Itā€™s a brief mention in PIC S3. As the crew approaches the restored Enterprise-D at the Fleet Museum, La Forge makes a stray comment, to the effect of:

ā€¦and obviously we canā€™t use the Enterprise-E

at which point, everyone turns to Worf, who insists with indignation,

That was not my fault.

Thereā€™s a beat as everyone makes a face and gives each other a knowing look, and thenā€¦ thatā€™s it.

Itā€™s clearly meant to be a wink and a nod from the writers: ā€œYes, we know you want to know what happened to the E, and no, we arenā€™t going to tell you.ā€

Even the behind-the-scenes materials are mum on the topic. The Star Trek: Picard Logs, posted on Instagram, mention both an incident at Kriilar Prime that apparently led to Worfā€™s departure, as well as a subsequent classified mission after which the ship was taken out of service. (To me, this seems at odds with what is shown on-screen: itā€™s obvious that Worf had something to do with the Eā€™s demise, and itā€™s also obvious that the story is common knowledge ā€“ even known to Crusher, who has been ā€œout of the loopā€ for 20 years. So I think neither of the Logsā€™ stories are satisfactory explanations.)

But, as I just alluded to, there are a few things we can infer about what happened to the E.

First, thereā€™s no way it was destroyed and no way it resulted in any loss of life. For one, La Forgeā€™s tone is too glib for that ā€“ thereā€™s no way he would describe the destruction of a starship in those terms. But more importantly, thereā€™s no way that Worf would shirk responsibility for such a thing.

Second, we know itā€™s something unusual, memorable, and (in my opinion) decidedly unclassified. And, I would argue, it seems like itā€™s somethingā€¦ funny. Or perhaps whimsical or ironic or otherwise something that itā€™s polite to strike a glib tone regarding.

Finally, I would suggest that, whatever it was, it happened around 2384. We get a brief sighting of the E in the battle of the end of Prodigyā€™s first season (though itā€™s a little unclear whether it was actually supposed to be the Enterprise or the Sovereign) so we know itā€™s active at least until then. But it seems unlikely that any loss of a starship after the Attack on Mars in 2385 would be considered a laughable matter. Whatā€™s more, we need the -E to be out of service early enough for the -F to have a reasonable career before being decommissioned in 2401. Assuming that a loss of a starship in the wake of the Romulan Supernova would also not be a laughing matter, that would push an -F launch date perhaps as late as 2389, which seems like an implausibly short service tenure. Retiring the -E in '84 gives some flexibility for when to launch the -F and still give it a long enough service life.

So, what do you think? What are some scenarios that could satisfy the clues weā€™ve been given? (Iā€™ll put a couple of my ideas in the comments!)

  • williams_482@startrek.websiteM
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    1 year ago

    Excellent question. Yes, that policy is in effect (and apparently quite relevant with todayā€™s episode). Iā€™ll be updating the sidebar shortly.