^ But wasn't its first mission shown in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier?
Scotty's dialogue in STV indicates a breakdown immediately after STIV ("'Let's see what she's got' said the Captain, and then we found out, didn't we?")
was'nt the enterprise in the undiscovered country enterprise -a and they totaly redid the hole bridge ?
Not only just that one particular story (DC #37, Vol.1), but pretty much the entire remaining run of that series (prior to the 1989 relaunch) takes place between TVH and TFF (#37, #39-55), likely throughout the rest of 2286. That specific issue is simply the most immediate, post-Spacedock story following the ending of the film.^ But wasn't its first mission shown in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier?
Canon? Yes. But there was a couple of years between Star Trek IV and Star Trek V being produced. So I thought Pocket may have slipped one in there during that time.
Also, regarding the notion of an extended shakedown cruise for a Starfleet vessel, there's canonical evidence of it in other filmic sources -- most notably Star Trek: First Contact, where it's directly mentioned in the opening briefing-room scene (Dr. Crusher: "Does Starfleet feel we need more shakedown-time?" Geordi: "Captain, we've been out in space for over a year now. We're ready. The Enterprise-E is the most advanced starship in the fleet," etc.).Scotty's dialogue in STV indicates a breakdown immediately after STIV ("'Let's see what she's got' said the Captain, and then we found out, didn't we?")
No, that doesn't suggest immediacy unless you take it very literally.
According to Harve Bennett, there was a 6-month shakedown cruise between TVH & TFF. So they "found out" over the course of that shakedown that the ship had extensive faults, rather than the "finding out" being a single event.
A casual viewer taking both TVH and TFF strictly at face-value will probably assume an immediate return to Spacedock between films (as, to be honest, ST V sort of suggests in the broader strokes), but Scotty's, "And then we found out, didn't we?" dialogue can easily be applied to a nearly-year-long shakedown voyage as to one lasting only a few weeks.
But then you've also got Scotty's line about "half the doors" not working. I've got to think that if "half" or even close to "half" of all the doors were not working, while it might seem minor, it might be a big enough thing to have the ship put back into space dock as soon as possible. (I don't think Kirk would've been too impressed if the doors to his quarters and his lavatory wouldn't shut. Even a Captain needs his privacy.)
Although even that problem could still be chalked up to a major glitch picked up at some point during that year-long shakedown cruise -- possibly a computer virus, a routine systems-maintenace artifact that somehow went haywire, etc. As we saw on pretty much all of the TV series, starships field-glitched on a regular basis far from port, often from very mundane, unexpected causes.
(That said, yep...I could easily see a Captain's Head door-malfunction being the final straw which results in Kirk issuing a, "Hard a-port, back to Spacedock!!"-sort of order.)
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