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For the prime reality counterpart, please see USS Enterprise (NCC-1701).
For the mirror universe counterpart, please see ISS Enterprise (NCC-1701).

The USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) was an alternate reality Federation Constitution-class starship that was in service with Starfleet in the mid-23rd century. She was launched from San Francisco Fleet Yards, Earth in 2258 as the Federation flagship. (Star Trek)

Service history

USS Enterprise (alternate reality) under construction

The Enterprise under construction in Iowa

The Enterprise was under construction around 2255 at the Riverside Shipyard, Iowa. The ship was launched into service from the San Francisco Fleet Yards.

Events in the movie show the ship under initial construction in Iowa, but the ship's official dedication plaque lists her as being from the San Francisco Fleet Yards, indicating that at some point prior to launch the unfinished vessel was transferred there or that the Riverside Shipyard was a branch of the San Francisco Fleet Yards.
USS Enterprise (alternate reality), profile

The Enterprise ready for launch

File:USS Enterprise (alternate reality) departs Spacedock.jpg

The Enterprise departs spacedock

The ship's planned maiden voyage in 2258, under the command of Christopher Pike, was brought forward after Earth received a distress call from Vulcan while the bulk of the fleet engaged in the Laurentian system. As a result, the Enterprise was crewed primarily by Starfleet Academy cadets. The ship launched from Starbase 1 with seven other starships to respond to the call, including the USS Farragut and USS Hood. However, its departure was delayed because helmsman Hikaru Sulu forgot to disengage the inertial damper, and the ship arrived shortly after the rescue fleet had been destroyed by the Romulan mining ship Narada.

File:Enterprise evading shipwrecks.jpg

The Enterprise warps into Nero's mess

The Enterprise proved to be no match for the technologically-advanced missiles of the Narada. Fortunately, Nero recognized the Enterprise as the vessel that Spock served on. He chose not to destroy the Enterprise to let Spock see the destruction of Vulcan. Enterprise found that it was unable to contact Starfleet or to begin evacuating the inhabitants of Vulcan, as the Narada's drill platform, while in operation, prevented communications and transporter use. After a sabotage of the drill platform, Nero launched a container of red matter into the planet core, which created a singularity that caused Vulcan to implode, along with all but 10,000 Vulcans. Following the destruction of Vulcan and the capture of Captain Pike, acting captain Spock intended to take the Enterprise to rendezvous with the rest of the fleet at the Laurentian system, but acting first officer James T. Kirk thought it better to attempt to stop Nero. Spock then marooned Kirk for mutiny on Delta Vega, but Kirk managed to beam back on with the help of another Spock and Scotty. Spock was forced to resign his command to Kirk according to Regulation 619, and the Enterprise reversed course in an attempt to intercept the Narada before it could strike Earth.

File:Enterprise pulled in.jpg

The Enterprise being pulled into the black hole

Emerging from warp in the atmosphere of Titan, the Enterprise hid from the Narada's sensors using the magnetic distortion of Saturn's rings, while beaming Spock and Kirk aboard the Romulan ship before its drill could be ignited. However, the duo could not be rescued as the drill was ignited shortly after. Kirk then rescued Pike, while Spock "confiscated" the Jellyfish and used it to destroy the drill. Spock then warped out of the system, with Nero pursuing. Spock set a collision course, and Nero launched his remaining missiles to defend the Narada. The Enterprise then warped in, phasers blazing, destroying the missiles, and allowing Spock to continue. Shortly before impact, Spock, Kirk, and Pike were beamed out by the Enterprise. The impact ignited the red matter aboard the Jellyfish, creating a black hole which consumed the Narada. The Enterprise was nearly pulled into the black hole as well, but the ship was saved when the ship's warp core was ejected and detonated, the resulting shockwave of which propelled the Enterprise to safety.

Following the successful mission of the Enterprise, Pike was promoted to admiral, and James Kirk was assigned to command the Enterprise as his relief. He subsequently chose Spock as his first officer.

Command crew

USS Enterprise alternate universe bridge forward

Pike in command

USS Enterprise (alternate reality) bridge

Kirk in command

In 2258
This information establishes that Captain Pike and Spock were the only members of the prime Enterprise command crew from before Kirk who are known to have served on board the ship in the alternate universe. Officers such as Number One, Petty Officer Garison, Yeoman J.M. Colt, Chief Pitcairn, Phillip Boyce, and José Tyler do not appear.

See also: USS Enterprise personnel (alternate reality)

Technical data

Layout

The Enterprise's secondary hull, nacelle pylons and connecting neck to the primary hull all sloped into the shuttlebay, which was able to hold at least twenty shuttlecraft despite being shorter than the ship's bow. The hull had iridescent plates and a subtle Aztec pattern. Escape pods could be launched from the port side of the neck.

The Enterprise's propulsion system included typical sub-light impulse engines, thrusters and faster-than-light warp nacelles. Thruster operation was seen when the ship rose from the atmosphere of Titan. The nacelles were highly curved and each culminated in a tip, both of which were shaped like a fin. The Bussard collectors dimly glowed blue and the fins would raise to reveal a glowing mechanism, when the ship engaged to warp. The deflector dish's center could also open and close.

Decks were named alphabetically on turbolift doors, although crew members like McCoy referred to them numerically.

Rooms

File:USS Enterprise (alternate reality) viewscreen.jpg

The bridge visible via the viewscreen

The bridge was located on Deck A. Its viewscreen was a single window encompassing the whole bridge. The captain sat in the center of the bridge in the command chair behind the helm and navigation consoles. The bridge was painted white and lit by numerous lights that would bathe the room red when red alert was signaled. There were numerous consoles with blue holographic monitors and six transparent touchscreen boards. A turbolift (which also had white/red lights) was located on the port side, while airlocked doors were on the starboard side.

The circular upper corridors were also painted white, though the floors were black. The sickbay was located on Deck G. Ladders allowed crew members to go up or down to another corridor. The ship's appearance became gradually less futuristic looking as one went down in the ship, with visible ceiling railings in a communications relay room and a corridor to shuttlebay that had impromptu walls made of pipes. The engineering section was an immense maze of pipes and tanks. Often the only sign of futuristic technology was the intercom. Metal catwalks crisscrossed upper levels in some areas, such as Water Turbine Section 3.

The Enterprise's warp core consisted of several intermix chambers, each approximately three stories tall. When ejected, they were shot out though the ceiling (where an atmospheric force field presumably prevented decompressing the entire engineering section). They emerged from the lower part of the ship's neck, behind the hangar deck.

Weaponry

The Enterprise weapon systems consisted of six ball-turret phaser banks and photon torpedo launchers. Like the prime reality's refit of the ship, the torpedo bay was located in the neck and the phaser banks were placed on the bow, starboard and port sides of the bridge and its ventral counterpart. The phaser bolts were red. In the attack against the Narada, simultaneous rapid fire from all weapon ports was used to barrage the enemy.

Transporters

File:Enterprise transporter room.jpg

Transporter room

File:USS Enterprise (alternate universe) transporter in use.jpg

Transporters in use

Operation of the ship's transporters typically required that the target not move, relative to its own surroundings, before it could be dematerialized. The blue steps of the transporter glowed red when in use. Pavel Chekov was skilled enough in transporter operation that he could acquire a target that was in relative motion. Scotty later enabled the transporters to use his transwarp beaming formula, to enable Kirk and Spock to travel from the Enterprise – which was hidden within the magnetic field of Saturn's rings – to the Narada, as the latter craft orbited Earth. The transporter room was within running distance of the bridge. (Star Trek)

Template:StarshipEnterprise

Appendices

Background

The USS Enterprise was designed by Ryan Church. On the Starships Blu-ray featurette it was acknowledged the ship has elements of both versions of the Template:ShipClass, and was also inspired by the sleekness of a hot rod car. The film's bridge, upper corridors and turbolift, transporter room, and sickbay were built as sets in Paramount Pictures. According to production designer Scott Chambliss and others on the film's Blu-ray and Star Trek - The Art of the Film, the ship's white upper levels were inspired by Pierre Cardin's architecture. The more industrial lower levels of the ship were filmed at a Budweiser brewery. The filmmakers filmed the engineering rooms on location instead of building a set because they lacked money.

USS Enterprise (alternate reality) under construction, teaser

The USS Enterprise under construction

Co-writer Roberto Orci explained the logic of having the Enterprise being built on Earth rather than in space, noting that components of the ship can be built on Earth and assembled anywhere and that the Enterprise is not "some flimsy yacht that has to be delicately treated and assembled." He also feels that it makes more sense to construct the ship within a natural gravity well rather than an area that will require an artificial gravity field. [1] Orci made these comments after a teaser trailer that was released prior to the film included footage, unseen in the movie itself, that showed the Enterprise under construction and being welded upon.

Size

The finalized length of the Enterprise is portrayed as 2379.75 feet (725.35 meters) in the Starships Blu-ray feature and Star Trek - The Art of the Film (see Note 4 in the book). Gizmodo blog writer Jesus Diaz was the first to reveal this number, citing as his source a "David B." of Bad Robot Productions. [2] Bob Plant of Round 2 Models provided the exact same figure, saying it was specified by the licensor of their planned model kit, who in turn had obtained it from ILM. [3] [4] In a separate interview, Plant also asked Enterprise designer Ryan Church, who said that he was unable to address the changed size (compared to that of the original series Enterprise) and that ILM or J.J. Abrams could probably better answer the question. [5]

The article on the movie in Cinefex #118 notes that "the reconfigured ship was a larger vessel than previous manifestations — approximately 1,200-feet-long [370 meters] compared to the 947-foot ship [288.6 meters] of the original series". The source of this figure isn't given and the statement is followed by a quote from Visual Effects Art Director Alex Jaeger:

"Once we got the ship built and started putting it in environments, it felt too small. The shuttle bay gave us a clear relative scale — shuttlecraft initially appeared much bigger than we had imagined — so we bumped up the Enterprise scale, which gave her a grander feel and allowed us to include more detail."

Star Trek illustrator John Eaves recalls that before he finished working on the movie in October 2007, the size of the Enterprise had been very much undefined, anywhere between 3,000 and 5,000 feet (900 and 1,500 meters). [6] [7] [8] A metric size chart dated September 10, 2007 shows the ship at 1,200 meters in length (3,900 feet), while some of the other vessels are also larger than in the later charts. (Star Trek - The Art of the Film) In the Starships Blu-ray feature, Alex Jaeger was showing an ILM size chart dated January 14, 2008, with the Enterprise length at 2,500 feet (760 meters). Earlier on his blog, Jaeger had quoted the same figure from an unspecified early chart, adding that the size may have been somewhat reduced later on. [9] Other published size figures are summarized below:

  • The length was stated as 2,357 feet (718.4 meters) in a CG Society article on ILM's visual effects work for the film. [10]
  • ILM model supervisor Bruce Holcomb said that the Enterprise was 2,000 feet (600 meters) long in an interview for Studio Daily. [11]
  • The Post Magazine article 'Star Trek' Returns gives a length of 3000 feet (900 meters). [12]
  • Experience the Enterprise includes the following dimensions:
    • Length: 2,500 feet (760 meters)
    • Saucer diameter: 1,100 feet (340 meters)
    • Height: 625 feet (190.5 meters) [13]

Apocrypha

The ship's dossier on the official movie website identifies the Enterprise as a Constitution-class heavy cruiser, the same as her prime universe counterpart, although this detail was not stated in the film. [14]. The website also notes that it was being "held in Beta Testing Ward 956 – approved for combat". The maximum speed of the Enterprise was given as warp 8.

As well as giving her class, length, saucer diameter and height, the Experience also lists the Enterprise's designer as "W. Matt Jefferies". It also states the D and E decks – located in the saucer – are used as offices and quarters for a crew of 1100, while F deck hosts the transporter room. Decks N and O in the secondary hull contain engineering, while the hangar is on Deck R. It is able to house sixteen shuttlecraft.

External links

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