The Shrike, Star Trek: Picard season 3's villain ship, is the latest example of a scary Star Trek ship trend. Star Trek: Picard season 3 reunites Admiral Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) with the crew of Star Trek: The Next Generation for one last adventure to save the galaxy together. This time, the threat comes from the mysterious Captain Vadic (Amanda Plummer), who has an unspecified reason to seek vengeance on Picard and the United Federation of Planets.
Although the USS Enterprise-F is slated to appear in Star Trek: Picard season 3, the hero ship of the story is the USS Titan-A. Admiral Picard and Captain William T. Riker (Jonathan Frakes) come aboard the new Neo-Constitution-class Titan, which was Will's former command. However, the Titan-A has a new Captain, Liam Shaw (Todd Stashwick), although his First Officer is thankfully a familiar face, Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan). A major tie to TNG's legacy is the Titan's helmsman, Ensign Sidney La Forge (Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut), the daughter of Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton). But while the Titan-A is brand-new and top-of-the-line, the Starfleet ship appears dwarfed in size and power by Captain Vadic's Shrike.
Picard Season 3's Shrike Continues A Scary Villain Ship Trend
It's already evident from Star Trek: Picard season 3's trailers that the Shrike is a massive monstrosity compared to Starfleet's finest vessels, and it's the latest villain ship to visually outmatch a Star Trek hero ship. From the planet-killer in Star Trek: The Original Series' "The Doomsday Machine," to V'Ger in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, to the Dreadnought-class USS Vengeance in Star Trek Into Darkness, villains in command of a big scary starship is an ongoing Star Trek trend. Various incarnations of the USS Enterprise have looked tiny compared to a Borg Cube, the Narada in J.J. Abrams' Star Trek 2009, or Shinzon's (Tom Hardy) Reman flagship, the Scimitar, in Star Trek: Nemesis.
The Shrike's name, a bird-of-prey, hints that Vadic's starship may be Romulan in origin, although the Klingons also use Birds-of-Prey. The Shrike likely packs weaponry with a ferocity that matches the starship's brutish size. Captain Vadic's goals have yet to be revealed by Star Trek: Picard season 3, but a gigantic horror like the Shrike is obviously not built for peace. Vadic aims to make war on Jean-Luc Picard and the Federation, and the Shrike gives her the raw power to overwhelm whatever Starfleet places in her way.
Why Star Trek Villain Ships Have To Be Big To Be Scary
Star Trek has trended towards bigger and scarier villain ships, but it wasn't always this way. Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalbán) commandeered the Miranda-class USS Reliant, which was relatively the same size as the Enterprise, but he was still able to wreak havoc in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Star Trek III: The Search for Spock's Kruge (Christopher Lloyd) was a threat to the Enterprise in a smaller Bird-of-Prey, while the Duras sisters used guile and their own Bird-of-Prey to destroy the USS Enterprise-D in Star Trek Generations.
Yet Star Trek has increasingly relied on the visual shorthand of introducing a bigger villain ship to terrorize Starfleet and provoke fear from audiences. Gargantuan adversary ships like the Narada, the Scimitar, the Vengeance, and now, the Shrike, are an easy way to establish that our Star Trek heroes are outmatched and cannot rely on Starfleet's nearly-magical technology alone to survive and win. Star Trek: Picard season 3 promises to introduce a threat unlike any other that Jean-Luc and his former Enterprise crew have faced and, with the Shrike, bigger definitely means badder.
Star Trek: Picard Season 3 premieres Thursday, February 16th, on Paramount+.