Star Trek: 10 Secrets Of The USS Stargazer

10. The Pressure Of Legacy

Designing Star Trek: Picard season two's brand new USS Stargazer was a team effort led by production designer Dave Blass. The design process reunited several veterans of the Star Trek franchise including John Eaves and Doug Drexler who worked on the ship's exterior and Sean Hargreaves (Star Trek Beyond), Michael Okuda, and Geoffrey Mandel (Star Trek: Insurrection) finessing the starship's interiors.

These artists' deep history with the franchise produced a vessel that was a clear evolution of the ships of Star Trek: The Next Generation but still faithful to Andrew Probert and John Dwyer's original Constellation-class model.

According to production designer Dave Blass:

We needed to update the classic USS Stargazer design that was seen briefly in the TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation, and update the design of a Starfleet starship into a new century. How would we update the technology to work for modern audiences while also staying true to the original Next Generation feel?

Despite the new Stargazer's fidelity to Captain Picard's first command (seen in "The Battle"), the ship is still its own creature, drawing inspiration not just from Probert and Dwyer's OG Stargazer, but also a TOS-era forbearer, the Radiant-class USS Stargazer, designed specifically for Star Trek: Picard by fan model maker Bill Krause.