The Excelsior class starship first appeared in Star Trek III, and is in my opinion one of the best looking ships on Trek. It is signifigant in that it's the first ship on Star Trek to stick to the standard saucer, engineering hull, two nacelle design while not reusing components from the Enterprise. This set the standard for the many variations that make Federation designs so interesting. Excelsior class ships have undergone at least three major refits, and is one of the most often depicted ships.

    In it's original configuration, the Excelsior had a single deflector crystal on the upper saucer section (much like the refit Constitution class), and a very simple bridge shape. This is a fairly large model (5' or 6' long) with a very intricate aztec pattern on the saucer.

    The pictures below were send to me by David Christy (you still around, David?). He scanned them from the instructions that were included with the Lunar Models 41" U.S.S. Excelsior model (mine didn't come with these!!). The original printing was terrible, but you can at least make out some of the aztec pattern. I scanned the side view picture from Star Trek: Continuing Mission.

    These are scanned from the first issue of Star Trek: Next Generation magazine. There is a really cool article in this mag that details the construction of the 6' Galaxy Class Enterprise with lots of photos of the construction. Get this magazine.

     When the U.S.S. Excelsior next appeared, it had been fitted with a new bridge module, dual deflector crystals, a much boxier cargo area in the rear, and a few other minor details. This version has actually been represented by three different models, the modified original, Greg Jein's version built for "Flashback", and the new CGI model.

    These are scanned from the photos taken by John Douglas at the '96 LA Con. This is the model built for the Voyager episode "Flashback". A new model had to be built because the original Excelsior model had been modified into the Enterprise B. Greg Jein did an excellent job of recreating the original, and the new model is nearly identical to the original, though a bit smaller.

    A copy of the "Flashback" Excelsior was on display at the Viacom store in Chicago, and I had the chance to take some photos. The castings are taken from the same molds as the studio model, but the model did not feature lighting, and the finish is quite a bit less precise. Quite a few imperfections are present (look closely at the hand painted deflector dish, and other small details), and you can see that shortcuts were taken in the painting stages. It looks like a few simple masks were made, and were used to create the different panels on the model. Notice the same simple shapes all over the model. This model does not have a "true" aztec pattern, but hints at it with these masking techniques. Notice that the shooting model in the L.A.Con pictures does have an aztec pattern. There are a lot of pictures, so I have divided them into three sections:

Complete model shots

Saucer detail shots

Main hull shots

The original Exelsior model was modified yet again to represent the Enterprise-B in "Generations". It had been previously established that the B was an Excelsior class ship, but they wanted something new, so it made perfect sense to modify the model. Two large impulse engines were added to the saucer (there is some debate about these actually being shuttle bays), and the engineering hull was augmented with some new thingiemabobbers. Changes were also made to the nacelles and bridge deck. I scanned the pictures below from STTNG: The Movies Sketchbook, and they show the U.S.S. Lakota from DS9.

Last Updated: 11/17/98
Any Comments or questions? E-mail me pedro@shiporama.org.