Anyway- I'm not sure why there's such an obsession over evolutionary designs being so closely related between the Enterprises. It's just not needed. There's no reason for the E-C as it was presented to be out of place just because it looks a little behind the times compared to the E-B to D. It's just one of many different class of Starships in the fleet.
I concur. And none of my interpretations diminish the role of the starship class created by Rick Sternbach and seen as a VFX model (and as the Enterprise-C in the alternate universe of “Yesterday’s Enterprise”) throughout several episodes on screen.
Which of the two
Enterprises-C is the better in-between between the "B" and the "D" is entirely a subject or personal taste and opinion (though I should add, that in my alternate universe sketch, the deciding factor for the presentation was the attempt to sync the phasers to the ships. Obviously, both TOS phaser and
Enterprise-B are entirely conjectural. I speculated that in this "poor" Federation alternate reality, certain designs would be in use much longer than in ours).
I've re-evaluted my opinion of the E-C as seen on TNG. I remembered seeing that episode for the first time when it came out and just LOVED seeing a new ship and it was the ENTERPRISE! It was so cool. Not an awe inspiring design, but it didn't have to be. It was the story behind the ship that mattered.
[bold emphasis mine] I wholeheartedly agree (IMHO, story concerns have a higher priority than treknological aspects). And the way I have to take it, both the statements of Ronald D. Moore (2002) and David Carson (2008) suggest that the
Enterprise-C in this episode (still) served as the plot device to enable Tasha Yar to have a
meaningful death (apparently at the Battle of Narendra III).
I'd still like to see Probert's Real C as he designed her, and would still have no issue with it being in a re-made CGI into that episode, but one way or the other, the E-C is the E-C as it is in canon (written or shown).
Another parallel event featuring the Probert
Enterprise-C sounds great to me. But the bridge schematics of the "C" would have to be altered, too. But then, it would still be stuck in an alternate universe that had no connection to ours.
Of course, the Sternbach
Enterprise-C is canon for the alternate universe, but the one from "Yesterday's Enterprise" is
not the ship that travelled back to our universe, according to "Redemption II", because in our universe the Tasha Yar that came from the future died a
meaningless death (unless execution for having tried to escape should be considered a "meaningful death"
or the
Enterprise-C was duplicated upon return to our universe and one Tasha died meaningfully defending Narendra III while the other one got captured and was eventually executed).
I'd know I'd LOVE to have a model of Probert's C. Maybe in my fleet it would be a limited run class that fell out of favour for the D and only a few were made.
That had been a project a couple of year's ago. If my observations and conclusions gain momentum, and once fans realize they could have two starship classes instead of just one (if they only accepted the premise change of "Yesterday's Enterprise" by "Redemption II") it could be a nice side effect to put this project back on tracks (and especially since 2011 there are authentic CGI drafts to build it).
If I may, I'd like to provide again my rationalization proposal why we didn't see more ships like the Probert
Enterprise-C in our universe (except for the conference lounge display of the "D"):
Assuming that the Probert
Enterprise-C of our universe was the starship that was ultimately destroyed at Narendra III but with the possibility of survivors being taken captive and interrogated, Starfleet was afraid that the Romulans might have learned vital technical specs about the "Probert Starship Class" and therefore stopped building more starships of this design to be on the safe side. YMMV.
Bob