Enterprise-Refit: 2-1/2 Years or 1-1/2 Years?

[CuttingEdge100]

Scotty stated in Star Trek TMP that they've spent 18 months re-designing and re-fitting the Enterprise.

Decker said that Kirk hadn't logged an hour of space-flight time in 2 1/2 years?

What was the Enterprise doing for a whole year before they started refitting her?

 

[sbk1234]

She could have easily just been in dock before they started work on her. It's not too much of a stretch to imagine that they weren't immediately ready to start the refit with all those new systems, but they were commited to Enterprise being the testbed.

 

[Ronald Held]

Maybe there was another ship to be refit ahead of her, but not the same refit as the Enterprise got?

 

[Herbert1]

Error posting.

 

[Herbert1]

There is no canon to explain the status of the Enterprise to account for the year between the end of the TOS five-year mission and the 18 month refit period stated by Mr. Scott.

If memory serves, I believe that it was never explained in Star Trek: The Motion Picture novelization by Gene Roddenberry. But it has been years since I had a copy of the book.

The fanon Federation Reference Series by Todd Guenther and Aradis Sofia states that the Enterprise served as the flagship of the Terran Defense Group, Fleet Quadrant Zero under the command of Commodore Gregory Westlake during this period. So I presume that the ship was stationed around Earth or somewhere in the solar system.

The name Gregory Westlake comes from the unproduced Star Trek: Planet of Titans script from 1976. Captain Westlake was the captain of the Enterprise in the script.

 

[CuttingEdge100]

Herbert,

Captain Westlake was the Enterprise CO? I take it Kirk was in some way or another to make an appearance?

 

[Herbert1]

The intention was that Captain Kirk would make an appearance. Kirk's involvement in the story seems to have been predicated on William Shatner's salary much like Kirk's appearance in the later Star Trek: Phase II television series project.

There is a pretty interesting web site that discusses the Star Trek: Planet of Titans project at http://www.3p2c.com/couldashoulda.html. It gives a summary of the movie's plot, description of the major characters, and production art by Robert Fletcher, Ken Adam, and Ralph McQuarrie.

 

[CuttingEdge100]

Herbert,

Wow -- I'm glad they didn't make that into a movie. That would have sucked even worse than TMP

 

[Maurice]

There is a pretty interesting web site that discusses the Star Trek: Planet of Titans project at http://www.3p2c.com/couldashoulda.html. It gives a summary of the movie's plot, description of the major characters, and production art by Robert Fletcher, Ken Adam, and Ralph McQuarrie.

Also discussed in this thread, where I tried to clear up some of the murky history and misattributions.

 

[Timo]

There is no canon to explain the status of the Enterprise to account for the year between the end of the TOS five-year mission and the 18 month refit period stated by Mr. Scott.

Indeed, there is no canon to even establish that there was a year between the end of the mission and the beginning of the refit.

Could have been five years instead. Or seven. There's plenty of time in the chronology for Kirk to come home from the TOS adventures and do something else for a while. Perhaps captain the Enterprise for a few more years on some other mission; perhaps captain some completely different ship. He probably spent several years working up to the position of Chief of Starfleet Operations.

Or if we want to go the other route, perhaps there were no missing years. Perhaps TOS showed us three years of the five-year mission and TAS showed one more, after which Kirk was promoted to flag rank and a desk job and some other skipper did the final year. Even that is allowed by onscreen evidence.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[FalTorPan]

Or if we want to go the other route, perhaps there were no missing years. Perhaps TOS showed us three years of the five-year mission and TAS showed one more, after which Kirk was promoted to flag rank and a desk job and some other skipper did the final year. Even that is allowed by onscreen evidence.

Or TOS showed us all five years and there was no TAS, or TOS plus TAS spanned all five years, or...

 

[Timo]

Exactly. Put me personally in the "TOS showed all five years" camp, with TAS perhaps snuck in the cracks somehow, or representing shorter missions after Kirk's triumphant 2270 return. But a dozen other interpretations remain equally valid.

Timo Saloniemi