Famous Star Trek Starships That Were Destroyed

Summary

Starships in Star Trek face numerous dangers, from lasers to self-destruct sequences.
Tragic losses like USS Excalibur and USS Reliant stand out in Federation history.
USS Enterprise's self-destruct in The Search for Spock was a pivotal moment for the franchise.

Starships in the Star Trek franchise are intended for exploration, but sometimes it can be dangerous in space, and not all of them make it home in one piece. Lasers, photon torpedoes, and aggressive aliens are all capable of destroying a Federation starship, and plenty of them have.

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By Tom Thandi

That's to say nothing of the numerous captains who used the self-destruct function or turned their ships into giant missiles when needed. There are a lot of ways to destroy a starship, and the Federation has lost more than a few.

7 USS Antares

Destroyed By Charlie X

Destroyed In: Star Trek: The Original Series, S1E7, "Charlie X"

The USS Antares doesn't actually appear in this episode, but some of her crew do, and unfortunately, they don't last very long. Charlie didn't want to leave any loose ends, and as soon as he was aware that Captain Ramart was trying to warn Kirk that there was something terribly wrong with their passenger, Charlie used his telekinetic powers to remove the baffle plate from the ship's generator, leading to its destruction.

Several crewmembers were permanently injured or even killed, and it seemed that nothing would stop Charlie from taking control of the Enterprise and reaching a human colony. Charlie would have done more, and worse, if the alien beings that raised him on Thasus 4 hadn't returned to collect him.

6 USS Excalibur

Destroyed By The M-5 Computer

Destroyed In: Star Trek: TOS, S2E24, "The Ultimate Computer"

The destruction of the USS Excalibur is one of the most tragic losses in Federation history because it was the result of a horrible accident. The ship was destroyed during a war game intended to test the M-5 computer's readiness to command an automated starship, but the computer misunderstood the nuance of its orders and started to target the other ships with real weapons.

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By Kristy Ambrose

What makes this even worse is that the M-5 was also controlling the Enterprise at the time, and when it fired a full range of phasers at the Excalibur, there wasn't anything Kirk, Spock, or even Scotty could do to stop it. The whole crew was lost, and when Kirk alerted the computer to the loss of life, it finally shut down.

5 USS Enterprise

Set To Self-Destruct By Order Of Captain Kirk

search for spock enterprise falling star trek

Destroyed In: Star Trek 3: The Search for Spock

The USS Enterprise gets blown up in every Star Trek movie these days, but this was the first time it was destroyed, and it was a pivotal moment for the franchise. Kirk took a chance when dealing with the Klingons and lured them to the Enterprise after triggering the self-destruct sequence and escaping to the planet below.

The crew wasn't that much safer on the degrading Genesis planet, but luckily, there was a perfectly good Klingon Bird of Prey parked in the upper atmosphere. Kirk and his crew took this ship over and used it to escape, which is why they're flying around in a Klingon ship in Star Trek 4.

4 USS Intrepid

Eaten By A Gigantic Space Amoeba

Destroyed In: Star Trek TOS, S2E19, "The Immunity Syndrome"

The USS Intrepid was a unique ship. It was a Terran design, Constitution class, but Vulcans built and crewed it. It seems to have been started as a project on the part of the Vulcan Science Academy, and when it continued into space, many of the hands were graduates of that prestigious school.

The ship and its crew were lost in the TOS episode "The Immunity Syndrome," which featured a mysterious and all-consuming entity that could devour whole galaxies. The moment of the ship's destruction isn't shown on screen, but Spock can sense the sudden and terrifying deaths of several hundred of his fellow Vulcans.

3 USS Constellation

Destroyed By The Doomsday Machine

Destroyed In: Star Trek: TOS, S2E6, "The Doomsday Machine"

The Enterprise is following a trail of destruction across the galaxy when they find the crippled remains of the USS Constellation and its lone survivor, Commodore Matthew Decker. The Commodore tried to pull rank and take over the Enterprise and use it to destroy the planet killer, which not only didn't work but made the ship vulnerable to the Doomsday Machine's attacks.

Decker's end came when he drove a shuttlecraft into the front of the machine, and Kirk copied his idea by doing the same thing with the now lifeless hulk of the Constellation. Kirk was almost unable to beam out in time, but the plan worked. The loss of the Constellation was the price they paid.

2 USS Reliant

Destroyed By Khan Using The Genesis Project

Destroyed In: Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan

The USS Reliant was the Federation ship tasked with helping Carol Marcus and her team find a suitable dead planet on which to test the Genesis Project. Khan hijacked the USS Reliant by taking two of its commanding officers hostage and forcing them to help track down the mysterious project, which he hoped to use as a weapon.

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By Kristy Ambrose

The Reliant was initially just disabled, but the Genesis rocket was on board the ship, and Khan was able to start its detonation sequence. The Enterprise was almost caught in the blast, but thanks to Spock's ultimate sacrifice, they were able to warp out in time. The Reliant, however, was completely destroyed and took Khan with it.

1 USS Mekong

Lost During A Failed Assault

Destroyed In: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, S2E21, "The Die Is Cast"

The USS Mekong won't be making any lists for the most glamorous or warlike Federation ship, and to be honest, it's little more than a shuttlecraft and is designed as a runabout. However, this humble little starship is warp-capable and served as an important mode of transportation for the residents of Deep Space 9, and it appeared in several episodes until it was lost.

Sisko and Bashir used the ship to follow a replicant of Miles O'Brien in the episode "Whispers," and in "Playing God," a protouniverse particle attached itself to one of the nacelles, setting the episode's plot in motion. Kira Nerys took the Mekong to Bajor in a DS9 novel entitled Warped. This small but dependable ship had a lot of mileage when it was disabled and lost, but at least Odo and Garak were still able to use it to escape a Romulan warbird and survive long enough to be saved by the Defiant.

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