Its also possible that the Excelsior, being a prototype pressed into regular service, had some unique construction and equipment fits that made it impractical to continue long term.
The Enterprise-A in PIC
- Thread starter Lord Garth
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Its also possible that the Excelsior, being a prototype pressed into regular service, had some unique construction and equipment fits that made it impractical to continue long term.
Good point. Or alternatively they wanted to preserve that original unique hardware and configuration the original Excelsior had, since we know Starfleet would not exactly be short of other Excelsiors. Or possibly some combination of all the above
We don't even know if the museum ships are 100% legit. The Enterprise-D is only 50% authentic, after all and in the stuff they released, Saratoga is the original ship made up to look like Sisko's. It could be any old Excelsior they slapped NCC-2000 on.
It's 65.9% authentic. The saucer is substantially larger than the secondary hull, even with those ample nacelles.
Given that Dave Blass's Twitter thread on all the different ships in the Starfleet Museum explicitly calls this out for the Saratoga but not the Excelsior it's probably safe to say it's entirely the original NCC-2000, not reconditioned or a replica.
But given that stuff isn't canon it does give wiggle room for other interpretations, should they be desired!
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My personal theory on the long life of the Excelsior is that, because it was originally designed as a testbed for transwarp drive, it was very modular. Like the warp core and engineering systems are a plug-in unit that can easily be swapped out. Maybe those panels on the top of the engineering hull are for access (I realize that wasn't the intent, I'm just spitballing).
Also, another thought about the museum, I don't see why they couldn't have restored the original Enterprise. All the components that were replaced in the refit must have gone somewhere, someone could have tracked it all down and put it back together on a new frame.
If everything wasn't melted down and recycled, or the 23rd-25th Century equivalent, then yes, it would be possible to track all of it down. Though it would be a lot harder to obtain every single piece of it and put it all back together; reassembling all of it literally bit-by-bit.
But it is possible, under the right circumstances.
I just had a wacky thought: Maybe this is Geordi's next project?
Compared to restoring the D, restoring the TOS Enterprise is a next-level challenge.
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That had occurred to me, though it's definitely more plausible if it was done earlier, like the 2290s or so. On the other hand we are talking about a fictional ship here, so why not. It could be a neat reveal in some future Trek media.
Or if we accept the idea that the Enterprise was the only original Constitution Class ship to survive intact to 2270 (which isn't on-screen canon, but I think has some official basis), it would make sense if the parts salvaged from the Enterprise were used to restore the New Jersey.
It’s also possible the B was retired early for political reasons. Perhaps at this point Starfleet wanted a new Enterprise every 20 years or so as their new flagship. It certainly beats yet another Enterprise lost or destroyed in the line of duty.
It also could have been stolen. It’s odd for Geordi to bring up the (non) possibility of the E being used if the entire crew already knew it was destroyed.
There’s a scene at the end of the battle where both the Enterprise-D and the Titan-A fly over the wreckage of an Odyssey class starship. I took this to be a foreshadowing scene for the Titan’s renaming, and that that wrecked ship was supposed to be the Enterprise-F.
It could also have been lost through a space/time vortex. Not necessarily the way the TOS Defiant was lost in "The Tholian Web", but something where they lost the ship in some similar fashion. Prompting Worf's, "That was NOT my fault!" The line was played for laughs, so something completely ridiculous could've happened. I don't normally buy the novels or the comics, but I just know they'll cover this story in one of them some day. Can't wait to see what they come up with.
It was probably stolen by future versions of the TNG cast, then sent back in time 1,000 years to help the Vulcans win an ancient war with
My head canon for the TOS Enterprise is that the metal that formed hull and frame that were not retained in the refit were melted down in the orbiting faculty that Scott and Kirk travelled from. It solves the problem of it not being the same ship because so much was replaced and gives those cargo barges a solid reason to be be there. It also answers the question of how they got it done in 18 months because they had an ample supply of refined metal readily available.
Sorry, I posted those fan-made blueprints to show the turbolift positions with a consistent drawing style. All the stuff outside of the bridge itself is made up by the artist (except the airlock). To access the other deck 1 locations the idea is that the turbolifts rotate to access the hallways/rooms on the other side, something implied in TMP.
Speaking of the widely-spaced turbolifts on the -A, I saw someone on Facebook modeled a modified version of the bridge exterior that would fit them. I liked it, I enjoy imagining little subtle differences between ships of the same class beyond just which name is painted on them.
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