USS Stargazer (Star Trek)

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USS Stargazer
First appearance The Battle
Fate Decommissioned
Affiliation Starfleet, At one point Ferengi
General Characteristics
Class Constellation Class
Registry NCC-2893
Maximum speed Warp 9.2
Fighters None
Auxiliary craft 8 Shuttlecraft (later 4 Shuttlecraft, 6 Shuttlepods)
Armaments Type 8 Phasers Type 4 Photon Torpedoes
Defences Type FSQ Deflector Shields
Propulsion Type 4 Impulse Drive Type 8 Warp drive
Power Type 8 Warp Core
Length 310 Meters
Width 140 Meters
Height 84 meters

The USS Stargazer, NCC-2893, is a Federation starship in the fictional universe of Star Trek: The Next Generation. It is a Constellation class starship.

The backstory of Jean-Luc Picard establishes that the Stargazer was the first ship he had captained.

Contents

[edit] Appearances

The ship first appeared in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode The Battle, in which DaiMon Bok tried to take revenge against Picard for killing his son. Later, a series of novels about Picard's command of the ship, collectively entitled Stargazer, was written. A model of another Constellation class ship is on display in Picard's ready room aboard the Enterprise-D appears almost constantly throughout the TNG series, even prior to the aforementioned episode.

[edit] Maxia

When the Stargazer came to the Maxia star system, it was attacked by an unidentified vessel. It would be years until it was identified as a Ferengi vessel. The "Picard Maneuver"—a clever last-ditch effort—was invented to win a battle against the Ferengi. The Ferengi vessel was destroyed, but the Stargazer was so severely damaged in the battle that the crew was forced to abandon ship following Maxia.

[edit] Rediscovery

For the next nine years, the Stargazer drifted through the Maxia system. Eventually it was found by the Ferengi DaiMon Bok, who was the father of the commander of the Ferengi ship that attacked the Stargazer. Bok saw a chance to have his revenge against Picard and the Federation. Bok placed a device on the ship that would allow him to manipulate Picard's thoughts. He then asked the Enterprise to meet his ship at Maxia.

During their first meeting the Stargazer came into range, and Picard learned for the first time that his old ship still existed. Bok invited the Federation to take control of the Stargazer at no cost.

Bok first attempted to discredit Picard by planting a faked log entry on board the Stargazer, but the fraud was quickly discovered by the Enterprise crew. Bok then used his mind control device to manipulate Picard into boarding the Stargazer and re-living the Battle of Maxia; under Bok's control, Picard believed the Enterprise to be the attacking Ferengi vessel.

Picard attempted to use the Picard Maneuver against the Enterprise, but Commander Data was able to devise a defense where the Enterprise would grab the Stargazer with her tractor beam, and prevent her from firing. Commander Riker was able to get through to Picard, and Picard destroyed the mind control device on the Stargazer. Free of the mind control, he learned that Bok's plans for revenge had been discovered by his crew, and that Bok had been relieved of duty.

A tug soon met the Enterprise and towed the Stargazer back to a nearby Starbase. Some fans have speculated that Data called the starbase Xindi Starbase 9, who were the same beings featured in the third season of Star Trek: Enterprise. According to the script, the starbase is Xendi Starbase 9; this may or may not be the same race. What happened to the Stargazer afterwards is not known.

[edit] Mirror Universe

A Mirror Universe counterpart of the Stargazer appears in the novel Stargazer: Three by Michael Jan Friedman. The ISS Stargazer is one of the last ships left in the Terran Empire, which is on the verge of being wiped out by the Klingon/Cardassian Alliance. The Mirror version of Montgomery Scott is also on the ship. Gilaad ben Zoma, the Stargazer's first officer in the normal universe, is the ship's captain here.

In the trade paperback anthology Glass Empires, one of the stories - Greg Cox's "The Worst Of Both Worlds" - features a mirror counterpart to Picard, who in this universe is an archaeologist. He travels through space in a runabout which he has named Stargazer.

[edit] Other sources

In the PC & Xbox 360 game Star Trek Legacy the Stargazer is under command of another captain until an incident with the Vulcan nemesis T'Urrel is forced to detonate a weapon of massive yield turning a whole planet into molten rock. As the shockwave destroys all of the Romulan attackers, it also strikes the Stargazer. The result is that the current captain is killed in duty while the vulcan attacker slips away. This is explained how Picard had gotten command of his first vessel, however Star Trek games are not usually considered canon.

[edit] See also