The 12 Starships

[Falconer]

Simple premise, here. In the TMP novelization, Roddenberry states that “Kirk commanded the U.S.S. Enterprise on its historic five-year voyage and became the first starship captain in history to bring back both his vessel and his crew relatively intact after such a mission.” Suppose the twelve Starships mentioned in “Tomorrow is Yesterday” and enumerated in The Making of Star Trek were all on five-year missions at the same time. Makes me wonder who the other captains were and how they did.

Ship	Captain	Episodes Mentioned
1017 Constellation	Cdre. Matt Decker	The Doomsday Machine
1371 Republic		Court Martial
1700 Constitution
1701 Enterprise	Capt. James Kirk	All
1703 Lexington	Cdre. Bob Wesley	The Ultimate Computer, One of Our Planets Is Missing (Wesley)
1704 Yorktown		Obsession
1705 Excalibur	Capt. Harris	The Ultimate Computer
1706 Exeter	Capt. Ronald Tracey	The Omega Glory
1707 Hood		The Ultimate Computer
1708 Intrepid		The Immunity Syndrome
1710 Kongo
1711 Potemkin		The Ultimate Computer, Turnabout Intruder, The Pirates of Orion

Registry numbers per the Star Fleet Technical Manual.

[Falconer]

Now, again assuming the premise from the OP, let’s see who failed to “bring back both his vessel and his crew relatively intact.” Minimally you have to count Decker and the unnamed Vulcan captain of the Intrepid, since their ships were certainly destroyed; Tracey, who lost his crew and was arrested; and Harris, who died. Hard to say with the other three ships from The Ultimate Computer. Potemkin was back in business approx. 20 months later, which could mean it was repaired within the span of its five-year mission, or else its mission was aborted, and then it was repaired, and then it was put back in service on another mission. Wesley “left Starfleet for the governorship” of a planet, which might be uncharitably interpreted as him being something of a disgrace.

[Falconer]

In one FASA adventure, Hood under Capt. Hugo Revere has been lost, and the players are ordered to investigate. This occurs sometime after “The Tholian Web,” presumably late in the 5-year mission. The adventure is “Ghosts of Conscience” from the 1E core set (1983).

In another FASA adventure, Republic under Capt. Richard V. Masterson has been lost for 15 years when the players encounter it. This also presumably occurred late in the 5-year mission, and the adventure is set 15 years later, during the movie era. The adventure is “Lost and Presumed Dead” from the Star Trek III Sourcebook Update (1984).

Both scenarios are highly adaptable, so whatever the circumstances of your campaign, assuming you may want to run these scenarios (both quite good), Hood is currently in service under Capt. Revere (and presumably some of your officers will have had previous assignments aboard it), and Republic will be have been lost for 15 years (and it’s unlikely any of your officers will have had previous assignments aboard it). Hence I thought it useful to note them here.

The Star Trek IV Sourcebook Update (1986) includes a timeline which places both losses during the 5-year mission, and furthermore includes this entry: “The Enterprise returns from its five-year mission under Captain Kirk. It is the only ship remaining from the first group of Constitution Class vessels; all others have been lost in service.… Star Fleet adopts the Enterprise identification symbol as the official Star Fleet emblem, abolishing the practice of individualized emblems for each ship.” So there’s FASA’s logic and motive.

[aramis]

I always just assumed that of the originals, most made it back (5 didn't), but the rest had issues that meant their missions were cut short due to various aspects. Such as survey cruisers (SFB: GSC) and light cruisers (SFB: NCL) coming online, and moving the Constitution Class (SFB: CA) to either command refits or to fleet core status instead of exploration.

[leam]

Reading Memory Alpha, the Farragut was NCC-1702 in TOS. I'm mostly interested in this because in the game I'm she was just out of refit (stardate 5959) and doing her shakedown cruise. Sadly, in the game, she just called out a mayday, deep in Federation space.

[Falconer]

Yes, The Making of Star Trek establishes that Farragut and Valiant were lost prior to TOS. The SFTM assigns them NCC numbers 1702 and 1709, respectively.