The origin of 1701-A

[Gorn Captain]

I know this has never been addressed in terms of canon, and has been addressed in things like Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise, but what do you choose to believe happened with the 1701-A?

Do you think it was another ship that was about to be commissioned and they decided to call it the Enterprise? Was it a training ship that was refitted? Surely they didn't build an Enterprise from scratch post whale probe, right?

I like to think it was an original constitution class that had been recently given the TMP refit job in order to preserve a useful ship.

By the way, I also think Kirk knew what frickin ship he was getting before the shuttle cleared Excelsior and saved the surprise for the others. He was far too laid back...

 

[Xerxes1979]

By the way, I also think Kirk knew what frickin ship he was getting before the shuttle cleared Excelsior and saved the surprise for the others. He was far too laid back...

or he was finally was taking McCoy up on his recommended offer of tranquilizers for routine space operations.

 

[Praetor]

I think the A was a new ship built from parts left over from the Constitution refit cycle, and was built to test the adaptability of technology derived from the Excelsior project to the older design. (I think it was being built before the Federation Council decided to give it to Kirk.) This would explain why the interfaces appeared so advanced, yet also while she was in a shambles in TFF. I think it also nicely explains why she was retired so soon - she was a testbed, never meant for long term service, and was basically just a "thank you" gift for Kirk and crew to try out.

 

[RichMerk]

That's a toughie.

On the one hand, there didn't seem to be enough time after the Whale Probe to build a brand new ship, yet the whole joke in STV was the shakedown and nothing working, which tends to support the new ship theory. Besides, in Scotty's soliloquy near the beginning, he comes right out and calls it a "new ship".

Fan tradition has it as being the Yorktown, but I'm not sure I like that theory. Would they really kick the old crew off just to give it to Kirk and his crew? And why would it have so many shakedown problems?

Mr. Scott's Guide says the new USS Ti-Ho was renamed Enterprise at the last minute and given to Kirk. I think this theory might fit all the facts.

 

[KirkusOveractus]

My thinking is that it was to be the 1701-A all along. At the beginning of TSFS, Morrow says that there will be no refit to 1701, and I don't think Starfleet would have a time at that point without a starship named Enterprise.

As for the name change, some shipbuilders and sailors have a superstition about changing a ship's name last minute as a bad omen, so I don't quite like that theory.

 

[SonicRanger]

It has been dealt with in canon. Scotty explicitly stated: "this new ship was put together by monkeys." Clearly this ship was a Starfleet experiment to have monkeys put starships together, but it took much longer than expected. This was actually going to be the first Enterprise, but it took the thousand monkeys longer than expected to assemble a starship. It was done right when they needed another Enterprise, so they just painted an "-A" on the registry.

 

[Myasishchev]

^ to the above.

I think the A was a new ship built from parts left over from the Constitution refit cycle, and was built to test the adaptability of technology derived from the Excelsior project to the older design. (I think it was being built before the Federation Council decided to give it to Kirk.) This would explain why the interfaces appeared so advanced, yet also while she was in a shambles in TFF. I think it also nicely explains why she was retired so soon - she was a testbed, never meant for long term service, and was basically just a "thank you" gift for Kirk and crew to try out.

I like this better than what I was thinking, the Yorktown in the process of being decommissioned and scrapped before Starfleet decided to give Kirk a ship instead of a medal.

Of course the conclusion would be that Excelsior technology does not work with a Constitution power plant and spaceframe. Although transwarp would readily explain the journey to the Great Barrier.

 

[Nerys Myk]

It has been dealt with in canon. Scotty explicitly stated: "this new ship was put together by monkeys." Clearly this ship was a Starfleet experiment to have monkeys put starships together, but it took much longer than expected. This was actually going to be the first Enterprise, but it took the thousand monkeys longer than expected to assemble a starship. It was done right when they needed another Enterprise, so they just painted an "-A" on the registry.

The original crew was chimp and two trainees

 

[Praetor]

I think the A was a new ship built from parts left over from the Constitution refit cycle, and was built to test the adaptability of technology derived from the Excelsior project to the older design. (I think it was being built before the Federation Council decided to give it to Kirk.) This would explain why the interfaces appeared so advanced, yet also while she was in a shambles in TFF. I think it also nicely explains why she was retired so soon - she was a testbed, never meant for long term service, and was basically just a "thank you" gift for Kirk and crew to try out.

I like this better than what I was thinking, the Yorktown in the process of being decommissioned and scrapped before Starfleet decided to give Kirk a ship instead of a medal.

Of course the conclusion would be that Excelsior technology does not work with a Constitution power plant and spaceframe. Although transwarp would readily explain the journey to the Great Barrier.

Why, thanks.

And indeed that would be my conclusion... the new warp drive would just be horribly incompatible and overpowered for the Constitution class spaceframe... and yes the, erm, "souped up" warp drive would have helped on their transit to the barrier.

A little Godspeed (Devilspeed?) wouldn't have hurt either.

 

[DiSiLLUSiON]

I think the 1701-A is what the original was supposed to be before some Admiral rubbed his pencil over all the drawings. So there's actually no difference at all between the original and the A, and all they changed was a letter on the hull.

 

[Harvey]

It's been a while since I've seen the film, but is there any on-screen evidence that the end of the trial and the arrival on board the Enterprise take place right after each other, or could more time have passed than we assume?

Although I prefer SonicRanger's explanation.

 

[Praetor]

I actually think padding out the amount of time between when the crew crashes the BoP in the bay and when they stand trial, and between when they stand trial and when they're taken to the ship, might be viable. I still don't think there's enough time to whip up a brand new ship, and I hate the idea of them getting a secondhand pony. So I still like my idea. Monkeys may be included, of course.

How viable that time-padding is depends of course on that pesky stardate given near the beginnning of TFF, I suppose...

 

[RichMerk]

While they're in the shuttle flying over to the A, they are talking about what their punishment/reward was gonna be. "We'll get a freighter." "I'm hoping for Excelsior." That always made me think it was pretty soon after their trial.

 

[Praetor]

I think there's probably more time before the trial than after, I'm just not sure how much in each place.

 

[miraclefan]

I think the A was a new ship built from parts left over from the Constitution refit cycle, and was built to test the adaptability of technology derived from the Excelsior project to the older design. (I think it was being built before the Federation Council decided to give it to Kirk.) This would explain why the interfaces appeared so advanced, yet also while she was in a shambles in TFF. I think it also nicely explains why she was retired so soon - she was a testbed, never meant for long term service, and was basically just a "thank you" gift for Kirk and crew to try out.

Good theory, never thought of that.

 

[MarianLH]

I prefer to believe that the Enterprise class--pardon the allusion to another iconoclastic preference--was still in production, and that one of them nearing completion was simply renamed and renumbered.


Marian

 

[Praetor]

I prefer to think that the Enterprise class had one member, and the rest were Constitution refits. I also tend to think that they didn't build any new ones (save the A) past, say, 2270.

 

[The Exile]

I'm all for the monkey explanation.

 

[Kirk1980]

I like the Ti-Ho idea.

Mostly outta nostalgic reasons. Mr. Scott's (along with the Compendium by Allan Asherman) was the first big Trek book I ever owned as a wee one.

 

[Praetor]

I never cared for the name Ti-Ho. My idea is more or less that, removed of Ti-Ho, and modified for the fact that transwarp didn't do what it was supposed to do.