Star Trek: Picard will bring the U.S.S. Titan to the fandom finally.
When Star Trek: Picard returns for its final season, it will feature a version of the U.S.S. Titan in Star Trek for the first time in live action. The ship was brought into the lore in the late 90s as the command vessel of William Riker and was even brought up during the events of Star Trek: Nemesis. Though, to the best of my memory, it never appeared in the film. The ship was mostly referenced in the extended universe novels that are largely considered non-canon.
The Titan did appear on Star Trek: Lower Decks, however, with Riker in command of the ship. That finally gave fans something in canon to appreciate.
The ship will make its live-action debut in Picard, but it doesn’t appear to be the same one that we’ve seen in Lower Decks. This Titan looks more like a modified Excelsior-class ship, as opposed to the Luna-class ship we saw in Lower Decks.
This Titan is apparently referred to as the U.S.S. Titan-A, so not exactly the same ship Riker was on but close enough that it should give fans those warm fuzzies that they were hoping for when they first saw the ship.
Star Trek can’t afford to misuse the U.S.S. Titan-A
The folks at Star Trek: Picard have done a really bad job across the board, but one of the big core elements of Trek is that every show is about the ship and its crew. Picard lost that plot and never made the ship its primary focus as every other show has.
Even Deep Space Nine made its “ship”, which was actually a space station, the focus of the show. The plot of Picard seems to feature a rescue attempt on Beverly Crusher, so clearly the Titan won’t play center stage as so many other ships have done, but the Titan has to be well used in this series. It’s not only the last chance to tie a ship to Picard in a profound way, but it might be the last chance for this era’s Titan to get some much-needed love.
After all, the ship is most famous for being the ship of Captain Riker, and if you don’t nail it with Picard, what’s the point of doing it in another series without Riker?