Flagship Status

[T'Girl]

Why else would the maiden voyage of the B and Kirk's presence on board have been so important that they had all that press on site.

When the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln sailed out of post just north of me thirteen days ago, the event receive a fair amount of press coverage, certainly more than the half dozen reporters the Enterprise Bee got. And a modern ship as big as cruiser bring christened would receive a lot more than that.

.

 

[Tom Riley]

Yes, and apparently they also attend all the births of bear cubs as well.

 

[Timo]

As for the 19 year gap between C and D, do we know how long it could take to plan, design, and build a starship?

Why should that be a factor? Apparently, it took zero years to launch the E-B after the E-A was gone, or to launch the E-A once the E-nil was gone. One didn't have to design the E-B to succeed the E-A. One merely needed to name an available ship, any available ship, Enterprise.

We don't have any clear indication that the E-B would have been the successor of the E-A in any practical sense. She may have been, much like the nuclear carrier Enterprise was successor to the conventional carrier Enterprise in the real world. But the two ships might also have been completely unrelated save for the name, just like the conventional carrier Enterprise was unrelated to the preceding screw sloop Enterprise in the real world.

From what we see and hear said on screen, it would appear that Kirk's first ship wasn't famous in TOS yet, but gained some fame before her destruction; that his second ship rode on the fame of the first one in the 23rd century; and that the E-B went on riding when launched, too, but was never considered noteworthy otherwise. The E-C was all but forgotten, until a bit of time travel rewrote history and her cryptic disappearance was changed to a heroic demise (and in the middle of the time reshuffling, our "war timeline" heroes thought that the name Enterprise should be remembered by history - but perhaps only because theirs was going to be the first Enterprise of note). By the time of the E-D, Starfleet heroes barely remember Kirk, let alone the history of his ship ("Naked Now", "Trials and Tribble-ations")...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Tom Riley]

But why would they just name ANY ship? Why would they just pick a random ship and give it the name? It makes more sense that they'd have names in mind when they start building the ship. Now, they knew the Enterprise crew were retiring in 3 months, and the ship was being decommissioned. They could easily have intended to have the Enterprise B specifically ready for around that time. As for the launching of the A, if they weren't still in production of any Constitution class ships, renaming one would be easiest, and then there wouldn't be any building necessary, so no, that wouldn't take any years.

As for the succession... why would they give her the EXACT same registry number with the new letter addition if it were any other way? Now, I don't know much about the navy carriers, but did that Enterprise get the SAME registry number as the other?

As for the C, just because it wasn't mentioned previously doesn't mean it was all but forgotten. People certainly don't talk about Old Ironsides every day, nor is it brought up even all that often, but pretty much everyone, at least in this area, knows exactly what she is and what she's famous for. So, just because a ship hadn't been addressed before the first time it was doesn't necessarily mean that she was a nothing ship that everyone forgot about. Besides, they never actually said what history had recorded as happening to the Enterprise C before the "war" timeline became the one on screen. She was already at Narendra III in the first timeline, and it was the disappearance through the rift that changed history. Now, this isn't really the thread to argue the finer points of theoretical time travel, but suffice it to say that I'm sure the original timeline before the "war" one records the same fate of the C that the "normal" timeline after the "war" timeline does.

As for the Enterprise D crew not remembering Kirk and his missions, you're basing that assumption on the fact that they had didn't know EXACTLY what was going on when they were hit by the polywater virus. BUT... Why would they? Both you and I said that Kirk WASN'T famous during his first 5 year mission. So why would those missions get a whole bunch of attention and be memorized by Starfleet officers 100 years later? Do you know every single mission that Ulysses S Grant partook in before the Civil War? Generally, no one is going to know what a famous person did before they were famous. Now, let's not forget that Riker was able to know exactly which mission Kirk was killed in off the top of his head. And as for Trials and Tribble-ations.... Gee... Sisko and crew seemed pretty damn enamored with Kirk and company... Almost seemed like they regarded them as legendary historic figures... That doesn't fit with them having been barely rememberable...

 

[Captain Atkin]

I think that the Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) became the flagship because of the history of the name Enterprise, and the crew of the 1701.

 

[Captain Frank]

In this instance, "Flagship" refers to being the representative of the "Federation" due to the ship being
the most advanced ship with the best crew in the 'Fleet.

 

[T'Girl]

due to the ship being the most advanced ship with the best crew in the 'Fleet.

"Best crew in the 'Fleet?" While Picard was a seasoned captain and the Riker was a well thought of up and comer, the Enterprise D went through at least four Chief Engineers before getting it right. Picard never did seem to settle upon a Chief flight controler (helmsman). Picard and Riker actual moved some people around the ship for years to position them correctly, e.g. Miles O'Brien.

More likely the majority of the crew were typical Starfleet. No better, no worst.

 

[PsychoPere]

There's no direct evidence the D went through four Chief Engineers before La Forge was promoted to the position. In "Where No One Has Gone Before," Commander Riker identified Chief Engineer Argyle as "one of our chief engineers." Therefore, Argyle and MacDougal could easily have held that title at overlapping times. It's also possible that Logan did as well.

More importantly, however, as to the issue of "the best crew in the 'Fleet," there were numerous occasions throughout the course of the series in which this was suggested to be the case, not only by Enterprise personnel but others as well. It seems, therefore, to have been generally accepted throughout Starfleet that the Enterprise was the most prestigious posting, and I can't believe that was due solely to its status as the flagship. The state of the crew itself had to play a factor as well.

 

[Captain Frank]

"Ensign Ro" helped in that line of thinking.
Riker and Picard were incensed at Ro being assigned.
Riker yells about Starfleet officers waiting years to
get a chance to be posted to the Enterprise.

Wasn't it "Q Who?" where Ensign Sonja Gomez said
she had to fight to get assigned to the Enterprise because
only the best get to be?

As far as the rotating Engineers, maybe they wanted to
move on to other tours of duty in order to advance their careers.
Being assigned to one ship for 25 years does not help you get promoted, or get your own command.

 

[Timo]

Having to queue to get aboard the Enterprise doesn't necessarily mean this ship would be unique. It might simply be that everybody queues to serve aboard a Galaxy class vessel, or a deep space exploration vessel, of which Enterprise is but one valid example.

DS9 shows us that the 'Fleet consists of thousands of ships - it's rather likely that there'd be dozens of "cream of the cream" vessels and hundreds of "coveted" ones, all a step up from the thousands of "humdrum" ones.

Timo Saloniemi