"She may have flaws, but she has teeth."
- - Benjamin Sisko, 2371
The USS Defiant (NX-74205) was a Federation Template:ShipClass escort that was in service with Starfleet in the late 24th century. The Defiant was one of at least three Federation starships to bear the name, and the prototype for her class of starship.
History
Origins
Designed in 2366, the Defiant was the first of what was to be a new class of heavily-armed Federation starship, and later reputed to be one of the most heavily-armed vessels in the entire Alpha Quadrant. Officially designated an escort, although unofficially a warship, the Defiant-class was specifically designed to counter the Borg. Soon after the first vessel was completed however, a combination of a less urgent Borg threat and several design flaws caused Starfleet to suspend the project. Among the flaws was the fact that the Defiant's engines were overpowered relative to the size of the ship – so much so that the Defiant nearly "tore itself apart" during its shakedown cruise. Benjamin Sisko became intimately involved with the project while stationed at the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards after the destruction of the USS Saratoga at Wolf 359. (DS9: "The Search, Part I")
In 2370, Federation-Dominion hostilities escalated with the destruction of USS Odyssey, a Template:ShipClass starship. (DS9: "The Jem'Hadar") On stardate 47538.5 in 2370, the Defiant was launched from the Antares Ship Yards in the Bajor sector. (DS9: "The Die is Cast" dedication plaque) The Defiant was taken out of storage and assigned to Deep Space 9 in early 2371 in order to protect the station from the Dominion threat. (DS9: "The Search, Part I")
A special amendment made to the Treaty of Algeron made the Defiant the first Federation starship to legally carry a cloaking device since the signing of the treaty. The agreement with the Romulans specified that the cloak only be used in the Gamma Quadrant, and in exchange the Federation would share all of its intelligence on the Dominion. Despite this stipulation, Captain Sisko operated the cloak in the Alpha Quadrant on numerous occasions. (DS9: "The Search, Part I", "Defiant", "Visionary", "The Way of the Warrior")
Early missions
The USS Defiant departs Deep Space 9
Soon after its arrival at DS9, the Defiant entered the Gamma Quadrant on a mission to open negotiations with the Founders of the Dominion. The starship came under attack by several Jem'Hadar attack ships and was boarded. The senior officers were taken to the Founders' homeworld and placed in a simulation by the Vorta Borath. Once Odo and Kira Nerys found them, the Founders allowed them to return home. (DS9: "The Search, Part II")
Several weeks later, the Defiant transported Jadzia Dax to Trill for treatment. The ship remained in orbit around Trill for several days. (DS9: "Equilibrium")
When Major Kira Nerys was abducted by the Obsidian Order, Sisko took the Defiant into Cardassian space. The ship's shield harmonics were reconfigured so that the ship appeared to be a Kobheerian freighter. (DS9: "Second Skin")
During an exploration mission in the Gamma Quadrant, the Defiant discovered the planet Meridian on its first appearance in the primary universe since 2311. (DS9: "Meridian")
Later, the ship was stolen by members of the Maquis, led by Thomas Riker (posing as his transporter double William T. Riker), who used it to attack several Cardassian targets. The ship was severely threatened by several Obsidian Order Template:ShipClass warships. Narrowly escaping, it was protected by the Template:ShipClass warship, Kraxon until the Obsidian Order threat was nullified. Major Kira then took the Defiant to the Demilitarized Zone to rendezvous with another Federation starship in order to transfer the remainder of the Maquis for arrest. (DS9: "Defiant")
The Defiant transported the senior staff of Deep Space 9 to Earth for a conference on the Gamma Quadrant. The Defiant was the ship chosen for a joint Federation-Cardassian-Bajoran project to send and receive messages to and from the Gamma Quadrant. (DS9: "Destiny")
The Defiant using its tractor beam
A few months later, Commander Benjamin Sisko, acting against orders, took the Defiant into the Gamma Quadrant again to rescue Odo and Elim Garak, who were on a Romulan warbird fighting the Dominion during the Battle of the Omarion Nebula. (DS9: "The Die is Cast")
In late 2371, a Founder sabotaged the Defiant in an attempt to start a war between the Federation and the Tzenkethi by flying the Defiant into Tzenkethi space. (DS9: "The Adversary")
The Defiant fires its phaser cannons
The Defiant fought its way through Cardassian space to rescue members of the Cardassian Detapa Council in 2372 during the Federation-Klingon War. (DS9: "The Way of the Warrior")
During a meeting with a Karemma ship, the Defiant was forced into a planet's atmosphere by the Jem'Hadar, where it was severely damaged and many of its crew injured. The Defiant was able to destroy the Jem'Hadar ships and rescue the Karemma. (DS9: "Starship Down")
The Defiant, under the command of Lieutenant Commander Worf, traveled to Earth to assist Captain Sisko in suppressing a plot that would have seized control of Earth from the President of the Federation. The Defiant was attacked by the USS Lakota under the command of Captain Erika Benteen, who believed the Defiant's crew to have been replaced by shapeshifters. Even with the enhancements the Lakota had received as part of the plot to overthrow the Federation government, it was unable to defeat the Defiant due to the ablative hull armor the Defiant had been equipped with, apparently without the knowledge of Starfleet Command. Both ships were damaged, but both stood down before either could be destroyed. (DS9: "Paradise Lost")
After obtaining the detonation codes for a minefield the Klingons were deploying around the Bajoran system, the Defiant was used to detonate the entire minefield. (DS9: "Sons of Mogh")
Finding life aboard DS9 difficult and much different from that of a starship, Worf decided to live aboard the Defiant. (DS9: "Bar Association")
Later that year, again under of the command of Worf, the Defiant was escorting several Cardassian freighters when the Klingons attacked the freighters. The Defiant accidentally destroyed a Klingon civilian transport ship that was later determined to be empty and a Klingon ruse to bring Worf back to Qo'noS. (DS9: "Rules of Engagement")
The Defiant later followed a rebel Jem'Hadar strike team that had attacked DS9 into the Gamma Quadrant. After rescuing more Jem'Hadar from the rebels, the two crews worked together to destroy an Iconian gateway that the rogue Jem'Hadar had captured. (DS9: "To the Death")
Several weeks later, the Defiant took an ill Odo back to his people, where he was "judged" and changed into a solid. Elim Garak attempted to destroy the Great Link using the Defiant's weapons, but was stopped by Worf and sentenced to six months in a holding cell. (DS9: "Broken Link")
Later, the Defiant helped to capture a Jem'Hadar ship and bring it back to the Federation for study. (DS9: "The Ship")
Several weeks later, the Defiant was transported to the 23rd century, where it encountered the USS Enterprise and its crew on space station K-7, near the Federation-Klingon border. The crew stopped Arne Darvin, a disguised Klingon, from killing James T. Kirk with a bomb implanted in a tribble. (DS9: "Trials and Tribble-ations")
While pursuing the Maquis traitor Michael Eddington, the Defiant was disabled by a cascade virus that Eddington had planted in its computer systems. The ship was towed back to Deep Space 9 by the USS Malinche. After the Maquis attacked the Malinche, Sisko took the damaged Defiant after Eddington and stopped after poisoning one Maquis planet and threatening to poison more. (DS9: "For the Uniform") Several weeks later, the Defiant destroyed a runabout that had been stolen by a Founder and equipped with a bomb that was to be detonated in the Bajoran sun, thus destroying the entire system. (DS9: "By Inferno's Light")
The Defiant fights the Borg
When Deep Space 5 detected a Borg cube on a direct course for Earth, the Defiant, under the command of Worf, joined a Starfleet task force in the Typhon sector to stop the cube. Unsuccessful in stopping the cube at Typhon, the task force fought a running battle with the Borg to Earth. Worf was about to order a suicide run against the cube when the USS Enterprise-E arrived. The Defiant began to lose life support and its crew was beamed aboard the Enterprise. The Defiant crew later traveled back in time with the Enterprise crew to the year 2063, following a Borg sphere that had changed the timeline. After stopping the Borg, the crew traveled back to 2373. The Defiant was repaired and returned to Deep Space 9. (Star Trek: First Contact)
After a salvage operation to Empok Nor went awry, the Defiant rescued Miles O'Brien, Nog, and Garak from the station. (DS9: "Empok Nor")
Scientific missions
As Starfleet's first dedicated warship, the Defiant had no on-board science facilities. Nevertheless, it was occasionally used for scientific investigations as well. In 2372, the ship was assigned to help Professor Lenara Kahn of the Trill Science Ministry to create an artificial wormhole. The attempt was successful, but the wormhole only existed for a few seconds before it destabilized, damaging the ship. Two years later, Starfleet sent the ship to investigate a recently discovered phenomenon, a subspace compression anomaly. (DS9: "Rejoined", "One Little Ship")
The Dominion War
The USS Defiant and the IKS Rotarran at Starbase 375 in 2374
The Defiant fought valiantly throughout the Dominion War and participated in many of its battles.
In late 2373, the Defiant was used to deploy a minefield near the Bajoran wormhole to stop more Dominion ships from entering the Alpha Quadrant. After a Dominion attack and takeover of Deep Space 9, the Defiant evacuated all Federation citizens from the station. (DS9: "Call to Arms")
In early 2374, the Defiant was assigned to operate out of Starbase 375. When Sisko was made Admiral Ross' assistant, Jadzia Dax was given command of the Defiant. She commanded the ship on a mission to destroy a Dominion sensor array in the Argolis Cluster. (DS9: "A Time to Stand", "Behind the Lines")
The ship was used in Operation Return to reclaim DS9 and stop the Dominion from dismantling the minefield and bringing in its reinforcements from the Gamma Quadrant. After failing to stop the Dominion from destroying the minefield, the Defiant entered the wormhole in a vain attempt to stop the Dominion reinforcements. Captain Sisko convinced the Prophets to intervene and they destroyed the Dominion ships. They also made the wormhole impassable to any further Dominion incursions. (DS9: "Favor the Bold", "Sacrifice of Angels")
While en route to Gul Dukat's war crimes trial, the USS Honshu was destroyed by the Cardassians. The Defiant and the USS Constellation spent many days searching for Sisko. The Defiant was about to leave the area when Dukat sent a message to the ship, informing them of Sisko's location. (DS9: "Waltz")
Several months after the Federation retook DS9, Jem'Hadar captured the Defiant while it was on a scientific mission to study a subspace compression anomaly. The Defiant was reclaimed, with the help of a runabout that had been shrunk to only a few inches long. (DS9: "One Little Ship")
Several weeks later the Defiant rescued the survivors of its sister ship the USS Valiant, which had been destroyed by the Dominion. (DS9: "Valiant")
The destruction of the Defiant
The Defiant participated in the First Battle of Chin'toka in late 2374. The ship located and destroyed the power source for the orbital weapon platform, thus helping the Federation Alliance to gain control of the system. (DS9: "Tears of the Prophets")
The Defiant spent the next several months on convoy duty in the system, spanning into 2375. (DS9: "Image in the Sand") The Defiant returned to the Chin'toka system several weeks later when it made a supply run to AR-558. (DS9: "The Siege of AR-558") Shortly thereafter, Kira was kidnapped and brought to Empok Nor, the Defiant rescued her and several members of the Pah-wraith cult and brought them back to Bajor. (DS9: "Covenant")
The Defiant's short but illustrious life ended during the Second Battle of Chin'toka, when the ship was disabled by the Breen energy dissipator, and subsequently destroyed by Dominion weapons. (DS9: "The Changing Face of Evil")
The USS Sao Paulo was renamed in honor of the Defiant after having been granted special dispensation from Starfleet's chief of operations, and it fought in the final battle of the Dominion War, the Battle of Cardassia. (DS9: "The Dogs of War", "What You Leave Behind")
Unique characteristics
Ablative armor
The USS Defiant shown while under phaser fire
The Defiant was equipped with an ablative armor coating that was designed to disintegrate under enemy fire at a controlled rate. It dissipated the effects of directed energy weapons, decreasing damage to the main hull of the ship and therefore providing an extra layer of defense. As late as 2372, Starfleet wasn't informed that the Defiant was equipped in that way. (DS9: "Past Tense, Part I", "The Way of the Warrior", "Paradise Lost", "The Changing Face of Evil")
Cloaking device
The USS Defiant activating its cloaking device
A special amendment to the Treaty of Algeron allowed the Defiant to be fitted with a Romulan cloaking device. (DS9: "The Search, Part I", "Defiant") The Romulans loaned and allowed the limited supervised use of at least one cloaking device. Operation of the cloaking device was to be limited to the Gamma Quadrant. In return, the Federation were to provide the Romulans any and all intelligence collected in the Gamma Quadrant about the Dominion. Though expressing dissatisfaction with the intelligence brought back by the Defiant, the Romulans apparently allowed the cloaking device to remain on the vessel, even after they discontinued supervision. (DS9: "The Search, Part I", "Visionary") The Defiant was the only Federation vessel known to regularly operate a cloaking device.
Although Captain Benjamin Sisko knew that the cloaking device shouldn't be used in the Alpha Quadrant, he cloaked the Defiant to rescue the Detapa Council in 2372. The Defiant was unable to perform scans for life signs when the cloaking device was in use. (DS9: "The Way of the Warrior")
The cloaking device was again used in the Alpha Quadrant in 2374 to rescue the survivors of the USS Valiant after its destruction deep behind enemy lines. However, since the Romulans had joined the war at this point, it is unknown whether the cloaking device restrictions were still in effect. (DS9: "Valiant")
First contacts
- Karemma (The Ferengi were the first Alpha Quadrant species to contact them)
- Founders, 2371
- Meridian, 2371
Command crew
The Defiant's permanent assignment at Deep Space 9 as a support vessel meant that it had no specific or dedicated crew compliment. The vessel was manned by station personal and its crew compliment, as well as their assignments, often varied by mission.
- Commander / Captain Benjamin Sisko - commanding officer (CO) (2371-2375)
- Major / Colonel Kira Nerys - executive officer (XO)/tactical officer (2371-2375)
- Lieutenant Commander Worf - executive officer (XO)/tactical officer (2372-2375)
- Lieutenant Commander Jadzia Dax - helmsman/science officer - (2371-2374)
- Lieutenant Commander Michael Eddington - security chief (2371-2372)
- Lieutenant Julian Bashir - chief medical officer (CMO) (2371-2375)
- Lieutenant Junior Grade Ezri Dax - counselor/communications officer (2375)
- Ensign Nog - helmsman (2374-2375)
- Senior Chief Petty Officer Miles O'Brien - chief engineer (2371-2375)
- Additional personnel
| Template:StarshipDefiant | Template:DefiantClassStarships |
Appendices
Background
- The main reason for the creation of the Defiant was that Ira Steven Behr and the writers felt that the Template:ShipClass runabouts would not be able to protect the space station from the Dominion, and that something with more muscle was necessary. In the second season finale, "The Jem'Hadar", the Dominion had shown themselves capable of destroying a Template:ShipClass starship (the USS Odyssey) and it was felt that viewers would not accept the idea that the Federation's first line of defense against such a powerful enemy was three runabouts. As Behr explains, "We had all these plans for this Dominion, not so much the Dominion War yet, but the Dominion as a three-pronged attack, and what were we going to go after them with? Shuttlecrafts? You know, I mean, with the Galileo or whatever the hell those names were? You know, it just seemed ridiculous. So we needed a ship." Similarly, production designer Herman Zimmerman states, "We needed a ship that would give the writers the opportunity to have more direct conflict." (USS Defiant, DS9 Season 3 DVD special features)
- Ronald D. Moore originally wanted to call the Defiant the USS Valiant, but was unable to, as the USS Voyager also began with a "V". It was three years before Moore was able to name a ship Valiant. The USS Valiant appears in the sixth season episode "Valiant".
- Rick Berman was originally against the idea of the ship having a cloaking device because one of the tenets of Gene Roddenberry's universe was that Starfleet "did not believe in sneaking around." However, Behr and Robert Hewitt Wolfe were able to convince Berman that the Defiant was a unique ship in a unique situation and, with the added stipulation that the cloak could only be used in the Gamma Quadrant, Berman agreed. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion)
- Early drafts of the script of Star Trek: First Contact suggested that the Defiant was to be destroyed in the Battle of Sector 001. In the DVD commentary for the film, First Contact co-writer and Deep Space Nine producer Ronald D. Moore said that Deep Space Nine's Executive Producer Ira Steven Behr had seen the script and objected to the needless destruction of his ship in a story that didn't even involve the Deep Space Nine characters (apart from Worf). It would also prove to be inconvenient for the television show, so the Defiant was eventually allowed to survive the battle, and a line suggesting that the Defiant was "adrift, but salvageable" was added to clear up any ambiguity. No reference to the damage the Defiant received during the battle was ever made on Deep Space Nine (although a brief reference was made to the battle itself in "In Purgatory's Shadow", when Sisko mentions "the recent Borg attack").
- The USS Equinox, a Template:ShipClass vessel, was designed based on the design of the Defiant "Pathfinder" vehicle, registry NXP-2365WP/T, found in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual.
- Models of the Defiant have been made by AMT/Ertl, Galoob's Star Trek Micro Machines range, and by Furuta. Corgi planned to release a model of the Defiant in 2007, however this was canceled. In 2008, the Japanese toy company F-Toys released a model of the Defiant, as well as a transparent "cloaked" version.
- The USS Defiant could be seen in the Discovery Science program Ultra Science (an episode about time travel).
- An unused door signage for the Defiant was sold off on the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay. [1]
Appearances
The Defiant appears in all Deep Space Nine episode title sequences starting with Season 4 and beyond.
- DS9:
- "The Search, Part I" (Season 3)
- "Equilibrium"
- "Second Skin"
- "Meridian"
- "Defiant"
- "Past Tense, Part I"
- "Past Tense, Part II"
- "Destiny"
- "The Die is Cast"
- "The Adversary"
- "The Way of the Warrior" (Season 4)
- "The Visitor"
- "Rejoined"
- "Starship Down"
- "Our Man Bashir"
- "Paradise Lost"
- "Sons of Mogh"
- "Bar Association"
- "Rules of Engagement"
- "For the Cause"
- "To the Death"
- "Broken Link"
- "The Ship" (Season 5)
- "Nor the Battle to the Strong"
- "Trials and Tribble-ations"
- "The Ascent"
- "The Darkness and the Light"
- "For the Uniform"
- "In Purgatory's Shadow"
- "By Inferno's Light"
- "Soldiers of the Empire"
- "Children of Time"
- "Blaze of Glory"
- "In the Cards"
- "Call to Arms"
- "A Time to Stand" (Season 6)
- "Sons and Daughters"
- "Behind the Lines"
- "Favor the Bold"
- "Sacrifice of Angels"
- "You Are Cordially Invited"
- "The Magnificent Ferengi"
- "Waltz"
- "Far Beyond the Stars"
- "One Little Ship"
- "Honor Among Thieves"
- "Inquisition"
- "Valiant"
- "Time's Orphan"
- "The Sound of Her Voice"
- "Tears of the Prophets"
- "Image in the Sand" (Season 7)
- "Once More Unto the Breach"
- "The Siege of AR-558"
- "Covenant"
- "It's Only a Paper Moon"
- "Prodigal Daughter"
- "Field of Fire"
- "Chimera"
- "Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang"
- "Penumbra"
- "The Changing Face of Evil"
- Star Trek: First Contact
Apocrypha
In the video game Star Trek: Encounters, the Defiant appears in the two levels based on Deep Space 9. In addition, the Defiant appears in the game's last level where it briefly visits an alternate timeline in which the Romulan Star Empire has conquered the Federation. The Defiant later helps the USS Enterprise-E, the USS Voyager, the USS Enterprise-A, and the Enterprise NX-01 defeat a combined Xindi, Klingon, Romulan, Dominion, and Borg fleet.
Also, the game Star Trek: Legacy features a mission depicting the Defiant's shakedown cruise under the command of Lieutenant Commander Benjamin Sisko. The ship encounters Romulan Tal Shiar forces preparing to ambush T'Uerell within Federation space and despite trying to evade them, is captured. The crew and the ship are rescued by a task force led by the USS Enterprise-D.
External links
- USS Defiant (NX-74205)
- Template:NCwiki
- USS Defiant at Wikipedia
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