"Completion of a five year mission" is no more goofy than "Completion towards initial ship construction." An Enterprise that's 83% complete probably doesn't refer to a five year mission or construction. It's probably just repair project.
Completion of upgrades
following initial ship construction isn't goofy, IMHO, but thanks for returning to the secondary sub-topic.
Again, if the chart just shows the starships being repaired in orbit of Starbase 11 ("just repair projects"),
how comes the Enterprise is already 83% complete
before Stone gives the order to stop repairs on the Intrepid on behalf of Enterprise???
Captain's Log, Stardate 2947.3. We have been through a severe ion storm. One crewman is dead. Ship's damage is considerable. I have ordered a non-scheduled layover on Starbase Eleven for repairs. A full report of damages was made to the commanding officer of Starbase Eleven, Commodore Stone.
STONE: Maintenance Section 18. The section is working on the Intrepid. Reschedule. The Enterprise is on priority one. That makes three times you've read it [the full damage report],
Jim. Is there an error?
KIRK: No. But the death of the crewman.
The whole context of this episode's beginning tells us that the
Enterprise has just arrived at Starbase 11. To assume that at this point 83% of the ion storm damage have already been repaired should raise a couple of eyebrows.
Is Stone displeased with the efficiency of Maintenance Section 17 so that for the last remaining 13% he turns the repair work over to Maintenance Section 18?
Bob
If the chart is meant to show "percent of the necessary repair job still remaining to be done," then if the
Enterprise came into port
already at 83% completed, I would simply speculate that much of the repair work had already been handled by the
Enterprise crew themselves via work bees and space suits and such before Kirk had ordered the non-scheduled layover on Starbase Eleven. (Being out on a five year mission, I presume the crew must have
some capacity to affect repairs themselves.) So the ship might have pulled into port with 83% of the total anticipated repair project (whatever that overall project might have been) already completed out in the field.
Alternatively (and I think this the more likely scenario), the chart is probably meant to show "operational percent that the ship is currently at as a fraction of its usual, ordinary, optimal capacity." I would suppose that the
Enterprise pulled into port working at only 83% of her usual self. (I suspect Kirk doesn't like getting a grade of B minus—even in his ship's operational status.) I know when
I'm recovering from a cold or flu, I'll describe my health as something like "I'm feeling better, but I'm still at only about 50 percent." I generally
don't mean "I am at about 50 percent of my way back from the lowest point I was at during this particular illness." What I generally
do mean is "I am now functioning at about 50 percent of my usual state of health." So I think all these bar graphs simply indicate a ship's "current state of health." (And then the small green spot indicates that the ship can be discharged from the "ship hospital.") Getting a ship up to its "optimal" condition probably usually means bringing it back to the condition that is its usual steady-state condition. But I suppose "optimal" might
also mean bringing the condition of a ship up to a
newly-defined "normal" because of some planned upgrade or refit.
And like I said earlier, we're not really functioning in a vacuum on what Matt Jefferies intended with the chart. The chart is meant to convey not only major maintenance, but
minor maintenance as well. His intentions are pretty explicit in the "Court Martial" script:
"INT. STONE'S OFFICE
"FEATURING chart with legend:
STAR SHIP STATUS.
Columns lettered: Major Maintenance...Minor
Maintenance...Ships Incoming...Ships Cleared."
So it looks like the chart is actually meant to be a repair/maintenance chart—including, of course,
minor maintenance. Of course, the whole context of this episode's beginning reinforces what Timothy says to Kirk in the Officer's Club: "I understand you're laying over for repairs," rather than "I understand you're laying over for completion of upgrades."
