Star Trek: Defiant #2

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The Maquis have been hearing rumors about shifting loyalties in the Cardassian government. Certain hardline elements were unsatisfied with the Federation treaty and are doing whatever they can to scrap it. We had our hands on an intelligence report outlining a suspected military buildup in the Orias system. A secret buildup that even the Central Command isn't aware of."

The Defiant-class was designed by James Martin under the direction of Herman Zimmerman and Gary Hutzel. During the mission "Ambush" in the game Star Trek: Legacy, the USS Defiant was sent to the Etarian Nebula for a test flight of its systems, where the crew found that the Romulans had invaded the nebula waiting for a fugitive. The USS Enterprise-D was sent to rescue the Defiant with three other starships and to neutralize any Romulan threat remaining. For the next several months, the Defiant fought as part of the Second Fleet, operating out of Starbase 375. When Captain Sisko was made an adjutant to Vice Admiral William Ross, Lt. Commander Jadzia Dax was assigned to captain the vessel. Under Dax's command, the Defiant destroyed a Dominion sensor array hidden in the Argolis Cluster. ( DS9: " A Time to Stand", " Behind the Lines")Just when you thought Star Trek comics couldn’t get any bigger, we’re continuing to boldly explore new frontiers,” says Senior Editor Heather Antos in a statement. “Between the flagship title and Defiant, it’s safe to say that we have comics’ biggest Trek fans—Lanzing, Kelly, Cantwell, Rosanas, and Unzueta themselves—crafting what is going to be Star Trek’s biggest and boldest interconnected comics story ever. And this is only just the beginning!” The Defiant later became home to Worf, who found adapting to life on Deep Space 9 difficult. Captain Sisko gave him approval to live on the vessel, so long as it did not interfere with his duties. ( DS9: " Bar Association")

The final moments of the Defiant in "The Changing Face of Evil", with the craft beginning to burn but ejecting escape pods, were shown with CGI achieved by Digital Muse, supervised by David Stipes. ( Cinefantastique, Vol. 32, Nos. 4/5, p. 74) In the final draft script for "The Search", the physical appearance of the Defiant-class was initially described thus; " The ship should look a little clunky compared to other Federation vessels we've seen – this ship was built primarily for battle, not exploration or science." [1] A few weeks later, Captain Sisko took the Defiant to Ajilon Prime to get his son, Jake, off the front lines of the Federation's war with the Klingons. ( DS9: " Nor the Battle to the Strong")The Dominion threat discovered in 2370 led Benjamin Sisko, now the commanding officer of starbase Deep Space 9, to pull the prototype vessel out of storage. The ship was assigned to his station, and it was officially christened that same year on Stardate 47538.5. The prototype was then equipped with a Romulan cloaking device, the only Federation starship to possess such technology as the result of an amendment to the Treaty of Algeron. ( DS9: " The Search, Part I") Thanks to the efforts of Chief O'Brien, many of the original ship's design flaws, such as its structural integrity field, were fixed. ( Defiant dedication plaque; DS9: " Shattered Mirror") In an outtake from the episode, Avery Brooks and Jonathan Frakes burst into laughter. In another, Frakes falls through a door on the Defiant set. ( Ultimate Trek: Star Trek's Greatest Moments)

In 2020, Den of Geek listed "Defiant" as one of the best stories of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. [4] Legacy [ edit ] Shannon Cochran reprises her role as Kalita from TNG: " Preemptive Strike". She would next be seen on Deep Space Nine as Sirella in the sixth season episode " You Are Cordially Invited".The USS Defiant was originally named the "USS Scimitar" in an early draft of the script for "The Tholian Web." ( Star Trek Compendium, et al.) This had been confirmed previously by Greg Jein, who owned all the script drafts written for Star Trek: The Original Series. [1] When Gary Holland originally devised a story that eventually served as the basis for " Children of Time", he imagined the Defiant crash landing on a planet where the ship's crew met their ancestors. The story was rewritten, with the vessel referred to as having instead crash landed in the past, on a planet named Gaia. ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion (p. 452)) During an escort mission where the Defiant was protecting several Cardassian freighters against Klingon raids, Commander Worf accidentally destroyed a Klingon civilian transport ship. The Klingon Empire requested that Worf be extradited to face justice for the ship's destruction, but was refused when it was determined that the transport ship had been unmanned and the situation set up to force the Federation to give concessions to the Empire. ( DS9: " Rules of Engagement")

From the Star Trek Encyclopedia (4th ed., vol. 1, p. 196), " The Defiant 's registry number, NX-74205, is in honor of Gene Roddenberry's son, our friend Rod Roddenberry who worked with us as a member of the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine art department. Rod's birthday is February 5, 1974." Some time in 2373, Starfleet vessels were fitted with new holo-communicator technology. A holographic projector on the bridge could create a holographic simulation of the communique. ( DS9: " For the Uniform") This technology was only briefly in service, as it proved inefficient and had minimal advantages compared to communicating via viewscreen. In " Penumbra", the DS9 writing staff made the Defiant, even under Captain Sisko's command, unable to effect a rescue that a runabout, piloted by Ezri Dax, managed, carried by the Badlands' currents. " The Defiant is so big that even if he'd thought of what she tries, the ship never would have followed the same path," René Echevarria reasoned. ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion (p. 685)) Speaking from the perspective of Jadzia Dax, Terry Farrell once said, laughing, " I love the Defiant because I fly it." ( The Official Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Magazine issue 14, p. 10) The Defiant, along with the IKS Rotarran, led the Federation Alliance fleet at the First Battle of Chin'toka in late 2374. The crew of the Defiant found a way to disable a deployment of Cardassian orbital weapon platforms protecting the Chin'toka system. ( DS9: " Tears of the Prophets")

Worf assembles his crew

The center of the bridge featured the lone captain's chair, which was on a raised platform and had a clear view of all bridge stations, as well as of the main viewscreen. On both sides of the captain's chair were separate control panels, allowing the occupant access to virtually every system aboard the ship. Although René Echevarria initially devised the idea of a miniaturized runabout maneuvering inside Deep Space 9 in a story that became the episode " One Little Ship", using the Defiant instead of the space station seemed to work better for teleplay writers David Weddle and Bradley Thompson. " When we came up with the idea of the Defiant getting taken over, and the little ship having to board it to rescue the rest of the crew, then we suddenly had a workable premise," Weddle explained. ( Cinefantastique, Vol. 30, No. 9/10, p. 39) The invention of the USS Defiant was preceded by Ira Steven Behr and Robert Hewitt Wolfe discussing, for some time, the possibility of giving the main characters of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine a method to leave space station Deep Space 9 en masse. " We wanted a ship in which we could send more people out on an adventure," explained Wolfe, " and we'd never really figured out how to do it." ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion (p. 158)) During the events of the Glass Empires anthology, the Defiant acted as the flagship for the Terran Empire. It would also serve as the prototype for many other Constitution-class vessels, as well as newer, more advanced designs. I wonder, why is it that Star Trek cannot be its own POSITIVE thing and always has to emulate things which are in direct contradiction to its ethos? Why cannot Star Trek “win” in this contest and make OTHER shows try to emulate it? A little more than a decade ago everyone and their cat wanted Star Trek to become “battleSTAR TREKactica” just because Ronald D. Moore’s remake show was on TV. Today we are still dealing with the fallout of the last decade during which execs required everything, even toilet paper commercials, to emulate the “Game of Thrones,” even if there was no logical incentive to do so.