USS Defiant
 The USS Defiant NX-74205 |
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| First appearance | Original: "The Search" New: "The Dogs of War" |
|---|---|
| Affiliation | United Federation of Planets Starfleet |
| Launched | Original: 2371 New: 2375 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class | Defiant |
| Registry | NX-74205 NCC-75633 |
| Armaments | Pulsed and beam phasers Photon torpedoes Quantum torpedoes |
| Defenses | Deflector shields Cloaking device Ablative Armor |
| Propulsion | Impulse drive Warp drive RCS Thrusters |
The USS Defiant (NX-74205) is a fictional starship in the television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9) and the feature film Star Trek: First Contact. The ship first appears in the DS9 episode "The Search, Part I", after which it plays a significant role throughout the series. The original Defiant is destroyed in the show's seventh season. Starfleet sends a replacement ship, the USS São Paulo. Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) then receives special dispensation from the Chief of Starfleet Operations to rename the ship Defiant. In the episode "Defiant", the character Gul Dukat describes the ship as "one of the most heavily armed warships in the Quadrant," while in the film Star Trek: First Contact, William Riker describes it as a "tough little ship."
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Design
The Defiant was initially designed by Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 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 Star Trek: Voyager 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, as the Nova class USS Equinox in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Equinox".
Depiction
The ship's backstory is outlined in its first appearance, the third-season episode "The Search". The Defiant is a prototype vessel for the Defiant class warship, originally developed to counter the Borg threat. It is officially designated as an escort vessel to avoid the perception that Starfleet builds warships, as it is primarily a peacekeeping and exploration force. 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 it 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 sustain multiple hits from enemy weapons even with the shields inoperable with minimal damage. 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 or holodecks, and has a limited infirmary. Crew quarters consist of two bunk beds and a general computer interface. Individual quarters have food replicators, but the mess hall is a popular place 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. Following work done at Deep Space Nine, the class would later go into production with at least a half dozen other ships in service by 2374 and onward.
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 farther with far more firepower than the station's Danube class runabouts can provide.
The Defiant is the first Starfleet ship to legally carry a cloaking device. Supplied by the Romulan Star 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. However, on several occasions, such as the rescue of the Detapa Council (DS9: "The Way of the Warrior"), the cloaking device was used illegally in the Alpha Quadrant.
The Defiant fights the Borg in the movie Star Trek: First Contact, 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 Lieutenant-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-dampening 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 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion 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.
In other media
The Defiant is the titular ship of fan-fiction audio drama Star Trek: Defiant produced by Pendant Productions.
The USS Defiant, Moscow, Valiant and Sao Paulo are selectable on the PC game Star Trek: Legacy in The Next Generation era.
The Defiant class is a playable ship class in the MMORPG Star Trek Online.
External links
- USS Defiant (NX-74205) at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
- USS Defiant (NCC-75633) at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
- HMS Defiant at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
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