Star Trek: The USS Rhode Island, Explained

The Enterprise and Enterprise-D may be the most famous ships in the Star Trek franchise, but they're far from the only noteworthy ones. Shows like Discovery, Voyager, and Enterprise take their names from their crew's ships as well. (Enterprise, being a prequel, showcases a previous version of the ship. Its designation is NX-01 and the one seen in The Original Seriesis NCC-1701.) That's not even scratching the surface of some of the most memorable ships, some of which are even bizarre. Some shipsin the franchise are memorable even from just a single canon appearance, such as the USS Rhode Island.

The USS Rhode Island made its debut in the two-part series finale of Voyager, entitled "Endgame." Since its titular ship is considered to be one of the coolest in the franchise, the appearance of a new ship to cap off the series must have some kind of significance. So what is it about the USS Rhode Island that makes it so important, and what is its function for the ending of Voyager?

Harry Kim Served as The Rhode Island's Captain

Voyager Season 7, Episodes 25-26, "Endgame" explores the life of the Voyager crew after they finally made it back from the Alpha Quadrant. Their journey took twenty-three years, and the episode marks the tenth anniversary of the ship's return.

Some of the crew thrived during this time. Tom Paris decided to become holographic novel writer. The Doctor took up the name Joe and married Lana, a human woman. Harry Kim (who had not received a promotion during the majority of the show, a fact that puzzles fans to this day) is shown to have risen to the rank of captain. He presided over the Nova-class ship, the USS Rhode Island, which was on a four-year exploration mission. This unfortunately meant that he was unable to attend Commander Chakotay's funeral.

A Product of an Alternate Timeline?

Janeway, having at that time reached the rank of admiral, decided to break the Temporal Prime Directive, which forbids tampering with the natural progression of time. Over the years, her long journey cost her many crew members, including Seven of Nine. Additionally, Tuvok was suffering from a degenerative neural condition, worsened by the fact that he wasn't able to receive the proper treatment, fal-tor-voh,an intense mind meld. This technique had to be performed with a compatible Vulcan, typically a blood relative, and the journey had prevented this from happening. Realizing the lives that could have been saved if their journey had been that much shortened, Janeway decides to go back in time to guide her crew through a transwarp hub.

Although Harry arrives to arrest her before she can go back in time, once Admiral Janeway beams abroad and explains her reasoning in the USS Rhode Island ready room, he allows her to go, knowing she's making a one-way trip. In order to ensure her safety, the USS Rhode Island was key in defending Admiral Janeway from Klingon war ships.

The transwarp hub Admiral Janeway needed to use was crawling with Borg. However, she was willing to take the risk if it meant she could provide her crew with a quicker route home. She sacrifices herself to the Borg, allowing herself to be assimilated. She did so having purposefully infected herself with a futuristic pathogen that was able to subdue the Borg Queen and her drones. Once the transwarp structure was destroyed, many drones were taken down with it, along with Admiral Janeway herself. Along with causing serious harm to the Collective, Admiral Janway was successful in helping bring her crew back home sooner.

Since these actions led to the erasure of the timeline in which the crew made it back to the Alpha Quadrant later, it's unclear whether Harry Kim would captain the USS Rhode Island in the prime timeline. That said, while the games aren't considered canon per se, Star Trek Online does feature the ship and an expansion pack does show Harry at the helm as captain in 2410. This is a fun juxtaposition to the recent Lower Decks Season 5 trailer, which shows multiple versions of Harry, most of whom have never risen above the ensign rank. It looks like, canonically, Harry can't catch a break in the majority of the timelines.

Although the USS Rhode Island hasn't made many appearances, it played a key role in the Voyager crew returning to the Alpha Quadrant earlier and saved many of their lives. Harry Kim, who was shown not just to have risen in rank but become a captain, proved that he was willing to do what was best for his old crew, even if it meant breaking a few Starfleet rules. While Star Trek is full of amazing ships, few of them change the course of the timeline or play a key role in creating a satisfying ending for a series.