USS Hood (Excelsior class)

USS Hood (Excelsior class)
Owner:	United Federation of Planets
Operator:	Starfleet

The USS Hood (NCC-42296) was a Federation Excelsior-class starship that was in service with Starfleet in the late 24th century.

History

The Hood, under the command of Captain Robert DeSoto, was William T. Riker's assignment after he left the USS Potemkin some time after 2361. Riker served as first officer.

After completing a tour on the USS Victory in 2362, Geordi La Forge was transferred to the Hood.

In the course of his duties on the Hood, Will Riker refused to allow Captain DeSoto to transport to the surface of Altair III for an away mission. Riker felt the mission was too dangerous to expose the ship's CO to such a risk. (TNG: "Encounter at Farpoint", "The Pegasus")

Service from 2364-2369

Orbiting Deneb IV with the USS Enterprise-D in 2364

In 2364, the Hood rendezvoused with the USS Enterprise-D in orbit of Deneb IV, to transfer crew and equipment, including the ship's new first officer, William Riker, CMO Beverly Crusher, and Geordi La Forge, as well as Admiral Leonard McCoy, who inspected the medical facilities of the Enterprise. (TNG: "Encounter at Farpoint")

Two years later, the Hood was dispatched to the Romulan Neutral Zone in order to counter a possible Romulan sneak attack emanating from a cloaked Romulan base on Nelvana III with the goal to retake the Neutral Zone. (TNG: "The Defector")

A few months later, the Hood was due to assist the USS Enterprise on a terraforming project on Browder IV. (TNG: "Allegiance")

The Hood rendezvoused with the Enterprise again a couple of weeks later to drop off Tam Elbrun for the "Tin Man" mission. (TNG: "Tin Man")

This was the first and only on-screen appearance of Captain DeSoto. Ensign Nog's line in DS9: "Treachery, Faith and the Great River" suggests that DeSoto was still a captain in 2375, but it is unknown whether he was still in command of the Hood in the ship's later history after "Tin Man".

In 2367, the Hood underwent a major systems upgrade at Starbase 174. (TNG: "Brothers")

This information appeared on the bridge-version of the Starship mission status screen.

The Hood acted as a focal point in the tachyon detection grid in 2368

The Hood was also part of Captain Picard's task force in 2368 to blockade the Klingon-Romulan border in order to cut off the Duras family from Romulan supplies. It served as a focal point and anchor in the tachyon detection grid, as it was linked to twelve other starships during the grid's initial deployment. (TNG: "Redemption II")

In 2369, the Hood underwent yet another major systems upgrade, this time at Starbase 134. (TNG: Various episodes)

This information appeared on the observation lounge version of the starship mission status screen.

Dominion War service

Part of Operation Return

USS Hood fires upon a deactivated orbital weapon platform (2374)

The Hood fought in several engagements during the Dominion War. In early 2374, it was part of the task force that participated in Operation Return, the attempt to retake Deep Space 9. (DS9: "Favor the Bold", "Sacrifice of Angels")

In late 2374, the Hood participated in the First Battle of Chin'toka, traveling in close formation with the USS Defiant. (DS9: "Tears of the Prophets")

Postwar service

In 2379, the Hood was part of Star Fleet Battle Group Omega, a group of starships assigned to Sector 1045 near the Romulan Neutral Zone to intercept the Scimitar. (Star Trek Nemesis)

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Appendices

Background information

There has been some controversy regarding the registry number of the USS Hood. The ship was first seen on-screen in TNG: "Encounter at Farpoint" in effect shots created by ILM, using the original studio model built by them for Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. No registry number was visible in these shots, but on pictures available on-line, the model was clearly labeled "USS Hood, NCC-2541". [1] Had this registry number remained canon, it would have made the Hood a close contemporary sister ship of the USS Repulse NCC-2544, further establishing a Starfleet practice that when a ship is named for a historical counterpart they are sometimes paired in the same class with other contemporary historical counterparts. The historical HMS Hood and HMS Repulse were contemporary British battle cruisers who shared a similar fate in World War II. Other examples where this was practiced were the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) and the USS Lexington (NCC-1709) as well as the USS Monitor (NCC-61826) and the USS Merrimac (NCC-61827).

USS Enterprise-D with the USS Repulse "NCC-2541"

Apparently the original labeling was forgotten about or ignored by the production staff, as another, much higher registry number, NCC-42296, was devised later and used consistently in various LCARS graphics, for example the starship mission status and the screen showing Star Fleet Battle Group Omega. Nevertheless, a profile view, shot for, but not yet used in the first season of the new The Next Generation series, turned up in the second season opening episode "The Child" as the USS Repulse NCC-2544. However, it would take until 2012 for the remastered version of the episode, that the registry number "NCC-2541" became discernible, though only just barely (and therefore overlooked by the digital artists at CBS Digital), on the aft of the warp nacelles, thereby providing the on-screen confirmation that the model originally was indeed relabeled "NCC-2541" in 1987.

The Hood's appearance in "Tears of the Prophets" was confirmed by John Gross and Karen Sickles of Digital Muse in a 25 June 1998 post by DS9 Visual Effects Supervisor David Stipes on the newsgroup alt.tv.star-trek.ds9. He noted that during the labeling of the CGI model of the USS Hood, a typographical error was made, mistakenly giving it the registry of the "NCC-42768." [2]

According to the Star Trek Encyclopedia the USS Hood, like its Constitution-class predecessor, was named for British admiral Sir Horace Hood, who fought and died in the Battle of Jutland during World War I, though that reference was dropped in the last edition of the Encyclopedia. The Star Trek Fact Files, part 86 states that the Hood was named for 18th century British admiral Samuel Hood (incidentally a direct ancestor of Horace Hood) after whom the ill-fated World War II British battle cruiser HMS Hood (launched and christened by Horace Hood's widow) was also named.

Apocrypha

The USS Hood is mentioned in numerous Star Trek novels, e.g., Imzadi, Demons of Air and Darkness, A Time to Heal, Articles of the Federation and A Singular Destiny. The latter describes the Hood as still being in service as of 2381.

According to the 1994 Malibu Comics Star Trek: Deep Space Nine issue #6, the Hood participated in the Battle of Wolf 359 in 2367. Therefore, she would have been the sole vessel surviving the battle as referenced in TNG: "The Drumhead".

In the TNG PC game A Final Unity, if the Enterprise was destroyed, a message plays where a Starfleet admiral says that the USS Hood had been dispatched to investigate.

The USS Hood was one of the playable Excelsior-class starships in skirmish mode in Star Trek: Legacy.

External link

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