That seems a good enough explanation for the lack of Ambassadors. I can't recall where I heard this (I suspect it was some poster on this very board, though for the life of me...) idea being that most of the Ambassadors built were sent out on long range exploration missions... like fifteen or twenty years missions rather than five. The reason why we don't see much of the class during the Dominion war is that they are just really far away still; far too far distant to recall for deployment in the war. On the other hand, not all classes of ships are perfectly successful. Having them be Edsels is just as likely. --Alex
True enough. I just wouldn't necessarily consider the Ambassadors separate from the Excelsior "family" of designs (with the positively-canted-edge round saucers and often also dorsal-opening warp nacelles). They sit smack in the middle of Excelsior-shaped things in terms of registries, and we can now see the "family" includes small and large designs both. Perhaps simply the larger, the fewer? It is the Galaxy generation that is anomalous in this respect, as one would expect there to be plenty of the smaller ships (New Orleans, Springfield, Cheyenne) but one just meets plenty of the heavyweights (Nebula, Galaxy). That is, we meet the smaller ships of the Excelsior "family" in DS9, and we would expect to meet the smaller ships of all other "families" in that context even if we are unlikely to see them flying in formation with Picard's ship in any other context. And then DS9 fails to deliver... Then again, Akira is at least as much a member of the Galaxy family as the Springfield is, designwise, and she's both ubiquitous and slightly smaller than the two giants. As for Admirals and their Excelsiors, I'd hesitate either to solidly associate any flag officers with specific ships (the job description shouldn't be that limiting) or to consider the Admirals the commanding officers of their ships. If an Admiral flies a certain ship in one ep, I'd use that as a counterindication to another similar-looking ship actually being the same! Timo Saloniemi
I'm one of those guys who believe that the Ambassadors, being Explorers by definition, were out there exploring. Between that and the general belief that an Ambassador-class ship would be a resource-hog to build, IMO the relatively few we see are due to the fact that all the other ships of the class were on deep space exploration missions and were simply not able to be recalled in time for the Dominion War, let alone be seen all that often during peacetime. Like the Galaxy, she's the prize mare of the fleet, not the draft workhorses like the innumerable Exclesiors and Mirandas out there in the same era. You show her off, send her to the important places, and off on tour for extended periods of time. When she's done, you put her to pasture and stack six of her saucers to make space stations. :P Mark
Since the Enterprise and the other Galaxies never actually strayed far from Federation space, I can get behind the idea that the Ambassadors were doing the long range probe missions. We know these type of missions do exist - such as the Olympia which was in the Beta Quadrant for the best part of a decade. If you squint at the barely-visible pieces of wrecked ship in The Sound of Her Voice, you can pretend she is an Ambassador.
IIRC, at least one of the three ships that the Enterprise met up with in "Conspiracy" was supposed to have been an Ambassador. Can't remember which one, though. Edit: It was the USS Horatio, commanded by Captain Walker Keel. Tryla Scott was from the New Orleans class USS Renegade and Rixx was from the USS Thomas Paine, also a New Orleans. Of course, neither of those designs were seen on-screen until much later.
I like the idea that a lot of the Ambassador class ships are on deep space missions. I remember in one episode of Voyager when the ship was still about 30 years away from earth Starfleet sent two deep space ships to meet with Voyager and they said it would take five to six years so that means the ship were a good twenty years outside of federation space. Plus I don't like the idea of the Ambassador class being out of service already. Personal opinion is that when they were new Starfleet kept them around federation space to show the flag and as newer ships came into service the Ambassador would have been refit and sent on deep space missions lasting decades and when they got home they'd be decommissioned. One thing we do know is that the Galaxy class was said to be capable of missions lasting this long but we never saw one do it and they seemed to be there in the war so maybe that's what will happen to them when they get older.
I've seen it suggested that the enormous numbers of Excelsiors and Mirandas was possibly due to a policy of Starfleet similar to that practiced by the Soviet Union and to a far, far lesser extent Israel. The Soviets would avoid throwing anything away. Put massive numbers of combat vehicles into storage to be pulled out and utilized in a war time situation manned by reservists called to duty. Perhaps in the early 24th century over a period of decades, hundreds of Excelsiors and Mirandas were built and then placed in to storage by Starfleet to be resurrected in case of an emergency like the Dominion War or rebuilding the fleet after Wolf-359. Because in an emergency even old ships would be useful. This would also account for most of the Excelsiors and Mirandas seeming to be completely unmodified from the original design.
I think you guys have effectively convinced me to do less of a hatchet job on the Ambassador class design. I spared Captain Styles, I can spare the Ambassador. I've revised my text to be a bit more forgiving and also to incorporate the idea that the Ambassadors were sent out on far-flung missions exploring. Perhaps it was just too difficult to try to recall them from their deep space missions, and the Galaxy class ships, fresh off the lines and early into their 100-year design life, were just nearer the Federation core and therefore at hand to enter battle. I also quite like the idea that the Federation hordes surplus ships; this does indeed explain the surplus yard. I am going to soon put up a rudimentary website from which to share my works-in-progress with you guys. My intent is to make this the home of an interactive version of the Excelsior technical manual, as well as any other side projects that come along. Meanwhile here's the latest version one of my favorite chapters, quite out of context. I hope you enjoy. Chapter Eight - Proliferation Captain Hikaru Sulu and Excelsior saw the end of the twenty-third century together, and the dawn of the twenty-fourth. Talks between the Federation and the Klingon Empire were making slow progress. It was a time of increasing peace and prosperity for the galaxy, and optimism was high. The Federation agreed to various concessions as part of their ongoing peace talks with the Klingons. Some were relatively significant, while others were more semantic. Starfleet agreed to disarmament specifications, re-purposing several destroyers as scouts or light cruisers and limiting the number of heavy cruisers it constructed and operated as the primary instrument of its exploration and defense programs. Starfleet was left with a decision that proved a relatively easy one. The grafting of Excelsior program technology to the Constitution class refits had proven problematic not only with the prototype Enterprise-A but with all members of the Constitution class, and each Excelsior was ship-for-ship a bigger and more powerful vessel. Since tonnage was not an issue, Starfleet was free to construct the much larger Excelsiors to replace the Constitutions. To comply with the quotas stated in the Khitomer Accords, the Admiralty finally agreed to a plan to decommission the remaining Constitution class ships and replace many of them with Excelsior class ships. As part of compliance to the Klingons' stipulations, over 70% of the remaining members of the Constitution class were scrapped, while almost all the others were placed in mothball fleets at various Federation surplus depots. By 1 January, 2300, there were 14 more Excelsior class starships in service, and over a dozen more under construction, with 50 more under contract. For every three Excelsiors launched, another was partially completed and placed in Ordinary Reserve to comply with the Khitomer treaty. Publicly, Starfleet respected the treaty, but privately they were concerned with the stability of their treaty with their long-standing enemies and wanted to be able to rush more heavy cruisers into service quickly should the need arise, as well as make use of the many shipyards and drydocks that would otherwise sit idle due to the treaty quotas. Within the next couple of decades, several variants based on the Excelsior class were pioneered in shipyards across the Federation, from the Mediterranean class frigates to the Shelley class through-deck cruiser/transports to the Medusa class experimental deep space cruisers. The Excelsior had pioneered a revolution in Starfleet technology and exploration, and was truly building a legacy to be admired. However, the same period of prosperity that allowed the Excelsior class to thrive would also bring about its potential successor as the forefront of Starfleet technology: the Ambassador class. The Ambassador program was the next step in the logical expansion of the role of heavy cruiser that the Excelsior had begun. A number of officers at the ASDB long saw the niche for a massive multi-mission vessel capable of an unprecedented, and indeed fantastic, level of independent long-range missions and extended deployment. They termed this concept starship an Explorer-type vessel. The concept that became the Ambassador class was long back-burnered by Starfleet, given the ship's broad scope and seemingly unachievable technology specifications, particularly in the wake of the Excelsior class's near-failure. However, in the era of peace that came about in the early twenty-fourth century, the concept was given more consideration. A number of Starfleet officials were concerned by fleet's new 'supership' idea, much as they had been when the Excelsior was under construction, but by 2310 the Ambassador design process was fully underway and making great strides. Since the ship was technically of a new type, it was could sidestep many limitations imposed by the Klingon treaties. As outlined by the ASDB, U.S.S. Ambassador would not replace or endanger the Excelsior class, but rather relieve her of many of her missions of long-range exploration and defense, and ultimately relegate Excelsior to the role of fleet workhorse, much as Excelsior had done to the Miranda and Oberth classes. Meanwhile, the members of the Excelsior class were enjoying prosperity. The ships stayed ahead of modern technology, thanks to the modularity and adaptability of their design. Excelsior herself had served with distinction under the command of Sulu, participating in a number of extensive missions of exploration and scientific research in both the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, but a strange twist of fate awaited her. In 2308, the Excelsior was lost without a trace. Her fate would not be known for many years later, but initial findings came up with nothing. This was a tragic blow to Starfleet. Her crew had become a family, and many of her officers grew reluctant to accept promotions or transfers to other vessels. The Excelsior had become a source of great pride of the Federation fleet, dubbed "Old Reliable" by the officers who served on her. She endured many dangerous missions, sometimes seeming to escape only by luck. In reality, it was a measure of the skill of her crew and her commanding officer. As was traditional with the loss of a starship without a trace, Starfleet would wait to launch another ship of the same name. This was both done in case the ship later was discovered unharmed, and in worst case scenario, in honor of the loss of the crew and vessel. In 2311, the design for the Ambassador was finalized, and construction soon well underway. In that same year, the event Federation historians call the Tomed Incident occurred. An experimental Federation starship malfunctioned catastrophically along the Romulan border, destroying the ship and severely damaging a large region of space. The suspicious Romulans, already feeling somewhat cornered by the fledgling peace between the Federation and the Klingons, began a military deployment that quickly threatened to develop into full-scale war. The Enterprise-B was present at subsequent events that culminated in a new treaty between the Romulan Star Empire and Federation, a ban on development of any Federation cloaking technology, and was coupled with a renewed period of Romulan isolation that would last for over 50 years. In 2313, according to Starfleet regulations, the U.S.S. Excelsior was officially declared lost with all hands. As such, orders were issued to temporarily retire the use of the name U.S.S. Excelsior for an additional period of five years, out of respect for the loss of the crew and vessel. By late 2318, orders would be issued requisitioning a replacement U.S.S. Excelsior in a new production block estimated to launch in 2325. In 2319, U.S.S. Ambassador, NX-10521 was launched and began her space-worthiness testing and shakedown. Many Starfleet officers were astonished by the mere sight of Ambassador; at 526 meters long and 3,700,000 metric tons in mass, she was massive and highly advanced. The techniques used in her structural design built upon the advances developed to build the Excelsior, utilizing a simple monocoque hull structure reinforced by powerful structural integrity fields while no longer using any pressure compartment structure. The class introduced a number of other technological advances, including collimated phaser arrays rather than turret phaser banks, and was among the first Starfleet ship classes designed to accommodate families (although only in limited capacity).With over one hundred Excelsior class starships in service or under construction, the Ambassador class was in no position to endanger Excelsior class’s proliferation. Mathematically, Starfleet could build two Excelsiors for one Ambassador, and more conservative elements of the fleet favored Excelsior. More often than not, that thinking won out and the number of Ambassadors produced would prove limited. However, those built would meet with great success on the deep space missions to which many were assigned. Also in 2319, a remarkable discovery was made by the Enteprise-B under the command of Demora Sulu. Enterprise discovered over five hundred survivors of the crew of Excelsior on a remote planet. The crew, their ship having been destroyed as it tried to explore a portal believed to lead to another universe, had survived for eleven years on the other side of the same portal. Captain Hikaru Sulu had kept the rest of his crew alive, and a happy reunion occurred between father and daughter. Enterprise brought Excelsior’s survivors home. An investigation concluded that Excelsior had been a victim of unforeseen circumstances and the ship itself had experienced no technical faults, though some questioned whether the stress of the ship’s original transwarp trials had caused undetectable quantum damage to the ship’s structure that caused her to break up more quickly than she should have. Hikaru Sulu was exonerated for any wrongdoing, and awarded for the survival of so many of his crew under such difficult circumstances. Almost immediately, Starfleet ordered the expedited construction of the new U.S.S. Excelsior, NCC-21445. In 2322, the new U.S.S. Excelsior left drydock. After a period of rest and rehabilitation, Hikaru Sulu accepted promotion to Admiral in time to take command of the new Excelsior as his flagship. This ship would be the testbed for upgrade plans for the class, originally intended to begin as a full refit of the prototype Excelsior herself before her untimely loss. Cosmetically almost identical to her predecessor, the ship was equipped with numerous system upgrades that enhanced her performance significantly over the original. Ultimately, Admiral Hikaru Sulu would retire from the Admiralty a few years later and eventually run for Federation President. The new Excelsior would continue without him, and Sulu would win the election and go on to serve an impressive three terms in office. In 2325, the Federation made official first contact with a civilization that would help shape its future for the next fifty years: the Cardassian Union. The Cardassians were a technologically advanced but economically poor species from the Alpha Quadrant who, at the time, sought to secure claims on multiple worlds rich in natural resources they desperately needed. Peace overtures from the Federation were met with suspicion and contempt. Over the next twenty years, the lack of dialogue between the two governments would lead to a series of bloody, and some believe unnecessary, conflicts. A military buildup developed on both sides. For its part, Starfleet ramped up its production of Excelsior and other starships by nearly thirty percent, increasing each production block of Excelsior class ships by twenty-four and later thirty ships each. In 2331, the Enterprise-B was lost in the line of duty though most of the crew survived. As a result, the under-construction Ambassador-class starship U.S.S. Alaska was redubbed U.S.S. Enterprise, NCC-1701-C. The Alaska/Enterprise-C was to be the pioneer of a new subtype of the Ambassador-class. Launched in early 2336, the Enterprise-C would ultimately play a crucial role in the history of Federation-Klingon relations, sacrificing herself to protect the Klingon colony on Narendra III from Romulan attack in 2344 and opening the door for a new era of detente between the Federation and Klingon Empire that would eventually solidify their previously-established uneasy peace into genuine friendship and cooperation. It is interesting to note that many Federation historians speculate that had the Narendra Incident and ensuing relationship development not occurred, once the Klingon economic recovery had been a success there would have been little incentive to maintain the delicate truce between the Klingon Empire and Federation. This could have led to a period of renewed hostilities and even eventual war. No matter the historical significance of the incident, the loss of the Enterprise-C also directed criticisms at the Ambassador class program. The Enterprise was, by all subsequent accounts, far more maneuverable than her Romulan counterparts. Klingon intelligence indicated the Enterprise was outnumbered three to one, but tactical simulation indicated the Enterprise should have been able to survive the assault. Some questioned the new structural integrity technology used in the construction of the Enterprise. Starfleet review boards were unable to assign blame to man or machine, but this and other factors would later be used to reinforce the CinC's previous determination that the Ambassador class production run would be relatively limited. Through the class’s success, however, Starfleet had finally realized that a large multi-role Explorer-type ship such as the Ambassador could easily double as a battleship, while still having something useful to do in peacetime. Starfleet had already begun initial design work on it’s next generation Explorer starship: the Galaxy class.
Very very nice chapter! I like what you've done with the Ambassador, it does makes sense that Starfleet would prefer to build more of the 'cheaper' Excelsior and hence why the Ambassador was so rare.
I like it a lot, making the Ambassador a more limited proof of concept concurs with what we see on screen. I don't like to think they were a failure as such, so this works well. They proved the viability of the mission parameters, but the technology wasn't quite there to support such a role. It's a natural stepping-stone to the Galaxy class. I still think those tactical simulations are rather unreasonable! The Enterprise faced four Romulan warbirds, and although Captain Garrett thought their chances of success were remote, she engaged them nevertheless. She's a Starfleet hero and deserves recognition! We know there was a USS Gorkon, so maybe there was an IKS Garrett?
Oh, I'm sure that there's no shortage of ships out there named for valiant Starfleet officers who were killed in the line of duty or otherwise served long and heroic careers. If in the DSC era we have all sorts of ships named for 20th-century aviators, plus a USS Archer and USS Shran out in history. it's no stretch at all. Even Trek novels have an Akira-class USS James T. Kirk, and there's a USS Christopher Pike in the comics. Give 'em enough time. Nice chapter indeed. No real issues whatsoever with the content. I'd only suggest that, like my ol' creative writing prof would say, you never write numbers in prose AS numbers if it's under 101. It just flows better to say that there are fourteen Excelsiors built by 2300. YMMV. Separately, I love the notion that the Galaxy-class ships were more frequently seen than any Ambassadors simply because the former class hadn't yet been properly shaken down before being sent way out there. When you buy a real car, you drive it in the city for its first thousand miles before taking it on a road trip, and NASA crews train for years before their mission; I'm sure we scale up appropriately here. In all of TNG, we only ever saw the Yamato, which was (again from literary sources) launched not even a year before the Enterprise-D, though the lead USS Galaxy first slipped her moorings six years prior. I can totally see a history where the Galaxy did a full five-year mission in space close to the Federation core worlds, shaking out the bugs and doing stuff as we see the E-D do, all the while being made the subject of news articles and holodeck reality shows for Federation citizens eager to see their Starfleet's shiniest new toy in action. Then, as her sister ships were commissioned, the Galaxy spent a while buffing the bulkheads and then headed out on a truly epic, ten-year mission WNOHGB, only to return in 2374 just in time to drop off her civilian contingent, update the uniforms, and promptly get pasted onscreen at the first battle of Chin'toka. In the meantime, within three years of the Yamato and Enterprise-D going online, the Romulans came back, the Borg made their first incursions, the Klingon chancellor got poisoned to death, and a whole other ton of other stuff happened to make Starfleet think twice about sending more of their premier Explorers / big gun platforms off into the black for years and years. QED. This, compared to the Excelsior class, which must also be a product of its time. In their case, were a result of Starfleet's need for an ship of its unprecedented size and capabilities being matched by their successful capacity to carry out those missions AND the ability of Starfleet to churn large numbers of them out in the first place. The Trek universe tends not to have a problem with manpower (unlike our current militaries), but in TOS if they'd had the ability to build a hundred Connies, they surely would have... Mark
Good Read Praetor! One thing though and I don't know if you did this for a reason or it was just a mistake but the Enterprise-B was said to be lost in 2329 not 2331?
Thank you all very much! Now to a few specific points... You just don't want the Romulan warbirds to be such pushovers, admit it. But you're right. I have revised the text to be a bit more vague and to suggest that the Enteprise should have survived longer, not necessarily won. When you're right, sir, you're right. Thank you for pointing those out. And if you like the notion of the Galaxy class ships sticking close to home to be proved out, you should check out the war chapter. I have used some of this logic to try to explain our missing Ambassadors a bit more overtly. Thank you! You're right, I have no idea where 2331 came from. There have been a few different versions of the ship's future/fate. To my mind, she does indeed wind up contracting some sort of plague, the crew survives, but the ship has to be self-destructed to avoid the spread of the plague. (By this time, Demora is no longer captain.) This makes it ok to launch the C relatively soon afterward, since almost no one dies. (Of course, it's very likely the books will come up with a different answer and I will have to adapt, just like I had to adapt for the loss of the NCC-2000.) It is interesting to note that canonically most Starfleet ships seem to lead very short lives. I think the oldest ship we know of is probably the U.S.S. Republic, though she was dismissed as a training ship that never leaves the Sol System pretty readily. She must have been around 100 years old for Kirk to have served aboard her in the mid-23rd century as a cadet but still be in service as a training ship in the 2370s. Clearly she's the Starfleet version of U.S.S. Constitution. Beyond that, we "know" that the original Enteprise was probably forty years old when she was self-destructed, although there was a "totally new" rebuild halfway through that. The Stargazer was probably fifty years old when Picard served aboard and commanded her in the 2330s... and it sounds like she was never refit due to her "overworked and under-powered" nature. Her sister ship Hathaway, presumably launched around the same time, was in mothballs by 2365. Beyond that, there is circumstantial evidence for the age of other ships. Off-hand, the oldest ship that remained in service that I can think of is the U.S.S. Repulse, which was at least in service in 2365, around seventy years after her presumed 2290s launch going by her registry, and which is said to have fought in and survived the Domionon War. (I've put her in the museum with the Excelsior NCC-21445, by the way.) Without further ado, I'd like to let everyone know I have whipped up a quick and dirty WordPress site to keep this thread from becoming insurmountably long to any new initiates from me posting giant blobs of edited and revised text over and over. I will naturally be continuing this thread, posting choice sections of text (and pretty pictures) here. Go have a gander and let me know what you think. And yes, before anyone asks I have intentionally left the structure of the page open in case I get a mind to post any random other Trek articles and art on there. I learned that the US Navy has a Heritage and History Command, and in the interest of not crossing streams with Masao's Starfleet Museum I have branded my site as Starfleet's version of the HHC. Eventually, I'd like the Excelsior history and technical manual to be fully interactive with the cutaway and deck plans. One step at a time, though.
^There was the hapless starship Lantree, NCC-1837, making her a contemporary of the USS Reliant. That has to be pretty close to the record. She'd at least had a bridge refit in all those years, and lots of fans like to think she'd started off as a ship of the line before being relegated (and de-rollbared) to transport status by the time her crew was killed. Incidentally, that's a good example of a ship being destroyed due to contamination by a deadly pathogen, though your history of the Enterprise-B may end up closer to how the Liberator was lost on "Blake's 7" byt the sounds of it. Mark
The Lantree, great example! I'd completely forgotten about her. Presumably the Reliant and her sisters were launched in the 2250s or 2260s, assuming them to have undergone a refit of their own, that would make Lantree a likely centenarian at the time of her loss. I have to confess I've only seen an episode of two of "Blake's 7"... *ducks* ... okay, stop with the stones. I'll watch it I promise. But yeah, from what I just read that is basically what I had in mind, right down to having to self-destruct the ship because there just wasn't time to decontaminate it and keep the Romulans or Cardassians (probably the latter) from taking it home for analysis. It actually makes me think whoever coined the idea that the ship was lost to a plague was a "Blake's 7" fan. I haven't had a chance to tinker much with the illustrations this weekend, but I did have a few spare moments to conceptualize the deck arrangement on the 622 meter Excelsior: I'm currently toying with the idea of giving the saucer letter deck names and the engineering hull number names, to account for Ensign Sulu's lines in "Generations" and explain the letter to number deck naming scheme transition that may've taken place. In the saucer, there are 13 decks (plus one half-deck under the bridge), with really only 12 of those inhabitable; "M" deck will contain the top of the ventral planetary sensor and have just a catwalk around it. Per TUC, Sulu's quarters are on deck three, and per "Flashback" Tuvok's are on deck 7... which frankly doesn't help my lettering case so I may just have to number both and have some footnote about there being separate sets of numbers. In the engineering section, there are 20 decks, with two more lost to the secondary hull "bilge" and containing no livable space. In fact, most of engineering decks 17-20 will be pretty hollow thanks to the multi-mission pod. In total there are 29 decks. Saucer decks will be about nine feet tall, engineering decks 12 if the math works out, otherwise probably 11. Once I get a few more details on the drawings, I am going to start fleshing out deck placements. I am then going to compare Memory Alpha's list of what is where to my own ideas of what was where on the 467 meter version of the ship and start getting a feel for the area of each deck as I rough-in hardware and room placement. The alignments are almost exclusively based on studies of screen captures and other references of the original filming model that I've accumulated over the years; indeed it was partly this that convinced me that the ship is "really" 622 meters long. Honestly, this amount of decks feels very right to me and helps reinforce my previous belief that a 622 meter Excelsior isn't nearly as voluminous as it may sound. Some math is really in order on this topic.
Usually, but in his final moments it was something like "I have failed you, I have failed you!". Revealing himself to be more than a mere machine in his final moments