NCC

This page relates to the Star Trek usage of NCC. For alternate meanings of NCC, see NCC (disambiguation)

NCC is an imaginary designation for starships conceived within Star Trek. According to Star Trek chronology, the term was first used in the . It has been suggested that the prefix "NCC" was used by the creators of Star Trek analogously to the United States Navy's hull classification symbols, and was a combination of a ship prefix "NS" ("Naval Ship"), and the Soviet Union acronym "CCCP" to show that the two countries had to work together to establish Starfleet. Another more popular theory is that it derives from the 'NC' prefix used for United States airplanes - creator Gene Roddenberry and Enterprise designer Matt Jefferies (after whom the "Jeffries tube" was named) were pilots.

According to non-canonical sources, "NCC" is in reference to the contract required to build a starship and to easily be able to identify parts from ships when salvaged. It is suggested that "NCC" is short for "Naval Construction Contract", this number is imprinted into every part laid into the ship, similar to the imprinting of Naval hull numbers into parts and systems on modern ships, (i.e. CVN-65 is stamped into every part on the USS Enterprise the US aircraft carrier). The idea about an "NX" (Naval eXperimental) ship, when fully commissioned, the ship goes through refit, and becomes an "NCC" ship. Such was the case with the USS Excelisor. When she was built, she was given the number NX-2000. After being commissioned and assigned to Capt. Sulu, her number was changed to NCC-2000.

History

In the original series of Star Trek, the only registries seen were for ships either unseen, or seen to be of the same class as the Enterprise. The speculation by fans as the time was that 'NCC' was a hull code like the United States Navy's codes, which designates the basic types of vessel, and is then followed by a ship identifier number. 'NCC' was explained as 'cruiser' and 'NDD' suggested as a 'destroyer'.

This was blown out of the water by , which featured the USS Reliant, a clearly inferior ship to the Enterprise, and still registered under NCC.

Later films and series showed that nearly all Starfleet ships used 'NCC', but a few, experimental ones used 'NX' (seen on the Excelsior, and Defiant).

This was confirmed in Enterprise with the registry 'NX-01' for the experimental ship of the title, but this was explained in a way which is at odds with chronologically later usage - NX is being used as a class name, and 'NX-01' means 'the first ship of the NX class'. It remains to be seen how or if these systems can be reconciled.

The Federation as of the mid-2370s has a number of identifiers based on the particular operator and purpose of a specific ship, including (but not limited to) the following:

NX: Experimental starship, Starfleet (example: USS Defiant NX-74205)
NCC: Commissioned starship, Starfleet (example: USS Enterprise NCC-1701-E)
NCV: Commissioned timeship, Starfleet (example: USS Relativity NCV-474439-G)
NDT: Multipurpose transport, Starfleet (example: USS Milan NDT-50863)
NFT: Personnel transport, Federation (example: SS Lakul NFT-7793)
NGL: Freighter, Federation (example: SS Odin NGL-12535)
NSP: Science vessel, Federation (example: SS T'Pau NSP-17938)
NAR: Research vessel, Federation (example: SS Vico NAR-18834)