USS Excelsior (NCC-2000)

The USS Excelsior was first seen in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, under the command of Captain Styles. It later became Captain Sulu's ship in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

Overview[]

Technical Specifications[]

• CLASS: Excelsior-Class Starship
• TYPE: Heavy Cruiser Deep Space Explorer
• OVERALL LENGTH:
• OVERALL BEAM:
• OVERALL DRAFT:
• MASS: 2,350,000 metric tons
• DISPLACEMENT:
• DECKS:
• CREW COMPLEMENT: 750 persons
• CRUISING SPEED: Warp 9
• MAXIMUM SPEED: Warp 9.6

Design Features[]

History[]

Among the fantastic discoveries achieved by the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) during its five year mission undertaken by Captain James T. Kirk in 2265 to 2270 led to Federation scientists to what they believed was a quantum leap in interstellar propulsion. It was dubbed 'transwarp' as it was believed it would be faster and superior in speed to even warp drive. A purpose built test ship was constructed as proof of concept of this breakthrough and was dubbed the NX-2000, the USS Excelsior.

The starship itself became referred to as 'The Great Experiment' and was built as the next generation of heavy cruiser intended to be even more advanced than its predecessor; the Constitution-Class. The Excelsior was completed by 2285, but despite the Federation's best scientific minds; it would ultimately prove infeasible and a failure. Starfleet was loath to discard an entire starship and the Excelsior would be subsequently be refitted with standard warp drive nacelles and entered active Starfleet service in 2290 with the prefix of the NCC-2000.

Despite its troublesome and controversial history, the Excelsior spaceframe proved to be very sound and it was ultimately decided to build additional ships of the refitted class. In 2293, shortly before the first of the next generation of Excelsior-Class starships were completed; it was decided to retire the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A) and commission the first leading Excelsiors-Class Starship as the Enterprise-B or Enterprise-Beta.

Production Notes[]

The USS Excelsior had a much greater backstory and history in the Star Trek movies that was ultimately dropped. It was intended to be the "next generation" Starfleet ship, even bigger and more souped up version of the tried-and-true Constitution-Class Enterprise. There was a brief dialogue in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan of the existence of the ship and that Hikaru Sulu was slated to be promoted in order to command it. He only accepted a brief training post aboard the Enterprise partially out of nostalgia and more importantly, out of loyalty to Admiral Kirk.

Further in the original script of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock; Sulu's involvement of the incident with Khan resulted in Captain Styles being assigned temporary command over the shakedown cruise of the vessel as Sulu would have to be involved in extensive debriefings and Starfleet was unwilling to brook any delays to the transwarp trials. Sulu's later participation in Kirk's renegade operation to free Doctor McCoy and steal the Enterprise would result in the permanent loss of his promotion and command of the Excelsior for several years as another officer had been assigned to the ship and then the Excelsior was being refitted for regular warp engines.

Like the USS Reliant ship model, the Excelsior model was extensively reused on numerous Star Trek projects over the years as a cost-cutting measure and with minimal modifications appeared in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episodes.