
The Nebula-class Melbourne was the ship offered to Commander Riker. The TNG short story " Trust Yourself When All Men Doubt You" in The Sky's the Limit established that the Nebula-class Melbourne was in fact under construction and intended to replace the Excelsior-class Melbourne. 33) revealed that " there were actually two Starships Melbourne the first was a Nebula-class model, barely glimpsed as a wrecked hulk in the spaceship graveyard from "The Best of Both Worlds, Part II", and the second was the clearly seen Excelsior -class one in "Emissary". 33), the Melbourne was named after the Australian city of Melbourne. ( TNG: " The Best of Both Worlds, Part II")Īccording to the Star Trek Encyclopedia (4th ed., vol. Nevertheless, when the Enterprise-D arrived in the system a few hours later, enough of the wreck survived intact and was one of the vessels recognized by Commander Shelby. ( DS9: " Emissary" VOY: " Unity", " Infinite Regress") Lieutenant Gregory Bergan was among the Melbourne's crew at the time. The burning, lifeless hulk was then rammed by the cube as it pursued the Saratoga.
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Early in the battle, it and the USS Saratoga engaged the cube, but its shields were quickly drained, and had half its saucer blown away by a cutting beam. Soon after, in early 2367, the Melbourne formed part of the forty-strong Federation task force that stood against an invading Borg cube at the Battle of Wolf 359. While Jean-Luc Picard described her as "a fine ship," Riker decided not to pursue the commission at that time, choosing instead to remain aboard the Enterprise-D. In late 2366, William Riker was offered the command of the Melbourne.

However, the situation was resolved before the Melbourne was flight-ready. While there, the station's CO, Quinteros, initiated a rush repair schedule to get the vessel ready for pursuit when the Enterprise was hijacked by a group of Bynars. In 2364, the Melbourne underwent maintenance at Starbase 74, at the same time as three other ships including the USS Enterprise-D. The USS Melbourne (NCC-62043) was a 24th century Federation Excelsior-class starship operated by Starfleet.
