Works for me.
Was the Enterprise-A a new ship?
- Thread starter Beyerstein
- Start date
Works for me.
TSFS showed that a lot of the Excelsior tech did not function as hoped. It seems odd that Starfleet would be decommisioning the Connies, which were a proven design, in favor of a new class with only one completed member.
Actually the only thing we know for sure that didn't work on Excelsior was the transwarp engine-- and that was due to sabotage. We don't know that the ship was an overall lemon, and the class itself could have be developed independent of the transwarp project and it was decided to use the NX-2000 as a test frame for the next-generation engines. For that matter we don't know if the transwarp project was a total failure once Starfleet fixed Scotty's handiwork -- it may not be what TNG later defined as "transwarp", but that really doesn't mean all that much. Afterall the only time we saw her pre-STVI refit was after she was sabotaged by Scotty.
I always assumed that the Enterprise-A was a left over prototype which was mothballed after she had done her job and hauled back out of mothballs when they needed an Enterprise, she has some very TOS like features like her shuttlebay design which maybe means she was a testbed made even before the original Enterprise was refitted to an ever higher standard.
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Just one of the many conjectures that Encyclopedia is prone too. There's absolutely nothing on screen to suggest that Scotty did more than pull out a few computer-chips.
Actually they looked more like isolinear rods, and Scotty even said himself they were from the Transwarp engines computer core/drive, so at most he took encoded "discs" that bridged the computer and the engines, no physical damage as such.
Unless all the comic effect clunking sound effects we heard were meant to imply the engines misfired and *did* cause internal damage. The misfire did seem to cause computer malfunctions all over the ship.
Of course there's going to be computer problems after you pull bits out of it. But there is nothing to imply that it was irreparable-- and I doubt Scotty would go that far anyway. Indeed it isn't, as we see the ship spit and polish by the time of STVI. There's just nothing to suggest that the ship, over all, was a lemon even if it was 100%-- other than fan dislike of it back in the day.
The mention of the name "Yorktown" brought a partial parallel to mind. Several of the US Navy's Essex class carriers in WW II were renamed during construction for carriers lost earlier in the war:
CV-10 Yorktown was laid down as Bon Homme Richard
CV-12 Hornet was laid down as Kearsarge
CV-16 Lexington was laid down as Cabot
CV-18 Wasp was laid down as Oriskany
I don't know of any case (doesn't mean there aren't any, though) where an already-commissioned ship was renamed for a lost ship. So I agree that it seems likely that "Enterprise-A" was originally laid down as another name and renamed during construction.
I agree that's short, but ST6:TUC took place at the end of the cold war with the Klingons. After WW II, many newly-built Essex class carriers were decommissioned (1947 was a focal year) even though they'd only been in service for a few years. That doesn't necessarily mean scrapping, though, and several of those decommissioned were placed in reserve and later recommissioned.
CV-10 Yorktown was laid down as Bon Homme Richard
CV-12 Hornet was laid down as Kearsarge
CV-16 Lexington was laid down as Cabot
CV-18 Wasp was laid down as Oriskany
I don't know of any case (doesn't mean there aren't any, though) where an already-commissioned ship was renamed for a lost ship. So I agree that it seems likely that "Enterprise-A" was originally laid down as another name and renamed during construction.
I agree that's short, but ST6:TUC took place at the end of the cold war with the Klingons. After WW II, many newly-built Essex class carriers were decommissioned (1947 was a focal year) even though they'd only been in service for a few years. That doesn't necessarily mean scrapping, though, and several of those decommissioned were placed in reserve and later recommissioned.
The comparison to the Essex for the class is very good, and one that I've often thought of myself.
Let's really look at the facts regarding the E-A. Scotty was having technical difficulties with it in TFF (fine engine, doors won't open.) It had new technology similar to that seen first on the Excelsior in TSFS and then in TUC. Then it's retired by 2293 for the E-B's launch.
To me that means it is either:
1) A very old ship that has just been refit with newer tech - similar to the way the original Enterprise was, but not as thoroughly in some ways, explaining the similarities to the TOS shuttlebay and so forth, and was retired around it's original scheduled time to coincide with Kirk's retirement.
2) A newer prototype that was reappropriated to be the new Enterprise, and for whatever reason, didn't work out and was retired early.
I've always tended to lean towards the latter, comparing it to the Endeavour space shuttle's assembly from 'leftovers' (possibly leftovers from the refit cycle on the other ships) but this thread has made it pretty clear either is easily possible.
What the hell kind of name for a const. class is U.S.S. Ti-Ho !?
It sounds like the kind of ship where the crew is singing all the time.
It sounds like the kind of ship where the crew is singing all the time.
Beats me. I did a quick Google search, and the only non-Trek references to "Ti-Ho" I could come up with were a type of Japanese tank from World War II. 
I wondered about that, too, and did a brief search to see if there were a historical ship by that name (possibly Chinese?). The closest match was a type of tank the Japanese used in WW II. Then I read on Memory Alpha, "The ship was reportedly named in honor of author Shane Johnson's deceased friend who was fond of the name."
Edit: Heh, so you found the tank, too, cardinal biggles...
That's interesting, guys.
The US Air Force has never used F18s. F18s are Navy aircraft.[/nit-pick]
We use to have Holy Wars over this subject on this very site...
Whether it was a refit of another vessel or a brand new build, it clearly wasn't ready. That is the only thing that is clear.
Though I personally go with Shane Johnson on this one. Was built as the transwarp testbed U.S.S. Ti-Ho.
Personally I like the idea of it being a technology testbed ship for the excelsior project. It would explain why it had a lot of state of the art systems for an older design and why a lot of stuff didn't quite work.
As for it being a new build, I'm torn on this. With the Miranda line very much open, building a new ship to the refitted constitution class design would not be impossible, but I don't think they would decommission it after only a couple of years. The ship was probably built in the mid 2370s if a new build.
I don't feel that the E-A is the Yorktown. In ST V, Scotty keeps referring to the ship as new. If it was a refit, he sure didn't bring it up. I feel that it may have been a mothball project gone bad or the sum of spare parts. I'm leaning towards the latter for why the ship was such a lemon.
