Does Enterpise-A's short tenure make sense?

[Uxi]

I was predisposed to like Mr Scott Guide's idea that it was a new build using new and state of the art (miniaturized transwarp tech, though would have better for even subtle changes to the nacelles and/or sensor/nav deflector area - perhaps adding a reduced TNG-style glow effect even not in warp, but of course Paramount was cheaper than dirt in those days) as the gleaming white okuagram touch screen bridge reinforced. I hated how it was glitchy in ST V, though having a 'normal' shakedown getting the kinks out could have been better done with less overtly comedic.

I took the situation at the end of ST VI being partly due to damage and partly Washington Naval Treaty arms reduction due to the Praxis/Khitomer situation but could definitely see it going to the Academy as an in system training ship or museum exhibit.

 

[Shawnster]

My head canon for the refit is because of treaties limiting fleet sizes between UFP, Klingons, and Romulans. Same could be the case for the decommissioning of the E-A.

Feels like the simplest solution is the E-A was a new build using leftover parts, as suggested by the Shuttle Endeavor example. This does not make the technology new. What was learned from the (failed) transwarp experiments could have been enough of a technological leap to render the Enterprise obsolete and not worth upgrading. That doesn't explain the Miranda still in service in TNG. Maybe they were more cost-effective to upgrade design wise.

Politics would be another simple solution that works. The retiring of the Constitution Class (or Enterprise Class) could have been purely political.

 

[Uxi]

The dialogue at the beginning seemed to indicate the crew was retiring but not the ship. The damage to the ship likely sealed that along with any treaty considerations but even that was kinda left more open.

 

[Dukhat]

There are contradictory statements about the ship in the movie. First we have this:

UHURA: Captain, I have orders from Starfleet Command. We're to put back into Spacedock immediately, ...to be decommissioned.

Then almost immediately after that, we have this:

Captain's log, U.S.S. Enterprise, stardate 9529.1. This is the final cruise of the Starship Enterprise under my command. This ship and her history will shortly become the care of another crew.

So, which is it? Is the ship getting decommissioned, or is it still going to be in operation with a different crew? Obviously it's the former, and Kirk's log was simply meant to foreshadow TNG, since the Enterprise-B was commissioned right after TUC ended (or at least, several months after.)

So I doubt that the damage the ship sustained in battle with Chang's BoP had anything to do with the Ent-A's decommissioning, and that it was going to happen anyway. The only problem with this is that the crew acts like this was some sort of surprise when they logically should have known this was coming (especially Spock, who mentioned that he wanted Valeris to take his place on the ship when he retires, which he would not have said had he known the ship was getting decommissioned.) Again, bad script writing.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

I've always figured that Enterprise-A was going to be an Excelsior-class vessel and that the Enterprise was going to be retired whether Khan's attack happened or not.
Maybe other Constitution-class ships were starting to be pulled from service in anticipation of being replaced by the Excelsior-class.
The Enterprise-A was already probably under construction alongside other Excelsior-class hulls when Scotty's sabotage of the Excelsior brought the program to a temporary halt and the hulls were laid up and construction suspended while everything was re-evaluated, necessitating some of the Constitution's being kept in service past their planned retirement date.
Then the 'Whale Probe' crisis happened, and Kirk and company managed to save Earth. With no Excelsior-class Enterprise-A ready for launch, Starfleet pulled a Constitution-class vessel out of mothballs (possibly the Yorktown), did a quick upgrade, installed some new systems, slapped 'Enterprise-A' on the hull and called it "good".
The ship was never meant to be more than a "stop-gap" until the Excelsior-class was in full production and Enterprise-A, now rechristened 'B', was ready for launch.
There's seven years between 2286 and 2293; I doubt Enterprise-B was only the second Excelsior-class ship in service by the time of 'Generations'. (USS Hood being one of the earliest Excelsior's in service in my head cannon.)
The Enterprise-B could have been like the Essex-class carrier Oriskany, which was 85% complete when the war in the Pacific ended and construction on her suspended.
Work on her resumed in 1947 and she was extensively modified/modernized to handle the new jet planes coming into service and she became the prototype for all future Essex-class carrier modernization programs.
The same goes for Enterprise-B. Construction was resumed and she became a testbed for the enlarged secondary hull and larger impulse engines on the primary hull.
It's more than likely that these modifications weren't as successful as hoped as we only saw one other Excelsior, the Lakota, with the same modifications.
So, the Enterprise-A being retired/decommissioned at the end of the 'Undiscovered Country' make sense if, by that time in 2293, the Excelsior-class was in full production mode and Enterprise-B was in final stages of construction, ready for launch later in the year.​

 

[Uxi]

It's a good retconning. Ent-B was probably intended to be a relatively ordinary Excelsior and might have been Enterprise A.... that could have been another model re-use of Excelsior instead at the end of Star Trek IV, in fact just replacing the Excelsior label and NX with Enterprise and familiar registry but doubt it even occurred to them.

I did like the hybrid NX-1701-A that was in starlog. Mostly an Excelsior saucer and truncated nacelles though the secondary hull on that one was a bit weird.