Even at its most subversive , Star Trekstill has to have a few certain centre of set up image to really feel like Star Trek — one of those being a ship for our chieftain and crew to boldly go in . Deep Space Nine , of course , naturally subvertedboth of these thing , give us a space station and a commandant . But even when it could not dissent , it still defied anticipation with the Defiant .
On September 26 , 1994 , “ The Search , Part 1”—the debut episode of Deep Space Nine ’s third season — premiere , and add with it many sea changes that would set out to see the show truly evolve into the dismal , striking , and compellingly subversive series it isbeloved as today . It ’s a fascinating turning point : The show had just introduced the alien , baneful threat of the Jem’Hadar , overzealous zealots from the Gamma Quadrant that the Federation could n’t simply just talk their agency out of dealing with .
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The NX-74205, in all its glory.Image: CBS
In hindsight , we know it would wreak about a conflict that would define the rest of Deep Space Nine ’s existence , a grim conflict with the mysterious Dominion , a dark chapter that would question and recreate the Charles Frederick Worth and substance of the Federation ’s rich value . It would be warfare — a war that would test the very individual of everything Gene Roddenberry ’s vision of Star Trek had hold late in its pectus since the days of Kirk and Spock . And Deep Space Nine require a ship to sail that ocean at storm .
It got it in the U.S.S. Defiant .
The Defiant was unlike anything we ’d seen on Star Trek before , from the linear perspective of the Federation . It ’s almost , by aim , jarringly foreign from what we come to intend of when we ideate , up until that point , what a Federation ship could see like . It did n’t have the traditional , large disc - form bridge we ’d carry of the franchise ’s esthetic , attached by a weirdly dainty ( for a starship ) cervix to those glowing , tubular nacelles . The Defiant was small-scale , slick , a nipping small thing a fraction of the size of either the original or Next Generation version of theEnterprise . The smooth edge of those ships were still there in spots , but they were develop up by tart , aggressive line . If they were the space trucks of the Star Trek creation , the Defiant was the hot pole , and it packed the heat to play off .
And that was the other thing that was clearly novel and alien about the Defiant . Star Trek and The Next Generation are series which defined themselves by the dissertation that , in many ways , humanity had ultimately begun to outgrow its inherent barbarism and look to a utopian future . Its iconic starships were reflective of that . These were n’t battlecruisers and frigates , attack fighters or almighty battlestations ; the Enterprise inits 10000 iterationswas a ship designed for scientific inquiry and exploration first and first . The initiative - five hundred and its successor house families and unpaid help . That they are not designed with violent engagement in mind as a precedency , but also considered the flagship of Starfleet ’s navy , speaks to those evolved ideals .
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Sure , we ’d seen Romulan Warbirds , Klingon Birds of Prey , Borg Cubes — distinctly military vessels , weapons of warfare . And it ’s not like Starfleet ship could n’t fight themselves , either . Both Kirk and Picard had gayly phasered and torpedo’d their ways out of a few dicey situations , and heck , the Enterprise - D specifically had a modality where it could jettison the civilian compartments of itself and release into a jumbo , hilarious looking struggle guile . But they digest behind the idea that when exploring a grievous frontier , the best conformation of attack was often defense .
The Defiant was different : It was the first major Federation vas we ’d seen explicitly designed with war in mind . And in a social club that had hop to think it had evolve so far beyond that , what did that even look like ?
The answer , on a primal level , is improbably cool .
With the Defiant — and a hyphen of CG applied science , of course of study — Deep Space Nine could pull off infinite action at law unlike anything we ’d seen on Star Trek before . “ Sacrifice of Angels , ” “ What You Leave Behind , ” “ Dominion War , ” “ A Call to weapon system , ” the Defiant ( and the refit that exchange it when it was demolish in “ The Changing Face of Evil ” ) lead the charge in battles that were on a weighing machine like no other . The price ? Perhaps learn that the Federation is very good at designing weapons of war when its back is against the wall is not as cool as it ab initio seems to be .
But that ’s been a dichotomy Starfleet and Star Trek has been struggling with , and seek to question , for practically its integral existence , fromCaptain KirktoMichael Burnham . Is it a research organization , or a military one ? Are its members doctors and engineers , or are they commanders and officers with the ranking to fit ? What does it mean , paradoxically , that they and Starfleet at large are both ?
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In a interlingual rendition of theStar Trekgalaxy at war , the Defiant became the genuine avatar of that battle for the enfranchisement ’s soul — the power to finish a fight so that skillful , bright things could come up from its ashes . On the airfoil , it might attend unlike anything we ’ve see from the dealership ’s main ships - of - the - line before or since it , but the Defiant is much close to the nerve of some of Star Trek ’s old note value than you might have thought .
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