Hello and welcome to another episode of Truth OR Myth Beta Canon, a Star Trek web series that dives into the history of any given topic using Beta Canon sources and my imagination to fill in the gaps. In today’s episode we’re looking at the USS Enterprise B, an Excelsior Class Variant Design, first seen in Star Trek: Generations, to better understand its place in Star Trek History.
As always, because this IS Beta Canon, all information re-laid 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, let’s begin.
For Starfleet Command and the United Federation of Planets, the hard part was over. With a new century fast approaching, and the Excelsior Class design proving itself to be a worthy successor to the Constitution Class refit, Starfleet Command would make the decision to continue the Enterprise Line with the USS Enterprise-B.
The later part of the 23rd century had been a difficult time for both organizations.
V’ger, Khan Noonian Singh, The Genesis Torpedo and Planet, and the Whale Probe, had all been hot button issues and emergencies during this trying time, but the Federation endured.
An explosion of technological developments had propelled Starships Designs into an entirely new era, one where the citizens of the Federation were no longer concerned for their safety, having absolute faith in the ability of Starfleet to protect them.
Then finally, in 2293, the unexpected would happen, the Klingon Empire would call for peace talks with the Federation.
The destruction of the Klingon moon Praxis would force the Empire to the negotiations table in a bid for Federation assistance with their current crisis.
The moon’s destruction had contaminated their Home World’s atmosphere and would render their planet uninhabitable in the next 50 years. With the Klingon’s enormous military budget, they simply did not have the resources to combat this current catastrophe.
In addition, after a plot to derail the peace process between these longtime foes was uncovered, the long process of creating an acceptable peace treaty for both sides had begun.
The USS Enterprise, NCC-1701-A, had been instrumental in that peace process. Though badly damaged during that mission, Captain Kirk and his intrepid crew had come out on top once again.
But this mission was to be the last for Captain Kirk as commanding Officer of the Enterprise.
With the starships senior officers approaching retirement age, Starfleet had decided to decommission the Enterprise before the turn of the century. Captain Kirk, not wanting to do anything except command the Enterprise, had decided to accept early retirement, a decision that would see his senior officers make similar choices and go their separate ways.
The name Enterprise had always been an important one for Starfleet.
Since the launch of the NX-01 Enterprise in the mid-22nd century, starships bearing this name had come to symbolize the best the Federation had to offer.
So, even before the Enterprise-A’s mission for Peace with the Klingon Empire had begun, Starfleet had decided that a New Enterprise, the Enterprise-B, would herald in the 24th Century.
The Enterprise-A herself had been an experimental upgrade to the ageing Constitution Class Refit, one that hadn’t started very well.
But after the development and redevelopment of the new technologies contained within her hull, Starfleet Command would begin the process of selectively upgrading a portion of the remaining starships of the class to this new specification.
Meanwhile, the Excelsior Class, a failed experiment for a Transwarp capable starship design, had begun to make a name for itself in the latter 2280s.
Having to refit the class to a more standardized design, the USS Excelsior had shown herself to be stronger, faster, and far more reliant than the Constitution Class refit had ever been.
And so, by the time the decommissioning process on the Enterprise-A had begun, Starfleet Command had already decided that the next Enterprise would be a specialized variant of the Excelsior Class Design, with that starship’s construction almost complete.
Sitting at a length of approximately 467 meters and 28 Decks tall, the USS Enterprise-B would be designed to be operated by 750 Officers and Crew Members.
Many systems of this variant of the Excelsior Class design, would receive an upgrade, making the Enterprise B, the most powerful Starship of her time.
Though the USS Excelsior’s Transwarp experiment had been a failure, Starfleet Command had learned a lot of new information about warp velocities in general, leading Starfleet’s top warp theorists to begin to redefine the enter warp scale. But at this point in history, the Enterprise B would continue to use the traditional warp scale utilized for over 2 centuries.
This meant that the USS Enterprise B would have a standard safe cruising speed of warp factor 7 and an emergency maximum speed of Warp factor 9.
12 Phaser Banks, with 2 emitters each and 4 Photon Torpedoes launchers, 2 forward and 2 aft, would be included in this design.
While shielding for this class would also receive an upgrade from the standard Excelsior Class design, providing 12% more Power output than its parent class.
Due to the inclusion, and eventual intended upgrades to its warp drive components, the Enterprise-B’s secondary Hull design would be slightly altered.
Rather the smooth curved hull of the standard Excelsior Class design, the Enterprise-B’s secondary hull, would have fin-like extensions added to her.
As a result, Enterprise-B’s Navigational Deflector system would also be one of the strongest ever developed by Starfleet. This additional space within the classes hull, also allowed for some reconfiguration of other components, to allow for a new experimental sensor array system to be included in the design.
Starfleet hoped that this new Sensor Array would allow the starship to detected cloaked vessels at short range, though whether this technology was successful or not, remains classified.
Even Enterprise-B’s Nacelle Design would be completely upgraded and changed, utilizing a new type of warp coil within the design.
Other slight alterations would also be made to the overall design to increase performance and house newly created components.
Like most starship designs of the time, the Enterprise-B’s main Shuttlebay was located in the aft section of her secondary hull and connected directly to her vast cargo bay complex via a sliding wall at the Shuttle bay’s rear.
Transporter and Tractor Beam System also received an upgrade over both the Constitution Refit and Excelsior Class designs, increasing their range and overall effectiveness.
The Enterprise B would begin her shakedown cruise in late 2293, with a quick, run around the block type mission, to show off the New Starship Design and its crew to the Federation Public.
Many notable guests would be on board the ship for that maiden voyage, including Captain James T. Kirk, Captain Montgomery Scott, and Commander Pavel Chekov from the Original Enterprises Crew roster.
Unfortunately, during a rescue attempt by the Enterprise B, of 2 starships carrying El-Aurian Refugees to Earth from an anomaly known as the Nexus, Captain James T. Kirk would be lost, presumed dead, tarnishing the vessels launch.
But by the time of her actual shakedown cruise launch in 2294, the Enterprise-B would regain and recapture the hearts and minds of the Federation’s public, and by the end of her first year of service, she would prove herself a worthy successor to the name Enterprise.
Like her parent class, The Enterprise-B Variant would continue to be constructed, refit and upgraded over the next 150 years, before Starfleet would begin to decommission the class in favour of other, newer designs.
Continuing the tradition of creating an Enterprise as the flagship for the Federation, the Enterprise-B would also make a name for herself, with her Captain and crew becoming legends. Earning the Enterprise-B her place, in Starfleet and Federation history.
Boldly continuing to go, where no one had gone before, but of course, that’s another story…
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Thank you for watching today’s episode of Truth or Myth Beta Canon, what do you think of the Enterprise-B Variant of the Excelsior Class Design, and the historical narrative that I’ve created here. Do you like the Original Design better than the Variant design?
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