Star Trek: Picard adds Star Trek Online starships to canon in season 2 premiere

Four Star Trek Online ships have been added to canon in Star Trek: Picard

MARCH 3, 2022 - Star Trek: Picard has teamed up with Star Trek Online, officially making “canon” selected starships seen in the massively multiplayer role-playing game. In the season two premiere, “The Star Gazer”, four ships from the free-to-play MMORPG appeared on screen to the great delight of both the fans and the production staff.

The appearance of the ships was confirmed during a special late-night stream of Cryptic Studios’ Ten Forward Weekly on Twitch, coinciding with the premiere of the second season of Picard. In “The Star Gazer”, fans can clearly see the Legendary Ross Command Exploration Cruiser, the Nebula-class variant Sutherland Advanced Research Vessel, the Gargarin Miracle Worker Battlecruiser, and the Miranda-class variant Reliant Advanced Light Cruiser - all of them previously unique to Star Trek: Online.

Associate Art Director Thomas Marrone weighed in on the experience of working with the team at Star Trek: Picard. “As a childhood fan of Star Trek and Star Trek ships, I have spent my life fascinated with the incredible machines that boldly took our heroes into the final frontier,” Marrone said. “Now, thanks to our collaboration with Picard, I can say that [the] starships my team has created for Star Trek Online are now a part of the larger Star Trek canon. It was an incredible honor for us to contribute to the larger Star Trek Universe and we were thrilled to see them in action on Picard last night.”

Picard Production Designer Dave Blass also commented on the Star Trek: Online ships appearing on the series, saying, “It’s been such a great honor working with the STO people because they are passionate people who know Star Trek design [...] They know how to design a Federation starship and it’s so important, both to me and the fans, to work with collaborators who can capture the nuance of these ships, down to the last detail. They made my life so much easier and we got to use the best possible ships on Picard. It’s going to be an amazing experience for all the fans.”

You can watch the full announcement from the team at Cryptic Studios on their Twitch and Youtube channels. Of course, you can see all four ships together in season two of Star Trek: Picard in “The Star Gazer”, available to stream now on Paramount+.