One of my favorites. The front end of the secondary hull is my favorite part -- it reminds me of a ship's bow. I love the nacelle struts, including that weird bulge, and I liked the look of the nacelles themselves better than even the Connie refit.
Heh, I remember the new Enterprise reveal at the end of Voyage home in the theater, SO many people were expecting an Excelsior class, and when it was still a Connie, a ton of people cheered. Hilarious eve as an 13 year old at the time.
It has the most 'ship-like' feel of any vessel in Starfleet. It's lines are reminiscent of a modern cruise ship or really any modern vessel. From a design POV, it's miles ahead of the TNG, NX, Ambassador, or Voyager designs, and seems like the direct forebear of the Sovereign class. I love pondering for a "reason" for any design element - it's all apologetics.
I get the feeling that if it ain't the connie than to hell with it, the Excelsior class has had a longer service life, than the precious connie and is the back bone of the fleet. More reliable and more popular, and an all round stronger ship. It doesn't deservethe hate captain.
I liked the Excelsior, both versions. In universe it overcame its initial “failure” and became the backbone of the fleet. A very attractive and functional design.
Just because you guys reminded me of it: Somehow I accumulated four copies of the Excelsior micromachine figure, no idea how. While I was out on day, I do believe my dog found them although I can't be sure as it was quite a long time ago. I come how and there are bits of excelsior all over the place. One was still in tact, one was mostly in tact, and the other two were in various states of destruction. A tragedy to be sure, but I found comfort fact that I also had a Borg cube in my collection and now had the ability to reenact Wolf 359 quite faithfully.
This is my favorite ship in the Trek universe. All I had to do, was look at the engine section and reflector dish. That is such a great curve. - I honestly think it looks more advanced than the -D, and even later designs. It looks like what I think a transwarp ship should be.
-There is no beat boxing or piano synthesizers. There is nothing 80's above the Japanese aesthetic -9:40 It's just a paint job guys -The fins are heat sinks. More surface area radiates more heat away from the ship. -No a bigger saucer wouldn't be balanced to the ship (not to mention these CGI's are horrible wrong -The problem with the impule engines isn't a waste of space but the fact they are not on the Axis of the Center of Gravity. The platform style was a great idea. The neck and warp engines rest on the platform of the Stardrive and they maintained that look instead of using a blended hull design. I personally think your child hood perceptions of this replacing the Enterprise overshadowing this briefing.
The Excelsior class is my favorite starship in any star trek series. its iconic and sleak. and out of all of the 23rd century starships, she's the only one that has lasted through out the decades. she's the queen of the fleet and always will be. I feel the Excelsior class is highly underrated. I go all in on the design specs.
The Excelsior Class despite its utter lack of screen time in the Star Trek universe for some reason always seemed to be the quintessential Starfleet vessel to me personally. Hope it resurfaces in future incarnations of Star Trek. Long live "The Great Experiment". :)
It was such a good design that even in ds9 days the excelsior class bulked out every federation fleet. Just one of those timeless designs where all you need to do to keep it relevant is a refit now and then.
I have the Diamond Select NCC-2000 model/toy sitting on my desk in front of me as I am watching the video, and holding her at the same angle as the photos in your video she looks totally different. The perspective of a flat 2d image can't show the curves of the ship. I even like the back view with the underside of the Impulse Engines, they colored it light blue under it to give some texture and it looks great. If you don't want to take the time and effort to build one of the Models (I suck at applying Decals) get a larger prebuilt model/toy and you can really gain an appreciation for the buff yet elegant model. This 18" model is much better than the Micro Machine toy I grew up playing with lol!
My fav too ! All with the "micro machines" and on screen were the best ! I also have both Constitution ,and Excelcior Diamond sel models a must have collection 🔩🕶 Excelcior! 👍
Trying to figure out if you guys were debating the ports in the neck, or the ports in the secondary hull... But I'll say this, the 'submarine torpedo tube' ports in the secondary hull are definitely the ship's torpedo tubes, since we see Excelsior firing her torps from them in STVI, at Khitomer. The ports on the neck are, according to Memory-Alpha, secondary torpedo launchers, though I can't find the source for that. They also appear to have some capability as docking ports, since a shuttle appears to be flying out of the portside tube.
I didn’t care for the Excelsior class at first when I first saw it, but it has grown on me a lot over the years. I have a T6F Excelsior in STO and love it.
My response to the Captain's anti-Excelsior ranting---your precious Connie,sir, is a pie dish, a barrel, two popsicle stick, and a pair of cigars. I don't actually think that, but see what I did there? This ship is a work of art, a beautiful piece of sculpture that goes zoom. Also, I always thought Starfleet stuck Kirk with a rusty old Connie for the 1701-A as kind of a wrist-slap---"Ya you saved Earth and your boyfriend Spock, but you did disobey a literal fuckton of orders, and we can't really reward that, so instead of a shiny new Excelsior class, go visit God in a busted old Connie."
Absolutely love the Excelsior-class, she's my favorite ship in the whole franchise! But, I'm still having a hard time understanding why Captain Stuart doesn't like the Excel, is it for the same reason I don't like the Enterprise-D, because it doesn't have that same prideful enterprise stance like the Connies or the Sovys?
The side view to me seems to resemble pre WWII Japanese cruisers and destroyers. When you look at the silhouette of these ship they tend to be very thin with the conning tower/bridge sticking up.
Those fins in the neck are multi-panels it uses for the experimental trans-warp drive. In ST3, Scotty disabled the drive by removing computer ships. All Excesior class ships had the experimental drive that did eventually work. Sulu proved that it was not a failure when he used his ship to reach the Enterprise before a cloaked Klingon bird of prey could destroy her.
The grills on the neck I always thought were a form of standoff plating or something to protect the vulnerable torpedo launchers, warp core and stuff from direct explosive impacts
As far as I know, the "grille detailing" on the connector section was to provide a larger cooling surface for the experimental trans-warp drive, which probably over-heated a lot faster than a normal warp drive. (Originally, all the Excelsior-class starships were to be equipped with the trans-warp drive, but after the first prototype failed, the project was canceled, and standard warp drives were fitted to all other Excelsior-class starships.) In addition, the trans-warp drive (or at least this version of it) was a lot more complex (and therefore bulkier) than a standard warp drive, and as a result, a larger secondary hull was needed to accommodate the extra systems. Also, the trans-warp drive places a lot more stress on the starship's hull and framework, due to it being a lot faster and more powerful than a standard warp drive. Because of this, some parts of the ship (connector section, pylons, and other appendages) were significantly thickened to prevent breakage at high warp speeds. Later, when most of the Excelsior-class starships were refitted (after the failed trans-warp experiment), the extra interior space was used for rations or fuel storage, more living quarters, or any other facility that needed lots of space...
Wow this is the most depressing review for me. The Excelsior just for me was the best star trek ship ever. I gauge every other star trek federation ship against how nice it looks compared to the Excelsior. I even love the name since it is so BOLD! It is depressing to hear the captain say how much he hates the Excelsior. If I could be captain of any ship in the Star Trek Universe I'd picke the USS Excelsior NX2000. I still get goosebumps when I see the Excelsior properly presented. The Galaxy class was nice but the saucer section looked pregnant and the engines reminded me of Devil Dog Cakes. Don't take my word for it look up Devil Dogs on Google and you will see they look just like the Galaxy Class D engines. The Enterprise C was a pretty little ship.
I was wondering this, too. They set up this ship to be the bad guy, especially with the arsehole captain (Stiles?). The emotional beats of the movie set us up to hate it.
+Matthew Stryletz lets no forget the Lakota from DS9 whos job was to stop the defiant from reaching earth having been told that the crew was replaced by changelings
Speaking of Captain Stiles, I wonder if that was the same Stiles who was the Enterprise's navigator in the original series episode "Balance of Terror"? I want to say because Stiles in STIII seemed to really have it in for Kirk for some reason. Maybe because Kirk had humiliated him in BoT?
The Excelsior was equipped with several photon torpedo launchers. The two primary launchers were located in the forward section, on both sides of the deflector dish seen as two dark colored ports ahead of the starfleet hull banners. The upper forward launchers were located on the neck section, also allowing ship access for cargo management units. Aft launchers were located above the main shuttlebay.
I was under the impression that what they referred to as "Transwarp" in ST3 was in just an improved warp drive or at the very least they learned enough from the experiments to improve warp enough and had a need to adjust the warp scale; aka led to the TNG warp scale.
I remember reading about Matt Jeffries' design thoughts. The article discussed the reason the D7 has such a beefy engineering section is that it's a warship, and has all this raw power. The Excelsior was the great experiment, so the enormous engineering hull makes sense; it has a lot of power. The saucer isnt really that small, it's just not scaled up like the enormous engineering hull.
I acknowledge the point of all this is to come up with reasons why things are the way they are, but perhaps the ring of blue is just a ring of blue paint for some level of style? Great episode though!
I grew up with TNG, DS9 & VOY, but my favourite era is the 'TMP' era from mOvie 1-6. The design of everything was mind blowing to me, the uniforms, the ships, the ship interiors especially.
The most iconic view of the Excelsior for me, was that very first view of it, still in space dock. For me, it looked so sleek and beautiful, especially the saucer section. I actually felt bad that the Constitution class looked so obsolete in comparison, but technology advances, and each advance holds new promise. I would no more expect Starfleet to cling to the Constitution class, than I'd expect the U.S. Air Force to cling to F-15s over F-22s, or myself to stick with a 386 CPU, over my current Core i5.
also understand the design of the excelsior was originally streamlined for the stresses of transwarp. but since the transwarp experiment was a failer, starfleet decided to leave the space frame as is for conventinal MA/AM warp drive.
i absolutely love the excelsior class it looks great. and its a practical ship to. i didn't like what they did with the enterprise B 2nd hull but i liked the new impulse engines tho
I remember reading not to long ago what I believe is a Fan Theory or at the minimal non canon about the Excelsior design. Like you were talking about the Neck being built to withstand Trans Warp, the entire ship was overbuilt with heavily reinforced structure just for that very reason. So the design was already proven even if the Trans Warp failed so no changes went into the production version. They stated that is the reason you saw in TNG so many Admirals loved to command Excelsiors, overbuilt tough workhorses even if they were outdated by TNG standards. Totally makes sense to me and explains why the Excelsior is the 'chunky sibling' of the Constitution Class. Personally the Excelsior is battling the Galaxy for my favorite design in all of Trek, so I may be bias lol.
I was told that at 17:16 that the the lower rear section of the 2ndry hull was the cargo/shuttle bay. That area above that on the long rear end at the very end was a crew lounge that looked aft and forward (at the warp engine housing). As for that extra space for the impulse engines, that was all functional equipment for the advance units. The control units for the impulse and drive systems were mostly sem-automatic.
I had to grow into liking the Excelsior and thank the Galaxy class for helping me see how great the Excelsior was in comparison. Having Sulu for a Capt also helped. :-)
I was pretty ambivalent when I first saw the Excelsior in Star Trek III. But... When Kirk and crew took command of the Excelsior in the (surprisingly excellent) DC comics series of the 80s? And I began to see it month-to-month before the release of ST IV? I fell IN LOVE with the design. Now, it's my absolute favorite Star Trek starship, closely followed by the Constitution-refit and the Klingon K'tinga.
I love the design of the Excelsior. Fair enough it's planted in a certain time period by its looks but that's what gives it it's charm. It looks retro and more solidly built compared to the sleeker modern starfleet ships and in universe you can identify it as an older generation of ship compared to its contemporaries.
I'm with Captain Foley. I never really cared for this ship. When my friends and I first saw it, we all independently came up with the nickname "pregnant guppy."
I never liked the Excelsior class until I watched 'Star Trek: Borg' & the USS Righteous. Having a crew humanised the model for me and me relate to the ship as a home. Then the champagne bottle smashing against the Enterprise-B opening scene sealed it for me, it felt real rather than a background non entity ship. NX-2000 (65/100) Ent-B (70/100) USS Righteous I wanted to see more of their adventures 2377 forward.
As for the aft torpedo tubes. They are there in the game Klingon Academy. In the game, the Excelsiors have both phasers and torpedos located at the rear point below the shuttle bay.
I think there were comic books post star trek III that did reassign the crew to the Excelsior - so it was absolutely reasonable to expect this to be the focus of future movies.
Always loved this ship. It was the first model I ever built. However, I've always questioned the nacelle pylons. I wish they had been just one straight, flat and angled piece that put the nacelles at the same height without the bend.
First: Narrow the neck to about 1/3 it's width and adjust secondary hull accordingly. (Round the top a bit) --- Second: replace the warp struts with one without the 90 degree turn, just go straight. That'd take care of most of my gripes about the design.
yes the Torpedoe tubes were in the neck. actually the square space in the hull where auxiliary or cargo shuttle entrance. its not really discussed but it was auxiliary shuttle space.
I think the two ports on the neck are cargo bays. We saw ships fly in and out of it. Neck probably designed more as a multi-purpose module and cargo area. That would also explain why there's no windows.
I've always loved this ship. Don't know why but the look was just great. I even flew one in STO. As for when in Star Trek 4 and they were heading to the new ship I didn't think they were going to get the Excelsior since it was still a prototype. Kirk and his crew were an explorer crew not a shakedown crew. Plus at the time the Enterprise was going to be decommissioned before Kirk and the crew stole her. So another ship was already in the works to bear the name Enterprise. It wouldn't have been an Excelsior class as that was still an experimental ship. Also since the Excelsior was to be the ship that was going to replace the Constitution class ships the NCC-1701-A was more then likely a renamed older refit Constitution class ship, hence why it was only in service as the Enterprise for 7-8 years.
Using Doug's phrase here. I think people like the Excelsior so much because of the ape brain. It's just so much more substantial than a Conny. Bigger, thicker, and yet it's smooth and curvy like a fine Norwegian lady. When I was younger I liked the Excelsior more than the Enterprise. Now though, with my more refined tastes I have to say that the Conny Refit is my favorite TMP era design. I find the Excelsior rather dumpy is appearance now.
5:20, to me, rounded and organic is what makes a ship look like something from a highly advanced, civilized society. Rounded and organic also looks more like a peaceful ship....something with sharp angles and so on looked far more hostile and sinister. :) I'd LOVE to see the blue of the Excelsior replaced with red, just for the hell of it.
When I first saw the Excelsior I didn't like it only because I thought it was going to be replacing my beloved Enterprise refit. The more and more I saw it and the fact that the 1701-A stayed in service I grew to like it more and more.
I appreciate Stuarts and Samuels comments on the Excelsior . this is my favorite starship. while I respect the constitution and the refit. I think the Excelsior reflects the forward thinking of the time. I think it transends the 80's design asthetic. To be clear I like the Origional Excelsior design and not the Ent B or Exc Refit. what also makes this ship a draw for me is that this was Hikaru Sulu's ship, and I really wanted to see a Capatin Sulu series !!!! I think the Excelsior is a graceful bird, but its not without its flaws. I agree. I like the saucer as is. I would have eliminated the neck, easy to attack, I would have naturally placed two shuttle bays below the impulse thrusters. I would have extended the secondary hull a little farther and have it cut off where the warp engines end. I would keep the warp nacceles as is. BTW, the purpose of cutting the secondary hull off at the AFT is to improve warp dynamics !!!!
Well, when Foley becomes an Admiral, he can pick whatever ship he wants to command, so he won't have to worry ab out getting an Excelsior for as a replacement. lol
I always liked this ship, both the flight 1 and flight 2 designs. Though if you make me choose it's flight 2 all the way. I doubt the Capt will ever come around on this, but it's a very good ship design and looks like it belongs in deep space, more so that it's predecessors.
Excelsior is a beauty and at least somewhat structurally sound. The saucer section is connected by a massiv beam to the hull. WNS are still only flimsy connected. As if the laws of physics dont apply to the STU! Well as kid I did not care, until later I learned what the law of inertia is.
I did see this at the cinema when it first came out and it was one of two rather unexpected surprises. The first was the enormous space station which could not possibly have been built between the movies so was a retcon job because we pretty much saw starfleet's orbital assets in TMP. I grew up with the Franz Joseph's technical manual and would have loved it if the starfleet headquarters design could have been used instead of the orbital facility we got. The version in the 2009 movie is loads better in my view. The Excelsior struck me as the equivalent of a battleship ,dreadnought or carrier from star fleet battles . It isn't very pretty but it does look powerful. There isn't any logical reason for big weapons platforms in science fiction really but starttrek tv and movies have always shied away from fighters or fast patrol ships or even robot controlled weapons in favour of big and impressive spaceships.
The fins on the neck might be a defensive measure to disperse fire kinda like the grating around modern battle tanks. Also I think those two holes are just a large shuttle bay.
Honrable Mention about this ship. The only Entp B duplicate that was vilified more than the Excelsior was the Enterprise B's Sister ship the USS Lakota.
at 10:50 in they are talking about the holes in the neck weather or not they are extra torpedo tubes. correct me if i am wrong but they showed them in the movies to be like small loading bays. sooo yeah.
I wonder if the extra length on the secondary hull could be to accommodate a cargo ship attaching to the underside right in front of the cargo claws. I.e Cargo ship comes in from behind, rotates 180 degrees and lands underneath the secondary hull aft of the curve. Cargo claws then deploy and retrieve cargo. Once the cargo is gotten, the cargo ship detaches and flys off.
I think Commander Cockings ideal ship would be made of nothing but thousands of 1-man pods that could all separate. The only thing that aesthetically bothered me about the Excelsior was the neck. I think it would work better if the finned part was thinner and not the entire neck.
What's always cracked me up is this design was basically drafted to be *wrong* in the first place. That was the whole idea behind it in the movie. It's bigger, got better engines and all this Whoopie-doo upgrades, but if you look at the design, everything zags where it zigs on the Big E. The pylons don't make a lot of sense, the saucer has literally been flipped upside down so the angles are reversed from the E, the design is very rounded and smooth, yet it's really bulky fat. Lot's of interesting things went into the design, and I think with some finese it does end up working, and it really works well in Star Trek VI, but it was always designed to be something that the audience wouldn't like, intentionally.
I DO like the Excelsior. But I'd have done a few things differently if I had designed and built it. I would have done the engineering hull's front profile as a parabola instead of being hemispherical. The front view of the engineering hull looks a bit too fat and massive. This would have thinned it down a bit. I also would have had the neck between the primary (saucer) hull narrow at the top.and then faired it into the saucer. Make it a bit more sleek and aerodynamic, even though that's not necessary in space. Maybe integrated the nacelle struts into the engineering hull instead of attaching them they way they were, with a bulge on top.. The way they did seemed a bit like an afterthought. Another option would be to add a pair of Miranda class megaphasers into the neck below the torpedo tubes. A big ship needs a big stick.
One of my favorites. The front end of the secondary hull is my favorite part -- it reminds me of a ship's bow. I love the nacelle struts, including that weird bulge, and I liked the look of the nacelles themselves better than even the Connie refit.
My favorite, it has a grace to it, from the profiles it reminds me of a heron in flight.
Heh, I remember the new Enterprise reveal at the end of Voyage home in the theater, SO many people were expecting an Excelsior class, and when it was still a Connie, a ton of people cheered. Hilarious eve as an 13 year old at the time.
It has the most 'ship-like' feel of any vessel in Starfleet. It's lines are reminiscent of a modern cruise ship or really any modern vessel. From a design POV, it's miles ahead of the TNG, NX, Ambassador, or Voyager designs, and seems like the direct forebear of the Sovereign class. I love pondering for a "reason" for any design element - it's all apologetics.
I like your thinking and especially about it being the idea behind the sovereign class.
The Excelsior - quite simply is the dogs bollocks..(translation mode) - I like it alot!
I get the feeling that if it ain't the connie than to hell with it, the Excelsior class has had a longer service life, than the precious connie and is the back bone of the fleet. More reliable and more popular, and an all round stronger ship. It doesn't deservethe hate captain.
+Simon Kerr There is a difference between hate and dislike.
I liked the Excelsior, both versions. In universe it overcame its initial “failure” and became the backbone of the fleet. A very attractive and functional design.
Just because you guys reminded me of it: Somehow I accumulated four copies of the Excelsior micromachine figure, no idea how. While I was out on day, I do believe my dog found them although I can't be sure as it was quite a long time ago. I come how and there are bits of excelsior all over the place. One was still in tact, one was mostly in tact, and the other two were in various states of destruction. A tragedy to be sure, but I found comfort fact that I also had a Borg cube in my collection and now had the ability to reenact Wolf 359 quite faithfully.
Yes! My favorite ship class of the entire Star Trek universe. Such a work of art.
This is my favorite ship in the Trek universe. All I had to do, was look at the engine section and reflector dish. That is such a great curve.
- I honestly think it looks more advanced than the -D, and even later designs. It looks like what I think a transwarp ship should be.
The Excelsior class has always reminded me of a tallship from the age of sail.
-There is no beat boxing or piano synthesizers. There is nothing 80's above the Japanese aesthetic
-9:40 It's just a paint job guys
-The fins are heat sinks. More surface area radiates more heat away from the ship.
-No a bigger saucer wouldn't be balanced to the ship (not to mention these CGI's are horrible wrong
-The problem with the impule engines isn't a waste of space but the fact they are not on the Axis of the Center of Gravity.
The platform style was a great idea. The neck and warp engines rest on the platform of the Stardrive and they maintained that look instead of using a blended hull design.
I personally think your child hood perceptions of this replacing the Enterprise overshadowing this briefing.
I really like this design.
The Excelsior class is my favorite starship in any star trek series. its iconic and sleak. and out of all of the 23rd century starships, she's the only one that has lasted through out the decades. she's the queen of the fleet and always will be. I feel the Excelsior class is highly underrated. I go all in on the design specs.
The Excelsior Class despite its utter lack of screen time in the Star Trek universe for some reason always seemed to be the quintessential Starfleet vessel to me personally. Hope it resurfaces in future incarnations of Star Trek. Long live "The Great Experiment". :)
I LOVE the Excelsior. First time I saw it I was like "WOW" Not understanding the hate from Capt. Foley
LOL! Captain Foley, do you like anything other than the TOS Constitution Class?
+Jaime Rivera lol some people dont like changes
i doubt it he bitches about everything
I wish they would have made this the next Enterprise. 1701-A
He can be a bit "one note" on
Brilliant elegance never gets old. Excelsior!
It was such a good design that even in ds9 days the excelsior class bulked out every federation fleet.
Just one of those timeless designs where all you need to do to keep it relevant is a refit now and then.
I have the Diamond Select NCC-2000 model/toy sitting on my desk in front of me as I am watching the video, and holding her at the same angle as the photos in your video she looks totally different. The perspective of a flat 2d image can't show the curves of the ship. I even like the back view with the underside of the Impulse Engines, they colored it light blue under it to give some texture and it looks great. If you don't want to take the time and effort to build one of the Models (I suck at applying Decals) get a larger prebuilt model/toy and you can really gain an appreciation for the buff yet elegant model. This 18" model is much better than the Micro Machine toy I grew up playing with lol!
My fav too ! All with the "micro machines" and on screen were the best ! I also have both Constitution ,and Excelcior Diamond sel models a must have collection 🔩🕶
Excelcior! 👍
Trying to figure out if you guys were debating the ports in the neck, or the ports in the secondary hull... But I'll say this, the 'submarine torpedo tube' ports in the secondary hull are definitely the ship's torpedo tubes, since we see Excelsior firing her torps from them in STVI, at Khitomer.
The ports on the neck are, according to Memory-Alpha, secondary torpedo launchers, though I can't find the source for that. They also appear to have some capability as docking ports, since a shuttle appears to be flying out of the portside tube.
I didn’t care for the Excelsior class at first when I first saw it, but it has grown on me a lot over the years. I have a T6F Excelsior in STO and love it.
looks fucking awesome how can anyone not like this ship
+S1nwar easy that ship designed was used by the "villians" too many times in my opinion which includes the Lakota from DS9
Lol this is my favorite Trek ship. It has such a beautiful, sleek profile.
I love the excelsior class. One of the most beautiful ships.
My response to the Captain's anti-Excelsior ranting---your precious Connie,sir, is a pie dish, a barrel, two popsicle stick, and a pair of cigars. I don't actually think that, but see what I did there? This ship is a work of art, a beautiful piece of sculpture that goes zoom.
Also, I always thought Starfleet stuck Kirk with a rusty old Connie for the 1701-A as kind of a wrist-slap---"Ya you saved Earth and your boyfriend Spock, but you did disobey a literal fuckton of orders, and we can't really reward that, so instead of a shiny new Excelsior class, go visit God in a busted old Connie."
Absolutely love the Excelsior-class, she's my favorite ship in the whole franchise! But, I'm still having a hard time understanding why Captain Stuart doesn't like the Excel, is it for the same reason I don't like the Enterprise-D, because it doesn't have that same prideful enterprise stance like the Connies or the Sovys?
My first idea was.... it has a pot belly and it's very long. I have to say though, it has grown on me and I like it much better now.
Great episode guys. I love Excelsior Class!
The side view to me seems to resemble pre WWII Japanese cruisers and destroyers. When you look at the silhouette of these ship they tend to be very thin with the conning tower/bridge sticking up.
The fins on the neck were actually heat syncs used to cool the ship's more experimental parts, which is why it slowly dissipates in later designs.
Was going to say the same thing,could have been a heat sync for the traswarp drive.
Those fins in the neck are multi-panels it uses for the experimental trans-warp drive. In ST3, Scotty disabled the drive by removing computer ships. All Excesior class ships had the experimental drive that did eventually work. Sulu proved that it was not a failure when he used his ship to reach the Enterprise before a cloaked Klingon bird of prey could destroy her.
The grills on the neck I always thought were a form of standoff plating or something to protect the vulnerable torpedo launchers, warp core and stuff from direct explosive impacts
As far as I know, the "grille detailing" on the connector section was to provide a larger cooling surface for the experimental trans-warp drive, which probably over-heated a lot faster than a normal warp drive. (Originally, all the Excelsior-class starships were to be equipped with the trans-warp drive, but after the first prototype failed, the project was canceled, and standard warp drives were fitted to all other Excelsior-class starships.) In addition, the trans-warp drive (or at least this version of it) was a lot more complex (and therefore bulkier) than a standard warp drive, and as a result, a larger secondary hull was needed to accommodate the extra systems. Also, the trans-warp drive places a lot more stress on the starship's hull and framework, due to it being a lot faster and more powerful than a standard warp drive. Because of this, some parts of the ship (connector section, pylons, and other appendages) were significantly thickened to prevent breakage at high warp speeds. Later, when most of the Excelsior-class starships were refitted (after the failed trans-warp experiment), the extra interior space was used for rations or fuel storage, more living quarters, or any other facility that needed lots of space...
My first option was tub but sulu made me appreciate it more
Wow this is the most depressing review for me. The Excelsior just for me was the best star trek ship ever. I gauge every other star trek federation ship against how nice it looks compared to the Excelsior. I even love the name since it is so BOLD! It is depressing to hear the captain say how much he hates the Excelsior. If I could be captain of any ship in the Star Trek Universe I'd picke the USS Excelsior NX2000. I still get goosebumps when I see the Excelsior properly presented. The Galaxy class was nice but the saucer section looked pregnant and the engines reminded me of Devil Dog Cakes.
Don't take my word for it look up Devil Dogs on Google and you will see they look just like the Galaxy Class D engines. The Enterprise C was a pretty little ship.
I've always said the same - if I could be the captain of any Trek, ship, this would be it. I have the Art Asylum model on my windowsill.
I wonder, would as many people still hate the ship if it wasn't so vilified in its first appearance?
I was wondering this, too. They set up this ship to be the bad guy, especially with the arsehole captain (Stiles?). The emotional beats of the movie set us up to hate it.
+Matthew Stryletz lets no forget the Lakota from DS9 whos job was to stop the defiant from reaching earth having been told that the crew was replaced by changelings
Speaking of Captain Stiles, I wonder if that was the same Stiles who was the Enterprise's navigator in the original series episode "Balance of Terror"? I want to say because Stiles in STIII seemed to really have it in for Kirk for some reason. Maybe because Kirk had humiliated him in BoT?
@@AdhamOhm Capt Styles was a different character. Their names were spelled differently.
One of my favorite ship classes! I love that sleek, kind of japanese design.
+karaokefreak1 like it too, though I like the 4 nacelle prototype Excelsior from the study models as well.
Pipe down Sulu !
2 Torpedo/Probe Launchers in the neck, 2 more in secondary hull, for a total of 4 in the forward arc.This is one of my top fave Canon Ships.
The Excelsior was equipped with several photon torpedo launchers. The two primary launchers were located in the forward section, on both sides of the deflector dish seen as two dark colored ports ahead of the starfleet hull banners. The upper forward launchers were located on the neck section, also allowing ship access for cargo management units. Aft launchers were located above the main shuttlebay.
God I love this ship.
One of my absolute favorites. ...Thank you!
I was under the impression that what they referred to as "Transwarp" in ST3 was in just an improved warp drive or at the very least they learned enough from the experiments to improve warp enough and had a need to adjust the warp scale; aka led to the TNG warp scale.
I think most MSDs of the Excelsior have the tubes on the back as aft torpedo launchers.
I really like this ship I use it as my "Admiralty diplomatic vessel" in STO
I remember reading about Matt Jeffries' design thoughts. The article discussed the reason the D7 has such a beefy engineering section is that it's a warship, and has all this raw power. The Excelsior was the great experiment, so the enormous engineering hull makes sense; it has a lot of power. The saucer isnt really that small, it's just not scaled up like the enormous engineering hull.
Come, come, Captain Foley...Young minds, fresh ideas... Be tolerant!
I acknowledge the point of all this is to come up with reasons why things are the way they are, but perhaps the ring of blue is just a ring of blue paint for some level of style? Great episode though!
One of my favorites. :D
~Eric Idol voice~ New and improved Excelsior class is a sleek and sexy import, with turbo handling! :D
I grew up with TNG, DS9 & VOY, but my favourite era is the 'TMP' era from mOvie 1-6. The design of everything was mind blowing to me, the uniforms, the ships, the ship interiors especially.
The most iconic view of the Excelsior for me, was that very first view of it, still in space dock. For me, it looked so sleek and beautiful, especially the saucer section. I actually felt bad that the Constitution class looked so obsolete in comparison, but technology advances, and each advance holds new promise. I would no more expect Starfleet to cling to the Constitution class, than I'd expect the U.S. Air Force to cling to F-15s over F-22s, or myself to stick with a 386 CPU, over my current Core i5.
also understand the design of the excelsior was originally streamlined for the stresses of transwarp. but since the transwarp experiment was a failer, starfleet decided to leave the space frame as is for conventinal MA/AM warp drive.
i absolutely love the excelsior class it looks great. and its a practical ship to. i didn't like what they did with the enterprise B 2nd hull but i liked the new impulse engines tho
yeah the Flight II Excelsior class isn't my cup of tea either.
I remember reading not to long ago what I believe is a Fan Theory or at the minimal non canon about the Excelsior design. Like you were talking about the Neck being built to withstand Trans Warp, the entire ship was overbuilt with heavily reinforced structure just for that very reason. So the design was already proven even if the Trans Warp failed so no changes went into the production version. They stated that is the reason you saw in TNG so many Admirals loved to command Excelsiors, overbuilt tough workhorses even if they were outdated by TNG standards. Totally makes sense to me and explains why the Excelsior is the 'chunky sibling' of the Constitution Class. Personally the Excelsior is battling the Galaxy for my favorite design in all of Trek, so I may be bias lol.
I was told that at 17:16 that the the lower rear section of the 2ndry hull was the cargo/shuttle bay. That area above that on the long rear end at the very end was a crew lounge that looked aft and forward (at the warp engine housing). As for that extra space for the impulse engines, that was all functional equipment for the advance units. The control units for the impulse and drive systems were mostly sem-automatic.
I had to grow into liking the Excelsior and thank the Galaxy class for helping me see how great the Excelsior was in comparison. Having Sulu for a Capt also helped. :-)
When I was 5 years old in '98-99 I feel in love with this ship when I watched both Trek 3, 4, and 6. My big beauty haha 😁
P.S. did not realise she was Japanese design inspired. Also I never thought of her a 80s ship design..
Got to love these ships a few refits and they are still kick ass 100 years later . Much like English ships of the line in old days
I was pretty ambivalent when I first saw the Excelsior in Star Trek III. But... When Kirk and crew took command of the Excelsior in the (surprisingly excellent) DC comics series of the 80s? And I began to see it month-to-month before the release of ST IV? I fell IN LOVE with the design. Now, it's my absolute favorite Star Trek starship, closely followed by the Constitution-refit and the Klingon K'tinga.
Come, Come Captain Foley young minds fresh ideas we need to talk.
I love the design of the Excelsior. Fair enough it's planted in a certain time period by its looks but that's what gives it it's charm. It looks retro and more solidly built compared to the sleeker modern starfleet ships and in universe you can identify it as an older generation of ship compared to its contemporaries.
I'm with Captain Foley. I never really cared for this ship. When my friends and I first saw it, we all independently came up with the nickname "pregnant guppy."
I never liked the Excelsior class until I watched 'Star Trek: Borg' & the USS Righteous. Having a crew humanised the model for me and me relate to the ship as a home. Then the champagne bottle smashing against the Enterprise-B opening scene sealed it for me, it felt real rather than a background non entity ship. NX-2000 (65/100) Ent-B (70/100) USS Righteous I wanted to see more of their adventures 2377 forward.
As for the aft torpedo tubes. They are there in the game Klingon Academy. In the game, the Excelsiors have both phasers and torpedos located at the rear point below the shuttle bay.
I think there were comic books post star trek III that did reassign the crew to the Excelsior - so it was absolutely reasonable to expect this to be the focus of future movies.
This feels like a therapy session for Captain Foley
Always loved this ship. It was the first model I ever built. However, I've always questioned the nacelle pylons. I wish they had been just one straight, flat and angled piece that put the nacelles at the same height without the bend.
This is my second favorite ship in Star Trek! It’s amazing!! I would love to see a refit/ next generation version!!
What the Excelsior is one of the nicest sci fi ships designed
Its brilliant looking
First: Narrow the neck to about 1/3 it's width and adjust secondary hull accordingly. (Round the top a bit) --- Second: replace the warp struts with one without the 90 degree turn, just go straight. That'd take care of most of my gripes about the design.
I’ll bet if the Excelsior had a 3rd warp nacelle like the Federation Dreadnought class you would love it!!
yes the Torpedoe tubes were in the neck. actually the square space in the hull where auxiliary or cargo shuttle entrance. its not really discussed but it was auxiliary shuttle space.
I think the two ports on the neck are cargo bays. We saw ships fly in and out of it. Neck probably designed more as a multi-purpose module and cargo area. That would also explain why there's no windows.
The Excelsior class, personified, is particularly hot-headed. Gotta cool it off somehow. Oh! Neck fins!
I've always loved this ship. Don't know why but the look was just great. I even flew one in STO.
As for when in Star Trek 4 and they were heading to the new ship I didn't think they were going to get the Excelsior since it was still a prototype. Kirk and his crew were an explorer crew not a shakedown crew. Plus at the time the Enterprise was going to be decommissioned before Kirk and the crew stole her. So another ship was already in the works to bear the name Enterprise. It wouldn't have been an Excelsior class as that was still an experimental ship. Also since the Excelsior was to be the ship that was going to replace the Constitution class ships the NCC-1701-A was more then likely a renamed older refit Constitution class ship, hence why it was only in service as the Enterprise for 7-8 years.
Exelsiore class my favoritt
You could park the Excelsior among the skyscrapers in Shinjuku and it would fit right in.
Using Doug's phrase here. I think people like the Excelsior so much because of the ape brain. It's just so much more substantial than a Conny. Bigger, thicker, and yet it's smooth and curvy like a fine Norwegian lady. When I was younger I liked the Excelsior more than the Enterprise. Now though, with my more refined tastes I have to say that the Conny Refit is my favorite TMP era design. I find the Excelsior rather dumpy is appearance now.
the Excelsior was also going to replace the ageing Constitution Class which is why the Enterprise was going to be Decomissioned in ST3.
5:20, to me, rounded and organic is what makes a ship look like something from a highly advanced, civilized society. Rounded and organic also looks more like a peaceful ship....something with sharp angles and so on looked far more hostile and sinister. :) I'd LOVE to see the blue of the Excelsior replaced with red, just for the hell of it.
+TheCastellan That would be cool. It would have a bit of a Star Wars look!
When I first saw the Excelsior I didn't like it only because I thought it was going to be replacing my beloved Enterprise refit. The more and more I saw it and the fact that the 1701-A stayed in service I grew to like it more and more.
Best ship ever made
A much more solid design than the gangly Constitution class. It has this futuristic 'boat' feel to it while exuding a sense of power and exploration.
I appreciate Stuarts and Samuels comments on the Excelsior . this is my favorite starship. while I respect the constitution and the refit. I think the Excelsior reflects the forward thinking of the time. I think it transends the 80's design asthetic. To be clear I like the Origional Excelsior design and not the Ent B or Exc Refit. what also makes this ship a draw for me is that this was Hikaru Sulu's ship, and I really wanted to see a Capatin Sulu series !!!! I think the Excelsior is a graceful bird, but its not without its flaws. I agree. I like the saucer as is. I would have eliminated the neck, easy to attack, I would have naturally placed two shuttle bays below the impulse thrusters. I would have extended the secondary hull a little farther and have it cut off where the warp engines end. I would keep the warp nacceles as is. BTW, the purpose of cutting the secondary hull off at the AFT is to improve warp dynamics !!!!
Always a fan of Excelsior class
Well, when Foley becomes an Admiral, he can pick whatever ship he wants to command, so he won't have to worry ab out getting an Excelsior for as a replacement. lol
Yes it looks like a 1980's vacuum cleaner...but that's why it's so iconic
While there are a few minor features that I think could be improved upon, I think the Excelsior class is beautiful, and a solid design.
If I remember correctly, the holes in the forward part of the neck are also for manipulator arms.
I always liked this ship, both the flight 1 and flight 2 designs. Though if you make me choose it's flight 2 all the way. I doubt the Capt will ever come around on this, but it's a very good ship design and looks like it belongs in deep space, more so that it's predecessors.
Excelsior is a beauty and at least somewhat structurally sound. The saucer section is connected by a massiv beam to the hull. WNS are still only flimsy connected. As if the laws of physics dont apply to the STU! Well as kid I did not care, until later I learned what the law of inertia is.
I did see this at the cinema when it first came out and it was one of two rather unexpected surprises. The first was the enormous space station which could not possibly have been built between the movies so was a retcon job because we pretty much saw starfleet's orbital assets in TMP. I grew up with the Franz Joseph's technical manual and would have loved it if the starfleet headquarters design could have been used instead of the orbital facility we got. The version in the 2009 movie is loads better in my view. The Excelsior struck me as the equivalent of a battleship ,dreadnought or carrier from star fleet battles . It isn't very pretty but it does look powerful. There isn't any logical reason for big weapons platforms in science fiction really but starttrek tv and movies have always shied away from fighters or fast patrol ships or even robot controlled weapons in favour of big and impressive spaceships.
The fins on the neck might be a defensive measure to disperse fire kinda like the grating around modern battle tanks. Also I think those two holes are just a large shuttle bay.
Honrable Mention about this ship.
The only Entp B duplicate that was vilified more than the Excelsior was the Enterprise B's Sister ship the USS Lakota.
at 10:50 in they are talking about the holes in the neck weather or not they are extra torpedo tubes. correct me if i am wrong but they showed them in the movies to be like small loading bays. sooo yeah.
+thelasthallow Yeah, I take them to be access hatches for the warp core components.
or access for "something" i would suppose they could fit torpedo launchers there with all that room but i would assume they wouldn't need to.
I wonder if the extra length on the secondary hull could be to accommodate a cargo ship attaching to the underside right in front of the cargo claws.
I.e Cargo ship comes in from behind, rotates 180 degrees and lands underneath the secondary hull aft of the curve. Cargo claws then deploy and retrieve cargo. Once the cargo is gotten, the cargo ship detaches and flys off.
I think Commander Cockings ideal ship would be made of nothing but thousands of 1-man pods that could all separate.
The only thing that aesthetically bothered me about the Excelsior was the neck. I think it would work better if the finned part was thinner and not the entire neck.
What's always cracked me up is this design was basically drafted to be *wrong* in the first place. That was the whole idea behind it in the movie. It's bigger, got better engines and all this Whoopie-doo upgrades, but if you look at the design, everything zags where it zigs on the Big E. The pylons don't make a lot of sense, the saucer has literally been flipped upside down so the angles are reversed from the E, the design is very rounded and smooth, yet it's really bulky fat.
Lot's of interesting things went into the design, and I think with some finese it does end up working, and it really works well in Star Trek VI, but it was always designed to be something that the audience wouldn't like, intentionally.
The empty space behind the ship could’ve been utilized by Starfleet to add Extra package for mission specifics sensors shuttle pods
I DO like the Excelsior.
But I'd have done a few things differently if I had designed and built it.
I would have done the engineering hull's front profile as a parabola instead of being hemispherical. The front view of the engineering hull looks a bit too fat and massive. This would have thinned it down a bit.
I also would have had the neck between the primary (saucer) hull narrow at the top.and then faired it into the saucer. Make it a bit more sleek and aerodynamic, even though that's not necessary in space.
Maybe integrated the nacelle struts into the engineering hull instead of attaching them they way they were, with a bulge on top.. The way they did seemed a bit like an afterthought.
Another option would be to add a pair of Miranda class megaphasers into the neck below the torpedo tubes. A big ship needs a big stick.
I like this ship even more than the Connie Refit. It's more sturdy and looks more powerful and more resilient.