Earlier in the week, fans learned that the USS Enterprise-E would not be returning in the third and final season of Star Trek: Picard. However, just a few days later it showed up in Star Trek: Prodigy… if you looked really closely.
Prodigy E
In “Supernova, Part 1,” the first part of the season finale of Star Trek: Prodigy, the USS Protostar was greeted by an armada of Starfleet vessels, there to intercept the ship and its hidden weapon. The fleet was comprised entirely of four ship types: Sovereign class, Akira class, Defiant class, and Centaur type. This included the actual USS Sovereign, USS Akira, USS Defiant, and USS Centaur.
This fleet first attacked the Protostar and at a couple of points during the battle, a different specific Sovereign class ship could be spotted… the USS Enterprise-E.
USS Protostar flies by the USS Enterprise-E in “Supernova, Part 1”
The Enterprise could be identified by the NCC-1701-E registration, which can be seen at a few different points in the battle.
Protostar flies by the nacelle of the Enterprise-E
None of the ships in the battle were ever noted in dialogue and these are blink-and-you-will-miss-it moments, but the Enterprise’s registration was also spotted by editors at Memory Alpha. The NCC-1701-E registry is distinctive and certainly different than the multiple shots of the USS Sovereign, with its NCC-73811.
USS Sovereign in “Supernova, Part 1”
After the deployment of the Vau N’Akat “Living Construct” weapon, the Starfleet ships were infected and began to fire at each other. Many of the ships could be seen taking heavy damage, including what appears to the Enterprise.
The Enterprise under attack
Fate of the E?
The last canon appearance of the USS Enterprise-E was in the 2002 film Star Trek: Nemesis, set in the year 2379. The ship was seen being repaired in drydock at the end of the film, indicating it would continue service. The Prodigy season finale is set five years later in 2384, by which time Jean-Luc Picard has been promoted to admiral, so it isn’t known who would be in command of the USS Enterprise-E.
Enterprise-E at the end of Nemesis
Sometime later in the 24th century, the Enterprise-E was replaced by the Enterprise-F, which will be first seen in the third season of Star Trek: Picard, based on the trailer released at New York Comic Con. Picard showrunner Terry Matalas has confirmed the Enterprise-F was commissioned before the first season of Picard (set in 2399).
USS Enterprise-F seen in NYCC Picard trailer
The Enterprise-E was launched in 2372, so some fans have wondered about the fate of the ship, which could theoretically have still been in service at the start of Picard. On Twitter, Matalas suggested that “flagships take a beating.” And it is certainly taking a beating in Prodigy. It’s possible that the Prodigy season finale battle led to the launch of the Enterprise-F. We may learn more in the season finale episode, “Supernova, Part 2.”
It’s not the years, it’s the mileage. Even the F is getting up there. Flagships take a beating. https://t.co/ieXDYzIfM6
— Terry Matalas (@TerryMatalas) December 19, 2022
Intentional E?
A big caveat to all of this is how the use of the Enterprise-E model for the final Prodigy battle may have just been something the animators and editors chose and was not meant to be part of the story. It could just be an easter egg or even something they didn’t think would be seen. The USS Sovereign itself can be seen participating in the early battle and warping in later to join the battle, indicating the animators were reusing the same models for simplicity’s sake.
It is also possible this was a mistake. It may be that there is just one Sovereign model used throughout the battle, with the saucer section displaying “USS Sovereign,” but the nacelles use the Enterprise’s “NCC-1701-E” registry. For now, we prefer to think of the surprise appearance of the iconic USS Enterprise as a holiday miracle. Merry Christmas from TrekMovie.com.
New episodes of Prodigy debut on Thursdays exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S., and on Fridays in Latin America and select countries in Europe. The series is also carried on SkyShowtime in the rest of Europe with the second half of season one expected to arrive in 2023.
Keep up with news about the Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com.
Definitely didn’t catch this when watching the episode. The Defiant is also in the battle, its registry and screen time was way more apparent.
I had to rewatch it twice to find it. I saw the image the first time on memory alpha.
I had suspected she’d be written out in this fashion ever since Matalas hinted at it on Twitter. Sadly it seems I was right.
As I said in another thread, this would be a very cool / subtle way to write out the E and tie Prodigy to both the TNG films and Picard. Please Make It So.
I know we still have part 2, but maybe this battle is a big reason (along with Utopia being destoyed) why we have older “retrofitted” ships by picard s3 along with a huge fleet of easier to bulid en masse “copy and paste” ships in s1
Thanks for the spoilers on Christmas right in the headlines on my RSS feed… Please consider next time that your excitement may translate to ruining someone else’s experience.
The episode came out 4 days ago. Maybe don’t wait to watch a big episode such as part one of a season finale 🤷🏻♂️
The majority who have already seen it shouldn’t have to wait for you to play catch up.
I’d steer clear of begrudging anybody being too busy for TV in the second half of December.
Not all people could have seen it. I belong to that people. In my case I don’t feel spoiled since I look daily at Trekmovie and click on news like this.
Even if P+ has arrived in Europe (or parts of it), they still don’t have the newest episodes of Star Trek Prodigy.
Episodes 1-13 aired only a few weeks before P+ started in german tv for free. I’d like to see how Prodigy continues, yet they only offer those 13 episodes on P+.
On the other hand I look forward to binge watch the rest of the episodes, because the episodes are made to being binge-watched, without getting frustrated about the slow pace like it happend with other series.
What does this spoil? The enterprise has absolutely nothing to do with the story; it’s a split-second Easter egg. It’s so fast that you likely wouldn’t have even known it was there.
True. I am a Starship enthusiast, I analyzed those scenes to see what ships were there, I missed the Enterprise multiple times.
You do know the episode has already aired right? And this has been pointed out in multiple places since it aired from Reddit to YouTube. And most people missed it. TM didn’t even mention it in their original review because they probably didn’t catch it until now.
I understand the frustration, but very few people noticed this detail – it wasn’t called out in the episode at all and is incredibly hard to spot. And the existence of a space battle isn’t much of a spoiler either. I think this article was weighed properly.
I agree, it does spoil that there’s a big battle involving Starfleet ships. (Even if the “appearance” of the Enterprise E is inconsequential.) I happened to watch this episode early, but it does take me a few days sometimes, depending on how busy I am. And some people might not have a chance to watch the them until much later. Please keep spoilers inside the article contents and away from the headlines and thumbnails.
Someone commenting on a “blink and you missed it” moment ruined, I say RUINED, it for you?
I don’t think anyone has done anything wrong here….
Lining up with Star Trek Online.
nope the enterprise f entered service in sto in 2409 but now it entered service in the 2390’s before the events of season 1 of picard and the fact the odyssey class was in service in the ea ly 2380’s instead of the early 25h century like in sto means that sto is either going to have to retcon its story timeline or is going to stay a alternate timeline story picard seasons 1-3 have changed a bunch of sto backstory for ships and ship classes and even tng-voy characters back stories post nemesis
Likely retcon at Star Trek Online.
OT, but I do wonder when the Galaxy class starts getting decommissioned. We’ve seen them still around in various alternate realities post-2384, would be nice to catch a glimpse of them again in Prodigy and Picard.
Even the nacelle grilles turned red? Give me a break. That blue lighting isn’t an aesthetic choice. The things that need to be done so children understand “bad thing happened”.
The E’s screen time has been short, but it deserves better than to be destroyed in a random episode of Shit Trek. Maybe Charlie Reynolds will swing for the fences and save them all.
They just used existing models without updating the names and registry numbers to make it more believable. The amount of thought put into this was negative.
Except that I doubt by now they are using CGI files and software direct from the movies, especially given the different style of Prodigy and that it’s been outsourced, though not impossible. I think any decision to render the Defiant and the Enterprise (or at least a Sovereign) would have been a very conscious decision to produce new assets specifically for this.
There’s one shot where you can see USS Sovereign on the Saucer and NCC-1701-E on a nacelle on the same model.
Honestly I felt spoiled by this article headline. I’ve been busy for Christmas and the holidays and am a few days behind on watching. I understand it was a small detail but I love looking for these kinds of details on my own and I didn’t really want to know there was a starship battle either. I never comment on this website (I usually just read), but wanted to mention as I’ve never seen this type of spoiler in a headline before (even Easter egg related – right during Christmas). If this was several weeks later I’d understand. If this was Google News or Facebook and I had seen by accident that would be fine too. Just never noticed it on your website before. Anyways that’s my first comment here, I’ll re-cloak now.
That’s exactly it. Jorg on twitter noticed you can spot USS Sovereign and NCC-1701-E on the same ship
https://twitter.com/gaghyogi49/status/1605985397682511872
Matalas’ comments are frankly ridiculous.
The original Enterprise was 40 years old when she was destroyed, and he can’t claim she didn’t take a pounding, even during TOS (there were quite a few episodes that left Enterprise severely damaged by the time Kirk got her out of it).
The REALITY is that every showrunner wants to be the one to introduce a new Enterprise. It’s just become another rote trope and checkbox that has to be ticked.