USS Potemkin (Excelsior class)

The USS Potemkin was a Federation starship that was in service with Starfleet in the late 24th century.

In 2361, the Potemkin was the last Federation starship to make contact with the failed colony on the planet Turkana IV until 2367. The personnel of the Potemkin were warned by the colony's ruling cadres that anyone transporting to the colony would be killed. 

It was also in 2361 that Lieutenant William T. Riker was assigned to the Potemkin. During his tenure on this ship, Riker led an away team to evacuate the science outpost on Nervala IV because of a dangerous energy distortion field covering the planet. It was not realized at the time that this distortion field caused the Potemkin's transporter to malfunction, materializing a duplicate Riker on the planet's surface. The Potemkin left orbit, unknowingly abandoning the duplicate Riker for eight years. The original Riker was promoted to Lieutenant Commander after this rescue mission. However, his duplicate was discovered in 2369 by the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) and subsequently began a new life as Thomas Riker and reassigned to the USS Gandhi. 

The Potemkin's officers routinely held a poker game. As a young officer, William Riker took up the game so he could ingratiate himself to his seniors. Fortunately, they realized he was young and inexperienced and decided not to hold it against him, something Deanna Troi reminded him of when Riker later believed Ensign Sam Lavelle was doing the same thing aboard the Enterprise-D. 

It was also on the Potemkin that Riker tried an unconventional tactic of positioning the ship over a planet's magnetic pole and shutting down the power, in order to confuse an opponent ship's sensors. 

In 2368, the Potemkin ferried Dr. Toby Russell, a neurogeneticist, to the Enterprise-D in order to help Lt. Worf recover from a severe spinal injury. 

During the Dominion War, the Potemkin was part of the Ninth Fleet around Bajor. In 2374 she visited Deep Space 9 to be repaired along with the USS Exeter (NCC-26531), the USS Sutherland, and the USS Akagi. 

Background information
The LCARS graphic appearing in "Second Chances" depicted the Potemkin with the silhouette of an starship, contrary to the ship's earlier appearance as an Excelsior-class. The number, 425x7, that was next to the silhouette might be the ship's registry; however, this was uncertain.

According to the Star Trek Encyclopedia, the Potemkin, like the previous ship of the same name, was "named for, a Russian military figure under Catherine II."

A small error made in the Star Trek Encyclopedia caused for two different registry numbers for this vessel to be listed in different sections of the book. The error was corrected in later editions to the proper NCC-18253.

The Excelsior-class Potemkin was also mentioned in the non-canon reference book Star Trek: The Next Generation Officer's Manual, but with the registry NCC-2005.

According to the Malibu Comics Star Trek: Deep Space Nine issue #6, the Potemkin participated in the Battle of Wolf 359 in 2367.

USS Потьомкин USS Potemkin (NCC-18253) USS Potemkin (NCC-18253) USSポチョムキン(NCC-18253)