posted
I'm watching the episode Yesterday's Enterprise and noted that the "C" had been lost for 22 years. We saw the USS Excalibur in the episode Data's Day with either design improvments or a major refit. My questions are these: 1.) Is the Ambassador class still being produced in the TNG era (even in limited numbers)? 2.) How many of these ships could have been produced? We sure have seen tons of Excelsiors and Mirandas but why not more Ambassadors? What percentage of the fleet would they make up? 3.) It seems the Ambassador class was the "big gun" prior to the introductionof the Nebula class and that means a looooong damn time: was there another (or several) other heavy cruisers of this general size?
I just finished building the Ambassador variant from the Sternbach sketch (what I consider to be the Apollo class) so I've got this kind of ship on my mind.
Wild speculation is welcomed!
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posted
Well, one thing I noted was that they once mentioned that the "C" had exhausted its torpedo stores before coming through the rift. Then, during the first attack by the lone Klingon Bird-of-Prey, Captain Garrett ordered them to load torpedo bays.
Unless they borrowed some from the "D," it seems that the ship has the ability to assemble new torpedoes, probably drawing from the warp core's antimatter fuel for the warhead.
So much for all that nitpicking about Voyager's torpedo stores, eh?
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posted
No kidding! I imagine that the "D" replicated the torp casings and the "C" used the matter/AM from the warp core as you speculated: I thought that was how it ws always done anyway. I bet those Romulans sure were impressed by how much punsihment the "C" could take and dish out! Possibly why they never started hostilities with the Federation!
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quote:Possibly why they never started hostilities with the Federation!
No, they captured Tasha and most of the Bridge crew, remember? They probably got plenty of information from them...
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posted
Information about the Federation stuck in a 20 year long war with the Klingons? That would explain some of Sela's scheme with the Duras sisters. It'd be just like the Romulans to stir up troulbe ans watch things unfold.
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quote:Originally posted by Jason Abbadon: 1.) Is the Ambassador class still being produced in the TNG era (even in limited numbers)? 2.) How many of these ships could have been produced? We sure have seen tons of Excelsiors and Mirandas but why not more Ambassadors? What percentage of the fleet would they make up?
1. I always assumed the run was either on in limited numbers, or production ceased altogether with the advent of the Galaxys and Nebulas.
2. The 'real' reason we haven't seen more Ambassadors is that the production went to probably 90% CGI and only about 10% model photography in the later years of the different series. Since there was never a CGI version of the Ambassador, that's why we didn't see it. (And also explains its absence from Starship Spotter.)
My assumption is that Ambassadors are still around in at least as great a quantity as maybe 50% of Excelsior numbers...which would be quite a bit!
posted
I already knew the answer to #2 but was hoping for something to explain it in the Trek-verse.
Strange that they never CGI'd it though: it surely would'nt have been as hard to pull off as the Miranda (and that looked great!)
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posted
of course, the 1701C met its design goal: to look like a halfway mark between the Excelsior and the Galaxy. unfortunately, this probably made the producers think it would be redundant.. why go thru the cost og CGIing a ship that looks like two ships you already have CGIs of, and casual viewers would just mistake for one or the other anyway...
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posted
Well for starters, the ship in "Data's Day" was the Zhukov, not the Excalibur. That ship showed up in the fifth season opener as stock footage from "Yesterday's Enterprise". The Ambassador-class model put in an appearance in that episode as well, though it probably was still labeled Zhukov. The model was subsequently relabeled as Yamaguchi for "Emissary", and not seen after that.
As I've stated in previous Amby threads, I've always beleived that these ships were produced in limited numbers as the true explorers of their day. Inasmuch as there were only twelve-ish Connies in that day, and six-ish Galaxies in TNG, there wouldn't have been many Ambassadors made. Only a handful at most, possibly in two production runs (explaining the 1xxxx and 26xxx reg numbers).
As for why we rarely see them, I take it to mean that their principal duty as explorers mean that they're out in the far reaches doing just that. The rare sight of an Amby in TNG is the exception to the rule of deep space explorers out exploring deep space. They will have naturally been superceded by the Galaxy and possibly Sovereign classes, and what few that are left are either out there or decommissioned. Considering that they may have been Starfleet's big card ship for up to 50 YEARS, it's quite a legacy to leave!
posted
I agree that the Ambies are out beyond Federation Borders... exploring.
Secondly I believe the Galaxies are it's successors the Sovereigns are NOT.
I don't see why they never made a CGI version - why didn't they just buy those versions as seen on Bernd's site? They were done at Sci-Fi art or something weren't they? Any-hoo there are a few versions on the net that are very-well done.
ACTUALLY if MOJO is reading this thread HELLO MOJO - maybe you'd like to create an Ambassador (check out Bernd's site for the correct type) for the 2004 Calendar!?!
-------------------- "Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica." - Jim Halpert. (The Office)
quote:Originally posted by Futurama Guy: I don't think casual viewers really give a crap...it is only us who notice these things anyway....
Sort of. Casual fans don't really care about the detailed history of every single class. But that's not the point.
The reason why the Reliant was designed to look as it does was because TPTB wanted a design that ANYONE could tell apart from the Enterprise really easily. And that's the problem with the Ambassador. It looks just a bit too similar to other classes, so much so that if they showed it on the screen briefly, casual fans could get confused and think that it is the Enterprise (or whatever.
In fact, when I first saw Yesterday's Enterprise, I had only been watching Trek for a couple of months, and I thought the ship was the movie Enterprise design.
Anyway, that's why they CGI-ed the Miranda's. No-one would mistake a Miranda for a Galaxy. The Excelsior's are a bit more similar looking, but not as much as the Ambassador.
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posted
I don't think the Ambassador was limited to anything under 50-100 starships in it's production run: things had changed (size wise) for starfleet since the short runs of the Connie and the Ambassador served much longer anyway. I've never been a fan of the idea of "refiting everything into a whole new ship" like the Connie Refit. It's more likely that the variants are design improvments added to later models. I'd like to think the Ambassador's are still exploring or in reserve fleets somewhere as I can't buy them being decommisioned before the Miranda or Excelsiors.
...and I DO think the Ambassador looks seperate enough to stand out of the small screen: you guys don't give those "casual viewers" enough credit.
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posted
Mojo's not on the next calendar. But in the Unseen Frontier (RIP), there was going to be a CGI Ambassador created for the Narendra 3 segment, detailing the last battle of the Enterprise-C. I was researching the artwork. *Sigh*...
Given that there is no Ambassador class ship with a reg higher than 26xxx that we know of, but there are plenty of Mirandas and Excelsiors with 3xxxx and 4xxxx reg numbers, it makes sense to see them a whole lot more on that basis alone. The LAST inkling we have of active-use reg number is that screen in "Nemesis", where there is no reg lower than 4xxxx. If that's any indication (especially given the known classes of those ships), there is a fair probability that most ships older than 3xxxx or so might be due for the chop.
posted
I hope you weren't going to use D'Deridexii for the Romulan ships at Narendra? Something in-between the Cruiser and the big-bird would have been nice.
Is there going to be a Ships of the Line Calendar this year!?!?! (Well, next year).
Andrew
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