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Ok, so now I have two new "Refit" variants of the U.S.S. Constitution, but I'm not sure what to do with them. I might make a story about them. We'll have to see.

I kind of like the idea that, as the "first of its class" the U.S.S. Constitution serves as a kind of "experimental testbed" for new technologies. So before they start a whole big extensive refit on the Enterprise (and the rest of the ships of the class,) maybe they try things out (on a prototype basis) on the Constitution first. So, rather than changing every single element of this ship, they just make the critical upgrades and modifications to try out the really important new systems, (like new warp engines.)

So maybe the Constitution pulls into dry dock, and they eject the warp nacelles and attach the brand new ones that are all complete and just sitting there, ready to go. They've already been through thousands off hours of testing and simulations, but now it's time to try them out for real. Then they shorten the interconnecting dorsal and make a few changes to the saucer, and then, (fairly quickly) the ship can get underway again for some speed trials, and a shake down cruise.

So maybe, to save time, they leave most of the interior of the ship unchanged. (There's no need to upgrade crew quarters, chairs, carpets, doors, furniture, ventilation, plumbing, etc.) They skip adding the arboretum, or making lots of other cosmetic changes. Instead, they make just the really important upgrades and put her back to work. If the new systems work out well, then they go ahead and plan to incorporate those changes into the next big refit. If certain other upgraded systems don't work out, or are deemed to be "too expensive" or "not a top priority" or "not in keeping with Starfleet norms and customs," then maybe those particular experimental features don't get rolled into the new big refit. For those sorts of reasons, I like to think that the Constitution has a few cool extra experimental "bells and whistles" that maybe the Enterprise doesn't.

So the idea here is that it might be fun to see a ship that is the "precursor" to the full refit that we see in the movies. So, you could have some adventures between TOS and TMP in which the Constitution sports a cool new look. It's clearly newer and fancier than the TOS Enterprise, but it's not quite the ship that we know and love from the movies. It's this weird, but kinda wonderful, "inbetween" design. As fans, we all know how it foreshadows the full refit, but we aren't necessarily familiar with all of the tricks that it has up its sleeve. How do those extra torpedoes and phasers work out anyway? What other secrets is it hiding "under the hood."

Anyway, I always like the idea of experimental starships, like the Excelsior, so I'll have to see if I have a good enough idea to try to build a story around.

Description
Ok, so now I have two new "Refit" variants of the U.S.S. Constitution, but I'm not sure what to do with them. I might make a story about them. We'll have to see.

I kind of like the idea that, as the "first of its class" the U.S.S. Constitution serves as a kind of "experimental testbed" for new technologies. So before they start a whole big extensive refit on the Enterprise (and the rest of the ships of the class,) maybe they try things out (on a prototype basis) on the Constitution first. So, rather than changing every single element of this ship, they just make the critical upgrades and modifications to try out the really important new systems, (like new warp engines.)

So maybe the Constitution pulls into dry dock, and they eject the warp nacelles and attach the brand new ones that are all complete and just sitting there, ready to go. They've already been through thousands off hours of testing and simulations, but now it's time to try them out for real. Then they shorten the interconnecting dorsal and make a few changes to the saucer, and then, (fairly quickly) the ship can get underway again for some speed trials, and a shake down cruise.

So maybe, to save time, they leave most of the interior of the ship unchanged. (There's no need to upgrade crew quarters, chairs, carpets, doors, furniture, ventilation, plumbing, etc.) They skip adding the arboretum, or making lots of other cosmetic changes. Instead, they make just the really important upgrades and put her back to work. If the new systems work out well, then they go ahead and plan to incorporate those changes into the next big refit. If certain other upgraded systems don't work out, or are deemed to be "too expensive" or "not a top priority" or "not in keeping with Starfleet norms and customs," then maybe those particular experimental features don't get rolled into the new big refit. For those sorts of reasons, I like to think that the Constitution has a few cool extra experimental "bells and whistles" that maybe the Enterprise doesn't.

So the idea here is that it might be fun to see a ship that is the "precursor" to the full refit that we see in the movies. So, you could have some adventures between TOS and TMP in which the Constitution sports a cool new look. It's clearly newer and fancier than the TOS Enterprise, but it's not quite the ship that we know and love from the movies. It's this weird, but kinda wonderful, "inbetween" design. As fans, we all know how it foreshadows the full refit, but we aren't necessarily familiar with all of the tricks that it has up its sleeve. How do those extra torpedoes and phasers work out anyway? What other secrets is it hiding "under the hood."

Anyway, I always like the idea of experimental starships, like the Excelsior, so I'll have to see if I have a good enough idea to try to build a story around.