As Star Trek: Picard season 3 nears its finale, it’s given us a satisfying Star Trek: The Next Generation reunion and ignited hopes for Picard season 4. The last time the crew was all together was back in 2002 in Star Trek: Nemesis. Fortunately, we’ve been able to catch up with Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) over the past three seasons of Picard. The series has explored his adventures after retiring from his role as a Starfleet Admiral. However, the TNG crew didn’t return until season 3, and their future is uncertain as there may not be plans for a fourth season, and potential spinoffs still feel so far away. As a result, we’ve had a lot of catching up to do in a short time in this last season of Star Trek: Picard.
A tale of two ships
One of the biggest unanswered mysteries is what happened to some of the ships in Starfleet’s history. Two of the most prominent ships in the Star Trek franchise are the USS Enterprise-D (NCC-1701-D) and the USS Enterprise-E (NCC-1701-E). Star Trek: Picard surprised fans by unveiling Enterprise-D in season 3, episode 9, “Vox.” During the episode, the crew ends up in a Starfleet Museum, which contains several ships from the fleet’s history. It is there that Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) reveals that he’s been rebuilding Enterprise-D.
Enterprise-D was the primary setting for Star Trek: The Next Generation, but it was sadly destroyed in Star Trek Generations during the Battle of Veridian III. The destruction of Enterprise-D led to the crew getting a replacement ship, Enterprise-E. While it was fun to see the crew back in the original TNG ship, we can’t help but wonder what happened to Enterprise-E to make it unavailable in Star Trek: Picard. The answer to this question lies with Worf.
What did Worf do to the Enterprise-E?
Star Trek: Picard doesn’t explicitly explain what happened to Enterprise-E. As mentioned above, there’s a lot to unpack, so not every backstory can be wholly fleshed out. However, when revealing that he rebuilt Enterprise-D, Geordi says, “And obviously, we can’t use the Enterprise-E.” This statement seems to imply that Enterprise-E was destroyed. Additionally, it seems it was so badly destroyed that it was beyond fixing, leaving Geordi to work on Enterprise-D instead. After he mentions Enterprise-E, though, everyone in the group turns to look at Worf (Michael Dorn). Noticing the accusatory glances, Worf defensively says, “That wasn’t my fault.”
Unfortunately, we do not know exactly what Worf and the rest of the crew are referring to. However, it certainly seems to imply that Worf was somehow tied to Enterprise-E’s demise. The only other bit of information we have about what happened is a social media post. Ahead of Star Trek: Picard‘s season 3 premiere, Paramount Pictures used the official Star Trek Instagram page, Star Trek Logs, to share “personnel” files on all the returning TNG characters to give viewers a refresher. Worf’s file mentions that he was assigned captain of Enterprise-E before Star Trek: Picard. However, his stint as captain was brief because he “stepped down after the incident above Kriilar Prime.”
Clues about Enterprise-E’s fate seem to end there, as there’s no evidence of what the Kriilar Prime incident is. Such an incident seemingly hasn’t been explored or mentioned in any other Star Trek projects yet. However, since his return to Star Trek: Picard, rumors have suggested that Worf may be getting his own spinoff series. Hopefully, more information about his ill-fated adventures as Captain of the Enterprise-E will arise in other Star Trek projects.
(featured image: Paramount Pictures)
