Why, thank you, Mr. Nesmith.
BTW: you forgot to say “There’s no goddamned ship!”
Just out of curiosity, pjd: How many lights do you see? I bet you see three lights, don’t you?
Ok, I’m delving into complete geekdom here but the discussion has created a nit-pick item that I vagely remember from a source I think I read once. (How is THAT for hedging?)
Anyway, I recall reading that Scotty (and the rest of the crack engineering team) made so many modifications to the Constitution class starship (as seen on TV!) that the ship that debuted in the first Star Trek movie was called an “Enterprise” class ship.
Does anyone else remember reading that or am I creating memories again?
Besides, the flagship has to named Enterprise. Because it’s the name of the first flagship. A Trektoid we all learned from the past (present) about the future (past) shows about things that are due to happen in our past (past) ((like the Eugenics War of the 1990s)) which was of course future to them (in the past).
Bean all the Trek guides I’ve ever seen list it as a Constitution class. I don’t have everything, though. So, if you run across again, let us know, K? (I love new stuff:) )
FTR, it’s all true. The reality you think you’re living is the fictional life. Welcome to the House of Trek Dopers™, pud. Hope you have fun.
What?
Oh… I see…
It’s pjd. So sorry.
Had enough yet? 
(btw, don’t listen to Aes. He picks his nose and eats it!)
When I saw this title at a glance, I saw the following:
Star Trek, hardcore, NC-17
My interest was piqued until I realized it was something entirely different! 
According to my “Star Trek Chronology” in 2285 (the same year as TWOK) the U.S.S. Hathaway, a Constitution class was launched. “Peak Performance” TNG So they were still making them.
Here’s a silly theory. Perhaps Kirk had made some arrangements when back in 1986 to assure that a new ship was ready and waiting for them when he got back. That would be so like him. He just doesn’t like to lose.
Remember ST:TMP? In that movie, everything on the Enterprise looked brand new and still needed to get all the bugs worked out of it, just like in STV:TFF.
But was the Enterprise brand new in ST:TMP? No! It was the same old NCC-1701 that had been with us since before Captain Pike. Its systems were only new and untried because the ship had just gone through a major overhaul and refit.
The same thing was probably true for STV:TFF. The ship newly christened NCC-1701-A wasn’t a brand new ship, it was an old existing Constitution class starship that had just gone through a major overhaul and refit. So, as with the up-rated Enterprise in ST:TMP, the “new” NCC-1701-A only looked new and needed the bugs worked out of it because it was chock full of new systems in an old hull.
Aesiron, while I don’t think the writers cared why it would be decommissioned, the only logical reason I could think of why it would be decommissioned would be the damage that it sustained from the Klingon attack. Those things are just too big and expensive to get rid of them just because there’s a nifty new design.
NCBJust because it’s designated the “Flagship” doesn’t mean that it has to be the newest, biggest, baddest boy on the block. Note the Constellation, mentioned above. It’s been known as “America’s Flagship” since a president, Reagan I think, called it that during a visit to the carrier.
I know Linus. I just said the flagship had to be named ENT. Nothing else. 
That was from Scotty’s Guide to the Enterprise or something similar. During the Eighties, while Trek books were still pretty bush league, each book pretty much wrote the history of the Federation and its technology, species, etc to the author’s whims.
Yes! Exactly!
The Constellation just returned from her last deployment. This bold and brave ship, which shares the name with America’s first fighting vessel, now retires to serve as a museum. It will be replaced in service by the Ronald W. Reagan.
“Hardcore Star Trek People”? I thought this was some kind of slash database thread. Darn.
I was fortunate enough to get a tour of the Constellation from a friend who served aboard her. Amazing ship. And a pretty impressive history of ships with that name.
The reason I said “Peak Performance” from TNG was that this was the reference to place the Hathaway’s launch when they do. In “Peak Performance” they say the Hathaway was launched 80 years ago.
So… it’s gonna be lost at sea until Nancy comes around?
I was going to make a tasteless joke about forgetting to install RAM in the onboard computer system, but it would just be redundant now… 
Hey! All you guys with your real life answers! Why, I oughtta…
Remember, real life is no longer canon.
Canon is no longer canon.
Nikon is still canon, but Minolta is now Porthos.
Porthos has submissive peeing problems.
That is all.
And keep him away from cheese.
… which is named after the bold and brave leader who valiantly defended this great country from the evil empire of … um … Grenada.
[Hijack]
It should be noted in the interest of fighting ignorance that both the USS Enterprise CVN-65 and the USS Constellation CV-64 used steam turbines. The difference is Enterprise used nuclear power to create the steam and Constellation burned oil.
[/Hijack]