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West explains Operation Retrieve

Colonel West presents the operation

For the plan to retake Deep Space 9, please see Operation Return.

Operation Retrieve was the code name of a mission proposed by Starfleet Colonel West upon the arrest of Captain James T. Kirk and Doctor Leonard McCoy for the assassination of Chancellor Gorkon in 2293. It was devised, in light of increasing tensions between the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire, to extricate the officers from their captivity by military force.

The operation

The details of the operation involved a direct incursion by several starships launched from Starbase 24 to the penal world of Rura Penthe, well within Klingon territory, and was expected to last no more than 24 hours with an acceptable loss to equipment and manpower.

The plan was vetoed by the Federation President as it would have most likely provoked the Klingon Empire into a full scale war. The operation was subsequently proven to be unnecessary, as the USS Enterprise-A entered Klingon space without authorization from Starfleet and retrieved Kirk and McCoy from the planet. (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country)

Starships assigned to Operation Retrieve
Name Registry Class Chart Silhouette
USS Ahwahnee NCC-2048 Unknown Constitution-class
USS Eagle NCC-956 Unknown Constitution-class
USS Emden NCC-1856 Unknown Constitution-class
USS Endeavour NCC-1895 Unknown Constitution-class
USS Excelsior NCC-2000 Excelsior-class Excelsior-class
USS Potemkin NCC-1657 Constitution-class Constitution-class

Star chart

Appendices

Background information

Operation Retrieve page four
Starfleet Command
Fleet Operations CenterSol Sector
"Operation Retrieve" Command Briefing
Starship Registry Commander Location
USS Excelsior NCC-2000 H. Sulu Sector 21185
USS Potemkin NCC-1657 D.M. Flinn Sector 21185
USS John Muir NCC-1732 S.C. Jaffe Starbase 24
USS Helin NCC-1692 R. Brookshire Sector 21290
USS Endeavour NCC-1895 D. Wise Sector 22849
USS Eagle NCC- 956 K. Garretson Sector 22858
USS Republic NCC-1371 H. Zimmerman Sector 22956
USS Kongo NCC-1710 N. Rodis Sector 21803
USS Whorfin NCC-1024 H. Narita Sector 21399
USS Springfield NCC-1963 D. Bayard Sector 21835
USS Challenger NCC-2032 M. Michaels Sector 21166
USS Constellation NX-1974 G. Cantemessa Sector 23006
USS Scovil NCC-1598 D. Hulett Sector 21837
USS Lantree NCC-1837 K. Glover Sector 22858
USS Oberth NCC- 602 R. Morey Sector 22956
USS Emden NCC-1856 C. Thomas Sector 21803
USS Korolev NCC-2014 J. Downer Sector 21399
USS Ahwahnee NCC-2048 D. Tathwell Sector 21835
Starfleet Assets: Sectors 21166-23094 7824.5

The Operation Retrieve briefing material had a fourth page that was never seen on-screen, and is reproduced to the right. [1]

Sector 21166 was identified by name on the star chart Starfleet Operations - Sector 21166-22079 in 2367. (TNG: "The Mind's Eye")

The mission charts were created by Graphic Designer Michael Okuda, who years later elaborated on the origins of the ship's names and registry numbers:

"If I recall correctly, the charts visible on film/video listed only ship names and registry numbers. One can probably glean some class designations from the ship icons in the diagrams. I don't have the original art handy (I think it's archived on Syquest disks, which I don't have the ability to read, even if I could find the disks themselves), but I recall giving the info to Bjo Trimble, and I'm pretty sure she used most of it in her revised Star Trek Concordance. I might note that some of the ship registry numbers came from Greg Jein's interpretation of the starship chart in Commodore Stone's office in "Shore Leave" (TOS). Other registry numbers came from Franz Joseph's Star Fleet Technical Manual or his Starship blueprints. In still other cases, the ships and/or numbers did not come from either source, but were consistent with some fleet status charts I did elsewhere on the USS Enterprise-A in Star Trek VI. (In other words, there's something that just about everyone will disagree with, but I also hoped that there would be at least something that almost everyone would agree with.) I should also point out that I prepared several charts for the rescue briefing scene, and that not all of them ended up in the final cut of the film. I don't recall which ones were used, or which ones ended up unseen. I do seem to recall that there was at least one chart that had quite a number of registries - mostly, I recall, from FJ's work - that ended up unused." [2]

The names listed in the roster of commanding officers, excepting that of Sulu, were all but one those of production staffers who had been working on The Undiscovered Country at the time. On a personal note, Okuda included a Captain D. Tathwell, which was the maiden name of his future wife Denise, who, at the time, was the one not yet working for the live-action franchise.

External link

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