Would they really not know what kind of ship they were getting?

[ConRefit79]

At the end of ST4 - TVH, the crew seems to not know what kind of ship they're being assigned to. How likely would that be? I know that US Naval Crews are trained to crew the vessels they're assigned to. Wouldn't that be likely in Star Fleet? In fact I think they show this at the start of TWOK. So it seems to me the command crew must of known they would be assigned a Constitution class ship. I certainly doubt they would be assigned to the Excelsior without prior training. Her systems were all new and experimental.

 

[Vger23]

At the end of ST4 - TVH, the crew seems to not know what kind of ship they're being assigned to. How likely would that be? I know that US Naval Crews are trained to crew the vessels they're assigned to. Wouldn't that be likely in Star Fleet? In fact I think they show this at the start of TWOK. So it seems to me the command crew must of known they would be assigned a Constitution class ship. I certainly doubt they would be assigned to the Excelsior without prior training. Her systems were all new and experimental.

The real answer is simple: drama is far more important than realism. From a story standpoint, the reveal for the crew (and fans) was far more satisfying than knowing beforehand.

 

[enterprisecvn65]

At the end of ST4 - TVH, the crew seems to not know what kind of ship they're being assigned to. How likely would that be? I know that US Naval Crews are trained to crew the vessels they're assigned to. Wouldn't that be likely in Star Fleet? In fact I think they show this at the start of TWOK. So it seems to me the command crew must of known they would be assigned a Constitution class ship. I certainly doubt they would be assigned to the Excelsior without prior training. Her systems were all new and experimental.

The real answer is simple: drama is far more important than realism. From a story standpoint, the reveal for the crew (and fans) was far more satisfying than knowing beforehand.

Exactly. And what are the odds star fleet had another refit constitution ship, either new or a renamed one depending on the source, just lying around waiting to be named enterprise and given to kirk

 

[C.E. Evans]

They might have just been told to report for duty aboard the unspecified ship parked at specified coordinates in Spacedock. It may have actually been a case of some admiral in Starfleet wanting to keep it a surprise for the heroes who just saved the Federation homeworld and it probably wouldn't have taken any real effort to do that, IMO.

 

[Timby]

It's pretty clear Kirk knew, and he just wanted to keep it a surprise for his command crew.

 

[EnriqueH]

It's pretty clear Kirk knew, and he just wanted to keep it a surprise for his command crew.

I like that explanation.

 

[Timo]

Yes, Kirk definitely seems to know. OTOH, the point about crews being trained for service aboard specific types of ship seems supported by the ST2 Starfleet Academy scenes, where a lot of noise is made about training an entire (bridge?) crew for the Enterprise specifically. But that training is being provided to wet-behind-the-antennae youngsters; people of McCoy's service years might already be cleared for all types of spacecraft - including brand spanking new ones, engineered to be maximally backward compatible for all sorts of practical reasons.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[enterprisecvn65]

Yes, Kirk definitely seems to know. OTOH, the point about crews being trained for service aboard specific types of ship seems supported by the ST2 Starfleet Academy scenes, where a lot of noise is made about training an entire (bridge?) crew for the Enterprise specifically. But that training is being provided to wet-behind-the-antennae youngsters; people of McCoy's service years might already be cleared for all types of spacecraft - including brand spanking new ones, engineered to be maximally backward compatible for all sorts of practical reasons.

Timo Saloniemi

Or is it brand spanking new? I've read it was an old ship either named the Ti-Ho or Yorktown and renamed and numbered. Nothing has settled it definitely

 

[Dukhat]

Or is it brand spanking new? I've read it was an old ship either named the Ti-Ho or Yorktown and renamed and numbered. Nothing has settled it definitely

There is evidence to support either hypothesis.

 

[Viper78]

Yes, Kirk definitely seems to know. OTOH, the point about crews being trained for service aboard specific types of ship seems supported by the ST2 Starfleet Academy scenes, where a lot of noise is made about training an entire (bridge?) crew for the Enterprise specifically. But that training is being provided to wet-behind-the-antennae youngsters; people of McCoy's service years might already be cleared for all types of spacecraft - including brand spanking new ones, engineered to be maximally backward compatible for all sorts of practical reasons.

Timo Saloniemi

Or is it brand spanking new? I've read it was an old ship either named the Ti-Ho or Yorktown and renamed and numbered. Nothing has settled it definitely

I had always thought it more likely that it would be a newly refit constitution class rather than a brand new ship. It's unclear how many constitution class ships were built but you would imagine these refits would have been done over a number of years rather than refitting every ship at the same time.

 

[Dukhat]

There's actually no canon evidence that the refit types were ever newbuilds, as we only ever saw two of them: The TOS Enterprise (which was a refit) and the Ent-A (whose origin is a mystery).

 

[ConRefit79]

Yes, Kirk definitely seems to know. OTOH, the point about crews being trained for service aboard specific types of ship seems supported by the ST2 Starfleet Academy scenes, where a lot of noise is made about training an entire (bridge?) crew for the Enterprise specifically. But that training is being provided to wet-behind-the-antennae youngsters; people of McCoy's service years might already be cleared for all types of spacecraft - including brand spanking new ones, engineered to be maximally backward compatible for all sorts of practical reasons.

Timo Saloniemi

Or is it brand spanking new? I've read it was an old ship either named the Ti-Ho or Yorktown and renamed and numbered. Nothing has settled it definitely

I had always thought it more likely that it would be a newly refit constitution class rather than a brand new ship. It's unclear how many constitution class ships were built but you would imagine these refits would have been done over a number of years rather than refitting every ship at the same time.

Wasn't there a TOS episode where Kirk tells someone there are only 12 like her in the fleet?

 

[Dukhat]

Wasn't there a TOS episode where Kirk tells someone there are only 12 like her in the fleet?

At the time he made the statement, yes. But I'm sure since that time Starfleet had constructed more.

 

[C.E. Evans]

It's pretty clear Kirk knew, and he just wanted to keep it a surprise for his command crew.

How was it clear that Kirk knew?

He seemed initially resigned to whatever ship Starfleet was going to give him and then when the shuttle first appeared to be headed towards the Excelsior, he seemed as taken aback as everyone else in his command crew.

 

[Dukhat]

Yeah, other than possibly just acting coy (if he indeed did know what ship he was getting ahead of time), I don't think it was as clear as some people are saying.

 

[Timby]

It's pretty clear Kirk knew, and he just wanted to keep it a surprise for his command crew.

How was it clear that Kirk knew?

He seemed initially resigned to whatever ship Starfleet was going to give him and then when the shuttle first appeared to be headed towards the Excelsior, he seemed as taken aback as everyone else in his command crew.

He was grinning while everyone else was gasping. He delivers the line, "My friends ... we've come home," with a knowing smirk. And Shatner's delivery of his earlier line of, "A ship's a ship," is played pretty tongue-in-cheek to play with Scotty.

 

[Dukhat]

http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/tvhhd/tvhhd2264.jpg

It's possible Kirk's expression could be taken either way.

 

[C.E. Evans]

It's pretty clear Kirk knew, and he just wanted to keep it a surprise for his command crew.

How was it clear that Kirk knew?

He seemed initially resigned to whatever ship Starfleet was going to give him and then when the shuttle first appeared to be headed towards the Excelsior, he seemed as taken aback as everyone else in his command crew.

He was grinning while everyone else was gasping.

He delivers the line, "My friends ... we've come home," with a knowing smirk. And Shatner's delivery of his earlier line of, "A ship's a ship," is played pretty tongue-in-cheek to play with Scotty.

I saw all that completely differently (especially in regards to a knowing smirk). I don't think his line to Scotty was played pretty tongue-in-cheek at all but with a note of resignation akin to what will be, will be.

It's possible Kirk's expression could be taken either way.

Exactly, so it's not a pretty clear or obvious thing.

 

[ConRefit79]

It's pretty clear Kirk knew, and he just wanted to keep it a surprise for his command crew.

It didn't appear to me he knew or was supposed to know about The Enterprise A. I wonder if they kept that secret from the actors before filming that shot?

 

[eyeresist]

The actors weren't actually looking at a ship. That was put in later.