Was Enterprise-D always supposed to be Enterprise?

[JesterFace]

Was it always obvious that Picard and his crew would fly around in a ship named Enterprise?

As I've understood, before the Original Series, Yorktown was a name that could've been the name of the ship of the show? Eventually Gene chose the name Enterprise. But were there other names floating around when Gene was creating TNG?

 

[The Wormhole]

It was always going to be the Enterprise. That was kind of the point, Star Trek's future with a future Enterprise.

 

[Angry Fanboy]

I'd very much doubt any other name was even considered.

 

[JoseNoodles]

I read in Memory Alpha that originally it was going to be the Enterprise-Z set in year 3000 or 4000, or some such nonsense. Course Memory Alpha being a wiki, I'd take it with a grain of salt.

 

[JesterFace]

I read in Memory Alpha that originally it was going to be the Enterprise-Z set in year 3000 or 4000, or some such nonsense. Course Memory Alpha being a wiki, I'd take it with a grain of salt.

How about.... Enterprise-Q

 

[Arpy]

I don’t know about in the real world, but in-universe the Galaxy Class was worked in for a long time at Utopia Planitia. Is there’s my possibility that the Enterprise was a renaming of the Galaxy?

 

[NigellaDeanna20]

Was it always obvious that Picard and his crew would fly around in a ship named Enterprise?

As I've understood, before the Original Series, Yorktown was a name that could've been the name of the ship of the show? Eventually Gene chose the name Enterprise. But were there other names floating around when Gene was creating TNG?

No. I very much doubt it. The name Enterprise had become so well established by boh TOS and the first four movies, that there was probably new doubt that the Enterprise-D was always going to be called The Enterprise.

 

[Orphalesion]

Since it was a sequel series, supposed to build up on the fame of the first one, I don't really see why they would have changed the name of the ship.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I don’t know about in the real world, but in-universe the Galaxy Class was worked in for a long time at Utopia Planitia. Is there’s my possibility that the Enterprise was a renaming of the Galaxy?

I'm inclined to think that there was a prototype USS Galaxy in service for a little while and after her design proved sound, mass-production followed and the Enterprise was maybe the second or third such ship built.

 

[Ithekro]

Since the Galaxy-class was in planning when the Enterprise-C was lost, it makes sense they decided to name one of the first Galaxy-class ships to be built, Enterprise. And it was nearly 20 years before the Enterprise-D was completed.

It is the Enterprise-E that was likely a quick rename since she was completed only a year or so after the loss of the Enterprise-D, which was not scheduled for removal from the fleet. The Enterprise-A seems to be a temporary inclusion into the line as the Enterprise-B seems like it was intended to be the next Enterprise. The Enterprise-A likely be a prize ship for Kirk mixed with perhaps production delays in the Excelsior-class, and the NCC-1701 being destroyed a bit earlier than planned.

 

[Arpy]

I kinda think the B could be a refitted older Excelsior as easily as a totally new ship of the refit design.

The C I could buy as totally new, and the D. So much was said about the newness of the Galaxy Class line of ships and the sister ship Yamato.

The E could have been a rush job of an existing ship in the works or a rename. The profile seems different, like they wanted to slap that crew on a Heavy Cruiser ASAP from an Explorer. The Galaxy Explorers either were still being mass produced (it was still early in their lifespan) so why not stick them in another like Kirk’s crew on the E-A? Or on another totally new behemoth Explorer in the works?

Maybe the Sovereign was the culmination of the post 359/Defiant project. Getting the new tech to market in completely new designs instead of test beds (Defiant) and refits (Lakota).

 

[diankra]

I'm inclined to think that there was a prototype USS Galaxy in service for a little while and after her design proved sound, mass-production followed and the Enterprise was maybe the second or third such ship built.

That is what the technical manual says: Galaxy, Yamato, Enterprise and four more built, with the components for six more produced but not assembled at that time. Odyssey is presumably one of the other four.

 

[The Wormhole]

The USS Galaxy has been featured on DS9.
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/USS_Galaxy

 

[Timo]

Since the Galaxy-class was in planning when the Enterprise-C was lost, it makes sense they decided to name one of the first Galaxy-class ships to be built, Enterprise. And it was nearly 20 years before the Enterprise-D was completed.

...So why not give the name Enterprise to some ship that was actually ready?

It is the Enterprise-E that was likely a quick rename since she was completed only a year or so after the loss of the Enterprise-D, which was not scheduled for removal from the fleet.

Quite so. Although it's a bit odd that the next Enterprise would also be commanded by the same man as the previous one. If Picard was a good CO for Galaxy class ships, why not give him the Venture? If he was a good CO for Federation Flagships, why not give him one? If he was to be mildly punished for losing the Federation Flagship, and thus given this smaller and clunkier vessel, how come it was named Enterprise?

The Enterprise-A seems to be a temporary inclusion into the line as the Enterprise-B seems like it was intended to be the next Enterprise.

Assuming, that is, that "the next Enterprise" is a thing at all. Starfleet apparently wanted an Excelsior-mod ship for some purpose, because it went into the trouble of building and launching one. But why would it want a ship named Enterprise?

Might be sort of the reverse, actually. Starfleet was going to launch this big and expensive ship, and a good way to sell that to the public was to slap the name Enterprise on her, even though the new ship was the complete opposite of the E-A: not meant to continue the E-nil mission, not meant to be commanded by Kirk even for PR purposes.

The Enterprise-A likely be a prize ship for Kirk mixed with perhaps production delays in the Excelsior-class, and the NCC-1701 being destroyed a bit earlier than planned.

Or then the E-A was going to be succeeded by a Constellation class ship named USS Glorious, and was. And, wholly incidentally, Starfleet also launched a different starship, the E-B, to succeed the Hoover class USS Putin. That's how it works ITRW: the next carrier Enterprise is not a replacement for the previous carrier Enterprise, but for a different vessel altogether, the older Enterprise having already been replaced by the carrier Ford (or in practice by the Bush).

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Ithekro]

Since the Enterprise (NCC-1701) was an older ship, it seems likely that Starfleet has a plan on naming one of the next major heavy cruiser/exploration starship as Enterprise after the current one's long and successful record likely suggested that the name be reused on a highly visible ship. Much like the name Enterprise has started to become a lineage name for aircraft carriers due to the excellent record of the CV-6 and the long service of CVN-65, the CVN-80 was named Enterprise before construction even started, during a time period where carriers are named after people, rather than battles or famous ships. While Enterprise CVN-80 is not a direct replacement for Enterprise CVN-65, the name is being reused to continue its legacy.

If things had gone normal around the events surrounded Genesis, Kirk's crew would likely have just gotten some other posting as standard procedure. If the training mission had not had a run in with USS Reliant, it is possible USS Enterprise would have been retained for a few more years while the Excelsior was being completed, as it makes some sense that Excelsior was going to replace Enterprise once commissioned and ready for full service. Kirk was an admiral, so it be Spock who would be up for a new command, since Sulu was on the short list for Excelsior once ship was commissioned. In all likelihood. Spock would have retired or retained his services at the Academy running whatever training ship the brought in next, while what remaining active crew would transfer to other ships, or follow Sulu to the Excelsior.

However in the cases of Kirk and Picard losing their ships in combat while saving the overall situation, they are both given special compensation in their new commands. In Kirk's case, they either grab an older Constitution-class starship that just came in for a refit, or they pulled one of the last ones under construction and renamed it USS Enterprise and slapped on a quick new hull number, possibly to cover up something Starfleet had done. The quick nature of this seems to be because the events also delayed the testing of USS Excelsior, thus delaying the procurement of the next ship named USS Enterprise (an Excelsior-class starship) which may have already being ordered or even under construction, thus adding another Enterprise would be confusing as hell. Thus they did some sort of special dispensation style hull number convention and renumbered both ships with the letter suffix to avoid more complications. They would have had to do this since the original Enterprise has been scheduled for decommissioning, and it would be likely the next ship to be named Enterprise was already planned, or even named. But it was take years to complete, while Kirk's acts, at least to the Federation Council, warranted giving Kirk a new ship, and PR would suggest that ship be named Enterprise. Starfleet, not as happy with Kirk, would not hand over Excelsior to him, plus that ship wasn't ready yet anyway, so they scrounged up a Constitution-class for him.

Picard managed to lose his ship around the same time as the Sovereign-class starships were coming out as a counter to the Borg, and it is likely that one of the first ships, if not the Sovereign herself, was quickly renamed Enterprise in a similar fashion to what Starfleet did for Kirk. But unlike during Kirk's era, the Galaxy-class USS Enterprise was a new ship, and was not even remotely close to being decommissioned, thus there was no immediate planned ship to be named Enterprise to be built, so they just took the next appropriate ship and renamed it. Picard did not have the recent criminal record like Kirk did, thus giving him a new built ship would be likely in the eyes of Starfleet.

The one we still do no have a clear record on is the Ambassador-class USS Enterprise-C, and how it came to be verses what happened to the Excelsior-class USS Enterprise-B. We know approximately when the NCC-1701-C entered service and that her career was relatively short. A decade or so in service, before being lost in combat with the crew lost or captured. Thus there would be no crew to reward for their heroic actions, like there was for Kirk or Picard. Thus not a pressing need to get a new Enterprise out as a prize ship, though a need to build a new Enterprise, just using the next generation of starship. But we don't know for certain the fate of the NCC-1701-B, and thus if the Ambassador-class ship was a regular procurement for the Excelsior-class starship's retirement, or if something happened to the Enterprise thus needed a replacement earlier than intended. Given that many older Excelsior-class starships, perhaps including USS Excelsior herself, are still in service around the time of the Galaxy-class and Sovereign-class starships becoming operational, one gets the impression that something bad happened to the USS Enterprise-B, or her hull got abused to the point she needed to be retired, bringing a need for another ship named Enterprise in Starfleet. The Excelsior-class ship may have been three to four decades old a that time. If the crew of the Enterprise survived a combat loss with victory, it is likely that the Ambassador-class ship would have been a procurement like Kirk and Picard's second Enterprises. But if it was due to wear, than it would be more like the Excelsior-class starship being built to replace the original Enterprise before Kirk's actions destroyed said starship.

 

[Marc]

I'd very much doubt any other name was even considered.

Probably the closest was the Enterprise-D was going to be the Enterprise 7 in an early concept draft (think The Continuing Mission is the book where it was mentioned).

 

[Angry Fanboy]

Probably the closest was the Enterprise-D was going to be the Enterprise 7 in an early concept draft (think The Continuing Mission is the book where it was mentioned).

I wonder if the naming convention that letters would denote each successive Enterprise had already been decided on by the time TNG was developed.

Probably not since TVH introduced the Enterprise-A.

 

[JesterFace]

I'm inclined to think that there was a prototype USS Galaxy in service for a little while

As far as I know, the Galaxy was NX Galaxy first and eventually got the USS registry.
So NX/USS Galaxy was the first Galaxy class out there.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I recall reading that at some early stage, they considered having the crew just beam around the galaxy from a planet-based setting. I cannot recall where I read it though, so big grain of salt.

 

[Jadeb]

In the real world, there was great concern about getting viewers invested in this new crew and new Enterprise. There was no certainty that fans would accept a new cast. There wasn’t the concept of Star Trek as a more-encompassing universe that we have today, so the “continuing mission” of the starship Enterprise was a key concept.

It’s kind of amazing that TNG season one stands on its own as much as it does, Naked Time remake and all.

 

[Angry Fanboy]

...they considered having the crew just beam around the galaxy from a planet-based setting.

Stargate SG1?