Star Trek: How Many Ships Called Enterprise Are There?

You can't have Star Trek without the Enterprise. Although not every series in Star Trek canon has featured a ship by that name, the iconic nature of Captain Kirk's vessel from The Original Series means that — no matter how popular other ships, like Voyager, the Defiant, or Discovery, might be with fans — the franchise will always return to that legendary name. The result is that it now seems there are as many Enterprises in Star Trek lore as there are dead redshirts.

Of the 12 Trek series released to date (not including the anthology show, Short Treks), six of them have focused on the crew of an Enterprise. Meanwhile, all 13 theatrically released films do the same — regardless of where they sit in the timeline, or even which timeline they belong to. Some of these movies and shows have even featured multiple different Enterprises, only confusing the matter further. Thankfully, you don't need to be a member of the Department of Temporal Investigations to understand the complicated history of the Enterprise.

The first Enterprise fans were introduced to was, of course, the NCC-1701, the ship that Kirk, Spock, Bones and the rest of their crewmates called home in The Original Series, set in the 23rd century. The same ship returned for the first three Trek movies, until its destruction in The Search for Spock. In recent years, the 1701 has also featured prominently in Discovery and sports a starring role in Strange New Worlds, in which it is captained by Christopher Pike. In both its interior and exterior design, the streaming-era 1701 differs greatly from the original, but within the canon, it is supposed to be the same ship.

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home was the first entry in the franchise to establish that there would be new Enterprises and that they would be christened alphabetically. The flashier Enterprise-A became Kirk's second vessel and went on to appear in The Final Frontier and The Undiscovered Country. Star Trek: Generations then debuted the briefly seen Enterprise-B, under the charge of Captain John Harriman.

The Next Generation, meanwhile, introduced the Enterprise-D. It's perhaps the most beloved lettered Enterprise of them all and captained by Jean-Luc Picard in the 24th century. TNG also saw time travel allow the Enterprise-D to encounter the Enterprise-C, helmed by Captain Rachel Garrett, in the episode "Yesterday's Enterprise." TNG's own movie spinoffs repeated the Enterprise-A trick and saw the D destroyed and replaced with the upgraded, more militarized Enterprise-E in First Contact. The E returned for Insurrection and Nemesis.

It was Star Trek: Enterprise where things really started to get convoluted, however. Although a prequel to TOS, Enterprise is not actually about the 1701 but the NX-01, a 22nd century pre-Federation vessel that was one of Starfleet's pioneering explorative ships. The implication is that Captain Jonathan Archer's ship was so legendary that it inspired the name of Kirk's Enterprise in the first place. Ironically, Enterprise also introduced the last Enterprise that's currently known to exist, as well. In "Azati Prime," Archer receives a glimpse at the 26th century, where the super-advanced and super-sized Enterprise-J is Starfleet's flagship.

Fast forward to Star Trek: Picard, set in the 25th century, and Season 3 reveals that the Enterprise-E is no more (blame Worf) and the Enterprise-F has taken its place, as captained by TNG's Elizabeth Shelby. By the end of the series, the USS Titan has been refitted as the latest Enterprise, the Enterprise-G, with Seven of Nine in the captain's chair. Thanks to Enterprise, it can be inferred that two more models — the H and the I — must follow in the next hundred years before the J is commissioned in the 2500s.

This covers the prime timeline, but there are even more Enterprises over in the Kelvin universe. In this timeline, the NCC-1701 was briefly captained by Christopher Pike, then by Acting Captain Spock, before James Kirk assumed command full-time. After reappearing in Star Trek Into Darkness, this Enterprise had its final voyage in Star Trek Beyond when it was destroyed in battle. By the film's end, Starfleet had commissioned an alternate version of the Enterprise-A.