posted
The family name or sub-ordinate-familial-unitary-coalescence is Alka. All other members are given their 'life-name'. Selsior was given to the Ventaarian diplomat after his 'coming of age' procession at the age of 111 Ventaarian seasonal units. That's 28.8 Earth-years. Alka Anessa was his pre-name. Alka Anessa was a key negotiator during the Kreetassen Appeal. He served on the Federation Counil for 59 years, his greatest political victory was the admission of the Aaamazarites into the United Federation of Planets. A Special Envoy of 500 diplomats made the journey from Ventaaria to the Utopia Planitia Ship Yards, Terran Sector in 2270 to attend the dedication of the Alka-Selsior, which took place on the 50th anniversary of the death of this Federation Legend.
There you go the history of Alka-Selsior Anessa, the name given tribute in the naming of the U.S.S. Alka-Selsior.
-------------------- "Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica." - Jim Halpert. (The Office)
posted
Just a quick question, did anyone notice that according the Constellation class article, it stated that the Ambassador class was still on the drawing board in what appears the 2280's?
Registered: Jul 2000
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And Monkey... yes - I believe I WAS incorrect. Funny - two rear pods per nacelle.
Is that second fournaceller the sameone as the one Mike Okuda gave to someone here? I didn't think the nacelles were at a 45 degree angle like that! Does IT have two rear pods per nacelle?
-------------------- "Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica." - Jim Halpert. (The Office)
posted
In the third picture the very bottom ship is different to the views of the VERY Excelsior design above it. The bottom side-view pic looks like one of the ones seen in the Art of Star Trek.
-------------------- "Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica." - Jim Halpert. (The Office)
posted
Indeed. Oberth-like engines, which is why it was called "Oberth-Excelsior" above.
It seems the saucer and its superstructure were "series produced" for some of the study models, but obviously not for all of them. And five models, total, seems the correct count.
And upon a closer look, all of the ships actually look pretty good (low resolution of modeling work notwithstanding, of course)! They all seem to depict vessels of roughly similar size, the saucer detail being the scale-establishing factor. So it's a bit dubious to say that they were all around in Kirk's days, since that would make the NX-2000 much less of an impact-maker.
They could all be part of a so far speculative "Excelsior generation" of ships, though. The four-nacellers especially could be part of the "real" fleet. Since it is already accepted that four-nacellers are rare sights even when they are known to exist (Constellation, Cheyenne), their absence from mainstream eps raises no eyebrows. And both of the four-nacellers did make it to an episode!
As for the three two-nacellers, it's a bit odd that they are never seen elsewhere, when other, older vessels are regularly spotted. But not impossible to believe. Perhaps the "almost-Excelsior" vessels could be considered one-off prototypes for the real thing (or perhaps not constructed - neither of them was ever seen on screen, right?). The flat two-naceller' absence from the limelights could then be a random oddity, like the one that keeps the Centaur type unseen...
BTW, none of the saucers seem to match the lone mystery saucer from Qualor II. So we have to look elsewhere.
1) The winged four-naceller. 2) The thin four-naceller (bottom picture). The same as the Okuda-photo.
3) The flat Excelsior. The same as the flat ship from the AOST.
4) The almost Excelsior. The top ship on that picture. 5) The almost Excelsior #2. Obviously, the same as the one from the AOST. (6) The final Excelsior.)
Perhaps you could add the Miranda/Oberth-y drawing from the last Magazine to the list, but these are the study models.
Edit: well.. some people cleared this all out the moment I was typing this so it doesn't make much sense anymore..
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posted
The four-nacelled Excelsior (2) seems to have moveable pylons. On the Okuda-picture, the ship looks like an X-Wing in attack mode while the new picture shows the ship in X-Wing flight mode.
Interestingly, I always pictured the ship this was, allthough for another reason. Just looking at the Okuda-picture, you can see the neck acts like a crane, moving the saucer further away from the engines. Maybe it was ment to represent the warp- and transwarp-modes of the ship. Normal flight mode, '-'-pylons, short neck, and transwarp mode, long neck and 'x'-pylons.
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quote:Originally posted by Cpt. Kyle Amasov: The four-nacelled Excelsior (2) seems to have moveable pylons. On the Okuda-picture, the ship looks like an X-Wing in attack mode while the new picture shows the ship in X-Wing flight mode.
Yes, hmm see my earlier post:
"Is that second fournaceller the sameone as the one Mike Okuda gave to someone here? I didn't think the nacelles were at a 45 degree angle like that!"
-------------------- "Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica." - Jim Halpert. (The Office)
posted
MMoM: Thanks for posting the pics. I didn't get home until very late last night, & was too tired to make the scans myself. Now I don't have to do them at all!
Anyway, upon closer viewing of the names & registries, I believe the Alka-Selsior's reg is actually NCC-2404, not 1404 as I earlier stated. I still can't make out the best study model's reg (NCC-1X00). If I had to guess, it would probably be either 1800 or 1900.
On a side note, it was actually Leonard Nimoy who picked the final study model to be the Excelsior. Good choice, Leonard!
-------------------- "A film made in 2008 isn't going to look like a TV series from 1966 if it wants to make any money. As long as the characters act the same way, and the spirit of the story remains the same then it's "real" Star Trek. Everything else is window dressing." -StCoop
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posted
Not only does the 4-naceller seem to be built for variable pylon geometry: its entire aft hull looks like it would telescope into the forward hull. In some old thread, somebody did a photomanip of the "compacted" configuration, and it looked pretty nifty. Of course, it would make zero sense to dedicate most of the internal volume of the saucer to this telescoping function, but this seems to be what the model builders intended. The variable geometry would have been the "Ooh factor" that would set the Excelsior apart from the Enterprise in the movie.
Originally, I thought the flat 2-naceller would have a telescoping hull as well. Now I'm not so sure.
Since variable geometry wasn't equated with transwarp in the final version of the movie, we could invent another rationale for that feature of the 4-naceller. Perhaps she's a barge carrier that extends her hull to accept the desired number of barges, yet compacts herself when traveling empty?
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