Starship Platform Lifespans

[XCV330]

The thing is, most uses of the Reliant, Excelsior and Oberth models were originally envisioned as other, newer vessels in TNG:

USS Tsiolkovsky: Was meant to be a brand-new science vessel commissioned the same year as the Enterprise-D.

USS Fearless: Was meant to be the first appearance of Andrew Probert's Ambassador class.

USS Lantree: Was meant to be a newer very small supply ship with a crew of only 26 people.

USS Brattain: Was meant to be a newer small science vessel built in the 2330s with a crew of only 35 people.

USS Bozeman: Was meant to be a TOS Constitution class starship (not technically a 'newer' vessel, but a new model would have had to have been built for it.)

USS Raman: Was meant to be a new science vessel contemporary to the Enterprise-D (no model was ever built for it, but the Encyclopedia makes it an Oberth.)

USS Pegasus: Was supposed to be a newer ship commissioned only five years before the Enterprise-D.


So they weren't good at being upgraded so much as they were just the go-to models because the producers were too cheap to build new ones.

yes but I am speaking more theoretically in terms some sort of in-series rationale. If we go to real reasons, there will always be budget and design language reasons (some folks really loved Carrozzeria Bertone, in the 80s. Ent-D's chairs came right out of a Lancia Stratos. I digress.)

I used to find it annoying that they did reuse those models so much, especially Oberth, a ship I just find silly and ugly, but now I enjoy the idiosyncrasy of this massive star-fleet that makes many new ship designs will still leaving old ones in service and even building new copies of the old designs alongside the new ones.

 

[Dukhat]

yes but I am speaking more theoretically in terms some sort of in-series rationale.

Oh, I know. I'm just pointing out that the intention was never to have these movie-era ships last as long as they did. If they budgeted for new models right from the start, we probably would never even have seen the Excelsior, Reliant and Oberth models in TNG, unless the script specifically called for a ship from that era.

 

[Ithekro]

Given the Excelsior was brand new in the films right before TNG came out, I could buy that there would be a few of them left. Late production models that are near retirement. Even if they did have the budget for new models, I could believe those showing up every once in a while.

 

[Dukhat]

Given the Excelsior was brand new in the films right before TNG came out, I could buy that there would be a few of them left. Late production models that are near retirement. Even if they did have the budget for new models, I could believe those showing up every once in a while.

Oh, absolutely. For a 5 second scene of some nameless background ship transporting a VIP to the Enterprise-D, they didn’t need an all-new filming model for that. But if the ship was the focal point of the story (like the Brattain or the Pegasus), then it would have been nice if they’d spent a few extra budget dollars on a new model.

 

[Mres_was_framed!]

It just seems like maybe it's actually easier in some cases to replace and recycle rather than to upgrade.

My theory why we don't see more ships the like the Centaur is that those were only built as they replaced Miranda's and there just weren't that many that got replaced until the Galaxy family of ships we developed and so they started building Nebula class ships instead.

Scaling differences aside, this assumes idea that the Centaur is the Excelsior-style equivalent to the Miranda, which can be debated, but this theory could apply to other ship classes.

It would have been interesting to see how this whole conversation would have gone if the Pegasus model had been built. Someone on this site claimed that it would have looked like a Miranda or Nebula but using Ambassador-type modules. That would put it in the general category of the Freedom and Niagara. I have contended the the Ambassador was not a separate generation of ships, but instead an up-rated Excelsior, and I wonder if giving the Ambassador its Miranda-like version would have changed my mind on that.

So they weren't good at being upgraded so much as they were just the go-to models because the producers were too cheap to build new ones.

In a way, we ought to just pretend that some of the Oberth-class ships shown in TNG were really Springfield class ships.

Given the Excelsior was brand new in the films right before TNG came out, I could buy that there would be a few of them left.

I agree that a few Excelsior class ships would likely be shown.

 

[XCV330]

I just accept that the Lost Era was a pretty odd time for the UFP, some brush fire wars but nothing terrible, culminating in Starfleet feeling so secure they could put families onboard exploration ships, and flying ships nearly a century old. They weren't ready for the borg incursions, and the Dominion War solidified those changes towards newer, better, ships.