When the idea of Star Trek Futures was initially forming we knew that we wanted to do something different and unique. We went out searching for starship designs that we're elegant, well crafted, and rooted in Star Trek canon. We had always liked the idea of using the Enterprise-C in our story line, so when doing research on the Ambassador class we came across a very interesting find. We found that the model that we see in the TNG episode "Yesterdays Enterprise" was actually not the original design for the Ambassador class. It turns out that Andrew Probert, who designed the Enterprise-D, amongst many other beautiful starships had also created a concept sketch for an Ambassador class to reside between the Enterprise-B and D. In correspondence with Mr. Probert he gave me some background on this...
"During preproduction, someone (me or a Producer) thought it would be a good idea to have some sort of size comparison between all ships named Enterprise. I thought it should be on one of the walls in Main Engineering so I came up with a vertical arrangement for one of the narrow walls, sketching in a new “C” Enterprise between the “B” (Excelsior Class) and “D”. The Producers liked the idea but thought, instead, that it should be seen in the Conference (changed to ‘observation’) Lounge wall so I took that opportunity to draft up a hard-line elevation of this new ship, to go along with the rest of the already-in-place Designs. A craftsman was brought in to sculpt the ships as half-hull models, arranging them in a broader grouping,… which was more pleasing for the wall on which it was destined."
"During preproduction, someone (me or a Producer) thought it would be a good idea to have some sort of size comparison between all ships named Enterprise. I thought it should be on one of the walls in Main Engineering so I came up with a vertical arrangement for one of the narrow walls, sketching in a new “C” Enterprise between the “B” (Excelsior Class) and “D”. The Producers liked the idea but thought, instead, that it should be seen in the Conference (changed to ‘observation’) Lounge wall so I took that opportunity to draft up a hard-line elevation of this new ship, to go along with the rest of the already-in-place Designs. A craftsman was brought in to sculpt the ships as half-hull models, arranging them in a broader grouping,… which was more pleasing for the wall on which it was destined."
"Later, at the beginning of episode six, "Where No One Has Gone Before”, the Enterprise has a rendezvous with the ‘USS Fearless’ to pick up an Engineering specialist,… a five second establishing image. Knowing the Producers below Gene would not have an understanding that, being 85 years beyond Kirk’s time (later changed to 71 years), StarFleet would have a totally different look to the ships, similar to our Galaxy-Class Enterprise. I knew that if I didn’t supply that ‘new’ ship cheaply, that they would resort to using one of the older models so I used that Enterprise-C Design in a small painting to be the Fearless. Having seen a lot of the ‘stock footage’ already in the can, I picked a sequence of the Enterprise entering frame from the upper left corner, drifting toward center frame, and painted it already in orbit, waiting for the Enterprise. This is a small portion of the frame which was mostly blank, waiting to be filled by the Enterprise element. For some reason, I thought, at the time, that the space background should be blue screen-blue,… kinda silly now, but that was my attempt at establishing a new Fleet. As you know, they used an Excelsior Class model and, of course, after I left the show, an episode came up actually featuring the Enterprise-C,… but the Design was changed and the sculpture-wall disappeared, pushing that Design into our foggy memories.
Now, at last, through the overwhelmingly complementary desire to feature this ship in: STAR TREK: FUTURES, and the genius talents of Tobias Richter, she will, at last… fly-"
Now, at last, through the overwhelmingly complementary desire to feature this ship in: STAR TREK: FUTURES, and the genius talents of Tobias Richter, she will, at last… fly-"
Probert drafting the Enterprise-C between a drawing of the Excelsior, below, and Enterprise-D (temporarily off the board) above.
We hope you enjoyed hearing this story as much as we did! We personally believe that this Ambassador design is vastly more elegant than what we see in TNG and sits perfectly between the ships that came before and after it. We sincerely thank Mr. Probert for taking the time to give us this little piece of amazing Star Trek history!
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