… one ship could have stopped this war before it started.Jean-Luc Picard
The USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-C) was a 24th century Federation Ambassador-class starship operated by Starfleet. It was the fourth Federation starship to bear the name Enterprise. In 2344, Captain Rachel Garrett served as the ship's commanding officer.
Lineage
History
Final mission at Narendra III
- Main article: Battle of Narendra III
In 2344, the Enterprise responded to a distress call from the Klingon outpost on Narendra III, which was under attack by the Romulan Star Empire. When the Enterprise arrived at the outpost, she was engaged by four Romulan warbirds. The ship was hopelessly outnumbered, and suffered major damage to her warp nacelles and external hull, with all but 125 crew members being killed.
During the firefight, a temporal rift was created. The ship entered and almost instantly emerged from it, before she was ultimately destroyed. (TNG: "Yesterday's Enterprise")
Creation of an alternate history
The severely damaged Enterprise drifted through the rift, emerging in the year 2366 (precisely twenty-two years, three months, and four days later), and encountered her successor, the Galaxy-class USS Enterprise-D. The crew discovered that the outpost at Narendra III had been completely destroyed, and a state of war existed between the Klingon Empire and the Federation. Both crews eventually realized that the current timeline was a result of the Enterprise-C's absence from the battle, and determined that the Enterprise-C needed to return to its own time through the rift.
While the Enterprise-D assisted in repairs, both ships soon came under attack from the Klingons, and Captain Garrett was subsequently killed.
Lieutenant Natasha Yar, the Enterprise-D's tactical officer, learned from Guinan that, if the Enterprise-C was successful, in the new timeline that would be created she would die a meaningless death. Not comfortable with that idea, Yar requested and was granted a transfer to the Enterprise-C.
The last surviving senior officer of the Enterprise-C, Lt. Richard Castillo, assumed command of the ship and, under the protection of the Enterprise-D, took her back into the rift to return to 2344. (TNG: "Yesterday's Enterprise")
Back to 2344
The Enterprise-C returned at the same time it left its timeline. It engaged the Romulans and was eventually destroyed. In the aftermath of the battle, the Klingons were deeply impressed by the act of self-sacrifice by a Starfleet crew to protect a Klingon outpost, and the Enterprise's ultimate legacy was reinforcing the relations between the Klingon Empire and the United Federation of Planets, leading to a close alliance of peace.
A number of the ship's crewmembers, including Yar, were captured by the Romulans and held prisoner. Yar later gave birth to a half-Romulan daughter named Sela. (TNG: "Redemption II")
Legacy
Starfleet did not commission another Enterprise until nearly two decades later in 2363. (TNG: "Redemption II")
Sculptures of the Enterprise-C later adorned the walls of the observation lounges on both the USS Enterprise-D until 2368 and the USS Enterprise-E launched in 2372. (Star Trek: The Next Generation; Star Trek: First Contact; Star Trek Nemesis)
The sculpture in the Enterprise-D's observation lounge did not depict the final design of the Ambassador-class. The broken model seen in Star Trek: First Contact was sold off on the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay. [1](X)
Commander William T. Riker's questions on Professor Berlinghoff Rasmussen's questionnaire dealt mostly with previous Starfleet ships, including innovations of the Enterprise-C. (TNG: "A Matter Of Time")
Command crew
- Commanding officer
- Rachel Garrett (2340s–2366)
- Richard Castillo (acting)
- Helmsman
- Richard Castillo (2340s–2366)
- Fredericks (acting)
- Operations officer
- Parker (acting)
- Tactical Officer
- Natasha Yar (acting)
See also: USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-C) personnel
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Appendices
Appearances
References
Background information
A dedication plaque was made by Michael Okuda for the bridge set. However, due to camera angles and lighting conditions, it was unreadable. The plaque made an appearance in the Star Trek Encyclopedia, 4th ed., vol. 1, p. 192. According to the plaque, the Enterprise-C was built at the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards.
Apocrypha
According to the non-canon Lost Era novels – The Art of the Impossible and Well of Souls – the Enterprise-C was launched in 2332 with Garrett in command. The Star Trek: The Next Generation - Future's Past video game for Super Nintendo follows the Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual (p. 4) in claiming the Enterprise-C was constructed at Earth Station McKinley.
In the book The Autobiography of Jean-Luc Picard, the Enterprise-C was the ship that took Starfleet cadets including Picard from Earth to the Starfleet Academy marathon on Danula II in 2323, just after its launch. Its first captain was J.P. Hanson.
In the Star Trek Online mission "Temporal Ambassador", it was revealed that the Enterprise-D's battle with the Klingons in "Yesterday's Enterprise" caused the Enterprise-C to emerge from the temporal rift in 2409 rather than 2344. The alternate timeline remained in place, and the Federation has fallen to the Klingon Empire. However, the Klingon Empire, including the former Federation, and the Romulan Star Empire have been conquered by the Dominion. The Tholian Assembly holds the Enterprise-C at a base in the Azure Nebula, and the player joined forces with Richard Castillo and Tasha Yar to take the Enterprise-C back through another temporal rift to once more restore the timeline.
Also in Star Trek Online, a plaque commemorating the Enterprise-C can be seen inside certain fleet starbases. According to the plaque, she was launched in 2332, the date given in the Lost Era novel Well of Souls.
External links
- USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-C) at Wikipedia
- USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-C) at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
- USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-C) at the Star Trek Online Wiki