When Star Trek: Picard returns subsequent month, in addition to the enduring TNG crew it’ll be bringing a equally iconic vessel as properly—the USS Enterprise. However it received’t be the vessel we final noticed Jean-Luc captain in Nemesis, it’ll be an all-new model of the Federation flagship—however one which has historical past earlier than its TV debut.
Which Enterprise Is in Star Trek: Picard?
Chronologically—other than Enterprise’s NX prototype and its glimpse of the thirty first century’s Enterprise-J—the final Enterprise we noticed on display screen was the Sovereign-class Enterprise-E in Star Trek: Nemesis, all the best way again in 2002. The ship we’ll see in Picard season three is its direct substitute, the Enterprise-F, an Odyssey-class cruiser.
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The place Did the Enterprise-F Come From?
The most recent Enterprise is just actually new to TV. It’s truly been round since 2011, on the earth of Star Trek On-line. The MMORPG, set in its personal imagining of the early twenty fifth century—a interval the place the Federation is beset by a number of rival factions in battle, from a renewed struggle with the Klingons to battles in opposition to the likes of Voyager’s Species 8472 or the remnants of the Romulan Empire after the occasions of the 2009 Star Trek film—ran a contest to ask followers to design a brand new class of cruiser to be added to the sport. That class would in the end additionally turn out to be the design for the latest model of the starship Enterprise.
Who Designed the Enterprise-F?
After months of entries, it was introduced that the brand new Enterprise can be represented by the Odyssey-class, impressed by design entries from Adam Ilhe. The Enterprise-F entered Star Trek On-line’s story in 2012. In Star Trek On-line, the Enterprise-F has had just a few tweaks since its debut, being re-fitted as the same Yorktown-class vessel in 2016. It will likely be up to date as soon as once more for its look in Picard, with Star Trek On-line artwork director Thomas Marrone having made updates and tweaks to the sport’s 3D mannequin to cross on to the Picard VFX workforce.
It’s not truly the primary time the Odyssey has appeared related to Picard although—the ship’s design appeared because the USS Verity within the prequel comedian Picard: Countdown, the ship helmed by Admiral Picard through the Romulan supernova disaster.
Who Is the Captain of the Enterprise-F?
In Star Trek On-line’s now non-canonical timeline of the twenty fifth century, the Enterprise-F is launched within the 12 months 2409, underneath the command of the Andorian Starfleet officer Va’Kel Shon. Shon’s former ship, the Defiant-class Belfast, was destroyed throughout a mission in opposition to rogue Jem’hadar forces transported into the close to future by Sisko and the Gamma Quadrant wormhole aliens recognized in Bajoran spiritual beliefs because the Prophets through the occasions of the Deep House 9 episode “Sacrifice of Angels.” One of many Enterprise-F’s first battles, in homage to that episode, noticed it and different Starfleet forces rally to re-liberate DS9 from occupation by the temporally-displaced Dominion forces.
It’s at the moment not recognized if Shon may even be making the leap to Picard alongside his ship, which might make him one of many first, if not the primary, unique Star Trek On-line characters to look in Trek TV canon.
What Occurred to the Enterprise-E?
In Star Trek On-line, the Enterprise-E—then-captained by Knowledge in its model of occasions—was destroyed throughout a mission in opposition to the forces of Species 8472 (recognized in On-line because the Undine) in 2409. The vast majority of the Enterprise’s crew escaped the E’s destruction, however Knowledge declined to helm its substitute, as an alternative retiring from Starfleet to show on Earth.
From what we all know of the TV canon already although, it’s most likely going to be a bit completely different. The Enterprise-E is proven as nonetheless being in service through the occasions of Star Trek: Prodigy’s first season finale late final 12 months. A part of the fleet of Starfleet vessels that confronted the USS Protostar—contaminated by a residing weapon that brought on its foes to go haywire and activate one another—it’s final seen closely broken after a barrage of not-so-friendly fireplace. Prodigy’s finale takes place in 2384, so it’s been roughly 20-ish years by the point of Picard season three. Picard showrunner Terry Matalas has implied on social media that the F has been round for an extended time period earlier than the occasions of the season, so making its Prodigy look the E’s last outing is sensible.
Why Are Star Trek On-line Designs Coming to TV?
This isn’t the primary time On-line designs have made their means into the continuity of Star Trek’s motion pictures and TV—actually, it was Picard itself that cleared the path final 12 months with its season two premiere together with 4 designs from the MMORPG in a fleet of Starfleet ships, marking the primary time content material from the sport been canonized within the Trek TV timeline. Persevering with that for Picard’s farewell is unsurprising.
However it’s additionally only a good solution to honor what Star Trek On-line did for the franchise in nearly a decade of operation with no modern Star Trek sequence operating alongside it. For a lot of, even now, its model of a post-Romulan-supernova timeline within the early twenty fifth century continues to be the definitive rendition of Star Trek’s future as an alternative of the glimpses we’ve seen in exhibits like Picard up to now. If the exhibits and future motion pictures that might be set on this time interval can’t carry over story parts from On-line, canonizing generations of the sport’s ship designs is a nod to its world—one which stored Trek ticking in folks’s minds when it wasn’t on display screen.
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