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Revision as of 22:37, 7 September 2006

Excelsior-class
File:Excelsior class.jpg
Original Configuration
Affiliation: United Federation of Planets
Type: Battlecruiser
Length: 467 meters
Beam: 185 meters
Height: 100 meters
Armament: 12 dual phaser banks; 4 torpedo launchers
Defenses: Deflector shields
File:USSLakota.jpg
Refit Configuration
Type: Explorer
Length: 469 meters
Beam: 185 meters
Height: 100 meters
Mass: 2,350,000 metric tons
Crew: 750
Armament: 24 or more phaser emitters (with 20 or more in banks of 2); 4 torpedo launchers
Defenses: Deflector shields, ablative armor (in some later models)

The Excelsior-class is a type of Federation starship first built in the 2280s. The prototype of these ships, the USS Excelsior (NCC-2000) was initially fitted with a transwarp drive and proclaimed "the Great Experiment". The ship had an ignoble start when its engines failed when it was called into action to prevent the theft of the USS Enterprise from Spacedock in 2285. (Star Trek III: The Search for Spock)

History

Although the "great experiment" of the transwarp drive failed to create a revolution in the nature of warp speeds and space travel, the Excelsior spaceframe was still the most advanced design in Starfleet. After prototype runs, some modifications were made, such as a different bridge structure and a different shuttle-bay structure to the NCC-2000 class-ship. Several variations of the original design have continued in service up to the Dominion War.

Design and Construction History

In the 23rd century, the most advanced ship in Starfleet was the Constitution-class of heavy cruiser. By the latter decades of that century, the Constitution was an aging design. While revitalized by a refit configuration in the 2270s, there was simply no way around the fact that, by the 2280's ships of that class had reached the limits of their design.

The Constitution was showing its age in engagements and endurance as the threats to Federation safety from the Klingon Empire and the Romulan Star Empire increased, Starfleet was in need of a starship that could supplant the highly successful Constitution-class. Further, this new vessel would have to exceed the standards of duration, speed and firepower of its venerable predecessor.

When Starfleet approved the idea of constructing a vessel equipped with a transwarp propulsion system, one prototype starship was built, to test the theory that transwarp was indeed possible. (Star Trek III: The Search for Spock)

Failure of the Great Experiment

By 2285, the Excelsior was assigned to the command of Captain Styles, and ordered out of San Francisco Fleet Yards Spacedock where she would begin her trial runs. Given the complexity and experimental nature of the transwarp drive, the engineering department was headed up by newly promoted Captain Montgomery Scott, recently transferred over from the soon-to-be decommissioned Enterprise.

File:ExcelsiorSpacedock.jpg

Pursuing the Enterprise

But before the Excelsior could put out for her final shakedown cruise, Admiral Kirk and his crew stole the Enterprise from Spacedock. As the Enterprise sped away, it seemed a natural chance for Starfleet Command to see what exactly the Excelsior could do and to prove for once and for all that the Excelsior was indeed the next evolution in spaceframe and propulsion technology. When the ship failed to achieve even warp speed and pursue the stolen Enterprise, it was obvious to many the Great Experiment had not succeeded.

It was theorized by Okuda in the Star Trek Chronology that this ship-wide systems failure might have been the one referenced by Data when he mentioned no Federation vessel having such a problem in over 80 years in TNG: "Evolution."

After-action reports indicated that Captain Scott had succeeded in completely and totally sabotaging the transwarp drive. The complexity of its design was its downfall, and the Excelsior returned to spacedock under impulse drive power. (Star Trek III: The Search for Spock)

Early History

Despite the fact that the transwarp experiment had failed to deliver a revolution in space travel, the Excelsior was the most advanced ship in the fleet, and the spaceframe was still considered a success. After the final shakedown of the USS Excelsior — now equipped with only a standard warp drive — Starfleet ordered the construction of additional vessels.

Excelsior-class starships were seen throughout The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and in a few Voyager episodes. Schematics of Excelsior-class vessels were also present in Daniels's database on Enterprise, making it common across all of the spinoff series.

The Future

Excelsior starboard of Galaxy

Alongside a Galaxy-class

By the late 24th century the Excelsior-class remains in service, almost a century after it was originally conceived. (VOY: "Endgame", DS9: "What You Leave Behind", et al.)

With Excelsior-class ships serving in the bulk of the fleet in engagements against both the Borg and the Dominion, the vessels have seen a high attrition rate. However, in combat missions, refit and rearmed Excelsiors such as the USS Lakota have been successful in matching almost the firepower of a Defiant-class escort. However, it seems unlikely that new Excelsiors are slated for construction. (DS9: "Paradise Lost")

Technical Data

Construction and Refit

The Excelsior was somewhat modified after its prototype runs, but several years later, a new variant added several modifications to the basic design. One ship of this modification was the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-B. (Star Trek: Generations)

Despite the problems with the original design, Starfleet was still content with the existing space frame, ordering the construction of a large number of additional Excelsior vessels over the coming decades.

Many Excelsiors seen in TNG and later series have high registry numbers concurrent with the ships being built decades after the prototype.

Propulsion Systems

A series of this vessel were equipped with dilithium recompositing and recrystalization technology. However, the theta-matrix compositor used in later Galaxy-class ships makes the recrystallization process ten times more efficient than the Excelsior-class. (TNG: "Family")

Armaments

File:ExcelsiorFiring.jpg

The Excelsior fires photon torpedoes

The original Excelsior was outfitted with 12 dual phaser emplacements and four photon torpedo launch ports in the late 23rd century.

Updated Excelsiors of different modifications exist in later years. In the 2370s, some Excelsiors like the USS Lakota were outfitted with additional phaser emplacements, quantum torpedoes, and other improvements to make the ship competitive with later designs. All of these modifications were made using existing ports; from the external appearance of the vessel there are few physical modifications visible. (DS9: "Paradise Lost")

Interior Design

For deck configuration, see: Excelsior-class decks.

Main Bridge

File:Excelsior Bridge 3.jpg

The main viewscreen (2293)

Located on top of the primary hull, the Excelsior Main Bridge directly supervises all primary mission operations and coordindates all departmental activities. Due to the age and variety of configurations of the Excelsior-class, bridge configurations can vary from ship to ship.

Against the aft wall of many Excelsior bridges is the large engineering master systems display monitor, showing a cutaway of the ship and status information. This was not originally part of the USS Excelsior configuration but added later, a feature shared with sister ship USS Enterprise-B.

The Excelsior bridge was a partial set in Star Trek III. In Star Trek VI, the Excelsior bridge was a redress of the Enterprise bridge used in that movie, and was similar in many ways to the NCC-1701-B bridge seen in Generations. The set was rebuilt from scratch, with some changes in detail and scale, for the production of VOY: "Flashback." Since the later Excelsior bridges are completely dissimilar to the one seen in Star Trek III, we must suppose that that part of the ship was completely refurbished at some point.

Accommodations

Senior officers, such as the captain, had private quarters belowdecks. Many of the enlisted crew and junior officers shared quarters and bunk areas. (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country; VOY: "Flashback")

Shuttlebay

The Excelsior-class' shuttlebay is located on the dorsal stern of the secondary hull, and houses several shuttles of different types, including type-7 shuttlecraft. There is also a large cargo hangar in the lower decks of the secondary hull.

Ships commissioned

Named

Unnamed

Appendices

Appearances


References

Background

The original Excelsior-class was a physical filming model designed by Bill George and built at Industrial Light and Magic for Star Trek III. The model also appeared in Star Trek IV and was relabeled for use in the first two seasons of The Next Generation. The model was refurbished for its appearance in Star Trek VI. The model was again refurbished, with entirely new arrangements and details to represent a refit modification, the NCC-1701-B in Generations. The refit modifications were designed by John Eaves under the supervision of production designer Herman Zimmerman. Since the original model was no longer in its original configuration, a new one was built by Greg Jein when the Excelsior appeared in VOY: "Flashback," at a smaller scale. This model continued to be reused until a CGI Excelsior was built for later seasons of DS9 and VOY. Despite its age, the Excelsior has become one of Starfleet's most frequently seen "guest-star" vessels.

Some technical data about the specs of the refit Excelsior-class vessels is taken from the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual, written by the show's technical staff. While this data is official, it may be later contradicted by canon sources and disregarded.

Apocrypha

Some fandom works interject that this class was named in honor of a lost-in-action USS Excelsior NCC-1718, of a subclass of the Constitution design. This is due to the fact that this ship name was originally proposed in the auxiliary list of possible Constitution ship names circulated behind-the-scenes in the last two years of The Original Series. This list was the basis of a ship list (the Bon Homme Richard-subclass) in Franz Joseph's Star Fleet Technical Manual. This is how that ship's existence was further perpetuated, even though that manual is no longer taken as a canon reference by the producers.

The advent of the Excelsior design and transwarp are referenced in Diane Carey's novel Battlestations! and also the non-canon licensed reference Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise by Shane Johnson. Shiplists and specifications of many unseen and conjectural Excelsior-class vessels are included in many role-playing game supplements such as the Federation Ship Recognition Manual and the TNG Officer's Manual from FASA, and the Decipher sourcebook Starships, although much of the information conflicts with other sources.

According to the novel "Ghost Ship", some of the Excelsior-class ships in operation in the 24th century will have the ability to separate their saucers, including the USS Yorktown and the USS Hood.

In the video game Star Trek: Elite Force II, the player character leads a mission aboard the Excelsior-class vessel USS Dallas, NCC-2019. The dedication plaque states that the Dallas is the "last starship of her class." Since Excelsior-class starships with higher registry numbers have been seen, this touch of detail to the game would be considered non-canon, unless one allows that a halt in starship production had taken place. Alternatively the Dallas could have been the last of a subtype production run.

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