10 Ways The Streaming Era Has Improved Star Trek
3. Star Trek Online
Star Trek Online first was released in 2011, offering an internet platform for Trekkies and Trekkers to game. It also filled a void, as there was no televised Star Trek at that time. Entire fleets of ships were introduced, legacy characters returned, and it rapidly grew.
When Star Trek began its streaming era, there was a massive reshuffle with expanded universe content. The ongoing novel universe was tied up in the Coda trilogy, as new releases would now align with what we were seeing on-screen. Online continued though, before being featured in some surprising cameos.
Star Trek: Picard's second season introduced several ships that were, until that point, unique to the games. The Ross-class, the Gagarin-class, the Reliant-class, and the Sutherland-class were all designs from Star Trek Online, now realised on-screen. The third season introduced yet more Online ships, such as the Pathfinder-class and, of course, the Odyssey-class.
This cemented their status as canon, in-universe designs.