AMARTIN%DEC-MARLBORO@sri-unix.UUCP (06/29/84)
From: Alan H. Martin <AMARTIN at DEC-MARLBORO> There seems to be a dearth of good World Almanacs on the net. The nickname for New York State is "The Empire State". Or did King Kong climb the Excelsior State Building? The state motto is traditionally defined as "Ever upward". The four other Constitution Class MK-IX heavy cruisers involved in the war games in "The Ultimate Computer" were named Excalibur, Lexington, Potemkin and Hood. The name Excelsior - NCC-1718 was reserved for use on a Bonhomme Richard Class MK-IXA heavy cruiser whose construction was authorized by the Star Fleet appropriation of stardate 3220. This could not be the Excelsior of ST/III, because the registration of the ship in the movie was NX-200 (or -2000). The logical ship to have written in to the script to chase the Enterprise would be the first MK-X dreadnought scheduled to be built - the Federation - NCC-2100. The word that describes a dreadnought is "more". It has one more warp engine, mounted on a short pylon rising up out of the back of the primary hull. It can go two warp factors faster - cruising at warp 8 and bursts of warp 10. It can go for two more years (20) without stopping for refueling and resupply. (New York Star Trek fans know that the important replenishment stops are not Star Bases, but White Castle hamburger joints.) It has one more dish antenna, at the rear of the secondary hull (the shuttlecraft bay is at the front). It has two more phaser banks (they are also on the secondary hull). It is like the Enterprise, only it can sense more life forms, kill more life forms and ferry more ambassadors to apologize for it all. Maybe the first time they built one and turned it on it sucked itself into a self-made black hold. Or whipped around in circles (since Federation designers have never learned how to make the engines on these crates so that the axis of thrust points through the center of gravity). The dreadnoughts were real hot-rods, that is why Scotty didn't like the Excelsior. Alan Martin /AHM (AMARTIN@DEC-MARLBORO) --------
milne%uci-750a@sri-unix.UUCP (07/04/84)
From: Alastair Milne <milne@uci-750a> There seems to be a dearth of good dictionaries on the net. "Excelsior" is Latin, meaning "higher". The Oxford at least will give you exactly the derivation. I hardly think New York calls itself the Excelsior State because of its overwhelming lumber industry. Besides, if you research naval history, I think you'll find at least one or two notable ships named Excelsior, just as you'll find Exeter and Enterprise. Furthermore, didn't the episode called The Ultimate Computer have a sister ship of the Enterprise called Excelsior, in the war games? Couldn't swear to it -- I don't remember it that clearly -- but I thought it did. Alastair Milne
milne%uci-750a@sri-unix.UUCP (07/10/84)
From: Alastair Milne <milne@uci-750a>
Several people have pointed out that New York is the Empire State;
perhaps "Excelsior" is merely on the seal. I have the Oxford Universal
Dictionary's word for it that it's in there somewhere. (Though "Excelsior
State Building" does have rather a ring to it, no?)
However, the point was not geography, but the naming of a ship, for
which "Excelsior", in its Latin meaning, seems quite appropriate.
Although I'm glad people are alert to inaccuracies, I hope that this is
the last I will ever see on this subject. If anything was ever done to death,
this has been.
On a subject I prefer: does anybody know why this new warp effect has been
used in the last two movies (the one in which the ship simply accelerates, and
leaves behind a trial of multihued images of itself)? I thought the
star-streaking effect of the first movie much more effective, and rather more
likely (as far as any of this can be called "likely"). It certainly gave a
better impression of the sort of speeds the ship would attain with warp
drive.
A. Milne