The one oddity to this was the insistence by Admiral Morrow to decommission Enterprise in TSFS because she was a whoppin' 20 YEARS OLD! <GASP!> It makes real-world sense that SF would build things to last. I just never understood why the Connies would have been so damn delicate that they would require immediate stand-down after a very limited amount of time.
Indeed. Starfleet demonstrated a tendency to utilize space frames for a long time. The Constitution class seems like it should have lasted a lot longer.
Maybe they found flaws in the refit design? When Morrow says twenty years, I think he is speaking loosely of the ship in its current configuration.
My explanation is the the Connie refit was basically a test bed for new tech and Miranda class was the actual end product. That's why the latter are still in service much later whilst the former have been retired ages ago.
We really don’t know that the entire Constitution class was retired. We clearly see a refit secondary hull in “The Best of Both Worlds”.
We know because Picard told Scotty that. Wolf 359 ship might have been some training or museum ship that was quickly recommissioned.
That the entire class had been retired? I remember him identifying as a Connie and that he had been to one at a museum. But that could easily be construed as that version of the ship, which was quite a bit different from later versions.
I understood why in TNG they never had the Refit Constitution Class, because they wanted to save it for the Big Screen. But, even though I could understand it, I always wish they'd have been able to work one in somewhere somehow. PIC could be a second chance. Or a chance to do it one better. I'd love to see a Constitution Class Starship done in 24th/25th Century style on screen. But I'm not holding my breath. PIC's center of gravity is TNG/VOY.
Perhaps, but it really doesn't make much sense in the context of the discussion. If refit Connies, the sort of on which Scotty had served for many years were still in use, then certainly Picard would have told that to cheer Scotty up.
Would that cheer him up? To find out the guts of what he loved had been ripped out and replaced, probably a dozen times over, in the seventh five years he was away. The tech would still be well beyond what he knew.
Frankly, that just sounds like STO style nonsense. Refit Connie is absolutely my favourite space ship in any franchise ever, but I don't want it to be shoved in era where it doesn't belong. Now, if they'd make a late 23rd century show, then I'd be all over that.
If the Excelsior can be in service that long I see no reason why a Constitution style couldn't be explored.
In the context of the situation it would. If Picard could have said, "Oh, we are still using these, the base design is solid' instead of 'There is one in the museum' he certainly would have said that.
Because it was already outdated by the movie era. That was an important plot point. Excelsior was the replacement.
I still don't see why the base framework couldn't be reworked to work. Supposed post scarcity society can't retool a frame? I find that odd, to say the least. I mean, it's not a deal breaker. Constitution is my favorite class, and I was sad it never made it in to TNG era in some form. Excelsior is a poor substitute, at best.
It's more like curiosity. I'm terrible with photoshop but, 15 years ago, I took some elements from the Enterprise-E and added them to the Refit. Then here's another one I did at the same time, giving the TOS Enterprise some Refit and Enterprise-E elements. Sadly my photoshop skills have not gotten any better over the years. As a recent photo where I gave myself a beard demonstrates. So go easy on me! But it should still give a basic idea of what it could look like.
Because presumably the ship are not just empty shells that can be filled with any sort of tech and the shape is just an afterthought. Real technology doesn't work like that. The function informs the shape. You simply couldn't make a modern airplane that looks like a WWI biplane. As I said it is my favourite class too, but I'm fine with it staying in the 23rd century.