USS EXCELSIOR (STAR TREK)

(Redirected from USS Excelsior (NCC-2000))

The 'USS ''Excelsior''' is a starship in the ''Star Trek'' fictional universe. The ''Excelsior'' was first seen in '' and had a cameo in ''. The ship appeared once again in '' when it was under the command of Captain Hikaru Sulu in 2293. An episode of '' ("Flashback") reveals that during the events of this film, then Ensign Tuvok was serving on the ''Excelsior'', as one of the junior science officers. ''Excelsior'' is the pathfinder of her class of starships.
The USS ''Excelsior'' (NX-2000) was commissioned as a testbed for new technologies by Starfleet Command, hence the name the "Great Experiment". One of these technologies, transwarp drive, was seen as a possible revolution in starship design, with the potential to open up the entire galaxy to exploratory missions due to vastly increased speed. However, the drive failed on ''Excelsior's'' first mission (the pursuit of the hijacked USS ''Enterprise'') due to sabotage by Montgomery Scott, who was very briefly appointed chief engineer of the vessel. Although it appears to have been declared a failure, the follow-on series never stated that the technology was a failure nor why.
The ship was briefly seen in both ''Star Trek IV'' and ''Star Trek V'' docked at the Earth Spacedock. She was then seen much more extensively in ''Star Trek VI'', and the ship had by then been reclassified as NCC-2000 and apparently refitted with standard warp engines. Several fan-based ''Star Trek'' technical guides give details on the reasons for the failure of the transwarp theory. However, there is no canonical reference to the fate of the transwarp program, but given that even 24th century vessels still lacked transwarp, it can be logically assumed that the experiment was a failure.
Two different bridge sets were seen for ''Excelsior''. The first set is seen in '' when she departed spacedock in pursuit of the USS ''Enterprise'', which had just been stolen by Captain Kirk. In this film, only the parts of the bridge that would be seen on screen were actually constructed. For '' a new and complete bridge set was built (actually a re-dress of the ''Enterprise''-A bridge). This bridge had a large status panel directly behind the Captain's chair. It also had helm and navigation consoles similar in appearance to the conn and ops consoles on the bridge of the ''Galaxy''-class starship.

The ''Excelsior''-class spaceframe proved to be remarkably durable, able to withstand considerable punishment both from the elements and enemy vessels alike (in ''Star Trek VI'', Excelsior sustains a direct photon torpedo strike to the saucer section, only to have it absorbed by the shields). This accounts for the considerable number of vessels remaining in Starfleet, even several decades later into the era of '' and ''.
Producer Harve Bennett originally intended for the ''Excelsior'' to replace the ''Enterprise'' after ''Star Trek III'', possibly as a result of complaints by ILM technicians that the ''Enterprise's model was too unwieldy. The idea did not prove popular however, and the replacement ''Enterprise'' was another ''Constitution''-class vessel. In '', however, a new ''Enterprise'', the NCC-1701-B, was briefly featured, and this was an ''Excelsior''-class refit vessel. Another USS ''Excelsior'' is mentioned in the ''TNG'' episode ''Interface'', which searched for the USS ''Hera'', commanded by the mother of ''Enterprise''-D chief engineer Geordi La Forge. It is unknown if it is the same vessel as seen in the ''TOS''-era films, and her class is not mentioned.
In the 1980s, DC Comics published a series of comic book stories said to take place between the events of ''Star Trek III'' and ''Star Trek IV''. In this storyline (which, like all Trek comic book stories, is not canon), Admiral James T. Kirk is given temporary command of the ''Excelsior'' following the destruction of the ''Enterprise''. In the comic book continuity, he loses this command just prior to the events of ''Star Trek IV''.

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