66

How may different Enterprises were there?

How many were featured in TV or film?

The last I heard there was a 'J' in the show 'Enterprise'.

10
  • 17
    I couldn't help but think of this scene. :-)
    – oKtosiTe
    Jan 11, 2011 at 21:45
  • 4
    That scene is probably one of the greatest sci-fi scenes ever. Jan 11, 2011 at 21:48
  • 6
    @oKtosiTe: We won't go back! You don't know what it's like!
    – DampeS8N
    Jan 11, 2011 at 23:03
  • 6
    If we're talking about any Enterrpise that appeared on Trek TV or film (and you didn't say it had to be a starship), then the Navy aircraft carrier Enterprise in ST:IV The Voyage Home counts :-)
    – Bert F
    Feb 3, 2011 at 21:48
  • 1
    @oKtosiTe Good scene there, but the first one that came to mind for me was this one: youtu.be/1A1TZQk5Wgk
    – Iszi
    Nov 4, 2011 at 19:34

6 Answers 6

74

As a succinct answer, there are 8 warp-capable starships with the name Enterprise that have been seen in at least one episode of a Star Trek series or movie to date. If you count alternate timelines/universes, and refits which resulted in a different model being used to represent the same ship, there are 4 NCC-1701s and 2 NCC-1701-Ds, bringing the total to 12.

Prior to the events of the Star Trek canon, in real history, six tall (sailing) ships, two aircraft carriers, and a space shuttle have borne the name "Enterprise". They, plus a fictional sublight interstellar ship from the 2100s numbered ECV-330, are paid homage to in Star Trek: The Motion Picture and in other ways through the canon.

  1. The NX-01, best described as a light cruiser (slightly smaller than a Miranda class), was an early faster-than-light starship to be built by the human race. It is the ship for the series Enterprise, and established the Humans as a space-faring race, paving the way for the United Federation of Planets to be formed.
  2. The NCC-1701, a Constitution-class heavy cruiser, was the ship for the entire original series and, in refit form, for the first three movies. NCC-1701 was destroyed by Kirk in Star Trek III to keep it, and information about the Genesis Experiment, from falling into Klingon hands.
    • The TOS episode "Mirror, Mirror" shows a nearly identical NCC-1701 to the one from the rest of the serires, from an alternate universe in which the Federation is instead the Terran Empire. This ship is named the ISS Enterprise instead of the USS Enterprise, and is captained by a "mirror" James T. Kirk.
    • NCC-1701 was extensively overhauled from the version seen in the original series after the end of TOS and before the events of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and was also seen in that form in Star Trek II and Star Trek III, but (in-canon) the movie version was considered the same ship as the one in TOS.
    • An alternate version of NCC-1701 is seen in the 2009 Star Trek movie; the entire plotline of Star Trek follows an alternate timeline to the events that would have preceded TOS.
  3. The NCC-1701-A, a refit Constitution-class ship, is unveiled at the end of Star Trek IV (the majority of IV having taken place with Kirk captaining the hijacked Klingon Bird of Prey from III), and is used for V and VI. According to most canon sources, the Enterprise-A was originally the Yorktown, NCC-1717, which was quickly refit after being disabled by the Whale Probe in ST IV, and recommissioned as NCC-1701-A as a gift to Kirk and his crew for their service to the Federation. The Enterprise-A is assumed to have been decommissioned shortly after the events in VI, largely due to damage sustained in the battle with General Chang over Khitomer (which was to be the fate of the NCC-1701 before Kirk stole her in III).
  4. The NCC-1701-B is an Excelsior-class battleship featured in the introduction to Star Trek: Generations, which occurs very late in James Kirk's life. He is killed on the maiden voyage when the ship is called on to rescue two shiploads of refugees who have been caught in an energy ribbon. The fate of the Enterprise-B herself is unknown based solely on series and movies, but licensed novels indicate the ship was lost and presumed destroyed after its final transmission following the Cardassian invasion of Bajor, indicating the crew had contracted some unknown infection.
  5. The NCC-1701-C is an Ambassador-class starship, seen in one TNG episode, "Yesterday's Enterprise", where the ship passes through a temporal rift into the time of the Enterprise-D. The Enterprise-C was destroyed with the presumed loss of all hands in a battle against four Romulan warbirds while defending a Klingon outpost, a mere 5 years after her reported christening date in 2339.
  6. The NCC-1701-D, a Galaxy-class starship, was commissioned nearly 20 years after the tragic loss of the Enterprise-C. She was she ship for the entire The Next Generation series, and for Star Trek: Generations. The Enterprise-D was one of the few Enterprises to be large enough to house spouses and children of the crew aboard, which Captain Picard apparently tolerates. As such, it was the largest of the Enterprises in the main canon (what is known about the Enterprise-J suggests it would dwarf any ship built by the major factions during the main canon, including the Enterprise-D). She was destroyed during the events of ST:G while in orbit over Veridian III in a battle with rogue Klingon agents.
    • In an alternate future timeline seen in the TNG series finale "All Good Things", the Enterprise-D had been hauled out of mothballs by then-Admiral Riker, retrofit with an additional warp nacelle and upgraded weapons capabilities, and recommissioned as a dedicated warship. This alternate future in fact never came to pass in the "main" timeline.
  7. The NCC-1701-E was a Sovereign-class cruiser launched in 2372, one year after the Enterprise-D's destruction (and thus, according to First Contact's writer, her keel had been laid while the Enterprise-D was still in service, and so was originally planned to have another name). She is indicative of the latest wave of ship classes after the era of the Galaxy (such as the Intrepid and Nova classes), with an egg-profile saucer and minimal "neck" joining the saucer to the aft section. As a result, she is about half the height of the Enterprise-D and slightly smaller overall, with no provisions for families or children of crew members aboard. She is featured in all TNG-era movies after Generations (First Contact, Insurrection, Nemesis). She was critically damaged in Nemesis, but after extensive repairs in drydock she remains active as of the end of the known timeline.
    • As an aside, while the ship named Enterprise has kept the designation NCC-1701 through the eras, the majority of other Federation ships have been numbered in normal sequential order, with the result that the U.S.S. Voyager, which is roughly contemporary to the Enterprise-E, has the designation NCC-74656. One can assume from her numbering that roughly 73,000 Starfleet capital ships have been commissioned between TOS and the Voyager arc, of which maybe half are still in service. Space is a dangerous place.
  8. Versions F-I are never seen or discussed in canon but are assumed to exist due to the existence of the NCC-1701-J. The NCC-1701-J appears in an episode of Star Trek: Enterprise as a ship from the 26th century of a possible future timeline. Its class, and much of its specifics, are unknown, but it was conceived to be a truly massive ship (so much so that turbolifts would have been replaced with transporters) with capabilities far exceeding ships in the known Star Trek canon universe.
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  • 2
    The Enterprise C had a survivor: Alternate timeline Tasha Yarr. She died after giving birth to a half Romulan daughter.
    – Kalamane
    Jan 24, 2012 at 2:14
  • 2
    The Enterprise-C had more than one survivor according to Memory Alpha, but the Romulans captured all of them; as far as the Federation (and Klingons) knew for sure until 20 years later, there were no survivors.
    – KeithS
    Jan 24, 2012 at 3:07
  • I can confirm, in fact, that the three-nacelled Enterprise D did not have a modified designation: 1.bp.blogspot.com/_IYihBiTh-cM/TUalPDYFiSI/AAAAAAAAE78/…
    – Plutor
    Feb 6, 2012 at 20:10
  • 1
    A cogent summary but I have a quibble with your description of NX-01. There are other similarly-sized cruisers with some decent specs for the time (we see them occasionally. Speed is the distinguishing factor. NX-01 is the first non-prototype Warp 5 ship. Assuming the cubic scale from TOS, that means 125c, as opposed to an implied Warp 4, or 64c max for previous ships. This makes longer-range exploration viable; but it's also made clear that humanity was already pushing outward with their slower ships (like Horizon). May 2, 2013 at 16:33
  • Just a point- it's not traditional ST canon, but Star Trek Online is probably the closest thing now and has the Enterprise-F, which is Odyssey-class. Feb 17, 2015 at 15:31
26

The NX-01 was featured in Enterprise.
NCC-1701 was featured in TOS (and the first 3 movies)
NCC-1701-A was featured in TOS-era movies after 3.
NCC-1701-B was featured in Star Trek: Generations.
NCC-1701-C & D were featured in TNG (C for one episode, possibly a 2-parter)
NCC-1701-E was featured in TNG-era movies

An episode of Enterprise featured a small scene on the NCC-1701-J, from which we can assume the existence of F, G, H, and I.

Alternate versions of each ship likely exist for each ship, though only Alt-NX-01 and Alt-NCC-1701 were seen on screen, I believe. Alt-Alt-NCC-1701 was featured in the Star Trek franchise reboot movie.

This list is from memory, and not exhaustive, and does not cover questionably-canon sources like RPG manuals, comics, or novels.

7
  • So, 12 in the original universe TV & movies, 2 in the original timeline alternate universe, and 1 in the new timeline's primary universe (it remains to be seen if the new timeline has an alternate universe, though it would stand to reason that it would diverge from the old timeline's alternate universe at the same instant as the new timeline diverged from the old).
    – Jeff
    Feb 4, 2011 at 18:47
  • Plus the other enterprises that weren't starfleet (like the space shuttle, and some trippy ones that are both seen in a picture in TMP and enterprise)
    – dkuntz2
    Feb 6, 2011 at 19:59
  • DKuntz: You have an excellent point, but I didn't feel like tracking down the scenes from Generations that show the models of 'all' the past Enterprises (especially since it's inaccurate - the NX-01 isn't pictured)
    – Jeff
    Feb 7, 2011 at 15:05
  • 1
    You are forgetting USS Enterprise the aircraft carrier in Star Trek IV. Also I think there is reference to the space shuttle Enterprise somewhere. Not sure if Picard or Archer mentions it "these craft were all called Enterprise".
    – Rob
    Feb 21, 2011 at 1:07
  • @Jeff: The NX-01 wasn't a Federation Enterprise. Were the models Federation-only or not, or unspecified?
    – Izkata
    Oct 1, 2011 at 0:03
19

Based on the episode TNG: Parallels, there were at least...

"Two hundred eighty-five thousand"

... ships called Enterprise seen (or referred to) within the main TV canon.

This video-clip offers a brief glimpse of around 300 of them.

Giff of multiple enterprises popping into existence, hundreds of them.

4
  • If I could give you two hundred eighty-five thousand upvotes, I would.
    – Praxis
    Aug 1, 2015 at 21:54
  • 2
    @Praxis - Alas, there's already an accepted answer.
    – Valorum
    Aug 1, 2015 at 22:50
  • Pure genius Richard. Nov 29, 2015 at 2:28
  • Are these different Enterprises? They are all the same Enterprise-D from multiple quantum realities, so perhaps they're really the same one?
    – jpmc26
    Jul 7, 2019 at 13:48
10

Wikipedia mentions 8 + 4 from alternative timelines.

1
  • This is essentially a link-only answer.
    – Ellesedil
    Mar 22, 2018 at 15:41
8
  1. Enterprise NX-01 - Star Trek: Enterprise
  2. I.S.S. Enterprise NX-01 (Mirror) - Star Trek: Enterprise
  3. U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 - The Original Series & The Animated Series
  4. U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 (Kelvin) - Reboot
  5. I.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 (Mirror) - The Original Series
  6. U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 (refit) - Movies I, II, III
  7. U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-A - Movies IV, V, VI
  8. U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-A (Kelvin) - Reboot
  9. U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-B - Generations
  10. U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-C - "Yesterday's Enterprise"
  11. U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D - The Next Generation & Generations
  12. U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D (refit) "All Good Things..."
  13. U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-E - Movies 8, 9, 10
  14. U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-F - Star Trek: Online
  15. U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-J - "Azati Prime"
  16. U.S.S. Enterprise CVN-65 - Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
  17. Enterprise OV-101 - Opening titles of Star Trek: Enterprise
  18. Enterprise OV-101 - Alternate opening titles of Star Trek: Enterprise (Mirror)
  19. H.M.S. Enterprise - Star Trek: Generations, holographic recreation
  20. Enterprise NX-01 (refit) - Planed for season 5, but was cancelled (never seen on screen).
  21. U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-G - images have began to surface on the internet (never seen on screen). Remember, there are plenty of letters left in the alphabet. Here are some more alternate appearances...
  22. U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D (Saucer Section) - The Next Generation
  23. U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D (Star Drive) - The Next Generation
  24. U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 (Saucer Section) (Kelvin) - Beyound
  25. U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 (Star Drive) (Kelvin) - Beyound

300+ Enterprises present in episode "Parallels"

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  • What about Discovery ? Mar 22, 2018 at 15:07
  • 1
    I did not count Discovery, because that is the same Enterprise as Pike and Kirk, although it did look a little different.
    – Thylorion
    Mar 22, 2018 at 19:19
  • Thylorion, well it should be listed under #3.... Mar 22, 2018 at 21:29
3

Star Trek Online, which is canon with the Star Trek Universe, has NCC-1701-F, an Odyssey-Class Super-Heavy Cruiser. The Odyssey-class is essentially the Soverign class but with detatchable saucer section.

Images and information can be found here: U.S.S. Enterprise (NCC-1701-F).

1
  • Yes, I did have on my list
    – Thylorion
    Apr 20, 2018 at 18:42

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