There have been three Federation starships known to bear the name USS Lexington.
- Named for the first battle of the American Revolution.
USS Lexington (23d century)
The USS Lexington in battle formation
The first Lexington was a Constitution-class starship, under the command of Commodore Robert Wesley. Lieutenant Watley was assigned to the Lexington prior to her transfer to the USS Enterprise in 2267. (DS9: "Trials and Tribble-ations")
In 2268, the Lexington was the flagship in the war games designated to field test the experimental M-5 computer, which had been designed by Doctor Richard Daystrom and installed aboard the USS Enterprise.
Initially, the Lexington was one of two contacts near the Alpha Carinae system that engaged the Enterprise in an unscheduled war game to serve as a surprise attack problem for the M-5. Following the mock attack, the Lexington reported simulated hits in sufficient quantity and location to justify awarding the surprise engagement to Enterprise. The other contact in the surprise attack was the starship Excalibur.
In a second simulated attack of the M-5 war games, the Lexington was one of four ships brutally assaulted by the M-5 computer when the unit became unstable. The Lexington was hit numerous times by full phasers from the Enterprise. The initial damage estimate on Lexington, reported that the ship was hit in engineering section, damaging her impulse engines and leaving her maneuverable only on warp drive. The unprovoked attacks on the Lexington left 53 dead.
Following the destruction of the Excalibur, Wesley requested permission to destroy the Enterprise with his remaining battle force, to end the threat it posed. His request was approved, however, the Enterprise fortunatly was able to deactivate the M-5 computer before his battle force, which included the Potemkin and Hood, could attack. (TOS: "The Ultimate Computer")
- The registry of the Lexington is considered to be apocryphal. The non-canonical Star Fleet Technical Manual assign the registry NCC-1703 to the USS Lexington (with NCC-1709 to the USS Valiant). If the NCC-1709 registry is correct, then the Lexington would have been one of the ships under repair at Starbase 11 in 2267, as seen on a chart in TOS: "Court Martial"'. See the Constitution-class article for the full explanation.
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USS Lexington (NCC-14427)
The second Starship Lexington was an Excelsior-class starship.
- According to the Star Trek Encyclopedia, this ship was the one referred to in TNG: "Thine Own Self," but later dialogue from DS9: "Explorers" indicates that the Nebula-class starship was already in service by 2369.
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USS Lexington (NCC-61832)
USS Lexington docked at DS9.
The third Starship Lexington was a Nebula-class starship. In 2370, it rendezvoused with the USS Enterprise-D to load supplies for transport to the Taranko colony. (TNG: "Thine Own Self")
Many new graduates of Starfleet Academy in 2369 considered the Lexington a plum assignment and fiercely competed for an assignment aboard her. Doctor Elizabeth Lense, who graduated as a valedictorian from the Starfleet Medical Academy that year, was assigned as the Lexington's new chief medical officer. The Lexington disembarked for a interstellar charting mission afterwards.
It later briefly visited Deep Space 9 for shore leave in 2371. (DS9: "Explorers")
In a virtual reality created by the Founders, Jadzia Dax was transferred to the Lexington as its new science officer. (DS9: "The Search, Part II")
In 2373, the Lexington fought against the second Borg invasion at the Battle of Sector 001. After the initial contact with the cube, the Lexington reported 96 casualties, and 22 wounded. (Star Trek: First Contact)
- The script for "Explorers" described the Lexington as a Galaxy-class starship.
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