USS Lexington ( NCC - 1709 ) The USS " Lexington " ( NCC - 1709 ) was a 23rd century Federation starship operated by Starfleet . History . In 2267 , the " Lexington " underwent a layover at Starbase 11 . The ship ' s registry was on a chart indicating the repair status of several vessels . ( ) Lieutenant was assigned to the " Lexington " prior to her transfer to the " Enterprise " in 2268 . ( ) Later that year , the " Lexington " , under the command of Commodore Robert Wesley , rendezvoused with the at Starbase 6 to inform Captain James T . Kirk that the " Enterprise " was to participate in the M - 5 multitronic unit war games . It was in these war games that the " Lexington " served as the flagship of the four - ship task force ( USS " Lexington " , , , ) that was opposing the " Enterprise " . The simulation began with the " Lexington " and the " Excalibur " engaging the " Enterprise " near the planet Alpha Carinae II in an unscheduled battle to test the M - 5 ' s reaction to a surprise attack . After - action analysis , based on the quantity and quality of hits on the " Lexington " , indicated that the " Enterprise " , directed by the M - 5 , had been victorious . Later , when the M - 5 became unstable , the " Lexington " was hit multiple times by full - powered phaser s from the " Enterprise " in the engineering section , damaging impulse engine s and leaving her maneuverable only on warp drive . Fifty - three of her crew were killed . When the " Excalibur " s entire crew was killed and she was left adrift by the M - 5 , Wesley requested and received permission to destroy the " Enterprise " with the remainder of his damaged ships . However , the M - 5 was deactivated before this could be carried out . ( ) Appendices . Background information . Greg Jein ' s influential " The Case of Jonathan Doe Starship " article , published in the April 1973 issue 27 of the " T - Negative " fanzine , was the first work to assign the NCC - 1709 registry number to this ship . In the article , Jein had made an attempt to " logically " couple the registry numbers as seen in " Court Martial " with the names listed in the reference book " The Making of Star Trek " . Michael Okuda took his cue from the article , and propagated the number throughout his subsequent reference work writings , most notably the . When the remastered version of the series began its release , Okuda , then visual effects producer for the project , made use of the opportunity to elevate Jein ' s until then conjectural ship ' s registry to canon . In the remastered version of " The Ultimate Computer " , the " Lexington " s bridge viewscreen was larger and had rounded edges compared to that of the USS " Enterprise " . The name of the ship had already been established by the producers at the start of second season of , when they composed a definitive fourteen ship list belonging to the " Constitution " - class , then still referred to as " " Starship " - class " by them , including the " Lexington " . The annotations of D . C . Fontana and Producer Robert Justman on their first two memo proposals , stated that they had named the " Lexington " after one of the two historical US World War II aircraft carrier s named " Lexington " , either the or the . The stated that the " Lexington " was named for one of these carriers , failing to specify which one . These carriers fought in the Pacific theater during this war . ( " The Making of Star Trek " , pp . 164 - 165 ; ) Apocrypha . According to " Star Fleet Technical Manual " the registry of the " Lexington " was NCC - 1703 , with NCC - 1709 given to the . In the novel " Yesterday ' s Son " , the " Lexington " ' s registry is given as NCC - 1704 . According to the reference work " Ships of the Line " ( p . 86 ) , the " Lexington " went through the same refitting process as her sister ship , the " Enterprise " . The " Lexington " is one of four vessels ( and the sole TOS - era ship ) selected as a setting for the " " playtest in 2016 .