Funny thing is, the Excelsior-class was seen so frequently in TNG because it was deemed easier (and cheaper) to use the existing studio model than to build a newer 'guest ship' that would later become the Ambassador-class (which itself was oddly rarely seen after its introduction in "Yesterday's Enterprise"...)
To be fair, the Ambassador class model came up for auction recently, and in all honesty it was pretty ropey.; the "aztecing" was done with stuck on bits of paper. Perfect for really low-light NTSC, but a long way from the quality of the Excelsior model.
Even when only given small bits to work with George Takei was always brilliant as Sulu but his tour de force performance was ST 6 when Captain Sulu becomes Captain Kirk's equal both in canon and screen presence best exemplified by the "Fly her apart then!" Scene
A little addition to #4 All of the Excelsior class ships seen in TNG are the NX version of the ship. This is due to the series having started before ST6 was made and the studio model was modified into the NCC version.
Actually, NCC thing was, a combination of the call letters "N" for civilian US aircraft, and "CC" for Soviet civil aircraft, according to Jefferies, who was a private pilot. It was explicitly *not* a military designation. The "Naval Construction Contract" was something Franz Joesph came up with when he did the Enterprise blueprints.
@@johndeltuvia7892 and both are true. Jeffries did combine civilian code letters, and it worked fine. Then, at a later time, details needed to be fleshed out, and those letters became acronyms.
That certainly fit in with the notion of Starfleet being an exploratory organization and not a military one. Also suited the times: a subtle message to American’s and Russian’s that, someday, they can become allies.
I would LOVE to see a video about the Klingon Birds-of-Prey. Especially the HMS Bounty (aka the ship with the whales) and the IKS Rotarran (Martok’s flagship during the Dominion War). Those two are essentially Hero Ships, and I’d love to know more about those and more of the classic green, winged workhorses of the Klingon Empire.
Another guy in Robocop with Miguel Ferrer who was in the old Star Trek movie Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country was Kurtwood Smith, he played the President of the Federation.
I love the design of the Excelsior and certainly my favourite starfleet ship design from the old days. For me the Enterprise always looked too fragile. The Excelsior looks more sturdy since it's a bulkier ship.
There was a theory on wikipedia once, that the first drawing of the "Enterprise" ever was _meant_ to show a spherical main body with several engines attached, but only two shown on the cross section. The model-builder took it as a disk seen from above, with only two engines attached to the reactor core via rather fragile struts. The rest is history.
I had heard many years ago that the "Transwarp Drive" that was on the Excelsior wasn't traswarp similar to what the Borg use, but was a new method if warp drive engagement able to jump immediately to any warp factor without having to speed up through the previous warp factors before it. In other words, Starfleet ships, if they wanted to go warp seven, would have to go to warp, and speed up until they hit warp 7, where the Excelsior could instantly go from impulse directly to warp 7 completely skipping the step of having to "speed up". It's my understanding that modern Starfleet ships can indeed do this to a point, which I understand as being their "normal operating" speed, so for example, the Enterprise D has a standard operating speed of warp 6, so they could go from a standstill to warp six, but if they wanted to go faster, they would have to speed up from warp 6 to say warp 8, and of course, the closer to maximum they get, the longer it takes to get those few extra decimal places. If anyone knows anything different, or can contribute further, by all means, this is just an amalgamation of what I've heard over the years, I could be completely off base, but it's my current understanding of the way things worked and work.
I was looking for a comment like this. I don't remember where I got the information from, but I remember reading that the events of Star Trek III halted development of the 'transwarp drive'. But by the time of Next Generation, they had continued it, and began incorporating it into newer ships. And the defining feature of it was the ability to go directly from sub-light speed, to any achievable warp velocity. It also necessitated a 're-classifying' of what the speeds for warp were. Warp 2 in the original series is not the same as warp 2 in The Next Generation. It's the main 'in continuity' reason why ships aren't supposed to go past 'warp 10'. Because that's basically 'off the scale'. Maybe check some of the star trek wiki pages. Some of them offer insight and sources I'd never think of or have access to. and I think the Borg use 'Transwarp conduits' to travel, which I think is like a technobabble wording for wormhole' that sounds new and 'techie'.
We'll probably never know. The writers could never agree on it, specifically. Starfleet Dynamics book implied Transwarp was a 5 x multiple of warp factors, rather than 3 x, for speed, etc. So Warp 3 is 27 x lightspeed, but transwarp 3 = 243 x lightspeed, etc. Or, it's all done by wormholes/interphase, etc.
@@freakctc From what they show of Borg transwarp conduits, it really looks like the wormhole from DS9. And the word "transwarp" could be Star Fleets way of saying "faster then current speed/methods".
All we can be certain about transwarp is that all the time spent on research and development, all the expense of labor and materials, the careers and reputations of all the scientists and engineers who worked diligently and with tremendous effort to bring the project to reality was all wasted--yes, WASTED--and that Captain Styles and the crew of the Excelsior were humiliated, apparently beyond redemption, because Scotty didn't like it.
08:27 - I could have sworn you were going to say Frank Welker (Freddy Jones, Scooby Doo, Megatron, Nibbler, plus eleventy billion other voices), because I had no idea he ever voiced Spock.
Very much enjoying this - thank you. The "NCC" concept was explained in "The Making of Star Trek" by Stephen Whitfield that Roddenberry's intention was that it stood for "Naval Construction Contract," and the NX, debuted in STIII:TSFS, stood for "Naval Experimental."
both are incorrect actually the N was the added letter. CC is based on the USNavy hull classification for Command Cruiser. In this, the Reliant (as a light cruiser) should have been NCL-1864, and the Excelsior as a larger cruiser, battleship, or carrier could have been NCL-2000, NBB-2000, or NCV-2000 (my favorite)
In my personal head cannon - he died on the bridge, but was resuscitated in sickbay, the virus transferred to Tuvok and he recovered for the end shot on ST:VI - (again in my head)
That’s how I viewed it in my head canon also. Valtane’s injury was severe enough to convince the virus to move on to Tuvok but Valtane was revived and treated for his injuries in sickbay after the incident. Also, I think Sulu’s log entry that Janeway was reading later would be less mundane (hard to cover up a crew fatality).
@@ScramJett it’s a shame - they didn’t have to say he died - all they needed to do is add one of two things: 1) See a medical team reach him on the bridge (30secs or 1 min of them attending him tops) - or 2) Tuvok mentioning that he recovered from his injuries - OR watch the film and pick a character that isn’t in the final scene of the film?!?
That makes sense! Because let's face it, the original Excelsior bridge was nothing to write home about. I would love to see pictures of the set that burned down.
I'd love to see more for alien ships, like the Klingons and Romulans have tons of different ones that are super iconic, I feel like there's gotta be some juicy tidbits in there
First I would like to say IT IS GREAT TO SEE YOU ARE WELL THIS NIGHT, Hi Adam. So you have the fun job of presenting this fun and informative look at the great ship of Star Trek. I think it was interesting and like all the videos you do GOOD. Stay well till I view another work from you LONG LIVE TrekCulture
My head canon when concerning Valtane is what Miracle Max from the Princess Bride referred to as mostly dead. He was dead enough for the virus to pass to Tuvok just like how the virus was migrating to Janeway when Tuvok was dying.
Nice to hear something I didn't know after so many years. The Japanese design influence. I can't recall if it was intentional or not, but the Excelsior bridge in TSS, was a clear influence on one of the concepts for TOS's Enterprise bridge. Where it was conceptualized to be a full wrap around display that was fully interactive and information was to be displayed based on need. And there's a concept image of this. Now TSS's Excelsior bridge very much has that feel. Completely black, with no interruption with bulkheads or whatever. It very much seems to have been at the very least, a nice homage to that original concept, and very much made sense to me. While very 80's in display, the idea of it is one of my fav designs, that I'd love to have seen with some more refinement (money).
That's the one I tend to default to, yes. With NX as Naval Experimental, NSP as Naval Special Purpose, maybe, or support/passenger, and NAR as Naval reserve. I made up NCP too, for perimetre/patrol.
That isn't really a retcon. It was in many of the published books, "blueprints" (deck plans), and other collectibles in the 1970s. I own a few of them, which would be a truly weird flex on most YT channels...
Whoopsie! I read below that it was coined by the artist who compiled the blueprint collectible and approved by GR himself, so technically it WAS a retcon, just a very early one. The more you know...
@@jasonmote8859NX 01 doesn't count because it's pre-Federation, plus the dedication plaque (which I've seen online) says: "U.S.S. Enterprise: NCC-1701-B: Third starship to bear the name. Also, I meant 3rd ship to bear the name and registration number.
@@jamesspring4610 I think it's a debatable point. The NX was a starship, which was still in operation when the Federation was founded. It bears the Enterprise name and is shown in the ships of the line; in Picard's Ready room. Registry numbers change (rarely) but has happened. Enterprise 1701-B would be the fourth Starship Enterprise. I take your point on the Federation, but think it not as important as it was one of two ships in the fleet before the Federation, yet it still is a Starship.
@@jasonmote8859 If you (not you, specifically, rather "you" in the general sense, but I digress) want to get really anal about it, you could say that the NX-01 was simply "Enterprise" not "U.S.S. Enterprise" nor was the NX-01 part of the NCC-1701 lineage. The argument could also be made that in the original timeline, what was the NX-01 was not called "Enterprise" and that it wasn't until the crew travelled back in time during "First Contact" and Troi told Cochrane "That's our ship, the Enterprise" that the name held significance during that era.
You could imply that Scotty set trans-warp technology back. That the Excelsior was *always* capable of trans-warp speed but nobody spotted the parts Scotty removed and handed to Kirk after the experiment "failed". 🤣
07:00 Meh, they're referencing the dreaded Technical Manual. That thing had a line in its 1st edition (self-destruct systems) where they implied that 10^9 joules were half as much as 10^18 joules. There is some nice info in there, but quality-wise it's like written by someone who dropped out of fish school.
Frank Force, and Nimoy is the voice of the Excelsior turbolift, did not know that bit of trivia. That’s on another level level level. Though it is correct that George Takei really liked the design, and that’s sort of why he was made its captain in ST:VI?
Also, the novel descriptions are a little bit off: Sulu takes command from Styles in the novel Excelsior: Forged in Fire, which is pre Lost Era. The ship is in The Lost Era: Sundered, and also One Constant Star, where her fate in an anomaly (NOT related to the Albino) is revealed. Also appears in the novels War Dragons, The Captain's Daughter, The Fearful Summons, and Cast No Shadow.
the common definitions of "NCC", "NX", "NAR" etc aren't strictly canon. as the video states, the "NCC" came from Jefferies' own plane which had the prefix "NC" and just added another C to it for whatever reason
Another secret is the helm / navigation positions are switched. In the original position the helm was on the left the nav was on the right. Excelsior Class has it the other way around. NCC means Naval Construction Contract.
Boys: BEYONCE IS THE QUEEN OF SPACE!!! Men: The Excelsior is the true queen you uncultured swine Chads: It is obviously Uhura though one of you is more correct that the other *Looks at boy with disgust.
I am a 63 year old Star trek fan would love to see the USS Alka-Seltzer. And NCC is Naval Contract Number as as stated in the original Star Trek Manual from the 60's.
ooh that's a good one. Originally started out as a yellow kitbash model on Picard's desk and was later made into a full-fledged model for "The Battle" in favor of reusing the Constitution-class.
NCC = Naval Construction Contractors. It's is actually a Company that does shipbuilding for Starfleet. It was supposedly a centuries old company that transformed from real Naval vessel shipbuilding to building ships for Starfleet from it's very inception. Not certain if that's Canon, but I sure like the story.
Aside from Hero ships I think the reliant a Villian ship deserves its time in the spotlight given the Miranda Class model was used as 3 different variants of starship along with being used from the TOS era (name is actually seen on a board in a TOS episode) to well into the dominion war a class of starship that was in work over 100 years
The design Nimoy chose makes sense. It looks like the Enterprise, but everything amped up. That's like putting a skinny short guy next to a tall muscular guy. They are both comparable as guys, but one is just suped up. If the design of Excelsior were too far away from the constitution refit, the comparison wouldn't be there.
Transwarp, literally "Beyond Warp". It isn't its own thing on its own, but use to describe warp drives beyond what is currently used. The Excelsior's experiment was a success, and the warp scale was redone, which is why the TOS and TNG speeds are different.
If the Excelsior Class was designed by the Japanese, it would have both a wave motion gun and SDF-1 style transformation. Oh yes, along with a secret Maid Cafe on the lower decks. :P As for the Dolphin Series... Hydran Starships!
If the Excelsior was made to look like it was designed by the French, it would be goddamn ugly as sin (check out French pre-WW2 bombers) and have a "Drop Weapons" function fitted.
@@CZ350tuner If the Italians designed one it would probably look more like the Enterprise-E. Sleek and streamlined with no unnecessary weight. DS9's Defiant was probably German designed, tho.
@@CZ350tuner have you ever seen the b-18 Bolo? Not exactly a looker either... A better example would be French pre-dreadnought battleships. The designers kept tweaking the designs to the point that even ships in the same class looked different.
Well, technically it *did* have a wave motion gun. It's the deflector dish and was used in Generations to disrupt that massive energy ribbon dubbed the "Nexus" so they could break free. :)
I wish they did a series with the USS Excelsior and Capt. Sulu. A bit late now unless they cast somebody else as Sulu and that would be hard to pull off. There could be a lot of goings on and drama with the transition to being allies with the Klingons.
As someone who has loved the ships of the line since single-digit ages, this series is one of, if not the coolest Star Trek content on UA-cam. Keep it up, Adam!
Maybe there's info we're not privy to, but it's a bit odd that Sulu spent like 30 years as a helmsman and then was given command of the newest, biggest ship in the fleet. I mean, Chekhov was at least first officer of the Reliant.
Excelsior has always been my favorite. So much so that I spent actual money to buy one on Star Trek Online. If you see the U.S.S. Resolute or the U.S.S. Texarkana (depending on what character I'm playing as) pull alongside and say "Hello"
Since Tuvok was retconned into ST6, would it then be safe to assume that the unnamed Lt in STG aboard the Enterprise B is also him? Chronologically it fits.
The hilarious thing about the Navy numbers being "traditional" is that in the Navy they are all different because they all actually stand for different things. The ones I know are these: DE-1076 Destroyer, Escort FF-1076 Fast Frigate (same ship with an updated number, actually) CV-6 Cruiser, aViation (A was for lighter than air aviation, V was for heavier than air aviation) CVN-65 Cruiser, aViation, Nuclear BTW, you should do a video about the hull numbers on non-Starfleet vessels. I'm sure a lot of us would be interested.
Truely ahead of it's time at 6.22 in the top right corner someone is syncing their gen 2 ipod on one of the engineering stations according to one of the L Cars
How about a video on the Romulan Warbird both the old and new one. The old being from TNG, DS9, Nemesis & Voyager if there was one on that show I think there was. And the new ones being from Star Trek: Picard? That my pick.
The "sidekick" ships as I like to call them that need a bit more attention... 1: constellation class 2: Miranda class 3: Marquee raider 4: Yeager class 5: Oberth class 6: USS Jenolan
You've got ONE more hero ship to do before the new shows come out, La Sirena. Also do the USS Titan from Lower Decks, it may not be the hero ship but any ship with Riker deserves a long hard look.
Fun fact: Excelsior's entire neck is one big sensor module. That why it is so massive in comparison to other ships also, black grill on it are sensor antennas.
In theory it should be F.S.S. Federation Star Ship(similar to USS of US navy, HMS for Royal Navy, etc.). Thats how ships introduce themself in all shows.
Haha yeah I’d love to seen an in-universe explanation behind the version of it that (sort of) appeared in Discovery with the bizarre mini nacelles on the bent nacelle pylons
Loved the way they portrayed the Excelsior in Undiscovered Country. It looked big, heavy, and tough.
Funny thing is, the Excelsior-class was seen so frequently in TNG because it was deemed easier (and cheaper) to use the existing studio model than to build a newer 'guest ship' that would later become the Ambassador-class (which itself was oddly rarely seen after its introduction in "Yesterday's Enterprise"...)
To be fair, the Ambassador class model came up for auction recently, and in all honesty it was pretty ropey.; the "aztecing" was done with stuck on bits of paper. Perfect for really low-light NTSC, but a long way from the quality of the Excelsior model.
When I watched undiscovered country in cinema I was so hyped for a Excelsior series or movie!
Even when only given small bits to work with George Takei was always brilliant as Sulu but his tour de force performance was ST 6 when Captain Sulu becomes Captain Kirk's equal both in canon and screen presence best exemplified by the "Fly her apart then!" Scene
A little addition to #4
All of the Excelsior class ships seen in TNG are the NX version of the ship. This is due to the series having started before ST6 was made and the studio model was modified into the NCC version.
Actually, NCC thing was, a combination of the call letters "N" for civilian US aircraft, and "CC" for Soviet civil aircraft, according to Jefferies, who was a private pilot. It was explicitly *not* a military designation. The "Naval Construction Contract" was something Franz Joesph came up with when he did the Enterprise blueprints.
And the blueprints and tech manual were approved by the Great Bird of the Galaxy, who outranks Jeffries.
@@johndeltuvia7892 and both are true. Jeffries did combine civilian code letters, and it worked fine.
Then, at a later time, details needed to be fleshed out, and those letters became acronyms.
Agreed, I was yelling at my screen when Adam said it was initially a naval designation.
That certainly fit in with the notion of Starfleet being an exploratory organization and not a military one. Also suited the times: a subtle message to American’s and Russian’s that, someday, they can become allies.
CC was also Command Cruiser in the US Navy until 1962
エクセルシオール is just "Excelsior" written in katakana(The Japanese script for borrow words). Technically, Ekuserushiōru
Hehe. In german it is: Holzwolle. (=Wood wool.) 🤣🤣🤣
I would LOVE to see a video about the Klingon Birds-of-Prey. Especially the HMS Bounty (aka the ship with the whales) and the IKS Rotarran (Martok’s flagship during the Dominion War). Those two are essentially Hero Ships, and I’d love to know more about those and more of the classic green, winged workhorses of the Klingon Empire.
The Excelsior-Class is one the best, if not the best looking ship in Star Trek
I agree. It's one of the few shops that actually LOOKS like it has the mass of a huge starship and not just a movie model.
Its definitely one of my favourite designs.
Agreed, it's so unique
If I could choose a class to serve on/command (if I was fortunate enough to land a command in ST) it’d be the Excelsior.
I agree however for me personally I have it tied with the sovereign and odyssey classes
Another guy in Robocop with Miguel Ferrer who was in the old Star Trek movie Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country was Kurtwood Smith, he played the President of the Federation.
Also played Anorak in the Voyager episode Year of Hell.
I love the design of the Excelsior and certainly my favourite starfleet ship design from the old days. For me the Enterprise always looked too fragile. The Excelsior looks more sturdy since it's a bulkier ship.
There was a theory on wikipedia once, that the first drawing of the "Enterprise" ever was _meant_ to show a spherical main body with several engines attached, but only two shown on the cross section. The model-builder took it as a disk seen from above, with only two engines attached to the reactor core via rather fragile struts. The rest is history.
To me the USS Excelsior is the best looking star ship of the series. It's proportions are perfect. It looks to be built like a tank. Best ship!
Built like a tank, true. Too bad that I'm a "tank half empty" guy. ;(
Looks like a bath tub to me
NCC 1701 is the best
I thought it was a cool design, not surprised they ultimately made the Enterprise B Excelsior Class.
i swear yours are the only trekculture videos i enjoy. you crack me up.
I had heard many years ago that the "Transwarp Drive" that was on the Excelsior wasn't traswarp similar to what the Borg use, but was a new method if warp drive engagement able to jump immediately to any warp factor without having to speed up through the previous warp factors before it. In other words, Starfleet ships, if they wanted to go warp seven, would have to go to warp, and speed up until they hit warp 7, where the Excelsior could instantly go from impulse directly to warp 7 completely skipping the step of having to "speed up".
It's my understanding that modern Starfleet ships can indeed do this to a point, which I understand as being their "normal operating" speed, so for example, the Enterprise D has a standard operating speed of warp 6, so they could go from a standstill to warp six, but if they wanted to go faster, they would have to speed up from warp 6 to say warp 8, and of course, the closer to maximum they get, the longer it takes to get those few extra decimal places.
If anyone knows anything different, or can contribute further, by all means, this is just an amalgamation of what I've heard over the years, I could be completely off base, but it's my current understanding of the way things worked and work.
I was looking for a comment like this. I don't remember where I got the information from, but I remember reading that the events of Star Trek III halted development of the 'transwarp drive'. But by the time of Next Generation, they had continued it, and began incorporating it into newer ships.
And the defining feature of it was the ability to go directly from sub-light speed, to any achievable warp velocity. It also necessitated a 're-classifying' of what the speeds for warp were. Warp 2 in the original series is not the same as warp 2 in The Next Generation. It's the main 'in continuity' reason why ships aren't supposed to go past 'warp 10'. Because that's basically 'off the scale'.
Maybe check some of the star trek wiki pages. Some of them offer insight and sources I'd never think of or have access to.
and I think the Borg use 'Transwarp conduits' to travel, which I think is like a technobabble wording for wormhole' that sounds new and 'techie'.
We'll probably never know. The writers could never agree on it, specifically.
Starfleet Dynamics book implied Transwarp was a 5 x multiple of warp factors, rather than 3 x, for speed, etc. So Warp 3 is 27 x lightspeed, but transwarp 3 = 243 x lightspeed, etc.
Or, it's all done by wormholes/interphase, etc.
@@freakctc From what they show of Borg transwarp conduits, it really looks like the wormhole from DS9. And the word "transwarp" could be Star Fleets way of saying "faster then current speed/methods".
All we can be certain about transwarp is that all the time spent on research and development, all the expense of labor and materials, the careers and reputations of all the scientists and engineers who worked diligently and with tremendous effort to bring the project to reality was all wasted--yes, WASTED--and that Captain Styles and the crew of the Excelsior were humiliated, apparently beyond redemption, because Scotty didn't like it.
@@wcw43921 you'll get no argument from me there.
08:27 - I could have sworn you were going to say Frank Welker (Freddy Jones, Scooby Doo, Megatron, Nibbler, plus eleventy billion other voices), because I had no idea he ever voiced Spock.
Very much enjoying this - thank you. The "NCC" concept was explained in "The Making of Star Trek" by Stephen Whitfield that Roddenberry's intention was that it stood for "Naval Construction Contract," and the NX, debuted in STIII:TSFS, stood for "Naval Experimental."
both are incorrect actually
the N was the added letter. CC is based on the USNavy hull classification for Command Cruiser.
In this, the Reliant (as a light cruiser) should have been NCL-1864, and the Excelsior as a larger cruiser, battleship, or carrier could have been NCL-2000, NBB-2000, or NCV-2000 (my favorite)
In my personal head cannon - he died on the bridge, but was resuscitated in sickbay, the virus transferred to Tuvok and he recovered for the end shot on ST:VI - (again in my head)
That’s how I viewed it in my head canon also. Valtane’s injury was severe enough to convince the virus to move on to Tuvok but Valtane was revived and treated for his injuries in sickbay after the incident. Also, I think Sulu’s log entry that Janeway was reading later would be less mundane (hard to cover up a crew fatality).
@@ScramJett it’s a shame - they didn’t have to say he died - all they needed to do is add one of two things: 1) See a medical team reach him on the bridge (30secs or 1 min of them attending him tops) - or 2) Tuvok mentioning that he recovered from his injuries - OR watch the film and pick a character that isn’t in the final scene of the film?!?
Nice to know I'm not the only one in love with this ship.
I’m surprised you didn’t mention the studio fire that destroyed the first Excelsior bridge set and led to the rushed diminished version seen in STIII.
That makes sense! Because let's face it, the original Excelsior bridge was nothing to write home about. I would love to see pictures of the set that burned down.
I thought that bridge was a redress of the Enterprise/Reliant bridge. I just know the Excelsior bridge in ST VI was alot better I think.
I would like to see a TV series about the Excelsior
Grammar
They almost made one but stupid leaders of the Network at the Time scrapped the idea , it was going to star Sulu
@@Jesus_Offical good thing I changed it
@@IvanGarcia-xy7bf I would love to see a sires like that
The studio is awesome.
Tim Russ IS in The Undiscovered Country... that's why he's on the Excelsior in the Voyager episode. Brilliant honestly.
He is not in The Undiscovered Country. He is in Generations as a human Enterprise B officer.
The bridge had also been reused in Generations as the operations room in the Amargosa Observatory which greatly damaged much of the bones of the set.
Can we get a Miranda-class video, please? I’d love to see all her variations and abilities, especially considering her venerable service length.
I really did misread that as, "...her vulnerable service length." It still fits.
I second this. The Miranda class is one of the oldest in canon as well.
I'd love to see more for alien ships, like the Klingons and Romulans have tons of different ones that are super iconic, I feel like there's gotta be some juicy tidbits in there
IKS Rotaran
@@derekscanlan4641 100%
The Excelsior and Sovereign Class are my favorite ships ever!!
First I would like to say IT IS GREAT TO SEE YOU ARE WELL THIS NIGHT, Hi Adam. So you have the fun job of presenting this fun and informative look at the great ship of Star Trek. I think it was interesting and like all the videos you do GOOD. Stay well till I view another work from you LONG LIVE TrekCulture
The USS Excelsior is one of the most BEAUTIFUL ships in all of Star Trek.
Naw man. The Sovereign Class is the sexiest of them all.
Bleh. Discovery for me. Or the D’deridex.
@@generativeyoutuber Connie refit for me
Absolutely agree with you! 🖖
I had the pleasure of building and texturing this ship for Star Trek Bridge Crew VR. It's my favorite ship design, just behind the Enterprise Refit.
My head canon when concerning Valtane is what Miracle Max from the Princess Bride referred to as mostly dead. He was dead enough for the virus to pass to Tuvok just like how the virus was migrating to Janeway when Tuvok was dying.
Nice to hear something I didn't know after so many years. The Japanese design influence.
I can't recall if it was intentional or not, but the Excelsior bridge in TSS, was a clear influence on one of the concepts for TOS's Enterprise bridge. Where it was conceptualized to be a full wrap around display that was fully interactive and information was to be displayed based on need. And there's a concept image of this. Now TSS's Excelsior bridge very much has that feel. Completely black, with no interruption with bulkheads or whatever. It very much seems to have been at the very least, a nice homage to that original concept, and very much made sense to me. While very 80's in display, the idea of it is one of my fav designs, that I'd love to have seen with some more refinement (money).
my favorite trek ship!
*Twin Peaks. What a show.*
RETCON: NCC stands for Naval Construction Contract.
Thank you. I was taken aback.
That's the one I tend to default to, yes.
With NX as Naval Experimental, NSP as Naval Special Purpose, maybe, or support/passenger, and NAR as Naval reserve.
I made up NCP too, for perimetre/patrol.
That isn't really a retcon. It was in many of the published books, "blueprints" (deck plans), and other collectibles in the 1970s. I own a few of them, which would be a truly weird flex on most YT channels...
Whoopsie! I read below that it was coined by the artist who compiled the blueprint collectible and approved by GR himself, so technically it WAS a retcon, just a very early one. The more you know...
@@colormedubious4747 also, in the novel First Frontier, too, I think?
I remember reading DC Comics’ Star Trek around 1985 where Kirk and crew were assigned the Excelsior.
The Enterprise-B is the 3rd Federation starship to bear the name, not the second.
4th starship actually. NX-01, 1701, 1701-A, 1701-B
@@jasonmote8859NX 01 doesn't count because it's pre-Federation, plus the dedication plaque (which I've seen online) says: "U.S.S. Enterprise: NCC-1701-B: Third starship to bear the name. Also, I meant 3rd ship to bear the name and registration number.
@@jamesspring4610 I think it's a debatable point. The NX was a starship, which was still in operation when the Federation was founded. It bears the Enterprise name and is shown in the ships of the line; in Picard's Ready room. Registry numbers change (rarely) but has happened. Enterprise 1701-B would be the fourth Starship Enterprise. I take your point on the Federation, but think it not as important as it was one of two ships in the fleet before the Federation, yet it still is a Starship.
@@jasonmote8859 Agreed. It all depends on your point of view.
@@jasonmote8859 If you (not you, specifically, rather "you" in the general sense, but I digress) want to get really anal about it, you could say that the NX-01 was simply "Enterprise" not "U.S.S. Enterprise" nor was the NX-01 part of the NCC-1701 lineage.
The argument could also be made that in the original timeline, what was the NX-01 was not called "Enterprise" and that it wasn't until the crew travelled back in time during "First Contact" and Troi told Cochrane "That's our ship, the Enterprise" that the name held significance during that era.
My favourite ship of all time 😍
You could imply that Scotty set trans-warp technology back. That the Excelsior was *always* capable of trans-warp speed but nobody spotted the parts Scotty removed and handed to Kirk after the experiment "failed". 🤣
It never failed. Excelsior’s “Transwarp” just gave us the TNG era Warp Scale.
There's a fan site that likes to pretend Scotty's actions prevented a catastrophe. I like that version.
07:00 Meh, they're referencing the dreaded Technical Manual. That thing had a line in its 1st edition (self-destruct systems) where they implied that 10^9 joules were half as much as 10^18 joules. There is some nice info in there, but quality-wise it's like written by someone who dropped out of fish school.
"How can you have a yellow alert in spacedock?!?" ~ Captain Styles, 'Star Trek III The Search for Spock'.
“Sir, someone is stealing the Enterprise!”
@@ClergetMusic "...Kirk, you do this, you'll never sit in the captain's chair again!".
Me: *SNORTS*
👍very interesting. Thanks
I'd like to see details about all of many variants of the Ambassador, Nebula, & Miranda classes.
Probert Ambassador
Frank Force, and Nimoy is the voice of the Excelsior turbolift, did not know that bit of trivia. That’s on another level level level.
Though it is correct that George Takei really liked the design, and that’s sort of why he was made its captain in ST:VI?
But Sulu became the Captain of the Excelsior so it WAS a Hero Ship in the END
Agreed!!
Agreed 👍
Also, the novel descriptions are a little bit off:
Sulu takes command from Styles in the novel Excelsior: Forged in Fire, which is pre Lost Era.
The ship is in The Lost Era: Sundered, and also One Constant Star, where her fate in an anomaly (NOT related to the Albino) is revealed.
Also appears in the novels War Dragons, The Captain's Daughter, The Fearful Summons, and Cast No Shadow.
Nobody says "Excelsior" nearly as well as George Takei.
It was indeed especially as it helped ncc1701 in undiscovered Country
LOVE the fact that you said Twin Peaks was what Miguel Ferrer was most known for!
16:07 Of course Frank Welker is a voice in it. Its FRANK WELKER. He is THE voice. In everything.
How about some Goldfish episodes?
The shuttles and runabouts appear in so many stories - yet they always seem to be tagged on to their parent ship. 😉
Great job AC, as always
Great video!
The sovereign class ship please please 😁 enterprise e was a beauty, seeing that ship fight the borg in first contact was chefs kiss
NCC is the Starfleet abbreviation for "Naval Construction Contract".
For whatever reason I’ve been calling it “Naval Commisioned Craft” in my head this whole time
NCC = "Naval Call Code".
NAR = "Naval Auxiliary Register".
It didn't actually mean anything when Gene came up with it, but many people have assigned some fantastic meanings to it retroactively.
NCC was defined as Naval Construction Contract in Diane Carey’s Star Trek novel Best Destiny, which makes sense as Starfleet is based on the US Navy.
the common definitions of "NCC", "NX", "NAR" etc aren't strictly canon.
as the video states, the "NCC" came from Jefferies' own plane which had the prefix "NC" and just added another C to it for whatever reason
McCoy - By God that's a big ship.
Scotty - Not so big as her captain I think.
04:11 That scene is begging for some mad-libbing.
Riker: * _cheesy one-liner_ *
_crickets_
Troy: _I'm not getting paid enough for this $%&#_
"A new queen of space"
Shows Uhura the whole time this is said. I am not against this
Another secret is the helm / navigation positions are switched.
In the original position the helm was on the left the nav was on the right.
Excelsior Class has it the other way around.
NCC means Naval Construction Contract.
Boys: BEYONCE IS THE QUEEN OF SPACE!!!
Men: The Excelsior is the true queen you uncultured swine
Chads: It is obviously Uhura though one of you is more correct that the other *Looks at boy with disgust.
Experimental airplanes in the US have NX- registration numbers. NC- used to be the prefix for normal registrations but that was shortened to N-.
Best line ever: "Why was it called the big experiment? No, not because the Captain had a mustache"
I am a 63 year old Star trek fan would love to see the USS Alka-Seltzer. And NCC is Naval Contract Number as as stated in the original Star Trek Manual from the 60's.
Please make a top ten secrets of the Stargazer!
ooh that's a good one. Originally started out as a yellow kitbash model on Picard's desk and was later made into a full-fledged model for "The Battle" in favor of reusing the Constitution-class.
NCC = Naval Construction Contractors. It's is actually a Company that does shipbuilding for Starfleet. It was supposedly a centuries old company that transformed from real Naval vessel shipbuilding to building ships for Starfleet from it's very inception. Not certain if that's Canon, but I sure like the story.
Aside from Hero ships I think the reliant a Villian ship deserves its time in the spotlight given the Miranda Class model was used as 3 different variants of starship along with being used from the TOS era (name is actually seen on a board in a TOS episode) to well into the dominion war a class of starship that was in work over 100 years
The design Nimoy chose makes sense. It looks like the Enterprise, but everything amped up. That's like putting a skinny short guy next to a tall muscular guy. They are both comparable as guys, but one is just suped up. If the design of Excelsior were too far away from the constitution refit, the comparison wouldn't be there.
Transwarp, literally "Beyond Warp". It isn't its own thing on its own, but use to describe warp drives beyond what is currently used. The Excelsior's experiment was a success, and the warp scale was redone, which is why the TOS and TNG speeds are different.
Very cool video.
If the Excelsior Class was designed by the Japanese, it would have both a wave motion gun and SDF-1 style transformation.
Oh yes, along with a secret Maid Cafe on the lower decks. :P
As for the Dolphin Series...
Hydran Starships!
If the Excelsior was made to look like it was designed by the French, it would be goddamn ugly as sin (check out French pre-WW2 bombers) and have a "Drop Weapons" function fitted.
@@CZ350tuner If the Italians designed one it would probably look more like the Enterprise-E. Sleek and streamlined with no unnecessary weight. DS9's Defiant was probably German designed, tho.
@@CZ350tuner have you ever seen the b-18 Bolo? Not exactly a looker either...
A better example would be French pre-dreadnought battleships.
The designers kept tweaking the designs to the point that even ships in the same class looked different.
Well, technically it *did* have a wave motion gun. It's the deflector dish and was used in Generations to disrupt that massive energy ribbon dubbed the "Nexus" so they could break free. :)
Japanese starship? uhm, A Borg Cube. 50% smaller, with cat ears and a very funny but useless universal translator
I wish they did a series with the USS Excelsior and Capt. Sulu. A bit late now unless they cast somebody else as Sulu and that would be hard to pull off. There could be a lot of goings on and drama with the transition to being allies with the Klingons.
John Cho?
Captain Styles looked very good in the Star Fleet red coat uniforms ..
LOVE your American accent.
As someone who has loved the ships of the line since single-digit ages, this series is one of, if not the coolest Star Trek content on UA-cam. Keep it up, Adam!
Adam, I love your presentations! They are sooo funny!
Maybe there's info we're not privy to, but it's a bit odd that Sulu spent like 30 years as a helmsman and then was given command of the newest, biggest ship in the fleet. I mean, Chekhov was at least first officer of the Reliant.
And as second officer, on the Enterprise, more or less...
He could've been Spock's first officer prior to Wrath of Khan.
Chekov*
I always thought Excelsior was one of the most beautiful of all the Star Trek ships.
There was a pretty cool game about the Excelsior going into the Mirror Universe.
Excelsior has always been my favorite. So much so that I spent actual money to buy one on Star Trek Online. If you see the U.S.S. Resolute or the U.S.S. Texarkana (depending on what character I'm playing as) pull alongside and say "Hello"
That Data head is way creapy!
Since Tuvok was retconned into ST6, would it then be safe to assume that the unnamed Lt in STG aboard the Enterprise B is also him? Chronologically it fits.
The hilarious thing about the Navy numbers being "traditional" is that in the Navy they are all different because they all actually stand for different things. The ones I know are these:
DE-1076 Destroyer, Escort
FF-1076 Fast Frigate (same ship with an updated number, actually)
CV-6 Cruiser, aViation (A was for lighter than air aviation, V was for heavier than air aviation)
CVN-65 Cruiser, aViation, Nuclear
BTW, you should do a video about the hull numbers on non-Starfleet vessels. I'm sure a lot of us would be interested.
Cool. I assumed CV meant Carrier Vessel. I knew the N was Nuclear though.
I'd like to see an episode on the Prometheus... That is a cool ship....
Such a beautiful ship! My favorite class!
Still my favourite ship in all Trek, just love the way it looks like no other!
Huge props for putting Kira and not 7of9!
Amazing video, fantastic ship, you're a great host on a fantastic channel. xx
Would like to see 10 secrets of Morn's freighter.
A man of culture! 🖖😀
NX means Naval X Experimental NCC Naval Construction Contract
I asked for Enterprise B, and you deliver the Excelsior... ehhhh okay I'll take it :)
my favourite ship.
What is the dolphin-scene at 01:34 from? Did they actually show the Cetacean Ops and I missed it??
Truely ahead of it's time at 6.22 in the top right corner someone is syncing their gen 2 ipod on one of the engineering stations according to one of the L Cars
How about a video on the Romulan Warbird both the old and new one. The old being from TNG, DS9, Nemesis & Voyager if there was one on that show I think there was. And the new ones being from Star Trek: Picard? That my pick.
Very interesting video keep it up guys!
The "sidekick" ships as I like to call them that need a bit more attention...
1: constellation class
2: Miranda class
3: Marquee raider
4: Yeager class
5: Oberth class
6: USS Jenolan
The USS Crazyhorse sounds like one of those ships built for just party cruises, 24th Century style!
The “Crazy Horse” is a strip club by me😹
WOW 🖖🏾I'm watching as this PREMIERES
You've got ONE more hero ship to do before the new shows come out, La Sirena. Also do the USS Titan from Lower Decks, it may not be the hero ship but any ship with Riker deserves a long hard look.
A long hard road getting from here to there
STP isn’t Star Trek.
@@notabannedaccount8362 Keep telling yourself that, it won't make it true.
@@ermixonscraziesttheories STP is an edgy fanfic. Icheb’s eye gouging is a metaphor for what Kurtzman is doing to Trek.
@@notabannedaccount8362 I remember when you guys said that about ds9
The Excelsior class will always be a sexy design in my opinion.
that was fun to watch :D
😂😂😂😂
Why am I laughing? Because just as he says “No. 6, up your Sh” it cuts to a add at just the right moment to make Adam sound like he’s swearing.
Fun fact: Excelsior's entire neck is one big sensor module. That why it is so massive in comparison to other ships also, black grill on it are sensor antennas.
Good work guys :-)
In theory it should be F.S.S. Federation Star Ship(similar to USS of US navy, HMS for Royal Navy, etc.). Thats how ships introduce themself in all shows.
Please do Bajoran lightships. Got to know just how comfy those hammocks are!
Anyone listen to starship Excelsior podcast? It’s a great listen
Best vid in a while. How about one on the USS Defiant from The Tholian Web and In a Mirror Darkly?
Haha yeah I’d love to seen an in-universe explanation behind the version of it that (sort of) appeared in Discovery with the bizarre mini nacelles on the bent nacelle pylons
USS Defiant (NCC-1764)