The title of “Toughest ship” can be thrown around a lot in the Star Trek Universe,
perhaps we’re talking about the USS Defiant, or even the Sovereign-class USS Enterprise-E,
either way, today we’ll be talking about toughest, fastest, most powerful ship Starfleet ever put into service….
Welcome to Trek Central! I’m your host, Ensign Adam, and let’s get into it!
In this Star Trek Ship Breakdown we will be looking at the Inquiry Class Starship,
yes this is the ship seen in Star Trek: Picard’s Season One Final, with the USS Zheng-He
commanded by the man himself, Captain William T. Riker.
If you want to keep up to date on all the latest Star Trek news, lore and more, 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 for daily updates on the Stat Trek Universe!
So, let's get down to the basics, shall we?
The Inquiry-class starship was active during the end of the 24th century,
in the service of Starfleet of the United Federation of Planets.
By the late 24th century Starfleet’s mission had altered drastically from what it was well known for.
From 2381 Starfleet’s primary mission changed from exploration to relocation of the Romulan people from their dying sun.
After the destruction of the Utopia Planitia Shipyards in 2385 by rogue synthetics,
Starfleet would abandon it’s relocation mission and return to it’s previous mission,
all bet with a focus on more defense for obvious reasons.
The destruction of Utopia Planitia Shipyards, and the heavy loss of resources, caused critical damage to Starfleet’s infrastructure in terms of starship production and variation.
The Inquiry class starship comes to a length of 630.94 meters, and its design features the common starfleet layout of saucer section,
secondary hull and 2 warp nacelles.
The Inquiry’s Nacelles come in multiple variations, which we’ll talk about later on.
The Saucer section of the Inquiry has a forward facing shuttle/cargo bay, for easy deployment of shuttles,
something that would aid in it’s many missions of exploring the final frontier.
Another interesting deviation from common Starfleet ship design was its deflector
which was positioned behind a grid like hull under the saucer section.
Whether this grill was to protect the deflector from enemies or offered some technological advantage is unknown.
Though we could theorize that this was actually designed to offer more protection,
given Captain Riker’s statement about how tough the Inquiry-class was, specifically the USS Zheng-He.
The Bridge was of common starfleet design, but featured a solitary command chair in the centre,
and standing terminals in positions usually reserved for that of Helm and Navigation.
The Bridge has a computerized transparent window-viewscreen compared to a normal viewscreen.
Presumably as the ship was Starfleet’s toughest ship class at the time, the ship would be equipped with an impressive complement of armaments,
with phaser banks, photon and quantum torpedoes, though this has not been seen due to not having seen the ship in combat as of yet.
The ship would also presumably be equipped with the best Federation ship technology had to offer at the time,
from Ablative armour which dissipates the energy impacts from directed energy weapon fire, to efficient warp cores allowing the ship to reach much higher warp speeds.
While the Inquiry-class’s appearance in Star Trek: Picard may look like all the ships are the same,
sparking many comments online, the ships in the season finale are actually different variations of each other.
We’ll look into more detail there right now.
The three main variants of the Inquiry-class are the following, the Varian Fry, the Toussaint and the Maui.
As we can see from the examples on screen right now, each design variant only has minor differences in the placement of the starships nacelles and other minor details.
For example, the USS Zheng-He is the Toussaint variant of the Inquiry-class, while the other ships appearing in Riker’s fleet are a mixture of all 3,
making up a very tough squadron of ships.
A fleet of Inquiry Class starships arrived at the planet of Ghulion IV (Goo-Lee-On 4), also known as Copperlius,
in 2399
answering the distress call of retired Starfleet Admiral Jean-Luc Picard
and came into contact with a Tal Shiar Fleet who were aiming to wipe out a colony of synthetics on the planet surface.
The Federation fleet was under the command of Acting-Captain William T. Riker who came out of retirement due to being in active reserve to command the flagship of the fleet,
the USS Zheng He.
The Zheng-He was named after a famous Chinese Fleet Admiral and Explorer.
The Tal Shiar fleet was under the command of General Oh, who had previously been an undercover operative within Starfleet serving as Director of Starfleet Security since at least the year 2390.
This was similar to Section 31 having an undercover operative as chairman of the Tal Shiar during the Dominion War.
Tensions may have flared, but conflict in the form of an all out battle, was avoided,
and both the Tal Shiar fleet and the Federation Fleet were able to avoid conflict and retreated to their respective territory,
leaving Ghulion VI as a protectorate under the United Federation of Planets.
As of this stand off engagement, this is the only time an Inquiry-class starship has been seen on screen.
Given Star Trek: Picard’s Second Season, we’ll hopefully see more of this ship flying around in the Star Trek: Universe.
The Inquiry class was designed by notable trek ship designer John Eaves,
who based the design off of some earlier designs he created while working on the Star Trek Online game in 2006 by Perpetual Entertainment, before the license went to Cryptic Studios.
The script required a background starfleet ship for episode 6 or 7, and required a ship with a large front cargo bay.
Possibly to house the La Sirena for some reason? Whatever the reason might have been,
the script changed and it was not included in these earlier episodes.
The script for the finale required a Starfleet ship, and Eaves sent over his designs.
The Inquiry-class was picked out from the designs, and two physical variants were created and those were given two colour variations.
An alternate design of the Inquiry Class, called the Kol’Tso class [1], was similar to the Inquiry class, but had cutouts in the ship's hull,
which gave it a unique look.
This ship design is also a re-use of an earlier design for Star Trek Online from John Eaves, seen in some concept art along the design that would eventually become the Inquiry-Class.
The bridge of the Inquiry Class was actually a set redress of the USS Discovery bridge,
as Jonathan Frakes would have been working on Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 at the time of filming for the final episode of Star Trek: Picard’s first season.
Originally the Inquiry-class was identified by Star Trek: Picard Season One showrunner, Michael Chabon,
as the Heavy Cruiser Curiosity-class starship, but he later amended the classification to the Inquiry-class.
While the Zheng-He remained as the Inquiry-class, the Curiosity-class would be switched to the Federation Heavy Cruiser USS ibn Majid, NCC-75710.
One of the common complaints and online opinions about the Inquiry-class is that it’s essentially a copy and paste starship.
This is evident in the Star Trek: Picard Season One final, when all we see are multiple versions of the Inquiry-class.
While yes, there are other variations of the ship, they’re not drastically different enough for us to tell the difference.
So why are all these ships the same, where is the variation that we typically see in Starfleet starships like in the Dominion War,
where multiple Starship classes were seen engaging in battle.
Personally, there could be a lore reason for this,
and it goes back to the destruction of the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards, which as stated earlier,
criticaled The Federation and Starfleet ability to produce starships.
and the loss of the fleet yards during the Rogue Synth attack, that Starfleet opted to produce new ships in the quickest time possible.
reating multiple different classes would have likely slowed down production, but making one ship that is tough and does the job, would have solved the problem of firepower and enforcing protection where needed.
Another theory of why there were so many Inquiry-class starships comes down to Starfleet wanting a quick reaction force to threats,
and these ships do not represent the actual state of Starfleet during 2399.
Think about it, when we look back at having to assemble fleets in the Star Trek Universe, It is not a quick process,
even Picard himself knows this when he had to assemble a fleet during The Next Generation episode of “Redemption Part 2,”
Picard was pulling half ready ships out of dry dock to ensure his fleet was big enough.
The core of Starfleet is likely off doing what it is Starfleet is known for: science, exploration, and diplomacy.
This is a fleet of ships that are minimally crewed, highly automated, and loaded with as much firepower as they could fit on the space frame.
Think, an angry swarm of Defiants, but with big upgrades and mass-produced.
Essentially the fleet that responded to Admiral Picard’s distress call at Ghulion IV, was a Starfleet quick reaction force,
or Squadron as Admiral Clancy put it,
and not the current state of the Federation Starfleet. It certainly gives some food for thought on the matter.
ith Star Trek: Picard Season 2 on the distant horizon, hopefully we’ll be able to explore more of the Federation Starfleet, but also see more of the Inquiry-class starship in action.
What do you think of the Inquiry Class Starship? Do you think it sits in the Star Trek starship ranks as one of the toughest starships?
Let us know in the comments below, because as always, if you’re talking Star Trek, then we want to hear about it.
If you want to keep up to date on all the latest Star Trek news, lore and more, then make sure to hit that subscribe button to never miss a video from t he team here at Trek Central!
You can also follow us on social media, or join our Co mmunity Discord Server!
For now, I’ve been Ensign Adam, thanks for watching and we’ll see you next time! Live Long and prosper my friends!