The U.S.S. Enterprise-D was attacked by Klingon sisters Lursa and B’etor over the planet Veridian III in 2371. Suffering major damage to its warp-core in the attack, Commander William T. Riker was forced to separate the ship’s saucer section to save the Enterprise crew. The stardrive section exploded as the result of a warp core breach, forcing the saucer section to crash-land on Veridian III. Captains Jean-Luc Picard and James T. Kirk prevented the catastrophic loss of the entire ship and crew, costing Kirk his life. The Enterprise-D saucer was later salvaged and refurbished for display at the Starfleet Museum.

Ship Model (Physical)

As portrayed in Star Trek Generations (Film, 1994)

For the saucer crash scene in Generations, it was quickly decided to have a larger model build of the saucer section, both as not to have the six-foot studio model damaged as well as for cinematographic reasons. John Knoll initially wanted to construct a 24’ model, but had to settle for a smaller 12’ variant for budgetary and practical reasons.