Constitution class starship

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Constitution class

The Constitution-class starship Enterprise
First appearance Star Trek: The Original Series
Affiliation Starfleet
General Characteristics
Armaments Photon torpedoes; 18 ball turret Phasers
Defences Deflector shields
Propulsion Warp drive; impulse engines
Power Matter/Anti-Matter Reactor

In the fictional Star Trek universe, the Constitution class is a Starfleet starship type that began service in the mid-23rd century. In the original television series, ships of this class support multiple exploratory, diplomatic, and -- when needed -- adversarial missions. The restrained use of their military capabilities reflects Starfleet's primary role as an exploratory agency, and is reflected back in the fleet designation of these ships as heavy cruisers, and not the battlecruiser appellation borne by equivalent Klingon vessels.

The class design consists of a saucerlike, eleven-deck-thick primary hull, separatable from and dorsally connected to a cylindrical secondary hull, from which spring angled pylons supporting the vessel's engines in two nacelles fully half the ship's length. (The class is armed for combat, with offensive weaponry including photon torpedo launchers and phaser banks, and defensive deflector screening.) The separation of hulls was a rare event in the 23rd century, undertaken in emergencies; led from an auxiliary bridge, the secondary hull and nacelles retain ftl warp capabilities, while the main bridge and primary saucer are relegated to sublight propulsion from aft-mounted impulse engines. (The Apple TOS.) This contrasts with the more routine saucer separation of the later Galaxy class, often employed as a combat tactical maneuver, whose secondary hull is commanded from a dedicated 'battle bridge.'

Constitution was the only major ship class seen in the original series. Other Starfleet capital ship types include the Miranda class of the live-action films, and the older design of Bonaventure, seen in the animated episode The Time Trap.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture showcased the extensive refit Enterprise experienced after her first five-year mission under James Kirk. (The 1987 reference work Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise places the refit in another class: in author Shane Johnson's interviews with one of the film's main designers, Andrew Probert suggested the ship was the first of a new Enterprise class.)[1]

Though understood as such, the class was never named Constitution in the original series; Enterprise's bridge dedication plaque declares her a 'Starship' class vessel. The name debuted in show creator Gene Roddenberry's novelization of the first film, and was cemented in Trek fandom thereafter. (His novel also set K't'inga as the Klingon class name for the film's refinement of the venerated D7 battlecruiser.) The next-gen episode The Naked Now tags the original Enterprise as a Constitution ship, fixing it in canon; a diagram seen in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country puts Enterprise A in the Constitution class as well.

Constitutions are not seen in service in TNG's 24th century, though contemporary Excelsiors and Mirandas often appear. A planned use of the Constitution class design for USS Stargazer was scrubbed, and she was instead placed in the Constellation class. The next-gen episode Relics puts a Constitution-class vessel in the Starfleet museum.

Contents

[edit] Star Fleet Technical Manual

According to Franz Joseph Schnaubelt's 1975 Star Fleet Technical Manual, the ships of the Constitution class are as follows[2]. Season one of the remastered original episodes added USS Defiant; corrections to the others' registries occurred later.

  • NCC-1764 Defiant
  • 1701 Enterprise
  • 1702 Farragut
  • 1703 Lexington
  • 1704 Yorktown
  • 1674 Excalibur
  • 1672 Exeter
  • 1707 Hood
  • 1841 Intrepid
  • 1709 Valiant
  • 1710 Kongo
  • 1711 Potemkin
  • 1017 Constellation
  • 1371 Republic

This equals 14 ships. As James Kirk explains to Air Force pilot Christopher in the classic episode Tomorrow is Yesterday, Enterprise had 'only twelve others like her in the fleet.' Since the earlier episode Obsession established a destroyed Farragut, his statement holds -- though Constellation, Intrepid and Excalibur would be lost later in the season.

The Tech Manual lists ordered replacements for the lost Constellation, Farragut, Intrepid and Valiant, each of whose names gains a 'II;' following this, several novels of the same era feature Intrepid II. (The naming convention, however, wasn't adopted by the show.)

The manual lists ships of two improved classes, Bonhomme Richard and Achernar, the former including NCC-1719 Eagle, 1727 Essex, and 1714 Hornet. Neither these classes nor their ship registries have been confirmed on screen.

Calling the Constitution class a heavy cruiser, the manual also details tugs, scouts, destroyers of the Saladin, Siva and Cochise classes, and dreadnoughts of the Federation class.

Constellation earned the naval-construction contract number 1017 because the live-action model used for filming was built from the extant Enterprise AMT model kit, whose 1701 decals were reordered to form a new registry.

The starship call letters NCC had no specific meaning but were based on the 1960s aircraft designation NC, according to original art director and Enterprise designer Matt Jeffries; he suggested they could stand for Naval and Civilian Craft. Gene Roddenberry set the acronym to mean Naval Construction Contract in 'The Making of Star Trek' book, published in the early 1970s.

[edit] Encyclopedia list

 This Star Trek-related article or section describes starships in a primarily in-universe style.
Please rewrite this article or section to explain the fiction more clearly and provide non-fictional perspective.

The Constitution-class ship list used internally at Paramount has been derived from the list of fan Greg Jein, first published in 1975; it derives ship registries by matching codes from a wall display in Court Martial with known ship names in reverse alphabetical order.[3] Jein's list forms the basis for the list appearing in the Star Trek Encyclopedia.[4]

Name Registry Status Notes
USS Constellation NCC-1017[5] on screen Destroyed in The Doomsday Machine TOS. Commanded by Commodore Matthew Decker. The ship's registry was created in an AMT Enterprise model kitbash by rearranging its decals' 1701 registry.
USS Constitution NCC-1700 freeze frame Likely the class ship. Recent technical manuals date its launch to 2244. Its registry appears on a wall display in Court Martial TOS. Both Joseph and Jein make this the Constitution.[6][7]
USS Defiant NCC-1764[8] on screen Disappears into a rift in space in The Tholian Web TOS. In the mirror universe, it reappears 100 years in the past in In a Mirror, Darkly ENT.
USS Eagle NCC-956[9][10] freeze frame
USS Endeavour NCC-1895[9][11] freeze frame
USS Enterprise NCC-1701[12] on screen Her celebrated five-year mission under James T. Kirk forms the basis of the original series. Recent technical manuals date its launch to 2245. Refitted before the first film and destroyed in the third, when Kirk carries out a self-destruct to avoid her capture by Klingons.
ISS Enterprise NCC-1701[13] on screen The Imperial Star Ship Enterprise, part of the mirror universe, is seen in the original series episode Mirror, Mirror under James T. Kirk, who took command after killing former captain Christopher Pike.
USS Enterprise NCC-1701A[14] on screen The Constitution class' second Enterprise, which noncanon sources often cite as a renaming of either Yorktown or Ti-Ho -- the latter according to Mr Scott's Guide to the Enterprise.[4] The crew of Enterprise A under Kirk are ordered home for decommissioning following the Khitomer Conference in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Kirk's final log entry flags this as the final Enterprise cruise under his command.
USS Essex[15] NCC-1697[7] noncanon
USS Excalibur[16] NCC-1664[7] registry noncanon Destroyed in The Ultimate Computer.
USS Exeter NCC-1672[17] on screen Commanded by Capt Ronald Tracey. Found in orbit around Omega IV with a dead crew (The Omega Glory TOS). Exeter's later adventures figure in a series of fan-made shorts in Starship Exeter. (The registry wasn't seen in the original episode but appeared in the remastered version.)
USS Farragut NCC-1647 presumed Constitution class; registry noncanon Commanded by Capt Garrovick; Kirk's first starship post. See Obsession TOS. Farragut's later adventures appear in two fan shorts as Starship Farragut. Trek Encyclopedia puts it in the Constitution class though it wasn't seen on screen, and provides this registry. Jein uses this, but not from the Court Martial list.[4]
USS Hood[16] NCC-1703[7] on screen Damaged in The Ultimate Computer.
USS Intrepid NCC-1631[18] on screen All-Vulcan crew. Destroyed in The Immunity Syndrome. Trek Encyclopedia put it in the Constitution class though it wasn't seen on screen during the series' original run. Registry from Jein's list in the Encyclopedia gives NCC-1831. (Earlier versions of his list give this as NCC-1631.[4])
USS Lexington[16] NCC-1709[7] on screen Damaged in The Ultimate Computer. Commanded by Commodore Robert Wesley.
USS Republic NCC-1371[7] presumed Constitution class; registry noncanon Kirk served aboard her early in his career. Trek Encyclopedia puts it in the Constitution class though it wasn't seen on screen.[4]
USS Potemkin[16] NCC-1657[7][19] registry noncanon Damaged in The Ultimate Computer.
USS Yorktown NCC-1717 on screen Disabled by an alien probe in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home; registry in debate. Though Gene Roddenberry, as reported in the Trek Encyclopedia and next-gen Tech Manual, held that Yorktown was rechristened NCC-1701A Enterprise following the Probe crisis of the first film, Mr Scott's Guide said Enterprise A was a rechristening of the new Constitution refit USS Ti-Ho, in tribute to Kirk and crew for saving Earth in the fourth film. (Debate continues.)

Although NCC-1710 USS Kongo is listed on a computer readout in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, and the original Tech Manual contains the same registry, the ship isn't listed in the 1999 Encyclopedia -- and Jein's 1975 essay proposed NCC-1732. (His original list also offers NCC-1868 Hornet, 1866 Lafayette, 1865 Tashik-Sotra and 1623 Valiant.

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Star Trek starship classes

[edit] References

  1. ^ Johnson, Shane (1987). Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise. Titan. ISBN 1-85286-028-6. 
  2. ^ Joseph, Franz (1975). Star Fleet Technical Manual. Del Ray. ISBN 0-345-49586-1. 
  3. ^ Jein, Greg (April 1975). The Case of Jonathan Doe Starship.
  4. ^ a b c d e Okuda, Mike; Denise, Okuda with Mirek, Debbie (1999). The Star Trek Encyclopedia. Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-53609-5. 
  5. ^ "The Doomsday Machine". Star Trek: The Original Series.
  6. ^ Court Martial chart. Memory Alpha.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Registry not seen on screen. Derived from Jein's list by way of Trek Encyclopedia.
  8. ^ "In A Mirror, Darkly". Star Trek: Enterprise. The registry is not shown in the original series episode. Jein's registry appears in ENT as well as in the remastered The Tholian Web.
  9. ^ a b Listed on the Operation Retrieve chart in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country Operation Retrieve chart. Memory Alpha.
  10. ^ Jein's original list had this as NCC-1685.
  11. ^ Jein's original list gave this as NCC-1718.
  12. ^ "Where No Man Has Gone Before". Star Trek: The Original Series.
  13. ^ "Mirror, Mirror". Star Trek: The Original Series.
  14. ^ First introduced in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
  15. ^ Not mentioned or seen on screen, but appeared in the original-series production office's list of starship names. Encyclopedia lists her as Constitution class, and SF Tech Manual details her as a Bonhomme Richard subtype.
  16. ^ a b c d One of the Constitution-class ships to be damaged in The Ultimate Computer
  17. ^ "The Omega Glory". Star Trek: The Original Series. The registry wasn't seen in the original episode but appeared in the remastered version of The Omega Glory.
  18. ^ "Court Martial". Star Trek: The Original Series. The rship wasn't seen in the original episode but appeared, with registry visible, in the remastered version of Court Martial.
  19. ^ Jein's 1975 essay proposes NCC-1702 for this ship -- but not from the Court Martial chart.

[edit] External links

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Star Trek starship classes