The U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D was a Galaxy-class starship and the flagship of Starfleet. The fifth starship to be named Enterprise, she was commanded by Captain Jean-Luc Picard.

With a total of 42 decks, the Enterprise-D was twice the length and had eight times the interior space of the Constitution-class ships of over a century earlier. She carried a combined crew and passenger load of 1,012.

Defensive systems included 10 phaser banks, 250 photon torpedoes, and a high capacity shield grid; there are some 4,000 power systems in all aboard ship.

Full acceleration time from reverse, sub-light impulse through nominal top warp speed, warp 9, was 0.03 milliseconds. The ship achieved maximum speed of warp 9.5 maximum when pursued by the entity known as "Q"; at warp 9.3 its engines had passed the red line.

By Stardate 43205, she had already logged tens of thousands of light-years since setting out around Stardate 41153.7 after Jean-Luc Picard formally became her first captain on Stardate 41124.

An average day aboard ship, according to Lieutenant Commander Data, included four birthdays, two personnel transfers, two chess tournaments, a secondary school play, four promotions, the celebration of the Hindu Festival of Lights — and a birth and wedding. Some 13 planets were represented among the ship's complement as of Stardate 44247.

During the Borg incursion of 2366, Decks 23-25 were sliced open by the enemy during the final battle over Earth and requiring a refit at Earth Station McKinley which lasted 5-6 weeks. It was far less damage than the kamikaze warp-driven collision Commander Riker had readied as one last recourse, however. During that refit, the starship received a phaser upgrade as well as damage repair and a dilithium chamber articulation frame.

It off-loaded the original three Runabouts and the first arriving officers at Deep Space Nine.

The U.S.S. Enterprise-D was destroyed in 2371 after an attack by renegade Klingons breached her warp core. Although the saucer section separated before the breach, the force of the explosion caused the section to crash on the planet Veridian III. Fortunately, losses were minimal.