Soyuz

[Dukhat]

The FASAmbaassador only had dialogue to go on, and it was only retroactively established as the same class the Enterprise-C belonged to...

Not quite. The Enterprise-C design was documented as "Ambassador" class on Probert's design sketches for the Enterprise History Wall, even during pre-production for TNG. FASA probably just didn't have that information when making the Officer's Manual, hence the Ent-C being referred to as "Alaska" class.

 

[Ithekro]

FASA didn't seem to have a lot of behind the scenes materials for TNG at that time. There wasn't much out there in the first year and FASA's books came out before the second season stated, if I recall. I have a feeling they barely got the Romulan Warbird in before the first TNG book they made went to print.

 

[Dukhat]

Considering that their diagrams for the Constellation class and the Romulan warbird were horrendously inaccurate, I'd have to agree that they weren't privy to behind the scenes info.

 

[F. King Daniel]

It's an interesting question, since the TNG OM represented a radical shift in the previous FASAverse setup. The OM assumed that the Klingons would be full Federation members by this point, and the description given in the book isn't really clear on what stage this process was intended to be at. It's implied that the Klingons are being assimilated as a member race and making adjustments, and yet also that their addition might render Starfleet obsolete and that the two governments are already building hybridized cruisers! For their faults, I think FASA did their best with not a whole lot of canon material to work with and not always the best support from Paramount.

Although riddled with errors and typos, the FASA TNG OM is my favourite tech manual, ever. It's version of the TNG universe is much more colourful and fun than what we got on-screen (or in the TNG TM), IMO

 

[Dukhat]

It's an interesting question, since the TNG OM represented a radical shift in the previous FASAverse setup. The OM assumed that the Klingons would be full Federation members by this point, and the description given in the book isn't really clear on what stage this process was intended to be at. It's implied that the Klingons are being assimilated as a member race and making adjustments, and yet also that their addition might render Starfleet obsolete and that the two governments are already building hybridized cruisers! For their faults, I think FASA did their best with not a whole lot of canon material to work with and not always the best support from Paramount.

In FASA's defense, early season 1 of TNG heavily implied if not outright stated that the Klingons were members of the Federation. It was only around the start of season 3 that this changed.

 

[Mytran]

Indeed, I'm pretty sure Wesley had a line to that effect at one point.

EDIT: I've found this passage from Ex Astris Scientia

While they are en route to Starbase 515 in TNG: "Samaritan Snare", Picard is talking of his early days in Starfleet and the incident with the Nausicaans, when Wesley poses a surprising question: "Was that before the Klingons joined the Federation?" Picard confirms that. So are the Klingons members of the Federation at the time of the episode (2365) and had already been for some time? A view of the bridge of a Klingon ship from TNG: "Heart of Glory" seems to corroborate just that. Here we see the Federation emblem along with the Klingon emblem. It is not something electronically inserted into the image, but the two logos are obviously openly displayed on the Klingon vessel. Why would the Klingons do that if they were not members of the Federation? In TNG: "Hide and Q" Q casually states that humanity defeated the Klingons, providing an explanation why the Klingons might be Federation members by the time of TNG.

 

[Timo]

Naturally, the UFP logo could be there to denote those ships that are assigned the shameful duty of interacting with the Federation. That is, ships sent to perform prisoner extradition (intradition?) ops would flash the logo to make the other side happier about the deal. I trust there would be "purging" rituals after the mission was over...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Avro Arrow]

Still, could be worse...

http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/Royal_Sovereign_class

Mark

I dunno, I always thought the Royal Sovereign was one of the *least* offensive designs from that manual. Have you seen the Decker or Moscow classes?

Sadly, that manual was not exactly the pinnacle of FASA designs...

 

[JES]

Agreed. From the top and front, the Decker actually doesn't look too bad, but what were they smoking when the did the side profile, I don't know!

But the Moscow is totally hideous!!

 

[Unicron]

The TNG OM designs are quite weird, even by FASA's dubious kitbashing standards, and yet I've often wondered if they were meant to represent a new type of transwarp hull shape.

 

[Ithekro]

FASA didn't have much to work with. Excelsior and the Enterprise-D for the most part for new designs, and movie era Constitution parts going by how they saw the Stargazer.

But on the other hand they gave us a lot of fancy Romulan designs were they had only the old TOS Bird of Prey (and the Klingon D7) to work with. There were no Romulan designs again until the end of TNG season 1.