The Ringship Enterprise Mystery Solved

Ilia and Willard Decker — Ilia and Decker look at ships named *Enterprise* in *Star Trek: The Motion Picture* (Trekcore)

Ever since it appeared on display in the Enterprise recreation room of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, fans have wondered about the mysterious “ring ship” which was supposed to be a predecessor to Kirk’s ship. It did not reappear until Star Trek: Enterprise, when a similar painting hung on the wall of the 602 Club in the episode “First Flight”. The same painting appears in the episode “Home”.

No further canon information is available about the design, yet the book Star Trek Maps (1980) describes it as a “starliner.” Supposedly they were “Earth’s first attempts at manned interstellar probes” launched in the 2050s. Only one, the UESP Enterprise, reached its destination — the sun-like binary pair of Alpha Centauri — before they were overtaken by faster-than-light starships. The book said the starliners were 120 meters long and carried a crew of 35. An artwork of this ship is included in the 2011 Ships of the Line calendar.

Rick Sternbach’s Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology (1979) features a similar design and calls it the Declaration class. According to the Chronology, this vessel was in service between the years 2123 and 2165 and carried a complement of 950. That must be a gross exaggeration, though. The original Enterprise didn’t carry half that number!

The “ring ship” was in fact based on an early Matt Jefferies design for the original Enterprise. After Gene Roddenberry rejected Jefferies’ first proposal, which he felt was too much like a flying saucer, the designer came up with the ring ship. Roddenberry rejected this design too, which led to Jefferies to develop the ship we now know as the Constitution class.

Enterprise concept art — Concept art by Matt Jefferies

6 comments

Actually, this design had nothing to do with Star Trek prior to its inclusion in TMP. It was originally for a proposed Roddenberry series, post-TOS, called Starship, which eventually became part of the basis for Andromeda.

Captain Robert April (Jul 1, 2012)

Only half-right. It was originally a rejected concept for the Enterprise, then they decided to try re-using it for Starship.

Drew (Nov 9, 2013)

Also, there were two versions of the ship, the model “22L” which is seen in the top picture above (with all the dimensions) and the smaller model “22G” seen in the lower pic above.

trekspert (Jun 4, 2016)

Matt also made a concept model of the ringship for Gene, I have the photos he took of it.

Griffith (Sep 15, 2016)

I’d like to see those. Estes could make a model rocket out of it

Jeff Wright (Jul 19, 2021)

Interesting. I always thought it was based on the Icarus/Daedalus designs.

Rick Cromack (Jun 29, 2017)

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