Hello, Ric here with the first of a 2 part
video 20K special thingy. Nailed it. The first
warp 5 vessel was constructed by Starfleet
and was the NX-01, named Enterprise and its
role as Earth’s first deep space exploratory
vessel established a legacy of space-faring
ships that were always at the forefront of
Federation development and expected to pioneer
its principles. As such, these ships of the
line were captained by equally adept commanding
officers and today, let’s look at who they
were.
Starting with the aforementioned NX-01, it
was launched in 2151 to escort a Klingon intelligence
officer back to Qo’Nos. It was captained
by Jonathan Archer, whose father had worked
on continuing Zephram Cochrane’s work culminating
in the warp 5 engine, the heart of the NX
project of which Jonathan was a test pilot.
He served aboard the vessel for its entire
ten year tenure until it was decommissioned
in 2161 with the founding of the United Federation
of Planets. This is likely because the Federation
of Planets was established, bringing with
it a myriad of new technologies and ships.
Archer himself would go one to be a Federation
President, serving eight years in the office
from 2184-2192.
There would be no other vessel named Enterprise
until 2245 when the NCC-1701 was constructed
in San Francisco and launched under the captaincy
of Robert April. The Constitution class vessel,
among its sister ships, formed the very pinnacle
of Starfleet technology, carrying the latest
armaments, the fastest engines and with 14
independent science labs. It came complete
with diplomatic facilities and was capable
of operating within a planetary atmosphere.
It also featured the first complex computer
system created by Dr Richard Daystrom. Robert
April oversaw construction of some of these
exemplary vessels continuing a trend of the
first captain being involved in the construction.
The Enterprise name at this time was not the
standard bearer of Starfleet as later vessels
would become, but over the course of its service
would go on to establish its lineage. After
its inaugural five year deep space mission,
Captain Robert April was promoted to Commodore
and stepped down, handing command of the Enterprise
over to Christopher Pike in 2250. Another
5 year mission immediately ensued taking us
up to 2255. In 2256, the Klingon cold war
tensions boiled over into full-scale conflict
and this likely threw a wrench into the vessels
exploratory plans. 2257 saw Pike temporarily
relinquish command of the Enterprise to requisition
the USS Discovery. Now it’s unknown what
else happened in this time period, but Pike
was still in command of the Enterprise in
2265 when he was promoted to Fleet Captain,
giving him a total of 15 years in command
of the ship. During his time, the vessel had
undergone several refits to keep the constitution
vessel at the fore-front of Starfleet engineering.
In 2265, Kirk took command of the Enterprise
NCC-1701 and Pike’s science officer was
promoted to First Officer while is XO was
promoted to captain and reassigned. The events
of the Original series unfold with Captain
James Kirk, sounds weird just saying James
Kirk, you need to add the T. You just have
to. …With James T Kirk engaging on another
5 year mission of non-stop exploration. This
command established the Enterprise’s reputation
and made it stand out, even among the other
Constitution class ships but ended in 2270
with Kirk’s promotion to Rear Admiral. He
handpicked his replacement, Captain Will Decker
who Kirk had selected as he saw him as a similar
individual. Commodore Matt Decker and Commodore
Stocker both assumed command for a single
mission during 2267.
The events of the Motion Picture are not given
exact dates, but Captain Will Decker makes
a comment to Kirk that he hasn’t logged
a single star hour for 2 and a half years.
So it’s widely accepted to take place in
the year 2272/3. As we see in the film, Decker
isn’t best pleased with Kirk pulling rank
to reassume command of the Enterprise, especially
as the enterprise has spent the first 18 months
of Decker’s command in Dry-dock undergoing
its biggest refit yet. So out of Decker’s
2.5 years as captain, only 1 year was spent
flying shakedown before Kirk’s intervention.
No wonder he was complaining.
After the V’Ger crisis, its unknown what
occurred but it is speculated that Kirk resumed
command of the Enterprise for a further 5
years, possibly another 5-year mission though
I find this latter part unlikely as Kirk’s
position as a Flag Officer would mean he had
a whole different set of responsibilities.
This Brings Kirk’s potential command total
to 10 years.
However in 2284, Kirk had retired from Starfleet,
but that didn’t last and he was back in
the Admiral’s chair later that year. During
this time, Captain Spock was in command of
the aging Starfleet vessel which was now being
used as a training vessel to ready a new generation
of explorers and it’s not stated the exact
date he took command. It would have been sometime
between 2273, if Kirk returned to his desk
job after the Motion Picture or 2278 if Kirk
retained command. Plus there’s nothing to
say that another captain may have taken the
chair between 2278-84.
It’s worth bearing in mind that the Enterprise
is around 30 years old at this time and newer
vessels such as the Excelsior and Soyuz class
would be replacing them. I guess Kirk could
have remained in command throughout all this
time, but again, he was an Admiral and we
get the distinct impression that the enterprise
had been under Spock’s command for some
time by Wrath of Khan in 2284. I think it
makes more sense that Kirk handed the ship
over to someone he could trust with it completely,
his best friend in 2278 and Spock remained
in command, training cadets and keeping the
aging vessel in the heart of Federation territory.
Either way, the time of the Enterprise’s
perilous deep space missions were over and
the vessel was being used as field training
for Starfleet Academy. In 2285, Kirk reassumes
command of the Enterprise for the rest of
the year until its destruction over the Genesis
planet at the hands of the Klingons after
he stole it from Earth Space Dock to rescue
Spock.
In 2286, the arrival of the Whale Probe threatened
Earth and Kirk saved the day once again. It
was this action that spared him a discharge
from Starfleet and he was let off with a demotion
to captain and assigned a new vessel. That’s
it? You’re giving him a shi-I mean, oh,
oh nooo… such a bad punishment… well that
really buggers up my life goals… aw… and
you named the new ship the Enterprise?
In all seriousness though, the USS Enterprise
NCC-1701-A was a refitted constitution class
speculated to have been the converted USS
Yorktown. Meaning that this vessel was also
around 40 years old so it’s not like he
was given the same grand position as he had
once earned before. The Excelsior class was
Starfleet’s new poster-child as it were.
In fact the Enterprise-A had to undergo minor
refits in 2287 and again prior to 2293. Kirk
remained in command for this vessel’s entire
6-7 year service until it was decommissioned
after the signing of the Khitomer Accords
in 2293, But the importance of the Enterprise
name had been founded and Starfleet already
had set plans in motion.
This is where I’ll end this video as the
rest of the Enterprise legacy involved much
more Beta content so it’s more speculation
based but part 2 will cover the Enterprise
B onwards. So out of all the captains, Pike
was confirmed to have the longest run with
potentially Kirk besting his 15 years with
17-18 years if we assume that whatever the
Enterprise’s time remains unaccounted for
had Kirk in the chair. What do you think happened
between the motion Picture and Wrath of Khan?
I like to think that Kirk used the Enterprise
as his Admiral’s privilege, as it were,
getting another 5 years out of her until Spock
was promoted to Captain and began to train
cadets. I like to think that Kirk the passed
it on to Spock, whom he could trust completely
with the vessel after his personal realization
that he wasn’t comfortable with some unknown
in charge like Will Decker, despite Decker
being chosen by Kirk initially. But there’s
nothing really to prove this and the Enterprise
could have passed into the hands some complete
unknown in this time period.
Thanks for listening and I hope to see you
next time for part two, so until then set
course that-a-way and goodbye.
