Hello and welcome to another episode of Truth OR Myth, a Star Trek web series that normally looks at the Truth, or canon, information to dispel the myths that have surfaced on a given topic. Today’s episode continues our journey through Beta Canon, this time taking a look at the early design history of the Excelsior Class of Starfleet Starships.
Conceived as the “Great Experiment,” the Excelsior Class was intended to herald in a new age of Space Exploration for Starfleet Command and the United Federation Of Planets. Unfortunately, the experiment failed. But the class itself would be modified and adapted with standard technology, and through the changes, the class would become one of Starfleet’s best, most reliable and long-living designs ever created for the Federation…
Of course, there IS a lot of information available of this class in Alpha Canon, so what I’ve done is thoroughly researched the Class through Beta Canon, combined it with Alpha Canon and filled in some of the gaps with my imagination, all to give you good “Tri-naries” a little bit more design history info to chew on about this class that started it all.
As a result though, this video should pretty much be taken with a grain of stardust, and only considered a little bit of Star Trek Fun! And so, with all that out of the way, lets begin.
Starfleet’s technology was making leaps and bounds during the 2260’s, while at the same time, their current Starship Designs were beginning to show their age.
The Constitution Class, though still considered the jewel in Starfleet’s Crown, began to see it’s number dwindle after many were lost or destroyed. And so it was clear to Starfleet Command that it’s Star Fleet needed an overhaul. Meanwhile, citizens all over the Federation began to lose confidence in Starfleet to protect it’s a people, a polarizing topic that came to a head when one of Starfleet’s most decorated Captain’s, Commodore Matthew Decker and his starship the U.S.S. Constellation was lost while exploring and subsequently battling a planet killer weapon that was a direct threat to the Federation.
Several Federation member worlds demanded Starfleet come up with new technologies and starship designs that could better ensure the survival of the organization, and in response, Starfleet Command commissioned a new class, the Miranda Class as a testbed for all the new technologies they had developed. After several war game manoeuvres with different starship class, including the failed M5 computer war games, Starfleet’s Core of Engineers began toying with the idea of updating and refitting the Constitution Class with the new Technologies that were proving so innovative on the Miranda Class.
Furthermore with the triumphant and successful return of the U.S.S. Enterprise from Starfleet’s current round of 5-year exploratory missions, the decision was made to capitalize on the Enterprise’s historic return, and create a brand new Refit design for the class itself. For 18 months the Enterprise underwent it’s refit, being almost completely gutted and then rebuilt into an impressive and powerful, yet elegant looking, starship design.
After this design proved itself during its unexpected first mission against an alien cloud that threatened Earth, and it’s subsequent shakedown trials, the Constitution Class Refit would go into full production, Starfleet opting to build new ships for the class from the ground up, rather than refitting any more existing Constitution Classes as the deconstruction and rebuilding were felt to be a waste of resources and time.
Never the less, the Constitution Refit along with the Miranda Class was a huge success for Starfleet, and by the mid-2270s Starfleet Command began looking towards the future of Space Exploration once again. To prevent a similar future loss of faith from any member worlds, Starfleet continued to push its engineers to create and develop new technologies. And as a direct result of this “push,” All starships under construction at Utopia Planitia and in orbit of Earth would see their internal technologies continually changed and updated with the latest breakthroughs.
Then in 2276, Starfleet’s Core of Engineers believed they had made an unprecedented break through in Transwarp Technology.
Transwarp had been a dream of Starfleet’s for over 50 years. Basically, a Transwarp drive system would allow a starship to travel at far greater speeds really opening up the galaxy for exploration, while at the same time meant that starships could react to potential threats to the Federation far faster than they currently could. On the old warp scale, even the lowest available Transwarp factor would see a starship travelling at approximately warp factor 84. And so as you can imagine, Starfleet was very keen on developing this new technology. The problem was, that non of Starfleets Starship Designs currently in production could accommodate the New Engine and Components required to make the Transwarp drive sustainable.
Also, Starfleet’s Core of Engineers felt that even if they could incorporate Transwarp drives into a design currently being constructed, that those designs could never handle the subspace stresses that Transwarp would put on those starship’s hulls. And so Starfleet approved a brand new starship design to be created as a testbed for the Transwarp drive,
And the Excelsior Class was born.
Sitting at a length of approximately 467 meters and 28 decks tall, the Excelsior Class was crewed by about 700 officers and crew members.
The classes hull would be reinforced with a Vitrium Alloy, to counter act any stresses created at Transwarp velocities.
Her internal Systems would utilize the latest breakthroughs in Starfleet’s technologies, including a specially designed computer core created by the Daystrom Institute which could handle the calculations and monitoring of the Transwarp drive systems, and brand new flat panel interface technology which would replace any and all push-button style work stations. Up to this point, Starfleet utilizing mostly a mixed combination of push button and flat-panel technology for its starships.
By 2285, the U.S.S. Excelsior was ready for trial runs. But before they began, Admiral Kirk and his old Command Crew had fought the genetically engineered superhuman from the Eugenic Wars Khan Noonien Singh, and the Enterprise herself was badly damaged and Captain Spock sacrificed his life to save the starship and its crew.
Returning to Earth, Starfleet made the decision to decommission the Enterprise and transferred its chief engineer, Montgomery Scott to the Excelsior, where they believed his extensive knowledge and innovative engineering approach, would be an asset to that project. When it was discovered by Kirk that Captain Spock had essentially downloaded his consciousness into Chief Medical Officer, Dr Leonard McCoy’s brain and that Spock’s body had somehow been re-animated by the Genesis Planet, Admiral Kirk and his senior staff decided to steal the Enterprise, to save both men.
The U.S.S. Excelsior, sitting in Space Dock preparing for its trial run, was sent after the Enterprise with orders to pursue and prevent the starship from reaching its destination. After the Enterprise engaged it’s warp drive, the U.S.S. Excelsior readied its own Transwarp drive, but to everyone’s surprise, the ship stalled instead. Towed back to Space Dock, it was quickly revealed that several computer chips had been removed from its Transwarp drive computer system. And the charges of sabotage of the USS Excelsior were added to the Enterprise Crews long list of offences for their trial. After replacing these components, the U.S.S. Excelsior was sent on her first shakedown cruise.
Excited to get it’s Transwarp trials underway, Starfleet was almost immediately devastated when the starship class failed to reach Transwarp. Starfleet’s Core of Engineers assured Starfleet that this was just a minor setback, with settling in adjustments and simple upgrades being needed to achieve the Transwarp goal. And heading back to the drawing board, these adjustment, upgrades and changes were made, and Excelsior has launched once again, ready to this time, wow Starfleet Command.
Unfortunately once again, the Transwarp drive failed, this time preforming even worse then it had during it’s previous tests.
Reviewing all the data collected, Starfleet’s Core of Engineers would attempt to correct the problem time and time again. And time and time again, they would fail to solve the Transwarp Problem. And by early 2288, Starfleet Command had had enough, and put an end to the “Great Experiment,” deeming it a complete failure. But Starfleet wasn’t done with the Excelsior Class itself. Though it’s Transwarp had been a failure, the design and most of its Transwarp non-related systems had outperformed Starfleet’s expectations, exceeding the performance stats of even their newest Constitution Refit Design starships being constructed.
So Starfleet decided to give the Excelsior Class a second chance, and set it’s Core of Engineers on the task of refitting the U.S.S. Excelsior with more standard, but upgraded technology. And this decision would be proved to be one of Starfleet’s greatest gambles, paying off in spades. The newly Refit U.S.S. Excelsior would indeed out perform Starfleet’s Previous Classes by leaps and bounds, and Starfleet was so impressed by it’s performance, that they would commission the class in to full production, intending it to replace the Constitution Class.
Even the newest Enterprise would end up being a variant design of the Excelsior Class.
And the Excelsior Class would continue to be constructed, upgraded and refit, right up in to the 25th Century.
The Excelsior Class, originally seen as a failure, would prove to be one of the biggest assets for Starfleet ever created. Not only that, but it showed the citizens of the Federation how resourceful Starfleet could truly be, turning this seeming failure in to a huge success for the organization.
And the U.S.S. Excelsior herself, under the command of Captain Hikaru Sulu, would serve with honour and distinction, helping to blaze the way into a new century of exploration for Starfleet Command and the United Federation of Planets…
Thank you for watching today’s episode of Truth or Myth, what do you think of the Beta Canon design history for the Excelsior Class? Do you like the design of the class itself? Well leave your comments in the section below and don’t forget to like the video and subscribe to the channel, hitting that little bell icon so you wont miss a single video we release.
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