Star Trek: Every Enterprise Ranked Worst To Best
4. 1701-C Andrew Probert Concept
While the final on-screen version of the Enterprise-C is a beautiful design, realized by Rick Sternbach and Michael Okuda, the original design by Andrew Probert stands out as the natural stepping stone between Kirk's Enterprise and Picard's.
When designing the Galaxy-Class Enterprise-D for the Next Generation's first season, Probert came up with, what he felt, was the natural progression of starships from the Constitution class vessels of the films. He created a relief model in gold to sit on the wall of the observation lounge. He imagined that the Enterprise-B would be Excelsior class (though unconfirmed until Star Trek: Generations), and so felt that the Enterprise-C would be something of a middle-ground between the two.
He took a cross-section of the Galaxy class and an Excelsior class, scaled them together - and created a beautiful design, sadly never seen on-screen, save for that model on the wall of the Enterprise-D.