Star Trek: Discovery Episode 3.6 Review: Ups And Downs From Scavengers
5. 23rd Century Starships Only (DOWN)
The Hiawatha Class, the Cardenas Class and the Hoover Class starships are fine, fine ships. The Cardenas, in particular, is a beautiful design. Two of the three made their debut during the Battle of the Binary Stars, while the Hiawatha was of course introduced in the second season opener, Brother.
So why on earth are there numerous versions of each ship, derelict and damaged by the Burn, in orbit around the planet?
When the Magee class ship appeared in orbit of Mars in the Short Trek, Children of Mars, it was...confusing. Here was a one hundred year old ship (with two Helios class tugs behind it) sitting in drydock. Perhaps, to be fair, it was a museum ship.
Perhaps the entire planet was a museum planet. Star Trek: Lower Decks displayed a museum that was chock full of relics when Rutherford was on his secret mission. We saw the Vulcan T'planna Hath, a Romulan Bird of Prey, a Vulcan Long Range shuttle and other ships. That, at least, made sense within the confines of the story.
This, as depicted, simply doesn't. No one is saying that these designs aren't extremely lovely. Further to this, it's entirely understandable that the art department would want to get as much mileage as possible out of these designs, rather than confine them to a historical scrap heap.
However - that still doesn't explain why almost thousand year old ships were in operation during the Burn. It feels, though this almost hurts to say, lazy.