I read on a New Frontier Fan site that Peter David was originally going to replace the Ambassador-class Excalibur with a Prometheus-class ship. Anyone know if this is true and if so why didn't they go through with it?
New Frontier Excalibur Question
- Thread starter Hartzilla2007
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That's a good question... Since I can't imagine anyone telling Peter he COULDN'T do something with his series, given all the crazy wacky insane things he's already done with it...
Mark
Mark
That's the first time I've heard of that.
Never heard that either but imagining Calhoun with one of those ships is fun.
I don't know if PAD ever said that, but I recall that John Ordover said that shortly after the Voyager episode with the Prometheus was broadcast.
I'm trying to remember where I read it (I think it was in the Communicator) but I, too, definitely remember that they considered making the Excalibur-A Prometheus-class. Which would've been cool. On the other hand, the end of "Being Human" would've been a pain in the butt with three bridges to keep track of instead of just two.
that's on danhauser's fan site.
I believe PAD decided to follow the Enterprise classes for the Excalibur. E-C was Ambassador, E-D was Galaxy, and E-E is Sovereign. Excalibur was Ambassador, Excal-A is Galaxy, so Excal-B will probably be Sovereign-class.
I, for one, would have preferred it if the Excal-A had been Prometheus class.
a) It's a kick-ass class of ship, one we have seen far too little of in ST.
b) The Prometheus class would have allowed one ship to cover more of sector 221-G, although the introduction of the Trident achieved the same result.
c) It would have forced Pocket Books to create new images of a Prometheus class ship for the NF book covers, rather than just reusing twenty year old publicity photos of the Ent-D (something I've always disliked about the modern photoshopped NF covers)!
a) It's a kick-ass class of ship, one we have seen far too little of in ST.
b) The Prometheus class would have allowed one ship to cover more of sector 221-G, although the introduction of the Trident achieved the same result.
c) It would have forced Pocket Books to create new images of a Prometheus class ship for the NF book covers, rather than just reusing twenty year old publicity photos of the Ent-D (something I've always disliked about the modern photoshopped NF covers)!
I agree. My feeling is that the Galaxy is too much... well, too much Picard-y for someone like Calhoun. Big, reassuring, majestic. Beige.
Calhoun deserves something more kick-ass (as the Prometheus is).
Calhoun should be tootling around in a Defiant class. that's KICK-ASS!
I think giving him a Galaxy class ship makes sense. A lot of New Frontier is about relationships and this can be done easier on a Galaxy class ship, especially when you want to include children as well.
At first glance the Prometheus class is very interesting but fiddling with three bridges and three ship parts can also be a nuisance to a writer, I can imagine.
I think there is a much better solution because I think Calhoun needs a "kick ass" ship: It has been mentioned a few times that Calhoun has his private ship on board. I would like to learn more about it and see it used more often.
At first glance the Prometheus class is very interesting but fiddling with three bridges and three ship parts can also be a nuisance to a writer, I can imagine.
I think there is a much better solution because I think Calhoun needs a "kick ass" ship: It has been mentioned a few times that Calhoun has his private ship on board. I would like to learn more about it and see it used more often.
I'm glad that Peter David didn't go with the Prometheus class, but at the same time I wish he hadn't gone with the Galaxy class either. I would have liked having something new.
Actually, I thought the Prometheus was a pretty bad idea, and I'm glad we've seen as little of it as we have. Having three sets of everything in one ship so that it can separate and operate as three ships... how often is that going to be more useful than having three separate ships? How useful is a ship like that going to be for the 90%+ of the time that it's operating in standard mode as a single ship? How efficient and useful would your car be if it could separate into three cars?
(No, I don't think Transformers are cool, either. I was already at university when Transformermania started in the '80s.)
This is just my opinion, of course. But it seems to me that the Prometheus is to starships as Seven and T'Pol's outfits were to uniforms. They make some of the audience drool but they don't really make a lot of sense.
The Prometheus' MVAM is a cool idea. Although I have to say that keeping the ship as one single ship is better than allowing it to split into three separate ships, mainly because of the size. If the Prometheus was the size of the Galaxy-class (or even slightly bigger), the MVAM would work a lot better IMO. As a whole, the Prometheus is a much better ship if it did not have the MVAM.
they should have given Calhoun an Excalibur class ship
No, that's even sillier than giving them a Prometheus class ship. The Enterprise never had an Enterprise class ship.
Tech fandom has called the Enterprise-A an Enterprise-class ship for twenty years now. 
^^Actually, the movie refit of the TOS ship was called the Enterprise class behind the scenes and in fan references, and the door to the bridge simulator in TWOK reads "Mark IV Simulator, Enterprise Class" (though the word "Enterprise" is hard to read there). But Scotty's blueprints in TUC called it "Constitution Class."
