Star Trek Picard: Will There Be An Enterprise?
With the premiere of Star Trek: Picard just around the corner, one huge question remains — will the USS Enterprise play a role in the series? There have been a half dozen Federation starships with the name Enterprise over the years, almost always the flagship of Starfleet. In his time on Star Trek: The Next Generation and the accompanying film series, Jean-Luc Picard captained two different ships with that name.
But as the trailers have shown, this is a much older Picard who's been retired to his family vineyard for many years. It's also seemingly a version of Picard who's going to buck Starfleet's wishes in some way and break out on his own with a new team of outsiders. The likelihood of Picard captaining the Enterprise in the new series is essentially nil.
Click the button below to start this article in quick view. Start nowThat doesn't necessarily mean the Enterprise won't play a role in the series, however. There's a brief glimpse of a holographic image of the Enterprise-D, Picard's first Enterprise, in the San Diego Comic-Con trailer. That beloved Galaxy-class ship met its end in Star Trek: Generations, destroyed by the Klingon sisters Lursa and B'etor. Yet the Enterprise-D may still feature in Star Trek: Picard; the latest trailer shows Picard seemingly having a hallucination or nightmare in what appears to be Ten Forward, the ship's bar and lounge famously hosted by Whoopi Goldberg's mysterious Guinan. Dreams and visions seem as if they'll be an important aspect of Picard, as the good captain has also seen visions of his long dead friend, the android Data.
And while the Enterprise-D is gone, the fate of the Enterprise-E is much more of an open question. Debuting in 1996's Star Trek: First Contact, the Sovereign-class starship was the cutting edge of Federation technology, designed as a warship to directly take on the Borg, who will be featured heavily in the new series. Indeed, the first time we saw the Enterprise-E it and a small support fleet successfully defended Earth from a Borg attack. The ship would survive all four TNG films, with Picard still in command at the end of Star Trek: Nemesis.
The new series' official tie-in comic, Star Trek: Picard: Countdown, confirms that the Enterprise-E lived on past Captain Picard's command. Now promoted to the rank of Admiral, Picard is seen in command of the USS Verity, while he and Commander Geordi LaForge have a brief, cryptic discussion about the unnamed new captain of the Enterprise. Countdown itself takes place years before the events of Star Trek: Picard, so there's no guarantee the Enterprise-E is still in service, but it was the jewel of Starfleet just two decades prior. If it managed to avoid destruction at the hands of the enemy, the Enterprise-E is likely still out there among the stars.
Much speculation has centered around who the ship's captain could be. Will Riker and Deanna Troi appear to have followed Picard into retirement, and fan favorites like Geordi LaForge and Beverly Crusher seem unlikely. If an established character is going to warm the chair of the Enterprise in Picard, it would most likely be Commander Worf; insular promotional materials have suggested the Klingon warrior became Picard's first officer following Riker's promotion to the USS Titan and Data's death, so it's not much of a leap to assume he'd be next in line. Worf actor Michael Dorn has also been suspiciously mum on his possible involvement in the series, and it's hard to imagine a more exciting surprise reveal down the line than Captain Worf of the Enterprise.
The Enterprise isn't just an integral part of Star Trek lore, it's also a sizable portion of Jean-Luc Picard's life and legacy. It's too early to know if it will play any major role in the good captain's twilight years, but the safe money would be on seeing the iconic starship again in Star Trek: Picard, if even for a brief cameo.
Source: screenrant.com