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.