Star Trek: Picard Season 3’s USS Enterprise-E “What Happened” Joke Explained By Showrunner

Showrunner Terry Matalas explained the joke about Captain Worf (Michael Dorn) and the missing USS Enterprise-E in Star Trek: Picard season 3. Picard season 3 brought the cast members of Star Trek: The Next Generation back together for one final adventure aboard the rebuilt USS Enterprise-D. In Picard season 3, Worf is working with Starfleet Intelligence and serves as the handler for Commander Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd). Picard season 3 confirmed that Worf was the last Captain of the Enterprise-E, which suffered a mysterious fate.

Captain Worf’s protest, “That was not my fault!” is all Star Trek: Picard season 3 says about the missing USS Enterprise-E. It’s a hilarious joke, and Picard showrunner Terry Matalas deliberately chose to leave the true fate of the Sovereign Class starship up to the viewer’s imagination. As reported by TrekMovie, Matalas joined a Zoom chat with members of the Master Replicas Collectors Club, and here’s what he had to say about Picard season 3’s Worf and the Enterprise-E joke:

We had ideas, but in the moment where they’re asking, ‘What about the Enterprise-E?’ it would not have been good for someone to be like, ‘Well, the Battle of duh, duh, duh.’ You are looking at the Enterprise-D! You couldn’t do it, and you wouldn’t do it justice, whatever it is. You could say it is in storage or we are repainting it. You could, but I thought it was way funnier if they all turned to Worf, and he’s like, ‘It wasn’t my fault.’ So everyone is going, ‘What the hell happened?’ That’s way more fun. Somebody can tell that story some day about what happened with Worf and the Enterprise-E, but it’s more fun to imagine yourself all the possibilities. Is it lost in an interdimensional rift and it’s still out there somewhere? Was it an accidental self-destruct? Who knows? The question is almost better than the answer.

Will Star Trek Ever Reveal What Happened To USS Enterprise-E?

Worf also makes a point to say he prefers the Enterprise-E’s weapon systems.

With the long-rumored Star Trek: Picard spin-off, Star Trek: Legacy, currently a no-go, the fate of the USS Enterprise-E will likely remain a mystery. While it’s always possible a future Star Trek project could explain what happened to Worf’s former command, the creators behind Star Trek could decide to leave the ship’s fate unknown. It would be a fun running gag for characters to reference the Enterprise-E without ever revealing what actually happened to it. Still, Worf’s last mission on the Enterprise-E would likely make for a great story, and it would be a shame for Star Trek to miss the opportunity to tell it.

The USS Enterprise-E is certainly not the only Enterprise to be destroyed, and its loss does not necessarily make Worf a bad Captain. Worf took over command of the Enterprise-E from Captain Picard sometime after Star Trek: Nemesis, but very little has been revealed about his time as Captain. In the quote above, Terry Matalas posits a few possibilities regarding the fate of the Enterprise-E, but ultimately leaves it up to the viewer to speculate. Whether the fate of the E gets revealed through a line of dialogue or depicted on screen in its full glory, hopefully, the question will be answered someday. For now, all we know is what Star Trek: Picard told us — the Enterprise-E is no more and, whatever happened, it was definitely not Worf’s fault.