Well, we definitely know that the Constellation class Victory was on active duty right up until the start of TNG (and possibly even during DS9 based on starship casualty lists.)
Picard: Status of the Enterprise?
- Thread starter FreddyE
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Well, we definitely know that the Constellation class Victory was on active duty right up until the start of TNG (and possibly even during DS9 based on starship casualty lists.)
We have a 20 year old spaceship, parts of which were laid down in the late 80's, orbiting overhead every day and night. It's not like starships are going to rust or get battered by waves and ice. Starfleet seems to find some classes more beneficial to refit and keep on the list than others. Maybe its easier to keep starfleet reserve officers trained on standardized designs like Mirandas, Excelsiors, and Constellations whereas work on a top rate ship like a Galaxy or Sovreign is specialized. If they did not make enough of them, there would always be that problem.
TNG, if i am not mistaken, occurs not long after the Cardassian war, and not too far after the Tzenkethi conflict, so again, there may have been a call up of a mothballed fleet, followed by a brief, optimistically cautious new period focusing on building big heavy explorer ships, until war returned and Starfleet started cranking out all kinds of new designs. The attrition rate from the Borg battle and the Dominion War meant they couldn't rely on Maroon era hardware anymore.
If Starfleet is back to a peacetime mindset, Ent-E should be out there being useful, unless it was lost. I don't think we'll see the STO "F"
TNG, if i am not mistaken, occurs not long after the Cardassian war, and not too far after the Tzenkethi conflict, so again, there may have been a call up of a mothballed fleet, followed by a brief, optimistically cautious new period focusing on building big heavy explorer ships, until war returned and Starfleet started cranking out all kinds of new designs. The attrition rate from the Borg battle and the Dominion War meant they couldn't rely on Maroon era hardware anymore.
If Starfleet is back to a peacetime mindset, Ent-E should be out there being useful, unless it was lost. I don't think we'll see the STO "F"
I doubt it since this show isn´t Enterprise or Starfleet centered.
And even waves and ice need not make a difference. The Soviets (and the Russians before them) were notorious for keeping their vessels operational for decades after they had ceased to be capable of firing, moving or floating. There always were secondary, tertiary, or dodecandary roles to which the ships could be demoted, thus freeing the Navy from having to actually build a dedicated ship or barge or pier for the lowly task. And in the Age of Rusting Steel, ancient hulks had more uses than in the Age of Rotting Wood... The Age of Slowly Vacuum-Hardening Duranium might be even more conductive to ruthless retention of ships.
It would be fun to see TNG's best and proudest utilized in beneath-menial roles in PIC. Perhaps the E-E would be a floating barracks of some sort, moored to an asteroid mine?
Timo Saloniemi
In William Shatner's first Trek novel, the obsolete Enterprise-A is stripped of advanced technology and sold to the planet Chal to be the centrepiece of their defence force (of course, retired Kirk is offered command and jumps at it)
Picard may run into the former USS Enterprise-E being used as a cargo hauler or defence ship for some quiet planet somewhere.
Picard may run into the former USS Enterprise-E being used as a cargo hauler or defence ship for some quiet planet somewhere.
The question I have is when will a ship be fully obsolete? The only thing I can think of is if they change the warp drive to something faster. Even in a money free society, it is expensive to construct a ship. It seems that it would always be economical to strip out obsolete systems and upgrade them to new ones, i.e. refitting. The only way you get to be really obsolete is if an upgrade is not feasible, i.e. the drive requires a completely different chassis.
Hypothetically I think the D would have still been around had it not been destroyed. It might have even had a new saucer, or drive section built if only one survived. Or a cut and paste 3rd nacelle a la AGT.
F-16s are still being produced and have been in service for over 40 years. The F35 will probably be around for a while too. If we are able to keep using a 40 year old jet, I would expect a utopian future to find ways to squeeze much more usage out of something ~10,000 times bigger in volume.
There are stories about how the B-52 will be flying for 100 years with all the upgrades and maintenance they receive. And those things are susceptible to gravity and other stresses a starship wouldn't be.
At some point the upgrades become so extensive, that it is just easier to build a completely new ship. And sometimes the upgrades are just not practical. The hull has been originally designed certain technologies in mind, and indeed doesn't necessarily function well with some things that are invented later.
On the other hand, the F-22 is dead and buried, after a minimal production run, while plans to reintroduce production of the F-15 from half a century ago are in motion. Perhaps Sovereign is another lemon, found deficient in the year-long shakedown cruises of the various individual vessels and unredeemable in the series of modifications made to the ships in the following years?
The hero ship being a piece of crap never hurt DS9...
Timo Saloniemi
The hero ship being a piece of crap never hurt DS9...
Timo Saloniemi
They’re still involved though
Just slap a supersized phaser on it and an extra warp nacelle and call it a day.
Yeah, we see Picard talking to an Admiral in the trailer, so Starfleet obviously has some interest in whatever he's involved in.
Perhaps we will see a flashback with Enterprise-D? 
I doubt it. CG and Makeup can only do so much to de age a person.Perhaps we will see a flashback of the Enterprise-D?
Furthest back I can see them going is shortly after Nemesis.
Plus you have to consider the sets.
Maybe Enterprise-D can just fly by.
There must be a lot of unused film material from the 80s and 90s, there's your flashback scenes.
When the producers feel like it.
Yeah, just look at how the Enterprise finale turned out. I'm sorry, but Johnathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis looked way to different for that to have believably happened at the same time as The Pegasus. Suspension of disbelief will only so far before thing just get ridiculous.
I honestly don’t think a whole lot of casual Star Trek fans are clamoring to see the Enterprise-E again. If the producers of STP are smart, if they plan on showing the Enterprise, it’ll be a brand new design for them to market the hell out of. And hopefully not one designed by Eaves, but I’m not counting on that.
