How old is the Starship Enterprise? In our universe, in the year 2024, the answer is roughly 60, especially if we start counting on December 12, 1964, the day “The Cage” — the first pilot episode of Star Trek — began filming. But throughout the era of The Original Series, the age, and various eras of the classic NCC-1701 Enterprise were constantly being revised.
But on October 12, 1974, one massive retcon reestablished the backstory of the Enterprise forever (even if it wasn’t made into real canon until 2022). By the time The Original Series begins, in the year 2265, Kirk’s Enterprise is already 20 years old, having originally launched in 2245. But when did this retcon happen?
