The Most Advanced Excelsior Ever
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 22 авг 2024
- The USS Lakota was an Excelsior class starship that like many others was kept up to date with the latest Federation technologies, but even among this line, the infamous vessel had even more firepower and upgrades than the typical Enterprise subclass Excelsior. Let's take a look.
Music from bensound.com, purple-planet.com and freesfx.co.uk
Star Trek Online developed by Cryptic Studios and Perfect World.
Star Trek Enterprise/Voyager/Deep Space Nine/Discovery and The Next Generation are all owned by Paramount Pictures/CBS and distributed by CBS.
This Video is for critical purposes with commentary. 
Игры
"We've been unable to stop the defiant. Someone has equipped her with ablative armor and neglected to mention it to starfleet operations" - Benteen
Which always strikes me as an odd oversight. Really? The Defiant's armour was not documented?
@@CertifiablyIngame my headcanon is that, after the Defiant was more easily taken out by the Dominion than expected in the season three opener, and suspecting changeling infiltration, Sisko ordered O’Brien to upgrade it stealthily with resources local to the Bajoran sector, and possibly even used Quark.
@@kaitlyn__LI think that fits perfectly for a time period where Founder/Changeling infiltrators was strategy used by the Dominion as both effective covert intelligence and to sow distrust between Alpha Quadrant powers (UFP, Klingon Empire, Romans, et. al.) and creating internal strife within those governments to the point where even Starfleet officers didn’t know of they could trust fellow officers and Klingons adopted cutting themselves with their D’k thag to prove they weren’t a Changling.
Or they lied giving them a legitimate reason why they didn't destroy them.
Even with the armor though all they had to do was targeting the same spot over and over again.
They just didn't after all can't show how inferior the defiant is in comparison to an older ship.
@Valor1 Omega That's like saying I can beat this guy if I keep punching him in the same spot over and over. It only works if the guy doesn't move. Same with the Defiant, it was constantly moving and was much more maneuverable. The bigger ship might hit hard, but if it can't find a weak spot, or reliably hit a location more than once to make it weak, the power behind the strike doesn't matter as much.
The fact that the Lakota was able to put the DEFIANT on the backfoot was a testament to the endurance and power of the Class when upgraded properly.
worf wasnt trying to destroy the lakota only disable
Two blasts from the underside saucer phaser banks reduced the Defiant's shielding by 40%. That's alotta juice for an old ship!
Well, use the warp core from the defiant class, then you have enough power even in an old excelsior class
@darthrevan1281
The same worf that couldn't hit simple targets even with advanced Targeting computer that can hit a moving target the size of a football (well at least the original Enterprise could), that Worf?
If he couldn't disabled a Borg tractor/cutting beam which wasn't shielded I don't see him being able to do much to this ship.
@@WhydoIsuddenlyhaveahandle
Can you imagine how better the Miranda class would be with the Lakota refit package?
We wouldn't need the defiant at all.
"Balderdash! What Starfleet needed was a dreadnought based on the Oberth class."
"That's right admiral. After you take your meds I'll push you around the green."
Gut the entire stardrive for an enormous warp core, line it with as many phaser strips as possible, replace a good portion of the saucer with a Nebula’s torpedo module.
to be fair if you had enough of them and had them armed to the teeth and not crew and controlled by the computer or a command ship of another tougher and larger ship they would be overpowered in their sheer number to slow an enemy they were deathtraps but if enough armed torpedos were on board the damage done when one went boom at point blank range would cripple most if not all enemies of the Federation
HAHAHAHAHA are u kidding me HAAAH theres no way in HELLL the Oberth would stand a CHANCE in the Dominion war era let alone against a Dominion battleship HAH i mean hell you are dilusional if starfleet would ever utilize Oberth classes in the Dominion war compared to Enterprise B varients of the Excelsior class let alone Excelsior 2 classes XD let alone why the USS Lakota which was known as a sister ship of the Enterprise B truely proved her worth not only in the Dominion war but other parts of cannon as well as STO before most likely being retired and replaced. Hence why this Enterprise B varient of the Excelsior class was named in honor of the Lakota tribe
It's always nice to see an Excelsior class in action. I think this is the only time that we get to see it's badassery.
"That's a lot of firepower for an Excelsior class ship. Someone's been upgrading her weapons." - Chief O'Brien
Exactly, and the Lakota had only fired its upgraded phaser banks at that point. It still had a complement of quantum torpedoes.
I see this ship class and I roll my eyes.
But at least it isn't as bad as the defiant.
@@wlockhart
I wish they destroyed the defiant and killing everyone but worf.
I love how the Excelsior (as a screen model) was so clearly designed as a bigger, more powerful sibling to the Connie refit. 5 sets of phasers as opposed to three, the similar but bigger window clusters, another take on the very art deco nacelles and so many other details.
They did a great job making the Excelsior look like a clear upgrade to the Constitution. As soon as you see it, you know its the future of Starfleet. I was always kinda disappointed that the Enterprise-A wasn't an Excelsior-class.
@@Helbore
When I first seen it I remember thinking, "that ugly massive garbage barge is suppose to replace the Connie?"
"Look at all that wasted space and cut out in the engineering hull!"
"What's up with the ribbed neck? They plan on doing laundry on it?
And later on "My god that stupid ship managed to do what Khan and the Klingons couldn't, it killed Caption Kirk!"
That's the true legacy of the class, it killed Kirk.
I guess some Admiral had a secret pet project to upgrade and uprate his Excelsior with the latest combat technologies. And other Admirals who inherited the ship then continued this unofficial project over the decades. Until, by the DS9 era, the Lakota had essentially evolved into little more than a dedicated warship, able to hold its own against the Starfleet's "first" purpose-built pure warship, the Defiant.
I wonder how many other Starfleet _warships_ might have slipped the cracks. Still nominally assigned as exploration or survey vessels yet refitted into unexpectedly capable combat vessels.
Somehow, I like this better than a "one big refit experiment". That one series of semi competent officers in the great peace. Take care of her, Mark. One day the Federationay need her.
I adore the Excelsior class, and loved seeing the Lakota pushing the class to it's highest limits. Though, admittedly, I was even more excited to see the Excelsior 2 class developed.
In one of Doug Drexler's Excelsior Blueprints, the oversized engines on the Enterprise B were supposed to be the ship's hull shuttle bays.
Fun Fact: The USS Crazy Horse (TNG) was also an Excelsior class ship.
Everyone knows that
@@SparkyP The children in Africa don't. Did you think about them?? No! Because you only think about yourself!!!
DS9 was such a great show. It delved into many things the other shows never or just barely touched on. I miss it so much 🥺 It introduced a number of really cool ships and I always liked the Excelsior class (though not my favorite). "In the pale moonlight" was particularly great, among many others. Rewatching some episodes I can see some pretty clear allegories to events that happened in the 20yrs following the end of the show.
I was never much into DS9 as it was too much of a boring soap opera imo for the first couple of seasons. It got much better after the Defiant arrived though.
@@DanakarEndeel I agree to an extent. The first two seasons had a few good episodes but it really picked up in season 3 when the Defiant was introduced. The last two seasons, which were the Dominion Wars were the true gem of the series imo. I love TNG too, my fav if I had to pick. I grew up on that basically.🖖
@@_Omega_Weapon Yeah, definitely. Once DS9 was able to actually go places with the Defiant was when it started picking up and I really loved the Dominion arc. Also, TNG is the only series I wanted to own on blu ray (the other box-set being the complete movie collection); and I still have a large TNG banner in my bedroom that's been hanging there for over 22 years now (prior to that it was hanging in my old bedroom at my parents house). 😉
@@DanakarEndeel If you ever want to sell that banner let me know 😅
@@_Omega_Weapon Haha, no chance. It's not even that special though and I just checked Ebay to see they're still being sold. Turns out that Ebay still has some of them available. One in the US (Texas) is only $7,87 plus shipping if you act fast. The rest are around $20-$50 or so. 😉
It's interesting to see ships like the Lakota not just maintained for long service, but upgraded and refitted to keep pushing the benchmark of what existing ships can do and how new designs might make use of technology. I know it's usually an honour to serve on a flagship, I can imagine a posting aboard a test-bed ship like the Lakota to be highly desirable, especially for those who want to work with cutting-edge technology for a starship and really push what can be done.
I always imagined that the Constitution-class was the last of Starfleet's monolithic starship designs and the likes of the Miranda and Excelsior-class were the first of a new modular starship design. This is why the Connie disappeared completely, but these two workhorses continued well into the 24th century. Their spaceframes were better designed for component swapout and so it became easier to just keep upgrading and augmenting the design.
Even when individual spaceframes became too worn out to upgrade, the basic design meant that it was still beneficial to build new Mirandas and Excelsiors equipped with modern technology. They were extremely adaptable designs. Perhaps not so good that new designs weren't needed, but good enough that they could form the backbone of the fleet for decades.
It kinda makes you wonder what was so problematic about the Ambassador-class that it had such a short lifespan. It was superior to the Excelsior, but not enough to warrant continued production. It seemed to have gone out of fashion long before the Galaxy-class replaced it. Whereas new Excelsior variants were still being pumped out everywhere!
The Ambassador strikes me as being a casualty of its own success, after a fashion. Given the era it operated in and the systems we saw it use, I've always suspected it was the first major recipient of a lot of the modern TNG-era systems like phaser strips and the LCARS-compatible computer hardware. All of the systems were a rousing success, but over the lifetime of the Enterprise-C and the other initial flight of Ambassadors, there were so many revisions and refinements to the systems the class that the Ambassador itself ended up having the same problem the Constitution did with the advent of the Excelsior; not modular enough to take easy upgrades, not powerful enough of its own accord to be worth a major rework or the extensive refits required to keep it relevant for another 50 years. Especially not during the period of relative peace Starfleet was in, where the events surrounding the Battle of Narendra III were basically the most exciting thing that happened during that entire era. An era that didn't end until Wolf 359, which we saw on screen as occurring firmly during the Galaxy-class' reign as primary exploration ship.
I wish we had actually seen more Ambassadors on screen, especially in the Dominion War where every ship was needed, but it's not hard to believe that only something like 8 or 10 were ever made and over half of them were destroyed or decommissioned by the time the Galaxy had supplanted them.
@@MrMcSpiff I've always shared the same theory about the Ambassador class, but you put it into much better words than I would have
@@MrMcSpiffso I googled this earlier and apparently 75 ships of the Ambassador class in total were commissioned, far less than the hundreds of Excelsior class. Apparently they were used more for diplomatic missions, etc. and according to the article I was reading a handful of them were destroyed during the Dominion war.
I could be wrong but I don't think a single one was ever shown during DS9. I definitely don't recall ever seeing one.
The Excelsior refit is such standout ship in the Star Trek universe. From its silhouette to its paint job, it's just so timeless. It simply *looks* like a hero ship and has been one of my favorites since the moment I saw it.
I always had this idea of the next Star Trek series moving slightly forward in the timeline just after the films. The Enterprise-B has been found adrift after nearly a century of being MIA. No crew, no logs, just a complete mystery as to what happened.
A new crew get assigned to bring it back to Federation space and the first season has an overarching side-plot that involves unwrapping some of ship's major mysteries.... but essentially Starfleet resigns the ship to backwater duties since at this point it's an ancient "totem" ship with an untested crew. But of course episodic shenanigans play out and we get to see a mix of venerable old ship tech in a series that actually moves on after Nemesis.
Oh well, just pipe dreams.
I would love this! I really wish TNG would've been the stories of the Enterprise B instead of the big glass palace of the E-D
What is you Neural Link ID for shared thoughts ?
Many classes come and go, but this one always remains a favourite of mine. There's just a certain 'elegance' to it.
Seeing as the American B-52 bombers are expected to remain in service for almost a century after they were first launched, the fact that Federation Starships can remain in service just that long must be as commonplace as the cold is today.
Well production is clearly way easier in the Star Trek universe future then the present day, it costs alot to refit production lines in modern times, and for buidling ships you have to rework drydocks sometimes to build a ship type, the US eventually switched to modular construction methods thus we can keep even 50 year old vessels like the Nimits class aircraft carrier upgraded enough for modern tech and fighter launch systems. In STar Trek you have replicators and being built on land or in space rather then the sea makes starships way easier to build and maintain practically anywhere, you could just bring up the materials, replicate the parts and drydock arms or organic workers can then put them in place. Overall just way more modular construction methods and different environment, look at how often a gero ship like the Enterprise can just come into drydock, get a refit and in awhile be back out on the frontier, or take serious damage and in time be looking brand new, or how often engineers can find a major problem and rework computers and hard systems to fix the problem. Overall STar Trek ships just last much longer then modern day Earth sea ships, plus the very nature of Starfleet means it's constantly making new discoveries and upgrades which it either tests in a new kimited produced ship or finds a reason to mass produce certain types of ships.
Captain Frederick Benteen served under George Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, against Crazy Horse, the Lakota, and many other notable warriors and tribes. Coincidence? Probably not.
Never knew that. Cool little detail!
That’s Starfleet messing with its captains. Like when the Voyager holodeck cast Janeway as the French Maquis leader and Chakotay as the military captain in The Killing Game!
For some of us it's the Battle at Greasy Grass.
@@witchdoctor1394 Indeed! Pezi Sla.
I always thought that the original Excelsior was the best looking Starfleet vessel because it was a stylistic bridge between the TOS and TNG eras. Long sleek swoopy lines, but still the classic configuration and not overly bulbus or curvy like the Galaxy class. Never liked the additional crap they stuck on for "upgrades" and differentiation, but understandable, given the history with the filming model.
In my headcannon, Lakota is the literal USS Enterprise-B, placed in mothballs after long service prior to Enterprise-C's commissioning. At some point after 1701-C's commissioning, she was recommissioned as USS Lakota because... y'know... "1701" was already taken... and received multiple refits over the following decades. This explains why Lakota is the only other B-style Excelsior seen in canon and why such an old ship (based on registry number) was considered such a prestigious posting.
I will die on this hill. ;-)
no enterprise b was destroyed
@@jessihawkins9116 in beta Canon, maybe.
@@vic5015 no it happen on yesturday enterprize
@@jessihawkins9116 no, you’re thinking of the Enterprise-C; that was the ship featured in “Yesterday’s Enterprise”.
@@digitalrailroader no it got destroy by the romulan protection the outpost klingons
As I've oft' said before, something I wish Starfleet would do. With every advancement made in ship design, they inevitably build a "Constitution shaped" vessel. I personally wish they would then make both a "Miranda shaped" and "Constellation shaped" line of ships using the new designs for the parts. They've 'sorta' done this with the Galaxy to the Nebula. I wish they'd do more.
And _this_ is why Starfleet's greatest asset is its Corps of Engineers. I don't think a lot of other powers could take a century-old design and bring it up to specs. It's as if someone took a WW1 biplane and made it capable of taking on an F-35.
I'd be very surprised if more excelsior class vessels weren't refit for the domain war .
The type of refit seems like it was a one off cause it was prob very intensive to do so.
@@braddl9442 yes but I thought it made sense, Leyton had the ship refit as part of his preparation for the dominion war ,( his motivation for everything) it took only as long as two episodes in the show, ( she delivered sisco, went into space Dock and was finished and fighting defiant in the next episode, ) weeks will have passed. But over 6 hundred starbases, and around 2 years till the war begins and over 2 more years of war , it would be logical to upgrade as many ships as possible, the ship yards were busy , it would be s strategic mistake not too , and it's not like star fleet was mass producting advanced star ships and war time variants of galaxy and nebula and pulling ships upgrading hundreds of ships from the moth ball fleet ( reserves) and they had a borg incursion and a klingon war before that . , I remember when the promethus was finished her regenitive shield system was made s fleet wide upgrade. , the federal is more than capable of it . Economicly. Time is the only variable. Time in spacedock or orbit of a star base . Or station . In 4 or 5 years why every excelsior class ship in the fleet could have been upgraded. Especially as star fleet militarised. The star fleet budget would be between 4 to 20 times its normal amount. , manpower resources, ect .
Agree with most of this video, too (except the launch date - more like 2333?)
@@shanenolan5625 There lots of things that we should have seen in DS9 that we didn't. For example the Defiant class Starship should have been mass produce given their effectiveness against Dominion ships. We should have seen some of the Federation newest ships engage in the battle of DS9, or at least a statement that Starfleet will only be committing their older vessels to the campaign.
@@DavidKnowles0 yes ? In the video he made about the defiant class. Or in beta Canon, they said star fleet, ordered defiant class vessels to get a mass produced, , or to build as many as possible, there was something about making 12 per year at utopia planeta. So 24 from that ship yards. But mention was made of antares or the other 2 two research and development shipyards or the other shipyards. ( in that video) .
Like in nemesis, the battle group ( galaxy wing ) that was on the way to assistant enterprise. Had the uss valiant. ( defiant variant ) I'd argue they had several dozen battle groups. Each with one st least, and in voyager we see two escorting a akira , which makes sense. Nesr the romulan border, promethus was developed at antares, a small ship with around 50 crew , that was do effective against the jemhadar and klingons , and against the borg , I'd be building as many as possible, speard them out to protect starbases or convoy escorts or to mass for s borg incursion
Always loved the Excelsior refit, gutted they were hardly ever seen.
I fucking *LOVE* the the Excelsior class. Thank you for this!
Given the nature of photon torps (antimatter warhead), planetary bombardment with them is terrifying. Let alone bombardment with quantum torps.
Halo rightly demonstrated what a single photon torpedo sized antimatter warhead can do to a large orbital platform or unprotected capital ship. Now imagine a spread of them fired off like tic tacs spilling out of the container.
I remember one DS9 episode where Chief O'Brien recommend destroying an Iconian gateway with a full spread of quantum torpedos. I believe he said it would destroy everything in a 800 km radius. But this is just from my memory.
If the Excelsior is your favorite, it would be interesting to get your take on the prototype variants the designer considered. Eaglemoss released a few of them and they look pretty cool.
Ships like this make me wonder how necessary new frame designs actually are; obviously if you need to fit too many things or too large a thing for a frame, you need to expand it or have a different frame, and a particular hull will eventually need to be replaced due to age, but you could probably use the same general hull design forever for most applications, just keep updating
Star Trek sort of does this, but if enough tech changes at once you'll need to modify far too many internals to make it work so you may as well start from scratch. Just look at all of Voyagers new shiny things
Well, at some point, there's only so much you can do to modernize and update older vessels before you're better off starting over with a new design. The scale and scope of the overhauls becomes such that you might as well take the time and effort needed and build something new
And the cost becomes prohibitive too.
@@vic5015 eventually new becomes cheaper than refurbished
@@M33f3r yup. If the needed upgrades are too extensive, it's no longer cost effective.
I think by STNG they were probably working on each frame lasting a average century or more. The Borg change that, an the Federation realise their galaxy class space frames which they use on the Galaxy and Nebula and California classes was in need for a upgrade already.
The Lakota had at least thirteen Type-X Phaser Banks. Your forgot the one on the end of the drive section, on the dorsal surface, the one in-between the nacelles, and the four single emplacements on the ventral side of the drive section.
The Akira is my personal favorite.
The Excelsior class is also my favorite! At least for external look/design. :D
Well, the d'Deridex class is actually my favorite overall, but if we're talking Federation ships: Excelsior!
Though I like the original main hull design; I dislike the Enterprise B-style "flare" thing they put around it. :(
one of my top 3 favorite ship in canon
Interesting and a great ship
"The Excelsior class is my favorite."
One second in and he got my like, gotdamn
Starfleet Corps of Engineers while designing the new impulse engines: Im gonna make this baby fast and furious...
Excellent video on the Lakota!
Thanks for this Rick! Nicely Done!
Ships like the Lakota are why the Excelsior are so long lived how many ships can you think of that this long into their life span can easily be retrofitted with this level of advanced tech and then be able to fight toe to toe with the Defiant
Was there also a phaser bank just above the original impulse drives? At 5:35 it looks like the Lakota is firing at the Defiant from this location.
no
The Excelsior is my favorite as well! I own all of the variants on STO and spec them out for different roles. My OG variant is a fairly standard heavy cruiser specializing in high speed at both warp and sublight. My refit specializes in heavy torpedo bombardment, with two Tri-cobalt launchers in the forward arc and all of the consoles in other slots supporting them in one way or another. And let me tell you those tri-cobalts pack quite the punch. The Excelsior II variant is also a pretty standard cruiser, but it makes use of all of the most advanced technology I own in the game and specializes mainly in dishing out lots of phaser fire.
Such a good ep and such a cool ship, but it still can't hold a candle to that tough little ship . The defiant ;)
My first introduction to trek was the og xbox game Star trek Shattered universe, i had no idea what was going on story wise but damn it sealed the excelsior as my favorite ship and all these years later that hasn't changed
I think all the Excelsiors we saw during the big battles in the last two Seasons should have been updated Models like the _Lakota._
They were.
There were only two Excelsior class refits and the Enterprise -B was decommissioned.
Dockyard space limits what you can do
I’m reminded of how the original Mini outlived many of its successors, and the original Land Rover did too until it couldn’t keep up with regulations. Some designs are just workhorses, easy to fix and easy to upgrade. Such successors often have more advanced materials and optimised design, but then fail to keep up with changes as well as the predecessor.
I wonder if they ever tried to fit phaser strips to her instead of cannons.
Im assuming the intrepid class replaced it.
The war must have thinned out most if not all of the old ships
The issue more than likely was that refitting a ship not designed for the phaser arrays would be too labor intensive as you would have to rebuild every place you fit a array along with redesigning the entire energy distribution system since each array is made up of dozens of phaser emitters.
The Enterprise-B subtype (Also known as Enterprise-Type in Memory-Beta) is argueably my favorite ST ship class, with Miranda, Reliant subtype being a close second.
I have noted that Enterprise "type"/"subclass" has happened twice so far in UFP Starfleet.
First with the Constitution class, where the refit-type is also known as "Enterprise-class" or "Enterprise-subclass".
Makes me kinda wonder if there is ever going to be an actual "Enterprise-class", which isn't a evolutionary development of an existing class.
While one could argue that the NX-01 was of an Enterprise-class, though all sources I could find, calls it NX-class. And the refit was - poignantly I might add - named Columbia Class, though also referred to as NX-refit. Further it was part of UE Starfleet, not UFP, which had a different naming and registration scheme, which can be seen in the NX and NX-refit ships being renamed with a USS prefix and changed registry to NCC.
Considering they built so few Excelsiors a year and they were mostly used by the admiralty, you can imagine how plush these ships were on the inside.
The Excelsior class is amazing. There's something special about the design that just turns my crank lol.
Putting aside that paramount just wanted to save modeling money, by reusing expensive ships already made for Star Trek 2 and 3. And pre-recorded explosions of the oberth class. I would say that the Excelsior, Maranda, and Oberth designs where proven realizable, sturdy, and in general easy to add to the fleet and upgrade. Giving them a long service life. The U-2 is still is service after 67 years.
Quite possibly the last Starfleet design that took design ideas from the Age of Sail and 20th Century naval design.
To ne fair, spaces has different physics, old the reasons for Naval designs doesn't exist in space. Not unless you want to make up some technobabble for subspace "aerodynamics", so to speak.
@@vic5015 quite right. Space and shape is so much different when physics are at play. But I do admire lines and angles on Excelsior. She reminded me of a WW2 rounded battlecruiser hull up a neckline to a very 80s styled catamaran linked upper hull.
Heh, when Ric talks about the Lakota and the Enterprise E, you can see the recently-remastered Excalibur class, at one time, Star Trek Online's original poster ship.
In STO lore, the Excalibur class was a post war cost/resource efficient light cruiser alternative to the Sovereign (which seems to have become a workhorse in canon anyway).
What makes one generation of excelsior different from the other generation besides the hull configuration. Is there something unique that excelsior class has from any other class of vessel at least in modern trek?? For example, TNG DS9 Star Trek online era
Most TNG era Excelsiors don't have quantum torpedo launchers, the extra warp coils, type 10 phasers, and enhanced structural intergrity grid so they definitely wouldn't have lasted as long against a Defiant class as the Lakota did in Paradise Lost.
@@tachyontee3877 Good point
@@tachyontee3877 how do you like the new design for the excelsior in STO
Pretty sure the model for the Enterprise-B has some modifications to rhe original Excelsior model. In fact, I heard that despite attempt to reverse the modifications. The visual effects people were unable to.
And that, as a result, all post-Generations Excelsiors seen on screen are of the Enterprise-B subtype. Up until the later seasons of DS9, when they started using CGI models over old-school models miniatures.
I love watching these while playing STO
I think the excellcior is such a lovely looking ship.
Fell in love with her playing Star Trek Legacy for the 360, pretty fun if janky game :)
I kind of like the excelsior but when the enterprise b came out they gave it hole hull flares which was a really really nice touch. To me the hull flares make the excelsior class look better
🖖😎👍Very cool and very nicely well done and executed and very informatively explained in every detail way shape and form provided on this format and subject matter on the U.S.S. LAKOTA an Upgraded Excelsior refit class starship indeed Sir!,👌.
Man would I love to see the battle on Earth between the Breen and starfleet, including the Enterprise-E and the Lakota.
thank you, Ric! not i gave it any serious thought, the fact that the Refits kept the nacelles of the failed Transwarp system rather than being replaced with a standard nacelle type was always a bothersome visual. this video completely alleviates that pet peeve.
Excelsior Refit is the best looking fed ship. It's what I run in STO.
Thanks for sharing and Merry Christmas to you and your family 👪
Excelsior's a handsome boat.
VenomGeekMedia98 (I recommend his channel) says that in his head-canon, those bulges on the sides of the later version of the Excelsior class were originally put there for the purpose of storing a cloaking device. In his episode explaining The Tomed Incident (watch it, it's REALLY good!), those refit Excelsiors had cloaking devices as well as tricobalt warheads, and were intended to strike directly at Romulus.
I always felt they should have made an Advanced Excelsior class with a slightly larger primary hull (saucer section) for the Enterprise-E when The Next Generation came out. At the time, Star Trek III and IV had come out just prior to the TNG show, and the Excelsior was a real wonder to all Star Trek fans at the time, with little knowledge of the ship to go on. Using an Advanced Excelsior for TNG would have made a lot more sense imo.
love your videos brother keep the good work up
I imagine that the Lakota may well have been a prototype for the Excelsior-II class, perhaps that project was delayed by the Dominion War a little
Well, now that a Canon Exceksior II class exists, they may well retcon Lskota that way.
We need a star trek series where they use a excelsior class as the main ship
The excelsior class is like the B52. Lasts over a century
Nice video, informational. Story development usually lacks with starship lore.
Sovereign Class will always be my favourite.
Ronald D. Moore said that Benteen's captaincy of the Lakota was an in-joke made by Ira Steven Behr as there was a Frederick Benteen who was in command of a 7th Cavalry battalion under the command of Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer when Custer and his battalion of men were decimated by Lakota Sioux at the Battle of the Little Big Horn.
How do you get the captures without the hud? Asking for myself.
The Excelsior class is the B-52 of Starfleet. All they'll do is upgrade the design and suddenly you got their workhorse for another century!
The Lakota is still my favorite ship in the ST universe being the ultimate expression of the original Excelsior design. Have to give respect to a ship that impressed and concerned Chief O'Brien.
The Lakota is federation but it is a good example of how/why Klingon ships never get decomissioned, only destroyed in battle.
For me the Constitution Class is my favourite, even though the Excelsior class is a chunky and hardened design, to me it has a element of Japanses thinking, which I am sure was mentioned in the production of Search for Spock movie. But in the Startrek Online I use this class of Vessel named the USS Columbia.
So I think the ship bro section of trekdom would get hyped if they announced a ST: Lakota miniseries
It always made sense to me that Excelsior class vessels were stilling service. Since it actually takes a long time to design new ships. Plus, it would be kind insane to just scrap resources like that for no reason. Just upgrade it until you've got enough replacements to mothball them finally.
What’s interesting is that Benteen was one of the commanders who fought under Custer when he attacked and lost to the Lakota and their allies at the Battle of Little Bighorn. I wonder if the writers knew this when they named Erika Benteen.
The Lakota was the WARSHIP version of the class. They upgraded such an old hull for guarding earth so people would not think twice about it. And the illusion that the federation is just about exploration could be kept.
all of Starfleet's ships are warships, they just don't think of them that way. Some ships are just better armed than others. A sensor system designed to examine spatial anomalies can scan for cloaked ships. Phasers can be used for mining if calibrated properly. all things can be weapons when used as weapons.
Any ship at the receiving end of a barrage of phaser fire and photon torpedoes does not care if Starfleet ships are warship.
The Lakota was upgraded and then some by that power hungry admiral who thought he was the Federation’s Julius Caesar. He was putting officers loyal to him in key strategic locations and commands, hence his former adjutant Captain Benteen given command of Lakota. The upgraded Excelsiors were on par with Galaxy class ships. Star Fleet needed capable combat ships to match the Dominion’s rapid ship building capabilities. The USS Euphrates the ship I served on at Wolf 359 was also a Tpye B Excelsior.
I wonder if any other capital ship had as many ships as the Excelsior. Excelsior plus 2 ships a year from 2295 through 2330 is 71 ships. Doubt that many Galaxies, Connies, Ambassador, or Sovereigns were made.
The later classes had many Ship but excelsiors have been pushing the fronteer for a 100 years
I've made the Lakota in STO. It's my main ship and packs quite a punch.
Id like to think the lakota was among the first in upgrading existing legacy starfleet ships fof war with the Dominion using advancements made in sheild, weapons and engine technology from starfleet preparations for the borg b4 Wolf359 & between wolf 359 & the battle of sector 001 which resulted in the defiant class and others. So maybe all Excelsiors were brought up to the level of the USS lakota to face the Dominion.
Oh my Goodness!! Those Nacelles are a mile long. 😳 I love it. ❤️ 🥰🥰🥰
Always surprised to hear star trek has a ship named after my folks
"The Pregnant skateboard " was a ship that marked the difference between reach and combat vessels
spectacular cheers from venezuela!
The deflector isn't lit in the episode, i suspect the physical model wasn't fully repaired after Generations.
It will never be fully repaired
The USS Lakota could have been way much older. It could have been the Enterprise B probably put in mothballs and renamed and rechristened as the Lakota. Star Trek has already have a tradition of renaming ships like the Yorktown being renamed to the Enterprise A. There wasn’t many Enterprise / Excelsior Sub Class Refits not seen since Generations and Deep Space Nine where the Lakota first appeared. Even in Picard the final season where the Titan A was renamed the Enterprise G. Starfleet continue the Enterprise legacy by developing the Enterprise C.
That's a really nice thumbnail
Interestingly, though, that we've never seen another Lakota-subtype but plenty of appearances by the Defiant class. This ship must've been *quite* a surprise to Dominion forces that engaged it and were expecting to fight a standard Excelsior. Especially since they had *no* way to know it was a one-off rather than a new subtype with ongoing construction and existing Excelsiors upgraded to the new subtype.
*Tough Little Ship*
Thanks Rick!
Super Starship!
The Excelsior was a battleship when first launched. She outgunned a k'tinga by a factor of 4.
So head cannon on a different point, I think the reason ALOT of newer star trek ships (during Picard) looks like older ships has to do with starfleet wanting to return to its explorer past but no knowing where to start any more after years of building warships so deciding to go back to its golden age for inspiration.
That's almost like the bullshit the makers of NuTrek say all the time. I call it lack of creativity.
Those Clairemont people...check out TAS Species Returns to Prodigy, Oumuamua, bird-humanoid, mustard yellow. And Clairol products, I think they have their gene (Claudia Black-Dotty?), probably the corn polymer part (used in 3D infrared printing, sometimes coded as plush red velvet, my gene inside a computer, red blood product). Like in the hydrolized corn protein or corn syrup ingredient.
Oumuamua seems to have used some pet birds I had around 1982 to hybridize with my gene and make many birds. Especially a yellow canary that designed San Diego orioles in orange and yellow and made many other birds with my start. They seem to authorize hybrids of my gene, without Earth (Ruach) agreeing. It is disputed if it is their right.
When you go all in on Pay to Play...
What I don't get is why we don't see Starfleet use any of the Enterprise variants in the Dominion War. With the Lakota having quantum torpedoes and other enchantments which would it take on the Defiant Excelsiors like those could hold their own against Dominion ships.
On screen wise it was a vfx shortcut for background ships (as the focus would be on the Defiant)
In universe they almost certainly had similar upgrades (though maybe not all ships had it finished by the war’s start)
They probably used the more capable refit ships for individual missions or strike force actions while massing the Frankenstein fleet, Miranda and outdated Excelsior variants in large formations and support roles. Better logistics and survivability for the larger units.
Real life there was issue with using movie ships hence why no sovies. Better to use classes seen on the show
I hate the Excelsior-class to death, but I still thank you for featuring this ship.
@2:51 The Foward and Aft Torpedo Bays are on the wrong place, its at Above the Fins or bulge around the Deflector Dish and the Bottom of the Aft Shuttlebay NOT above the Main ShuttleBay if u look at the Model or Diamond Select Toys u can see The Torpedo Bays
Well, the US Navy's Zumwalt was supposed to be modified with land attack and hypersonic missiles that would be like a starship used in the planetary bombardment role.
As a Lakota native, it makes me a little sad that we have yet another warship named after us.
We created a trade network that dominated the central plains, but it's the accomplishments of our warriors that's always seen most highly.
That's not what we value.