Is the Enterprise the only ship to get letters after its registry?

[c0rnedfr0g]

the E-A, B, C, D, E... J!

What about the other ships in the fleet that we know to have the same name in the 23rd and 24th Centuries?

A few examples off the top of the my head:
USS Intrepid
USS Farragut
USS Valiant
USS Lexington
USS Potemkin
USS Excalibur
USS Exeter
USS Defiant
USS Prometheus
USS Constellation


There isn't any indication that these ships kept their old registry numbers + (letter). What gives? Can Starfleet only think of so many names?

I realize some of the 24th Century counterparts are named so because they're the first ship of a new class... but why use the same name? and what about the others? and why is there no "enterprise" class?

 

[captcalhoun]

if you go by the books, no.

the new Defiant in DS9 is retconned as the NCC 74205-A in the latest novels, while the Ambassador-class Excalibur was blown up and replaced by a Galaxy-class Excalibur-A

as for names being reused, blame unimaginative humans, we're constantly reusing names from the past for warships. seriously, Britain's had nearly a dozen Enterprises, besides the American ones and there's been 10 HMS Gloucesters

as for the Enterprise class, one DS9 novel depicted an alternate future where the Ent-F was Enterprise class

 

[Enterprise1981]

I think that with the '1701' registry, it's the reverse of retired numbers in sports. The voyages of the Enterprise under James T. Kirk are so revered, 1701 is the registry of all future ships named Enterprise. I guess it's the same with the Excalibur in the NF novels. When it comes names being recycled, it's like the conversation between Dr. Hartman and Carter Pewderschmidt on "Family Guy" who are both voiced by Seth McFarlane but have similar grainy and raspy voices. Just as there are only so many voices in the world, there are only so many starship names.

 

[Candlelight]

The Ent-D's sistership the USS Yamato had a -E on the end of it's registry when it first appear in Where Silence Has Lease. When it appeared again in Contagion it had a new registry because, at the time, the production crew felt only the Enterprise should have a registry suffix.

 

[The_Beef]

The best explanation I can think of ties back into the real world explanation. Of course, the reason why the creators did it was to honor the Enterprise and maintain the same aspect that we were used to of the USS Enterprise and her crew. They could have supplied a new registry number, but NCC-1701 was almost as iconic as the name.

Alright, let's tie this into the Trek world. Starfleet suddenly finds itself in a situation where the crew of the former Enterprise is being honored as heroes of the Federation. Their battle with Khan, their recovery of Spock, the destruction of the Enterprise, and the saving of Earth have turned them into living legends. There's a popular movement not just to honor the crew, but the ship as well, so Starfleet breaks with precedent and commissions a new Enterprise, right down to the (almost) same registry number. No problem, everybody's happy. It's just a rare exception.

Ok, fast forward to the 24th century. That rare exception has reared its head through not just the NCC-1701-A, but also the B, C, D, and E. If things had gone like normal then probably just a few Enterprises would have been commissioned in that time, all with new registry numbers, but instead the whole thing has become symbolic. So Starfleet has to keep maintaining its tradition for this one vessel, while at the same time I'm sure there are Veteran's Organizations for a lot of the other ships out there creating a fuss every time their old ship isn't honored the same way. "What do you mean you that new Defiant is being issued with a new number!? Don't you respect the old NCC-1764!?" So basically, they broke their rules one time and established an unfortunate precedent that's been a nuisance ever since. Any other ships with a suffix can be explained as other rare times Starfleet felt the ship deserved to be honored in such a way.

 

[3D Master]

I don't think it's just one vessel, I'll bet future Voyagers get a suffix as well.

It's how much the ship/crew did, how prestigious, how grand it's accomplishments were. If it reached enough, the next ship with that name, to honor the previous, (and maybe a little old-fashioned superstition) would get a suffix.

If it never did much impressive, a next ship with the same name, would have a different number. In fact, I'd think the number is assigned to the ship FIRST, and only later is it given a name, and so the ship name would have a new number. Only if the name is prestigious would it go the other way around, "It's time to build another "insert name here", and thus NCC-number-suffix."

 

[Candlelight]

It's how much the ship/crew did, how prestigious, how grand it's accomplishments were. If it reached enough, the next ship with that name, to honor the previous, (and maybe a little old-fashioned superstition) would get a suffix.

So the Enterprise really should've been NCC(NX)-01-A...

 

[3D Master]

It's how much the ship/crew did, how prestigious, how grand it's accomplishments were. If it reached enough, the next ship with that name, to honor the previous, (and maybe a little old-fashioned superstition) would get a suffix.

So the Enterprise really should've been NCC(NX)-01-A...

Obviously any Enterprise NX-01 that might have existed, never did anything worthwhile.

 

[Johnny]

I don't think it's just one vessel, I'll bet future Voyagers get a suffix as well.

I'm not so sure... Wasn't there something about only pretigious ships that got a Cmdr as a First Officer, and most of the rest had Lt Cmdrs like Voyager? Does it deserve an A?

It's how much the ship/crew did, how prestigious, how grand it's accomplishments were. If it reached enough, the next ship with that name, to honor the previous, (and maybe a little old-fashioned superstition) would get a suffix.

So the Enterprise really should've been NCC(NX)-01-A...

Obviously any Enterprise NX-01 that might have existed, never did anything worthwhile.

^^^ Bring on the gloss paint!!!

 

[3D Master]

I don't think it's just one vessel, I'll bet future Voyagers get a suffix as well.

I'm not so sure... Wasn't there something about only pretigious ships that got a Cmdr as a First Officer, and most of the rest had Lt Cmdrs like Voyager? Does it deserve an A?

So the Federation can predict the future now? Ooh, that ship will do something prestigious, that'll make it a legend, worthy of the next ship getting a suffix, so give it a commander as a first officer.

And that one? Nope, Voyager will never do anything legendary, it'll just coast around the Federation doing nothing important. The next Voyager won't get the same registry with a suffix, so its first officer can be a lowly Lt. Cmdr.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

I don't think the Enterprise is the only ship to receive a letter after its registry, but I think it is extraordinarily rare. The Enterprise in The Next Generation is clearly a continuation of the name from the original series. The Defiant from DS9 isn't a continuation of the one from The Tholian Web. It's not the name, so much as trying to continue the ship's tradition that is important.

 

[Timo]

I would dearly hope that it is extraordinarily rare. After all, the sole purpose of a registry number is to create a unique identifier for the vehicle. If two vehicles not only have the same name (which happens often enough) but also the same registry number, then something is seriously wrong.

One could cite uniquely special circumstances in the introduction of the first known -A. Would there ever have been a "replica starship" in the history of the Federation before that? The ship that got the -A registry was apparently as close a copy of Kirk's old ship as was practically possible, and the registry could have reflected that, too: "All right, all right, she can keep the 1701, but we have to add the -A because two different ships just plain cannot have the same registry."

The -B might then have been added as a good luck charm for a behemoth that was late and over the budget and needed every publicity stunt she could possibly get. And beyond that, the letters would keep on coming, because it would be tradition, and nothing is more sacred to the military than tradition.

On screen, only the Yamato has demonstrated a similar letter suffix - and since it later disappeared, we might argue that Starfleet underwent a policy change of some sort during the second season of TNG, leaving only the Enterprise unaffected. Almost on screen, there may have been a number of registries that weren't shown clearly and (perhaps for that reason) were allowed to feature suffix letters. The Sydney class transport model that was built for TNG "Relics" but later used in DS9 seems to have been labeled NCC-2010-S or NCC-2010-5 at some point of its career, for example. But that's basically the sort of stuff that is better "explained away" than "explained"...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[c0rnedfr0g]

was the Enterprise's "five year mission" really that special? i mean, i assume that there were a multitude of similar (Constitution-class even) ships exploring the galaxy and participating in similar missions....

i guess we don't really know but I assume that Kirk and Co. were not sooo far out of the norm in terms of 5-yr mission accomplishments....

 

[JoeZhang]

Damn... there was a ship ... I think it was in an episode of TAS it was something like

NCC-J1356

 

[The Wormhole]

When the second Defiant arrived at the end of DS9 the intent was to make its registry NCC-74205-A. However, due to heavy use of stock footage, the ship ended up keeping the NX-74205 registry of the old Defiant.

 

[c0rnedfr0g]

When the second Defiant arrived at the end of DS9 the intent was to make its registry NCC-74205-A. However, due to heavy use of stock footage, the ship ended up keeping the NX-74205 registry of the old Defiant.

the bridge dedication plaque indicated its registry was NCC-75633

 

[The Wormhole]

When the second Defiant arrived at the end of DS9 the intent was to make its registry NCC-74205-A. However, due to heavy use of stock footage, the ship ended up keeping the NX-74205 registry of the old Defiant.

the bridge dedication plaque indicated its registry was NCC-75633

That was its registry when it was USS Sao Paulo. As I understand, it was supposed to have its name changed to USS Defiant, with a new registry given to it NCC-74205-A. But since every scene we see it in is stock footage, it still had the registry of NX-74205.

 

[CommodoreKong]

I don't think it's just one vessel, I'll bet future Voyagers get a suffix as well.

I'm not so sure... Wasn't there something about only pretigious ships that got a Cmdr as a First Officer, and most of the rest had Lt Cmdrs like Voyager? Does it deserve an A?

I would say that surviving 7 years in the Delta Quadrant and bringing back data on countless new species, planets and cultures earns Voyager a place in history similar to the Enterprise.

I wouldn't be surprised if future ships named Defiant also keep the same registry number.

 

[Vance]

was the Enterprise's "five year mission" really that special? i mean, i assume that there were a multitude of similar (Constitution-class even) ships exploring the galaxy and participating in similar missions....

Yes. It was. It also was later capped with the whole Genesis Trilogy thing and literally saving the Earth in a seemingly hopeless (but lightly amusing) mission. The latter events probably did more to cement the 'NCC-1701-A' than the five-year mission, but the whole tapestry was revered.

 

[Vance]

I would say that surviving 7 years in the Delta Quadrant and bringing back data on countless new species, planets and cultures earns Voyager a place in history similar to the Enterprise.

Not really. When you look at it, Janeway should have been court martialled and drummed out. (This is a result of some VERY bad writing in the series). And, more than that, the Voyager's missions were, by and large, narcissistic in tone. They didn't 'save the Federation' in the way the Enterprise and her crew did on a regular basis. They barely managed to save themselves, often despite themselves.