USS Bozeman (Star Trek)

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The USS Bozeman (NCC-1941) is a Soyuz class starship in the fictional Star Trek universe that appears in Star Trek: The Next Generation's "Cause and Effect". In real life, it was named after writer Brannon Braga's hometown, Bozeman, Montana, and its hull number of NCC-1941 is taken from the film 1941, as modelmaker Greg Jein had worked on both productions.^[1]

The Bozeman was commanded by Captain Morgan Bateson (played by Kelsey Grammer) in the 23rd century. The ship was three weeks away from a starbase when it disappeared near the Typhon Expanse in the year 2278. Ninety years later, it repeatedly re-emerges from the Expanse in a temporal causality loop and collides with the USS Enterprise-D, causing the Enterprise's destruction and "restarting" the loop. Eventually, the Enterprise-D crew figure out how to stop the loop and allow the two ships to return to a normal progression of time (TNG: "Cause and Effect").

A Bozeman is also mentioned in Star Trek: Generations as being forced to make a course correction due to the destruction of the Amargosa Star, and a Bozeman participates in the interception of a Borg cube in Star Trek: First Contact. It is unclear in both instances whether this is the same Bozeman from "Cause and Effect" or another starship with the same name. Although if one listens carefully, a voice that sounds a lot like Kelsey Grammer can be heard replying "Acknowledged" in a hail from Admiral Hayes to the Defiant and Bozeman (one of the first the Enterprise crew hear when they listen to the radio chatter from the battle at the beginning of First Contact), suggesting that it is the same Captain Bateson and USS Bozeman.

The non-canon novel Ship of the Line by Diane Carey describes what happened in the Typhon Expanse in 2278.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

A Klingon plot to destroy an outpost in the Expanse is thwarted by the Bozeman, when Captain Morgan "Bulldog" Bateson takes his ship on a suicide mission to stop a massive Klingon cruiser, commanded by his long-time foe Kozara, from killing thousands of people on the outpost. The Bozeman distracts the cruiser long enough for the Enterprise to arrive and chase the Klingons away; however, during their maneuvers, Bateson attempted to conceal the ship in a tiny nebula. On leaving it, they encounter the Enterprise-D.

Several years later, after the Bozeman was turned into a museum ship, Captain Bateson and Captain Montgomery Scott are building the Enterprise-E on the same outpost in the Expanse, a political move by Bateson to get command of the ship over Picard. The Admiralty grants Bateson the command, and he asks Riker to be his First Officer. The novel then describes the shakedown cruise of the new flagship, during which the dishonored Kozara exacts his revenge on Bateson by capturing the ship with the help of a traitor planted on the Bozeman back in the 23rd century. Kozara plans to take the ship deep into Cardassian space and attack Cardassia Prime itself. Meanwhile, Picard is sent by Starfleet to Cardassia to meet with an old "friend" - Gul Madred, who is using Starfleet prisoners in his experiments. Upon forcing Madred to release the prisoners, Picard learns that the Enterprise-E is heading for Cardassian space. Madred gives Picard command of several small ships, crewed by the newly-released prisoners, in hopes that Picard can stop the Federation flagship. However, Bateson, Scott, and Riker manage to overpower the Klingons and face Kozara on the bridge. Bateson convinces Kozara that there is no dishonor in stopping now, at which point Kozara surrenders to Picard. Bateson agrees to let Picard keep the command, and Picard tells him that a new Sovereign class starship is being commissioned by Starfleet - USS Bozeman NCC-1941-A. Bateson happily accepts the new ship and transfers his crew to it.

The novel mentions at the end that it is, in fact, the Bozeman II that is fighting the Borg in First Contact, while the original has been turned into a museum. Morgan Bateson is briefly shown in William Shatner's novel Spectre, conversing with James T. Kirk and Scotty in a restaurant, which implies that the Bozeman II was not destroyed by the Borg.