From: jsbell@acs.ucalgary.ca (Joshua Bell)
Subject: Re: A little more discovered on Wolf 359 ships
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 93 01:54:53 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: The University of Calgary, Alberta

In article <MSALETNI.93Jan18155320@jade.tufts.edu> msaletni@jade.tufts.edu (Michael J. Saletnik) writes:
>Possible spoilers if you *still* haven't seen the premiere of DS9
>Plus, skip this if you don't give a #$@!

>Okay, I noticed two more things about the ongoing raging debate about
>the ships at Wolf 359.
>
>First of all, according to the "TNG Companion," the ship model on
>Riker's "ready room desk" in the episode _Future Imperfect_ is a
>Nebula-class USS Melbourne.  Some may say that this one doesn't count
>because the ready room was a holo-creation out of his mind, but keep
>in mind that he wouldn't envision a wrong class for a starship whose
>command he was offered.  So if this is true, we still don't know what
>the Excelsior class vessel was.

Um, he might imagine that there was a subsequent vessel, the
Nebula-class USS Melbourne constructed and comissioned after
Wolf-359, which he either had reason to respect or commanded
during the 17(?) years he doesn't remember.

>Secondly, you may recall that I contended that the ship that looks
>Ambassador class isn't, because it appears to have phaser strips on
>the saucer section, which the Galaxy and Nebula classes have, but the
>Ambassador does not (ref: Yesterday's Enterprise).  Well, I just
>noticed that ship in another episode.  It was the Zukov, and appeared
>in the beginning of _Data's Day_ delivering Ambassador T'Pel.  And it
>definitely did not look like an Ambassador class.

Given the differences between the Reliant and Saratoga, I'm
surprised you put a simple refinement of the model in a different
class. Thats just a guess. "Yesterday's Enterprise" was the first
appearance of Probert's Ambassador Class design. If they later
added a dorsal phaser array, it wouldn't surprise me in the
least.

>This would, if correct, put the score at (ignoring the Saratoga):
>
>Excelsior-class "?" gets saucer blown off

You can read "USS MEL..." at the very least, even with my crappy
VCR.

>Nebula-class "Melbourne" and ?-class "?" sweep around
>Through windows, see Grissom's class "?" blown up

According to the "ST:DS9 Magazine" synopsis, which is evidently
based on an copy of the script, the ships are the Gage, the
Kyushu, and the Melbourne. It mentions the first ship to be
destroyed by the Borg, before the Saratoga is locked onto, is the
Melbourne. Thats good enough for me. 

>I suspect, since so many people thought at first that it was a Galaxy
>without the saucer, not a Grissom style, that it was actually reused
>footage from _Best Of Both Worlds II_ of the E sans saucer through the
>Borg windows/viewscreen, made a little fuzzy, and then with the
>Grissom style saucer blowing off in the explosion.

The class is Oberth, BTW. Let me get this straight - you're
saying they had an Oberth saucer being blown off a Galaxy-class
Battle Section, using reused footage?

Does that strike anyone else as a stupid thing for them to do, or
is it just me? Admitedly, I don't have a freeze-frame VCR. But it
looks like an Oberth completely - saucer, warp nacelles, 'plate',
and 'pod' all in place.

>Please share your comments by e-mail, since this discussion seems to
>be waning in the newsgroup.

Naw, that doesn't promote discussion on the group, which some of
us may want. :)

Joshua