What NCC Really Means in the Star Trek Franchise

As explained previously on the /Film pages, the “USS” in USS Enterprise stands for “United Starship”. It was extrapolated from the modern US Navy’s use of “USS” on its seagoing vessels. Here on Earth, it means “America’s Ship.”

But what does “NCC” mean in NCC-1701? As all good Trekkies know, NCC-1701 is the registration number of the USS Enterprise and is stamped in large letters all over the ship’s outer hull. Other vessels, of course, have their own registration numbers. In “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” set a century after the original series, the record was updated to NCC-1701-D. The titular spaceship in “Star Trek: Voyager” had a registration number NCC-74656, while the Discovery spaceship in “Star Trek: Discovery” was NCC-1031.

Registration numbers are a wonderfully geeky way to add an element of reality to a fantasy sci-fi show like “Star Trek.” Consistency between ship registration numbers means that there is a vast and complicated off-screen bureaucracy at work, and that thousands and thousands of people are required to ensure that a ship is functioning and accurately tracked. If you think it takes a lot of paperwork to register a car at the DMV, imagine how much more complicated it would be to build a faster-than-light spaceship armed with lasers and photon torpedoes. The fact that there may be a lot of mundane paperwork in the future makes “Star Trek” that much more relatable.

So what does “NCC” really mean? It just so happens that it doesn’t mean anything. At least not in the canonical “Star Trek.” There has never been an on-screen explanation for the registration letters. You have to look to expanded universe lore (like novels and reference books) to find the answer.

In 1975, a company called Franz Joseph Designs published “Star Trek plans” which served as the official technical guide for the original USS Enterprise just as “Star Trek” fandom was in full swing. It was a folder filled with 12 incredibly detailed diagrams showing the construction map of the interior and exterior of the entire ship. Trekkies have been poring over these plans for 50 years. Did you know there is a bowling alley on the Enterprise? Later “Star Trek” spinoffs have made similar shots canonical, often featuring interior diagrams in highly visible positions on the screen.

According to the 1975 plans, NCC stood for “Shipbuilding Contract”.

But the design of the Enterprise predates those plans by almost a decade. What did the initial designer of the Enterprise intend?

The original Enterprise model was designed by production designer and model maker Matt Jefferies, and spoke to StarTrek.com back in 2001 to discuss the reasoning behind the NCC prefix. Jefferies revealed that he simply transferred registration codes from World War II-era United States aircraft. The aircraft’s country registration code for the US turns out to be the letter “N”. Before 1948, that letter could be followed by a secondary initial to indicate the ship’s use. NP was used on private aircraft, NS was used for state aircraft, NL was used for limited aircraft, and NC was used for commercial aircraft.

So “NC” was just a country code with the second “C” standing for “commercial.”

But why include the second “C”? Jefferies admitted that he liked the CCCP designation (now retired) on Soviet aircraft and simply added a second “C” for aesthetic reasons. For those unfamiliar with the Cyrillic alphabet, “CCCP” is actually the Russian abbreviation for “Союз Советских Социалистических Республик” or, translated, Union of Republics Soviet Socialists.

Occasionally throughout “Star Trek,” one may see a ship that does not carry the usual NCC registration and instead has an NX designation. This was first seen in “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock” with the introduction of the USS Excelsior. That ship’s registration was NX-2000, and it was said to be a completely new prototype ship with a transwarp drive. Hikaru Sulu (George Takei) became captain of the Excelsior in “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.”

Later, in “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”, the USS Defiant was NX-74205. It was a prototype battleship that, as explained in the dialogue, was overpowered and not very well designed. It is also one of the only Starfleet ships to be equipped with a cloaking device. The Defiant was commissioned for use in special circumstances, as DS9 was threatened by a new alien organization called Dominion. The NX designation was even more prominent in “Star Trek: Enterprise,” set a century before the events of the original “Star Trek” series. That show was about the first Starfleet ship from Earth to undertake a mission into deep space. The Enterprise of that series had the designation NX-01, as it was also a prototype.

Then, in “Star Trek: Prodigy,” the hub ship, the USS Protostar, had a registration code NX-76884. That was the first ship equipped with a real protostar as part of its engine, allowing it to reach unprecedented speeds. It was also unique. This time, the NX was taken directly from pre-1948 aircraft registrations, as the letter X was used for experimental craft. The Trekkies were able to deduce from the use of NX that spacecraft with this designation were also experimental.

The next time you’re at the “Star Trek” equivalent of the DMV, keep these designations in mind. It will only save you time in line.