Last week I was watching Star Trek: Generations, yes the one with the magical space ribbon of destiny,
but on a serious note while watching, an interesting question came to me…
At the end of the film, the Galaxy-class USS Enterprise-D crashed on the planet's surface of Veridian III and was officially listed as destroyed…
the saucer section made a somewhat successful crash landing on the surface of the planet and remained somewhat intact.
So my question is, Could the Enterprise-D be salvaged? Today we’ll explore that.
Welcome to Trek Central! I’m your host, Captain Jack, and let’s get into it!
The Galaxy-class USS Enterprise-D was the flagship of the Federation and was effectively in service from 2363 to 2371, under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard.
The starship was very successful in several key moments in Federation history, such as the encountering and engaging The Borg Collective, as well as numerous First Contact missions.
The starship's eventual loss was not only a loss to Starfleet, but also one to Trekkies, who had watched the ship through 7 seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
In Trek, the ship is basically a character, so when she is lost, it’s very emotional!
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Alrighty, let’s recap how we got to this situation and how the Enterprise-D ended up crashing in the first place for those who don’t know.
Given YouTube’s implementation of chapters, you can skip ahead if you’re a hard core Trekkie and know the story so far!
The USS Enterprise-D was a Galaxy-class starship operating as the fifth Federation starship to bear the name Enterprise and the flagship of the fleet by 2363, operating until 2371.
Under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard, the Enterprise-D was responding to a distress call from an observatory in the Amargosa system.
Investigations originally revealed the station had been attacked by Romulans, along with recovering the lone survivor, Doctor Tolian Soran.
It turned out Doctor Soran had his own agenda, and after attacking an away team consisting of Lieutenant Commander Data and Lieutenant Commander La Forge, he launched a solar probe that destroyed the Amargosa star, producing a type-12 shock wave.
Data was rescued, but Soran kidnapped La Forge with help from a renegade Klingon Bird of Prey, under the command of the Duras sisters, Lursa and Btor.
The Enterprise left the system as the observatory and surrounding stellar objects were destroyed in the ensuing shockwave that decimated the local area.
Eventually, Captain Picard, along with help from Guinan and Data, discovered that Doctor Soran was seeking to manipulate the path of the Nexus.
The Nexus was an extra-dimensional Heaven-like realm in which one's thoughts and desires shaped reality. Inside the Nexus, time and space had no meaning,
allowing one to visit any time and any place that one could imagine.
The Enterprise set course for the Veridian system, which was correctly predicted as the next location for Doctor Soran’s plans.
Arriving at Veridian III, Picard and crew intercepted the Klingon Bird-Of-Prey, seeking a prisoner exchange.
Following the return of La Forge, the Duras sisters commanding the Bird-Of-Prey had compromised his visor,
allowing them to see the Enterprise-D’s shield frequency, and thus an attack on the flagship ensued.
Given the nature of the surprise attack, The Enterprise-D’s shields were compromised, allowing the Klingons to deal critical damage to the Enterprise.
The starships hull was breached, leading to the Warp Core’s magnetic interlocks ruptured, further leading to a coolant leak before an unavoidable Warp-core chain reaction breach was started.
Commander William T. Riker, who was commanding the Enterprise in Captain Picard’s absence,
ordered an evacuation of the Enterprise.
The crew would evacuate from the starship's stardrive section, to the saucer section, allowing the ship to commence an emergency saucer separation once all hands were transferred.
Unfortunately, the Enterprise saucer section was unable to get to a safe enough distance before the star drie warp core went critical,
meaning the explosion shockwave caught the saucer section and threw it off course, disabling main systems,
forcing the saucer and crew into a degrading orbit of Veridian III.
Deanna Troi took the helm and along with Data, who managed to reroute auxiliary system power to the lateral thrusters, was able to level out the descent, as the saucer-section crash landed into a jungle on the planet's surface.
So, The Enterprise-D was crashed on the surface of Veridian III, the stardrive section was totally destroyed in the warp-core breach,
yet the saucer section was successfully crash landed, with the crew later being rescued by a Starfleet task force consisting of the USS Farragut, an Orbeth-class and a Miranda-class starship.
Starfleet officially listed the primary hull as unsalvageable, however, we sorta know this is not the entire truth at the end of the day.
Parts of the Enterprise-D were salvaged and due to sentimental value, would be fitted on the successor starship,
the Sovereign-class USS Enterprise-E.
These items included the officers lounge table, the bridge science station and the forward support struts.
In Extended-canon, via the book “The Return”, Commander Riker would later revisit the crash site of the Enterprise-D with multiple teams to head up a mission to dismantle the remains of the saucer-section.
While it may seem that this was to pick up supplies, it was actually due to the nature of the local star system.
Veridian IV, the next door planet, was inhabited by a pre-warp civilization. As such, Starfleet, following the Prime Directive,
opted to remove all traces of the crash starship, so that if the native species ever achieves spaceflight, and visited Veridian III, they would not discover a crashed starship and thus alter their own destiny.
Naturally this mission did not go entirely to plan, due to the interference of a Romulan attack. Commander Riker was forced to activate the saucer-sections auto-destruct sequence,
leading to the Enterprise-D’s final destruction.
The ensuing blast totally destroyed the surrounding area, Riker believed it would be better for the future explorers of Veriidian IV to find a huge crater, rather than the remains of the USS Enterprise-D.
Looking at it in more depth, it does make sense that Starfleet had plans in place for events like this,
while we did not get to see it on screen, it would have been a fantastic episode to show the Enterprise-D being dismantled and then eventually destroyed by Riker triggering the auto-destruct sequence.
Hey, a Short Trek maybe?
While it would have been a good thought to salvage parts of the Enterprise-D and perhaps even re-use the saucer-section for use on another Galaxy-class starship,
it was officially beyond salave. Most likely due to the extensive damage brought on during the crash landing.
Though that does give me thought,
Imagine that with enough time, the saucer-section was able to get away from the warp-core breach, and therefore survive in-tact. Would Starfleet reuse this part of the ship? I think they would personally!
Two things could happen here, one a new Stardrive-section could have been constructed and replace the old one,
meaning the half of the Enterprise-D would have been new. The second option is that the saucer-section would have been used on another galaxy-class starship as I previously mentioned.
Let me know your thoughts in the comment section below, as I am now curious as to what you think would happen in these unique circumstances.
Personally I love the fact that no matter what happened to the salvage operation of the USS Enterprise-D, at least some artifacts were transferred over to the Enterprise-E,
ensuring the crew knew of the legacy of her predecessor, it certainly is a nice touch.
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For now, I’ve been Captain Jack, thanks for watching and we’ll see you next time! Live Long and prosper my friends!