Star Trek: Discovery debuts a ship honoring a beloved captain

Warning: The post contains spoilers for Star Trek: Discovery Season 4, Episode 5, “The Examples.” 

Some of the greatest Star Trek characters have left an even greater legacy behind. And those people are honored in a special way…with a starship bearing their name. According to Heavy.com, Trek writers named ships after actors, writers, producers, and characters, usually as a tribute to that person’s contributions to the Trekverse.  The U.S.S. Archer is named after Captain Jonathan Archer. The USS Sarek is named after Mr. Spock’s father from Star Trek: The Original Series. The USS Nog is named after Aron Eisenberg’s character, Nog, from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and that ship was an Eisenberg class as a further tribute to the late actor. It made its debut in season three of Discovery.

This season, another ship paid tribute to one of the greatest captains to grace the franchise, Captain Kathryn Janeway. The USS Janeway was on hand to help Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) as they tried to stop the Dark Matter Anomaly that is threatening the United Federation of Planets.

Star Trek: Discovery honored a captain who continues to serve

Though by the time the 32nd century arrives, the time period in which Discovery is set, Captain Janeway has long since passed away, but, as for now, her hologram continues to serve aboard the Protostar, helping juvenile aliens learn about the ship they’ve commandeered on Star Trek: Prodigy.

Captain Janeway deserves this honor, and we hope to see additional captains and characters added to the list of Starfleet ships that will grace the galaxy. Who wouldn’t love to see a USS Sisko? And a USS Kirk that isn’t a Naval destroyer? And what about a USS Data? There are so many possibilities, and so many Trek characters deserving of this honor. And plenty of ships to be named.