Star Trek Just Resurrected The Miranda Class Starship For Lower Decks, It’s Beautiful
The Miranda Class starship is one of the most iconic ship designs in all of science fiction. For those of you less familiar with the technical details of Star Trek starships, you probably know it best as the USS Reliant or Khan's ship.
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The Miranda Class starship is one of the most iconic ship designs in all of science fiction. For those of you less familiar with the technical details of Star Trek starships, you probably know it best as the USS Reliant or Khan’s ship in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Reliant was indeed the name of that ship, but the Reliant was a Miranda class heavy cruiser.
The Miranda class hasn’t been seen on screen since the 90s, when it was a fleet workhorse showing up on shows like Star Trek: Deep Space Nine . Most Trek fans probably thought they’d never see it again, but today all that changed when this showed up in the trailer for Star Trek: Lower Decks season 2…
It’s not the USS Reliant, but another Miranda class. This one’s name seems to be the USS Macduff and it’s a vintage, classic Miranda if there ever was one.
Here’s the full Lower Decks season 2 trailer with the blink and you’ll miss it Miranda moment…
Now compare the Lower Decks version to the most famous Miranda, the aforementioned USS Reliant…
In Star Trek lore, Miranda class starships are multi-purpose vehicles. That weapons pod on the top can be replaced with a sensor pod, for instance, if you want to send one out on a more scientific mission. They were the backbone of Starfleet for decades, when other ships of their class fell by the wayside.
Incidentally, despite being smaller than James T. Kirk’s Constitution class Enterprise, the USS Reliant is actually a tougher ship and technically outgunned Kirk. But Kirk’s superior tactics and Khan’s outdated knowledge gave the Enterprise the advantage.
Only Star Trek: Lower Decks delivers on classic Star Trek content like this. None of the other Star Trek shows currently on the air are even run by people who like Star Trek, let alone who know its history. But Star Trek: Lower Decks is under the command of Mike McMahan, a die hard Trekkie fan who’s probably as excited to see a Miranda class flying around in his new trailer as we are.
The Miranda class is back, and we have Star Trek: Lower Decks to thank for it. Expect to see the USS Macduff in a lot more detail when season 2 of the animated series debuts some time later in 2021.
