USS Potemkin (NCC-1657)

USS Potemkin (NCC-1657)
Owner:	United Federation of Planets
Operator:	Starfleet

For the other starship named Potemkin, see USS Potemkin (Excelsior class).

The USS Potemkin (NCC-1657) was a 23rd century Federation Constitution-class starship operated by Starfleet.

In 2268, the Potemkin was part of a small task force that participated in war games to field test the experimental M-5 computer, which had been designed by Doctor Richard Daystrom. The M-5 was installed aboard the Potemkin's sister ship, the USS Enterprise.

When the M-5 unit suffered a disastrous malfunction during simulated combat, it caused the Enterprise to attack the other Starfleet ships with full phasers rather than minimum-strength beams that were standard for such situations. At least five hundred people aboard the USS Lexington and the USS Excalibur were killed in the initial attack. The Potemkin and the USS Hood attempted to retreat, but were nonetheless hit numerous times by full phasers from the Enterprise. This resulted in an unspecified number of casualties.

Following the crippling of the Excalibur, the Potemkin and the other two remaining ships were ordered to destroy the Enterprise to end the threat. Fortunately, the Enterprise was able to deactivate the M-5 computer before the three-ship battle force attacked. (TOS: "The Ultimate Computer")

In 2269, the Potemkin was scheduled to rendezvous with the Enterprise in the Beta Aurigae system. The two ships were assigned to conduct gravitational studies of that binary system. The Enterprise, however, was diverted by a distress call from Camus II, causing the mission with the Potemkin to be delayed. (TOS: "Turnabout Intruder")

In 2270, the Potemkin was ordered to transfer a shipment of the life-saving medicine, strobolin, from Beta Canopus to the freighter USS Huron. The Huron was then to transfer the drug to the Enterprise so that it would be received within the three-day time frame needed to cure Spock's choriocytosis infection. (TAS: "The Pirates of Orion")

In the next twenty-three years, like her sister ship the Enterprise, the Potemkin was refitted. (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country)

In 2293, the Potemkin was conducting a scientific survey near Klingon territory during the time Operation Retrieve was proposed. The location of the Potemkin was labeled in the star chart for the "Operation: Retrieve" command briefing. This star chart was seen in the office of the Federation President on Earth. In the operation, the starship would have been the command ship for the operation and would make the attempt to rescue the hostages James Kirk and Leonard McCoy from Rura Penthe. This starship would have been flanked by both the USS Eagle and the USS Excelsior. (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country)

Appendices

Background information

The registry number of the Potemkin was not mentioned in any of the TOS episodes – it was later revealed on the Operation Retrieve chart in Star Trek VI. Michael Okuda, the creator of the charts, usually endowed Constitution-class vessels, that had not yet been provided with one canonically, with numbers either derived from Franz Joseph's reference book Star Trek Star Fleet Technical Manual (NCC-1711) or Greg Jein's influential "The Case of Jonathan Doe Starship" article (NCC-1702), published in the April 1973 issue 27 of the T-Negative fanzine. Oddly though, in this particular case, Okuda deviated from the norm and used a number originating from neither. Okuda has stated years later, "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." [1] Since Okuda has propagated the number throughout his subsequent reference book writings, the Potemkin became the only visually established Original Series Constitution-class vessel, not retconned with one of Jein's conjectural ship registry's, when the 2006 remastered version of the series, over which Okuda presided as producer, started its release.

The name of the ship had already been established by the producers at the start of second season of Star Trek: The Original Series, when they composed a list of fourteen ships belonging to the Constitution-class, still referred to as "Starship-class" by them at the time, including the Potemkin. Producer Robert Justman annotated on a memo of an earlier draft of the list, "I think there would be several other candidates, such as Saratoga and perhaps another English carrier, a French carrier, a Russian carrier and certainly a Japanese carrier." (The Making of Star Trek, pp. 164-165) However, at the time of his writing the Russian navy had never operated an aircraft carrier before, so the World War I-era battleship Potemkin, immortalized by Sergei Eisenstein's 1925 silent movie with the same title, was chosen instead. Both the historical as well as the fictional Potemkin were named after Grigori Aleksandrovich Potemkin, a famous 18th century Russian army commander. (Star Trek Encyclopedia, 3rd ed., p. 382)

According to a ship listing included on page four of the mission plans, but which was not seen in the extended cut of the movie, the ship was commanded by D.M. Flinn, and the ship was located in Sector 21185.

The ship's captain was named after the sixth movie's screen writer Denny Martin Flinn. [2]

External link

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