Cage-SNW-TOS Enterprise

[Daedalus]

I did once, quite foolishly, suggest that the 2893 Stargazer was stripped for parts leaving a structurally sound but non-functional museum piece. The components that were removed were then recycled into the 82893, to make some sense of the term "refit".

The situation being not too dissimilar to the artwork depicting the Luna-class Titan being stripped down for the new Titan, albeit with greater care.

 

[DSG2k]

The Stargazer, NCC-2893, is at the Fleet Musuem. Ergo, the Stargazer, NCC-82893 would've been upgraded from a different Stargazer that came in-between.

Except Matalas thought otherwise ...

Specifically, quoting him from Memory Alpha about the Stargazer:

"Like the TMP Enterprise, it’s a massively updated refit. I like to think of it as the story of the broom: If one day you replace the handle, and another day the brush, is it still the same broom? We thought of it as a vessel endlessly repaired and upgraded, brought in-line with current-future tech, so that somewhere underneath all the lights and polish are the bones of Picard’s original ship. Does it make sense? I don’t know. But I sure like the spirit of it."

... suggesting that, like the Saratoga 31911 in the museum that wasn't really the ship that had been blown to bits at Wolf 359 but which may have included pieces (along with, per background info, parts of Saratoga 1887), this Museum Stargazer may have been composed of multiple vessels, perhaps including replaced parts that had once been on Stargazer (8)2893.

I find all of that pretty nutty, myself, but that's what they're going with in Hollywood.