How old is the Enterprise in TOS?
Well, that in turn involves the assumption that Kirk's ship was among a group of very special ones. And not special in the Ralph Wiggum sense, either.
Yet most Trek goes strongly against this suggestion.
- Kirk's ride isn't modern - she's ancient, even if well maintained. She looks ancient now that we have assuredly ancient ships to compare with; she also has a sordid history of extreme refits befitting an aging vessel.
- While being a starship skipper is a big deal, Kirk isn't one out of twelve. He is one out of thousands active at the time. This is fully in line with Commodore Stone's "one in a million" line, FWIW, and with the greater Trek context of there having to exist thousands of Starfleet ships, and with the specific establishing in recent DSC that most if not all of these are in fact called "starships".
- The logical connection between the fact that Kirk's ship is one out of 12 and that Kirk's ship is a starship is often misread anyway. We cannot deduce that there would exist 12 starships, any more than we can deduce that the universe contains but one man because Kirk is a man (on those days when he happens to be one, that is).
- Interestingly, Kirk himself is not famous in TOS - he knows a number of his peers, but while some of them are famous (Tracey, Garth), Kirk is never indicated to be, either among his peers or outside the community (of Constitution skippers, of starship skippers, of Starfleet officers, you don't have to take a pick because you can tick all the boxes). Relative nobodies are allowed to command Constitutions - heck, Pike appears to have been another one, even if just a few years later he is among the most decorated skippers in history.
Kirk gets famous later on all right. And it might take special guts to even accept command of an old tub like the Constitution, with decorations automatically raining on even a semi-competent CO. But getting a Constitution need not have been a feat, but more like a dare. (Also in that other context, of Mike Burnham recommending an assignment aboard one of those as a means to career progress.)
Timo Saloniemi
On the other hand, many of the spinoffs do their damnedest to establish nacelle shape as the era-specific thing, and the ship of Kirk/Pike in all its incarnations has the nacelles of Archer's ship, until we finally see her get a refit that supposedly truly modernizes her - and that one involves changing the nacelle shape.
In the DSC context, every ship seems to have gotten a nacelle refit to the latest boxy standard, except for Pike's ship, and that other vessel whose plot function is to indicate days past, the Shenzhou...
But that's indeed just technicalities that can be interpreted in many ways. It's just that the TOS ship being an old one goes so well with the general gist and author intent that the ship be loaded with some history, and with the general attitude that our heroes aren't operating new and fancy gear in general, except in the specific and specifically highlighted case of M-5.
What's less of a technicality here is the argument over whether the Enterprise specifically was a famous ship when Kirk got her or not. In TOS and the spinoffs coming after it in-universe, nothing of the sort is stated - but "Errand of Mercy" hints at the Klingons finding the ship infamous, even though there is no known history of it having irritated the Klingons during Kirk's tenure (unlike was the case with the Romulans).
What has now changed in that respect is that we know the ship was famous in the 2250s. We don't know the reasons, and it might simply be she was a thing because she was Christopher Pike's Ship, not because she herself would have been involved in anything important after receiving that Great Celebrity as her CO. Would the fame linger when Pike hands the ship over to Kirk? Well, d'oh - it's Pike Himself handing her over, so obviously the public would take note.
Does this mean Kirk would have to do better than others in order to receive this great gift? This is when technicalities kick in again. Perhaps Pike gives her up because she's now too outdated even for a hero to properly command? And then Kirk proves this conventional wisdom wrong, and is all the more a hero for it.
This is again a DSC thing, mostly. And possibly something to be worked into the fanwank of the ship's relative fame. But we'll see. In ST: Strange New Worlds, most probably.
Yeah, this is an important distinction. Garth thinks Kirk was a great leader of warriors before he became an explorer. There's a narrow time window for that, and Kirk himself sometimes sprouts propaganda of having left war behind long ago - perhaps retroactively nicely establishing the late 2250s Klingon War as the last big one. So Kirk's fighting heroics might well precede his tenure as Enterprise CO, and the Klingons thus remember the man rather than the ship (as opposed to the Romulans again). Kor associating the man with the ship would be incidental, then. But Klingons being the ones to remember Kirk would not be incidental: Kirk would have decorated himself in Burnham's War specifically!
Might it be that McCoy knows Kirk from 11 years back - but Kirk doesn't know McCoy? Perhaps Kirk's fighting heroics were the talk of the day, and McCoy is well versed in them; conversely, Kirk can rightly assume that McCoy would know exactly what happened 11 years ago, even though the two never met, or at least Kirk never learned the name or face of McCoy.
But that would have been a tad earlier than Burnham's War... Possibly Kirk did a lot of fighting, and the big one with the Klingons was both the culmination and the point at which the UFP for a long last finally got a breather and could let Kirk do something else.
Timo Saloniemi
Some facts about the age of the Enterprise:
In "The Menagerie":
MENDEZ: You ever met Chris Pike?
KIRK: When he was promoted to Fleet Captain.
MENDEZ: About your age. Big, handsome man, vital, active.
KIRK: I took over the Enterprise from him. Spock served with him for several years.
SPOCK: Eleven years, four months, five days.
So Spock began serving with Pike 11 years, 4 months, and 5 days before Pike stopped being Spock's commander, which should be when Kirk took command of the Enteprise from PIke.
We know that the last part of Spock's service on Pke was on the Enterprise:
:
KIRK: I took over the Enterprise from him. Spock served with him for several years.
Spock was on Earth, for unmentioned reasons, a few years before the first season of TOS According to "This Side of Paradise"::
ELIAS: You've known the Vulcanian?
LEILA: On Earth, six years ago.
Possibly Spock was on Earth to take leave and visit relatives on his other's side. Possibly Spock and Pike were handling the upgrades to the Enteprise before it got a new commander. In any case, those words do not necessarily disprove Spock serving with Pike on the Enterprise for 11 years before serving with Kirk on the Enterprise.
In "The Menagerie":
MENDEZ: Oh, I'm certifying I ordered you to read it. Know anything at all about this planet?
KIRK: What every ship Captain knows. General Order 7, no vessel under any condition, emergency or otherwise, is to visit Talos Four.
MENDEZ: And to do so is the only death penalty left on our books. Only Fleet Command knows why. Not even this file explains that. (unlocks the magnetic strip) But it does name the only Earth ship that ever visited the planet.
KIRK: The Enterprise, commanded by Captain Christopher Pike.
MENDEZ: With a half Vulcan science officer named Spock.
So we know that Captain PIke and Spock visited Talos IV on a spaceship named the Enterprise. Nobody mentions an old Enterprise or a new Enterprise, so they should be talkng about the same ship. How much earlier was the visit to Talos IV?
When Spock begins telling his story of the visit to Talos IV:
SPOCK: This is thirteen years ago. The Enterprise and its commander, Captain Christopher Pike.
.
And:
SPOCK: As I stated, gentlemen, this was thirteen years ago. We were on routine patrol when the ship's sensors detected something ahead. At first we were not certain what it was.
So The Enterprise was aleady commissioned and on active service thirteen years before "The Managerie". If thriteen years is between thirteen and fourteen, and if 11 years, 4 months, and 5 days is about 11.3469 years, and if Spock began sperving with Pike duiring teh voyage to Talos IV, Kirk would have become the commander of the Enterprise about 1.6531 to 2.6531 years before "The Menagerie". If Spock began serving with Spock before the voyage to Talos IV, Kirk would take command of the Enterprise earlier.
In any case, the age of the Enterprise in "The Menagerie" should be at least 13 to 14 years.
When Pike decides to go to Talos IV:
PIKE: Address intercraft.
TYLER: System open.
PIKE: This is the captain. Our destination is the Talos star group.
[Hearing room]
PIKE [on screen]: Our time warp, factor seven.
And this implies that the engines of the Enterprise generate some sort of time warp, and the strength of the time warp determines the speed of the journey.
In "Where No Man Has Gone Before" the Enterprise is damaged by the galactic barrier:
Captain's log, Star date 1312.9. Ship's condition, heading back on impulse power only. Main engines burned out. The ship's space warp ability gone. Earth bases which were only days away are now years in the distance. Our overriding question now is what destroyed the Valiant? They lived through the barrier, just as we have. What happened to them after that?
So the space warp engines were damaged and unusable. If days means at least one but less than a week, and if years means at least one year but less than a decade, the speed of the Enteprise has now been reduced by about 52.178 to 3,652.5 times.
So is the reduced speed .which the Enterprise is now capable of faster than light or slower than light? Spock recommends that the Enterprise repair itself at delta Vega and leave Mitchell there:
SPOCK: Recommendation one. There's a planet a few light days away from here. Delta Vega. It has a lithium cracking station. We may be able to adapt some of its power packs to our engines.
I assume that a few light days are the distance light travels in a time period between one and seven days, or about 0.00273 to 0.0191 light years. If the Enterprise can now travel only slower than light, it should take at least one to seven days to reach Delta Vega. If the Enteprise can reach Delta Vega in less than one to seven days, it has to be travelling faster than light.
The latest star date before making the decision to head to Delta Vega is in Kirk's log:
Captain's log, Star date 1312.9. Ship's condition, heading back on impulse power only. Main engines burned out. The ship's space warp ability gone. Earth bases which were only days away are now years in the distance. Our overriding question now is what destroyed the Valiant? They lived through the barrier, just as we have. What happened to them after that?
And the next stardate after making the decision to change course to Delta Vega is in Kirk's next log:
Star date 1313.1. We're now approaching Delta Vega. Course set for a standard orbit. This planet, completely uninhabited, is slightly smaller than Earth. Desolate, but rich in crystal and minerals. Kelso's task, transport down with a repair party, try to regenerate the main engines, save the ship. Our task, transport down a man I've known for fifteen years, and if we're successful, maroon him there.
So the entire voyage to Delta Vega seems to take less than 0.2 stardate units. The next log in 0.2 stardate units later:
Captain's log, Star date 1313.3. Note commendations on Lieutenant Kelso and the engineering staff. In orbit above us, the engines of the Enterprise are almost fully regenerated. Balance of the landing party is being transported back up. Mitchell, whatever he's become, keeps changing, growing stronger by the minute.
And apparently right after the log Dehner says:
DEHNER: He's been like that for hours now.
So apparently there are at least ten hours in a stardate unit in that era.
Later, after regaining consciousness, Kirk says:
KIRK: When Mister Spock recovers, you'll both transport up immediately to the Enterprise.
PIPER: But Captain
KIRK: If you have not received a signal from me within twelve hours, you'll proceed at maximum warp to the nearest Earth base with my recommendation that this entire planet be subjected to a lethal concentration of neutron radiation. No protest on this, Mark. That's an order.
The last stardate is in Kirk's last log:
KIRK: Captain's log, Star date 1313.8. Add to official losses, Doctor Elizabeth Dehner. Be it noted she gave her life in performance of her duty. Lieutenant Commander Gary Mitchell, same notation. I want his service record to end that way. He didn't ask for what happened to him.
It is possible that 1313.8 is a little bit after the 12 hours are over. But Kirk's fight with Mitchell should be before the 12 hours are over. And Mitchell makes a tombstone with an inscription predicting Kirk's death at 1313.7, apparently the stardate at the time of the fight.
So there are fewer than twelve hours in 0.4 of a stardate unit, making a stardate unit less than 30 hours long, and more than 10hurs long. Thus the voyage to Delta Vega should take fewer than 6 hours between stardates 1312.9 and 1313.1. Assuming that the voyage takes two to six hours and is one to seven light days, or 24 to 168 light hours, the speed of the Enterprise would seem to be somewhere between four and eighty four times the speed of light. And so the previous speed of the Enterprise, when the space warp capability could be used, would have been in the range of 208.712 to 306,810 times the speed of light,
So either the impulse engines are capable of faster than light travel, or the Enterprise's warp drive uses both time warp and space warp to travel faster than light, and only the space warp was disabled, and the ship could travel faster than light using impulse engines and the time warp capability.
So it seems consistent for Pike to say:
PIKE [on screen]: Our time warp, factor seven.
When they find a camp of survivors on Talos IV:
SURVIVOR: Is Earth all right?
PIKE: The same old Earth, and you'll see it very soon.
TYLER: And you won't believe how fast you can get back. Well the time barrier's been broken. Our new ships can
So it seems that the time barrier has been broken and the new ships can get the survivors home to Earth in a very short period of objective or subjective time compared to the time it took them to get to talos IV.
So assuming that the mention of "time warp factor" means that the Enterprise is one of those "new ships" resulting for the breaking of the time barrier, it must be a ship that Tyler thinks that the survivors would not have known about when they left Earth. How long ago did the survivors leave Earth?
Nobody knows. But there is a minimum time span.
When the Enterprise intercepts the distress message from the Columbia:
COMM OFFICER: A ship in trouble making a forced landing, sir. That's it. No other message.
TYLER: I have a fix. It comes from the Talos star group.
NUMBER ONE: We've no ships or Earth colonies that far out.
SPOCK: Their call letters check with a survey expedition. S.S. Columbia disappeared in that region approximately eighteen years ago.
TYLER: It would take that long for a radio beam to travel from there to here.
SPOCK: Records show the Talos group has never been explored. Solar system similar to Earth, eleven planets. Number four seems to be Class M, oxygen atmosphere.
NUMBER ONE: Then they could still be alive, even after eighteen years.
And later:
NUMBER ONE: Well, shall we do some time computation? There was a Vina listed on that expedition as an adult crewman. Now, adding eighteen years to your age then.
Spock's "approxiamtely eighteen years" should be 18.0 to 19.0, or maybe 17.5 to 18.5, or maybe at teh most 17.0 to 20.0 years. So 17.0 to 20.0 plus 13.0 to 14.0 should be somewhere between 30.0 and 34.0 years.
So the crew of the Columbia should have been out of touch with events on Earth for 17.0 to 20.0 years at the broadest, plus whatever length of time they were cut off from contact with Earth before crashing on Talos IV. So "our new ships" should have been constructed sometime between 13.0 years and 34.0 years before "The Menagerie", plus whatever length of time the Columbia was out of contact with Earth before crashing.
So I have considered the Enterprise to be about 13 to 34 years old in "The Menagerie".
But today, September 23, 2020, I thought that possibly the Enterprise wasn't one of "our new ships". Possibly the time warp was invented and ships like the Enterprise had it as part of their warp drive. But there was a "time harrier" which limited the effectives of the time warp in making space travel faster. Sometime after 30 to 34 years befre "The menagerie", the "time barrier" was broken and new ships could travel much faster than older ships like the Columbia.
Maybe Tyler didn't claim that the Enterprise was one of "our new ships". Maybe he meant that the Enterprise could take the survivors to a base where they could take a new ship to Earth and get there much faster than on an old ship like the Columbia or the Enterprise.
And such a theory would seem to be the only hope for those who want the Enteprise to be older than about 13 to 34 years in "The Menagerie".
In "Is There no Truth in Beauty?" One of the guests aboard the Enteprise is Lawrence Marvick.
KIRK: We mustn't keep the ambassador waiting. If you'll go with Mister Scott, I'm sure the two of you will have a great deal in common.
SCOTT: Aye, indeed. It's a rare privilege meeting one of the designers of the Enterprise.
So Lawrence Marvick was one of the designers of the Enterprise. He was portrayed by David Frankham, who is still alive, born 16 February1926. He was aged 42 years, 5 months, and 0 to 6 days when his scenes for "Is There no Truth in Beauty?" were filmed July 16 to 24, 1968. And whenever I watch the episode he doesn't look like they used makeup in an attempt to make him look older than this age.
So 42 minus 13 to 34 makes Marvick aged about 8 to 29 when designing the Enterprise, perhaps as a junior member of the design team. Thus belief that the Enterprise is at the older part of its possible age range implies that Marvick was a boy genius when he helped to design it. Or maybe the character of Mark was many years older than he looked, maybe twice as old as Miranda Jones.
If someone considers tAS canon, there is information on the age of the Enterprise in "The Counter-Clock Incident".
Captain's log, stardate 6770.3. The Enterprise is on course for the planet Babel, where ambassadors from all Federation planets are waiting to honour the Enterprise's distinguished passenger, Commodore Robert April, first captain of the USS Enterprise, and for the past twenty years, Federation Ambassador at large. Now seventy five years old, Commodore April has reached mandatory retirement age.
So April last commanded the Enterprise twenty years earlier, when he became a Federation Ambassador at large, or sometime earlier before becoming an ambassadore. If "The Counter-Clock Incident" must be less than 6 years after "The Menagerie", 20 years before "The Counter-Clock Incident" must be more than 14 years before "The Menagerie", so it is possible that Pike became captain of the Enterprise when April became ambassador at large. Or possibly Pike became captain of the Enterprise before April became ambassador at large, since there could have been one or more captains between April and Pike.
If April is aged 75, and was at least 35 when he became captain of the Enterprise, that would have been less than 40 years before "The Counter-Clock Incident".
(McCoy enters with Mrs. April)
MCCOY: Jim, I didn't realise how many of the tools I use in Sickbay were designed by Sarah.
SARAH: As the first medical officer aboard a ship equipped with warp drive, I'm afraid I had to come up with new ideas all the time.
This implies that Sarah was already an adult and a doctor when warp drive was first used on ships. So possbly there is a science fictional reason why she is a lot (centuries?) older than she looks. Or maybe she left out some important qualifiers in her statement. Possibly she was the first medical officer on a ship eqipped with the new form of warp drive, the time warp drive introduced after the time barrier was broken. In that case the Enterprise should be no more than thirty to forty years old, and possibly younger, in "The Counter-Clock Incident".
In
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan both Khan and Kirk say it has been fifteen years since their last meeting, which presumablyw as right after "Space Seed"..
If "Space Seed" was less than 6.0 years before or after "The Menagerie", happening durint the same five year mission, the Enterprise should be 7 to 40 years old in "Space Seed". Adding 15.0 to 16.0 years to that, the Enterprise should be 22 to 56 years old in
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Assuming that "Space Seed" happens less than half a year before or after "The Menagerie", the Enterprise would then be about 27.5 to 34.5 years old in "Space Seed" and about40.5 to 50.5 years old in
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
So it seems very strange that in the next movie,
Star Trek II: The search for Spock , which begins soon after
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan ends, Admiral Morrow, claiming that the Enterprise is old and useless, says:
MORROW: I'm sorry, Mister Scott, but there will be no refit.
KIRK: Admiral, I don't understand. The Enterprise is not...
MORROW: Jim, the Enterprise is twenty years old. We feel her day is over.
Possibly Morrow's home planet has years much longer than Earth years.
And that si all the evidence I can remember about the age of the Enterprise.
). WNMHGB's tombstone C. 1277.1 - 1313.7 is April 10 thru April 23, and the episode started on 1312.4 or April 22. This scenario would have Kirk taking over the Enterprise from Pike probably at the last Starfleet outpost nearest the Galactic edge. Kirk would be taking over Pike's last mission to map outside the Galaxy. If so, there is a chance that Kirk was promoted to Captain before his lengthly space trip to the Enterprise, and maybe even just before his birthday (March 22, for example). Kirk conducts the mission to map outside the Galaxy. He then goes back to a Starbase for repairs/refit and re-provisioning. Within 4 months or 1 year and 4 months later, Kirk's 5YM is underway. (I use a 15 month refit with a launch of 8/11/2266). Also within those 4 months (or 1 year and 4 months), Starfleet switched over the Federation Stardate system, changed uniforms, and McCoy is on Capella Four for a few months.
