Let's Build AMT U.S.S. ENTERPRISE Kit 6676 Part 10 - Choosing Your Ship
Channel: Monster Hobbies Online
Date: 2018-03-27

The sister ships to the Enterprise. 

What were they and what adventures did they have?

Today we look into the stories behind the other Constitution Class star ships and their number sequences from the Franz Joseph Tech Manual. You can find the entire list of names and numbers in the  Franz Joseph Star Fleet Technical Manual on page T0:01:04:11. 

Back in the late 1960's and early 1970's when Star Trek memorabilia was just beginning to be created,  the only source for "Canon" Star Trek was through the books published by Ballantine Books from New York. Ballantine was THE AUTHORITY for Star Trek Canon at this period in time. Three major publications came out in reference to the names and numbers for the star ships, namely "The Making Of Star Trek" written by Gene Roddenberry and Stephen Whitfield and the Star Fleet Technical Manual and CONSTITUTION CLASS blueprints written by Franz Joseph. 

Franz Joseph was granted permission to use official photographs, blueprints and more from Gene Roddenberry to make the Star Fleet Technical Manual and the U.S.S. CONSTITUTION blueprints which came out in 1973.

According to the Franz Joseph Star Fleet Technical Manual, the following ships of the MK-IX Class were authorized by the original Articles Of Federation of Stardate 0965 : 

@00:56 U.S.S. CONSTITUTION   NCC-1700
@02:13 U.S.S. ENTERPRISE   NCC-1701
@03:28 U.S.S. FARRAGUT   NCC-1702
@05:11 U.S.S. LEXINGTON   NCC-1703
@05:50 U.S.S. YORKTOWN   NCC-1704
@08:59 U.S.S. EXCALIBUR   NCC-1705
@11:41 U.S.S. EXETER   NCC-1706
@12:11 U.S.S. HOOD   NCC-1707
@12:32  U.S.S. INTREPID   NCC-1708
@13:25 U.S.S. VALIANT   NCC-1709
@14:58  U.S.S. KONGO   NCC-1710
@15:23 U.S.S. POTEMPKIN   NCC-1711

Starships that do not follow the "1700" ship number series : 

@16:26 U.S.S. CONSTELLATION   NCC-1017
@17:57 U.S.S. REPUBLIC   NCC-1371

Many people ask me why I did not include the U.S.S. DEFIANT in this video list. 
This is because the U.S.S. DEFIANT is not part of the list in the Franz Joseph Star Fleet Technical Manual or on the list for the instruction sheet included in this model. It is also not on the list in The Making Of Star Trek (Ballantine Books) for the original 14 star ships. (Page 165 in the paragraph under "DC. Fontana". 

That paragraph clearly stated that "The following names have been established for starships: Enterprise, Exeter, Excalibur, Lexington, Yorktown, Potemkin, Republic, Hood, Constitution, Kongo, Constellation, Farragut, Valiant, and Intrepid. The latter four are listed as destroyed in various episodes." - Franz Joseph followed this and  listed these names and created his own numbers for the ships which ended up in the AMT instruction and decal sheet in the 1973-1991 Star Trek model kits.

Now, from a "What we saw on screen" look at these ships, The U.S.S. KONGO was never shown or mentioned on screen.

The U.S.S. VALIANT was also never shown, but an old probe from an unknown ship called "VALIANT" was shown in the 2nd Pilot Episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before". 
In the episode "A Taste Of Armageddon" they name the U.S.S. VALIANT and say it was destroyed 50 years before the Enterprise reached the planet. - If it was a Constitution Class star ship was never mentioned on film, however, since it was in "The Making Of Star Trek", we can believe that it was intended to be one. 

Finally, the U.S.S. DEFIANT was shown on the screen, but it was not named or listed in any of the Ballantine Books publications. This may have been because the writer of "The Tholian Web" did not know of the list, or did not like the ship list names and substituted his own name in there for the episode. However, the ship name still made it to the screen and became modern canon. 

An interesting point to note : There are actually 4 lists of starship names in "The Making Of Star Trek". The first two were proposed name lists while the fourth was the finalized name list I noted above. 

The alternative names listed are : Essex, Endeavor, El Dorado, Saratoga, Hornet, Wasp, Bonhomme Richard, Monitor, Merrimac,  Tori, Lafayette, Ari, Krieger, and Eagle. 

Franz Joseph used these names and assigned them numbers when he wrote in the manual "The following ships of the MK-IX-A were authorized by the Star Fleet Appropriation of Stardate 3220 :

U.S.S. BONHOMME RICHARD   NCC-1712 
U.S.S. MONITOR   NCC-1713
U.S.S. HORNET   NCC-1714
U.S.S. MERRIMAC   NCC-1715
U.S.S. ENDEAVOR   NCC-1716
U.S.S. DEFIANCE   NCC-1717  (This may be acknowledging the DEFIANT in "The Tholian Web")
U.S.S. EXCELSIOR   NCC-1718
U.S.S. EAGLE   NCC-1719
U.S.S. LAFAYETTE   NCC-1720
U.S.S. WASP   NCC-1721
U.S.S. EL DORADO   NCC-1922
U.S.S. ARI   NCC-1723
U.S.S. SARATOGA   NCC-1724
U.S.S. TORI   NCC-1725
U.S.S. KRIEGER   NCC-1726
U.S.S. ESSEX   NCC-1727

Franz Joseph also replaced the four destroyed star ships from the TV series in the form of the CONSTITUTION II, FARRAGUT II, INTREPID II, AND VALIANT II. 

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