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Memory Alpha
Real world article
(written from a production point of view)

The Indiana was a Nebula-class Federation starship that was briefly considered to be included in an ultimately abandoned Star Trek: The Next Generation sixth season finale. The ship was written about by Jeri Taylor, in a memo dated 16 February 1992. [1] However, the vessel wasn't mentioned in an earlier version of the same story, which Taylor had written as a memo on 21 January 1992. [2]

At the start of the revised version of the plot, the Indiana was given to William T. Riker to command soon after and in response to him seeking command of another ship than the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D), as he had been profoundly affected by his experiences in "Second Chances". After the transfer of command, some of the ship's senior officer positions were filled, at his request, by senior officers from the Enterprise.

The Indiana was scheduled to undertake a five-to-seven year tour of duty in the Gamma Quadrant and began journeying to the Bajoran wormhole. En route, however, the ship was hailed by a Breen delegation and was consequently reassigned by Starfleet to establish diplomatic relations with the Breen. After a Breen science vessel suddenly became trapped in an anomaly during a joint mission with a team of Starfleet scientists and Starfleet ordered the Enterprise to investigate the craft's disappearance, Riker requested that the Intrepid either go instead or accompany the Enterprise there, but he was refused. However, when the Enterprise started to become trapped in the anomaly too, the Intrepid went to its aid, at Riker's instruction. Once it saved the Enterprise, the Intrepid was about to attempt a rescue of the trapped science vessel and Jean-Luc Picard came to visit the Federation starship to confer with Riker. As they planned, the Intrepid would use its tractor beam and engage maximum warp in a large-scale effort, collaborating with the Enterprise, to pull the Breen ship free of the anomaly.

Suddenly, however – as the story drew to an end – the Indiana itself began to be violently pulled into the anomaly. When Riker ordered full engines be employed in an attempt to escape, the ship began bucking and shearing. The struggle caused a rupture in the ship's transporter room, and Picard, who had been heading back to the Enterprise, was blown out of the rupture into space. [3]

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