Star Trek: 10 Secrets Of The USS Shenzhou You Need To Know

10. Old Reliant-able

One of the many lasting contributions from Star Trek: Discovery creator Bryan Fuller, the USS Shenzhou was intended to evoke the franchise's aesthetic past while nodding toward its progressive future.

At Fuller's request, the Star Trek: Discovery art department used the USS Reliant from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan as a jumping off point, intending the Shenzhou to recall Star Trek starships that audiences would be familiar with. According to Fuller:

We wanted the Shenzhou to be a much more traditional design so that when you got to the Discovery and it looked different, you wondered why it was so different.

However, there was another reason Fuller wanted to evoke The Wrath of Khan's iconic Starfleet vessel:

The Reliant has a wonderful history of minority representation. We thought it would be a nice nod to echo its design with the Shenzhou because we wanted to give it a context that non-white Star Trek fans might appreciate.

For Star Trek: Discovery, the Shenzhou would be another step toward depicting a multi-racial future both in the name of the ship herself and her commanding officer, Captain Philippa Georgiou:

I wanted an Asian female captain and calling the ship the Shenzhou after the Chinese space station felt like a wonderful way of acknowledging the scientific achievement of the Chinese community.