A, B, C, D, E, F, G! With the conclusion of Picard a new legacy is born. There's a lot in a name.
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00:00NCC1701, no bloody A, B, C, D, E, F, but there is a G.
00:14We are now diving into the Constitution 3, or Neo-Constitution class, Enterprise G.
00:21I am Sean Ferrick for Trek Culture, and here are 10 secrets of the Enterprise G you need to know.
00:28Number 10. Word up, G.
00:32The arrival of the Enterprise G has meant that some parts of the expanded canon are now very firmly not canon anymore.
00:40Let's start with the Enterprise F.
00:42In Star Trek Online, that gets an upgrade from Odyssey class to Yorktown class.
00:47That now doesn't happen, as it's retired in the early 25th century after the Monfet Gambit.
00:54As it stands now, the G has not been made available on Star Trek Online.
01:00Speaking of Star Trek Online, the Titan continued on with the Luna class, which showed the Titan Titan A, and once that was destroyed, the Titan B also continuing on in that frame as well.
01:13Star Trek Fleet Command has now actually shown the Constitution 3 class, with the Titan A crossing over onto its platform in the Kelvin timeline as part of that ongoing story.
01:26The now-defunct fan series Frontiers, not to be confused with the Wizikids game of the same name, showed the Enterprise G turning up there as an Excalibur class.
01:36That was designed by Stephen Davis, but now, actually, most of that would focus more on the Enterprise H.
01:43Unfortunately, it's difficult to find some of that, but you can still see images of that online.
01:48Number 9. Marvelous Medical.
01:51Among some of the most impressive sets built for the Titan A was, in fact, the Medical Bay, which Dave Blass, production designer, went into a lot more detail about.
02:02You never really know what action is going to take place there. Usually, it's one person in a bed, but it's a huge ship, so you really need 10 to 12 beds, but that's a giant waste of space and money.
02:12Then, you need a surgery bed and somewhere to sit and talk, as well as somewhere to look at medical readouts.
02:18So, sick bait was just wrangling of the time and money beast and making it as big yet interesting as possible.
02:24Costs were further reduced, actually, for this set by the introduction of these kind of large OLED holographic-type tubes.
02:33This holographic was very, very deliberate, as Blass said that it was able to give a more technological feel to the room without actually upping the budget considerably.
02:44Number 8. Pursuit Krauss.
02:46The design of the Enterprise-G was based on the Shangri-La class and also inspired by the designs of Trek fan and designer Larry Miller in the 1980s, as Bill Krauss explained.
02:58Originally, the idea for the Shangri-La class was something that could both stand out but also very much blend in with some of the original series movies as well.
03:10In fact, Krauss looked to Andrew Probert's designs so that it would be something that you could see, theoretically, becoming part of the lineage of Starfleet.
03:21Miller's Hornet-class design was also used as a bit of inspiration for what would turn up as the USS Intrepid, as well.
03:28Krauss actually never expected this design to play as pivotal a role as possible.
03:33Terry Mattalis found these designs via Krauss' Instagram account and commissioned Krauss to build a model for him.
03:39He thought it might show up in the background of an episode here or there, not in the, well, hero form it ended up taking in Season 3.
03:48Number 7. Set pieces.
03:5018 new sets were built for the Titan A, which of course would go on to be the Enterprise-G.
03:56You might have noticed that the lower section of La Sirena was reused as the bridge of the Shrike,
04:02whereas, well, the standing set of the Stargazer's bridge from Season 2 became the skeleton of what would become the Titan A's bridge in Season 3.
04:13New OLED screens were added to the Titan A bridge, along with some more panels, platforms, and stations,
04:22including the one that Picard used to fire torpedoes at one point.
04:25The Observation Lounge, as well, was given a bit of a touch-up from what we saw in Season 2,
04:30with the addition of, of course, the new models away from the Stargazer and Sagan class moving towards the Constitution 3,
04:38and, of course, the Luna class as well.
04:41With all of these new sets being designed, and the previously mentioned Medical Bay being the most complex of them,
04:47this was a massive undertaking at a time when a lot of what we see on screen is computer-generated.
04:54Number 6, Shangri-La-La-La-La.
04:59The Enterprise-G can trace its design lineage back to the 23rd century,
05:03with the original USS Titan being a Shangri-La class under the command of Captain Savick.
05:09It's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, but the shuttle that Riker and Picard borrow to go over to the Elias 12
05:17is, in fact, named the Savick after the captain of the first Titan.
05:22The Constitution 3 class was effectively a 25th century update of that original Shangri-La class,
05:28with the Luna class sort of slipping in the middle, if you like.
05:32Let's call that the grunge phase in the middle of their upbringing,
05:36and that, by the way, is not a word against Sean Tarango's design of the Luna class, which I love.
05:41While the overall design of the Constitution 3 is based heavily on the Shangri-La class,
05:46the actual nacelles were borrowed from Season 2's Sagan class USS Stargazer,
05:54with this difference being that they could be opened and tinkered with by some Captain-level grease monkeys.
06:00Number 5, downsizing in the move.
06:03If you trace things from the original Enterprise right up to the Enterprise-F,
06:07you can see that there is a trend of Enterprises tend to get bigger and bigger and bigger.
06:11You had crews of about 400 back in Kirk's day, right up to over 1,000 in Picard's day.
06:18You might think that, well, hold on, the Enterprise-E didn't have anything like that complement,
06:23and you would be correct, although the Sovereign class is quite a bit longer than the Enterprise-D's Galaxy class,
06:31so we're continuing that trend.
06:33Having said that as well, the Sovereign class was just over 600 metres,
06:36where the Odyssey class Enterprise-F is about a kilometre long,
06:41so it's getting a bit ridiculous at that point.
06:43That's not even taking into account the Universe class Enterprise-J.
06:48The Constitution 3 class actually brings everything down again,
06:52and this was a conscious decision by Terry Metallus,
06:56who explained in an interview with Inverse.com
06:58that he wanted to bring this ship back to the exploratory nature of Starfleet
07:04that had been sort of...
07:06After Wolf 359, we'd started to see the introduction of a more militaristic side of Starfleet,
07:13which, you know, led to ships like the Defiant, the Enterprise-E, the Akira class.
07:18The Constitution 3, Enterprise-G, was a deliberate attempt to go back to science vessels and exploring vessels,
07:25and, in Metallus' own words, would have its absolute ass kicked in the wrong situation.
07:30Number 4. What's in a name?
07:32The path to the Enterprise-G is not actually quite as straightforward as you'd think.
07:37Shangri-La class designer Bill Krause explained that
07:40they would start as the Titan but end as the Picard,
07:44which would follow the overall arc of the season
07:46and ironically leave the show named after the ship, but just retroactively.
07:51The moment, however, in the last generation which sees the shuttle come up over the bow
07:57of the now Enterprise-G to reveal the new name
08:00is a direct parallel to the tease at the end of Star Trek IV The Voyage Home
08:04when Sulu says, actually, I'm counting on Excelsior,
08:08and then they rise up over the Excelsior to see the newly christened Enterprise-A.
08:13There was a fun parallel in this as well.
08:15You see, originally, for the next generation, we were going to have NCC-1001-7.
08:23However, the choice to alphabetise the new Enterprise in Star Trek IV The Voyage Home
08:29meant that we were going to not do the additional number at the end,
08:34but rather a letter.
08:35It was going to be the NCC-1701-G.
08:38Now, this was brought down to NCC-1701-D to be more in line with the 78-year gap
08:45between the end of Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country
08:48and, of course, the beginning of Encounter at Farpoint.
08:52Number three, reconstituted.
08:54The decision to make the Enterprise-G a Constitution III class
08:58was a very deliberate decision,
08:59and when the reveal happens, it makes quite a lot of sense.
09:03You see, there's a parallel in the end of The Voyage Home
09:07which sees the Enterprise-A revealed as a Constitution class as well.
09:11Depending on which version of beta canon you follow here,
09:15you could either believe that it was renamed from the USS T-Ho
09:21in the 1980s book Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise,
09:24or renamed for the, well, now coffin ship USS Yorktown.
09:29But either way, it was a renamed existing starship.
09:34Terry Metallica said as well that Season 3 of Star Trek Picard
09:38was an origin story of the G,
09:40which is why when you look at episodes,
09:43particularly The Bounty and The Last Generation,
09:47you see the Enterprise G, A, NX-01,
09:51and the Enterprise D, and the Enterprise F all on screen.
09:57Quite frankly, that's a lot of Enterprises.
10:00Number 2. Not-so-new new ship.
10:03There were a lot of theories around the arrival of a new hero ship
10:06for Picard's third season.
10:08Of course, enter the Titan A, the Neo-Constitution class ship.
10:12There was quite a surprising reveal in that
10:14this was, in many ways,
10:17the exact same ship, Luna class,
10:20that a certain Captain William T. Riker had commanded.
10:23Yes, it was revealed that the Luna class USS Titan
10:28was heavily, heavily refit into the Neo-Constitution class.
10:34There's a couple of gags here and there
10:35where Shaw said he had to free up a few thousand gigabytes
10:39by trying to delete Riker's entire jazz library
10:41from the computer systems as well.
10:43Now, it's not the first time that we've seen
10:45a massive refit of a starship.
10:47I mean, look at the Constitution to the Constitution refit
10:51of the motion picture.
10:53While perhaps not as drastic,
10:56it is still effectively a new ship
10:59built around the frame of the last one.
11:01In this,
11:02a lot of the computer systems,
11:04the nacelles,
11:06and the warp coils
11:07were directly held over,
11:08even if they did receive
11:10quite a bit of tinkering and changes.
11:13This also goes away toward
11:16explaining the addition of the A
11:19to the USS Discovery's registry
11:22after it too goes under a significant refit
11:26in the third season of Star Trek Discovery.
11:29It also helps to hide it in time as well.
11:31Number one,
11:32Captain's Prerogative.
11:33The paint is barely dry on the hull,
11:35and yet the Enterprise-G
11:37already has quite the lineage behind it.
11:40Now, technically,
11:41if we're taking the physical ship
11:43into account here,
11:44there's already been
11:45three commanders of the Enterprise-G.
11:48So, first of all,
11:49from the Luna class,
11:50we have Captain William T. Riker.
11:52Then, of course,
11:53you've got Liam...
11:55No.
11:56Shaw taking over for the refit
11:58and for...
12:00what ends up being
12:01the last five years of its life.
12:03Riker does take over again
12:04for a little while
12:05when Shaw's incapacitated,
12:07but as we see,
12:09when the ship is officially
12:10designated Enterprise-G,
12:11you've got Captain Seven of Nine
12:13in the big seat.
12:14While we are still waiting
12:15on Star Trek Legacy
12:16to show us more of Seven
12:18in the captain's seat,
12:19it's actually not the record
12:20for the amount of commanders
12:21of an Enterprise.
12:22Look at the original one.
12:23You've got April,
12:24you've got Pike,
12:25you've got Kirk,
12:26you've got Commodore Decker,
12:28you've got his son,
12:29Will Decker,
12:30you've got Spock as well.
12:33And then, you know,
12:33varying kind of like
12:35here and there,
12:36it's all the way in between.
12:37The Enterprise-D
12:38had Picard a few times,
12:40we had Jellicoe.
12:41Now, the difference there
12:42is that that did stay
12:44the Enterprise-D.
12:45And although the original Enterprise
12:47had quite a few commanders,
12:49the Enterprise-A
12:50sort of, you know,
12:51kind of oscillates
12:52between Kirk and Spock
12:53depending on the afternoon.
12:55What I'm saying is that
12:56it's a privilege
12:57to be a captain
12:57of the Enterprise.
12:59God only knows
12:59how long you'll be one for.
13:02Hashtag save seven.
13:03Thank you very much
13:04for watching along.
13:05This has been one
13:05of the exciting ones
13:06because it's always good fun
13:07to talk about an Enterprise
13:08and it's always great fun anyway
13:10to talk about these ships.
13:12So, please don't forget
13:13to give the original article
13:14which was written
13:15by the wonderful Clive Burrell
13:16a read.
13:17That's over on
13:18whatculture.com.
13:19Thank you so much
13:20to our wonderful editor Martin
13:21for making this all
13:22look so pretty.
13:23Remember, go and follow us
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13:26over on Instagram.
13:28Remember as well
13:29that we have a podcast
13:29that drops every Tuesday.
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13:33so you go check it out
13:34if and when it suits you.
13:36I have been Sean.
13:38You are awesome.
13:39Make sure that you live
13:40long and prosper
13:41till I see you again.
13:42Our friends in Ukraine,
13:42Slav, Ukraine.
13:44Everyone,
13:45however long it is
13:45until I'm talking to you,
13:47make sure above all else
13:48you have a wonderful time.
13:50Make it so.
13:51Thanks.
13:53Bollocks.