Enterprise NCC-01

[SchwEnt]

ST precedent was with the Excelsior as NX-2000, experimental vessel. When Excelsior later went into service, we see NCC-2000. Makes sense.

Then we see Enterprise as NX-01, using the NX again to denote experimental vessel. Fair enough, new warp five engine and all that.

But then the Enterprise goes into service for Star Fleet, it should have been become NCC-01. It was no longer serving as an experimental vessel, it was being put into service on missions.

Yes? No?

 

[Maxillius]

In universe, you've got it backwards. The NX designation for experimental Federation ships is a tribute to the experimental ship that single-handedly brought the Federation together. The NX-01, however, did not carry the NX to indicate its experimental status, but to indicate class.

Besides, in case you forgot, it was said that the NX-01 was going to be retired upon the signing of the Charter, so if it was going to be NCC-anything, it would've been whatever number they decided to give it upon REcommissioning.

 

[SchwEnt]

Right. In-universe one way, chronologically goes the other way.

But it seems the NX as used for Excelsior is akin to current day military usage. XB-70 Valkyrie bomber is experimental, and in service it'd become B-70. And the Raptor was XF-22 experimental then YF-22 prototype then F-22 in service.

So NX-2000 would become NCC-2000 in service, as seen.
This fits with historical precedent and makes sense.

But if all that is untrue, NX did NOT indicate anything about an experimental vessel, as you suggest. Well why wouldn't it?

And if so, what's the meaning of NX as used on Enterprise?
NX class? Random letters-class?

 

[R. Star]

Maybe a guy with the initials NX designed the ship itself.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Right. In-universe one way, chronologically goes the other way.

But it seems the NX as used for Excelsior is akin to current day military usage. XB-70 Valkyrie bomber is experimental, and in service it'd become B-70. And the Raptor was XF-22 experimental then YF-22 prototype then F-22 in service.

So NX-2000 would become NCC-2000 in service, as seen.
This fits with historical precedent and makes sense.

But if all that is untrue, NX did NOT indicate anything about an experimental vessel, as you suggest. Well why wouldn't it?

And if so, what's the meaning of NX as used on Enterprise?
NX class? Random letters-class?

Why not? There doesn't really have to be a connection between the pre-Federation NX-class and the use of NX as a registry for experimental Federation starships (one may make a case that the latter was chosen in honor of the former, though).

We do know, though, that there were ships designated as DY-series (DY100s and DY500s) prior to the NX-class, so ships named with just letters isn't that uncommon in the pre-Federation era, IMO.

 

[SchwEnt]

^^^ That's pretty good. I like that DY and NX connection.

 

[F. King Daniel]

ST precedent was with the Excelsior as NX-2000, experimental vessel. When Excelsior later went into service, we see NCC-2000. Makes sense.

Then we see Enterprise as NX-01, using the NX again to denote experimental vessel. Fair enough, new warp five engine and all that.

But then the Enterprise goes into service for Star Fleet, it should have been become NCC-01. It was no longer serving as an experimental vessel, it was being put into service on missions.

Yes? No?

Tell that to Captain Sisko and his USS Defiant NX-74205. And then his replacement Defiant also numbered NX-74205.

But seriously, Enterprise NX-01 was NX-class, just like the Botany Bay was DY-class (as C.E. Evans pointed out) and the Horizon was J-class. Perhaps "NX-" being used as an experimental registry was a tribute to the first Starship Enterprise and her sister ships.

Or maybe they just wanted a big "X" on the hull 'coz it was kewl.

 

[Irishman]

Right. In-universe one way, chronologically goes the other way.

But it seems the NX as used for Excelsior is akin to current day military usage. XB-70 Valkyrie bomber is experimental, and in service it'd become B-70. And the Raptor was XF-22 experimental then YF-22 prototype then F-22 in service.

So NX-2000 would become NCC-2000 in service, as seen.
This fits with historical precedent and makes sense.

But if all that is untrue, NX did NOT indicate anything about an experimental vessel, as you suggest. Well why wouldn't it?

And if so, what's the meaning of NX as used on Enterprise?
NX class? Random letters-class?

In-universe, what I think got in the way of what should have been done is the 800-kb gorilla in the room - the Romulan War. This is the way that season 5, maybe season 6, should have gone. There is so much story-telling to be done within that very brutal, disruptive span of time. Think about what happens - Earth, Andor, Vulcan and Tellar end up being drawn together to face and defeat (we think) the Romulan threat, and in the span of 4-6 years, a group of disparate governments are thrown together into a new, tentative, umbrella government - The United Federation of Planets - which, canonically now, Jonathan Archer helped to facilitate.

I think the Earth Star Fleet can be forgiven for not following naming conventions during what was Earth's first wartime in space.

 

[Dukhat]

But if all that is untrue, NX did NOT indicate anything about an experimental vessel, as you suggest. Well why wouldn't it?...And if so, what's the meaning of NX as used on Enterprise? NX class? Random letters-class?

Personally, I think that "NX" did indeed initially stand for an experimental vessel just like it does in the Federation Starfleet, but that somebody decided to change their mind about that later on.

And why "NX-01?" Simple. Because the Dauntless, which was supposed to be an experimental vessel (even though it turned out to be fake), had the registry NX-01-A. To get away from the whole "TOS Enterprise was the first Enterprise" thing, they probably were going to rename the NX-01 the Dauntless after the formation of the Federation. That's just my opinion, though.

 

[C.E. Evans]

But if all that is untrue, NX did NOT indicate anything about an experimental vessel, as you suggest. Well why wouldn't it?...And if so, what's the meaning of NX as used on Enterprise? NX class? Random letters-class?

Personally, I think that "NX" did indeed initially stand for an experimental vessel just like it does in the Federation Starfleet, but that somebody decided to change their mind about that later on.

And why "NX-01?" Simple. Because the Dauntless, which was supposed to be an experimental vessel (even though it turned out to be fake), had the registry NX-01-A. To get away from the whole "TOS Enterprise was the first Enterprise" thing, they probably were going to rename the NX-01 the Dauntless after the formation of the Federation. That's just my opinion, though.

I doubt they were even thinking about the Dauntless (or chose to overlook it) when they conceived NX-01. And the TOS Enterprise was only considered the first Federation starship with the name, but in the largely unknown pre-Federation era, there was room to insert one (it's even plausible that there was an Enterprise or two prior to NX-01).

In hindsight, the use of NX as a registry for experimental Federation starships could be looked as something that connects ENT to the later Federation eras as a continuing homage to NX-01 or the NX-class.

 

[TheSubCommander]

ST precedent was with the Excelsior as NX-2000, experimental vessel. When Excelsior later went into service, we see NCC-2000. Makes sense.

Then we see Enterprise as NX-01, using the NX again to denote experimental vessel. Fair enough, new warp five engine and all that.

But then the Enterprise goes into service for Star Fleet, it should have been become NCC-01. It was no longer serving as an experimental vessel, it was being put into service on missions.

Yes? No?

Had the NX-01 refit become reality, I think it would have been interesting if it were re-christened NX-01. http://www.modelermagic.com/?p=26713


I also see what you are saying in that NX-2000 became NCC-2000, but the thing is we do not know how many NX ships were made and how long they were around, canonically. It is very possible a new class of ship replaced them with Warp 6 or better technology, before they could have become an NCC classification.

 

[Dukhat]

I doubt they were even thinking about the Dauntless (or chose to overlook it) when they conceived NX-01.

I don't think it's a coincidence that the registry numbers for both ships were so similar.

 

[Tom]

Did everyone forget that the Columbia built 2 years after the Enterprise was NX-02. So clearly the pre-Fed designation for that class of vessel was NX and not just used because the Enterprise was experimental.

 

[SchwEnt]

I did think about that. If the Enterprise was the first experimental ship, NX-01, then the later Columbia as a production model should have been standard NCC-02.

But okay... say the whole bit NX thing is not about experimental vessels, NX is the class of the ship. Then what does the registry mean? Enterprise NX-01?

[vessel name] [ship class] [hull number]?

Enterprise NX-01
As in, USS Enterprise Constitution-1701?
USS Excelsior Excelsior-2000?
USS Enterprise Galaxy-1701-D?

We have seen Star Fleet use NX for experimental vessels before.

We haven't seen Star Fleet use class names as part of the ship's registry.

 

[TheSubCommander]

Had the NX-01 refit become reality, I think it would have been interesting if it were re-christened NX-01. http://www.modelermagic.com/?p=26713

I meant to say Had the NX-01 refit become reality, I think it would have been interesting if it were re-christened NCC-01.

Not to through gas on the fire, but it is interesting that when Sao Paulo was renamed Defiant, it's registry was changed to (NX-74205), from (NCC-75633).

 

[Dukhat]

We have seen Star Fleet use NX for experimental vessels before.

We haven't seen Star Fleet use class names as part of the ship's registry.

That's because, as has already been stated, there's the Earth Starfleet, and then there's the Federation Starfleet.

In the Earth Starfleet, the Enterprise, Columbia, and presumably the four other ships named after the space shuttles are of the NX class. Presumably past Earth Starfleet vessels were of such classes as the NU, NV, and NW classes, and that ships after the NX class might have been designated as NY or NZ class. The class name was followed by a production number, which made up the ship's registry. But that's just speculation on my part, because the show never provided any cut-and-dried information about that, other than the NX-01 Enterprise and the NX-02 Columbia.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I doubt they were even thinking about the Dauntless (or chose to overlook it) when they conceived NX-01.

I don't think it's a coincidence that the registry numbers for both ships were so similar.

I think it was a case that they just wanted to use the NX-01 registry and weren't too concerned that some other ship in VOY had been designated NX-01-A.

According to reports, the producers weren't above reusing the Akira-class--totally unaltered--for the NX-class, even though it had been seen briefly in First Contact (Doug Drexler and ENT art team apparently insisted on altering it).

 

[Mario de Monti]

Well to me it seems pretty obvious, that the "NX" denotes some kind of experimental vessel: In First Flight there are the NX-Alpha and NX-Beta which clearly are experimental craft, analogous to Earth´s (real) X-planes. We don´t know how many (if any) followed after these two, but at some point Starfleet decided they had done enough testing and built the first "true" starship. Since it concluded this NX test series, they simply kept the NX-designation and added the numbers instead of the greek letters. And even though more than one NX-starship was built and they are comprising the "NX-class", they still remain experimental in that they are the first ships designed to employ warp-5-engines and perform long-term exploratory missions.

In later centuries (in-universe) they used NX-prefixes to again denote experimental vessels or to honor the NX-Class. Both of these can be true at different times

 

[T'Girl]

^^^ Perhaps "NX" refers to a type of engine design, and not to a type os ship design.

Of course we not really sure exactly what "NCC" is either.

 

[Mario de Monti]

Among the proposed explanations for NCC like "Naval Construction Contract" or "Naval Commisioned Craft" I prefer "Naval Contact Code" because it is just that: a code, which is being used to contact a specific vessel. If one accepts this supposition, then NX could simply stand for "Naval eXperiment".