The starship USS Glasgow made its (sort of) stellar debut on the Emmy Award-winning series Star Trek: Picard.

This article is not about the currently fitting out HMS Glasgow, an ancient Earth-ocean-going vessel from the early 21st century.

Star Trek: Picard, starring Sir Patrick Stewart, is a sequel to Star Trek: The Next Generation, focusing on Jean-Luc Picard’s life after his tenure as the captain of the USS Enterprise.

In the events of an episode titled “Vox,” the starship USS Glasgow is visible, sort of, in the background of a huge space battle. We know the ship’s name thanks to Dave Blass (a member of the production team on Picard) and his Instagram account. He spent a good while after the show aired sharing the names and types of the ships involved in the battle. You can read more here.

What was the ship doing?

Set in the year 2401, the starship participated in the Frontier Day celebrations near Sol Station.

However, the festivities took a horrific turn when the Borg Collective, one of the most formidable adversaries in the Star Trek universe, seized the Glasgow, along with the rest of the Starfleet vessels in attendance. Don’t worry, though, Picard and pals save the day.

In the Star Trek universe, the Sovereign class starships are some of the most advanced and formidable vessels in Starfleet, combining high-level combat readiness with significant scientific and exploratory capabilities.

Scottish Star Trek fans expressed their excitement on social media about the USS Glasgow’s unveiling. A local Glaswegian fan tweeted, “Set phasers to Malky”, in reference to a sketch show called ‘Chewin’ The Fat’.

The franchise has a rich history of paying tribute to a variety of cultures and countries by naming starships after them, thereby connecting the space with earthly locations.

George Allison
George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
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63 COMMENTS

      • All I know as with all Federation ships it is inevitably outgunned. How do they ever win paraphrasing that Basil Fawty episode.

        • You’re all missing the point, they’re being built on the Clyde, and I read there are 13 of the big buggers. Fact!….gotta go watch that series 🙂

      • But will it be built in Scotland? There must surely be concerns at the potential for slippage on this programme and the effect on work streams in Scotland, as there are rumours that it won’t be in service until the 25th century. The Westminster government must ensure these Sovereign Class assault cruisers are a priority and deliver the steady drumbeat of work that our industry needs to thrive into the future.

  3. A brilliant season compered to 1 and 2. One nitpick is that if that was the whole fleet, it was far too small.

    • Got to say the first two seasons were average at best, but this one was probably the best Star Trek series or film of any of them. Serious upgrade in all respects.

        • Always thought that when real shite started to hit the fan we’d drop this peace dividend refain for the reality of serious constructive rebuild, but maybe not.
          The Refresh seems highly likely to degenerate into yet another exercise in capability cuts as usual, judging from the TPL article yesterday. However, I took the liberty of lifting this incredible statement, on a subject covered often here, as to one of the issues that our representative seem to find totally insurmountable, God help us:-

          The political reaction to these sorts of measures though is always going to generate a firestorm – just look at the plans to reduce Infantry Battalion numbers, which makes very good sense from all sorts of ways, but which is too politically toxic to do.

          But read the whole article for full context if not already done so, of course, Mr Bell. Rgs

  4. Another Sovereign-class present in the episode is the USS Warspite. Couldn’t be a finer pairing of class and name!

  5. I assumed it was the next T26, and was curious as they’d long named the others previously.

    You got me. I’m not a trekie at all so I found the stats interesting. 😆

    • If you ever get to see “Star Trek- First Contact”. The Sovereign class “Enterprise” stars in that.

    • You should watch all the seasons of Star Trek: Picard. Finished watching the final season a few weeks back. Excellent viewing!!!

      Have a good day All !

      As Spock used to say: ‘Live long and prosper’

    • If anyone thinks that crewing in the RFA/ RN is an issue, then in a different franchise, in a galaxy far far away, a Star Wars Imperial destroyer, of which they have about 25 carries the following complement…

      Officers (9,235)
      Enlisted (27,850)
      Stormtroopers (9,700)
      TIE Pilots (72)
      Gunners (275)

      And stores and supplies to last 2 years for the above…….

      • Ah, more my language! I do know my Star Wars, I grew up with that as I was 5 when the 1st film came out.

      • There were supposed to be 25000 star destroyers not 25, so the personnel runs into the millions. Makes it ridiculous they were beaten TBH

          • We should have 25000 T26s, or worst case 15000 plus 10000 T31, which would be terrible way of saving money or capability. Obv we’d need to expand Devonport to include whole of east coast of France in order to base them, the French wouldn’t mind. But I worry about crewing them, maybe train German shepherds to crew the T31s, with human captains to give treats when the dogs perform well.

          • Yeah but when you have a galaxy wide or nearly galaxy wide empire with a capital planet Corrisant with a population of a trillion alone then you can easily find the personnel for 25,000 star destroyers.

      • I was leaving school way back then when the films started, so clearly they didn’t contemplate the progress of technology taking their military jobs. As an aside a few years later at Art College a fellow student was briefly a stormtrooper on the Death Star at Elstree. When on to live in Germany no idea if the two are connected😇. As an another aside another student’s parents lived in what was Stanley Kubrick’s Buckinghamshire estates gate lodge. He had a decade earlier approached Hornsey when they had their TV Dept at Alexandra Palace, to do effects for 2001. Apparently they wanted too much money. Those were the days.

    • Yep and replicators provide Buckfast, 10 forward is the Neutral zone during “Old Firm” matches and the Universal Translator is fine on Klingon and Romulan but can’t make head nor tail of Doric.
      The last Aberdonian to say his wife had just had a “wee Lune” got referred to the Ships Councillor.

      • I can only assume it was a tribute to Scottie. ‘She cannae take any more Capt’ would I’m sure be her epitaph, the last words before being destroyed by the Borg… or English as the crew would have it no doubt.

    • yeah there’s no way The Borg would be able to assimilate that ships crew ….although ginger haired borg woud be an intruiging sight.

  7. George is time for you to come out ? It’s alright we live in a free, inclusive society that accepts all ethnicities, religions, gender orientations and beliefs.

    Are you a closet “Trekkie” ?

    Live long and prosper 🖖

  9. Right, it’s not April 1st so I will say I saw this episode a few days ago and have to say I saw no mention of a USS Glasgow so I must have blinked but hey might as well build it up as an amusing aside as obviously it’s not the first RN ship named in the whole franchise as I have mentioned more than once in regards to the obvious one. Mind you when you have the whole Federation fleet in that scene it’s easy to lose track of any one of them I guess. I was hoping there might have been an HMS Titan but no such luck though a gamer has invented one as an aircraft carrier. So HMS Triton or Titania are the closest we will get to the real star of the show. However there is a lovely sting in the tail as it’s finally, for its heroics, renamed Enterprise so we got there in the end.

    • Funny you should say, I finished watching Picard last night and I don’t recall USS Glasgow. Enjoyed the Series, bit of a Next Gen Reunion show. Shame Wesley Crusher wasn’t in it but him being a Traveller meant he couldn’t be. Looking forward to the next Star Trek instalment; Capt Hanson, Jack Picard and not forgetting Q!

  10. Are there still ancient earthlings like they had in the 21st century on USS Glasgow? Thought they’d long since been eradicated by AI.
    If so, bet none of them were reproduced in Scotland.

  12. Oh god, George has now beamed his Twitter Star Trek stuff onto UKDJ😂
    Not long now for season 2 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 😁😉

  14. Good name, on the subject of Star Trek and the city, USS Kelvin is named after the 19th century professor who held a chair at Glasgow

  15. As wee Sassenak of B-road preportions I say ‘what-oh, you fine scoundrels…..was that set to malty, or……”

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