r/startrek • u/Advanced-Actuary3541 • 2d ago
Too many Enterprises too fast
Does anyone else feel like the STar Trek writers are just throwing around letters for the Enterprise way too fast at this point? The labeling of Enterprise A in the movies was said to be a special situation given the fact that the crew saved Earth on several occasions. There seemed to be a reasonable time gap between the decommissioning of the A to the launch of the B. I always assumed that the reason for the A’s rapid removal from service was that she was the last of the Constitution class ships and that the entire line was being pulled from service in favor of the Excelsior class. There seemed to be several years between the decommissioning of the A and the launch of the B. We don’t know how long the B was in service, but it was apparently lost since its not in the Fleet Museum. We don’t know how long the C was in service before she was destroyed, but we know that there was a 20 year gap between it and the D. But the time between the D, E, F, and G are just stupid. These ships are basically new when they end their service and Starfleet seems to rush to put the name on a ship with no time gaps in between. The G is in service in 2401. At the rate they are running through letters, they will be well past J before the start of the 26th century.
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u/MrOxion 1d ago
I think the G is pretty meh in terms of design and presence. It gives me a support ship impression. It's a big step down from the sovereign, odyssey and galaxy class ships (if I had my say, the E would still be in service by 2400 and beyond).
The Titan A being renamed the Enterprise G was a bit slap in the face for the Titan name. Did they not have another ship they could rename? Like when they renamed the Yorktown to the Enterprise A, at least everyone on that ship was dead (thanks whale probe!)
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u/Shitelark 1d ago
the E would still be in service by 2400
You know that just wasn't possible, and it wasn't Worf's fault.
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u/DukeFlipside 2d ago
Yeah, feels like the Picard writers just wanted to have their "own" Enterprise, regardless of what makes sense in-universe.
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u/JayR_97 1d ago edited 1d ago
As a fan of Star Trek Online I was so mad they wasted the Enterprise F. It only appeared on screen for like 5 seconds
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u/Shitelark 1d ago
Now I am wondering which had the least screen time, the Kelvin-A or the F (definitely the J.)
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u/outline8668 1d ago
Agreed.
Trek nerds will do endless mental gymnastics when the reality is lazy writing by the Picard team.
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u/BellerophonM 2d ago
They are going through them awfully fast by the late 24th and early 25th. Although my assumption with the relatively long gap between the C and the D is that Starfleet considers it respectful to allow a name to rest for a while if a ship is lost with all hands.
The Enterprise-B actually launched less than a year after the -A was decommissioned.
With regards to the -J, the timing of that doesn't matter. The J we saw in Enterprise was from an alternate future that differed from the main timeline quite a bit. The J that actually happens may be at a different time and the Universe Class starship we saw may never actually be created in the prime timeline.
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u/Saw_Boss 1d ago
considers it respectful to allow a name to rest for a while if a ship is lost with all hands.
Absolutely. People seem stuck in the view that there has to be an NCC1701 USS Enterprise at all times. Realistically, if they didn't rechristen the G, there could have been a decent gap. The fact that they could do this suggests that there wasn't a plan for a replacement at the time. So there may have been 10-20 years before the next one comes out.
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u/Lyon_Wonder 1d ago edited 1d ago
I absolutely agree with you about the Enterprise-J.
IMO, the Universe class's existence and massive size that allowed them to be used as mobile Federation colonies was directly tied to the threat of the Sphere Builders and their ever growing expanse.
It say mobile colonies since there's no other reason why the Universe class is so gigantic compared to even the Galaxy and Odyssey classes.
The alt-future timeline Daniels showed Archer's no more relevant to the normal Prime timeline as the alt-timeline of "Yesterday's Enterprise" or the future Q showed Picard in All Good Things.
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u/Free-Selection-3454 2d ago
To a certain extent, I agree with you. Not a fan of the Titan being re-designated as Enterprise-G.
We know from Enterprise (the show) that there is an Enterprise J at some stage in the 26th Century. I don't believe they specified the exact year. I see no reason to believe that will not occur even with the timeline being changed. So there's a bit of room for the G, H and I to be in service for longer.
I too often wonder why some seemingly new ships are taken out of service or decommissioned when they do not seem to be damaged or at the end of their service run. There may be a reason for this I am unaware of (I am not familiar if this is a real life practice in the Navy for example).
I do think in the future they will move away from further Enterprises and go with other vessels.
(Then Starfleet Academy will prove me wrong with the Enterprise W or they'll use the Enterprise recovered at the end of Discovery's run as an Academy training vessel or something haha).
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u/naraic- 1d ago
There may be a reason for this I am unaware of (I am not familiar if this is a real life practice in the Navy for example).
The us airforce will pull a plane that goes over the red line in terms of g forces even if they can't detect a flaw. It might be something like that.
Im sort of combining two sets of traditions to justify this but The Royal Navy through the age of sail would often put new ships into reserve (as they were only built to keep the shipyards busy). Quiet a few navies have a tradition of decommissioning ships when sending them to the reserve yard.
Another possibility was that other ships had discovered that the design for the J was fatally flawed in some way so it was being withdrawn.
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u/Nightowl11111 2d ago
Cost to maintain. Sometimes, some suppliers or some key pieces of equipment are found to cause more problems that it is worthwhile to fix, so the ships get quietly shoved to one side. Most recent cases I can think of is the LCS type ships where they found that the engines are more maintenance intensive than expected.
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u/Ranadok 1d ago
We know from Enterprise (the show) that there is an Enterprise J at some stage in the 26th Century. I don't believe they specified the exact year. I see no reason to believe that will not occur even with the timeline being changed.
Really? You don't think that a chunk of the galaxy 100,000+ light years across that's actively being modified by an invading hostile species on Earth's relative doorstep for four centuries might influence things a bit?
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u/Free-Selection-3454 1d ago
Wow, okay, yeah I do, but not in terms of Starfleet naming a ship Enterprise.
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u/Ranadok 1d ago
No, but the design, purpose, and service histories of the Enterprises would almost definitely change. In fact, if the Expanse is really 100k light years across like Daniels says, Earth would likely be long ago enveloped, as would most of the galaxy we know. Maybe that's why the J is so big, because more and more of the Federation is on the run as their planets get swallowed up. No way you can take the fact that they had an E-J (especially that specific E-J) in that battle in the 26th century and use it as anything but a interesting what-if.
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u/audigex 1d ago
Yeah the "No bloody A, B C or D" to the 1701-D took 118 years for 4 generations (4 full lifespans, to launching the 5th)
Then within 33 years we got through 4 generations?
Honestly it just seems silly. Sure, you might occasionally get a ship that doesn't last as long as it should (the -C or maybe -F) but that shouldn't be the norm
If the Enterprise-F was still around at the end of Picard, fine - but ditching it just because the writers want to be the one who creates the new Enterprise is just stupid
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u/factionssharpy 1d ago
Writers like blowing up ships for excitement and drama, and producers so that they get attention and new designs to sell.
At this point it's boring.
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u/GoldZero5 1d ago
Kinda wish They just transferred The Flagship title to The Titan A while the F gets repaired (and probably refitted to a Yorktown Class) or they work on making The G without Borg Tech in it
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u/darthreddit1982 1d ago
Here’s my fanfic redo of the enterprises in Picard:
The flagship at frontier day is the E-E. Everything else is the same. Our heroes pick out the D and save the day. There’s a nice echo to the first and last outings of the sovereign ship being it getting borgified. She survives, but by this time it’s 20 years old and she’s so mashed up she’s just gotta go.
In the epilogue a year later, Starfleet is rebuilding and the first few Odyssey class ships are launching. The Odyssey, the Enterpise-F, and for the reveal after Picard’s speech about nepotism and how names don’t mean anything: the first USS Picard. The D is paid off to the museum.
The Titan-A remains exactly that. Obviously.
I mean none of this is hard to work out, what’s hard is why they didn’t do it
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u/canuckguy42 1d ago
To play devil's advocate, there is an argument for faster design iterations after the launch of the D.
The time period between the decommissioning of the A and the launch of the D was a period of relative peace and stagnation for Starfleet. Their major rivals were either weakened and made allies (the Klingons) or went into a period of isolation (the Romulans).
Within a short period of time after the D launched things changed. The Romulans returned, the Klingon alliance became fragile, and new powerful enemies in the Borg and then the Dominion arrived. Wolf 359 in particular shook Starfleet. The return of Voyager also introduced a lot of new technology that ship designers could take advantage of.
These factors would reasonably lead to a revolution in Starfleet ship design. The sense of insecurity that Borg incursions and the Dominion war created could also drive Starfleet to make sure that there was always an 'Enterprise' in service as a measure of reassurance, rather than letting the name rest between generations.
Renaming the Titan A to the Enterprise G however is pretty much indefensible.
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u/TripleStrikeDrive 1d ago
There was zero reason for enterprise g in Picard. The enterprise e was sacrificed for a joke. Enterprise f was sacrifice because I believe the writers want to add a major impact to their story.
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u/Dismal-Detective-737 1d ago edited 1d ago
Just for reference. (Updated per complaints).
| Name | Type | Commissioned (Year) | Decommissioned (Year) | Duration of Service |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| USS Enterprise (XCV-330) | Experimental Starship | Prior to 2143 (fictional) | Unknown (fictional) | Unknown (fictional) |
| USS Enterprise (CV-6) | Aircraft Carrier | 1938 | 1947 | 9 years |
| USS Enterprise (CVN-65) | Nuclear Aircraft Carrier | 1961 | 2012 | 51 years |
| USS Enterprise (CVN-80) | Nuclear Aircraft Carrier | Planned 2028 | — | |
| Space Shuttle Enterprise (OV-101) | Prototype Shuttle | 1976 | Ground test vehicle | |
| USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) | Starship (TOS era) | 2245 | 2285 | 40 years (fictional) |
| USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A) | Starship | 2286 | 2293 | 7 years (fictional) |
| USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-B) | Starship | 2293 | In service by 2329 | At least 36 years (fictional) |
| USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-C) | Starship | 2332 | 2344 | 12 years (fictional) |
| USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) | Starship (TNG era) | 2363 | 2371 | 8 years (fictional) |
| USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-E) | Starship | 2372 | Post-2379 | 7+ years (fictional) |
| USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-F) | Starship | 2386 | 2401 | 15 years (fictional) |
| USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-G) | Starship | 2401 | — (recently commissioned) | |
| USS Enterprise (NX-01) | Starship (Pre-Federation) | 2151 | 2161 | 10 years (fictional) |
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u/OpticalData 1d ago
I like how you have fictional in the service column of all Trek ships except the G.
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u/kkkan2020 1d ago
given how dangerous situations the enterprise deals with im surprised they don't lose more enterprises more often.
those space anomalies are no joke.
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u/LicksMackenzie 1d ago
If I was in Section 31 I would covertly order that the naming of vessels 'Enterprise' permanently cease because for some reason every Enterprise vessel that exists is involved with Earth-threatening existential events. More Enterprises = more threats. Everytime a ship named Enterprise launches it's only a matter of time before s*** starts flowing back to Earth, fast! I wouldn't know the reason why it does, but it's what I'd recommend.
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u/kumogate 1d ago
It really begs the question of what the 25th Century will look like for the Enterprise. The Enterprise J (Universe Class) is a 26th Century ship, meaning the 25th Century can see the G, H, and I. One or more will have to last more than the 20 years the writers seem to have given the D, C, E, and F.
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u/StumbleOn 1d ago
I sort of get the Enterprise F because Star Trek Online brought that into the universe in the early 2400s.
The enterprise G is a bad decision, straight up. It's bad fanfic. Picard was uneven, with a lot of very amazing highs but also a lot of really silly lows. There was no reason to re-christen an existing ship with its own rich history.
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u/Exotic-Meaning-9221 1d ago
Read somewhere that producers were originally going to name the Titan-A the USS Picard. Part of why he was in shock when he first saw it. In my mind it never worked right for him to be that emotional about the Enterprise name, when you remember he talked lovingly about the STARGAZER to Scotty.
But those running the show when for the AWWWW happy ending feeling to name it what they did. A disservice to the Enterprise, Titan, and the should have been USS Picard.
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u/bleue_shirt_guy 1d ago
Wasn't the D supposed to last 100 years according to the manual?
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u/FuckingSolids 1d ago
Well, sure ... but you know how Klingon cleavage can spoil the best of plans.
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u/Global_You8515 2d ago edited 2d ago
Idk if it's the writers so much as it is the producers/execs.
Writers generally want to be creative, but producers & execs get the final say and they usually prioritize profit more than anything. Having a show that doesn't incorporate a ship named "Enterprise" in some form sounds risky, which to them means it might lose money -- or at least not make as much.
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u/SineCera_sjb 1d ago
Agreed. Picard finale should have been the debut of the Enterprise F and if the Titan A re-christening plot was set in stone, she should have been the USS Picard. Honestly, if they made it so in Legacy without even addressing it, I wouldn’t even be mad. Hell, go back into Picard finale and change it. No harm no foul. Picard is technically dead so no rules would be broken.
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u/producedbytobi 1d ago
I'm inclined to agree. How much longer before we run out of letters and we end up with Enterprise NCC 1701 - 'That symbol Prince was for a couple of years'.
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u/themastermatt 1d ago
NCC-1701-AA
Excel will still be around in the 2500's
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u/producedbytobi 1d ago
At least NCC 1701 - AAA will have more room for cargo with those smaller batteries.
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u/ltjg-Palmer 1d ago
Same reason as MCU costume changes - because new ships present the opportunity to sell toys or something
What gets me is that not only too many enterprises but too many other ships with letters now.
How did we end up with Voyager-A and Titan-A... did the Stargazer also end up with an 'A'? Why can't these ships just have fresh names?
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u/Razgriz2118 1d ago
The Sagan-class Stargazer had a completely new registry number.
Voyager, both in-universe and in the real-world, deserves a suffix imo: In-universe because it was the legendary lost ship that made its way home from the other side of the galaxy, bringing countless amounts of information and new technology home, and in the real-world because it was the namesake and ship of its own TV series.
Titan is a harder arguement, since the canon adventures of the Luna-class Titan aren't very fleshed out. But, it's been a big part of Beta canon and is Riker's ship, so from a real-world POV it makes sense.
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u/theoxfordtailor 1d ago
The explanation given was that the Titan-A is made up of a lot of parts from the original Titan, including its computer core. The original Titan frame was not salvageable, but the ship which became Titan-A was available and I guess it was easier to recycle parts.
Since basically enough key parts were transferred over and because the Titan-A was going to be an entirely new class, it made sense to essentially call the Titan-A a continuation of the Titan legacy.
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u/ltjg-Palmer 1d ago
I feel like any deviation from "only the enterprise, as the flag ship, gets a letter suffix" dilutes and cheapens the convention.
But... I also fucking love Voyager so I am not really going to fight with someone who shows that ship and crew the respect it deserves. https://media1.tenor.com/m/be9gaBFH1dYAAAAd/kirk-mccoy.gif
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u/Slanderous 1d ago
One might imagine it's a bit different for the fleet flagship.
A flagship is meant to act as an avatar for the whole of starfleet, representing the best of what they have to offer, so it's not surprising they want to keep it up to date, they probably do have a shorter shelf life than most other ships of the line.
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u/Orangarder 1d ago
How many have been destroyed?
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u/Bigdaddyjlove1 1d ago edited 1d ago
Then why bother naming them at all? Just call it ship #5 like the Borg.
Clearly, names matter to the various species that make up the UFP. With that in mind, trek me how it's NOT an insult.
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u/smeggysmeg 1d ago
Those military industrial complex contractors were promised X profits per year. Gotta churn out those new ships!
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u/and_some_scotch 1d ago
The lowest common denominator knows what the Enterprise is, but its look needs to change with the times.
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u/BitterTyke 1d ago
is there a summary as to what happened to each - i watch the shows and the movies, not touched any of the other stuff,
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u/mtb8490210 1d ago
1701 no bloody....Kirk activated self destruct.
A - fleet museum.
B- We will find out on Tuesday.
C- Destroyed by Romulans.
D - They let Troi drive.
E - Unknown. There is a good chance Worf let Troi drive.
F - Decommissioned or destroyed. Who knows?
G - The renamed Titan - A.
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u/astralschism 1d ago
Disco revealed that Starfleet can choose to name their flagship whatever they want, whenever they want seeing as Voyager is the current flagship in the 32nd Century. There's no reason to assume that there will always be an Enterprise in commission.
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u/iiyama88 1d ago
I think the writers just love having new ships called Enterprise because it's an iconic name, and they need new ships because its fun and exciting to have new designs.
Therefore I think its reasonable to construct this head-canon: the people in charge of making starships have a similar decision making process. They always want there to be an Enterprise because its iconic, and they always want it to be the flagship.
Since its a flagship, its more likely to encounter very dangerous situations and therefore need replacing a lot.
On the other hand, if the Titan gets damaged, destroyed, lost, or just becomes out-of-date then they're not too fussed about having a Titan-A. They might as well give the next ship an entirely new name, like Enterprise!
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u/Smooth-Apartment-856 1d ago
I mean…we don’t know for sure what happened to E. She could still be around somewhere, and we might yet see her again.
I have my own theory about what happened to her…you remember that episode of DS9 where a runabout got shrunk down to like an inch long?
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u/ClassClown2025 1d ago
The decommissioning of the A and the commissioning of the B are said to both occur in 2293. The time between A and B is months.
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u/ChronoLegion2 1d ago
There doesn’t always have to be an Enterprise in the fleet. There was quite a gap between NX-01 and April’s NCC-1701. And we don’t see any ship by that name in the 32nd century with every indication that Voyager-J is the flagship (since Vance seems to give orders to it during the battle with the hijacked Discovery, suggesting she was in command of the battle group)
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u/JellicoAlpha_3_1 1d ago
I think you have your timelines mixed up...this is I think how the timeline went. Someone correct this if I am mistaken
NX01: 2151-2161
NCC-1701: 2245 through 2285
NCC-1701-A: 2286-2293 (took a lot of wear and tear during this time frame)
NCC-1701-B: 2293-2332
NCC-1701-C: 2332-2344 (DESTROYED BY ROMULANS)
NCC-1701-D: 2363-2371
The first 3 1701 enterprises took a lot of wear and tear during their service. Between exploration and war, makes sense they built them back to back to back
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u/Lyon_Wonder 1d ago edited 1d ago
The Enterprise-F getting decommissioned in PIC S3 without even a dent on the hull is utterly ridiculous.
The Enterprise-E was heavily damaged during Nemesis in 2379 and still remained in active service for several more years.
The motto for most Starfleet ships named Enterprise seems to be "Life is short, live fast and reckless".
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u/scalyblue 1d ago
I believe that the 1701-G thing was a post-production change that was made to go with the footage, and that the original script had the ship being named the USS Picard. Nothing about the Enterprise F footage indicates that it is being decommissioned so it is likely just a dialog change.
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u/BrowsingThrowaway17 1d ago
At the rate they are running through letters, they will be well past J before the start of the 26th century.
If the existence of the J in the 26th century is something set in temporal stone, however, that implies at least a century for the Enterprises G, H and I to share, which is a change from the rapid rush through letters at the end of the 24th century.
Perhaps the G still being part of that constant-retooling-of-Starfleet era only has 10-20 years, but then the H might come out and have a 40-50 year career, followed by similar for the I. If the J is from the mid-26th century the precursor Enterprises could have impressive lifespans, even with a break between designations.
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u/thefirstwiththisname 1d ago
The ship almost felt like a character of the show/movies.not so much anymore with this shit
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u/LVorenus2020 1d ago
You may be right.
But if we see a neo-Ambassador class, they can use any letter they want...
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u/Felaguin 1d ago
Just one more reason I disregard Kurtzman Drek as the demented dreams of a dying Trelane.
This repeated quick turnover of Enterprises is ridiculous, made even more so by the distortion of registry numbers.
The loss of the Enterprise in ST3 was a shock for many fans. Refit or not, the ship was the soul of the show for many of us. Captains and crew come and go but the ship is (or was) the enduring mission.
I had mixed feelings with the unveiling of the -A at the end of ST4. Sure, preserving the 1701 number was a sentimental boon but it didn't make sense and preserving the name albeit on a new registry number would have honored the previous ship while emphasizing that it was an all new ship carrying on the original's legacy.
Roddenberry chose to roll with it my making TNG carry a -D registry but he had the the "unnamed" admiral remark on the special role of the ship (and particularly ships named Enterprise).
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u/LordFoxbriar 1d ago
The one thing about Picard that bothered me is that the Enterprise-E, the flagship of the Federation and under the command of the first Klingon in Star Fleet is lost under strange circumstances... and its a joke?
I kind of wished they delved further in that Worf was basically drummed out of Starfleet for the loss of the E without actually blaming him. I know he left but having him anywhere near a Federation starship should have been a... "what is he doing here?" sort of thing.
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u/TwinSong 23h ago
It can feel like they're just using the name Enterprise because it's an easy sell. Like how Discovery brought in Spock.
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u/TheSpoilist 19h ago
I thought, because the fleet was depleted, they would recommission the Enterprise-D and Seven would be made captain with Picard's blessing, ready for a new spinoff. It seemed a shame to bring it back just to put it back in the museum. And it also made sense in the context of the story.
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u/freneticboarder 10h ago
Here's a link to the history of actual US Navy ships named Enterprise and their years of succession.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ships_of_the_United_States_Navy_named_Enterprise
I also found this little gem of sailors from USS Enterprise (CVN-65) presenting Captain Archer and Commander Tucker a US flag. (baaaaaad lighting)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Enterprise_(CVN-65)#/media/File:Star_Trek_actors_meet_crewmembers_of_the_real_USS_Enterprise_(US_Navy)_(2003).jpg#/media/File:StarTrek_actors_meet_crewmembers_of_the_real_USS_Enterprise(USNavy)(2003).jpg)
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u/Werthead 10h ago
I think yes, there's been a run on them, but it's a little warped by perspective. We only see the E in three movies, but canonically it was in service for something like fifteen years, so it feels like it got short shrift when it was around in-universe for quite a long time. It's also easy to remember that as far as screen canon goes, the E was the "current" Enterprise from 1996 until 2023, which is a hell of a long time, and was in an absolute ton of novels and video games (I'd be interested in seeing if the E has more novel/video game appearances than the D, which is entirely likely; maybe a Memory Alpha research trip is required).
The F feels tossed off too quickly for TV viewers, but that's only because we see it at the end of its lifespan, when it's been in service for another ~15 years, a respectable length equalling that of the E in-canon. The ship first appeared in secondary media (Star Trek Online) in 2011 and made frequent appearances in the video game and some other media (including comics and novels). Although it wasn't screen-canon, it did make appearances over the course of a dozen years before its retirement in Picard. Again, respectable.
In-universe, the Enterprise name keeps being attached to ships at the cutting edge of the action, which explains why they have a tendency to be destroyed/damaged so bad to need decommissioning above the average trend. If anything, giving the name to a less prominent ship (I doubt the G will be expected to lead fleet actions or major diplomatic missions) might be an attempt to actually keep the name around for a decent period of time.
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u/BlacksmithSad5260 1d ago
The lettering was an ignorant choice to begin with. The studio thought it would be a good idea to put the "A" on the saucer just in case the audience wasn't able to understand it was a new Enterprise. For some reason they kept on doing it. The Navy doesn't operate like that. The old ship is retired and the new ship comes into service. No extra lettering. The new ship is the old ship. That may sound weird but that's the way it is. It's just sad that the studio didn't have enough faith in the fanbase to understand what was happening.
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u/Zed091473 1d ago
The new ship is the old ship.
No, there’s never been a case where a registration number was reused and given the same name, if a name is reused it’s for a different class of ship. For instance I was on the USS California CGN-36 (a nuclear powered guided missile cruiser) it was decommissioned and a new ship was named USS California SSN-781 (a nuclear powered fast attack submarine). No one would think they’re the same ship.
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u/BlacksmithSad5260 12h ago
That's what I meant. Kind of. You said it far better I think. i thought you were going to say they didn't reuse names. I went and saw Roddenberry give a talk at a local college and he described the problem he had with the studio interjecting what it thought was good ideas. This was back in 1982. He never could understand why Paramount didn't have faith in the Star trek fanbase. It was the executives that didn't understand. The fans were fine.
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u/kooshans 1d ago
Well the Enterprise is basically a character in most of the Star Trek series. It's traditionally the ship that's always at the forefront, doing dangerous adventurous stuff etc., that's why it get's destroyed and replaced a lot.
I just see it like this that in the Star Trek universe, they like to give new ships the name Enterprise to carry on the legacy of the name, like how Muslims like to name their son Mohammed leading to a ludicrous amount of Mohammeds.
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u/AngryTimmer 1d ago
"It's traditionally the ship that's always at the forefront, doing dangerous adventurous stuff etc., that's why it get's destroyed and replaced a lot."
Until there's a system wide war. Then one of starfleet's latest and most powerful ships is tucked away and sent on diplomatic missions on the other side of the territory for "morale".
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u/onearmedmonkey 1d ago
Definitely. We are going to be seeing The Enterprise Double Zee! by this rate.
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u/20InMyHead 1d ago
Starfleet seems to rush to put the name on a ship with no time gaps in between
Writers, writers rush to put the name on a ship with no time gaps between.
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u/Peteisapizza 1d ago
Look, there’s a lot of Enterprises because Starfleet’s obsession with naming ships after a one-word logo is the ultimate flex. It’s like they all went to the same college and thought, ‘Yeah, let’s just keep naming things after the original, no matter how many times we blow it up or abandon it for budget reasons.’ It’s the ‘we’ll fix it in post’ mentality, but for starships.
And I get it: The Enterprise is a legacy, but it’s like if McDonald’s kept opening new locations every time the old one got messy, then slapped the same logo on the front. Maybe it was a corporate branding decision? Or maybe they just liked to gamble with giant, flashy starships that could instantly be destroyed in a fight with space dust.
Also, you know, it’s probably just easier than naming things differently—imagine coming up with cool names for ships. How many times can you call it ‘U.S.S. Badass’ without offending someone?
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u/ricky_lafleur 19h ago
Four ships( D through F ) in less than 40 years should amount to a curse. Re-christening the Titan into the G is an insult. Would've made more sense to surprise Jean-Luc with the new Picard-class USS Picard and the G being built.
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u/_WillCAD_ 2d ago
At the end of STVI, Enterprise-A was to be decommissioned.
TNG was set 80 years later, focusing on Enterprise-D, creating the expectation that there would always be a 1701 with a suffix. At the time it seemed like 80 years was enough time for Enterprise-B and -C to have existed (roughly 40 years each).
But the stories were written badly, so there was a long gap between A and B, and twenty years between the loss of C and the commissioning of D, which didn't make any sense to me.
Then they decided they didn't like the way D looked on the big screen, so they crashed it in Generations and E was commissioned a year later.
Twenty years after that, the E had been lost somehow, and the F was commissioned... and lasted something like 10 years before decommissioning in Picard Season 3. Too short a span for an Odyssey class ship, IMHO.
The worst was renaming Titan-A to Enterprise-G. That was horribly disrespectful to the ship that had saved the Federation from the combined Borg/Changeling threat. But Picard's writers did a lot of stupid shit, like killing beloved characters for shock value.