Ok.. lets look at a few facts...
Hardly. Most of this is supposition or at least debatable.
Now now children...
how old was enterprise when Kirk got her???
She was 25 years old when Kirk took command and the ship was already under voyage during it's first year of it's historic 5 year voyage....
Where does the ship's age come from? Nowhere in the series is it established. The Making of Star Trek says ships of the Enterprise's type have been around 40 years at the time of the series start. The 25 is a number Okuda concocted for his Chronology born out of his dating eveything exactly three hundred years in the future. An episode produced in 1966 thus takes place in 2266. This isn't based on dates given in the show nor on any other methodology. It is arbitrary.
Actually, from what I recall, Gene said that the Enterprise was actually completed in 2245, and the went on to her first 5 year mission under Robert T April. It's clear that Admiral Cartwright flubbed (characterwise, not Brock Peters himself) when he mentioned the Enterprise's age at "more than 20 years old," because this leaves out both Pike and April.
12 ships were comissioned for the 5 year voyage, no where onscreen did they state that only 12 were built.. in fact, if you look at the listing that I have, it already shows 16 confirmed CA's from TOS.
16? Onscreen and confirmed as such only Lexington, Excalibur, Hood, Potemkin, Defiant, Exeter, and Constellation can be taken as the same class as the Enterprise. Constitution's place as the class ship and NCC-1700 comes from the phaser diagram barely visible in "Space Seed" and "The Trouble with Tribbles". Republic, Valiant from "A Taste of Armageddon", Intrepid, and Farragut are assumed to be based on the official list from the production office. That's 13, not 16.
The 16 (17 including the Eagle) is the total list of
official Connies as dictated by Paramount, even thoug half of those are wrong. also, neither the Republic nor the Valiant (later renamed Defiant IIRC) were ever noted as Constitution Class Starships. Personally, I'd like it to be more but then there's Kirk's statement, which could be a rough estimate but whatever...
also the CA is not a Constitution Class.. on the Dedication plaque for the Enterprise it clearly stated "Starship Class".. in several TOS episodes, Kirk called it a Spaceship, as in Starship class Spaceship, and in The Cage it was referred to as such in a round about manner by the navagation officer as well as having it repeated in The Managerie.... Ships of the era were classified by thier duty role.
The "Starship" class designation in ST is essentially the same as TNG's designation of the Galaxy-class as an "Explorer", identifying the role the ship is intended to perform. Merrick makes the distinction clearly in "Bread and Circuses."
Obviously, Kirk's Enterprise was a
Constitution class ship as per "Relics," which is CANON
by Gene's own defintion. Strict interpretation leads to this kind of crap happeneing, not really a big issue but it's there.
I should mention that the Galaxy has never been called, in an episode, an "Explorer." Ed Whitefire's bleuprints (made during Season 1 with the help of Sternbach and Probert, and eventually bastardized by Sternbach for the basis for his own version,) do call it a "Mark XII Heavy Cruiser," though that doesn't bode with the way FJ's Mark numbers worked (recall that the Enterprise was called a Mark IX Heavy Cruiser by the phaser diagram in "Space Seed,") and the whole kit-n'-kaboodle is non-canon (even though FASA, had they kept their Paramount license, would've published it, which is why the made the blueprints to begin with.)
what is known is that the Enterprise was the first starship to return home after completing the historic 5 year mission.. Never is it stated onscreen that she was the only ship to return .. some ships may have returned before Enterprise being so damaged that Starfleet could not send them back out, others were lost in line of duty, and some returned later... Enterprise's fame came from being the first ship to return after successfully completing the 5 year mission.. Kirk was rewarded by being given another 5 year mission in the same 29 year old ship...
It's never stated onscreen that Kirk was the first ship to return home after completing a "historic 5 year mission". The only remote reference to this is from GR's TMP novelization which states Kirk was the first captain to bring his ship and crew home after five years "relatively intact". Any second five year mission is speculation.
According to Voyager, the Enterprise ended it's five year mission in 2270, which means that TMP starts in 2272 or '73. Just a note.
as for the U.S.S. Eagle, that has not been confirmed by Paramount as a CA hull.. as such it was omitted from my listing on purpose....
And yet Eagle is described as such in the material which is the current basis for Paramount and Okuda's Constitution-class lists.
Well, although it is called a Constituion by Okuda, it was only present in the flip charts in TUC, which would couldn't read anyway, so that may be why Pesty calls it "unconfirmed."
Gene got miffed at FJ for being so self glorified and in 1978 declaired that anything not seen onscreen is not canon and conjectural..
GR got miffed because he didn't get the kind of credit on the book he thought he deserved and that after the contracts were finalized he was essentially cut out of the royalties on both the Tech Manual and the Blueprints. He coughed up his "Starship design rules" out of spite, much as its thought he argued for TAS decanonization after a falling out with D.C. Fontana who had been TAS' primary producer.
This is true.
FJ be damned.
Nice, especially considering you're not aware of the facts in regard to his works.
Children, don't make me get out the paddle...
Keep in mind that obviously no ONE person has all the facts, which is why were discussing this in the first place. If someone flubbed, POLIETLY correct him or her, don't lambast them as a smartass signature.
Topic: Canon references for the Constitution Class Starships in TOS (Read 10378 times)