the A-Team's van, the DeLorean from Back to the Future, the Millennium Falcon, the Nautilus, the Black Pearl, etc. -- basically any vehicle which takes center stage along with the rest of the primary cast. In those cases, value and sentiment are imbued upon the craft by the characters, rather than the craft speaking its own mind and therefore being sentient with its own agency.

Real world analogues to this basically include ships of all sizes, from the real Enterprise and her predecessors, to sometimes even just civilian boats -- the US Navy is famous for its crewmen treating their ships with the same kind of affection as Kirk and Scotty, as an old maritime tradition. SNL also has an old skit from the 90s where Alec Baldwin is a seasons Navy captain who constantly refers to his ship as a person and gives it the pronoun "she" (but he refers to actual human beings as "it"). Mechanics and car owners often do the same as well.

Essentially, what imbues an unsentient vehicle character is the other characters' sense of pride and devotion. It's a craft that's been with them through many adventures and has therefore saved them on one or more occasion. And then there's the work that the characters put into the craft, usually a lot of skilled work and expertise, that increases its value as a character.

 

[BK613]

So many instances of Kirk caring about the ship. He also means his crew, but he often thinks in terms of the ship, and over 79 eps that gets imprinted on us and makes her special to us too.

Yes.

agreed.

 

[F. King Daniel]

In TOS.

Kirk: "Never lose you. Never." ("The Naked Time")

Kirk: "She's a beautiful lady and we love her." ("I, Mudd")

Add the signature music whenever the ship appeared on-screen in TOS.

The ship's reveal in TMP.

The reaction to the damaged Enterprise returning in TSFS.

The death of the ship in TSFS.

No successive ship in Trek has ever been given that same sense of character. After the original Enterprise it was all largely just hardware.

In Diane Duane's The Wounded Sky, Kirk virtually has objectophilia over the Enterprise - but as we later learn in one of the weird jump sequences, the Enterprise loves her crew, too.