You might've been mistaken for thinking that issue 152 of the Official Starships Collection is some sort of error.
Conceived for the third movie instalment, this forward thinking starship was a little too forward thinking for 1984 and was canned in favour of a suped up and sleek version that we are greeted with upon the Enterprise's return to Spacedock in The Search for Spock.
The Excelsior concept (hereafter just known as Excelsior) projects a design that wouldn't see much light until the mid-90's when elements would eventually materialise in the design of such ships as the USS Prometheus NX-7xxxx.
Eaglemoss' model is a slender affair and almost Micro Machine in scale with the overall length of the craft dictating its overall size as part of the collection. To the front there's a small primary hull immediately recognisable due to its circular shape and even in this limited space we have enough to determine that not all the parts of this design were lost. The structure at the centre of the saucer surrounding the bridge would survive however the actual detail on this module is squandered in miniature. Crazy to admit but the early release Excelsior back in issue eight did it better.
The ship registry is legible on the top of the saucer but it is blotchy and affected by the panelling which seems too deep and close together when crammed into a fairly small area. The paintjob's more speckled than aztec with the hull seemingly pock-marked across the saucer and along the centre line towards the engine block at the rear. Eaglemoss have also included the distinctive red striping on the saucer as well as marking in the RCS thrusters to complete the effect. All in all that's a lot to get on there and while the paintjob does break up the light grey monotony, I'm not convinced it really works. The blues of the central bridge structure are well defined and razor sharp and are almost out of place against the speckled hull.
The saucer plus the top section of the spine are metal on this one and connect to the quad nacelle cluster where plastic takes over for the underside connector piece as well as the engines themselves and the pylons. These are all devoid of the speckled paintjob and look much the better for it. The pylons are cleanly cut with negative space and some darker grey detailing forking out to the four identical nacelles.
Each of these has a flat top section dotted with some sort of paint or surface detail. Each engine has two translucent blue panels inset to replicate the warp field grilles however it's only set onto the plastic and not a feature that you can shine any light through from the other side. Finally the engines are oddly tipped with a dark grey spike which isn't something we've seen anywhere else on a Starfleet vessel.
Construction-wise the engines are very sturdy and appear clipped into the frame of the Excelsior by way of the metal and plastic central hull sections. On the underside of the hull you can just make out, to the front of the built up section just in front of the nacelles, the tiny main deflector. From the curve of the hull this is another feature that did in some way make it on to the final design. Here though it's a simple painted and recessed blue circle to indicate the location of the device.
Stand position is fairly sturdy as it slots in to the rear hanging the ship right over the black base and not strangely to the front or rear as we have had occasionally.
The magazine is a tad disappointing with the initial starship overview just being a new CG render of the ship followed by two pages of plan views with no notes or sidebar information - there is literally jack all to say on this one since it never actually did anything apart from play dead at Qualor II.
Fortunately the magazine slightly redeems itself with a section covering the design of the USS Excelsior including concept drawings from Nilo Rodis and then The Great Experiment in which the late Leonard Nimoy recounts the making of The Search for Spock and his first movie directing gig. The final two pieces are great but overall it's one of the weakest magazines in the collection alongside a so-so model that could have been a bit bigger and made a lot more impact.
Next in the lineup is the Devore Warship from Voyager's classic Counterpoint.
Aside from being one of the finest episodes of the show's seven seasons, the craft for the episode is goddamn gorgeous. Covered from bow to stern with a metallic paint finish, the top layer then appears weathered and worn with scratches and patches to break up the surface and add real depth to the replica.
There's no real intricate angles to talk about here or cool decals because it doesn't need it. The simplicity of the paintwork does a lot but the real star here is the chain-mail-like embossing that covers about three-quarters of the warship. Each "link" sinks into the hull surface and is bordered by sleek metal panels sporadically broken by the worn paint, by the dots of windows or six blue circular sensor modules.
|It's a dazzling finish on a ship that features dominantly in only one episode (with some "guesting" in a few others) and is among the more unusual looking and detailed craft within the collection. The shape of the Devore ship includes no sharp angles; everything is a sweeping, majestic curve and even the intakes for the integral warp engines are detailed in their individual recesses.
The underside is dead simple with the whole inset piece looking like a carbon fibre Formula One car with sweeps and curves to give it that "aerodynamic" feel (really useful in space) broken by three protrusions at the front and rear as well as the recessed "moon pool" shuttlebay entrance.
There's a lot of weight to the Devore Warship given that the top lump is all metal and only the underside insert being plastic. It's a simple two piece construction although the real win here is that distinct surface finish and paint job.
The magazine offers up the standard plan views along side a trip back to Counterpoint as well as the details of the Devore Warship. A couple of pages on this is followed with how the craft was designed for the episode - and unsurprisingly reused in future Voyager. The craft is certainly one of the most unique finishes ever seen and we get to understand more about how that came about. Sadly it's all CG and episode images without a single concept sketch to aid the background narrative.
Ultimately the biggest attraction to this issue is the background on Counterpoint itself, dissecting the nature of the story and explaining the reasons it turned out just so. The reflection here comes from the story writers and Mark Harelik who played Kashyk.Both of this month's ships are top notch. The concept Excelsior is a hidden treasure of the collection and not one anybody expected to see in the main line of the series while the Devore Warship brings in a classic Voyager ep with a very memorable design. For a collection that's now heading towards 200 issues, there seems to be a lot of life and prospects still to come.
Do you want to see more of the Qualor II wrecks? Is this a step too far for the collection?
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