Canon Facts Backstage Info  Speculation

Notes : In 2364 the Captain of the USS Enterprise, Jean Luc Picard, encountered the mysterious being known only as "Q". Q demonstrated tremendous abilities to control matter, space, and, in subsequent encounters, time itself. In 2370 Q began shifting Picard between three time zones; one based in 2364 shortly before Picard became Captain of the Enterprise, one set in the present, and one set some time in the future. In the future version of the timeline the Federation continued to exist, but was in a period of poor relations with the Klingon Empire. It was in this period that Picard encountered the refitted Enterprise-D. The ship was the same Galaxy class vessel launched in 2364, but had undergone a radical upgrading some years earlier rather than being retired. This included the addition of a third nacelle mounted on a large pylon on the engineering hull, between the existing pair. This allowed the ship to travel at speeds of at least warp factor 13 for prolonged periods. This version of the Enterprise had also been fitted with a cloaking device.

The ship also had upgraded weaponry, most visibly the addition of a very large beam weapon of some kind to the underside of the saucer section, covering the Captain's Yacht. Measuring some two hundred metres in length, this canon was used to spectacular effect in a battle against a pair of Klingon vessels. The weapon - which appeared to be a form of phaser - was able to punch through the shields of the Klingon vessels with apparent ease then caused a catastrophic hull breach in one vessel, resulting in its rapid destruction of one. The second Klingon ship retreated smartly when it realised how overmatched it was against the Federation Starship.

This Enterprise was partially responsible for the repair of an anti-time anomaly which had been accidentally created in each of the three periods Picard visited. The ship was able to enter the anomaly and, along with earlier versions of the ship commanded by Picard, generate a static warp shell which repaired the time/antitime rift. Upon the completion of this task Q stopped the time shifts and apparently reset the event sequence to its original configuration.

Although it is unclear exactly how Q performed this feat of temporal engineering, it would seem that the future depicted differs from the preferred timeline in at least some respects - the Enterprise-D itself has since been destroyed at the Veridian system, so it is unlikely that it will be able to feature in any version of Q's timeline. Nevertheless, at least some aspects of the future appear to have manifested themself as part of the preferred timeline. The USS Venture was recently refitted with the same nacelle add-on units holding an extra two phaser arrays, bringing the total to fourteen. The benefits of adding a third nacelle to the Galaxy class are not yet apparent - one possibility is that the ship would be able to travel at higher speeds with this addition, or maintain a higher average speed by periodically 'resting' two of the nacelles whilst travelling on the third. However, given that the ship was apparently able to achieve warp factors beyond Warp 10 it seems more likely that in this future the Federation perfected a form of transwarp drive. The third nacelle may be related to this drive system.