Hello all, Ric here with a breakdown of my favourite starship design, the Excelsior class.
I’ve been looking forward to this!
The Excelsior class is a ship whose lineage is pretty well documented in Star Trek as
we witness not only its inception, but the eventual phasing out of one of the Federation’s
most recognisable starships.
Of course it was notable early on for its two roles, that of the replacement for the
Constitution class, and also as the testbed for one of Starfleet’s transwarp projects.
When the design for the actual Excelsior was being conceived, the desire was to have a
new ship that simply looked similar to the Enterprise, but bigger and more advanced,
reflecting its role.
In designing the Excelsior, artwork was actually produced featuring it before the final design
was approved by Industrial Light and Magic, then those images were handed over to the
model sculptors who then worked on the design further evolving it into a ready concept.
This led to a myriad of model concepts that were easy to visualise and handle including
several multi-nacelled designs that would even turn up in canon at later dates considering
the models had been made, like the Alka-Selsior type.
Then out of left field, Bill George created a design based on the premise of a Japanese-style
Enterprise, and a very familiar looking Excelsior was created.
It was this design that was selected and refined into the final Excelsior we see on screen
and a model built to that final outcome.
As with the other origins of starship classes, the fictional origins of the vessel pretty
much line up with the original concept, in this case, the Excelsior both behind the scenes
and on screen was designed to steal the Enterprise’s thunder.
For around 40 years or so, the Constitution Class Starship had been the top of the line
and the example for Starfleet exploration, undertaking the famed 5 year missions into
uncharted space, seeking out new life and new civilisations.
It saw numerous overhauls and upgrades throughout its lifetime, which saw it equipped with the
latest technologies and developments from throughout the Federation as well as acting
as the trial for some new ones but there could only be so much accomplished before the Constitution
started to show her age.
So it was, in 2280 a new designed was penned to supplement the illustrious line and would
also facilitate the planned development of warp drive, the Transwarp project.
The Transwarp project began its development a decade earlier in 2270 using new methodology
to interact with subspace to achieve faster speeds than before.
A lot of focus was given to developing this new drive, but the Excelsior itself was to
be defined by more than just this new propulsion technology.
However there would be numerous setbacks with the design that would hold it from being developed
further.
Fortunately the design proved reliable and adaptable allowing it to succeed despite this.
The initial vessel of the class, the USS Excelsior NX-2000 was finished in 2284 and after a year
of testing, was set to begin transwarp trials a year later.
However, thanks to the acts of the Enterprise senior staff, including the theft of the Enterprise
and the sabotage of the Excelsior, the trials were further delayed.
The damage caused was easily repaired but the outcome of the project is unknown in canon
but assumed to have failed anyway as the warp drive was switched out for a regular one as
well as further modifications during a two year overhaul in spacedock.
However, the warp scale of the Federation also saw revision in this era, so perhaps
it was not a complete failure as clearly something warp-related happened around this time that
necessitated an overhaul for how warps speeds were calculated.
In 2287, the Excelsior was relaunched and the line began production in earnest, while
the Excelsior was taken out of its prototype phase and had its registry replaced as the
NCC-2000.
By 2290, its captain was Hikaru Sulu.
However, development of the Excelsior did not stop there with further alterations being
worked on even as new vessels rolled out.
These alterations saw an increase in impulse engine output and a larger secondary hull
section among internal modifications, leading to an altered Excelsior-variant (the Mark
2 or Enterprise variant as it was known).
This was for the purpose of creating the Enterprise NCC-1701-B which featured numerous improvements
over the original Excelsior design in 2293, benefitting from the line’s 6 years of service
and befitting the Federation’s flagship.
However, not all of these improvements were strictly necessary, and not every new Excelsior
commissioned was of the Enterprise subtype, both would continue to be created although
only about half a dozen would conform to the new sub-type.
This was simply because Starfleet had kind of stumbled onto a winning design, a frame
that could be upgraded and was long lasting, in much the same way as the Constitution had
been, but even more so, meaning new Excelsiors were being produced even into the late 24th
century, simply with current technology.
The Excelsior class at the time of its inception was the largest Starfleet vessel in service
at 511 metres long, 195 wide and 87 tall across 34 decks.
It had a mass of 2,350,000 tons and a crew complement of 750 with room for and additional
130 guests.
Its emergency maximum was 9,800.
Clearly, with this much capacity, thought was given to its role as both a transport
and as a host to events such as diplomatic meetings or conferences.
Despite the transwarp issues, the replacement core it had fitted was an uprated 1500 cochrane
version developed from the innovations uncovered during that project.
Its maximum warp speed appeared to be warp 9 for a prolonged period of time and this
appears to be of the new warp scale that was used by Starfleet going forwards.
With upgrades and development, this drive would eventually reach 9.6 by the end of the
Excelsior’s lifetime.
As a quick aside, the Excelsior seems to embody Starfleet’s 23rd century philosophy of making
ships faster by simply scaling up the warp core (I mean look at the size of it) and adding
more warp coils in the nacelles.
Eventually, innovations in both these areas would make future warp systems more conservative,
but something about this era makes me smile, just the simplicity of “bigger engine make
fast go!”
In terms of firepower, the Excelsior was a powerful vessel too with 10 dual emitter type-VIII
FH11 phaser banks around the saucer section and another 6 single type-VIII banks elsewhere.
It had a total of 4 torpedo launchers while the variant had 6 in total.
It was capable of Saucer separation like many vessels before it, but this was an emergency
feature and it had a number of auxiliary craft in its two shuttlebays.
One bay was primarily for cargo while the other was for traffic.
Internally the vessel was designed to house many of the developments that had been derived
from the Constitution refit project, thus many of its systems shared the look.
While the initial bridge and design of the prototype Excelsior were far more spacious,
this was overhauled with its refit into a smaller one, more in line with contemporary
ships.
However with the long lifespan of the class, it was not uncommon for Excelsiors to receive
several overhauls during their lifetimes and when newer models were constructed, they often
incorporated technology from that era that was compatible.
Which was quite a bit, adding to the Excelsior’s extended service.
It performed in a multitude of roles, not only as the deep space explorer it was designed
as, but it also was large enough to entertain dignitaries and host events on the diplomatic
front and powerful enough to act as a patrol or escort vessel in defensive duties.
Its very origin being tied to an experimental drive shows that scientific endeavours were
always a part of its mission profile too, making it a great all rounder.
As with the Ambassador and Galaxy classes that would come after it, the Excelsior was
the pinnacle of its era’s design when it launched but it has the honour of being a
class that lasted well beyond its original era.
The robustness of the design and the adaptability of the ship meant that it even outlasted the
Ambassador class that was technically superior in every way, but the Excelsior only really
began to fade from use after the close of the Dominion war when Starfleet began introducing
new ship lines.
Then again, several of these new ship lines were undoubtedly inspired by the Excelsior
with the Obena-class sharing details and literal Excelsior II class starship being a contemporary
redesign from scratch.
I would say that it’s lazy to reinvent a vessel, but then so many designs are just
kitbashes and you know what?
I’m glad it was the iconic Excelsior that received this treatment first in the timeline.
So overall, the Excelsior is pretty much my favourite design, originally I did not like
it much at all, but with time it grew on me and I think it hits the same design points
as the Connie-refit, which makes sense as they were from a similar era.
Thanks for watching this video on this example of the excellent Excelsior, I’ve been Ric
and I’ll see you later, goodbye!