USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A)

The USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A) was a 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. ()
The Enterprise-A served Starfleet for seven years until in 2293 it was scheduled to be stood down. After the Enterprise-A was decommissioned following the Khitomer Conference, it was maintained as an exhibit at the Fleet Museum. The ship's lineage was continued with the launch of the later in the same year. (; )
== Lineage ==
The Enterprise-A was named in honor of its predecessor, the , which was scuttled over the Genesis Planet several months prior. ()
Externally, the Enterprise-A was nearly identical to the Enterprise following its Constitution II-class refit. The hull was a gun-metal gray color, compared to the pearlescent finish of the original Enterprise. (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home)
The new Enterprise had several individualized customizations, including maritime antiques in the crew lounge. These included a steering wheel from an old Earth sailing vessel inscribed with the ship's motto, "to boldly go where no man has gone before," ()
The officers' mess featured painted portraits of several historical figures, including displayed portraits of Abraham Lincoln of Earth and Sarek of . ()
== History ==
=== Shakedown ===
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 , but the new Enterprise was soon revealed, docked beyond the Excelsior. Shortly thereafter the Enterprise-A left Spacedock on a shakedown cruise. ()
The shakedown did not proceed as planned, and the Enterprise-A limped back to Spacedock for several weeks of repair under the supervision of Captain Montgomery Scott. Although its warp drive was working perfectly, several ship systems and control interfaces were malfunctioning. The transporter was also non-operational, requiring shuttles to be used for away missions.
=== Sybok and Sha Ka Ree ===
Before repairs were complete, Enterprise-A was returned to active duty to intervene in a hostage situation on Nimbus III. The away team led by Captain Kirk was themselves taken prisoner by the rogue Vulcan Sybok and his followers, to steal the Enterprise to aid in their quest to find Sha Ka Ree. On approach to the ship aboard the shuttle , 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-A 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 were later invited to a reception following the return of the Enterprise-A to Kirk's command, and the discovery that Sha Ka Ree was, in fact, a myth. ()
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 the year 2263 of an alternate reality. ()
Sometime after the mission to Sha Ka Ree, Commander Sulu transferred off the Enterprise-A to assume command of the . (; commemorative plaque)
=== Gaseous anomaly project ===
In the early 2290s, the Enterprise-A was outfitted with advanced equipment for the study of gaseous planetary anomalies as part of a fleet-wide initiative. ()
=== Final voyage ===
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, to derail 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, 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 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 that 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 to prevent the assassination of the Federation President and the new Klingon chancellor, Azetbur.
General 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 its 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. ()
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." ()
=== Retirement ===
The next USS Enterprise, the refit , was launched later that year. The Enterprise-A remained mothballed as of 2294, as noted by former chief engineer Montgomery Scott. (; )
Following its decommissioning, the Enterprise-A's battle damage was repaired, and the ship was preserved as a museum exhibit. More than a century later, it would be displayed between the and the 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." ()
In 2402, the rebuilt was returned to the Fleet Museum and given a place of honor between the Enterprise-A and the . ()
== Embarked craft ==
The Enterprise-A had at least two shuttlecraft, including the and the . ()
== Command crew ==
* Commanding officer
**James T. Kirk (2286–2293)
**Spock (2293) 
*First officer 
**Spock (2286–2293)
*Chief medical officer 
**Leonard McCoy (2286–2293)
*Chief engineer
**Montgomery Scott (2286–2293)
*Helmsman
**Hikaru Sulu (2286–2287)
**Valeris (2293)
*Navigator
**Pavel Chekov (2286–2293)
*Communications officer 
**Nyota Uhura (2286–2293)
*Science officer 
**Spock (2286–2293)
See also: USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A) personnel
==Appendices==
===Appearances===
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**PIC Season 3 
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===Background information===
The Enterprise-A was a reuse of the refit Enterprise model built for . 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 .
In the first draft script of but not in the final version of that film, the "A" in this Enterprises 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 ization of . 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 was a simple redress of the existing bridge from . 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. 
By , most of the movie Enterprise sets had been recycled to become the Enterprise-D of . 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. A new bridge was constructed under the 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, 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 . 
The new bridge was reused in 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. 
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 , the Excelsior again in , and many "guest" Starfleet ships on and , including the () and the . () The turbolift alcoves eventually became part of the bridge in , , and . (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 for US$240,000.
The Enterprise-A was pictured on a painting in the waiting area of the sickbay aboard the in the fifth season episode . This unfinished painting was created by Andrew Probert during the first season of . (Star Trek: The Next Generation Interactive Technical Manual)
The original refit Enterprise was erroneously labeled as the Enterprise-A in the episode . Director Michael Giacchino admitted this was a mistake due to a difficult production schedule. 
===Apocrypha===
While the ship's history before its appearance at the end of 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 , 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 . This was confirmed in season 3 of Star Trek: Picard, where a display shows the Enterprise-A at the museum alongside the Excelsior and Voyager. 
In the "TNG Special 3", the Enterprise-A was on display at 's Starfleet museum in 2369 where it was visited by Scott after his rescue from the Dyson Sphere in .
According to William Shatner's , the Enterprise-A was sold by Starfleet to the defense forces of the planet , who appointed the now-retired James T. 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 , as well as a simulated foe in Star Trek: Klingon Academy.
The Enterprise-A was featured in the video games Star Trek: Encounters and Star Trek: Legacy.
In "Futures, Part One" and "" which depicted an alternate timeline created when Yeoman J.M. Colt was sent forward in time from 2254 to 2293 after her tricorder scans released the tachyon energy contained in an Algolian artifact known as a Keepsake, she was succeeded as Captain Pike's yeoman by James T. Kirk, who had recently graduated from Starfleet Academy. Due in part to Pike's grief at Colt's disappearance as well as their divergent personalities, Pike and Kirk had an extremely contentious relationship. No longer able to stand being in Pike's presence, Kirk resigned his Starfleet commission and entered the commercial sector. He eventually became the commanding officer of the freighter Bounty.
Pike remained in command of the Enterprise until it was decommissioned, after which it became a popular attraction at the San Francisco Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. He was then placed in command of the USS Enterprise-A. As of 2293, his senior staff included his first officer and science officer Spock, the chief medical officer , the chief engineer , the helmsman Hikaru Sulu, the navigator José Tyler and the communications officer Nyota Uhura while Saavik was a junior science officer.
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