In a msg on , Christopher Tarana of 1:3619/45
writes to Paul Andinach:
 CT>       Look at it this way:  (Canon mileage may vary!)
 CT>       Capt Chris Pike     Launch to +5  - First Five Year Mission
Close.  Make it 
           
           Capt Robert April     Launch to +2 - Shakedown/'Sea Trials'
           Capt Chris Pike           +2 to +7 - First Five Year Mission
and add 2 years to each of the dates, and you'd about have it right.
Which would make
                              +19 to +21.5 - (1.5 Year Refit *)
And Morrow's later comment more accurate.
While April's service on the "E" is largely undocumented, it would probably 
be likely that his command was not considered a "true mission" in light of 
what Pike and Kirk went through since it would be 'officially' recorded as 
being part of 'testing'.
The likely reality would be that since the "E" was the most 'reliably tested' 
of the spaceframes, it was routinely sent on 'special missions' as a part of 
the testing process.
Figure after the first year of testing, the Constitution Class vessels went 
into full production...prior to that, these were basically 'test frames' in 
the "E" and the original Constitution itself.
 CT> This might also explain why the Queen of Starfleet was being used as a 
 CT> training vessel, ferrying around cadets instead of patrolling the outer 
 CT> reaches of the Federation.  (Personally, I think Nogura and Spock cut a 
 CT> deal to keep Spock on the Enterprise because Nogura owed Kirk after the 
 CT> Vger Crisis!)
You've got a pretty good analysis here...I'd disagree with the time frames, 
but not terribly so, as indicated above.
But you're right...especially with respect to the adventures that the "E" 
went through, as an engineer, I'd *really* like to see the effects on the 
ship of being in "null space" ("The Immunity Syndrome"), going through 
interstitial space ("The Tholian Web"), time travel (you name it), and being 
hit with temporal waves ("City on the Edge of Forever").
No wonder Kirk was at a desk for over two years...it took that long to 
de-brief the entire crew on the missions!
-zf-  Nelp.
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