Transfer to Excelsior?

[Alrik]

Looks like I'm in the minority here. I would have been upset with them getting the Excelsior. Maybe its an 'age' thing. To me, the Connie E was as much of a character and as important as Kirk, Spock, or McCoy. I remember leaving the theater after III feeling like I'd been kicked in the gut.....they blew her up!(BTW the TMP refit is still my all time favorite starship design.) I also remember the huge smile the came across my face when the shuttle passed the NX 2000 and the 1701-A came into view. I was almost more relieved the see that than I was to see Spock say "Jim. Your name is Jim." at the end of III.

 

[Colonel Midnight]

^ Looks like I'm in that minority as well. Heck, the entire theatre where I saw TVH would be, I guess... as we gave the "fly over" scene a standing ovation!

Cheers,
-CM-

 

[RyanKCR]

When I saw TVH the first time I could barely pay attention waiting to see what ship they would get. When saw them approaching the Excelsior I started to cringe. Then I saw the ship I fell in love with in TMP but with an A. Granted it wasn't the orginal refit but it was what I was hoping for. I don't think the Excelsior is all that good looking and isn't even in the same design style as what was seen before. It sticks out like a sore thumb.

 

[miraclefan]

I too have ''never'' understood the hateing of the ''EXCELSIOR'' Class vessel?

 

[Red Ranger]

Eh, a valid point. The Excelsior bashers might say you just answered your own question.

In fact, maybe being assigned to a repro of his old ship with his old crew was the Federation's idea of equitable punishment?

An interesting idea. Perhaps so, or it was kind of a passive-aggressive slap at Kirk. Not only are we demoting you to captain, we're giving you an old bucket of bolts that's falling apart, as we saw in TFF.

BTW, I think Timo's idea that there was more than one Excelsior-class ship makes sense. In the TWOK novelization, author Vonda McKintyre created her own version of the Galaxy-class ship, long-range exploration vessels intended to reach other galaxies, one of which was called Magellan.

Then, in the TSFS novelization, Kirk and Captain Esteban are discussing the merits of the Galaxy-class and Excelsior-class, and Esteban declares that the Excelsior-class was the future of Starfleet. So I imagine that there were at the least two other vessels either completed or close to competion.

I understand the annoyance of some old-school fans who object to using Excelsior, in whatever form, as Kirk & Co.'s new ship. When TVH came out, we only saw three Enterprises -- original, movie-refit, and then the D. So fans weren't used to seeing many incarnations of Enterprise.

Still, I maintain as Starfleet's most storied captain, assisted by its most storied engineer and crew, would have been perfect for a further shakedown of an Excelsior-class ship -- and would've also made the scenes where the A is falling apart make more sense.

Hell, I wish they'd scrapt the bloody A, B, C, D, and E lettering tacked onto 1701!

Red Ranger

 

[Captain Mike]

They should have gone to an Excelsior class Enterprise at the end of TVH. I was SURE that was going to happen when I saw the film in it's first run and was actually disappointed when the old style ship emerged from behind the Excelsior. It was time to move on.

Move on for what reason? I have always thought of the Enterprise, in every incarnation as much of one of the characters of the show, as are the "big seven". We got Spock back why couldn't we have seen the Big E as well?

It would've certainly improved the looks of star trek V and VI, if they had dumped that ugly Constitution-class design. They would indeed have had to rename the ship to Enterprise for marketing reasons.

Ugly is in the eyes of the beholder.

Fans and reviewers of ST III called Excelsior "the pregnant guppy". The model was built by ILM to be lighter, smaller in scale, easier to make internal repairs, and with multiple mounting ports, compared to the huge Enterprise model that had been made for TMP.

I remember reading that myself back then and agreeing 110%. I was in so much agony, and almost in tears of sadness after leaving the theater after TSFS, and so much in tears of pure joy as I saw the screen pan across the Excelsior, to reveal the Big E-A.The Excelsior Class is STILL not a fave of mine as starships go.

 

[Peach Wookiee]

I wasn't thrilled with Excelsior, either...

 

[RyanKCR]

In a way, the Excelsior was Bennett's and ILM's attempt to remake Star Trek into what they wanted.

 

[Praetor]

I'm not sure if perhaps this warrants its own thread, but what do you guys and dolls dislike about the Excelsior?

I'm not trolling or trying to judge, I really want to know. I personally like how long and curvy it is. It feels very rugged and also sleek to me.

 

[RyanKCR]

I'm not sure if perhaps this warrants its own thread, but what do you guys and dolls dislike about the Excelsior?

I'm not trolling or trying to judge, I really want to know. I personally like how long and curvy it is. It feels very rugged and also sleek to me.

It has a klunky boxy fee to me. The secondary hull and the interconnecting dorsal is just very very odd. The back half of the secondary hull is just way too thin.

 

[Colonel Midnight]

It also gives me the feeling/impression (call it what you will) that's all the classic elements are there, but over exaggerated and all out of proportion to one another.

For instance, the size of the secondary hull, and the length of the "cut-back" are just... odd.

And from some angles, the dang thing just doesn't make for any 'beauty shots", like when she pulls "up" and goes OOC outside of the Spacedock in TSFS. THAT, to me, is the "pregnant guppy shot", if nothing else.

Of course, YMMV.

Cheers,
-CM-