SCREENCAP ANALYSES
page 1
This section has the potential to be frequently updated. Research of the sometimes scant onscreen evidence is always going to be a continuing process. Anyway... basically this whole section attempts to pick apart some mystery screencap images of various scenes from various episodes. To get us started, lets look at some of those unusual starships seen in the Qualor II surplus depot ('Unification')
I first produced a series of TV captures of those ships some time ago. But with the advent of season five of TNG being released on DVD, new, finer quality captures have become available. It is Nick Angeloni who made the captures, and I'm grateful for his permission to use them here.
I've tried my best to analyse the images, but they're generally open to everyone's interpretation. I know others may have images like these on their sites, but I have not investigated their analyses, as I didn't want it to appear as if I've simply copied it. Everything below is the opinion of Trekmania, and if it mirrors theirs it only proves that we have like minds. I am also grateful for those who have contributed their voice to this analysis, pointing out things I missed, or correcting me entirely.
I am borrowing these images with the permission of Nick Angeloni of The History of The Enterprise. He has done an excellent job with these new DVD captures... I've enhanced these images the best I can. They are certainly now a lot better than the VHS and Laser Disc captures that were previously available...
Sorry that these images appear full-size here and not thumbnailed. But I thought in this instance it was more appropriate and convenient to have the text analysis next to the actual full sized image, rather than have the alternate between two windows.
For 56K Dial-up users, please be patient while page loads....
QUALOR II SURPLUS DEPOT FROM TNG'S 'UNIFICATION'
IMAGE ONE
The Niagara Class
USS Princeton is clearly identified in the top right hand corner
passing behind the Enterprise. The picture shows that it is damaged
severely, and it's quite a familiar image. This is due to it being identical to the known model of the
USS Princeton, first seen in the graveyard scene at Wolf 359 (TNG's 'The
Best of Both Worlds'.)
Greg Jein with the said model of the Niagara Class Princeton
Another photo of the Princeton
IMAGE TWO
It isn't hard to make out the now familiar Challenger
Class USS Buran here - it looks the same as when we last saw the
wreck at Wolf 359. The model of the Buran
used in the The Best of Both Worlds doesn't seem to have
been altered or amended, it appears here to be identical as in the Wolf 359 graveyard
scene.
One vessel is
immediately striking. That's the one towards the centre, which can be identified
as being the 4 Nacelled Excelsior Prototype (see
below). It clearly has a quad-nacelle design. To make certain, it's
obviously not a Constellation, Prometheus or Cheyenne, as other hull
characteristics don't match at all, and besides, it's long before the Prometheus
debuted. It is, without a doubt one of the early Excelsior study
models/prototypes, as seen here from The Art of Star Trek: (This ship will be
seen again later in the scene)
4 Nacelles Excelsior Study Model from The Art of Star Trek- (3D model) (Excelsior prototype study models page)
There's a partial
mystery surrounding the vessel I've labelled as the Phase
II Enterprise. This vessel never had an actual canon status, as it
was only developed as speculative design for the failed Phase II Star Trek
series from the late 70's. This is one such model from the series production,
designed by Ralph McQuarrie. We have a reasonable picture of it here, and one could speculatively assign the Apollo classification, as the Phase II
Enterprise study model has been strongly associated with the Apollo class (at
least amongst the ASDB :-). But we really now
have to
accept this ship as a canon component of Star Trek. What class this ship is to
be is uncertain. Some do call it Apollo Class, but I have doubts. It could also be
just a one off prototype ship that never went into full production. There are
also doubts over its size. To me it looks quite small, suitable perhaps for a
Surveyor designation. But it can't be known for sure.
The McQuarrie design Phase II Enterprise
K't'inga Class Klingon Battlecruiser
anyone? (this is a
K't'inga, which is a
far more detailed
'refit' of the D7). There's enough significant similarities so
suggest that it is a K't'inga. So one can only guess at what it's doing in a Federation
surplus depot. One may imagine that it is a captured ship. After being long ago
studied and stripped of all useful information and hardware, Starfleet simply
dumped it here to rot....
Also in the
scene is quite probably the prototype model of Spacedock
(see image below), and possibly another Galaxy
Class, although it's difficult to tell. One may explain away what one
of Starfleet's best and newest ships is doing in a Surplus Depot by speculating
that this, and two others (seen later) are Proto-Galaxies, now obsolete, much
like the Proto-Excelsiors. The object marked Unknown,
is exactly that. One may like to call it a Defiant, as it has a similar look,
but in the real world of this scene's production, the Defiant was some two years
away from being created...
Spacedock prototype model (Courtesy of The Guardian of Forever)
IMAGE THREE
The lone saucer with the tag 'Possible
Excelsior Prototype Saucer' towards the upper right, is not so tagged
with any great degree of confidence. I don't know what it is or where it came
from, to be frank. It seems to be though a lone saucer section
from one unknown class or another. It's at least possible that it's an amended saucer of another Excelsior study
model. As seen below.
You can see a strong resemblance between the unknown free floating saucer and this, another of the early Excelsior study models. The 'ridged' section across the front and back don't quite match this model though... Looking at the model closely though is quite interesting. You can see it is beginning to resemble the final, known Excelsior. So this model was probably a later version in the Excelsior's evolution.
The Space
Station type structure appears to be an active piece of hardware rather than a decommissioned
starship. It is in fact the Particle Fountain seen in 'Matter of Perspective',
but it's actual role in the scene may have meant to have been the depot command centre, or
offices/living quarters etc.
The vessel
labelled Batris/Antares does, at first
glance, appear strikingly non-Federation. It has more
Cardassian about it than Starfleet. But it's known to be a reuse of an alien
ship/generic freighter, most likely the Batris
floating upside down ( first pointed out by Timo at Flare)
The ever
ubiquitous Miranda Class appears here as
well, more than once, and as such, commands little interest here...
Thanks to the
superior quality of these new DVD captures (which far exceed the quality of my
VHS captures I had here before), we are now able to discern a lot more detail,
no more so than in the background. Beforehand we could only make out a melange
of blurry specks, and no detail could be made out. But now, we have a
tantalising impression of what these artefacts might be. So I've speculatively
placed labels on some of these, of what they at least resemble to me... The
Chekov, (again a reuse of the Wolf 359 print) seems reasonably safe,
but there are others here which I've marked up, firstly of two Galaxy
Class possibilities (small scale Ent-D models), a Constitution
secondary hull, and an Oberth nacelle.
Strange indeed, but that's what they look like at first glance, but in truth,
I'm reaching -they could be anything...
IMAGE FOUR
At the top we see the 4
Nacelle Excelsior prototype again. Seen now though from a different
angle (beneath).
Again the Mirandas make an appearance here
(early batch Reliant Mirandas, with roll bar et
al) and there's another view of the Batris,
as both Timo and Bernd have suggested. If there's a scaling issue (due to its sudden immense size), it could
be explained away by suggesting that is in front of the Miranda beneath
the Enterprise. If this is so then it is a lot closer to the camera, and would
hence appear to be larger.
IMAGE FIVE
The Particle Fountain, a Miranda
and Batris make appearances in this shot
too. Also you can see the mystery saucer
appearing behind the Enterprise at the top. In the far distance is the
interesting debris field of multiple objects. If only we had a closer view of
those....
IMAGE SIX
The ships at the top of the image are firstly the
Talarian Training ship
('Suddenly Human') and on the right is the Soliton Waverider ('New Ground').
Creeping into shot in the top left is another Excelsior
Prototype (more further below).
IMAGE SEVEN
More of the same, except for a mystery ship appearing in the top left. Possibly
another Antares Freighter...or it could be
the Talarian Warship (seen below in Image
Eight)
IMAGE EIGHT
IMAGE EIGHT BLOWN UP
Along with another view of the Soliton Waverider (bottom
right) we see a further example of the Excelsior
Prototype family. It is yet another version of
this evolving class of ship, and it's quite a fascinating one. It's similar to
the one we've seen before, although it's probably a later version of the proposed Excelsior class than the
quad-nacelle ship, for this model has reverted to the more conventional two
nacelles.
From the Art of Star Trek
Being a similar design to the 4 nacelled version it has a somewhat stretched and flattened secondary hull, and the saucer is probably a reuse from one of the other Excelsior study model's saucer, the one with 'ridges'. Speculating for a minute, nothing suggests this HAS to be an antiquated classification, just because it was built to represent an embryonic vision of the Excelsior. Here it could indeed represent a recent class, scrapped for whatever reason. Or it could indeed be an active ship in the Qualor system for its own reasons. But many go with the as yet unproved theory that this, and the other study models are one-off prototypes that Starfleet developed during the Excelsior project as they tried to refine the transwarp system, but of course as we know, they ultimately failed (and they dumped these failures at Qualor II)
The Soliton Waverider was an experimental
ship which appeared in 'New Ground'. It probably failed to catch on, hence its
presence in a 'Surplus Depot'.
The vessel in the foreground with the label Talarian
Warship was first pointed out by Timo. Compared with this shot of a Talarian
warship, it does have significant similarities, though seen here at Qualor front end first, (appeared in 'Suddenly Human'.)
If you wish to use any of the images on this page, you must ask
permission first. Do not use excerpts of text. Further distribution of Excelsior
prototype images is strictly prohibited, and is not to be used on
any web pages.
Many
thanks to Timo, Dukhat, Bernd, Nick Angeloni for the DVD captures, Thomas Smaberg of The
Guardian of Forever for the Spacedock image, and the others at
Flare
who have contributed ideas and opinions.
Page One Screencaps - Qualor II 'Unification' | Page Two Screencaps - Ships of 'A Time To Stand'
Page Three Screencaps - Wolf 359 'The Best Of Both Worlds' | Wolf 359 Ships Close up | Page Four - First Contact Ships
