USS Defiant
The USS Defiant NX-74205
|
|
| First appearance | Original: "The Search" New: "The Dogs of War" |
|---|---|
| Affiliation |
United Federation of Planets Starfleet |
| Launched | Original: 2370 New: 2375 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class | Defiant |
| Registry | NX-74205 (as the First Defiant) NCC-75633 (as the Second Defiant) |
| Maximum speed | Warp factor 9.2 (Upgraded 2371) |
| Armaments | Pulsed and beam phasers Photon torpedoes Quantum torpedoes |
| Defenses |
Deflector shields Cloaking device Ablative armor |
| Propulsion |
Impulse drive Warp drive RCS Thrusters |
| Length | 170 metres (560 ft) |
| Width | 134 metres (440 ft) |
| Height | 30 metres (98 ft) |
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 lead ship of her class and one of the Federation's first purpose-built warships, the Defiant first appears in the third-season DS9 episode "The Search, Part I", after which it plays a significant role throughout the series in the ensuing Dominion War. While the original Defiant is destroyed in the seventh season episode "The Changing Face of Evil", Starfleet sends a replacement ship of the same class, the USS Sao Paulo in the episode "The Dogs of War", which receives special dispensation from the Chief of Starfleet Operations to be renamed as the 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 her as a "tough little ship" (echoing Thomas Riker's description of the ship in the DS9 episode.)
For the first two seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, stories requiring main characters traveling off-station typically involved a series of small vessels called runabouts. With the introduction of the major power known as the Dominion in the second season, Producer Ira Steven Behr and writer Robert Hewitt Wolfe believed that runabouts were insufficient to confront this new threat and successfully convinced executive producer Rick Berman of the need for a new ship. The Defiant was initially designed by Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: First Contact 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.
...
Wikipedia