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USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D)
The CGI depiction of the USS Enterprise from the series finale of Star Trek: Enterprise, "These Are the Voyages..." (2005)
First appearance	"Encounter at Farpoint" Star Trek: The Next Generation 1987
Last appearance	"Remembrance" Star Trek: Picard 2020
Created by	Andrew Probert
Information
Affiliation	United Federation of Planets Starfleet
Launched	October 4, 2363
Decommissioned	2371 (Star Trek Generations)
Captain	Jean-Luc Picard William Riker Edward Jellico
Auxiliary vehicles	Shuttlecraft Captain's yacht
General characteristics
Class	Galaxy
Registry	NCC-1701-D
Armaments	Phasers Photon torpedoes
Defenses	Deflector shields
Maximum speed	Warp 9.5
Propulsion	Impulse drive Warp drive
Power	Matter/antimatter reaction

USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D), or Enterprise-D, is a starship in the Star Trek media franchise. Under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard, it is the main setting of the Star Trek: The Next Generation television series (1987–1994) and the film Star Trek Generations (1994). It has also been depicted in various spinoffs, films, books, and licensed products.

The Next Generation occurs 78 years after the adventures of Captain James T. Kirk and the first starship Enterprise in the original Star Trek (1966–1969). Andrew Probert's Enterprise-D updates Matt Jefferies' iconic 1960's Enterprise design, depicting a ship supporting a larger crew on a longer mission "to boldly go where no one has gone before."

Design

Concept

Paramount Television Group and Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry announced the development of a new Star Trek series in October 1986. Because the Enterprise had been "just as important to as Kirk, Spock, and McCoy," the new ship was critical.

Whereas Captain Kirk led a five-year mission, the new crew would be outfitted for a mission of at least 10 years. To sustain such a mission, the new vessel would twice as long, eight times the volume, and include the crew's families. Roddenberry also wanted the ship to depict an improved quality of life for its crew: it would be brighter, less militaristic, and have sleeker and more refined interfaces than the original Enterprise. He wanted the Enterprise to convey a harmony between science and quality of life.

The Enterprise's registry was originally NCC-1701-7, and the 7 became a G to be consistent with the new USS Enterprise, with registry NCC-1701-A, at the conclusion of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986). A February 1987 revision to the Next Generation writers' manual specified the show's Enterprise as the NCC-1701-D, carrying a crew of 907 and their families; by March, the crew complement was 1,012 and specified the show occurring 78 years after the original Star Trek.

Designs

Artists Andrew Probert, Rick Sternbach, and Michael Okuda were among the earliest Next Generation hires, and they had worked on Star Trek films. Probert, a concept artist, focused first on the bridge, since that would be a frequent filming set. Roddenberry envisioned the Enterprise bridge as having a forward viewscreen four times larger than in Star Trek, and for there to be a conference table on the bridge itself. As production design continued, the table was shifted to a conference room adjacent to the bridge, and an open bridge design formed. Probert designed a transporter to be near the bridge, but Roddenberry preferred that it be further away so characters could have conversations on their way to the transporter room.

Knowing the bridge would need to match up with the exterior design, Probert pinned up a "what if?" painting he'd made shortly after finalizing the Enterprise redesign for 1979's Star Trek: The Motion Picture as a referent. Story editor David Gerrold saw the image and, unbeknownst to Probert, took it to a producers meeting. The producers liked the design and directed Probert to make that the basis for the new ship. The sleeker lines and rounded contours that informed the interior design also influenced the exterior. The ship's many windows are meant to support the crew be in touch with their environment.

The new Enterprise retains the hallmarks of Matt Jefferies' design for the original Enterprise: a saucer section, engineering section, and a pair of warp engine nacelles. Probert did this in part to assuage skeptical fans who were concerned about the original Enterprise being "replaced". The design instead shifted placement and proportion: for example, the saucer section was enlarged and the warp nacelles shifted lower. Slanting the warp nacelle support pylons forward conveyed the impression of intense forward movement. Fans got their first look at the Enterprise in the July 1987 issue of Starlog.

Probert's design did not originally include the ability for the saucer and engineering sections to separate, and producers rejected his initial concepts for incorporating it. Probert said his biggest design challenge was creating a ship that looked as good in two pieces as it did in one piece. He had meant to add landing gears to the underside of the saucer, as he had with the film franchise Enterprise, but he got "distracted" and never added them.

Sets

Starting in October 1986, producers began planning the show's sets, including efforts to "scrounge" them from the film franchise. The films' engineering, sickbay, corridor, crew quarters, and bridge were redressed for The Next Generation. To save money in the first season, the observation lounge's windows were covered with carpet to become sickbay; a new lounge set was created for the second season. A multipurpose set that served as the cargo bay, holodeck, shuttlebeck, and gymnasium was built from scratch. While the bridge "seems immense," the set had the same 38-foot (12 m) width as the original series bridge and was 2 feet (0.61 m) longer. A Ten Forward lounge set was created in unused soundstage space after the first season: producers realized all the other sets were workspaces, and they wanted an area to depict the crew at rest.

The production crew did everything possible within reason to both recreate previous season's sets and postulate futuristic upgrades for the series finale, "All Good Things..." (1994), which presents the ship in three disparate time periods. Some props and details, such as the first-season conference room starship models, had been saved and were reused for the flashback scenes. Sets for the future scenes reused props from other episodes that required positing the Enterprise's appearance further in the future.

Filming models and visual effects

Producers were aware that audiences had grown accustomed to the cinematic quality of models and effects in the franchise's films. There was consideration to using only CGI models and effects, but anxiety about whether the vendor could consistently deliver high-quality work led to that idea's rejection. Instead, producers turned to Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), who had worked on the Star Trek films.

In March 1987, an ILM team led by Greg Jein and Ease Owyeung began building filming miniatures based on Probert's designs. They created two models for $75,000: a 2-foot (0.61 m) model and a 6-foot (1.8 m) model that separated into the saucer and engineering sections. The models were made of fiberglass and cast resin over aluminum frames, and neon lights and incandescents provided the models' interior lighting. ILM filled a gap in its schedule during production of the pilot, "Encounter at Farpoint", by creating several stock footage shots and effects, including the Enterprise's jump to warp. The warp jump was featured in the show's opening sequence, but most of the other stock shots were too static and "didn't pan out." New Enterprise shots were created as necessary for each episode, and effects supervisor Robert Legato had over 350 such shots in his library by the seventh season. Legato disliked filming the six-foot model: its size made it hard to shoot, and its lack of surface details—some of which were drawn with pencil—made it hard to use in close-ups. Jein supervised construction of a four-foot (1.2 m) miniature for the third season that was more detailed than the first two.

Transition to film

Production designer Herman Zimmerman had more freedom for Star Trek Generations than he had on previous Star Trek films. Producers wanted to ensure Generations stayed true to the television series while also taking advantage of the film production's scope and budget. Interiors were relit and received several cosmetic changes, such as redesigned consoles, metallic accents, and replacing backlit displays with monitors. Some changes, like enhanced detailing and a redesigned bridge ceiling, were necessitated by the film cameras' higher resolution. The increased budget allowed for the creation of sophisticated new sets, such as the stellar cartography lab.

John Knoll led ILM's visual effects for the film, including an all-CGI warp jump effect for the Enterprise. ILM rewired and updated its six-foot Enterprise model for the saucer separation sequence. ILM made a 12-foot (3.7 m) saucer section model to "crash" into an 80-foot (24 m) planet surface model. An 18-inch (46 cm) model of the saucer's forward edge was used for close-ups of the crashed ship. The new USS Enterprise-E in Star Trek: First Contact (1996) invokes the Enterprise-D's elliptical saucer but rotates it 90 degrees.

Depiction

Starfleet commissions the Galaxy-class USS Enterprise in 2263 under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard. The flagship of the United Federation of Planets, it is on a mission "to boldly go where no one has gone before." Across seven television seasons, the crew explores the galaxy and makes first contact with several new species. A pair of two-part episodes depict a shift in command—to William Riker in "The Best of Both Worlds" and Edward Jellico in "Chain of Command"—but leadership reverts to Picard at the end of both arcs. The Enterprise also makes brief appearances in other franchise spinoffs: the pilots of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993) and Star Trek: Picard (2020) and the series finale of Star Trek: Enterprise (2005).

In 2371, as depicted in Star Trek Generations, the Duras sisters attack and heavily damage the Enterprise. A warp drive coolant leak causes an explosion that destroys the engineering section, and the saucer section crash lands on the surface of Veridian III. The saucer is damaged beyond repair, and the sequel film introduces the USS Enterprise-E as the crew's new ship.

Critical reaction

The Enterprise is itself a protagonist in The Next Generation. Each episode's opening voiceover, which states that "these are the voyages of the starship Enterprise," frames the narrative as belonging to the ship rather than the crew.

io9 ranked the Enterprise-D as the fifth best version of franchise's Enterprises, with Popular Mechanics calling it the third best and SyFy ranking it the second best. Space.com said the Enterprise's brief appearance is the highlight of the opening scene of Star Trek: Picard's pilot episode (2020).

Cultural impact

Jonathan Frakes, who played first officer William Riker, said, "When we negotiate our contracts, Paramount's company line is that the ship is in fact the star of the show!"

In October 2006, the six-foot Enterprise miniature was auctioned at Christie's, along with other models, props, costumes, and set pieces from the Star Trek franchise. Its projected value was $20,000 to $30,000, but the final sale price was $576,000—the most expensive item in the auction.

References

Citations

1. Sternbach & Okuda 1991, 567.
2. "Enterprise-D". CBS. Retrieved November 3, 2020.
3. Nemecek 2003, p. 1.
4. ^ Robinson & Riley, p. 28. sfn error: no target: CITEREFRobinsonRiley (help)
5. ^ Nemecek 2003, p. 4.
6. Nemecek 2003, p. 5.
7. Nemecek 2003, p. 9-10.
8. Nemecek 2003, p. 6.
9. USD307923S, Probert, Andrew G., "Toy spaceship", issued 1987-09-23 
10. Nemecek 2003, p. 5-6.
11. ^ Nemecek 2003, p. 7.
12. Nemecek 2003, p. 8.
13. ^ Nemecek 2003, p. 9.
14. Robinson & Riley, p. 28-29. sfn error: no target: CITEREFRobinsonRiley (help)
15. ^ Robinson & Riley, p. 29. sfn error: no target: CITEREFRobinsonRiley (help)
16. ^ Robinson & Riley, p. 30. sfn error: no target: CITEREFRobinsonRiley (help)
17. Robinson & Riley, p. 31. sfn error: no target: CITEREFRobinsonRiley (help)
18. ^ Nemecek 2003, p. 9-11.
19. ^ Nemecek 2003, p. 11.
20. Star Trek: The Next Generation season 2 DVD commentary
21. Nemecek 2003, p. 301.
22. ^ Sternbach & Okuda, 364. sfn error: no target: CITEREFSternbachOkuda (help)
23. ^ Rubenstein, Mitchell (October 1991). "The Special Effects of Star Trek". Cinefantastique. 22 (2): 33–34.
24. Nemecek 2003, p. 99.
25. Nemecek 2003, p. 308.
26. ^ Nemecek 2003, p. 311.
27. Nemecek 2003, p. 311-312.
28. Nemecek 2003, p. 313.
29. Nemecek 2003, p. 319.
30. ^ Magrid, Ron (December 1996). "Where No Trek Has Gone Before". American Cinematographer. 77 (12). (subscription required)
31. ^ Nemecek 2003, p. 320.
32. ^ Hardy, Sarah; Kukla, Rebecca (Spring 1999). "A Paramount Narrative: Exploring Space on the Starship Enterprise". The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. 57 (2, Aesthetics and Popular Culture): 177–191. doi:10.2307/432311. JSTOR 432311.
33. Whitbrook, James (February 21, 2018). "All 11 Versions of the U.S.S. Enterprise, Ranked". io9. Retrieved November 3, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
34. Moseman, Andrew (September 8, 2016). "Every "Star Trek" USS Enterprise, Ranked". Popular Mechanics. Retrieved November 4, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
35. Brigden, Charlie (January 21, 2019). "From one generation to the next: Ranking the Starships Enterprise". SYFY WIRE. Retrieved July 31, 2019.
36. Snowden, Scott (January 2020). "'Star Trek: Picard' warps onto TV with an okay premiere episode". Space.com. Retrieved November 4, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
37. "Jonathan Frakes – The Next Generation's Number One, Will Riker, and Trek director". BBC. Archived from the original on November 15, 2001. Retrieved May 7, 2011.
38. "Christie's underestimates Trekkies, pulls $7.1 million". CNN. May 9, 2007. Retrieved June 9, 2007.

Sources

• Nemecek, Larry (2003), The Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion, Pocket Books, ISBN 978-0-7434-7657-7
• Robinson, Ben; Riley, Marcus (2018), Designing Starships: The Enterprises and Beyond, Eaglemoss Productions, ISBN 9781858755274
• Sternbach, Rick; Okuda, Michael (1991), Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual, Pocket Books, ISBN 978-1-43910-856-7

Further reading

• David Gerrold's July 1987 Starlog column that provided fans their first look at the USS Enterprise-D

External links

• USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) at Memory Alpha
• Galaxy-class model at Memory Alpha

• Star Trek spacecraft
• Star Trek: The Next Generation
• Fictional elements introduced in 1987