Galaxy and Sovereign class Excelsior's??? where did you read that?
The Galaxy class Excelsior: NCC-2000-A, and the Sovereign class: NCC-2000-B, were two of the registries made up by the Red Admiral, who had this site called Trekmania. His site has been around for a while (or should I say,
had. His site went down a little while ago), so I've developed a little sense of respect for his registry listings, and give them a wide berth, or even accepted them; at least the ones that don't contradict any other sources that has my respect, such as Ex Astris Scientia.
Some sites do list the Galaxy class Excelsior (NCC-2000-A) as available for download for Bridge Commander play, so she does exist in a visual form, though I can't find any images of her.
The Sovereign class Excelsior (NCC-2000-B) on the other hand not only is listed as available for download for Bridge Commander play, but there are also images of her available
here, and
here is the image of her in the form of an improved game model.
Because of the listing of these two ships on multiple sites, and their existence in a visual form, they carry some considerable weight for me.
I find your faith in the powers that be, disturbing, well more misplaced really. I don't think the name Excelsior carries the same weight in Star Trek that Enterprise does. It was a cool ship and all don't get me wrong, but I don't think it would be any more protected than say Defiant was... Now if this was a refit of the original design, then I think your argument would have merit, but as far into the future as this ship is supposed to exist, not so much...
Okay, I will admit that my argument is flawed there. Perhaps what I should have focused on was the fact that the piddly little engines look, well, ridiculous. They make the ship look unbalanced, and out of proportion. And like I said: the Excelsior deserves to look better balanced.
And does it really matter how many generators the Enterprise has, so long as she looks and performs as well or better than her predecessors? Though I suppose that performance matters more than performance. But if we are talking about a ship from centuries from now, I think that aesthetics should take a more critical role, especially if there were probably technology by then that allowed more room for aesthetics without having a negative effect on performance.
I think I should probably also be more specific that, in cases such as this, that a future vessel should look like vessels that previously carried the name. In this case, this Excelsior should probably look no similar to the vessel most famous for carrying the name than the Sovereign class should resemble the Excelsior class, after all, they are centuries apart.
But at the same time, adding little details that pay homage to her lineage probably wouldn't hurt, especially if these are elements inspired by some of your favorite design elements of the Excelsior, and especially if your appeal for these elements are shared by others! I think what is really important is that she looks worthy to use the name. If that is the case, perhaps one day, when someone else is coming up with a design for the Excelsior for the same era, I will mention that there already exists an Excelsior for this era, and suggest adapting their design to become either a descendant or ancestor of this Excelsior, and so that we would have a brand new chapter for her lineage.
Actually, if we were to assume that she is supposed to be a contemporary to the Enterprise-J, I would probably give her the registry NCC-2000-G. The reasoning behind this goes back to the two ships introduced by the Red Admiral: it appears to me that the Galaxy class (NCC-2000-A) existed during the time during that the Enterprise-D was in service. The Excelsior-A was listed on his site as destroyed, during, I presume, the Dominion War. Then there is the Excelsior-B (Sovereign class), which was likely a contemporary with the Enterprise-E. So if we were to at least not deny the possibility of their existence, we could say that the Excelsior is usually 3 letters behind the Enterprise. This means we also have a lineage that we can refer to, assuming we wanted to.
I wouldn't exactly say that. Okay, so if we were to work under my assumptions, the Excelsior-A was a Galaxy, which when introduced was the most advanced ship in the fleet, and also most likely the biggest ever constructed by Starfleet at the time, but I also find it quite possible that by the time that the Excelsior-A had entered service, the Galaxy class had probably become known as a well proven design. This of course depends on how long the original NCC-2000 was in service.
The Excelsior-B, Sovereign class, would have also been one of the most advanced ships in the fleet at the time of her commissioning, but her design wouldn't have been all that radical per se.
And then there is the Constitution class Excelsior: NCC-1718; again, one of the most advanced ships of the fleet at the time.
Thus far, it seems to me that all ships to carry the name have been 1) one of the most advanced ships in the fleet, and 2) some sort of cruiser, so far, all classes that she has belonged to has been listed as a Heavy Cruiser by at least one source.
So if I had to list the minimum requirements for a ship to carry the name, I would have to say:
1) She belong to a class that is considered to be state of the art at the time of her commissioning
2) That she is capable of acting as a front line vessel during war time.
3) Her class exhibit style and grace, or in other words, she look pretty!
The first one actually has a passing resemblance to this design I had in my head for some time that is supposed to be a mid 25th Century descendant of the Excelsior class. I have even contemplated the idea that the Excelsior-E might belong to this class. I chose the letter E so as to avoid contradicting Tachy's Queensland sub-class/Excelsior-D.
I suppose if any of you want, I could use this as an excuse to finally get my idea down on paper, and post it, in an attempt to better illustrate my point.
Though I think for the moment, the really important point I can make is that the little nacelles just won't do, at least so long as she is intended to carry the name Excelsior.
I like the last ones nacelle. I'd like to see a nacelle that terminates as a mass of different length antennas
Or...
(Thinking out loud here...)
A mass of exposed control rods or something. Hmmm...
I'm actually not certain that having a mass of control rods is actually a good idea. We have to take into consideration: what do they control? How long would they last if without shields? What would happen if these control rods were damaged or destroyed? Can, or should they be better protected? That said, I'm not exactly as flat out opposed to the idea as the current appearance of the nacelles.
And my thoughts are assuming we were to go with erifah's idea the nacelles can be very small due to the fact that technology allows drives this size, and that making the engines themselves wouldn't equate better performance, this doesn't mean that, for starters, the nacelles can't be made longer or otherwise bigger for the sake of aesthetics with no loss in performance or efficiency.
I'm also thinking that while only a small portion of the nacelles consist of the actual engines, the rest might serve as more than an aesthetic purpose. They might serve as protective shells for the engines themselves, or perhaps the tips (both ends) of the nacelles might also help to dissipate the energy from enemy weapons. The idea of the nacelles ending in a mass of antennae has also made me think of something else: That these things have nothing to do with communications, and that despite their spindly appearance, that their function might be to absorb, dissipate, reflect, or even deflect back at the attacker, weapons fire.
If you all think that this idea too much beyond the likely or otherwise plausible technological capabilities of Starfleet for her intended time frame, then feel free to say so. I'm just throwing out ideas at this point.
