Enterprise, U.S.S. - Featured on the science fiction series STAR TREK/NBC/1966-69, this 23rd century starship  was the largest of thirteen Constellation class starships in the space fleet of the United Federation of Planets. Registration number NCC-1701. Its five year mission was to "seek out new life and new civilizations" and act as a military deterrent against enemies of the Federation, i.e. Klingons, Romulans.

The ship houses a crew of 430 members-one third female. Among them, Commander Captain James Tiberius Kirk (William Shatner); Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy), the Vulcan science officer; Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy, the ship's physician; Lt. Uhura Nichelle Nichols), female communications officer; Montgomery Scott (James Doohan), chief engineer; oriental helmsman, Mr. Sulu (George Takei); and Russian navigator, Chekov Walter Koenig). Slightly larger than a 20th century naval battleship, the Enterprise is 947 feet long, 417 feet wide and has a maximum gross weight of 190,000 tons.

The primary saucer-shaped hull is 417 feet in diameter and eleven decks thick through the middle. In emergency, the hull could be disengaged from the rest of the ship. The ship is propelled by anti-matter engines, and capable of a top warp speed of 14.1, equivalent to one-half billion miles per second.

The two starship engines attached to the ship by slender pylons were each 504 feet long, 60 feet in diameter and contained a fusion matter/anti-matter energy generator.

The Warp engines generally  propelled the starship through space in increments of Warp Factor One the speed of light) through Warp Factor Warp Eight (512 times the speed of light). However, the safest prolonged maximum speed was Warp Six (216 times the speed of light). Speeds higher than Warp Six put the ship's structure under considerable strain, and so only in emergency situations was the ship pushed to its limits.

The ship's weapons system included Phasers (lasers) and Photon Torpedoes (anti-matter suspended in a magnetic field).

The transporter beam (a molecular scrammbler/reassembly device) transported both crew and cargo from ship-to-planet or ship-to-ship.

Additional transportation was supplied by the on-board shuttlecrafts, six or seven passengers, limited range intra-solar vehicles, e.g., "Galileo"-Registry # NCC- 1701/7.

A revamped version of the U.S.S. Enterprise premiered in a series movie spin-off Star Trek: The Motion Picture  (1979) and subsequently, destroyed in the third Star Trek motion picture In Search of Spock (1984). It was replaced by a newer, larger, more sophisticated design of the same name housing 1000 crew members/families.

The Fall season of 1987 saw the rebirth of the series retitled STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION/FOX/1987-94 and the introduction of The Enterprise-D captained by Jean LucPicard (Patrick Stewart). The program was set 85 years in the future.

Dykstraflex" camera photographed all of the flying sequences, which created the sense of motion by moving itself instead of the model.  

The crew of the Enterprise-D consisted of Cmdr. William Riker (Jonathan Frakes); Lt. Cmdr./Cmdr. Deanna Troi, Ship's Counselor (Marina Sirtis); Lt. Cmdr. Data (Brent Spiner); Lt./Lt. Cmdr. Geordie LaForge (LeVar Burton); Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby); Lt. Worf (Michael Dorn); Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden); Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton); Dr. Katherine Pulaski (Diana Muldaur); and Guinan, (Whoppi Goldberg).

At the turn of the Millennium, the UPN network debuted the original Enterprise design (NX-01) in the prequel series ENTERPRISE/UPN/2001-2005. This was the first Earth ship to travel at warp speed into interstellar space. Its Captain was Jonathan "John" Archer (Scott Bakula). His father, warp engineer Henry Archer capitalized on the invention of the warp drive created by scientific genius Zefram Cochrane and designed the upgraded Warp Drive Five engine that would eventually propel humans to the stars in the year 2151 A.D (to the planet Kronos).

The crew of the NX-01 (chosen in only three days) consisted of  chief engineer, Commander Charles "Trip" Tucker III (Connor Trinneer); tactical officer Lieutenant Malcom Reed (Dominic Keating); helmsman Ensign Travis Mayweather (Anthony Montgomery); linguistics/communications officer Ensign Hoshi Sato (Linda Park); chief medical officer Dr. Phlox (John Billingsley), a specialist in alien physiology; Vulcan science officer Sub-Commander T'Pol (Jolene Blalock); and Captain Archer's pet beagle, Porthos.

TRIVIA NOTE: Matt Jeffries designed/constructed the models used in the STAR TREK series. There was a 4-inch model, a 3-foot model and a 14 foot miniature. There was also a 2-foot and a 12-foot model equipped with exterior and interior lights used for complicated shots. The 14-foot model is now housed in the Air & Space Museum of the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.

             

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