USS DEFIANT

The USS ''Defiant'' is a fictional starship in the television series '' and the feature film ''. The ship first appears in the ''DS9'' episode "The Search, Part I", after which it continues to play a significant role throughout the series. When the ''Defiant'' is destroyed during a battle with the Dominion, Captain Benjamin Sisko receives special dispensation from Starfleet Operations to rename the replacement ship "Defiant".
This ship carries the same name as the ''Constitution''-class USS ''Defiant'' (NCC-1764) from the original ''Star Trek'' series.

Contents

Backstory

Appearances

Design notes

References

External links

Backstory

The ship's backstory is outlined in its first appearance, the third-season episode "The Search". Officially designated as an escort vessel, the ''Defiant'' is a prototype vessel for the ''Defiant'' class warship, originally developed to counter the Borg threat. Following the Borg invasion, the United Federation of Planets approved a project committed to enhancing Starfleet's offensive and defensive military capabilities; the ''Defiant'' was the end result of that project. According to his statement in the episode "Defiant", Benjamin Sisko was in charge of the shipyard where the ''Defiant'' was built and helped design her during his assignment to the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards.
Although it was designed to be fast and highly maneuverable with powerful weaponry, the ''Defiant'' was overgunned and overpowered for a vessel of its size. The ship's structural integrity field needed extensive modifications to keep the ''Defiant'' from tearing itself apart. The ship was designed specifically for battle, featuring innovative pulse phaser and quantum torpedo armaments, in addition to photon torpedoes, standard phasers and a high-capacity deflector shield system. Another asset is its ablative armor, enabling the ship to stay in a fight even with the shields inoperable. Inside, the ''Defiant'' is relatively spartan by Starfleet standards of the time: the ship is not designed to carry family members, has no science labs, and has a limited infirmary. Crew quarters consist of two bunk beds and a general computer interface. Few, if any, individual quarters have food replicators, so the mess hall is the main means for the crew to eat on missions.
The subsiding Borg threat and failed systems tests (particularly in regard to the ship's overpowered engines) led the development project to be stalled and the prototype to be mothballed.

Appearances

First contact with the Jem'Hadar in 2370 convinced Sisko to ask Starfleet for the ''Defiant'' so he would be better prepared for contact with the leaders of the Dominion. Starfleet agreed and the ''Defiant'' was posted at Deep Space Nine under Sisko's command. The ''Defiant'' allows the station's crew to travel faster and further with far more firepower than the station's ''Danube'' class runabouts can provide.
The ''Defiant'' is the first Starfleet ship to legally carry a Romulan cloaking device. Supplied by the Romulan Empire, the cloak is initially operated by a Romulan officer serving aboard the ''Defiant''. An agreement between Starfleet and the Romulans limits the use of the cloak to intelligence-gathering missions in the Gamma Quadrant in exchange for all of Starfleet's intelligence on the Dominion. On several occasions, such as the rescue of the Detapa Council (''DS9'': "The Way of the Warrior"), the cloaking device is used illegally in the Alpha Quadrant.
The Defiant fights the Borg in the movie '', set in 2373. It is on the verge of destruction by the Borg before the USS ''Enterprise''-E arrives and leads the remaining Starfleet vessels in destroying the invading Borg cube. During the battle, the Defiant is under the command of Commander Worf and suffers severe, but repairable, damage.

In 2375, the Breen destroy the USS ''Defiant'' during the invasion of the Chin'toka system. The battle marks the first time the Breen use their energy-depleting weapon. During the planning of the invasion of Cardassia Prime some months later, a new ''Defiant'' class starship, the USS ''São Paulo'' (NCC-75633), is assigned to Deep Space Nine. The Starfleet Chief of Operations grants special dispensation to rename the ship ''Defiant''.
Although the USS ''São Paulo'' commissioning plaque gives a registry of "NCC-75633", in subsequent exterior battle shots the renamed ship has the "NX-74205" registry. This is because special effects shots of the old vessel had to be reused to show the new one, along with new CG shots that were created featuring the same registry number.
Ron Moore said in the '' that the new ship was intended to be designated "Defiant-A", but it was prohibitive to redo the CG model for one episode because stock shots from earlier episodes had to be used as well for budgetary reasons. Nevertheless Moore stated that as far as he was concerned, the change did happen. However, since only the actual show is canonical and not statements by the production people, who could easily have several different opinions, the observation remains that the new ''Defiant'' had the same name and registry number, both in stock footage as well as new shots. Theories as to why this is acceptable to Starfleet are outside the scope of this article.

Design notes

The ''Defiant'' was initially designed by '' art illustrator Jim Martin with contributions from visual effects supervisor Gary Hutzel and modelmaker Tony Meininger. The ''Defiant's addition to ''DS9'' was intended to solve the problem of cramped runabout sets according to statements by Robert-Hewitt Wolfe. Original designs called for a "beefed-up" runabout-type ship, but this gave way to a full-fledged starship design, initially called ''Valiant''. This name was dropped out of fear that it would conflict with '' and its titular starship, also beginning with a "V". For a brief time it was considered to retain ''Valiant'' as the name of the class: but dialog in "The Search" and the ship's dedication plaque firmly establish the ''Defiant'' as the pathfinder.
The name ''Valiant'' would later be given to another ''Defiant'' class ship in the ''DS9'' episode "Valiant". Although not an actual initial design in the real-world, one of the in-universe designs for the ''Defiant'' appears, somewhat modified, in as the ''Nova'' class USS ''Equinox'' in the ''Star Trek: Voyager'' episode "Equinox".
There is controversy on the internet regarding the size of the ''Defiant'', since Star Trek canon, semi-canon (e.g. reference manuals), and fanon speculation sometimes provide conflicting specifications.

References

External links