Say what you want about Star Trek Picard, but it did have some serious fleet action during its second season, with a plethora of ships,
but what was the legacy of these ships?
We’ve of course got the brand spanking new USS Stargazer, and the USS Zheng-He (JUNG HO) even snuck in there, but what about the others?
We’ve collected details, lore and Information you might not know! So let’s beam in and check out the legacy of Picard’s fleet!
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What was your favourite ship in Picard’s second-season fleet?
Let us know in the comment section below, because if you're talking about Star Trek, then we want to hear about it!
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Now this Star Trek Ship breakdown will be a little different than our usual breakdowns.
Usually, we get into the nitty-gritty of ship technical specifications, talk about their lore in-universe and then their behind-the-scenes creation.
But in this video, we will be looking at the legacy of the ships that appeared in Season 2 of Star Trek Picard, why they were named what they were named, and what significance that has within both the Star Trek Universe and our universe too!
We have done more in-depth breakdowns on such ships as the Stargazer’s Sagan Class, which we highly recommend you check out if you are interested, but if you would like us to look in detail at any of the ships seen in Picard Season 2, let us know!
Alright fellow Trekkies, let's get into it, we've got plenty of ships to get into!
The First ships we will talk about were those originally at the Sector 9 Incident, as we will be calling this event in the Second Season of Picard,
but these ships were damaged and not available for the subsequent fleet that dealt with the energy shunt from the emerging Transwarp gateway.
First off we have the USS Avalon, an Akira-class starship, which was the ship to first detect the spatial anomaly forming, and was knocked off course by this emerging anomaly, and had contacted Starfleet Command.
Avalon is the fabled island from Arthurian Legend, with the sword Excalibur being made there.
Another Legendary ship which appeared was the USS Gilgamesh, a sovereign class, named after the legendary sovereign of Uruk, Gilgamesh,
and appeared in the Epic of Gilgamesh and a couple of Sumerian poems, about his dealing with the underworld and his search for immortality.
Just like Gilgamesh was unable to reach immortality, the USS Gilgamesh was knocked out and unable to join the subsequent fleet.
Did you know that JLP himself spoke about Gilgamesh in Darmok*
Continuing on this Legendary trend, we have the USS Valkyrie, another Sovereign-class, and named for the valkyries of Norse mythology the handmaidens of Odin.
Valkyries were actually mentioned by Q in Star Trek Voyager asking if Voyager was a ship of the valkyries due to no men being on board at the time.
Valkyries would be those who guide the souls of slain Norse soldiers to the halls of Valhalla.
Though just like with the USS Gilgamesh, the Valkyrie could no longer fight, being unable to join the subsequent fleet.
The USS venture was another Sovereign-class which couldn’t make the final fleet of the sector 9 incident, and really does not have much of a legacy to its name,
with Venture just meaning an undertaking which is dangerous, daring or of uncertain outcome.
It definitely went into this undertaking with an uncertain outcome, but unfortunately, it was too dangerous for this Venture to handle.
For some reason, the Sovereign-class was very damaged during the first incident with the Borg Queen assuming control of the fleet, causing lasting issues, as another Sovereign-class, the USS Arsinoe could not join the subsequent fleet.
The ship however is probably named after Arsinoe IV, who was one of the last members of the ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt.
And she was the half sister of Cleopatra, and fought a war against Cleopatra but was taken prisoner by Julius Caesar, exiled to the temple of Artemis and then executed on the orders of Mark Antony, another lover of Cleopatra.
The USS Pachacuti, another sovereign class, was named after Pachacuti, weirdly, who was the founder of the incan empire in south America which grew from a small hamlet to nearly the whole of western south america.
The USS Rustazh
is the only ship in the fleet named after a Klingon, and that Klingon was Krenn sutai-Rustazh.
This Klingon appears in Beta Canon sources, which do not entirely work with current trek continuity, so what this Klingon might have done in order to be honoured with the name of a Federation Starship is unknown,
but in beta canon he developed a friendship with the first Federation Ambassador to the Klingon Empire, and also come to play chess with Spock,
who would attend Diplomatic events with his father Sarek, and Rustazh would think highly of this young-half vulcan.
With a now United Klingon Empire, we could see Rustahz perhaps in Season 2 of Strange New Worlds, and also meeting Spock and playing Chess with him.
Considering Akiva Goldsman is co-showrunner on Both Picard and Strange New Worlds, it isn’t the wildest thing that could happen.
The USS Vanguard was a Ross Class Starship, and disappointingly was not the Vanguard of the fleet… you had one job Star Trek!
The Ross-class was one of the ships from MMO Video-game, Star Trek: Online, which made it’s way into the second season of Star Trek Picard.
Clearly an evolution of the Galaxy class, it takes design inspiration from the Sovereign-class of starships. Take a look at the Ross-class on-screen and tell us what you think!
The USS Reliant, a Reliant Class, therefore the first ship of its class, is named as the successor to the Miranda Class USS Reliant which was under the command of Captain Terrel and First Officer Commander Pavel Checkov.
This ship was tasked with assisting the Genesis project, an experimental research project by Dr Carol Marcus, to create a device called Genesis, which could be fired at a barren moon and create life.
This project was somewhat successful but was stolen by the Augment Khan Noonien Singh,
who would also capture the USS Reliant and use it to get his revenge against Captain James T Kirk and the USS Enterprise.
This would fail, and result in Khan’s death, the destruction of the Reliant, the detonation of the Genesis Device, and the creation of the planet genesis in the Mutara Nebula
The USS Stargazer is the third ship of its name, after the Radiant Class USS Stargazer and the Constellation Class.
The Constellation Class USS Stargazer was famous as the ship which Jean Luc Picard first Captained, and would continue to Captain for at least two decades,
before losing the ship and then moving onto the Flagship of the Fleet, the USS Enterprise D.
This new USS Stargazer was of the Sagan class, named after Sci-Fi Author Carl Sagan, and was the height of Federation ship design of the time,
even incorporating technology derived from borg technology which had been recovered from the Artifact, the Abandoned Borg Cube now Research Facility, now crashed cube.
Unfortunately, this technological advancement would leave it susceptible to Borg infiltrating, which is what happened during the Sector 9 Incident.
If you want to know more about the Stargazer, we did a very in-depth video on it recently, from its holographic assisted foot pedals to its new borg tech. We’ll let you check out Lieutenant Adam’s video on that one.
The USS Zheng He (Jung-Ho) was previously captained by Captain William T Riker, on a mission to save the planet of Ghullion IV,
which had been declared a protectorate of the United Federation of Planets, when it was at risk of being decimated by a Romulan Tal Shiar Armada.
The Zheng He was named after the notable Chinese explorer of the same name.
Just like the USS Stargazer, we did a video on the Zheng He which you can check out here.
The USS Sutherland was the first ship of its class, the Sutherland class,
and was named presumably after the USS Sutherland NCC-72015 a Nebula Class starship which was part of the Starfleet Tachyon Detection grid fleet that was used during the Klingon Civil War in the 2360s to ensure that no Romulan Ships would provide aid to the Duras side of the Civil War.
This ship originates from Star Trek Online, where it was built in the late 25th century, but due to it being seen in Star Trek: Picard years earlier,
this ship will have a different history to it than what we know from the game.
This will be true for all the Star Trek Online ships in this fleet, and presumably would be what Starfleet was doing after the loss of their ships during the Dominion War,
and the attack on mars and destruction of the Utopia Planitia Shipyards and Romulan Relocation Fleet.
The USS Oberon was another Reliant Class starship, named after one of Uranus’ moons, Oberon.
In alpha canon this is the first known vessel to bear this name, though in the TOS game “Starfleet Academy” there is a Miranda Class Starship called the USS Oberon,
which would make sense considering this new Oberon is the successor class to the Miranda, the Reliant Class.
*Incidentally, Sir Patrick Stewart played the character Oberon in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of a midsummer night's dream in 1977. Google those photos for a different look for our iconic admiral.*
Well that's it for part 1. If you want to know more about the Legacy of these ships then there's going to be a part 2 of this video very soon !
so If you want to keep up to date on all that, then make sure to hit that subscribe button to never miss a video from the team here at Trek Central! You can also follow us on social media, or join our Community Discord Server!
For now, I’ve been StafleetBoy, thanks for watching and we’ll see you next time! Live Long and prosper my friends!