I’m not sure what you mean by that. I don’t recall anyone taking the TOS Enterprise, adding some bits to it, and making it a contemporary of the Enterprise-D.
I think they're referring to the use of excelsiors, mirandas and oberths instead of spending money on new ship models.
Well, that wasn’t what I meant. They actually only changed it to a different class once (the Bozeman), and that was only because they originally wanted a TOS Connie but couldn’t justify the budget (although why they didn’t just use the TMP Enterprise for the Bozeman is beyond me.) All other changes to the Reliant model were just variants of the same class. But again, that’s not what I meant. Think: The Akira turned upside down, given a different paint job, and slightly tweaking minimal surface features to create a ship 200 years its junior. That’s like taking a Ford Model T, changing some features to it, and calling it a new 2020 Ford Mustang but keeping the same overall basic shape.
Indeed. And we know that they had designs for ships like the new Orleans and niagara class and had built models for the graveyard scene in bobw. Surely they could have made useable models. To borrow a phrase 'there's no excuse'.
Well, now we’re getting into a different subject than why they used DSC ships in “Children of Mars.” In the examples you quote, the BoBW ships were just plastic study models not meant to be seen up close, and the Niagara was built by Greg Jein intentionally destroyed. That’s a little different from making a CGI model.
I'm aware of what they were. Like I said they still could have made models based off the study models. The nebula is basically a kitbashed galaxy but we didn't even see that as often as excelsiors. They had the assets available so why continually reuse the same old models and stock footage?
Well, I think Excelsior is the movie ship that is not problematic in TNG era. It was the state of the art supership of its era, so it is perfectly plausible that it is still somewhat usable 80 years later. I wish they hadn't reused Mirandas though, that makes way less sense.
Oberths too. Considering Grissom's 3-digit registry and unconventional design, they were arguably older than Robert April's Enterprise.
We saw it 3 times in its own era - and none of those times really showed it as a "Supership". - STIII:TSFS: Where it "ran out of gas" and dieseled (And FYI per GR at teh start of TNG: "The Trawswarp experiment with the Excelsior failed. - STVI:TUC: Under command of Captain Hikaru Sulu and on a VERY DANGEROUS mission of cataloging gaseous anomolies in Beta Quadrant. - STVII:GEN: A new/modified version (The 1701-B U.S.S. Enterprise) where it was launched before fully supplied and finished and wrecked by gravametric forces from a space ribbon. In TNG's time it was pretty much relegated to Currier assignments and ferrying old Admirals about.
Not only that, but Kirk called it "The Great Experiment" which didn't seem to indicate was going to be fully a part of the Fleet.
But registries are not chronological. It may have been a new class. It looks like it is from the same era than Excelsior.
Yes, just like you'd expect from an old ship that had been replaced in the frontline duties by newer ones.
Umm... that will probably be a few Tuesdays down the road after the run in with the Nexus. We simply don't know how old the Oberth-class is, and probably never will.
If the U.S.S. Eagle was indeed a Constitution-class starship as widely conjectured then it was a starship launched after 2245 but with a registry of NCC-956. And we already know that the U.S.S. Constellation was NCC-1017, not that much higher in the numerical sequence.