So let me star by saying the Refit Constitution is IMHO the most beautiful ship design ever in any sci-fi film and it crushed me when they destroyed 1701 in TSFS. So naturally as a kid I was delighted when they brought it back as their new ship.
But as I've gotten older (though not necessarily wiser) I've started to question the decision to simply bring out another Refit Constitution, call it Enterprise, and slap an "A" at end of the registration.
First because the 1701 was so iconic and had such a long history, first in TOS, then undergoing a total remake for TMP
(BTW this is totally feasible that it was the same ship, regardless of what people say WWII Essex and Midway class carriers were so heavily renovated and modernized that they looked NOTHING like they did in their original incarnation by the time their service life was over, yet their name and regristration # never changed. At least the refit Enterprise kept the same principle elements as the ship in TOS)
Then its epic battle with Khan and being where Spock died and then pulling one final trick out of it's sleeve by outwitting the shiny new Excelsior and Starfleet Command and even getting the drop on a BOP before it's demise. So it's safe to say the 1701 had an amazing career full of memories for ST fans.
Like I said at first I was thrilled another refit was the "New" Enterprise, but I find myself liking the decision less and less over time. The 1701 was unique and built up a history over decades, to just use the same ship, slap an "A" on the end and go "TA-DA" here's your new Enterprise, same as the old one" seems kind of doing the 1701 a disservice to what she stood for and accomplished.
Plus it was just never really explained what the "A" Enterprise was. I've read the differing explanations that it was a new ship or that it was a currently existing Constitution class ship they just renamed.....but in for those of us who don't read all the non movie stuff it would have been nice if they explained how this "A" version came to be. If you only watch the films it just seems like they just happened to have the Enterprise-A lying around and were like "Thanks Kirk for saving the planet from being destroyed by Humpback Whales, here's your shiny new Enterprise we just happened to have on hand"
Also TFF just added to the confusion of the origins of the ship (Big surprise I know TFF not doing something well). They took great pains to make it clear the ship was not functioning well and Scotty in particular thought it was a piece of crap. But WHY was it not working. Was it because it was a new ship that they hadn't worked the kinks out of, or was because it was an old ship that hadn't been properly maintained (Again totally plausable given the fact the Navy has even in the last several years failed to maintain its FREAKING AIRCRAFT CARRIERS so that at times they weren't in condition to do their deployments and another ship had to step instead). The film seemed to lean towards us wanting to believe because of the "newness" of the ship that caused all of this. But hadn't it been in service sometime since the end of TVH? And even after a few years or so they're still working the issues out of a "new" ship that has been based on a design that has been around for over a decade. Of course by TUC everything was hunky dory and the "A" was running like a well oiled machine regardless of its past.
I know it thrilled many fans to have the refit back, but it just seems more and more weak to me as time goes by and keep in mind I LOVE the refit version. If they were going to do a new Enterprise then maybe they should just have gone balls out and given them a totally new design, similar in style to 1701, but a truly obviously new ship.
The most obvious thing would have been to rename and number the Excelsior to the Enterprise-A (Don't give me any crap about "Well what would the Enterprise-B have been then"). Or they could have had another new design starfleet was building and called one of those ships the Enterprise-A. (Although I don't know if it was in the budget to build a whole new movie quality model). I just think the 1701 Enterprise was special and when it was destroyed it should have been left to rest and not revived for nostalgia sake.
Plus at the end of TUC Kirk says how this ship and its history will now belong to a new crew.....what history is that exactly? One lame ass mission where it was hijacked to find "God" and then a heroic role in TUC. I think if it was a totally different ship he could have made it more about the legacy of the name and how the majority of this ship's history was still to be written by a new crew but it had an impressive legacy with the name to build on. Instead it just seemed like they were combining 1701 and 1701-A as the same ship when they weren't.
Again for all you naval buffs. The WWII carrier Enterprise (CV-6) had the most distinguished wartime record of any warship in history, yet it was scrapped (Which is one of the biggest travesties as far as historical preservation go, it would be like building a mall on Gettysburg) If they built another ship that looked just like it and called it Enterprise CV-6-A, they can talk about all the history of the Enterprise name but, even though the ship is identical, they couldn't talk about the ship being the actual vessel involved. Instead they built the Enterprise CVN-65 which was the 1st nuclear powered carrier and had a distinguished 50 year history of its own and not one that is confused with CV-6.
I don't know. I just maybe think that once 1701 blew up over Genesis they should have called it a day on the Constitution version and started a new one and not try in some ways to make it seem like the "A" was just a rebirth or continuation of the original.
But as I've gotten older (though not necessarily wiser) I've started to question the decision to simply bring out another Refit Constitution, call it Enterprise, and slap an "A" at end of the registration.
First because the 1701 was so iconic and had such a long history, first in TOS, then undergoing a total remake for TMP
(BTW this is totally feasible that it was the same ship, regardless of what people say WWII Essex and Midway class carriers were so heavily renovated and modernized that they looked NOTHING like they did in their original incarnation by the time their service life was over, yet their name and regristration # never changed. At least the refit Enterprise kept the same principle elements as the ship in TOS)
Then its epic battle with Khan and being where Spock died and then pulling one final trick out of it's sleeve by outwitting the shiny new Excelsior and Starfleet Command and even getting the drop on a BOP before it's demise. So it's safe to say the 1701 had an amazing career full of memories for ST fans.
Like I said at first I was thrilled another refit was the "New" Enterprise, but I find myself liking the decision less and less over time. The 1701 was unique and built up a history over decades, to just use the same ship, slap an "A" on the end and go "TA-DA" here's your new Enterprise, same as the old one" seems kind of doing the 1701 a disservice to what she stood for and accomplished.
Plus it was just never really explained what the "A" Enterprise was. I've read the differing explanations that it was a new ship or that it was a currently existing Constitution class ship they just renamed.....but in for those of us who don't read all the non movie stuff it would have been nice if they explained how this "A" version came to be. If you only watch the films it just seems like they just happened to have the Enterprise-A lying around and were like "Thanks Kirk for saving the planet from being destroyed by Humpback Whales, here's your shiny new Enterprise we just happened to have on hand"
Also TFF just added to the confusion of the origins of the ship (Big surprise I know TFF not doing something well). They took great pains to make it clear the ship was not functioning well and Scotty in particular thought it was a piece of crap. But WHY was it not working. Was it because it was a new ship that they hadn't worked the kinks out of, or was because it was an old ship that hadn't been properly maintained (Again totally plausable given the fact the Navy has even in the last several years failed to maintain its FREAKING AIRCRAFT CARRIERS so that at times they weren't in condition to do their deployments and another ship had to step instead). The film seemed to lean towards us wanting to believe because of the "newness" of the ship that caused all of this. But hadn't it been in service sometime since the end of TVH? And even after a few years or so they're still working the issues out of a "new" ship that has been based on a design that has been around for over a decade. Of course by TUC everything was hunky dory and the "A" was running like a well oiled machine regardless of its past.
I know it thrilled many fans to have the refit back, but it just seems more and more weak to me as time goes by and keep in mind I LOVE the refit version. If they were going to do a new Enterprise then maybe they should just have gone balls out and given them a totally new design, similar in style to 1701, but a truly obviously new ship.
The most obvious thing would have been to rename and number the Excelsior to the Enterprise-A (Don't give me any crap about "Well what would the Enterprise-B have been then"). Or they could have had another new design starfleet was building and called one of those ships the Enterprise-A. (Although I don't know if it was in the budget to build a whole new movie quality model). I just think the 1701 Enterprise was special and when it was destroyed it should have been left to rest and not revived for nostalgia sake.
Plus at the end of TUC Kirk says how this ship and its history will now belong to a new crew.....what history is that exactly? One lame ass mission where it was hijacked to find "God" and then a heroic role in TUC. I think if it was a totally different ship he could have made it more about the legacy of the name and how the majority of this ship's history was still to be written by a new crew but it had an impressive legacy with the name to build on. Instead it just seemed like they were combining 1701 and 1701-A as the same ship when they weren't.
Again for all you naval buffs. The WWII carrier Enterprise (CV-6) had the most distinguished wartime record of any warship in history, yet it was scrapped (Which is one of the biggest travesties as far as historical preservation go, it would be like building a mall on Gettysburg) If they built another ship that looked just like it and called it Enterprise CV-6-A, they can talk about all the history of the Enterprise name but, even though the ship is identical, they couldn't talk about the ship being the actual vessel involved. Instead they built the Enterprise CVN-65 which was the 1st nuclear powered carrier and had a distinguished 50 year history of its own and not one that is confused with CV-6.
I don't know. I just maybe think that once 1701 blew up over Genesis they should have called it a day on the Constitution version and started a new one and not try in some ways to make it seem like the "A" was just a rebirth or continuation of the original.
