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Musings about Sulu's deleted TWOK scene; Enterprise-A/Yorktown thing
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by The Mighty Monkey of Mim: [QB] Here is how I believe things went: [b]2240s:[/b] [i]Constitution[/i]-class commissioned, and at the time is SF's largest and most powerful starship design. There are only 12 built at this time and most or all of them are sent out onto the frontiers to conduct exploration, initiate contact with new races, and to patrol hostile border zones. [b]2260s:[/b] Heavy losses to [i]Constitution[/i]-class lineup, as many hostile lifeforms and races are encountered. The Romulans make a reappearance, their first since the War in the 2150-60s. An intense Cold War-type atmosphere develops between the UFP and the Klingon Empire, kept from exploding into full-scale conflict only by the fragile Organian Peace Treaty. Starfleet would have felt the need to bolster its defensive and offensive capabilities. They plan and initiate the development of new designs including the [i]Federation[/i]-class dreadnought, though for whatever reason these do not end up being produced in any large numbers. It is also somewhere between this point and TMP that the very earliest stages of [i]Excelsior[/i]-class development project are initiated. (Why? Because the prototype has NX-2000 as its number, but by TMP we have already have the dreadnought [i]U.S.S. Entente[/i] with NCC-2120.) I will state firmly now that I personally believe the [i]Excelsior[/i] project was transwarp-oriented from the first, that the ship was designed and planned to be a transwarp cruiser whose designers (probably a small group of aspiring theoretical engineers and scientists convinced that they'd discovered the key to the next big bang in starship propulsion) likely hoped would EVENTUALLY some day replace the [i]Constitution[/i] at the forefront of the Fleet. I DO NOT believe that Starfleet Command authorized its development specifically as a replacement for the Connies. A couple of guys presented SFC with some starry-eyed preachings about the potential of transwarp drive and found enough support to get a ball rolling (albeit very slowly) on the development of their brainchild. Starfleet probably didn't realize the grand implications until later. I think that the higher-ups were more concerned simply with strengthening, expanding, and augmenting the Fleet at this time, and I think the rest of the timeline supports this. That is my [i]opinion[/i]. [b]2270:[/b] The [i]Enterprise[/i] returns from her 5-year mission in deep space and SF initiates a massive refit program to update its remaining [i]Constitution[/i]s and initiates the construction of new vessels as well. [b]2273:[/b] The V'Ger incident takes place, an event which I think would have inspired a great feeling of vulnerability in both the Federation Council and Starfleet Command. Their desire to solidify their defenses (and offenses) would have been further reinforced. A short time later, the [i]Miranda[/i]- and [i]Soyuz[/i]-classes are developed and launched, using modified Connie-refit components. [b]2280:[/b] The [i]Constellation[/i]-class development project is initiated. The [i]Constellation[/i] is designed to carry out long-range sensor analysis within threat territories, reconnaissance and intelligence gathering, deployment and retrieval of cargo and stealth shuttles, as well as general science and patrol duties. Like the [i]Miranda[/i] and [i]Soyuz[/i], it is intended to augment the newly redesigned [i]Constitution[/i]-class cruisers. The earliest design stages of the [i]Ambassador[/i]-class have been begun as well. [b]2284:[/b] The [i]U.S.S. Constellation[/i] NX-1974 is launched. Project Genesis begins. [b]2285:[/b] STII Construction of [i]U.S.S. Excelsior[/i] nears completion. STIII Older [i]Constitution[/i]s are being scheduled for replacement. (I admit that this is curious, given that most or all underwent refits little more than a decade before. Perhaps as the construction of newbuilt ships progressed, flaws were found in the design of the early refits? At any rate, they were being replaced probably with newbuilt Connies, or possibly something else, but NOT with [i]Excelsior[/i]s.) [i]Excelsior[/i] has been officially commissioned (SD 8205.5 according to the dedication plaque, which falls nicely between TWOK's 8130.3 and TSFS's 8219.3) and is ready for trial runs, but is sabotaged by Scotty when the [i]Enterprise[/i] is stolen. (The way I look at it, we can interpret the subsequent failure of the transwarp drive in two ways. Firstly, it could be attributed to flaws in the theoretical science behind the drive system, in which case Scotty's sabotage was---unbeknownst to him, of course---quite unnecessary, as the ship wouldn't have worked anyway. Alternatively, and perhaps more controversially, Scotty could have done something more to the [i]Excelsior[/i] than just pulling out the chips he handed to McCoy. Perhaps, in addition to pocketing those "souvenirs," he damaged the ship in some more critical internal way. Completely fried her circuits or something. I wouldn't put it past him, considering his utter hatred of the ship. And the reason why Starfleet never again experimented with transwarp was because they simply lost faith in the concept after this fiasco, even though it may have been theoretically sound.) [b]2286:[/b] Starfleet continues replacing old [i]Constitution[/i]s with newbuilt ones. Among the ships slated for replacement is the [i]U.S.S. Yorktown[/i] NCC-1717. TVH The Probe/Whalesong crisis occurs. At this point, the [i]Excelsior[/i] is still sitting in Spacedock, disabled. The [i]Yorktown[/i] is neutralized by the Probe. After the crisis, her intended replacement is instead christened [i]Enterprise[/i]. (The [i]Yorktown[/i] will still be replaced at some point before 2293. Whether the NCC-1717 was kept in service until a new replacement was built or was simply scrapped after the Probe incident is unclear, but unimportant.) [b]2287:[/b] The [i]Excelsior[/i] is STILL non-functional in Spacedock. [b]2288:[/b] The [i]Soyuz[/i]-class is taken out of service. (The reason for this has never been explained, but has been theorized to possibly be because of some class-specific design flaw, hence the similar [i]Miranda[/i]-class and other ships utilizing the same components remaining in service. Or, alternatively, it was a gesture for the benefit of the talks that Ambassador Curzon Dax conducted with the Klingons the following year. [As per DS9 "Blood Oath"]) [b]2290:[/b] The [i]Excelsior[/i] is finally refitted as a conventional warp vessel and put into active service. It is at this point that I feel Starfleet first recognized that even without transwarp, the [i]Excelsior[/i] could be a powerful weapon and could have the potential to replace the [i]Constitution[/i]-class as the "big gun" of the Fleet. Upon this revelation, they probably began mass-producing the design. (SoundEffect: When I said 7 years in my earlier post, I was mistakenly counting from 2286 to 2293, rather than 2290. :cool: ) [b]2293:[/b] TUC The Khitomer talks threaten to undo all of the militaristic expansion that SF has gone through over the previous three decades, and many within Starfleet are none too anxious for that to happen, hence the conspiracy to undermine the peace initiative. By this point, there are at least a few [i]Excelsior[/i]-class ships in service. (Reverend: I have come to the conclusion that the Operation Retrieve silhouettes---the largest of the three types shown---which were interpreted as Connies are actually [i]Excelsior[/i]s. The two smaller silhouette types are, I believe, [i]Constitution[/i]s and [i]Miranda[/i]s. There were definitely no [i]Oberth[/i]s on the chart.) About the [i]Enterprise[/i]-A's decommissioning: There is something that is often forgotten. Kirk's closing log at the end of TUC implies that while the old TOS crew is being retired, the ship herself is to be passed on to another crew. The E-A [i]was not intended to be decommissioned at the end of the film.[/i] However, when TPTB went to make Generations, they wanted to show the launching of the [i]Enterprise[/i]-B, which they placed in the months following TUC. So what's the explanation? Why did SF decide to decommission the only 7-year-old [i]Enterprise[/i]-A? I believe it's because once they knew they had a bigger and better design on their hands, namely the [i]Excelsior[/i]-class, they were eager to use the [i]Enterprise[/i] legacy to endorse it. Remember that the name [i]Enterprise[/i] had in the eyes of Federation citizens everywhere a representation of Starfleet's best qualities. It held, I suspect, a massive amount of propaganda (or, to put it politely, "publicity") value. So they were eager to have one of their new cruisers be named [i]Enterprise[/i], and that was their reason for scrapping the E-A. Once they *did* see the damage inflicted on the vessel by the fight with the BoP, I'm sure they felt all the more justified in this. So, by the beginning of the 24th century, the [i]Excelsior[/i] had gone from being a pipe dream transwarp super-ship to being regarded as an utter failure and all but disowned by SF to becoming the strongest defensive and offensive weapon in widespread use throughout the Fleet. The ship was obviously a subsequent success, as it went on to be one of the most widely-produced and longest-lived designs known. And there you have my conjectural history of the [i]Excelsior[/i]-class! -[b]MMoM[/b] :D [/QB][/QUOTE]
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