Was the Enterprise A meant to be retired?

[Mister Spock]

Uhura does report to Kirk that Starfleet's order is for the crew to report back to spacedock for decomissioning, but it never felt like this was the final mission for the Enterprise itself. Kirk even has the line about the ship and its history becoming the care of another crew, and all other dialogue in the film would suggest its only the crew themselves retiring - Scotty's boat, Bones' hope for a retirement party etc. - and that the Enterprise would still continue in active service.

 

[Silanda]

Uhura does report to Kirk that Starfleet's order is for the crew to report back to spacedock for decomissioning, but it never felt like this was the final mission for the Enterprise itself. Kirk even has the line about the ship and its history becoming the care of another crew, and all other dialogue in the film would suggest its only the crew themselves retiring - Scotty's boat, Bones' hope for a retirement party etc. - and that the Enterprise would still continue in active service.

I always interpreted it as referring to the crew, but the term decommission is more often applied to ships and equipment, so I'm not really sure. My head canon is that the ship was intended to receive a new crew but was retired due to damage sustained, not to mention it being a ageing design, instead of being refit.

 

[Timo]

It would be fun to think the top officers are going to be stripped of their commissions even when the ship they commande(ere)d for illegal purposes can go on serving. That's the gist of it, after all: "At least this time they aren't prose... Aw, shit!"

Might be the ship was retired. Might be she was renamed and kept in service. Might be this service amounted to her being a storage hulk or something. But Kirk does appear confident that the ship will prevail, even when he can't really be certain his bosses won't shoot him this time.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Smellmet]

I always get the impression that the A carried on, I mean it hadn't been in service that long really has it?

 

[Markonian]

Decommissioning is used for lifeless objects, is it not? Imho, the line was meant for the E-A. While it had only been in service for a meager 7 years (unless it was another ship beforehand), it had to make way for the grand new Excelsior-class E-B.

In the "Kirk returns" novels from William Shatner and the Reeves-Stevens, the Enterprise-A is given to the multiracial planet Chal for its defense, but destroyed by Kirk's arch nemesis Androvar Drake in 2300.

 

[anh165]

I bet Starfleet command wished they listened to Kirk about using that ‘full on Ambassador’ (class ship) to meet the Klingon flagship - the sheer size of the Ambassador class would have blocked those sneaky BoP torpedoes and eliminated the Klingon traitors in seconds jk

Starfleet made it obvious that the Enterprise-A days were over with the pending crew retirement, they’re about to break into the 24th century so I wonder why anyone would shoehorn another 400 (younger / less experienced) crew members into such an aging small vessel.

The design language found from the interior asethetics in TUC were a shift away from the bright and welcoming style in TTF - the producers in TUC made great efforts to portray the Ent-A as an uncomfortable place to serve on. And a far cry from the ‘city in space’ concept in TOS Enterprise.

Even the ‘Excelsior’ was downgraded in TUC, small basic bridge unit with TNG helm/nav stations. Sulu’s quarters looked broom cupboard like when he was woken up by Christian Slater. One torpedo from a BoP sent crewmen flying across the bridge. Yet in-universe, this Excelsior is supposed to be bringing SF forwards in the space race.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I've always had the opinion that construction of the Enterprise-B was nearly finished at the time of Star Trek VI, and that she would continue the voyages of the Starship Enterprise.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

If you go with the idea that the "A" was a new build when she was renamed, you could also infer that the systems inside were newer as well (hence all the glitches and gremlins).

I never get the "aging design" argument as a reason to stop using a particular design, short of there being some sort of flaw in that design. In the case of the Connies, maybe those long pylons were problematic over the long-term (they vertainly were in the plastic models). Most or all of the classes we saw after that had much shorter nacelle pylons. (and I know the Enterprise was designed with the tall ship look in mind).

 

[Timo]

There's no flaw in the Saturn V as such, if one wants to fly to the Moon. It's just that it would cost a zillion times more to try and build one of those today, and the attempt would probably fail miserably. Reinventing the wheel instead will be much cheaper and more likely to work: a modern rocket would be made of modern parts machined by modern machines, based on modern calculations, all of which is stuff that people today know how to do.

Starfleet beyond the 24th century may be slightly better off there, as replicators can create ancient parts at zero extra expense. But the people who'd know how to put together the parts would still all be dead, so Starfleet might need to wait until the 25th century to grow beyond the need for people...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[KennyB]

I had always heard the A was originally Yorktown............I Googled to see if I was crazy and found this on Memory Alpha:

According to the Star Trek Encyclopedia (4th ed., vol. 2, p. 509), "Roddenberry reportedly suggested the second USS Enterprise-A, launched at the end of Star Trek IV, had previously been named USS Yorktown since it seemed unlikely that Starfleet could have built a new Enterprise so quickly.

So it could have been NCC-1704 or 1717 from TOS/Franz Josef manual and about the same age as 1701

 

[Timo]

Yup, Yorktown was a name pondered originally for the hero ship of TOS before Roddenberry ended up with Enterprise, much like Captain Winter became Captain Pike and then Captain Kirk. Roddenberry was repeating himself there in ST4, in an in-joke of sorts.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Mage]

I had always heard the A was originally Yorktown............I Googled to see if I was crazy and found this on Memory Alpha:

According to the Star Trek Encyclopedia (4th ed., vol. 2, p. 509), "Roddenberry reportedly suggested the second USS Enterprise-A, launched at the end of Star Trek IV, had previously been named USS Yorktown since it seemed unlikely that Starfleet could have built a new Enterprise so quickly.

So it could have been NCC-1704 or 1717 from TOS/Franz Josef manual and about the same age as 1701

There's another source, I believe Mister Scott's Technical Guide or something, that claimed another name for the ship that became the E-A.

From Memory Beta......
Construction history
When construction began on the Enterprise-A in the early 2280s, the ship was named the USS Ti-Ho and assigned the registry number, NCC-1798. Though resembling a Constitution-class rebuild, Ti-Ho was built new from the keel up. The Ti-Ho was to serve as a test-bed for transwarp drive which was also being tested on the USS Excelsior.
Construction of the Ti-Ho was largely completed by 2285, but shortly afterwards transwarp drive was proved a failure and Starfleet Command decided to equip the Ti-Ho with conventional warp drive. (ST reference: Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise)

Gene Roddenberry suggested that the Enterprise-A was originally named USS Yorktown, as an explanation for how she could've been built quickly enough to replace the original Enterprise. It is unclear whether he was suggesting it was the same Yorktown said to have been disabled by the whale probe earlier in the film, or a replacement already under construction.

 

[Khan 2.0]

On the way back to mushroom spacedock the Ent-A encountered a strange phenomenon.. an orange ribbon that's in the process of seemingly destroying a ship.. the Enterprise managed to beam over 1 survivor ..then was caught itself.. heavily damaged they emerged 78years later .. where they encountered a future Enterprise crew and discovered the survivor was the one responsible for the ships destruction..an insane but brilliant physicist (played by Marlon Brando) whose experiments threatened to destroy the galaxy unless the 2 Enterprises worked together to stop him..

(that was Trek VII in my mind .. actually called 'Star Trek VII: The Future Past' - written by Braga/Moore with a rewrite by Meyer & Nimoy and directed by Nimoy)

 

[Dukhat]

In ‘Relics,’ Scotty mentions that the Enterprise-A was in mothballs. Mothballing a ship means that it is put into storage with the intention that it will be used again at some future date. Obviously if Starfleet intended to use the ship again, it would be renamed and given a new registry, since the Enterprise-B would already be in service. Since there was nothing inherently wrong with the ship (or at least nothing that couldn’t be easily repaired), it’s entirely possible that the ship was given a new life after 2293.

As for why it was decommissioned in the first place? To make way for the Enterprise-B, obviously. And on a related note, I also believe that the Enterprise-B was also eventually decommissioned to make way for the Enterprise-C, and that the B was renamed the Lakota (the ship we saw in DS9), since it was the exact same model and we never saw another Excelsior with those modifications. Plus, with the prevalence of Excelsiors still in service in both TNG and DS9, there would have been no reason to decommission the Enterprise-B unless there were extenuating circumstances (either the ship was decommissioned to make way for a new Enterprise, or it was destroyed.) I prefer not to think it was the latter, as four Enterprises being destroyed in the line of duty (Nil, B, C, and D) rubs me the wrong way.

 

[anh165]

Connie classes were pure cannon fodder at the eve of 24th century standards - the Enterprise stood out due to plot armour - and none of her sister ships were so lucky to be commanded by a certain captain to overturn the odds. Kirk’s retirement effectively was the final nail for this type of ship - the PR excerise was finished.

I just find it difficult to believe starfleet command at this period would continue to send thousands of valuable trained men and women into deep space using such outdated craft. Yes the Connie class can reach distant class-M planets by busting its guts at warp 9, and yes it has engaged with hostile races and survived these encounters - however these were exceptions rather than the norm (plot armour). Being pragmatic here - ships that are lost can be replaced, but not the lives and exceptional skills / experience of crew members which are SF’s most valued assets - the responsibility of crew member lives rested very heavily on the guile and strong leadership qualities of the commanding officer. In the 2250’s & 2260’s this was the lengths SF had to take to uphold Federation interests.

In the 2290’s-2300’s - SF were able to take advantage of new ships - that are faster, better equiped and more safe. The days of tough resourceful hero commanders such as Jim Kirk, Matt Decker and Garth of Izar were over - instead they had the likes of Harriman and Sulu that represented the face of the Federation frontline - it lead to what we see in TNG - a technological and science based approach towards safe space exploration/expansion - far cry from men / women having to shoot first and ask questions later and lose a few red shirts of the 2260’s.

Even if we look for secondary reasons to
continue with the Connie class - i.e those short range, light duty missions or even benign cadet training excersises - then the Miranda class filled that role perfectly fine.

 

[valkyrie013]

Well, I doubt they retired a 7 year old ship. More than likely in 2285 a ship was re commisioned the Enterprise A and that ship was a ship built around 2245-50 and refit over the years, and in 2285 when Kirk got it it was just refited so some things still being fixed.
So in 2292 it was near 50 years old and not worth another refit as the fleet was probably being scaled down after the peace treaty.

 

[Chaos Descending]

Well, I doubt they retired a 7 year old ship. More than likely in 2285 a ship was re commisioned the Enterprise A and that ship was a ship built around 2245-50 and refit over the years, and in 2285 when Kirk got it it was just refited so some things still being fixed.
So in 2292 it was near 50 years old and not worth another refit as the fleet was probably being scaled down after the peace treaty.

To me that's the best explanation.

 

[Mister Spock]

Someone did theorise once that perhaps as part of the Klingon/Federation peace talks in The Undiscovered Country, the treaty involved some measure of disarmament on both sides. Perhaps Enterprise and other Constitution class starships being retired at the same time the Klingon Empire retired the D-7 battle cruisers.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

More than likely in 2285 a ship was re commisioned the Enterprise A and that ship was a ship built around 2245-50

In ST V, Scotty's shakedown cruise report specifically says that the Enterprise-A is a new ship.

 

[Krupp]

There's the "It's a refit but actually quite old" explanation and also there's the idea that militaries and navies do sometimes commission ships that they put into mothballs not all that long afterward. Stored in the Trek equivalent of a desert airport for future potential use or just recycling for parts if the need arose.

In ST VI they made an effort to show the interior of the A being rather worn. So the idea that she's had her day is embedded deeply in the movie.