The Enterprise Refit

[Freek]

Well judging by the fact that Enterprise-A was going to the mottballs only a few years after it was given to Capt. Kirk, as well as the fact that the Excelsior class was the new flagship class of the fleet, I seriously doubt that they were still building new Constitution class ships at the time. I think its likely that the Enterprise A was nothing but another old constitution class ships that had just undergone a massive refit.

[jds1982]

Well judging by the fact that Enterprise-A was going to the mottballs only a few years after it was given to Capt. Kirk, as well as the fact that the Excelsior class was the new flagship class of the fleet, I seriously doubt that they were still building new Constitution class ships at the time. I think its likely that the Enterprise A was nothing but another old constitution class ships that had just undergone a massive refit.

The only reason they were mothballing the Enterprise was because it was the last TOS movie, and it was a fitting end. It's very possible that it was another ship that had just been refitted, I just know that I always heard it was the [I]Yorktown[./I]

[teal'c2006]

I didnt know that either thanks.

[Nuallain]

The letter designation after the registry number is not really indicative of a “replacement ship” per se, as the Enterprises B, C, D, and E were all “new ships with the same name,” and NOT replacement ships. I had always heard/read that the letter designation was to pay respects to the Original Starship Enterprise.

The novel of Star Trek: The Motion Picture (AFAIK the only Trek novel Roddenberry ever wrote) says that the Enterprise and Kirk are enormously important to Starfleet because the Enterprise was the only starship to be sent out on the Five Year Mission project that completed its objective (the others either being destroyed, going missing or having to limp home to Earth early with heavy damage and/or casualties)

That's why desk-bound promotion is forced on Kirk (Admiral Nogura, the head of Starfleet, is concerned that Kirk's death in action would be a PR disaster for Starfleet). It's also why the Enterprise's signia becomes the sybmol for the whole of Starfleet.

My guess is that's sense of historical importance that means the NCC-1701 registry number is preserved across the later generations, while (for example) different Defiants just get completely new numbers.

[Daniel Jackson]

The Enterprise-A was an existing ship renamed. This is supported by the ship's decomissioning two movies lated which is set some five or so years after the characters first layed eyes on her.

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock was not intended to be the last Star Trek movie. Every Star Trek film from the first to the tenth has potentially been the last movie.

Originally, Captain Kirk and crew were going to get the Excelsior at the end of The Voyage Home, but they felt fans would want the crew to get another Enterprise, and so we got the Ent-A instead.

The new Defiant seen in DS9's final episode would have beared the registry number NCC-74205-A had the episode not required extensive stock footage which necessitated the old NX-74205 registry number.