In TNG "Cause and Effect", Geordi notes that the Soyuz-class (implicitly as a whole since they were looking at one close up) had not been in service for over eighty years. We don't have a specific reason why (age, design flaw, etc.), but it's pretty safe to say that this class of ship was no longer around to be randomly encountered. Mark
I never thought they were ugly, just more steroid-infused than Constitution-class starships. They echo the Enterprise while taking the basic Matt Jefferies shape and lengthening or widening certain parts to create what amounts to a bodybuilder Enterprise that probably needs to lay off the Weight Gain 4000 but isn't "ugly," just the next step in the Starfleet evolutionary process. Also, just as the Crossfield-class starships look awkward and inelegant thanks to being testbeds for the failed and classified spore hub drive technology the Excelsior-class probably look the way they do to accomodate the failed transwarp development project of the 2280s. Once transwarp drive was abandoned by Starfleet they were left with a starship that looked overpowered for traditional warp propulsion systems but could easily be fitted with existing technology.
They used a professional fan's D in ENT TATV Having them come home to the familiar Connie Enterprise made more sense. It was the voyage home, after all.
To be fair, I didn’t much like it either when it first appeared. This was probably due to being disgusted with her first captain, more than anything else. Since then, however, it’s definitely grown on me, particularly during its frequent appearances in TNG and DS9 - TUC was really the spark-point when I started enjoying its existence. I definitely prefer it over the Ambassador and Galaxy which always looked cumbersome to me. The Sovereign seemed to be a closer descendant to the Excelsior in its sleekness than those others, taking those older lines and making it look fast and mean. The TMP refit will always be my favorite over all of them, though. No bad angles on that old girl at all.
The Excelsior has the same whale-like sleek yet powerful elegance that the Sovereign has. I like it a lot more than the Ambassador XD
I felt that way when I first saw the Shenzhou, but the others look rather old and inelegant to me - mostly round saucers, clunky shapes, angular nacelles and flat color schemes. Maybe there are slight similarities to the background warships from First Contact, but the DIS vessels look nothing like the elegant designs of late 24th century ships like the Sovereign, Nova, Prometheus, or Odyssey class.
I think they should just use the STO aesthetic; with the clean whites and black. It looks similar to that of the First Contact Look but in the same way, looks more futuristic to it.
There's always the old DC comics series, that put Kirk and crew in command of the Excelsior post-STIII (and then went into Retcon Mode after STIV)
What is significant here is that the Soyuz is visually highly distinguishable from a stock Miranda. So in-universe, the part that got outdated can rather naturally be assumed to be this distinguishable one... We might learn more about the service lives of starship designs had there been funds and time for an actual all-new Soyuz design. As matters stand, we basically learn that starship design as such is not a primary concern when retirement dates are being considered at the relevant tables. It would appear that this was the very point here: to have a ship that is fit for bullying the poor Enterprise. Being appealing to the audience would not have been a prime concern. Quite to the contrary, ugly would be desirable: the Excelsior is the big self-confident muscleman that the slim and fit hero character drops with her first punch, and the audience breaks in laughter. ...I doubt the looks had anything to do with that. Nobody in-universe finds the looks remarkable; the self-proclaimed experts that accompany Burnham to her kidnapping only comment on her interiors. For all we know, Starfleet took a couple of standard starships and then gutted the interiors for housing these esoteric experiments, while leaving the exterior unchanged. Now, some of the other DSC starships Eaves did say he designed as "experimental", chiefly because he was told not to experiment much: his ships had to be flat and had to have square nacelles etc. So he took the one thing he did have the mandate to fiddle with, put the nacelles in weird places on weird pylons, and decided that these unusual ships (Magee, Engle, perhaps Cardenas) were propulsive experiments all. Although they work fine as other sorts of "special" ship as well, as long as nothing is said about experiments on screen. We can always argue that a Starfleet mandate from on high to install new boxy nacelles on all ships (save the utterly outdated Constitutions!) resulted in some rather makeshift pylon arrangements and layouts... Timo Saloniemi
Of course transwarp drive being a failure is completely fanon. Nothing of the sort is ever even hinted at in the canon, and Excelsior seems to be the most successful ship design Starfleet has ever made. For all we know Excelsior's 'transwarp drive' is what all Starfleet ships use in TNG era, they just stopped calling it that once it became the standard. Would also explain why the warpscale was reconfigured.
One of the things I love about Trek, no matter how sure you are of a piece of information, there is always something somewhere in it that contradicts it.
I love that story arc! They even went to the Mirror Universe, as I recall, and showed what 23rd century San Francisco street life was like.
Meh - I still dislike the Excelsior design, but hell, I also hate the original Galaxy class design too since I first saw the thing in 1987. If they had gone with the original Probert Ambassador class design for the 1701-D, I'd probably have liked TNG more than I ultimately did over it's TV run.
Same here, though I saw the Galaxy later on. The Excelsior has slowly grown on me...not by much but I don't find completely unbearable looking. The Galaxy class is still far down on my list of ships that I find appealing in any way.
I'm glad Sulu got the command. Styles was a dick. I wonder if he is related to TOS Lt. Styles from Balance of Terror?