When Star Trek: Picard came back last week, it moved the Star Trek timeline forward into a period that was largely untouched in its TV history. Discovery jumped all the way to the 31st century, but a 2401 setting meant exploring Star Trek's 25th century future. One piece of Star Trek was already showing where no other show had gone before, and it was a chance to bring it into the fold.
The second season premiere of Star Trek: Picard caught up with the events of the first season. When a new threat emerged out on the fringes of space, Starfleet had to muster a fleet of assisting ships to answer the threat. This time, they were not a carbon-copy flotilla of identical vessels like the last time Picard saw some fleet action, but rather a collection of old and new designs, from the updated Stargazer to the latest Excelsior, for the very first time in Star Trek TV.
Over a decade old, the free-to-play MMORPG has made the most of charting its own vision of the future in Star Trek, playing out an early 25th century that has seen the Federation and Klingon Empires at war with each other as well. For the first time, original content from the game itself has made its way into Star Trek's TV canon thanks to the designs of the Gagarin Miracle Worker Battlecruiser. io9 spoke to Star Trek Online Associate Art Director Thomas Marrone and Picard Production Designer David Blass to find out more about the process of bringing a little touch of Star Trek Online to Picard.
How did the opportunity come about to bring some STO designs into Picard season two? Why was it the right time to start pulling on the threads established in the game?
When we realized we needed a bigger fleet for Picard, it all started. I thought this could be a great opportunity for Star Trek. It would be better for the fan experience if we could connect the different elements of Star Trek.
The fans of Star Trek are very passionate about the series. Video games allow them to be immersed in the world of Star Trek, but there is not enough of a synergy. I was thinking about how we were missing out on a huge opportunity when I looked at the ships from Star Trek Online. It would be a win for everyone if these ships were used. The fans would be ecstatic if the ships became canon and we got new ships for the show.
It pays off for our players too. If one of the ships appears on the show, that is a huge emotional landmark for them. The timelines sync up as well. When Picard was announced, it was exciting because it was 30 years after TNG. The ships from Star Trek Online are set in the same century as Picard.
Star Trek Online has brought a lot of canon ships into the game, but we have made our own. This is the first time we've done it in reverse direction, where the ships we made for Star Trek Online appear in a canon television show. We were able to work with IDW Publishing to bring the Odyssey class to the comic books, which was a great collaboration. It's a whole other thing to see it on a Star Trek TV show, for it to jump from licensed work to canon work.
We have been building our own catalog of ships since 2010 when Star Trek Online started. With the renaissance of Star Trek on Paramount, we have an interesting perspective because we were there during the dry spell. The best of both worlds is what we get.
Tell me about the collaborative process from a design perspective. What was it like working together as designers on the show and film designs that STO was working on?
I had to build a team when I started the design process for Picard. The best Star Trek designers in the world were in one room for an entire decade when they did the shows in the 90s. When you had someone design a ship, you had people who understood the language. You didn't have to explain what a nacelle is.
I started looking for Star Trek designers when I was building my team. I found these ships online and thought, "WOW, those are good looking ships." I kept going back to Gagarin and when I researched it, it led me to Star Trek Online. I reached out to Thomas and asked if he had ships. I need ships. I told him that we also needed help with the design after we got into the design of the Stargazer. In the middle of the covid lockdown, we all got into a call with Thomas, John Eaves, and Doug Drexler to come up with some ideas. It became a collaborative experience of people who live and breathe the Star Trek design aesthetic, all working together to bring these ships to the fans. It was a no-brainer for me. We needed ships. How cool would it be to control the Stargazer online? It wasn't easy but we were able to do it. We put together a bunch of the best ships and showed them to the department and they thought it was just a video game. They were well thought out, well designed and made. It was a great experience and once we got our foot in the door, it opened up other opportunities.
There is a lot of original starship designs by STO. Can you tell me what the process is for selecting which ships to bring into the show?
Dave asked Marrone to put together a list of ships that were successful in the game. I made a big chart of the 25th century ships in Star Trek Online and we narrowed it down. We didn't want them to compete with the Stargazer so we didn't use those four nacelles. There was something about the ships that had their own unique silhouette. They were ships that the players would immediately recognize. The Gagarin ships were already out in the wild, because Eaglemoss had a model for them. We mined the most popular ships for ships that were contemporary and fit with the visual style of what they were doing with Picard.
There is a difference between what works for an online game designed to run on various scales of hardware and the sort of intense visual effects detail we know goes into a show like Picard. What was it like to take the game's designs and re-imagine them for a streaming series?
This was a great excuse for us. The ships that were going to be in Picard were the subject of a lot of work by me. The models were four to five years old, so it meant doubling the triangles and some of the details. It was a good confluence of resources because we could add a lot of quality to the ships and because STO was about to start its Terran storyline. The model for the game is the same as the ones that need a pretty good facelift. I updated the model and sent it to Picard. There were a lot of details in the curves. Our in-game models are so detailed that they can hold up on screen at a certain distance.
There isn't a hard drive that says Star Trek on the side that has every model that has ever been used. The physical model of the Bird of Prey was used to re-use it, which is the reason why it is featured so often. It was centuries old. It doesn't exist anymore. The old ships were brought into the new world thanks to the help of the STO. I can't wait to see what the fans think. We used a lot of the same ships in season one, so I put Thomas and Hector from Cryptic in our credits. The fans didn't like that and so we solved the problem and now fans will have all the new ships. People who have never played Star Trek Online will look at the ships and say, "WOW, what a great ship." Those who play the game will recognize the ships and fans, that's what matters. The fact that the ship you fly in the game is a real Star Trek ship will be a big deal for these fans.
There are aesthetic differences to consider. What were the biggest challenges in adapting the visual feel of these ships into the aesthetic for vessels we've seen in the current Trek series like Discovery and Picard?
Thomas sent me a huge packet of ships. There were many. I would flip through them and find the ones that matched the world of the Stargazer. We didn't want another one with four in the wide shot because we had four nacelles. What do fans want to see? What are people excited about? We wanted to pick things that looked like they were in the same fleet. It felt like a kid was walking into a candy store. It worked out well. The fans noticed the Nova class when we had the trailer a few weeks ago. It's great that we can finally share the news because I will be very busy. We have been working on this for almost two years. It is definitely something we have been holding onto.
The past decade has seen STO tell its own story for Star Trek's 24th century future. What does it mean to see some recognition of that work on screen in a show that is nostalgically connected to Trek's past as Picard?
It is a realization of our greatest hope. As Star Trek fans who worked on this license for a while, we are proud of the art and the story that we make. Being recognized by Picard is a validation of how much we care and how much we put into our work. Many people who work on Star Trek Online are huge Star Trek fans and are dedicated to getting everything right and continuing the legacy of the show. We wanted to feel like the show never stopped, like you have never stopped watching Star Trek. It feels incredible to see that come to fruition with Picard. It is a fulfillment of my hopes and dreams for what we can do with Star Trek Online.
Star Trek: Picard is available on Paramount+.
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