• The A.V. Club
  • The Takeout
  • The Inventory

All 11 Versions of the U.S.S. Enterprise , Ranked

The Enterprise isn’t just quintessential to the long history of Star Trek , it’s also one of the most iconic starships of all time. It was the star of the classic series, but later and earlier versions of it also sat at the heart of The Next Generation and Enterprise , and beyond that in film. Now that we know the ship is coming to Discovery ’s second season, it’s time to look back and rank the best of them.

It’s too early to judge Discovery ’s take on the ship—it was only glimpsed in dark lighting at the very end of the first season’s finale —but we can still look to the many models of the U.S.S. Enterprise and judge them all.

11) Enterprise -J

This far-flung Enterprise of a future 26th century where the evil Sphere-Builders invade the Federation was barely seen during Star Trek: Enterprise ’s Temporal Cold War storyline, and for good reason: It’s an ugly, ugly ship. Our best look at it actually came in a render for an official calendar, which really shows off how spindly and flat-looking the J is. It’s like someone had a perfectly good render of a future-y take on the Enterprise and just squished it down a bit too much. There’s a difference between sleek and “looking like a space pancake with nacelles”—nacelles are the structures that house the warp engines on a ship, by the way, non- Trek fans—and the J is definitely the latter.

10) Enterprise (Kelvin Timeline)

The Trek reboot’s take on the Enterprise is, similar to the rest of the movie, an Apple-ified take on ‘60s retro-futurism. It’s blindingly shiny and has curves like a classic roadster, but as an Enterprise , it’s just a little too curvy for its own good. This is especially let down by the struts attached to the nacelles, which position the two engines far too close together, making the whole ship look off and any angle other than from the side.

9) Enterprise -B

The design, seen in the Star Trek: Generations movie, was ostensibly right in the middle of the evolution between the Enterprise of the original series and the Enterprise-D of TNG . It’s also kind of a mess—the tiny nacelle struts, the weird body around the deflector dish, and unlike the J it just looks too chunky. But the B’s biggest problem is that it’s a rehash of a design we’d already seen at that point: The U.S.S. Excelsior captained by Sulu in The Search for Spock and onwards to The Undiscovered Country . Sure, the Excelsior-class was meant to be one of Starfleet’s finest models at the time, but the Enterprise is an iconic ship and deserves to at least be a little unique.

8) Enterprise -A (Kelvin Timeline)

We don’t get to see much of it in Star Trek Beyond , but the replacement for the Kelvin universe’s Enterprise is a marked improvement on the first, if only because it corrects the mistakes of the first design by having wider-positioned, straighter nacelles (which themselves are a little more like the classic Enterprise ’s). It adds a lot of thickness in the back of the ship to do so, though, but it’s a welcome change... if only we’d actually, you know, get to see it in action in a movie anytime soon.

7) Enterprise NX-01

Okay, so it’s not a traditional version of the Enterprise . But the NX, used by the crew featured in Enterprise the TV series, at least manages to feel familiar to the silhouette of the ship we all know and love, and like one of the earliest prototypes of it, which it literally is meant to be. Not having the bottom section below the saucer gives it a svelte profile many other Enterprise iterations have tried their hand at, but it serves to give the NX it’s own look of its own while still crucially maintaining the elements you know are meant to be picked up by the time of the original Star Trek .

6) Enterprise -D (Alternate Future)

We barely got to see this 30-years-in-an-alternate future version of the Enterprise -D as The Next Generation series finale, “All Good Things.” And yes, while it was cool to see a cloaking-equipped, beefier warship version of TNG ’s iconic flagship... we have to talk about that third nacelle. It’s just too much . The D is not the prettiest looking ship in the Alpha Quadrant at the best of times (more on that in a bit), but giving it more proverbial junk in the space-trunk both ruins the Enterprise ’s shape and just makes it look silly.

5) Enterprise -D

The Next Generation ’s normal Enterprise -D, used for the remaining 99.9999 percent of the series, is a weird-looking starship. In some ways, that’s understandable. It’s noticeably bulky—unlike its predecessors, it’s a ship designed to hold both its crew and their extended families, so it needs a good deal bigger than the classic Enterprise . Plus, it’s got all sorts of cool advanced tech, like swanky holodecks and the very silly but also totally rad saucer separation/battle bridge set-up. But from a looks standpoint, it’s hardly the most graceful-looking thing around. Borrowing the angular struts of the Enterprise -B is a nice carryover, but positioning them so low (and giving the Galaxy-Class   such a ginormous saucer too) makes the whole thing look so gangly and awkward. A less than stellar ship for a totally stellar show.

4) Enterprise -C

The Enterprise of “Yesterday’s Enterprise” is only in one episode of TNG , but it’s an important part of the lineage of Star Trek ’s most iconic vessel. In the Trek timeline, it was destroyed defending a Klingon outpost at Narendra-III before the Enterprise-D was built, but thanks to a time-space rift it popped up briefly and encountered a version of its successor thanks to some time-altering shenanigans. The crew of the C must have been pleased to realize their ship looked better because it actually looks a little more like a mash-up between the D and the ships that came before it, canceling out some of the clunkiness of TNG ’s design while making a ship that feels like a natural evolution on what came before it. It’s almost a shame this wasn’t the Enterprise of the show and the D was the one-off design.

3) Enterprise -E

If the Kelvin Enterprise was a Apple-esque take on the original series’ Enterprise , the E—exclusively seen in the Next Generation movies, most of which aren’t great—is a hot rod take in the classic Star Trek aesthetic. The Sovereign-Class slims out the Enterprise ’s form by removing the “neck” piece connecting the deflector dish section to the saucer (itself slimmer, instead of the hilariously wide one on the Enterprise -D) and extending the length of the nacelles, which manages to keep everything still vaguely within the Enterprise shape we all know and love while delivering a sleek sports car feel. More than any other iteration of the Enterprise , this one feels like the slickest, most modern take on the original’s design without actually breaking too much about it to push it into unfamiliarity.

2) Enterprise -A

The Enterprise ’s first refit—which debuted in The Search for Spock movie, even if technically, it borrowed the design of the upgraded original Enterprise that appeared in The Motion Picture, Wrath of Khan , and Spock —may not have hung around for that long, and even when it did, it was the butt of a few jokes for most of its main appearance in The Final Frontier for the fact that most of its systems were malfunctioning half the time (it was rushed out of drydock). But even then, it’s still a good-looking ship, keeping everything that made its predecessor great (or rather, the predecessor before its tune-up into what would become the A’s design too). Same great ship, just a little different.

1) Enterprise

The original series’ Enterprise is iconic for a reason. It’s a beautiful design, simple and clean—and sharply angled in all the right places—compared to the busy predecessors and successors that would come in Trek series after the original. It set the legacy of everything that would come after it, not just in terms of future Enterprise refits, but for what a good Federation vessel should evoke to feel like part of the Star Trek universe. Forget the word salad mayhem of the refits that came after it—try as you can to evolve and improve on it, you can’t beat a design that cuts such an iconic appearance the first time round.

Every "Star Trek" USS Enterprise, Ranked

For the 50th anniversary of the original series, let's look back at the ships of Star Trek .

Original USS Enterprise

Star Trek is not solely the story of Enterprise . There's "Deep Space Nine" and "Voyager" and a whole galaxy full of other vessels and settings. But the name ties the icon of the original series back in time to the aircraft carrier and space shuttle of today and forward in time to the other fictional starships Enterprise that would follow. Today, 50 years after the first episode of "Star Trek" aired on TV, let's rank 'em.

9. NCC-1701-B

Aerospace engineering, Space, Jet aircraft, Aviation, Hood, Aerospace manufacturer,

Of the two Enterprises that fell between the ships of the original series crew and the ships of "The Next Generation" crew, one heroically sacrificed itself to stop a war (we'll get to it in a minute). Then there's the B, which makes a cameo appearance in Generations , a not-great movie, captained by Ferris Bueller's best friend. The Enterprise-B isn't even the definitive ship of its class. It's a clone of the Excelsior , last seen under the command of Captain Sulu in The Undiscovered Country .

Space, Astronomical object, Outer space, Toy, Universe, Unidentified flying object, Astronomy, Spacecraft, Science, Telecommunications engineering,

The ship of "Star Trek: Enterprise." It's fine.

7. NCC-1701-D ("Next Generation" series finale alternate universe Enterprise)

Space, Technology, Telecommunications engineering, Silver, Unidentified flying object,

Bringing in elements from alternate timelines that exist solely within single episodes is a good way to fall down a rabbit hole. However: I reserve the right to talk about this ship and none of the others, because when tween me saw the Enterprise-D transformed into a three-nacelle cloaking-equipped war machine, a barely suppressed "hell yes" sprang from my heart.

6. NCC-1701-A

Space, Liquid, Bird, Feather, Wing, Unidentified flying object, Water bird, Outer space,

I always thought the -A was a good-looking ship. It just doesn't have the track record to ascend any higher here. Following its introduction at the end of Star Trek IV , the ship spends Star Trek V the butt of running jokes about how the damn thing doesn't work yet. It's shot up and decommissioned by the conclusion of Star Trek VI . The Enterprise-A has to live down the list because it saved the galaxy only what, twice?

5. NCC-1701-E

Carmine, Magenta, Art, Space, Fictional character, Darkness, Animation, Cg artwork, Wing, Figurine,

Enterprise-E stars in three movies, two of which aren't very good. That scene at the beginning of First Contact , though. Captain Picard defies orders and swoops in with his jagged new Sovereign-Class vessel to kick a little Borg ass and save the fleet. It tells you all you need to know about the swashbuckling version of Star Trek you're about to watch.

4. NCC-1701-C

Space, Atmosphere, Astronomical object, Outer space, Universe, Astronomy, Unidentified flying object, Science,

This ship is a one-shot hero. It appears only in "Yesterday's Enterprise," one of the best episodes of "The Next Generation" and most thoughtful uses of time travel in the series. Accidentally transported to Picard and Riker's era, the ship and her crew must choose to return to certain death in their rightful time, sacrificing themselves to protect a Klingon outpost and ignite the Klingon-Federation alliance that blooms a peace in the 24th century.

3. NCC-1701-D

Outer space, Space, Atmosphere, Sky, Spacecraft, Night, Astronomical object, Universe, Galaxy, Vehicle,

TNG will forever be my Trek show. I watched it live with my dad and rewatched the collection of episodes he recorded to VHS. I am a Picard man.

The ship, though. For all its neat features like the holodeck and the battle bridge, the Enterprise-D looks like a Mercury Sable station wagon on the outside and a mid-sized American city's convention center on the inside.

2. NCC-1701 (J.J. Abrams universe)

Space, Aerospace engineering, Science,

1. NCC-1701

Space, Technology, Gas, Telecommunications engineering, Circle, Astronomical object, Science,

" No bloody A, B, C, or D ."

Headshot of Andrew Moseman

Andrew's from Nebraska. His work has also appeared in Discover, The Awl, Scientific American, Mental Floss, Playboy, and elsewhere. He lives in Brooklyn with two cats and a snake.

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How to Watch Star Trek in Order: The Complete Series Timeline

The full star trek timeline, explained..

How to Watch Star Trek in Order: The Complete Series Timeline - IGN Image

Ever since 1966’s premiere of the first episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, the entertainment world has never been the same. This franchise that has boldly gone where no property has gone before has captured the hearts and minds of millions around the world and has grown into a space-faring empire of sorts filled with multiple shows, feature length films, comics, merchandise, and so much more. That being said, the amount of Star Trek out in the world can make it tough to know exactly how to watch everything it offers in either chronological or release order so you don’t miss a thing. To help make things easier for you, we’ve created this guide to break down everything you need to know about engaging with this Star Trek journey.

It used to be a bit trickier to track down all the Star Trek shows and movies you’d need to watch to catch up, but Paramount+ has made it a whole lot easier as it has become the home of nearly all the past, present and future Star Trek entries.

So, without further ado, come with us into the final frontier and learn how you can become all caught up with the adventures of Kirk, Picard, Janeway, Sisko, Spock, Pike, Archer, Burnham, and all the others that have made Star Trek so special over the past 56 years.

And, in case you're worried, everything below is a mostly spoiler-free chronological timeline that will not ruin any of any major plot points of anything further on in the timeline. So, you can use this guide as a handy way to catch up without ruining much of the surprise of what’s to come on your adventure! If you’d prefer to watch everything Star Trek as it was released, you’ll find that list below as well!

How to Watch Star Trek in Chronological Order

  • How to Watch Star Trek by Release Order

1. Star Trek: Enterprise (2151-2155)

Star Trek: Enterprise is the earliest entry on our list as it takes place a hundred years before the adventures of Kirk, Spock, and the rest of the crew of Star Trek: The Original Series. The show aired from 2001 to 2005 and starred Scott Bakula as Jonathan Archer, the captain of the Enterprise NX-01. This version of the Enterprise was actually Earth’s first starship that was able to reach warp five.

While the show had its ups and downs, it included a fascinating look at a crew without some of the advanced tech we see in other Star Trek shows, the first contact with various alien species we know and love from the Star Trek universe, and more.

2. Star Trek: Discovery: Seasons 1 and 2 (2256-2258)

star trek enterprise ships in order

This is where things get a little bit tricky, as the first two seasons of Star Trek: Discovery take place before Star Trek: The Original Series but Seasons 3 and 4 take us boldly to a place we’ve not gone before. We won’t spoil why that’s the case here, but it’s important to note if you want to watch Star Trek in order, you’ll have to do a bit of jumping around from series to movie to series.

As for what Star Trek: Discovery is, it's set the decade before the original and stars Sonequa Martin-Green’s Michael Burnham, a Starfleet Commander who accidentally helps start a war between the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire. She gets court-martialed and stripped of her rank following these events and is reassigned to the U.S.S Discovery.

3. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2259-TBD)

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds also begins before the events of Star Trek: The Original Series and is set up by Star Trek: Discovery as its captain, Anson Mount’s Christopher Pike, makes an appearance in its second season. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because Pike first appeared in the original failed pilot episode “The Cage” of Star Trek: The Original Series and would later become James T. Kirk’s predecessor after the original actor, Jefferey Hunter, backed out of the show.

Fast forward all these years later and now we get to learn more about the story of Christopher Pike and many other familiar faces from The Original Series alongside new characters. It’s made even more special as the ship the crew uses is the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701, the very same that would soon call Kirk its captain.

4. Star Trek: The Original Series (2265-2269)

star trek enterprise ships in order

The fourth Star Trek series or movie you should watch in the order is the one that started it all - Star Trek: The Original Series . Created by Gene Roddenberry, this first Star Trek entry would kick off a chain reaction that would end up creating one of the most beloved IPs of all time. However, it almost never made it to that legendary status as its low ratings led to a cancellation order after just three seasons that aired from 1966 to 1969. Luckily, it found great popularity after that and built the foundation for all the Star Trek stories we have today.

Star Trek: The Original Series starred William Shatner as James T. Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as Spock, but the rest of the crew would go on to become nearly as iconic as they were. As for what the show was about? Well, we think Kirk said it best during each episode’s opening credits;

“Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise . Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.”

5. Star Trek: The Animated Series (2269-2270)

While Star Trek: The Original Series may have been canceled after just three seasons, its popularity only grew, especially with the help of syndication. Following this welcome development, Gene Roddenberry decided he wanted to continue the adventures of the crew of the Enterprise NCC-1701 in animated form, and he brought back many of the original characters and the actors behind them for another go.

Star Trek: The Animated Series lasted for two seasons from 1973 to 1974 and told even more stories of the Enterprise and its adventures throughout the Milky Way galaxy.

6. Star Trek: The Motion Picture (2270s)

star trek enterprise ships in order

The first Star Trek film was a very big deal as it brought back the crew of Star Trek: The Original Series after the show was canceled in 1969 after just three seasons. However, even it had a rough road to theaters as Roddenberry initially failed to convince Paramount Pictures it was worth it in 1975. Luckily, the success of Close Encounters of the Third Kind and other factors helped finally convince those in power to make the movie and abandon the plans for a new television series called Star Trek: Phase II, which also would have continued the original story.

In Star Trek: The Motion Picture, James T. Kirk was now an Admiral in Starfleet, and certain events involving a mysterious alien cloud of energy called V’Ger cause him to retake control of a refitted version of the U.S.S. Enterprise with many familiar faces in tow.

7. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (2285)

Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry had a sequel to Star Trek: The Motion Picture written, but Paramount turned it down after the reception to that first film was not what the studio had hoped for. In turn, Paramount removed him from the production and brought in Harve Bennett and Jack B. Sowards to write the script and Nicholas Meyer to direct the film.

The studio’s decision proved to be a successful one as Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is considered by many, including IGN, to be the best Star Trek film. As for the story, it followed the battle between Admiral James T. Kirk and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise vs. Ricardo Montalban’ Khan Noonien Singh. Khan is a genetically engineered superhuman and he and his people were exiled by Kirk on a remote planet in the episode ‘Space Seed’ from the original series. In this second film, after being stranded for 15 years, Khan wants revenge.

8. Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (2285)

star trek enterprise ships in order

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock continues the story that began in Wrath of Khan and deals with the aftermath of Spock’s death. While many on the U.S.S. Enterprise thought that was the end for their science officer, Kirk learns that Spock’s spirit/katra is actually living inside the mind of DeForest Kelley’s Dr. McCoy, who has been acting strange ever since the death of his friend. What follows is an adventure that includes a stolen U.S.S. Enterprise, a visit from Spock’s father Sarek, a run-in with Klingons, and so much more.

9. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (2286 and 1986)

While it is undoubtedly great that Kirk and his crew saved Spock, it apparently wasn’t great enough to avoid the consequences that follow stealing and then losing the Enterprise. On their way to answer for their charges, the former crew of the Enterprise discover a threat to Earth that, without spoiling anything, causes them to go back in time to save everything they love. The Voyage Home is a big departure from the previous films as, instead of space, we spend most of our time in 1986’s San Francisco.

10. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (2287)

star trek enterprise ships in order

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier once again brings back our favorite heroes from Star Trek: The Original Series, but it’s often regarded as one of the weakest films starring Kirk, Spock, McCoy, etc. In this adventure, our crew’s shore leave gets interrupted as they are tasked with going up against the Vulcan Sybok, who himself is on the hunt for God in the middle of the galaxy.

11. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (2293)

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is the final movie starring the entire cast of Star Trek: The Original Series, and it puts the Klingons front and center. After a mining catastrophe destroys the Klingon moon of Praxis and threatens the Klingon’s homeworld, Klingon Chancellor Gorkon is forced to abandon his species' love of war in an effort to seek peace with the Federation. What follows is an adventure that calls back to the fall of the Soviet Union and the Berlin Wall and serves as a wonderful send-off to characters we’ve come to know and love since 1966, even though some will thankfully appear in future installments.

12. Star Trek: The Next Generation (2364-2370)

star trek enterprise ships in order

After you make it through all six of the Star Trek: The Original Series movies, it’s time to start what many consider the best Star Trek series of all time - Star Trek: The Next Generation . The series, which starred Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard, ran from 1987 through 1994 with 178 episodes over seven seasons.

There are so many iconic characters and moments in The Next Generation, including William Riker, Data, Worf, Geordi La Forge, Deanna Troi, and Dr. Beverly Crusher, and many of these beloved faces would return for Star Trek: Picard, which served as a continuation of this story.

While we are once again on the U.S.S. Enterprise in Star Trek: The Next Generation, this story takes place a century after the events of Star Trek: The Original Series. However, there may just be a few familiar faces that pop up from time to time.

13. Star Trek Generations (2293)

While Star Trek Generations is the first film featuring the Star Trek: The Next Generation crew, it also features a team-up that many had dreamed of for years and years between Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Captain James T. Kirk.

Our heroes are facing off against an El-Aurian named Dr. Tolian Soran, who will do whatever is necessary to return to an extra-dimensional realm known as the Nexus. Without spoiling anything, these events lead to a meeting with these two legendary captains and a heartfelt-at-times send-off to The Original Series, even though not every character returned that we wished could have.

14. Star Trek: First Contact (2373)

star trek enterprise ships in order

Star Trek: First Contact was not only the second film featuring the crew from Star Trek: The Next Generation, but it also served as the motion picture directorial debut for William Riker actor Jonathan Frakes. In this film, the terrifying Borg take center stage and force our heroes to travel back in time to stop them from conquering Earth and assimilating the entire human race.

This movie picks up on the continuing trauma caused by Jean-Luc Picard getting assimilated in the series and becoming Locutus of Borg, and we are also treated to the first warp flight in Star Trek’s history, a shout-out to Deep Space Nine, and more.

15. Star Trek: Insurrection (2375)

Star Trek: Insurrection, which unfortunately ranked last on our list of the best Star Trek movies, is the third film starring the Star Trek: The Next Generation crew and followed a story involving an alien race that lives on a planet with more-or-less makes them invincible due to its rejuvenating properties. This alien race, known as the Ba’Ku, are being threatened by not only another alien race called the Son’a, but also the Federation. Captain Jean-Luc Picard and his crew disobey Federation orders in hopes to save the peaceful Ba’Ku, and while it sounds like an interesting premise, many said it felt too much like an extended episode of the series instead of a big blockbuster film.

16. Star Trek: Nemesis (2379)

star trek enterprise ships in order

The final Star Trek: The Next Generation movie is Star Trek: Nemesis , and it also isn’t looked at as one of the best. There are bright parts in the film, including Tom Hardy’s Shinzon who is first thought to be a Romulan praetor before it’s revealed he is a clone of Captain Jean-Luc Picard, but it also features a lot of retreaded ground. There are some great moments between our favorite TNG characters, but it’s not quite the goodbye many had hoped for. Luckily, this won’t be the last we’ll see of them.

17. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (2369-2375)

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is the fourth Star Trek series and it ran from 1993 to 1999 with 176 episodes over seven seasons. Deep Space Nine was also the first Star Trek series to be created without the direct involvement of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, but instead with Rick Berman and Michael Piller. Furthermore, it was the first series to begin when another Star Trek Series - The Next Generation - was still on the air.

The connections between The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine don’t end there, as there were a ton of callbacks to TNG in Deep Space Nine, and characters like Worf and Miles O’Brien played a big part in the series. Other TNG characters popped up from time to time, including Captain Jean-Luc Picard, and certain Deep Space Nine characters also showed their faces in TNG.

Deep Space Nine was a big departure from the Star Trek series that came before, as it not only took place mostly on a space station - the titular Deep Space Nine - but it was the first to star an African American as its central character in Avery Brooks’ Captain Benjamin Sisko.

Deep Space Nine was located in a very interesting part of the Milky Way Galaxy as it was right next to a wormhole, and the series was also filled with conflict between the Cardassians and Bajorans, the war between the Federation and the Dominion, and much more.

18. Star Trek: Voyager (2371-2378)

star trek enterprise ships in order

Star Trek: Voyager is the fifth Star Trek series and it ran from 1995 to 2001 with 172 episodes over seven seasons. Star Trek: Voyager begins its journey at Deep Space Nine, and then it follows the tale of Kate Mulgrew’s Captain Kathryn Janeway (the first female leading character in Star Trek history!) and her crew getting lost and stranded in the faraway Delta Quadrant.

The episodes and adventures that follow all see the team fighting for one goal: getting home. Being so far away from the Alpha Quadrant we were so used to letting Star Trek be very creative in its storytelling and give us situations and alien races we’d never encountered before.

That doesn’t mean it was all unfamiliar, however, as the Borg became a huge threat in the later seasons. It’s a good thing too, as that led to the introduction of Jeri Ryan’s Seven of Nine, a character who would continue on to appear in Star Trek: Picard and become a fan favorite.

19. Star Trek: Lower Decks (2380-TBD)

Star Trek: Lower Decks debuted in 2020 and was the first animated series to make it to air since 1973’s Star Trek: The Animated Series. Alongside having that feather in its cap, it also sets itself apart by choosing to focus more on the lower lever crew instead of the captain and senior staff.

This leads to many fun adventures that may not be as high stakes as the other stories, but are no less entertaining. There have already been three seasons of Star Trek: Lower Decks, and the fourth season is set to arrive later this summer.

The series is also worth a watch as it is having a crossover with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds that will mix the worlds of live-action and animation.

20. Star Trek: Prodigy (2383-TBD)

Star Trek: Prodigy was the first fully 3D animated Star Trek series ever and told a story that began five years after the U.S.S. Voyager found its way back home to Earth. In this series, which was aimed for kids, a group of young aliens find an abandoned Starfleet ship called the U.S.S. Protostar and attempt to make it to Starfleet and the Alpha Quadrant from the Delta Quadrant.

Voyager fans will be delighted to know that Kate Mulgrew returns as Kathryn Janeway in this animated series, but not only as herself. She is also an Emergency Training Holographic Advisor that was based on the likeness of the former captain of the U.S.S. Voyager.

The second season of Star Trek: Prodigy was set to arrive later this year, but it was not only canceled in June, but also removed from Paramount+. There is still hope this show may find a second life on another streaming service or network.

21. Star Trek: Picard (2399-2402)

star trek enterprise ships in order

Star Trek: Picard is the… well… next generation of Star Trek: The Next Generation as it brings back not only Partick Stewart’s Jean-Luc Picard, but also many of his former crew members from the beloved series. The story is set 20 years after the events of Star Trek Nemesis and we find Picard retired from Starfleet and living at his family’s vineyard in France.

Without spoiling anything, certain events get one of our favorite captains back to work and take him on an adventure through space and time over three seasons and 30 episodes.

The show had its ups and downs, but the third season, in our opinion, stuck the landing and gave us an “emotional, exciting, and ultimately fun journey for Jean-Luc and his family - both old and new - that gives the character the send-off that he has long deserved.”

22. Star Trek: Discovery: Seasons 3 and 4 (3188-TBD)

While Star Trek: Discovery begins around 10 years before Star Trek: The Original Series, the show jumps more than 900 years into the future into the 32nd Century following the events of the second season. The Federation is not in great shape and Captain Michael Burnham and her crew work to bring it back to what it once was.

Star Trek: Discovery is set to end after the upcoming fifth season, which will debut on Paramount+ in 2024.

How to Watch Star Trek by Order of Release

  • Star Trek: The Original Series (1966 - 1969)
  • Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973 - 1974)
  • Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
  • Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
  • Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)
  • Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1984)
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987 - 1994)
  • Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)
  • Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
  • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993 - 1999)
  • Star Trek: Generations (1994)
  • Star Trek: Voyager (1995 - 2001)
  • Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
  • Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)
  • Star Trek: Enterprise (2001 - 2005)
  • Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)
  • Star Trek (2009)
  • Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)
  • Star Trek Beyond (2016)
  • Star Trek: Discovery (2017 - Present)
  • Star Trek: Picard (2020 - 2023)
  • Star Trek: Lower Decks (2020 - Present)
  • Star Trek: Prodigy (2021 - TBA)
  • Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2022 - Present)

For more, check out our look at the hidden meaning behind Star Trek’s great captains, why Star Trek doesn’t get credit as the first shared universe, if this may be the end of Star Trek’s golden age of streaming, and our favorite classic Star Trek episodes and movies.

In This Article

Star Trek

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The History Of The Starship Enterprise Explained

Captain James T. Kirk on the Enterprise

Launched in 1966 as a prime time science fiction drama, " Star Trek " has gone on to become one of the world's most famous franchises. But what made it so impactful wasn't just its compelling stories and lively characters — there's also the ship on which the series was set, the USS Enterprise. Arguably the most beloved starship in science fiction, the Enterprise — whose registry NCC-1701 is famous in its own right — has become a pop culture icon, and may be as recognized across the globe as the American flag or the McDonald's golden arches. 

Since its introduction, each new era has had its own new iteration of the Enterprise: It was redesigned as the 1701-A in the feature films, and in 1987 " Star Trek: The Next Generation " introduced the Enterprise-D. By the turn of the millennium there was even a prequel spinoff named for the vessel, and in 2022, "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" ventured back aboard the original classic starship. 

With a new Enterprise-F making its debut in "Star Trek: Picard," it's time to explore the indelible legacy of the famous Federation flagship. So clear all moorings and ahead one quarter impulse power, because we're leaving space dock and setting a course to explore the history of the starship Enterprise.

Pioneering Enterprises

In the real world, there have been ships named the Enterprise as far back as the early 1700s, including the British Royal Navy's HMS Enterprize. In the United States, the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier was the USS Enterprise , commissioned in 1961, which even became a key location in "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home." The space shuttle Enterprise, meanwhile, was the first spacefaring ship to bear the name, both in "Trek" and the real world. Of course, that one was named after the "Star Trek" starship thanks to a letter-writing campaign from fans. 

In the fictional world of "Star Trek," the first deep space starship to go by the name Enterprise was actually a vessel we have yet to see outside of historical images. With a registry of XCV-330, what little we know of it comes from background details, as it is seen as part of a series of images of past Enterprises in "Star Trek: The Motion Picture," as well as in Captain Forrest's office on "Enterprise." The only physical representation we have seen so far was actually in the JJ Abrams-directed "Star Trek: Into Darkness," where a model of the early Enterprise appears on the desk of Admiral Marcus.

Though little is known about this pre-Federation starship, we do know that it was based on an unused design from series artist Matt Jeffries before he settled on the Enterprise for the 1966 TV series.

Archer's first warp 5 vessel

Before the launch of "Star Trek: Enterprise" in 2001, fans had always believed that Kirk's Constitution Class Enterprise was the first Starfleet vessel to go by that name. But in a major retcon, the series introduced the NX-01, Starfleet's first flagship, proudly bearing the name Enterprise on its hull. 

Earth's first-ever Warp 5 starship, its revolutionary new engine was capable of speeds never before dreamt of. The engine had been designed by Henry Archer, a protege of warp drive creator Zefram Cochrane, whose son Jonathan would become the ship's first captain. But when the engine was still in development, serious questions were raised about its readiness, and were it not for the efforts of Jonathan Archer and former rival pilot A.G. Robinson, it may have been scrapped altogether.

Launched in 2151 on a mission to deliver an injured Klingon back to his people, the NX-01 had primitive phase cannons but was without much of the advanced technology fans are familiar with from other shows, lacking energy shields, photon torpedoes, and tractor beams. The ship still managed to become legendary, serving at the forefront of the Xindi War, and was the ship Archer captained when he brought the Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarites together to eventually form the United Federation of Planets. According to the series' finale, this Enterprise was decommissioned in 2161 and placed into a fleet museum.

Kirk's classic connie

The original USS Enterprise may not be the first one chronologically in canon, but it is the first that fans saw, and the one most people think of when they hear the name. Its groundbreaking design by concept artist Matt Jeffries combined classic sci-fi tropes — the large saucer and rocket-shaped nacelles — to form an instantly recognizable silhouette that may never be outdone.

For three years on the original "Star Trek" series, the ship traveled to strange new worlds and sought out new life and new civilizations, captained by James T. Kirk on his five-year mission to chart the edges of the final frontier. While much of its design — particularly its interior — may seem dated to today's younger audience, it lives forever in the hearts and minds of Trek fans. It was lovingly recreated for episodes of "Star Trek: The Next Generation," "Deep Space Nine," and "Enterprise," in episodes that revisited the classic Constitution Class.

A place sci-fans called home in '60s, it was aboard the original "Connie" that Trek fans first learned about phasers, photon torpedoes, and transporters. But interestingly, when it was first developed by series creator Gene Roddenberry, it was designed to be a ship with a history, and Kirk was later revealed to be the ship's third captain. In service in this form for more than two decades in-universe, it would later see a new look when "Trek" warped to the movies.

Refit for the big screen

Thanks to renewed popularity in reruns in the '70s, a revival of "Star Trek" was launched in theaters. With a bigger budget and a bigger screen, a new design for the starship Enterprise was in order, and after some  radically different new concepts were considered, what would leave space dock was an updated version of the original that kept the same basic design, with some streamlined shapes and a lot more detail.

In fact, the remodel of the Enterprise serves as a major plot point in "Star Trek: The Motion Picture," which opens after an 18-month retrofit process that overhauls the starship with a nearly ground-up reconstruction. As a result, new captain William Decker objects to Kirk's reassignment to the captain's chair because of Kirk's unfamiliarity with many of the new systems. Sure enough, his lack of knowledge does wind up causing problems during the refitted Enterprise's first mission. 

Eventually, this updated starship became a fan favorite in its own right. But while the refit Enterprise would meet its end in "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock," with Kirk forced to destroy the ship to stop a gang of marauding Klingons, it was replaced shortly thereafter with the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-A. Nearly identical, save for some interiors which were now redressed sets from "The Next Generation," which was then-currently airing, the Enterprise-A began a long-standing tradition of tacking on an alphabetic suffix to new starships in the line. 

The successor

Following the introduction of the Enterprise-A in the 1986 film "The Voyage Home," the next ship we'd see with that name was actually the Enterprise-D, which debuted just a year later in "Star Trek: The Next Generation." We would hear nothing about the Enterprise-B until the cast of "TNG" moved to the big screen themselves, in 1994's "Star Trek: Generations."

The film that brought two eras of "Star Trek" together, it opens with the first flight of the Enterprise-B, in a ceremony attended by Captain Kirk. A state-of-the-art starship of the same class as the Excelsior seen in in "Star Trek III" — which was then under the command of Captain Sulu — this new Enterprise voyaged under the captaincy of John Harriman. Though its first mission was originally planned as little more than a trip around the solar system, it got forced into a rescue effort when a strange phenomenon threatened a nearby ship. But as it was only meant to be on a promotional tour, the Enterprise-B was without tractor beams, photon torpedoes, and medical staff.

Swinging into action, Captain Kirk saved the day and sacrificed himself to save the endangered ship. But just as many books, comics, and other media have explored the further adventures of Captain Harriman and the Enterprise-B — including its helmswoman, the daughter of Captain Sulu — we have yet to learn much more about it onscreen. 

The lost warrior

Making its first appearance in the third season of "Star Trek: The Next Generation," the Enterprise-C is another ship of the line that we only ever saw once. In this case, it's in the acclaimed episode "Yesterday's Enterprise," a story that regularly ranks among the show's very best. In the episode, Picard and the Enterprise-D encounter a rift in space through which the Enterprise-C emerges, having traveled forward 22 years, altering history.

In this diverged dark timeline, the Federation is on the losing end of a decades-long war with the Klingons, and the disappearance of the Enterprise-C two decades before is a big reason why. As it turns out, the Enterprise-C — under the command of Captain Rachel Garrett — came to the aid of a Klingon outpost that was under attack, helping to smooth relations with their rivals, eventually leading to peace with the Federation. 

Ultimately, after Garrett is killed in the divergent timeline, the Enterprise-C returns to the past to fulfill its destiny and restore history, but takes with it an alternate version of Tasha Yar from the Enterprise-D. Despite history recording the loss of all hands, we'd later learn that survivors from the Enterprise-C were taken prisoner on Romulus, including Yar, who would wind up giving birth to the villainous Commander Sela. Like its predecessor, what we learn in this episode is all we know officially of the Enterprise-C.

Picard's Enterprise-D

The Enterprise that led the landmark 1987 spinoff "Star Trek: The Next Generation," the 1701-D was designed by Andrew Probert , a protege of "Star Wars" concept designer Ralph McQuarrie who had been briefly hired to conceptualize the new Enterprise for the first "Star Trek" feature film. Recommended by McQuarrie to join the film's design team, Probert sketched up an early idea of for a new ship  that later formed the basis for the Enterprise-D.

Nearly twice as large as Kirk's classic Enterprise, this 24th century Galaxy Class starship could go much faster, topping out at warp 9.9 (as opposed to Kirk's warp 8), and had a new feature that allowed the saucer to separate from the body of the ship during crisis. The Enterprise-D was outfitted with plenty of new technology too, including the virtual reality rooms called holodecks that have since become a "Trek" staple. It was also the first starship seen onscreen to house families, children, and schools, making it essentially an entire community on a starship. Believe it or not, the Enterprise also has a group of hyper-intelligent dolphins that help steer the ship, in a section called Cetacean Ops, that's only briefly mentioned but never seen.

Commanded by Captain Jean-Luc Picard , it was the Federation flagship seen through all seven seasons of "The Next Generation" and the crew's first feature film, "Star Trek: Generations." In the climax of that movie, the Enterprise-D crashed on Veridian III, sustaining catastrophic damage that would require its retirement from service.  

A sovereign for all seasons

The first film to feature the cast of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" saw few dramatic changes during their move to cinemas. But for its follow-up, "Star Trek: First Contact," they were given a facelift: in addition to an entirely new uniform design, Picard and his crew received a new starship, the USS Enterprise-E. A Sovereign Class ship, it marked a departure from the smoother curves of the Enterprise-D and other "TNG" starships in favor of a more militant, angular design, created by illustrator John Eaves, who continued to contribute to the franchise with designs for "Star Trek: Picard" and "Star Trek: Discovery."

Upgraded with cutting-edge weapons like quantum torpedoes, the Enterprise-E went toe-to-toe with the Borg on its first adventure, during which it was partially assimilated by the cyborg collective. The Enterprise-E continued to be the hero ship in the rest of the "TNG" feature films, including "Star Trek: Insurrection" and "Star Trek: Nemesis." While the Dominion War raged, as seen on "Deep Space Nine," the Enterprise-E was held back from the front lines, instead consigned to diplomatic duties.

During its time in the films, the crew of the Enterprise-E largely remained the same as on "TNG," but the conclusion of "Nemesis" saw Riker take command of his own starship, and Picard receive a new first officer. Though we know its service continued for some years, its further adventures have never been explored officially.

The next Enterprise

When "Star Trek: Picard" premiered in 2020, it was the first time we'd seen the franchise dip its toe into the events that followed its final "TNG" feature film, and many had high hopes of seeing a new starship Enterprise. Though the first two seasons of the series didn't give the audience that gift, Trek fans finally got what they were hoping for with the third trailer for the show's third season, and the first look at the USS Enterprise-F, an all-new Odyssey Class starship. 

The direct successor to Picard's Enterprise seen in the films, this new flagship is the first Enterprise to voyage in the 25th century, and while its appearance brought applause from fans, it's not actually the first time we've seen it. In fact, the Enterprise-F was first introduced as a playable starship in "Star Trek: Online," a massively multiplayer online game, in a mission simply titled "The Odyssey Class" all the way back in 2012. And what's even more remarkable is that the design of the starship was created as the winning entry of a fan contest.

The design came from a concept artist and sculptor out of Florida named Adam Ihle, and was announced as the winner in July of 2012. A natural evolution of the Sovereign Class, it's a heavy cruiser that, in the game, was developed by Starfleet to be the most powerful starship in the fleet. Now, the design is the latest successor in the Enterprise legacy onscreen, too.

Pike's flagship reborn

At the tail end of Season 2 of "Star Trek: Discovery," fans got a jaw-dropping surprise with the arrival of the classic Enterprise commanded by Captain Pike, James T. Kirk's immediate predecessor. But this was a reimagined version of the iconic starship, updated for modern audiences. Eventually, Captain Pike, Mr. Spock, and Number One got their own spinoff series, "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds," set aboard this refurbished Enterprise with a new look.

Canonically it's the same Enterprise that was commanded by Captain Kirk in the original "Star Trek" series, but this time, its differences are not the result of a refit or maintenance overhaul. Instead, producers felt it was important to update the design, inside and out, to keep up with audience expectations in the 2020s ( via TrekMovie ) Mixing retro futurism with 1960s interior design aesthetics , they managed to reinvigorate the original Enterprise, creating what creator Gene Roddenberry and original designer Matt Jeffries might have crafted if they'd had the budget and means back in 1966. 

The biggest changes to the starship visually are its swept-back nacelle pylons, more reminiscent of the feature film refit, and the physical windows on the bridge, a feature first seen in the JJ Abrams films. While just about every aspect of the ship has been updated, set designers and artists made sure to evoke the look and feel of Kirk's original in every aspect they could. Divisive among some fans for its many changes, this new sleeker "Connie" is now the face of the 23rd century Enterprise.

JJ's ample Enterprise

In 2009 "Star Trek" and the Enterprise got a facelift when director JJ Abrams relaunched the franchise on the big screen in a total reboot of the series. The film brought "Trek" back to its roots — and back in time too, showing us an alternate timeline where younger versions of James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock, Uhura, and the rest first set foot on a newly remodeled starship Enterprise.

Redesigned from the ground up by concept artist Ryan Church — whose credentials include "Transformers" and "Avatar" — the ship has been dubbed the "JJ-prise" by fans. It kept the traditional silhouette, but featured bigger, smoother, curves and bold, bulbous, ample warp nacelles. Physically larger than the classic original, it's also much more technologically advanced, explained by the new timeline being visited by a villain from the future. It also features a clear glass viewscreen on the bridge that allows the crew to look directly into space, a major departure from previous starship designs that has since become retroactively standard, carrying over into new ships in the Prime Timeline, past and future.

Though it's initially captained by Christopher Pike, Kirk would sit in the captain's chair by the end of the first film, and command it again in its two sequels. In service through "Star Trek Beyond," the ship was damaged beyond repair by the villain Krall and replaced by a new Enterprise-A, which is seen only briefly in the film's final moments.

Enterprises of the Future

Given its science fiction nature, "Star Trek" has glimpsed into its own future more than once, and we've seen a few different Enterprises outside of the main timelines seen in the shows and movies. Some exist far off into a future we may never see onscreen, while some exist in now-erased alternate futures. In the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" finale, for example, we're introduced to a then-future version of the Enterprise-D, with a radical refit boasting three nacelles and a new, massive phaser weapon under the saucer section.

But the most notable future Enterprise might be one we never quite saw, getting only a brief look on a viewscreen in an episode of "Star Trek: Enterprise." During the Xindi War storyline, Captain Archer was pulled into the far future where time-traveling agent Daniels told him about the USS Enterprise-J , a 26th century ship that carried on the legacy more than a thousand years into Archer's future. According to Daniels, this ship was part of a battle that drove a malevolent race called the Sphere Builders back to their own realm, and in this future, it even had members of the Xindi among its crew.

Though little else is known officially about the Enterprise-J, the starship eventually made its way into the "Star Trek: Online" game, and a model was later produced by Eaglemoss . With "Star Trek: Discovery" now set in the 32nd century, we may still yet see a new version of the Enterprise even further into the future.

Alternate Enterprises

From the past and present to the far future, we've seen Enterprises of all kinds, but there are even stranger versions of the Federation flagship that have been the focus of several adventures. These variant vessels usually originate in bizarre alternate realities and parallel dimensions, and have a long history themselves. The first one seen was way back in the acclaimed 1967 episode "Mirror, Mirror" that saw the ISS Enterprise under the command of a tyrannical Captain Kirk.

That same mirror universe was revisited in a 2005 two-part episode of "Star Trek: Enterprise" which saw another ISS Enterprise, this time a variant of the NX-01, under the command of Maximillian Forrest. But Forrest is assassinated by his first officer Jonathan Archer, who takes over the ship and gets caught in a power struggle with the Vulcan T'Pol. An aged, time-ravaged alternate future NX-01 was also seen in the episode "E2."

Though "The Next Generation" never ventured into the mirror universe, we did see a more militant version of the Enterprise-D in "Yesterday's Enterprise," in a branching parallel reality created by the arrival of the Enterprise-C. In that briefly existing timeline, Picard's starship had no families, and was in fact a battle cruiser on the front lines of the war with the Klingons. Meanwhile, in the "TNG" episode "Parallels," we actually witnessed the incursion of untold numbers of Enterprises from other parallel universes, one of which had been decimated by the Borg.

USS Enterprise Evolution in Photos: The Many Faces of Star Trek's Favorite Starship

The enterprise throughout history.

Starship USS Enterprise, serial number NCC-1701, of the United Federation of Planets, has captivated audiences since the debut of "Star Trek" on television in 1966. That fascination has continued to the present day, as the latest installment of the science-fiction franchise, "Star Trek Into Darkness," opens in the US on May 16, 2013. Here we take a look at ships bearing the name of Enterprise in many different incarnations.

USS Enterprise (Sailing Vessel)

The first of all US ships to bear the name of Enterprise was a Continental Navy sloop-of-war that served in the American Revolutionary War on Lake Champlain. Originally a British sloop named "George," it was captured by a small American force commanded by Colonel Benedict Arnold in 1775 and renamed. Later the US forces had to run the ship aground and destroy it in 1777 to avoid capture.

USS Enterprise (CVN 65) in Real Life

A long series of sea vessels were named Enterprise throughout history. The eighth US ship to bear the name was the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. The US Navy commissioned the giant vessel in 1962, which served until its deactivation in 2012. A new USS Enterprise (CVN-80) is scheduled to become operational in 2025. Regarding Star Trek, the naval warship may have inspired the name of the fictional starship. Also, in "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home," Uhura and Chekov visit the aircraft carrier Enterprise, though the filmmakers could not shoot aboard the actual ship.

Star Trek Crew Welcomes Real-Life Enterprise

In 1976, NASA's space shuttle Enterprise rolled out of the Palmdale manufacturing facilities, and was greeted by NASA officials and cast members from the original "Star Trek" television series. They are (L to R): NASA Administrator Dr. James D. Fletcher; DeForest Kelley, who portrayed Dr. "Bones" McCoy on the series; George Takei (Mr. Sulu); James Doohan (Chief Engineer Montgomery "Scotty" Scott); Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura); Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock); series creator Gene Roddenberry; an unnamed NASA official; and, Walter Koenig (Ensign Pavel Chekov).

Space Shuttle Enterprise

In real life, the prototype space shuttle was named Enterprise (OV-101) following a write-in campaign by Star Trek fans. The orbiter conducts a 1977 test flight in this photo.

The VSS Enterprise of Virgin Galactic

Another real-life craft, one of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo vehicles, bears the name VSS Enterprise. It glided over California's Mojave Air and Space Port during the first drop and glide test on Oct. 10, 2010. Eventually the company plans to take "space tourists" on commercial flights.

USS Enterprise (XCV 330)

The experimental craft represents the first Starship Enterprise, although it only appeared as a illustration in "Star Trek: The Motion Picture." It again appeared in a painting during the Star Trek: Enterprise episode, "First Flight," thereby dating it prior to 2143 in the Star Trek timeline.

Enterprise (NX-01)

The United Earth Starfleet's Enterprise was an experimental prototype ship, commanded by Captain Jonathan Archer. It appeared as the titular vessel of the prequel television series Star Trek: Enterprise (2001–2005). A mirror version of the ship, ISS Enterprise (NX-01), appeared in the episode "In a Mirror, Darkly."

The Original Starship Enterprise (NCC-1701)

This model of the fictional starship Enterprise was used in filming the weekly hourlong “Star Trek” TV series that aired September 1966 to June 1969. The National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, now displays the iconic model.

ISS Enterprise in the Mirror Universe

This ship of the Terran Empire appeared in the Star Trek episode "Mirror, Mirror," which involved a treacherous, violent mirror crew. The mirror ship appears almost identical to the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701).

USC Enterprise (NCC-1701) Animated

Star Trek: The Animated Series ran from 1973-1974, and featured a Starship Enterprise retaining the original TV show's design, though the producers altered certain interior features, such as a second turbolift accessing the bridge.

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Published Jul 29, 2014

Celebrating The Ships of The Line: Enterprise NCC-1701

star trek enterprise ships in order

Star Trek is as famous for its ships as it is for its memorable characters, great shows and films, futuristic thinking, trippy costumes and sci-fact devices. And that makes sense, as Starfleet has always realized that each vessel must stand alone against any enemy or attack and must, in a phrase, stand as a ship of the line. StarTrek.com each week from now until the end of the year is going to take a closer look at a Trek ship -- some as familiar to fans as Kirk and Spock, others a bit obscure. We start today with the greatest of them all, the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701.

star trek enterprise ships in order

Constructed in San Francisco and widely considered to have taken her maiden voyage in 2245 under the command of Captain Robert April, the U.S.S. Enterprise (NCC-1701) proudly served Starfleet until her demise in 2285, when Kirk engaged the ship’s self-destruct sequence in order to save the day and keep her from the clutches of the Klingon Empire. The ship was a Federation Constitution-class heavy cruiser built to explore strange new worlds, to serve as home to 400-plus crew, and to withstand the stress of battle. And the Enterprise saw plenty of battle, taking on the Klingons, Romulans, Khan, Kruge and more, not to mention such on-ship threats as Tribbles, all just during Kirk's tenure in the captain's chair. She underwent at least two refits over the years, with one ending abruptly as the Enterprise warped into action to contend with the V'ger crisis.

The Enterprise was ultimately captained by Robert April, Christopher Pike, James T. Kirk, Willard Decker and Spock, with many others temporarily taking command at different times and for various reasons. Nearly 60 officers and crew died aboard the ship, including Scotty's young nephew, Peter Preston, and Spock, who made the ultimate sacrifice in order to restore power to the ship following Khan's attack. In the end, the Enterprise truly went where no one had gone before. She visited approximately 70 different worlds, with the crew encountering 60 some odd species and making first contact with 20-plus of those species.

The latest in the bestselling Ships of the Line calendar series is available now; visit www.Amazon.com to purchase the 2015 Ships of the Line calendar. And if you're an artist or designer, be sure to enter the Ships of the Line Design Contest, under way now, for a chance to have your art featured in the 2016 Ships of the Line calendar. Click HERE to enter.

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Enterprise Lineages on Display

Starship miniatures or decorative depictions of starships appear in many Star Trek episodes and movies. We usually assume that the ships on display, whether they are historical or recent designs, are authentic even if we never see them as "real" ships in space, and they are accordingly listed in the Starship Database . Besides the single models as they customarily appear in private quarters or in the captains' ready rooms, there are also a few design lineages on display, particularly those supposedly of "ships named Enterprise" .

Side note Speaking of design lineages, we have to bear in mind that there is nothing such as an "evolution of Enterprises" but rather an ongoing development of ship classes of Starfleet, a few particular ships of which happen to bear the name "Enterprise". There can be only one Enterprise at a time, and while Starfleet likely wouldn't give an illustrious name to a freighter, there is no reason to believe that in each design generation of capital ships exactly one has to be named "Enterprise".

Considering that Star Trek's history is continually subject to retroactive changes, the authenticity of some Enterprise lineages on display in older series or movies has been called into question. Some historically important ships that we should expect to be shown are missing, most notably NX-01 on all displays predating the launch of Star Trek Enterprise in 2001. Furthermore, the Enterprise-B and Enterprise-C look different on the Enterprise-D ship wall than they do in "reality". Is there something wrong with the ships on display, or are we even dealing with different timelines in which ships may not exist or may look different?

This small article investigates the various "ship walls". All episodes and movies are listed in production order, as usual.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Decker leads the Ilia probe to the spacious recreation deck of the recently refitted Enterprise, where screens (or backlit panels) depict a series of five sea ships and starships. Decker explicitly says: "All these ships are named Enterprise." The depictions were created by Rick Sternbach and show the following:

  • Sailing ship (rigged as a brigantine)
  • Aircraft carrier of the WWII era
  • Space Shuttle
  • "Ring ship" XCV 330 (registry is present but not legible), actually based on an early design by Matt Jefferies that could have become the Enterprise NCC-1701
  • Constitution class in original configuration prior to the refit

star trek enterprise ships in order

The depicted sailing ship could be any of the early two-masted Enterprises that are listed as brigs but may have been rigged like the depicted brigantine just as well. Considering that "all these ships are named Enterprise" , it is clear that the aircraft carrier has to be the USS Enterprise CV-6 and not one of her two sister ships of the Yorktown class. Likewise, we are looking at the Space Shuttle Enterprise OV-101, and not any of the later series orbiters.

The movie was filmed in 1979, whereas the series (Star Trek) Enterprise with its lead ship Enterprise NX-01 first aired as late as in 2001. The historical gap between the Space Shuttle and the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 is filled with the ring ship Enterprise XCV 330, rather than with Enterprise NX-01. That is why some fans would have expected the ship in the fifth Star Trek series to look exactly like the ring ship. But that would have raised still other problems, considering that the ring drive is a one-off phenomenon on Starfleet's vessels. It is better to assume that it is an experimental design that predates Enterprise NX-01, rather than a regular Earth Starfleet ship.

While the ship display in TMP is not supposed to be complete anyway (it is missing a lot of the early ships named Enterprise, and notably the aircraft carrier CVN-65), the only remaining question is why it depicts the "exotic" testbed XCV 330. But a possible answer to this question is easy, comparing the five depictions. They may have been selected to show as much diversity of designs as possible, from the wooden sailing ship over the bulky aircraft carrier, the streamlined orbiter, the test ship with its flimsy ring drive to the Enterprise NCC-1701 with its two warp nacelles. Whoever composed this ship display in the 23rd century may have been of the opinion that Enterprise NX-01 was too similar to the Enterprise NCC-1701.

Side note Real-world developments will lead to even more retroactive continuity in the Star Trek Universe. The next US Navy aircraft carrier named USS Enterprise (CVN-80) will prospectively be launched in 2025.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Up to the end of the fourth season the observation lounge of the Enterprise-D sports a wooden wall with large reliefs of the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise CVN-65 and five starships. This wall was demolished when the set was turned into the dining room for "Star Trek VI" and was not returned to its original state in the fifth season. Until then the wall always showed the following ships:

  • Aircraft carrier USS Enterprise CVN-65 (the typical configuration of this sui generis nuclear carrier is unmistakable)
  • Constitution class in configuration after the refit
  • Excelsior class in original configuration (without add-ons around the deflector, additional engines, etc.)
  • Ambassador class based on study by Andrew Probert
  • Galaxy class

star trek enterprise ships in order

It is never explicitly hinted at and, strictly speaking, only the aircraft carrier has to be named Enterprise because it is the only vessel of its class. Still, it is clear that all ships on the wall were meant to be Enterprises at the time the set was built for TNG (in 1987). In particular, we can see all Federation starships named Enterprise that must have existed at the time the Enterprise-D was launched, namely the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 (in its original configuration) and the following Enterprises A through D. However, there are several retroactive changes to the Star Trek Universe that lower the "confidence level" of the sculpted ships as we look at them today.

As already in "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" (TMP), Enterprise NX-01 is missing on the wall for obvious reasons, but the ring ship that is definitely named Enterprise according to TMP is not present either. We could say that, unlike in TMP, the ship wall on the Enterprise-D was designed to depict all the recent Federation Starfleet vessels named Enterprise, and not primarily a wide variation of ships of that name. If this is the case, we still have to wonder why the ancient aircraft carrier was included, creating a gap of more than 250 years.

Assuming that all ships on the wall are named Enterprise, two of them don't look like they do in reality. The first one is the Enterprise-B, the direct successor to the Enterprise-A as established in "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country" and "Star Trek: Generations". In the latter movie the Enterprise-B is launched with several add-ons compared to the original Excelsior design, such as a hull extension around the deflector, additional impulse engines and Bussard collector caps. These differences are not included on the relief on the ship wall. So the ship wall is either inaccurate and erroneously shows the original Excelsior design although it should be the refit, or the Enterprise-B was returned to the configuration of a standard Excelsior at a later date in the ship's service life. In the latter case the ship may have earned more fame in this "standard" appearance, and was chosen for the ship wall in spite of its less spectacular look.

star trek enterprise ships in order

The second ship on the wall that looks different than it should is the Enterprise-C . The relief on the wall is based on Andrew Probert's original design, which was never made into a fully fledged studio model. In TNG: "Yesterday's Enterprise" we see the actual Enterprise-C. It is the familiar Ambassador-class design by Rick Sternbach and Greg Jein that only roughly follows the lines of Probert's sketches and was overall simplified. Most notably, the hull of the Enterprise-C in "Yesterday's Enterprise" is tubular instead of the flattened and streamlined one of the Probert design. Unlike it is the case with the Enterprise-B, there is no other canon evidence of the design representing the Enterprise-C on the ship wall. Yet, it is well possible that a so shaped ship class actually exists, and that the artist who created the ship wall mistakenly thought the Enterprise-C was of this class. And as already in the case of the Enterprise-B, there is a chance that the Enterprise-C really looked like the ship on the wall, but in this case at an earlier time in the ship's life (in which case it would be shame it was turned into a rather bulky standard Ambassador).

Star Trek: First Contact

On the Enterprise-E, but only in "Star Trek: First Contact", we can see a spacious showcase with six gold-plated model starships (no sea ship, no Space Shuttle) in the observation lounge. Jean-Luc "Ahab" Picard smashes the glass case in a key scene of the movie, thereby damaging the models (although most of the damage was created off-camera , as Patrick Stewart apparently didn't hit the ships hard enough). It is obvious that yet again these six miniatures represent ships of the name Enterprise. We can see the following models by John Eaves:

  • Excelsior class refit (with add-ons around the deflector, additional engines, etc.)
  • Ambassador class (as the Enterprise-C in "Yesterday's Enterprise")
  • Sovereign class

star trek enterprise ships in order

The Excelsior refit, Ambassador and Sovereign were not yet available as polystyrene model kits at the time and had to be built from a Playmates toy, a resin kit and from scratch based on a study model, respectively. More about the models and the set at Eavesdropping with Johnny .

In HD, we can read the individual labels of some of the ship models, including the Ambassador-class design, that all read "Enterprise". It is clear that the ships are supposed to be the original USS Enterprise NCC-1701 and its successors A through E. In other words, the complete lineage of ships named Enterprise in the service of the UFP Starfleet, and nothing else. It is absolutely plausible that not only any sailing ships, aircraft carriers or the Space Shuttle are missing, but also Enterprise NX-01. In comparison to the Enterprise-D ship wall it is clear that retroactive continuity has taken full effect. The Enterprise-B and Enterprise-C now both look like the "real" ships that previously appeared on screen.

Star Trek: Nemesis

John Eaves was asked to build more golden ships for "Star Trek: Insurrection", but the observation lounge set was not rebuilt for the movie. The set was eventually extensively modified for "Star Trek: Nemesis", including two new glass cases. The new glass cases were actually meant to include the six models as seen in "Star Trek: First Contact" (now all built from model kits and not partially custom made) and six additional ships. The following were built, were under construction or under consideration:

  • Aircraft carrier USS Enterprise CVN-65
  • Oberth class (confirmed)
  • Miranda class (confirmed)
  • Excelsior class in original configuration
  • Intrepid class (confirmed)
  • Zefram Cochrane's Phoenix
  • Defiant class

star trek enterprise ships in order

The glass cases as they were actually finished for "Star Trek: Nemesis" only contain two sets of the six Enterprises and none of the extra vessels because by the time John Eaves had built them the glass cases were already filled with the duplicates of the Enterprises. Only the left showcase can be seen in the movie anyway. So this gives us the same list of actual models as for "First Contact".

More about the "lost" models and the "Nemesis" set at Eavesdropping with Johnny .

Star Trek Enterprise

In Archer's ready room on Enterprise NX-01 we can see a small gallery of starship drawings behind a common plexiglass pane that obviously represent a design lineage. The following ships can be seen here since the day of the launch of Enterprise NX-01:

  • Sailing ship (frigate)
  • Enterprise NX-01 (obviously, because at the time the ship is launched it is the only one of its class)

star trek enterprise ships in order

John Eaves posted the following large versions of the four drawings on his website.

star trek enterprise ships in order

Actually, John Eaves created an additional fifth picture of the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise CV-6, which didn't make it to the wall. Overall, this "ship wall" looks like a very balanced and diverse selection of ships named Enterprise, a bit like already in "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" but with some retroactive continuity regarding the omission of the ring ship XCV 330, which is currently considered to be just a testbed for a new propulsion technology. The appearance of the XCV 330 in the 602 Club in "First Flight" and in Admiral Forrest's office in "Home" proves that the design was not simply forgotten.

star trek enterprise ships in order

DS9: The Nagus & In the Hand of the Prophets

A wall chart in Keiko's classroom can be seen in two DS9 episodes of the first season. It depicts what was supposed to be the first warp ship at the time, the Bonaventure ( "Discovery of the Space Warp" ), as well as five classes of Starfleet's starships from the 23rd and 24th century ( "Backbone of the Star Fleet" ):

  • Bonaventure
  • Ambassador class

star trek enterprise ships in order

The five Federation starships happen to represent the five starships named Enterprise that existed at the time the episode was made. As the episode predates "Generations", we can see a standard Excelsior class, rather than the Enterprise-B with add-ons as it looks in the movie. Since the display probably wasn't created in-universe with special focus on the name "Enterprise" and there is no reference to "ships named Enterprise" but only to the generic class names on the chart, this is not a problem though.

Star Trek Into Darkness

star trek enterprise ships in order

The various "ship walls" were never meant to be technically accurate depictions of starships or complete listings of all ships named Enterprise. It is clear that there is artistic license in the artwork, and that the selection of the ships on display may be randomized or may follow a pattern that is not immediately obvious. Of the four different Enterprise design lineages that appeared in episodes and movies, the two most recent ones in production order, on the Enterprise-E and Enterprise NX-01, are up to date and completely plausible. They show the ships named Enterprise that we would expect to see there. The ship display in "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" may appear outdated considering that it includes the ring ship in the place of Enterprise NX-01, but it makes sense because it presents the widest possible variety of designs in just five depictions.

This leaves the ship display on the Enterprise-D as the only one that may come across as retroactively "unreliable". The real Enterprise-B and Enterprise-C as seen in "Star Trek: Generations" and "Yesterday's Enterprise", respectively, don't look as they should on the ship wall. Yet, we can deal with these small inconsistencies with common sense. There are very good rationales why these two ships look different on the wall and there is no need to resort to far-fetched parallel universe theories to explain them.

The Enterprise Legacy - a compilation about the eight starships to bear this name

Some screen caps from TrekCore . Thanks to Colin for additional canon references.

star trek enterprise ships in order

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Fleet Yards

Star Trek: The 15 Most Powerful Versions Of The Enterprise, Ranked

The Enterprise is synonymous with the Star Trek franchise, so we're paying tribute to the ship by ranking the best versions of the popular ship!

Star Trek is one of the most celebrated franchises in the entire world, and why shouldn’t it be? Since its inception over 50 years ago, this franchise has helped recruit (pardon the pun) entire generations of fans. And we’ve had several different shows to help us explore the frontiers of this awesome universe. While there have been some notable exceptions, such as Deep Space Nine and Voyager, the heart of Star Trek has always been the Starship Enterprise . Fans quickly understood that the ship was as much of a character as Kirk or Picard was, and everyone became defensively protective over “their” Enterprise .

Of course, this leads to the inevitable fan debates of which version was the best. While all the fans love Star Trek , what they arguably love even more is constantly comparing show and characters to each other. Is Kirk better than Picard? Is Spock better than Data? These debates have raged for years, and they show no sign of letting up anytime soon. Those arguments are long and bitter because they are subjective. How do you determine if one character is better than another? That’s why we like to stick to arguments that you can easily prove. For instance, which Starship Enterprise is the strongest of them all? There have been quite a few ships to bear this name over the years, and not all of them are equally powerful. How can you figure out which ship is strongest without setting off an angry internet debate? It’s simple: replicate yourself some Earl Grey Tea and keep scrolling to read   which version of the Enterprise is the best of the best.

15 THE VERY FIRST

Here at the top of our list is the very first Starship Enterprise . While it’s true that Earth Naval vessels had previously had the title, this was the first starship with the name. Furthermore, it was the first Earth vessel that specifically sought out new life, under the command of Captain Archer.

This ship was immensely powerful for its day and time, boasting phasers, photon torpedoes, and even a newfangled transporter device. However, this ship was built a whopping one hundred years before the adventures of Captain Kirk, which is why everything else on this list is a little bit higher.

14 ENTERPRISE MIRROR UNIVERSE

As time went on, the Enterprise creators felt more comfortable creating connections to The Original Series. Eventually, we got two episodes of Enterprise set in the infamous “mirror universe” in which all our familiar and friendly characters are maniacal and manipulative. This meant that, technically, we got a new Enterprise .

We don’t get to see a whole lot of this Enterprise in battle. However, the opening credits alone show us that in this warlike reality, weapons systems are a higher priority. You never know when a single ship might need to bombard a planet! So, for having weapons built with no scruples whatsoever, this mirror ship edges out the original Enterprise .

13 DISCOVERY'S ENTERPRISE

Part of what makes it difficult to evaluate some of these ships is that we haven’t seen much of them yet. For instance, this next ship is the familiar Starship Enterprise from Kirk’s day, but with a twist: this is the version of the ship we see on Star Trek: Discovery .

However, the ship only pops up in the last minutes of the last episode of Discovery ’s first season. Aside from cooing over the sexy modern design of the ship, we haven’t seen yet what this baby can do. That’s why this ship is at the bottom of the list in terms of Kirk-era ships.

12 THE CLASSIC

Your first Starship Enterprise is a lot like your first boyfriend or girlfriend: there will never be an experience like it ever again and for most Trek fans, that first experience occurred during the Original Series with Kirk’s familiar Starship Enterprise .

Over three seasons, we got to see what this ship could do. It was capable of beating Romulans in a pitched battle, and on any given day, it could travel backwards in time. Basically, any ship with Scotty could do just about anything, making this one of the most powerful ships for its time period, and the Enterprise , like Scotty himself, would only get better with age!

11 ENTERPRISE MIRROR UNIVERSE, PART II

Like the Enterprise of Captain Archer’s era, there is also a Mirror Universe version of Captain Kirk’s Enterprise  and for many of the same reasons, we are forced to rate this new Enterprise as just a little bit higher than its primary universe counterpart.

We don’t see this “evil” Enterprise in a lot of combat. However, we do see them threatening to destroy an entire planet’s population as a form of punishment. In this way, this Enterprise is as deadly as the Death Star from Star Wars , and it gets the nod for being more powerful than the main universe ship that we know and love.

10 THE MOTION PICTURE

Many casual fans think that the Enterprise in the first Trek movies was the same as the one in the show. However, this isn’t entirely true. While this is still the trusty NCC-1701, the ship receives an extensive refit in-between the end of Kirk’s five-year mission and the beginning of Star Trek: The Motion Picture .

This refit was far from being only cosmetic. It got upgraded phaser banks, a better torpedo launcher, and an entirely new engine. It was these refits that helped the ship survive its encounter with V’ger, but unfortunately, Kirk would eventually have to self-destruct this ship to save it from Klingon capture.

9 THE REFITTED ENTERPRISE

Shortly after the destruction of the refitted Enterprise (and after Kirk and his crew helped save planet Earth), Starfleet presented a new Enterprise with the NCC-1701 A. Visually, this ship was basically the same as the previous one: the creative teams of these movies were still using the old models.

However, we’re giving the 1701-A an edge over the original because it would have benefited from having the most recent weapons and other tactical advantages. It also had a brand new style of warp core (the same style later used on the Enterprise-D ), which may give the ship another advantage in combat and pursuit.

8 THE ENTERPRISE-B

In man ways, the Enterprise-B is the ship we know the least. It only appeared at the beginning of Star Trek: Generations . However, during a crisis -- and with the help of Captain Kirk -- this Excelsior-class ship was able to demonstrate why it was more powerful than previous vessels to bear that name.

It was a running joke in the movie that this ship was missing several key components (all arriving “on Tuesday”), and that the ship setting out was basically a PR stunt. However, even missing these components, the Enterprise-B survived the reality-warping The Nexus and managed to save 47 people, including fan-favorite character, Guinan.

7 THE ENTERPRISE-C

The Enterprise-C had a unique design. It was an Ambassador-class ship, and we would rarely see this ship class again (at least, outside of Peter David’s amazing New Frontier novels). But thanks to Star Trek: The Next Generation , we know how important, and powerful, this ship really was.

In “Yesterday’s Enterprise,” we see this ship come through a time portal into the future. This ended up altering reality into an ongoing war between Starfleet and the Klingons. The ship is sent back through the portal into what was allegedly its doom with four Romulan warbirds attacking at once. Nonetheless, the ship seemingly survived the barrage because the Romulans took prisoners (including a reality-displaced Tasha Yar) back to their homeworld. Bottom line? It’s one tough ship.

6 THE KELVINVERSE

Next up is the Enterprise from the rebooted Star Trek movies. This ship is from a different universe (the Kelvinverse), but fans might be surprised to see it this high up on the list. After all, isn’t this basically the same ship from The Original Series?

In actuality, this is only the same ship when it comes to the general design. In terms of sheer size, this vessel is larger than any of the previous ones on this list, and it even rivals Captain Picard’s Enterprise-D . Aside from size, it seems to have power and endurance, as it survives attacking Nero’s stolen ship, which canonical comics tell us was outfitted with Borg weaponry and other scary weapons from nearly a hundred years in the future.

5 STAR TREK: BEYOND

As we said before, some of the ships on this list are ones we haven’t really seen in action. That means we had to have Mr. Data boot up the Sherlock Holmes program and help us brush up on our deductive skills. That’s what we did with this next ship, the Kelvinverse 1701-A.

We only really see this ship being built in the last few minutes of Star Trek: Beyond . That means we don’t know what all it can do in terms of strength and speed. However, it’s an updated and upgraded version of a ship that was already powerful, so we’re confident about its place on the list.

4 THE ENTERPRISE-D

Next is one of the most iconic ships on this list -- the Enterprise-D . Under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard, we have seen this ship tested in a variety of ways and by a number of deadly foes. That’s why we feel confident about placing it so highly on the list.

This is basically the only ship that survived attacking the Borg when they first assaulted Earth. It has also survived encounters with giant crystals, hostile armies, and a malevolent, god-like being. It boasts powerful shields, strong engines, and top-of-the-line phasers and photon torpedoes, and as a tactical option, the saucer section can be separated, forcing enemies to suddenly fight a two-front war.

3 THE ENTERPRISE-E

As cool as the Enterprise-D was, it couldn’t last forever and after its destruction, it was replaced with a new ship in the Sovereign-class Enterprise-E . We see this ship for several movies, and that lets it firmly establish itself as the strongest Enterprise in this particular timeline and reality.

This ship personally led the charge in destroying a Borg cube when it attacked the Earth. Later, it was able to take out multiple enemy ships at once in The Briar Patch area of space. Finally, it is used to disable the giant Reman ship named the Scimitar in the most metal way: by ramming it! Ultimately, it’s helpful to have such a tough ship helmed by someone as tough as Captain Picard.

2 THE MODIFIED ENTERPRISE-D

Star Trek basically wrote the book on things like alternate timelines and altered realities. So, it’s not much of a surprise that one of the strongest ships on this list is from a future that will never happen. What is it? It’s the modified Enterprise-D that we see in the future timeline of “All Good Things.”

We know this ship has powerful engines -- after all, it’s got a third nacelle. We also know it’s strong, too as it’s able to take out a powerful Klingon vessel with a single shot. So, even though we don’t see this ship on-screen that much, we’re confident that it’s almost as tough as they come.

1 THE 1701-J

The show Enterprise was deliberately set in the past as a kind of prequel to Kirk’s adventures. Nonetheless, Captain Archer and crew often got involved in weird time adventures with foes from the future, and this meant getting a glimpse of the toughest Enterprise of all in the 1701-J.

Archer is actually taken onboard this ship by a Temporal Agent so he can get a glimpse of how the future could potentially change. There could be peace with the Xindi, or possibly endless war. As for the ship itself, it’s a Universe-class vessel that is from the 26th century -- its tech should blow everyone else out of the water!

ScreenRant

Star Trek’s MACO Explained: Why Enterprise Needed Space Marines

  • Star Trek: Enterprise's third season introduced MACOs to the ship for a darker storyline in the wake of 9/11.
  • MACOs comprised specially trained high ranking officers and provided advanced combat skills and weaponry to Starfleet.
  • American actor Steven Culp played Major J. Hayes in 5 episodes during Enterprise's third season.

Star Trek: Enterprise season 3 introduced the military organization MACOs (unofficially, space marines ). First airing in 2001, Star Trek: Enterprise documented Earth's initial first contacts and voyages into deep space. Echoing significant societal events of the time, Enterprise season 3 took on a noticeably darker tone. Transitioning from standalone episodes to a complex and weighty season-long serial arc, a devastating attack on Earth by the mysterious Xindi landed Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) with a heavy responsibility for establishing contact and preventing (or intercepting) further attacks. Anticipating a need for the presence of a conflict-trained unit, Archer requested a military assignment to the NX-01 Enterprise .

By the nature of its premise as a prequel to other franchise shows (and the United Federation of Planets itself), Star Trek: Enterprise wielded significant license for shaping the early period of Star Trek 's multiverse timeline . With its later core ideals of peace and cooperation and aversion to being perceived as in any way military, the introduction of Marine-style troops in Star Trek: Enterprise season 3 allowed for an intriguing development of pre-Federation Starfleet and insight into humanity's approach to the significant external threats of the era. The severity of the destruction caused by the Xindi attack on Earth led to the Enterprise crew's third season mission and allocation of Star Trek's MACOS.

Star Trek: Enterprise Cast & Character Guide

Star trek’s maco space marines on enterprise explained, the macos were a different military organization from starfleet.

An acronym for Military Assault Command Operations, the MACOs were a pre-Federation military organization associated with United Earth and tasked with combatting major threats . Separately managed, but operating in tandem with Starfleet, the MACOs provided advanced weaponry and tactical and combat skills to Starfleet’s generally exploration-focused personnel. Star Trek: Enterprise improved the franchise in numerous ways, retconning many of the events that occurred later in the timeline, and the inclusion of these high-ranking military officers in Enterprise season 3 allows a fascinating and raw insight into humanity’s early processes pre-Federation. The MACO organization was disbanded following the foundation of the United Federation of Planets.

Initially tasked with integrating with Enterprise ’s crew, the MACOs were active in combat and rescue missions.

The Star Trek: Enterprise season 2 finale, “The Expanse,” saw a devastating attack on Earth from a Xindi probe that resulted in the death of millions. An obvious allegory to 9/11, Enterprise season 3's significant modification to the show’s previous episodic format led to the assignment of the NX-01 Enterprise crew to the Delphic Expanse in the wake of the Xindi attack. Given the nature and severity of their mission, MACO troops were assigned to the Enterprise under the command of Major J. Hayes (Steven Culp) at the request of Captain Archer. Initially tasked with integrating with Enterprise ’s crew, the MACOs were active in combat and rescue missions.

Star Trek: Beyond (2016) subtly developed the MACOs' role as one of several references to Star Trek: Enterprise.

1 Star Trek MACO Almost Replaced Riker As Picard’s Number One

Steven culp played commander martin madden & major j. hayes.

A deleted Star Trek: Nemesis scene reveals a surprising alternate ending to the poorly received 2002 movie. Partially restored for the film's DVD release and initially cut due to the movie's length, the scene introduces a new character, Commander Martin Madden (Steven Culp). Madden succeeds Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes), following the former USS Enterprise-E First Officer's promotion to Captain of the USS Titan, but the scene’s deleted status renders this alternate ending not Star Trek canon . Instead, Lieutenant Commander Worf (Michael Dorn) takes over as First Officer until Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) receives a promotion to Admiral.

Steven Culp later appeared as Major J. Hayes in five episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise's third season (2003-2004). Assigned to the NX-01 Enterprise, Hayes led a MACO detachment when Captain Archer was sent to the Delphic Expanse and tasked with combatting the Xindi threat against Earth. Unfortunately, Hayes was later shot and killed in action rescuing Ensign Hoshi Sato (Linda Park) from the Xindi. Although Culp’s casting as Commander Madden in Star Trek: Nemesis didn’t come to a real fruition, his role in Star Trek: Enterprise secured him a place in pre-Federation history and earned the character a legacy as a hero of the Xindi Crisis.

Star Trek: Nemesis is available to stream on Max.

Star Trek: Enterprise

Cast Solomon Burke Jr., Dominic Keating, Connor Trinneer, Linda Park, John Billingsley, Scott Bakula, Jolene Blalock, Anthony Montgomery

Release Date September 26, 2001

Streaming Service(s) Paramount+, Netflix

Star Trek’s MACO Explained: Why Enterprise Needed Space Marines

Memory Alpha

USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A)

  • View history

The USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A) was a Constitution II -class vessel operated by Starfleet in the 23rd century . It was the second Federation starship to bear the name Enterprise , and was assigned to the newly-demoted Captain James T. Kirk and his command crew in 2286 . ( Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home )

After the Enterprise -A was decommissioned following the Khitomer Conference in 2293 , it was maintained as an exhibit at the Fleet Museum . The ship's lineage was continued with the launch of the USS Enterprise -B . ( TNG : " Relics "; Star Trek Generations )

  • 2.1 Shakedown
  • 2.2 Sybok and Sha Ka Ree
  • 2.3 Gaseous anomaly project
  • 2.4 Final voyage
  • 2.5 Retirement
  • 3 Embarked craft
  • 4 Command crew
  • 5.1 Appearances
  • 5.2 Background information
  • 5.3 Apocrypha
  • 5.4 External links
  • See : Enterprise history

The Enterprise -A was named in honour of its predecessor, the USS Enterprise , which was scuttled over the Genesis Planet several months prior. ( Star Trek III: The Search for Spock )

Externally, the Enterprise -A was virtually identical to the Enterprise in its Constitution II -class configuration. ( Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home )

The new Enterprise had a number of individualized customizations, including the inclusion of several maritime relics, including a steering wheel from a sailing vessel inscribed with the ship's motto, "to boldly go where no man has gone before," located in its crew lounge . ( Star Trek V: The Final Frontier )

The officers' mess featured painted portraits of several historical figures, including displayed portraits of Abraham Lincoln of Earth and Sarek of Vulcan . ( Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country )

Service history

USS Enterprise-A in spacedock

The Enterprise -A awaiting launch from Spacedock One in 2286

In 2286 , the Enterprise -A was commissioned at the San Francisco Fleet Yards on stardate 8442.5. It was launched from Spacedock One on the order of the Federation Council in appreciation of Captain James T. Kirk and his crew's efforts to prevent the Whale Probe from devastating Earth . The crew initially thought they were going to be assigned to a " freighter " at best, according to Leonard McCoy , or the USS Excelsior , but the new Enterprise was soon revealed, docked next to the Excelsior . The crew took their stations and the Enterprise left Spacedock on a shakedown cruise . ( Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home )

The shakedown did not proceed as planned, and the Enterprise limped back to Spacedock for several weeks of repair under the supervision of Captain Montgomery Scott . Although its warp drive was working perfectly, half the doors on the ship were malfunctioning and several control interfaces did not work. The transporter was also non-operational, requiring shuttle s to be used for away missions .

Sybok and Sha Ka Ree

USS Enterprise-A in orbit of Sha Ka Ree

The Enterprise in orbit of Sha Ka Ree

Before repairs were complete, Enterprise was returned to active duty to intervene in a hostage situation on Nimbus III . The away team led by Captain Kirk were themselves taken prisoner by the rogue Vulcan Sybok and his followers , with the objective of stealing the Enterprise to aid in their quest to find Sha Ka Ree . On approach to the ship aboard the shuttle Galileo , Commander Hikaru Sulu was forced to make an emergency crash landing into the Enterprise landing bay as the craft was pursued by a Klingon Bird-of-Prey , commanded by Klaa . The Bird-of-Prey would follow the Enterprise to the center of the galaxy.

The Bird-of-Prey caught the Enterprise off-guard in orbit of Sha Ka Ree, and disabled it before the crew could raise shields or arm weapons. However, Klingon ambassador Korrd , rescued from Nimbus III, relieved Captain Klaa and ordered the Bird-of-Prey to stand down. The Klingon crew was later invited to a reception following the return of the Enterprise to Kirk's command, and the discovery that Sha Ka Ree was a myth. ( Star Trek V: The Final Frontier )

Spock kept a picture of himself and his friends taken on the bridge of the Enterprise -A from this time for the next century until his death in 2263 of the alternate reality . ( Star Trek Beyond )

Sometime after the mission to Sha Ka Ree, Commander Sulu transferred off the Enterprise -A to assume command of the USS Excelsior . ( Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country ; PIC : " The Star Gazer " commemorative plaque )

Gaseous anomaly project

In the early 2290s , the Enterprise -A was outfitted with advanced equipment for the study of gaseous planetary anomalies . ( Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country )

Final voyage

USS Enterprise-A escorting Kronos One

The Enterprise -A escorting the Klingon flagship, Kronos One , in 2293

In 2293 , the Enterprise -A was due to be retired along with many of its command crew. However, it was unexpectedly assigned as an escort for Klingon chancellor Gorkon during the initial stages of peace talks that would lead to the Khitomer Accords . The ship rendezvoused with the Klingon flagship , Kronos One , and was to accompany it to Earth . A joint Starfleet, Klingon, and Romulan conspiracy had an operative, Lieutenant Valeris , placed aboard the ship as a relief helmsman. Valeris participated in a plan to implicate the Enterprise and Captain Kirk as rogue assailants in Gorkon's murder, with the goal of derailing the peace process. The Enterprise appeared to fire two photon torpedoes at Kronos One , temporarily disabling its propulsion and gravity systems. Amid the chaos two space-suited Starfleet crew members, Burke and Samno , beamed aboard and assassinated Gorkon. Valeris altered the ship's databank records to make it seem as if two torpedoes had been fired. The torpedoes actually came from a cloaked prototype Bird-of-Prey positioned directly below the Enterprise , which had been modified to fire while cloaked.

Captain Kirk and Dr. McCoy were arrested and tried for the murder , and sentenced to life imprisonment on the penal colony Rura Penthe . Valeris also provided Kirk's log entries from the Enterprise to the Klingon co-conspirators to further implicate him. The Enterprise was ordered back to Earth, but Spock ignored these orders and began an investigation aboard the ship. He discovered evidence which linked Valeris to the conspiracy, despite her best efforts to sabotage the investigation. The Enterprise then entered Klingon space, masquerading as the freighter Ursva , and rescued Kirk and McCoy. Spock forcibly mind melded with Valeris and learned more about the conspiracy, including details of the Bird-of-Prey and names of those involved. Captain Sulu aboard the USS Excelsior provided Kirk with the new location of the peace conference, and the two ships raced to Khitomer in order to prevent the assassination of the Federation President and the new Klingon chancellor, Azetbur .

USS Enterprise-A hull breach

The hull breached

General Chang was waiting in orbit in his prototype Bird-of-Prey, and the Enterprise was attacked upon arrival. The starship was seriously damaged and suffered a hull breach through its saucer section when it's deflector shields were depleted. The Excelsior , too, was unable to track the cloaked ship, and could only give Chang another target to fire at. However, Spock, McCoy, and Uhura devised a plan to fire a photon torpedo equipped with sensors capable of tracking ionization from the Bird-of-Prey's impulse engines . It successfully impacted Chang's vessel, disabling its cloaking device and leaving it vulnerable to attack from Enterprise and Excelsior . Following the destruction of the Bird-of-Prey, teams from both ships beamed down to the Khitomer Conference and apprehended the conspirators, preventing the assassination. ( Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country )

USS Enterprise-A leaves Khitomer

" Second star to the right… and straight on 'til morning "

Following the Khitomer mission, the Enterprise was ordered by Starfleet Command to return to Spacedock to be decommissioned. In response, Captain Kirk ordered a course set for the " second star to the right... and straight on 'til morning . " Kirk later recorded in his log that this was to be the final cruise of the starship Enterprise under his command, commenting, " This ship and her history will shortly become the care of another crew. To them and their posterity will we commit our future. They will continue the voyages we have begun and journey to all the undiscovered countries, boldly going where no man – where no one – has gone before. " ( Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country )

USS Enterprise-A, 2401

The Enterprise on display at the Fleet Museum

The next USS Enterprise , the refit Excelsior -class USS Enterprise -B , was launched later that year. The Enterprise -A remained mothballed as of 2294 . ( Star Trek Generations ; TNG : " Relics ")

Following its decommissioning, the Enterprise -A's battle damage was repaired at Spacedock, and the ship was preserved as a museum exhibit. It would eventually be displayed between the USS Voyager and the USS Excelsior at the Fleet Museum at Athan Prime . Upon seeing the ship in 2401 , Jack Crusher identified it as his personal favorite. Calling it "Kirk's Enterprise ," he remarked, " All those perfectly clean retro lines. Yep, I'm definitely a Constitution -class man. " ( PIC : " The Bounty ")

In 2402 , the rebuilt USS Enterprise -D was returned to the Fleet Museum and given a place of honor between the Enterprise -A and the USS Stargazer . ( PIC : " The Last Generation ")

Embarked craft

The Enterprise had at least two shuttlecraft , including the Galileo and the Copernicus . ( Star Trek V: The Final Frontier )

Command crew

Spock's group photo

The USS Enterprise -A command crew circa 2287

Constitution II class bridge, 2293

The USS Enterprise -A command crew at the end of their final mission

  • James T. Kirk ( 2286 – 2293 )
  • Spock (2293) (acting)
  • Spock (2286–2293)
  • Leonard McCoy (2286–2293)
  • Montgomery Scott (2286–2293)
  • Hikaru Sulu (2286– 2287 )
  • Valeris (2293)
  • Pavel Chekov (2286–2293)
  • Nyota Uhura (2286–2293)

See also: USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A) personnel

Appearances

  • Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
  • Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
  • Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
  • Star Trek Beyond (picture only)
  • " The Bounty "
  • " The Last Generation "

Background information

The Enterprise -A was a reuse of the refit Enterprise model built for Star Trek: The Motion Picture . The ship was designed by Andrew Probert and Richard Taylor , partly based on Matt Jefferies and Mike Minor 's design sketches for Star Trek: Phase II . Other artists who worked on the refit design were Joe Jennings , Douglas Trumbull , and Harold Michelson . Michelson also designed the sets for the first film, which were altered to become those of Star Trek: The Next Generation .

In the first draft script of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home but not in the final version of that film, the "A" in this Enterprise 's registry was finished being painted on top of the primary hull just as the shuttle containing Kirk and his senior staff arrived; this scene was retained in the novelization of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home . Also, the same script described the ship being shown emerging from Spacedock, though that is not depicted on-screen. The scene instead cuts from the vessel being inside Spacedock to being outside the facility, already in space.

The bridge seen in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home was a simple redress of the existing bridge from Star Trek III: The Search for Spock . It was painted white and the lighting scheme was slightly altered. In addition, okudagrams replaced the gauges and dials formerly seen on the ship. Only the back half of the bridge was modified, the front portion was left unchanged. [1]

By Star Trek V: The Final Frontier , most of the movie Enterprise sets had been recycled to become the Enterprise -D of Star Trek: The Next Generation . The bridge had been irrevocably modified as various Starfleet bridges seen throughout the series, including the Enterprise -D battle bridge , and also became several science labs and alien interiors. ( citation needed • edit ) A new bridge was constructed under supervision of production designer Herman Zimmerman , who wanted to show a transition to the TNG era by introducing carpet and warmer tones to the bridge. The turbolift alcoves were the only parts saved from the previous set, as they were removed during TNG's second season. Other Enterprise -D sets were reused for the film, specifically sickbay , the transporter room, and the corridors, in order to save money; much of the signage and graphics were left in place, and TNG-style door labels and control panels can be seen on the sets.

According to Michael and Denise Okuda 's text commentary for the Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (Special Edition) DVD , the shuttlebay doors as seen in The Final Frontier were modified from a portion of the Zamundan Royal Palace set from the 1988 Eddie Murphy film Coming to America .

The new bridge was reused in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country ( citation needed • edit ) for both the Enterprise and the Excelsior , with some modifications. Director Nick Meyer wanted to give the vessels a much more militaristic feel, and incorporated metal flooring and some tactile control surfaces. Enterprise -D sets were used for engineering, sickbay, the transporter room, the officers' mess, Kirk's and Spock's quarters, and the corridors, but they were disguised better for this film, undergoing several changes.

Sickbay painting

The Enterprise -A on a painting aboard the Enterprise -D

The bridge set was placed in storage at the end of production. It was later turned into the Enterprise -B bridge and the Amargosa observatory for Star Trek Generations , the Excelsior again in " Flashback ", and many "guest" Starfleet ships on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager , including the USS Prometheus ( VOY : " Message in a Bottle ") and the USS Equinox . ( VOY : " Equinox ") The turbolift alcoves eventually became part of the USS Enterprise -E bridge in Star Trek: First Contact , Star Trek: Insurrection , and Star Trek Nemesis . ( Star Trek: Captain's Chair )

The model of the Enterprise -A (lot #1000) was sold at the 40 Years of Star Trek: The Collection auction on 7 October 2006 for US$240,000.

The Enterprise -A was pictured on a painting in the waiting area of the sickbay aboard the USS Enterprise -D in the Star Trek: The Next Generation fifth season episode " Ethics ". This unfinished painting was created by Andrew Probert during the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation . ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Interactive Technical Manual )

USS Enterprise mislabeled as the Enterprise-A

The USS Enterprise was mislabeled as the Enterprise -A in "Ephraim and Dot".

The original refit Enterprise was erroneously labeled as the Enterprise -A in the Star Trek: Short Treks episode " Ephraim and Dot ". Director Michael Giacchino admitted this was a mistake due to a difficult production schedule. [2]

While the ship's history before its appearance at the end of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home has never been officially stated, several non-canon sources offered explanations following the release of the film. The AMT/Ertl Model kit documentation claimed it to be a renamed USS Yorktown (NCC-1717), while the Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home Sourcebook Update for the FASA roleplaying game identified it as the newly-built Atlantis (NCC-1786). The book Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise , also published shortly after the film, identifies it as a different newly-built starship, the USS Ti-Ho (NCC-1798), which in the book had been a test bed for transwarp technology alongside the USS Excelsior . In Star Trek V: The Final Frontier , Captain Scott alludes to the ship being newly-built during its shakedown cruise, stating in his log " This new ship must have been built by monkeys ".

According to the paperwork with the Bandai model kit, the Enterprise -A was mothballed into Memory Alpha 's museum fleet, which was later supported by Scott's comments in " Relics ". This was confirmed in the season 3 of Star Trek: Picard , where a display shows the Enterprise-A at the museum alongside the Excelsior and Voyager .

In the comic book " TNG Special 3 ", the Enterprise -A was on display at Starbase 122 ( β )'s Starfleet museum in 2369 where it was visited by Scott after his rescue from the Dyson Sphere in " Relics ".

According to William Shatner 's novel The Ashes of Eden , the Enterprise -A was sold by Starfleet to the defense forces of the planet Chal ( β ), who appointed the now-retired James Kirk as its commander. The vessel was later destroyed in the corona of Chal's sun during a battle with Klingon battle cruisers. These events are later referenced in the novel Cast No Shadow .

The Enterprise -A featured in several computer games set in the motion picture era, including Star Trek: Starfleet Command and Star Trek: Starfleet Academy , as well as a simulated foe in Star Trek: Klingon Academy .

The Enterprise -A was featured in the 2006 video games Star Trek: Encounters and Star Trek: Legacy .

External links

  • USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A) at StarTrek.com
  • USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A) at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
  • USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A) at Wikipedia
  • 2 Hoshi Sato
  • 3 Broken Bow (episode)

TrekMovie.com

  • March 12, 2024 | ‘Starfleet Academy’ May Not Arrive Until 2026; Alex Kurtzman Talks Bringing In New Star Trek Fans
  • March 12, 2024 | See Jake and Nog Reunited For A New Adventure In ‘Sons Of Star Trek’ #1 Preview
  • March 11, 2024 | Early Review: ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Flies Into A New Adventure In Season 5
  • March 11, 2024 | Melissa Navia Talks “Incredible Things” For ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Season 3
  • March 10, 2024 | Star Trek Merch: ‘Lower Decks’ Moopsy Plush And ‘Search For Spock’ Anniversary Steelbook Available For Pre-Order

Star Trek Merch: TNG Digital Funkos, Corgi Diecast Relaunch, ST09 Scotty Figure, And New ‘Picard’ Books

star trek enterprise ships in order

| March 3, 2024 | By: TrekMovie.com Staff 17 comments so far

It’s time to catch up on some of the latest news and updates on Star Trek merchandise with new collectibles, figures, posters, and more.

Digital Next Gen Funkos

Funko, makers of the popular Funko Pop! vinyl figures , just announced the release of a series of Star Trek: The Next Generation “Digital Pop!” collectibles. Funko Digital Pop! incorporates digital collectibles into animated digital trading cards featuring Funko’s signature Pop! style. This is the second Trek release for Digital Pop! following a TOS collection in 2021 . The TNG digital collectibles can be purchased via standard or premium digital packs, with a total of 18,000 for each pack available. Standard packs (5 Digital Pops!) retail for $9.99 USD and premium packs (17 Digital Pops!) for $29.99 USD.

Every purchase offers collectors an opportunity to unveil a rare Funko Digital Pop!, which can be redeemed for a corresponding limited-edition physical Pop! collectible. The Star Trek: The Next Generation drop features five redeemable Digital Pop! figures including Jean-Luc Picard, Wesley Crusher, Worf, Judge Q, and Freddy Funko as Locutus of Borg. Digital Pop! x Star Trek: The Next Generation will be available for purchase through Droppp.io beginning on March 12.

star trek enterprise ships in order

Corgi relaunches diecast ships in UK and select countries

British diecast manufacturer Corgi has announced that they are relaunching several Star Trek ships from their classic collection. The first two models being released are the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 from Star Trek: The Original Series and the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D from Star Trek: The Next Generation . Originally released in 2006 the models have been updated with new decoration and deluxe packaging. The TOS and TNG Enterprise models are available now with the Star Trek: The Motion Picture refit Enterprise due later this year. The models are priced at £54.99 each and can be purchased directly from Corgi: TOS Enterprise and TNG Enterprise . Sales are limited to the UK, Germany, Netherlands and Japan.

star trek enterprise ships in order

Note: We are still waiting on details on the upcoming Fanhome diecast Star Trek model line coming later this year. Fanhome has confirmed the new line will include new ships featured in Star Trek: Picard ( including the USS Titan, USS Stargazer, and Enterprise-F) and Strange New Worlds (including the USS Farragut).

Hiya adds Scotty to ST09 line of figures

Hiya Toys is expanding its previously announced line of 1:18 scale “Exquisite Mini” action figures for the 2009 Star Trek movie. The latest addition is Scotty. Like other figures in the line, Scotty has 17 points of articulation, interchangeable hand parts, accessories like a phaser and communicator, and a base to pose the figure. The Scotty figure is expected to arrive in April 2025 and can be pre-ordered at Entertainment Earth for $24.99 . The first figure in Hiya’s 1:18 Star Trek 2009 line is James T. Kirk due in May, which will be followed by McCoy, Spock, Spock Prime, Nero, Keenser, Chekov, and Sulu. All can be pre-ordered at Entertainment Earth .

star trek enterprise ships in order

Books out this week- Picard: Firewall and Art of Picard

Two new Star Trek books were released on Tuesday. In fiction, there is David Mack’s Star Trek: Picard: Firewall from Pocket Books, which tells the story of Seven of Nine’s time after Star Trek: Voyager and before her return in Picard . You can order Firewall  in  hardcover , Kindle e-book , audiobook , and audio CD now at Amazon.

star trek enterprise ships in order

And for non-fiction, Titan has released their latest Star Trek coffee table book: Star Trek: Picard: The Art and Making of the Series . The 208-page hardcover by Joe Fordham explores the makeup, costumes, art, and visual effects from the series with cast and crew interviews. The fully illustrated book features behind-the-scenes and on-set photography and production art. You can order the Picard art book at Amazon for $41.15 .

star trek enterprise ships in order

Find more news and reviews of  Star Trek merchandise .

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Too bad we can’t have a behind-the-scenes book of only the third season of Picard.

I would so love that too!

These “Digital” Pops are a kick in the nuggets to collectors who’ve been trying to get Trek Pops on their shelves since the first stubby-legged TOS and TNG releases ages ago.

Ok, I’ll bite, what’s that blue stripe about on the Constitution class neck?

Amazingly, the blue is present (but very subtle) on the filming model.

Seeing that original Constitution design, it’s so sad what John Eaves has done to it (and, well, every other Starfleet ship). I miss the days of clean lines and simple shapes.

How nostalgic.

How elegantly snarky.

After seeing Playmates Toys once again blow it as far as delivering on a successful Star Trek Action Figure Line, I would really love it if Trekmovie could get us the low down on Hiya Toys plans. Are they going to delve into any other parts of Star Trek’s extensive legacy? Will we get any ships, play-sets(diorama pieces)or role-play items? How about also getting the scoop from Super7 Star Trek Ultimates and Reaction Figures as well?

ugh kinda regretting spending all that money on a painted 3d printed commission of the Titan-A from Etsy. it looks great but it wasn’t cheap

I’m happy that you’re covering the ‘Art of Picard’ release but this site’s coverage of non-fiction Trek books has been very spotty in the past. The ‘These Are The Voyages’ series is an example; a couple of the TOS books were covered but the third season volume was ignored as welll as the 3-volume set covering the 70’s, including The Motion Picture. Those books are the most comprehensive look at the TOS era and should have been covered as other books have been.

I can offer to cover them … in a layer of something rather smelly.

Kev, you should swallow your pride and pick up the Motion Picture book. I know you’re a fan of the film and the book is very good!

Between owning two copies of Preston Neal Jones’ RETURN TO TOMORROW and interviewing a couple dozen TMP alum over the years, I have a reliably deep understanding and appreciation of TMP that doesn’t rely on misleading statements and outright fabrication, which seem to be what passes for journalism in the examples I’ve seen cited of Cushman’s past trek work.

If he had simply reproduced the memos he sourced instead of using them as a dubious basis for creating his own fill-in-the-blanks Trek history, even on trivial matters such as production dates, I would no doubt have been on board with buying them and relying upon them. But his inventions of facts (like suggesting the existence of a paperback original of ARENA, to name just one that was discussed and debunked thoroughly years back) are pure malarkey and put proof to the charges levied by honest journalist/researcher types, such as the Fact Trek folk, who aren’t fastbuck artists. Sherilynn Connelly’s THE FIRST STAR TREK MOVIE is a recent release — one that also wasn’t covered on this site, so far as I know — that seems very well researched, even if for me it isn’t the most compelling of reads.

Not saying there aren’t a few TMP-rleated bits I’d still like solved (like Walter and De having an idea for solving the film’s ending that Koenig has apparently forgotten entirely after mentioning it in his CHEKOV’S ENTERPRISE diary), but I’d have trouble accepting the veracity of Cushman’s accounts given his spotty, or perhaps splotchy is a better word, track record.

OK, we’ll remain at loggerheads over this issue.

Screen Rant

How new star trek shows are made explained by executive producer.

Star Trek executive producer Alex Kurtzman explains the process of how new Star Trek shows are greenlit and developed at Paramount+.

  • Alex Kurtzman leads Star Trek's TV franchise expansion with multiple series on Paramount+.
  • Kurtzman explains the two-year process of getting new Star Trek shows into production.
  • Collaborative efforts with the studio head and Paramount+ leads to greenlighting new series.

Star Trek executive producer Alex Kurtzman explains the process of how new Star Trek shows are greenlit and put into production at Paramount+. Kurtzman's Secret Hideout has been in charge of the Star Trek TV franchise since the launch of Star Trek: Discovery in 2017. Under Kurtzman's watch, Star Trek has expanded to multiple series , including Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: Lower Decks, Star Trek: Prodigy, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and, soon, the Star Trek: Section 31 movie and a new series, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.

Speaking to Collider at SXSW prior to the world premiere of Star Trek: Discovery season 5 , Alex Kurtzman described how a new Star Trek series goes from an idea into development at Paramount+. Kurtzman explains the two-year process to get a modern Star Trek series up and running . Check out his quote below:

It's a communal conversation, meaning I talk to the head of the studio, David Stapf, who's been incredibly supportive from the beginning, from Discovery's launch. And then we go, and we talk to the Paramount+ folks, and we tell them 'Here's what we're thinking. In order to get to this show, we're going to need to start planning really two years ahead, which means you have to start putting things in development.' It's actually a small group of people. And then once you figure out what show everybody wants to make, then it becomes a question of what it costs to make it.

Every Upcoming Star Trek Movie & TV Show

Budgeting a star trek tv show's season explained, alex kurtzman and michelle paradise break down how a star trek season's spending.

Alex Kurtzman and Michelle Paradise also broke down how a Star Trek series is budgeted throughout a season, using Star Trek: Discovery as an example. Noting that Discovery 's premiere and finale episodes tend to cost more, Paradise explains:

We have a pattern budget which is the number that we want to hit for any given episode. Because our premieres and finales are typically larger, because we wanna launch with a bang and end with a bang, we just know that if we go over the pattern in the episode or in a particular area of the episode that in later episodes, we're gonna need to make that up. So it's really a matter of just making sure that we are diligent about that and keeping track along the way. So that by the end of the season, we have hit our pattern for all of the episodes, even if one or more went over.

Kurtzman also pointed out that smaller-budgeted Star Trek episodes have the advantage of trading expensive spectacle for richer character development. He says:

In fact, I think from a dramatic perspective, it's great because it forces you to tell stories that are just focused on character. Nothing else. If you say like, ‘Sorry, you don't get any explosions this episode, you don't get anything, any of the bells and whistles. You just have to write people in a room.’ It forces your brain into a different space than you're usually in, which is a great thing — if you're doing it right, it's a great thing for character.

Star Trek: Discovery season 5's epic treasure hunt encompasses both spectacle and deep character development. While there is no word on whether Star Trek: Picard 's much-demanded proposed spinoff will get made at Paramount+, if Star Trek: Legacy ever is greenlit, would go through the same process of development and budget as the other Star Trek series executive produced by Alex Kurtzman.

Source: Collider

AIs are more accurate at math if you ask them to respond as if they are a Star Trek character — and we're not sure why

  • An AI model prompted to speak like a Star Trek character was better at solving math problems.
  • It's not clear why acting like Captain Picard helped the chatbot boost its results.
  • People are noticing there is an art to prompting AI and it is becoming a field in itself.

Insider Today

The art of speaking to AI chatbots is continuing to frustrate and baffle people.

A study attempting to fine-tune prompts fed into a chatbot model found that, in one instance, asking it to speak as if it were on Star Trek dramatically improved its ability to solve grade-school-level math problems.

"It's both surprising and irritating that trivial modifications to the prompt can exhibit such dramatic swings in performance," the study authors Rick Battle and Teja Gollapudi at software firm VMware in California said in their paper.

The study, first reported by New Scientist , was published on February 9 on arXiv , a server where scientists can share preliminary findings before they have been validated by careful scrutiny from peers.

Using AI to speak with AI

Machine learning engineers Battle and Gallapudi didn't set out to expose the AI model as a Trekkie. Instead, they were trying to figure out if they could capitalize on the "positive thinking" trend.

People attempting to get the best results out of chatbots have noticed the output quality depends on what you ask them to do , and it's really not clear why.

"Among the myriad factors influencing the performance of language models, the concept of 'positive thinking' has emerged as a fascinating and surprisingly influential dimension," Battle and Gollapudi said in their paper.

"Intuition tells us that, in the context of language model systems, like any other computer system, 'positive thinking' should not affect performance, but empirical experience has demonstrated otherwise," they said.

This would suggest it's not only what you ask the AI model to do, but how you ask it to act while doing it that influences the quality of the output.

In order to test this out, the authors fed three Large Language Models (LLM) called Mistral-7B5, Llama2-13B6, and Llama2-70B7 with 60 human-written prompts.

These were designed to encourage the AIs , and ranged from "This will be fun!" and "Take a deep breath and think carefully," to "You are as smart as ChatGPT."

The engineers asked the LLM to tweak these statements when attempting to solve the GSM8K, a dataset of grade-school-level math problems. The better the output, the more successful the prompt was deemed to be.

Their study found that in almost every instance, automatic optimization always surpassed hand-written attempts to nudge the AI with positive thinking, suggesting machine learning models are still better at writing prompts for themselves than humans are.

Still, giving the models positive statements provided some surprising results. One of Llama2-70B's best-performing prompts, for instance, was: "System Message: ' Command, we need you to plot a course through this turbulence and locate the source of the anomaly. Use all available data and your expertise to guide us through this challenging situation.'

The prompt then asked the AI to include these words in its answer: "Captain's Log, Stardate [insert date here]: We have successfully plotted a course through the turbulence and are now approaching the source of the anomaly."

The authors said this came as a surprise.

"Surprisingly, it appears that the model's proficiency in mathematical reasoning can be enhanced by the expression of an affinity for Star Trek," the authors said in the study.

"This revelation adds an unexpected dimension to our understanding and introduces elements we would not have considered or attempted independently," they said.

This doesn't mean you should ask your AI to speak like a Starfleet commander

Let's be clear: this research doesn't suggest you should ask AI to talk as if aboard the Starship Enterprise to get it to work.

Rather, it shows that myriad factors influence how well an AI decides to perform a task.

"One thing is for sure: the model is not a Trekkie," Catherine Flick at Staffordshire University, UK, told New Scientist .

"It doesn't 'understand' anything better or worse when preloaded with the prompt, it just accesses a different set of weights and probabilities for acceptability of the outputs than it does with the other prompts," she said.

It's possible, for instance, that the model was trained on a dataset that has more instances of Star Trek being linked to the right answer, Battle told New Scientist.

Still, it shows just how bizarre these systems' processes are, and how little we know about how they work.

"The key thing to remember from the beginning is that these models are black boxes," Flick said.

"We won't ever know why they do what they do because ultimately they are a melange of weights and probabilities and at the end, a result is spat out," she said.

This information is not lost on those learning to use Chatbot models to optimize their work. Whole fields of research , and even courses, are emerging to understand how to get them to perform best, even though it's still very unclear.

"In my opinion, nobody should ever attempt to hand-write a prompt again," Battle told New Scientist.

"Let the model do it for you," he said.

Axel Springer, Business Insider's parent company, has a global deal to allow OpenAI to train its models on its media brands' reporting.

Watch: Neil deGrasse Tyson Tells Us Why 'Star Trek' Is So Much Better Than 'Star Wars'

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COMMENTS

  1. Star Trek: Every Version Of The Starship Enterprise

    Seen in Star Trek: Enterprise season 2, episode 24, "First Flight," a painting of the USS Enterprise XCV 330 revealed it to be a probe-like vessel with a long tube body that was surrounded by massive orbiting rings. Far from the most powerful Starfleet ship, the XCV 330's design was primitive even by Enterprise- era standards, and little has ...

  2. Starship Enterprise

    Enterprise or USS Enterprise, often referred to as the Starship Enterprise, is the name of several fictional spacecraft, some of which are the main craft and setting for various television series and films in the Star Trek science fiction franchise. The most notable were Captain James T. Kirk's USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) from the original 1960s television series, and Captain Jean-Luc Picard's ...

  3. Star Trek's USS Enterprise

    The history and timeline of Star Trek's USS Enterprise, explained. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise… you know the rest. Since it began in 1966, Star Trek has been tracking the adventures of the USS Enterprise right the way through the Star Trek timeline.Some spin-off Star Trek series, like DS9, Voyager, Discovery, and Lower Decks, have directed their focus elsewhere on ...

  4. All 11 Versions of the U.S.S. Enterprise, Ranked

    9) Enterprise-B The design, seen in the Star Trek: Generations movie, was ostensibly right in the middle of the evolution between the Enterprise of the original series and the Enterprise-D of TNG ...

  5. Star Trek: Every Version of The Enterprise, Ranked

    An amped-up version of the Enterprise appeared in the series finale for Star Trek: The Next Generation, "All Good Things," one of its very best Star Trek episodes ever. In an alternate future, the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D packs in a lot more power. The previously graceful Enterprise adds the third nacelle on the back and a gigantic phaser canon on the underbelly of the saucer.

  6. Every "Star Trek" USS Enterprise, Ranked

    Today, 50 years after the first episode of "Star Trek" aired on TV, let's rank 'em. 9. NCC-1701-B. Star Trek. Of the two Enterprises that fell between the ships of the original series crew and the ...

  7. Enterprise history

    The name Enterprise has a longstanding history as a ship name, starting some time prior to the 18th century and lasting at least into the 26th century. HMS Enterprize was a noted sailing ship of the British Royal Navy. A galleon, she was active sometime between the 16th century and the early 18th century. (Star Trek: Enterprise opening credits) A frigate named Enterprise was a noted sailing ...

  8. USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)

    The USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) was a 23rd century Federation Constitution-class starship operated by Starfleet, and the first Federation starship to bear the name Enterprise. During its career, the Enterprise served as the Federation flagship and was in service from 2245 to 2285. During the latter years of its life, the Enterprise was refitted into a Constitution II-class starship and served as ...

  9. USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)

    USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) is a starship in the Star Trek media franchise. It is the main setting of the original Star Trek television series (1966-69), and it is depicted in films, other television series, spin-off fiction, products, and fan-created media.Under the command of Captain James T. Kirk, the Enterprise carries its crew on a mission "to explore strange, new worlds; to seek out new ...

  10. Star Trek: Enterprise

    Star Trek: Enterprise, originally titled Enterprise until Season 3, is the sixth series set in the Star Trek universe. Created by Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, and based upon Gene Roddenberry's classic 1966 Star Trek (and its subsequent spin-offs), Enterprise was a prequel set a century before the time of Kirk and Spock. The series followed the voyages of the first starship Enterprise and ...

  11. How to Watch Star Trek in Order: The Complete Series Timeline

    1. Star Trek: Enterprise (2151-2155) Star Trek: Enterprise is the earliest entry on our list as it takes place a hundred years before the adventures of Kirk, Spock, and the rest of the crew of ...

  12. The History Of The Starship Enterprise Explained

    Paramount. The Enterprise that led the landmark 1987 spinoff "Star Trek: The Next Generation," the 1701-D was designed by Andrew Probert, a protege of "Star Wars" concept designer Ralph McQuarrie ...

  13. 'Star Trek' Starship Enterpise Evolution in Photos

    The United Earth Starfleet's Enterprise was an experimental prototype ship, commanded by Captain Jonathan Archer. It appeared as the titular vessel of the prequel television series Star Trek ...

  14. Timeline of Star Trek

    In universe timeline chronological order Star Trek: Enterprise (ENT), Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS), ... The first prototype warp ship was launched in 2055. The Star Trek Chronology does not hold with this theory, and asserts that Cochrane was an Earth native, who moved to Alpha Centauri later in life. (Even in "Metamorphosis", before ...

  15. Celebrating The Ships of The Line: Enterprise NCC-1701

    Constructed in San Francisco and widely considered to have taken her maiden voyage in 2245 under the command of Captain Robert April, the U.S.S. Enterprise (NCC-1701) proudly served Starfleet until her demise in 2285, when Kirk engaged the ship's self-destruct sequence in order to save the day and keep her from the clutches of the Klingon Empire.

  16. Star Trek: Every Captain of the Enterprise

    Here is a breakdown of all USS Enterprise Captains across the various Star Trek movies, live-action series, comics, and books. Beginning with Star Trek: The Original Series, the Starship Enterprise has been at the very heart of the enduring sci-fi franchise created by Gene Roddenberry in 1966.Of course, the two most famous Captains of the Enterprise are James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and Jean ...

  17. USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-B)

    Damn fine ship, if you ask me.Montgomery Scott The USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-B) was a 23rd century Federation Excelsior-class starship operated by Starfleet. This was the third Federation ship to bear the name Enterprise. See Enterprise history On stardate 9715.5, in the year 2293, the Enterprise-B was commissioned. During its construction a piece of the USS Enterprise-A was incorporated, as ...

  18. Star Trek timeline in complete chronological order, explained

    A full list of the Star Trek timeline in chronological order: Star Trek: Enterprise seasons 1-4 (Year set in: 2151-2161) Star Trek (2009) ... First Contact picks up soon after the events of Generations with Picard and the crew in a brand-new ship, the Enterprise-E. Their new ship is put to the test almost immediately, though when the Borg ...

  19. Ex Astris Scientia

    All episodes and movies are listed in production order, as usual. Analysis Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Decker leads the Ilia probe to the spacious recreation deck of the recently refitted Enterprise, where screens (or backlit panels) depict a series of five sea ships and starships. ... (Star Trek) Enterprise with its lead ship Enterprise NX ...

  20. Star Trek: Every Doctor On The Enterprise

    Star Trek: Enterprise 's Dr. Phlox (John Billingsley) is, chronologically, the first Chief Medical Officer of the first Starship Enterprise. The NX-01 Enterprise commanded by Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) was the first Warp 5-capable Earth spaceship to explore the galaxy. The Denobulan Dr. Phlox was one of the few aliens aboard, along ...

  21. Star Trek: Enterprise

    Star Trek: Enterprise, originally titled simply Enterprise for its first two seasons, is an American science fiction television series created by Rick Berman and Brannon Braga.It originally aired from September 26, 2001 to May 13, 2005 on United Paramount Network ().The sixth series in the Star Trek franchise, it is a prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series.

  22. Star Trek: The 15 Most Powerful Versions Of The Enterprise, Ranked

    7 THE ENTERPRISE-C. The Enterprise-C had a unique design. It was an Ambassador-class ship, and we would rarely see this ship class again (at least, outside of Peter David's amazing New Frontier novels). But thanks to Star Trek: The Next Generation, we know how important, and powerful, this ship really was.

  23. Star Trek's MACO Explained: Why Enterprise Needed Space Marines

    Star Trek: Enterprise's third season introduced MACOs to the ship for a darker storyline in the wake of 9/11. MACOs comprised specially trained high ranking officers and provided advanced combat ...

  24. USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A)

    The USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A) was a Constitution II-class vessel operated by Starfleet in the 23rd century. It was the second Federation starship to bear the name Enterprise, and was assigned to the newly-demoted Captain James T. Kirk and his command crew in 2286. (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home) After the Enterprise-A was decommissioned following the Khitomer Conference in 2293, it was ...

  25. Star Trek Merch: TNG Digital Funkos, Corgi Diecast Relaunch, ST09

    The first two models being released are the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 from Star Trek: ... Fanhome has confirmed the new line will include new ships featured in Star Trek ... You can order ...

  26. How New Star Trek Shows Are Made Explained By Executive Producer

    Star Trek executive producer Alex Kurtzman explains the process of how new Star Trek shows are greenlit and put into production at Paramount+.Kurtzman's Secret Hideout has been in charge of the Star Trek TV franchise since the launch of Star Trek: Discovery in 2017.Under Kurtzman's watch, Star Trek has expanded to multiple series, including Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: Lower Decks, Star Trek ...

  27. Using Star Trek Prompts Boosted AI Chatbot Basic Math Performance

    In order to test this out, the authors fed three Large Language Models (LLM) called Mistral-7B5, Llama2-13B6, and Llama2-70B7 with 60 human-written prompts. ... Mr. Spock on the ship's bridge in ...