"Jim, the Enterprise is 20 years old, we feel her day is done." My thoughts when seeing that scene.

I've always wondered why this was an issue as an Adult, 80-90 year old Starfleet ships are not uncommon, and wasn't the Enterprise-D built to last over a century with refits? Had it been 20 years since TMP by then? I ask that because maybe the Admiral was referring to the space frame (that I guess was left when they did the massive refit for TMP) shouldn't the Enterprise be older then that actually?

I wonder if it was an allegory put in the movie to reflect the massive Military modernization that was going on at the time under Regan. That Starfleet had a boner for the new Excelsior class and wanted fleets of them to flex in front of the Klingons and Romulans with.

 

The Enterprise was 40 years old in Star trek 3, built in 2245 and ST3 took place in 2285. I'm not really sure how that line came to be but I believe they just didn't want to confuse people with the 40 year old line as Star trek was about 20 years old at the time.

Just wondering what ships have been said to be 80 or 90 years old? If your talking about the Excelsior Miranda and Oberth class in TNG those ships where not as old as people think, just look at the registry numbers.

 

I believe the somewhat-veiled (and otherwise blatantly incorrect to everyone in earshot, both onscreen and off it) point Morrow was making was that Kirk had been wrapped up with the Enterprise for 20 years at that point (more or less) and needed to - what was the popular phrase around that time? Oh yeah - "Get a life!!" (Or perhaps 'Grow up and act your age' is more appropriate here.)

The context of that scene was that Kirk had called ahead and requested to get the Enterprise fixed up fast so he could go back out to Genesis and join the Grissom/Saavik & David. Morrow's main purpose in being there, immediately following that exchange, was to make it crystal clear to everyone that nobody else was going to Genesis. "You are all under orders not to discuss with anyone your knowledge of Genesis. Consider it a quarantined planet - and a forbidden subject."

Could the Enterprise have been fixed up? Yeah, certainly with Scotty there. Was her age an issue? Maybe, maybe not. Its spaceframe was actually forty, but it had only been a decade after TMP (more or less) and it probably could have flown for another decade as the Enterprise-A did. But now that they finally had Kirk back at Command, wearing an Admiral's rank and sitting at a desk, there was no way in hell the brass was giving him another chance to start joyriding around in his favorite starship again. And with the Excelsior, the Next Big Thing(tm), all warmed up and ready to go, what better way to announce a new age dawning for Starfleet (and chain Kirk to that desk once and for all) than to simultaneously retire the old war horse and introduce the breakthrough that would launch them all into the 24th century?

 

Kirk said he was old, worn out. Hopping galaxies was a game for the young.

It looks like Morrow agreed.

I think Nightowl1701 is onto something. It’s really the only plausible gloss I’ve seen on that wretched line.

 

All retcons. There's no TOS episode evidence the Enterprise was built in 2245, and I don't recall in the film ST3 where characters expressed the year 2285 they were living in.

There's statements made in "The Menagerie" where Spock served aboard the Enterprise 13 years prior to that episode which would support the Enterprise was older than 20. These Starship Class vessels were special and these vessels were built to last; with standard upgrades and new technical advances the ship could've been 100 years old.

 

The 'prise is old and just got a bigger batterin' than most other ships would. So 40+/- years is enough to do it in.

Also in my headcanon I like to toy with the idea that they uncovered a design vulnerability and that's why the connie design was retired after TUC.

 

That actually might be uncommon. Although some designs can last about a century, individual ships as old as the Hathaway might be far more the exception than the rule.

Not canonically. In "All Good Things...", the Enterprise-D was going to be decommissioned after 20+ years of service until Admiral Riker intervened.

It could be that 20-30 years in considered the average lifespan of most starships (some ships can last considerably longer, some even shorter than that depending on how much or how little wear and tear they experience during their service lifetime). Admiral Morrow's reference of the original Enterprise being 20 years old was likely figurative and meant more to convey that she was considered old in those days.

 

Maybe he was referring the refit Constitution design being 20 years old, anyway Constitutions were on the way out.

This of course brings us to where the Enterprise A came from..

 

Worrying about the age of the Enterprise is a game for the young.

 

It's very well known that the prime timeline Enterprise went into service in 2245 even if it's never been said on screen. Robert April was her first Captain from 45-50 then Pike from 50-65 and then Kirk. Robert April was seen in an episode of TAS. Of course this could be retconned in the future but I don't think anyone will.

 

I would love to know the results of Admiral Kirk and his missions after V'Ger. I'd love to know what kind of trouble happened, what event changed things, got him kicked back upstairs; how did he lose the Enterprise again; how did it become a training vesel, and what sparked the militarization and uniform change?

 

In my old head canon, I always imagined that Starfleet went to war with the Romulans. That explained the more military feel of TWOK on and gave an underused alien race more exposure. I don't really believe that any more, but it was fun to imagine.

 

I'm more perplexed that the newly constructed Enterprise-A was decommissioned only 2 movies later, roughly 7 years in-universe (2286-2293). That seems a waste.

Although Kirk did say the crew was being decommissioned, and the ship would be handed over to another crew... yet clearly the vessel herself was replaced as christening of the Enterprise-B took place that same year.

 

Replaced? Or... renamed? Maybe she became the Yorktown (again?!?)

 

The main assumption is the Enterprise-A was actually the refitted Yorktown that would have been also roughly 40 years old (give or take a few years). They changed the name of the Yorktown to Enterprise as a surprise for Kirk. I believe they thought Kirk and a ship called Enterprise were good combo. There is no evidence the ship was brand new. The shakedown it needed could have just been from the refit, in much the same way as the warp engines on the original Enterprise had problems from the refit in TMP. The Yorktown was probably in the middle being refitted during the events of ST2 and 3 and they were going to get new crew for her until they decided to give it to Kirk in ST4

 

Well, we now know from DSC how quick and easy it is to rename a ship...

 

Morrow was a dick.

 

Actually, I thought Morrow was remarkably level-headed. He certainly wasn't the stereotypical Evil Admiral trope. He definitely had his reasons to put a lid on all the talk about Genesis.

@Tom - There actually is evidence that the Enterprise-A was a brand new ship. Look at all the problems they had getting it to work properly in ST V. Even Scotty pointed out that "I think this NEW ship was put together by monkeys!"

 

I think it came to be because of the ~20 year gap between the start of TOS production(maybe The Cage) and TSFS i.e mid 1960's to early 1980's respectively.

 

I agree. In my head canon, I actually believe Morrow kind of "let Kirk go" on purpose, particularly after the Excelsior failed. Once the consequences of that became fully realized (loss of the Grissom, destruction of the Enterprise, incident with the Klingons), he was forced to resign.