USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) - Depiction

Depiction

The Enterprise-D is first seen in the episode "Encounter at Farpoint" under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Several episodes, as well as the ship's dedication plaque, establish that the Enterprise was built at the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards in orbit around Mars. The Enterprise-D is the third Galaxy class starship, after the pathfinder ship USS Galaxy (from which the Galaxy class takes its name) and the USS Yamato. The dedication plaque gives its commissioning date as 40759.5, which was intended to represent October 4, 2363, which would be the 406th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik, humanity's very first spacecraft.

Throughout the course of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the ship's crew makes first contact with multiple species, including the Borg in "Q Who?" and the Q Continuum in "Encounter at Farpoint". The Enterprise-D is instrumental in the defeat of the Borg during their 2366 attempt to invade the Federation in "The Best of Both Worlds, Part II".

In 2371, as depicted in Star Trek Generations, the Klingon Duras sisters obtain the phase modulation frequency of the Enterprise-D's shields, rendering them useless. Although the Enterprise-D destroys the sisters' ship, damage to the warp drive coolant system prompts an emergency saucer separation. The warp core breaches moments after the saucer begins to move away, destroying the ship's stardrive section. The resulting shockwave impacts the saucer, disabling propulsion and other primary systems, sending it into Veridian III's atmosphere. Caught in the planet's gravity, the saucer section crash lands on the surface, damaged beyond repair. It was replaced by the Enterprise-E, which was introduced in the film Star Trek: First Contact.

According to commentary on the Star Trek Generations DVD, one of the real world reasons for the Enterprise-D's destruction stems from a concept drawing of a saucer section landing, produced for the Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual. TNG writers Ronald D. Moore, Jeri Taylor, and Brannon Braga saw the drawing and wanted to use a saucer crash as a sixth season cliffhanger episode for the series, but were unable to do so because of a limited budget and resistance from producer Michael Piller.