The Paramount+ era ofStar Trekhas created some of most interesting starships to join thehistory ofStar Trek. Ever sinceStar Trek: Discoveryintroduced the eponymous USS Discovery in 2017,Star Trekhas introduced an array of starships into the franchise’s canon. Theroster ofStar TrekTV showsjust how important new starship designs can be. Classic series likeStar Trek: VoyagerandStar Trek: Enterprisetake their names from the ships belonging to their core crew. In the streaming era,Star Trek: DiscoveryandStar Trek: Prodigydo the same.
Even whennewStar Trekshowsdon’t share a name with their central starship, the ships in question are still hugely important.Star Trek’sships are characters' homes-away-from-home as they explore the galaxy, and they are obviously deeply beloved by their crews. Since 2017,Star Trekhas given 12 new starships screen time, showing both the exteriors and interiors of the ships in question. And a lot of these newStar Trekvessels are instantly iconic.
12San’s Ship
Star Trek: Section 31
San (James Hiroyuki Liao) is one of the most interesting charactersStar Trek: Section 31introduced. His long personal history with Emperor Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) reveals more about the culture and politics of theTerran Empire in the Mirror Universe. But San’s ship, on the other hand, is a lot less interesting. For the most part,it is impossible to evaluate this as a ship, because we only ever really see the bridge,and that bridge seems to be mostly made up of empty space
There are a few scenes when the exterior of the vessel is visible, soit’s impossible to get a sense of the size or capabilities of San’s ship.It’s also more than a little disconcerting that the ship is destroyed without having any indication of its crew. It seemed like a vessel too large to be piloted by one Terran, but we never saw anyone else. If San’s ship has a crew, they certainly died when Emperor Georgiou destroyed the vessel, so the true capabilities and crew complement of San’s ship will never really be known.
11USS Stargazer
Star Trek: Picard Seasons 2 and 3
Star Trek: Picardhas done a lot to show how Starfleet and the Federation have progressed in the years sinceStar Trek: The Next GenerationandDeep Space Nine. Part of that progression, of course, is the technological progression of Starfleet vessels, andthe USS Stargazer is the pinnacle of that progress, combining Borg and Starfleet technology.But on a purely aesthetic level, the four nacelles just look a little clunky. There is a classicStar Treksilhouette, and, while the Stargazer does look menacing, it doesn’t look quite as elegant as other ships.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) was the captain of an older USS Stargazer for 22 years, until it was lost in the Battle of Maxia.
Furthermore,Star Trek: Picard’s USS Stargazerbeing the first ship to incorporate Borg technology was both an incredible accomplishment and an incredible liability.The technology Starfleet recovered from the Artifact made the vessel uniquely vulnerable to the Borg,such that Dr. Agnes Jurati (Alison Pill) was able to take over the ship in minutes as the Borg Queen. Luckily, that Borg takeover actually saved Federation lives, but that is still a serious liability issue in a new Starfleet vessel.
10Garbage Scow
There is not very much to say about thegarbage scow inStar Trek: Section 31. It makes for an interesting setting for Emperor Georgiou and the rest of the team from Section 31 - since it’s so broken down that doing anything on the ship requires ingenuity. But,as aStar Trekship, the garbage scow feels generic.It mostly looks like a bunch of boxes from the outside, and a tangle of dirty hallways inside, so there is very little to distinguish the garbage scow from any other science fiction vessel.
Section 31’s garbage scow does have at least one major redeeming quality: it gives thecharacters fromStar Trek: Section 31their best opportunity to act like a Starfleet crew. They have to make emergency repairs and do creative feats of engineering that feel right at home with Lt. Montgomery “Scotty” Scott’s (James Doohan) repairs inStar Trek: The Original Series. So,even if the garbage scow itself isn’t that interesting, it facilitates some of the best moments inSection 31.
9USS Protostar
Star Trek: Prodigy Seasons 1 And 2
Technologically,the USS Protostar is one of the most innovative starship designs inStar Trek.The idea of a protostar drive that would allow Starfleet to cross light years in mere moments seems like it should revolutionize space travel inStar Trek. For most ofStar Trek: Prodigy, the USS Protostar is the primary ship that Dal R’El (Brett Gray) and the rest of thecharacters fromStar Trek:Prodigytreat as their home in space.
Captain Chakotay (Robert Beltran) was the original captain of the USS Protostar before a temporal anomaly crashed the ship and stranded him in the future.
There is a lot of good stuff to say about the USS Protostar, butthe vessel does have one unfortunate and serious drawback: the Living Construct.The Vau N’Akat’s Living Construct was essentially the ultimate computer virus that could turn any Starfleet computer system against itself, leading to the destruction of many starships. Since the Living Construct was ultimately inseparable from the USS Protostar - the device could only be defeated by destroying the Protostar - it ultimately proved a pretty severe drawback to an otherwise very cool vessel.
8USS Prodigy
Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2
The USS Prodigy and the USS Protostar are the same class of ship, but the Prodigy has the serious advantage of not housing the Living Construct.Although the USS Prodigy does not have very much screentime, it’s nevertheless an upgrade: the best of what Starfleet’s Protostar Class of starships has to offer. The design of the whole Protostar Class is an homage toAdmiral Kathryn Janeway’s (Kate Mulgrew)original vessel, the USS Voyager. Protostar Class vessels also manage to add an additional nacelle to the ships' silhouettes without making the design seem overwrought or clunky.
The only drawback for the USS Prodigy is that it is the last known starship of its kind. No other Protostar Class starships have been seen inStar Trek: Picard’s 3 seasons, which take place about 15 years afterStar Trek: Prodigy.IfStar Trek: Prodigygets a season 3, both the USS Prodigy and the entire Protostar Class would have had more of a chance to shine.
7La Sirena
Star Trek: Picard
At the start ofStar Trek: Picard, Admiral Picard has distanced himself from Starfleet, so it makes sense thatone of the most important starships inPicardis a non-Starfleet vessel. It is both deeply interesting and incredibly fun to spend a lot of time in a non-Starfleet starship. In mostStar Trekshows, the only ships that get a lot of screen time are incredibly ordered and put-together Starfleet vessels, but the La Sirena is none of those things.
The rough-around-the-edges qualities of La Sirena make it feel more like a home and less like a science lab.Indeed,Captain Seven of Nine(Jeri Ryan) was completely correct about the La Sirena when she said “A few dents look good on her.” But the fact that La Sirena is not a Starfleet vessel is also the ship’s greatest downside. Because it is not a Starfleet ship, La Sirena feels less uniquely like aStar Trekship, and from its aesthetics, it seems like it could just as easily fit in withStar WarsorBattlestar Galactica.
6USS Dauntless
Star Trek: Prodigy Season 1
Whenever the USS Dauntless appears inStar Trek: Prodigy, Admiral Janeway gets the opportunity to show off just how incredibly competent and badass decades of Starfleet service have made her, and that is always fun to see.The USS Dauntless is a force of nature, and that is exactly what Admiral Janeway is at her best.What is especially cool about the USS Dauntless is that the entire ship is a reference to an episode ofStar Trek: Voyager.
“Hope and Fear” is an episode inStar Trek: Voyagerseason 4 where an alien called Arturis (Ray Wise) attempts to trick the then-Captain Janeway with a fake Federation ship he calls the USS Dauntless. That Dauntless runs on a slipstream drive, allowing it to go faster than warp, and the Dauntless inStar Trek: Prodigyruns on that same technology.Prodigy’s Dauntless even looks like the Dauntless Arturis designed.SinceStar Trek: Prodigyis a sequel toStar Trek: Voyager, seeing subtle references to the original show always seems like a love letter toStar Trekfrom decades past.
5USS Voyager-A
More than any other ship inStar Trek, the original USS Voyager had to be a home for its crew after they got stranded more than 70 years from home, deep in the Delta Quadrant. So,whenStar Trek: Prodigyreintroduced a starship called “Voyager,” it felt like the ultimate triumph for Admiral Janewayand the legacy of her iconic crew. The Lamarr Class USS Voyager-A was designed to have the best technology that Starfleet has to offer, and Admiral Janeway herself commanded the ship on its maiden voyage.
And, after Admiral Janeway stepped down as the commanding officer of the USS Voyager-A, Captain Chakotay was given the command in a trueStar Trekfull-circle moment. And the Voyager legacy goes even further. InStar Trek: Picard,Commander Raffaela Musiker (Michelle Hurd) runs a search on La Sirena that reveals thatthe USS Voyager-B was an active Starfleet vessel in 2401. Through the USS Voyager-A,Star Trek: Prodigygives a final salute toStar Trek: Voyager.
4USS Discovery
Star Trek: Discovery
The USS Discovery was the ideal starship to bringStar Trekto streaming whenStar Trek: Discoverypremiered in 2017.The Discovery has the iconic saucer silhouette that every version of the USS Enterprise has had, fromStar Trek: The Next Generation,toStar Trek: The Original Series, toStar Trek: Enterprise.Even after the Discovery made the jump into the 32nd century and was retrofitted with futuristic Starfleet technology, it still maintained that iconicStar Treklook.
The USS Discovery is just an iconic Starfleet vessel in any time period.
With every iteration ofStar Trek, ship designs have gotten more detailed as special effects technology has improved, and the USS Discovery is the perfect aesthetic continuation of that trend. The only potential complicating factor of theDiscovery is its signature spore drive. Depending on personal taste,the Discovery’s spore drive can either feel like awesome futuristic technology or a little too much like magic.But ultimately, the USS Discovery is just an iconic Starfleet vessel in any time period.
3USS Cerritos
Star Trek: Lower Decks
One of the most radical things thatStar Trek: Lower Decksdid was show what day-to-day life looks like in Starfleet, and the USS Cerritos is the epitome of that. It is just great to see what the workhorse California Class ships of the Federation look like, andbecauseLower Decksfocuses on the “lower decks” of the Cerritos, a lot more of the ship is on display than in other shows.The USS Cerritos is clearly capable of doing whatever missions Starfleet needs done, and it proves its worth time and time again acrossLower Decks' five seasons.
The only potential drawback to the USS Cerritos is that its design seems like it would be a little impractical. The only way to get to the warp core of the Cerritos is through the nacelles, and given how prone those are to overloading,it really seems like there should be a central pillar connecting the saucer to the core. Nevertheless,Lieutenant Sam Rutherford (Eugene Cordero)and the ship’s Engineering team are more than capable of keeping the Cerritos running, so the design is working well enough.
