Ahead of the arrival of season three of Star Trek: Picard, an official log was released with the history of the USS Titan. This took a look at the history of the ships in Starfleet that carried the name of Titan. Showrunner Terry Matalas also shared how the USS Titan NCC-80102-A came to be as well. Now as this season continues on, fans have had a good look at the newest iteration of the USS Titan under the command of Captain Shaw. It had been explained earlier that this was a refit of the Titan which Captain Riker once commanded… and then some. Now, more details are coming out about how the USS Titan that was commanded by Riker became the USS Titan that is season in Picard.
The USS Titan Refit
The unusual refit of the Titan came in part because of the attack on Mars. The destruction of the Utopia Planitia Fleetyards led to a loss of machinery, life, and raw material. This also meant that more elements of the former Titan was needed for the new ship. The attack on Mars could be seen in the first season of Star Trek: Picard and also in the Short Treks short Children of Mars.
Production Designer Dave Blass took to Twitter to share exactly how this new ship came to be. He shared the following:
Here is some early concept art that we did of the two USS Titans during the refit process. It was a fun exploration of how things might have happened. Artwork by John Eaves with modeling by
@DaveBlass
Blass continued on to share exactly how the refit happened according to designer Mike Okuda.
Why reuse and not just replicate? Like Dilithium, and Latinim, there are lots of materials that can’t be replicated. Sadly Voyager found this out the hard way as Nacelle components are made of a composite of polysilicate verterium and monocrystal cortenum. Can’t be replicated.
16 Years ago the Federation lost the Utopia Planitia Fleetyards, this was not just machinery, and infrastructure but raw materials that are used to manufacture ships. A disaster of that scale, caused a massive of upheaval in the starship construction process.
Even with industrial-sized replicators, reuse of large objects will often make sense. Mass equals a lot of energy, and converting it back and forth involves a tremendous amount of energy. And since no process can be 100% efficient, conversion comes at a cost. For relatively small objects, this cost is acceptable, especially compared to the cost of lugging around five years’ worth of food, or an entire inventory of spare parts. But for industrial-sized objects, there will likely be circumstances where it makes more sense to recycle instead of replicate. – Mike Okuda
@DaveBlass
Looking Closer at the USS Titan-A
Dave Blass also shared a closer look at what the USS Titan-A looks like after its refit. This was thanks to the world of Doug Drexler. Blass tweeted a chart that gives a look at the tech found onboard the Titan-A.
Lot’s of questions over the last few weeks about the USS Titan NCC-80102-A. Master Starfleet Shipbuilder Doug Drexler has put this handy chart together with the tech involved in this amazing ship as a gift to the best fans in the world.
@DaveBlass
Designer Mike Okuda also gave a closer look at the transporter room panels on Twitter.
I based the Titan’s transporter room panels on the displays in the Enterprise-D transporter. Animation by Andrew Jarvis and Noah Schloss. Lead graphic designer: Geoff Mandel. Art director: Liz Kloczkowski. Production designer: Dave Blass. Star Trek Picard streams on Paramount+.
@MikeOkuda
With each episode there are new opportunities to see more of the USS Titan-A. The cast and crew that bring this ship to life have also continued to share more details about this ship. As they do, Daps Magic will continue to keep tabs on any information and share more about this beautiful ship when possible.
What do you think of the USS Titan-A? Are you enjoying it being the hero ship for this season of Star Trek: Picard? What do you think of the information that was shared by some of the production team above? Share your thoughts and opinions in the comments below!
