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Excelsior class

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Excelsior-class
File:Excelsior class.jpg
Affiliation: Federation, Starfleet
Armament: Phasers, photon torpedo launchers
Defenses: Deflector shields
Variant Configuration
File:USSLakota.jpg
Affiliation: Federation, Starfleet
Armament: Phasers, quantum torpedo/photon torpedo launchers
Defenses: Deflector shields

The Excelsior-class was 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 were sabotaged when it was called into action to prevent the theft of the USS Enterprise from Earth 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 shuttlebay 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 Template:ShipClass 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 2280s 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)

While there is no on-screen information to directly establish how long the Excelsior prototype was under construction, a clue may be found in the fact that in the early 2270s, there already existed an active-duty vessel with a registry 120 units higher then Excelsior's (the dreadnought USS Entente (NCC-2120)). If registry numbers are assigned sequentially, then Excelsior would have been in existence prior to that point.
A decade plus might be considered an extended developmental period, but the fact that Starfleet was still tinkering with Transwarp nearly a century later makes the amount of time spent on the prototype easier to understand.

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, rear 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 a total and catastrophic ship-wide systems failure occurred, the ship was unable to pursue the stolen Enterprise.

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

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".

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 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.

When Captain Jonathan Archer and Lieutenant Malcolm Reed accessed the database of temporal agent Daniels, they saw schematics of the Excelsior class. (ENT: "Shockwave")

The Future

Excelsior starboard of Galaxy

Alongside a Template:ShipClass starship

The class had an extremely long production run highlighting the adaptability and soundness of the basic design. By the late 24th century large numbers of the Excelsior-class remain in service, almost a century after the original design was conceived. Prior to the Dominion War, however, they were often relegated to secondary roles.(TNG: "Tin Man"; VOY: "Endgame"; DS9: "What You Leave Behind")

In "Tin Man", Captain Robert DeSoto of the USS Hood good naturedly complained "You know, they send you Galaxy-Class boys out here to the far reaches. Me, I'm hauling my butt back and forth between starbases..."

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 though, in combat missions, refit and rearmed Excelsiors such as the USS Lakota have been successful in matching the firepower of a Template:ShipClass escort. Nevertheless, it seems unlikely that new Excelsiors are slated for construction. (DS9: "Paradise Lost")

Technical Data

Construction and Variant

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.

The original Excelsior was slightly modified after its prototype run in accordance with its new propulsion scheme. Several years later, a new variant added modifications to the basic hull design. One ship of this modified sub-class was the USS Enterprise-B. (Star Trek Generations) Later ships continued to incorporate the latest technology while mostly returning to the original hull form.

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

Propulsion Systems

A series of this vessel were equipped with dilithium recompositing and recrystalization technology. However, the theta-matrix compositor used in later Template:ShipClass 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 launchers.

As the ships were built over a very long period of time, the power and capabilities of the weapon emplacements increased. This included the installation of faster firing torpedo tubes and more powerful and accurate phaser banks. Additionally, many earlier ships were refit with newer weapons during their scheduled major refit and overhaul period keeping them in front line service.

In the 2370s, some Excelsiors like the USS Lakota were outfitted with improved 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 coordinates 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 Star Trek Generations. The set was rebuilt from scratch, with some changes in detail and scale, for the production of "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
Uncertain

Appendices

Appearances

Background

The original Excelsior-class was a physical filming model designed by Nilo Rodis and Bill George. It was built at Industrial Light & Magic for Star Trek III under the supervision of Steve Gawley. 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 "Flashback," at a smaller scale. This model continued to be reused until a CGI Excelsior was built for later seasons of DS9 and Voyager. Despite its age, the Excelsior has become one of Starfleet's most frequently seen "guest-star" vessels.

Technical Manual

The following information of specifications and defenses comes exclusively from the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual:

  • Type: Explorer
  • Production Base: ASDB Integration Facility, Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards, Mars
  • Accommodation: 750 officers and crew; 130 visiting personnel; 9800 personal evacuation limit
  • Power Plant: One 1500+ Cochrane warp core feeding two nacelles; one impulse system
  • Dimensions:
    • Length: 511.25 meters
    • Beam: 195.64 meters
    • Height: 86.76 meters
  • Mass: 2,350,000 metric tons

While the Technical Manual itself is not canon, it is a Memory Alpha permitted resource.

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 Bonhomme-Richardsubclass) 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.

In the novel Star Trek: Vendetta, the Excelsior-class U.S.S. Chekov was probably named after the former Enterprise crewmember.

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.

References

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