Star Trek: What Really Happened To The U.S.S. Enterprise E?

The "Star Trek" franchise is full of iconic starships from the Delta quadrant-sailing USS Voyager to the USS Cerritos with its crew of wild and woolly characters. But the ones that will always hold a special place in the hearts of Trekkies are those ships lucky enough to bear the name USS Enterprise. The legacy of starships named "Enterprise" dates back to humanity's first serious ventures into interstellar space exploration in "Star Trek: Enterprise" with the experimental Warp 5-capable NX-01. Its next few successors include the Constitution-class NCC-1701, Constitution II-class NCC-1701-A, Excelsior-class refit NCC-1701-B, Ambassador-class NCC-1701-C, and the Galaxy-class NCC-1701-D captained by Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) in "Star Trek: The Next Generation."

Although "Star Trek: The Next Generation" follows the crew of the Enterprise-D for several years, most of the main crew would end up serving together longer on its successor, the Enterprise-E. Starting when it launched in 2363, the Enterprise-D spent less than eight years on active duty before its destruction in 2371. Launched the following year, the Enterprise-E remained on active duty until an indeterminate time in the 2380s — which means the crew went on to have just as many adventures on the newer, sleeker ship before Worf (Michael Dorn) allegedly did something to cause its destruction, as hinted at in "Star Trek: Picard." 

While the official Star Trek canon doesn't outline the finer details of the Enterprise-E's life and death, it does offer hints at what happened hidden in dialogue and other canon media.

After Enterprise-D's near-destruction in the Battle of Veridian III ("Star Trek: Generations"), Starfleet christens a Sovereign-class ship already under construction – the Enterprise-E. First appearing in "Star Trek: First Contact" under Picard's captaincy when it was described as "the most advanced starship in the fleet" by Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton), the Enterprise-E was rolled out with the encroaching Borg threat in mind. In line with the ship's martial purpose, Enterprise-E is not a family ship. Unlike the 42-deck Enterprise-D, the Enterprise-E has somewhere between 24 and 29 decks depending on who you're asking, and is almost 700 meters long, according to Picard. 

Even if it doesn't have all the luxuries of Enterprise-D, Enterprise-E does feature a hydroponics bay and a library complete with an uptight librarian, as shown in a deleted scene from "Star Trek: Insurrection." Capable of cruising at warp 8 for extended periods and warp 9.99 for 24 hours, the ship also boasts an advanced shield system and a formidable weapons complement complete with a quantum torpedo turret that fires four rounds per second.

At the beginning of "Star Trek: First Contact," the Enterprise-E had already been out of spacedock for nearly a year when the Borg attacked. Concerned with Picard's history with the Borg, Starfleet orders the Enterprise-E to patrol the Romulan Neutral Zone — orders Picard would break to the good fortune of the Federation, who prevailed at the Battle of Sector 001 thanks to his intervention. After chasing a second Borg ship through a temporal vortex, the Enterprise-E crew sticks around long enough in 2063 to stop the Borg from preventing humanity's first contact with the Vulcans.

Close to a decade later, the Enterprise-E gets caught up in a conflict between the Son'a and Ba'ku that leads to the Battle of the Briar Patch in "Star Trek: Insurrection." In 2379, sometime after undergoing a major refit that included the addition of several new photon torpedo tubes, bridge handrails, and new nacelle pylons with new phaser arrays, the ship gets involved in a conflict with Romulan Praetor Shinzon ("Star Trek: Nemesis"). The conflict culminates in the Battle of Bassen Rift, which results in extensive damage to Enterprise-E, including a disabled warp core, a busted viewscreen, and a significant hull breach. 

Under the direction of Picard, Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) rams the Enterprise-E into Shinzon's ship, the Scimitar, absolutely wrecking the forward saucer section. At the end of "Star Trek: Nemesis," the Sovereign-class ship can be seen in drydock in a spacedock above Earth undergoing repairs.

Although last seen onscreen in "Star Trek: Nemesis," Enterprise-E sees more adventures after its near-destruction. In the "Star Trek: Picard" episode "Seventeen Seconds," Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) tells Picard she became pregnant with his son Jack Crusher (Ed Speleers) on a "perfect day" while on shore leave on Casperia Prime two months before she left the Enterprise-E — the same day they ended their romantic relationship for the fifth time. When he asks why she never told him, Crusher lists several life-threatening events that kept getting in the way. First, refugees from Kalara V kidnapped Picard and held him for nine days. Next, two Reman assassins in the Donatra system held a disruptor to Picard's head. After that, he was nearly blown up by a photon grenade while in negotiations with a praetor. In the canon novel "Star Trek: The Last Best Hope," it's established that Worf took over as captain shortly thereafter.

Several reunited members of the Enterprise-E crew later "borrow" a ship from the Fleet Museum in 2401 in the "Picard" episode "Vox" when La Forge tells his old crewmates, "We need a ship — something older. Analog. Offline from the others." It seems like the obvious choice would be the nimble Sovereign-class ship they last served on together. Instead, they swipe the Enterprise-D, now rebuilt with engines and nacelles from the Syracuse as part of La Forge's ongoing pet project. The decision is explained away by La Forge, who comments, "And obviously, we can't use the Enterprise-E," to which Worf replies swiftly, "That was not my fault." In a Zoom chat with Master Replicas Collectors Club, showrunner Terry Matalas said the ship's unclear fate was a deliberate gag.

Even though Enterprise-E didn't get as much screentime as the glorified space cruise ship that went before it, it played a crucial role in humanity's history. It's the ship Picard and his crew were serving aboard when they stopped the Borg Queen from plunging humanity into some kind of time-travel-induced Borg hellscape. And it was the ship where the Enterprise crew last served with their dear friend Data (Brent Spiner), who sacrificed himself to save his fellow crewmen in "Star Trek: Nemesis."

Although we don't know the details of how Worf apparently wrecked the family car, we do know that the ship's legacy did not end with Picard's exit stage left, thanks to a brief cameo in "Star Trek: Prodigy," which shows the Enterprise-E participating in the Starfleet armada at the Battle of Gamma Serpenti ("Battle Lines"). As outlined in the Star Trek Logs, an Instagram account produced for CBS and Paramount and thus assumed to be canon, Enterprise-E's final mission was classified.

The ship would be succeeded in 2386 by the Odyssey-class Enterprise-F, which was decommissioned in 2401 to be replaced with USS Titan rechristened as the Enterprise-G, the following year when it set sail under the captaincy of Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) with Raffaela Musiker (Michelle Hurd) and Jack Crusher serving under her command ("Picard": "The Last Generation"). The event would mark a triumphant moment in Seven of Nine's timeline, particularly given that she had attempted to hand in her resignation to Tuvok, who denied her resignation and promoted her instead.