View source for USS Defiant

{{short description|Fictional starship from ''Star Trek: Deep Space Nine''}}
{{about|the ''Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'' ship|the U.S. Navy tug|Defiant (YT-804){{!}}Defiant (YT-804)|text=For the ''Star Trek'' ship USS ''Defiant'' that appears in episodes of the original series and ''Enterprise'' spin-off, see "[[The Tholian Web]]" and "[[In a Mirror, Darkly]]"}}
{{distinguish|USS Defiance{{!}}USS Defiance}}
{{use mdy dates|date=July 2019}}
{{italic title prefixed|3}}
{{Infobox fictional vehicle
| name           = USS ''Defiant''
| image          = DefiantDS9.jpg<!-- Screen caps ONLY, publicity images will be deleted -->
| caption        = The USS ''Defiant'' NX-74205
| first          = First: "[[The Search (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)|The Search]]" (1994)<br>(''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Deep Space Nine]]'') <br />Second: "[[The Dogs of War (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)|The Dogs of War]]" (1999)<br>(''Deep Space Nine'')
| last           = First: "[[The Changing Face of Evil]]" (1999)<br>(''Deep Space Nine'')<br />Second: "The Bounty" (2023)<br>(''[[Star Trek: Picard|Picard]]'')
| affiliation    = [[United Federation of Planets]]<br />[[Starfleet]]
| launched       = First: 2370<br />Second: 2375
| decommissioned =
| class          = Defiant
| registry       = NX-74205 (as the first ''Defiant'')<br />NCC-75633 (as the second ''Defiant'', originally the USS ''São Paulo'')
| max_speed      = Warp factor 9.5 (Upgraded 2371)
| fighters       =
| aux_vehicle       =
| armaments      = Pulsed and beam [[phaser (Star Trek)|phaser]]s<br>[[Photon torpedo]]es<br />[[Weapons of Star Trek#Quantum torpedoes|Quantum torpedo]]es
| defense        = [[Shields (Star Trek)|Deflector shields]]<br>[[Cloaking device]]<br>[[Ablative armor]]
| propulsion     = [[Impulse drive]]<br />[[Warp drive (Star Trek)|Warp drive]]<br /> [[Reaction control system|RCS Thrusters]]
| power          =
| length         = {{convert|170|m|ft}}
| width          = {{convert|134|m|ft}}
| height         = {{convert|30|m|ft}}
}}

The '''USS ''Defiant''''' is the name of two starships in the [[Star Trek]] media franchise, most notably featured in the television series ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' (1993–1999) and the film ''[[Star Trek: First Contact]]'' (1996). Introduced in ''Deep Space Nine''<nowiki/>'s third season, it is a warship attached to the show's [[Deep Space Nine (fictional space station)|eponymous space station]]. The original ''Defiant'' is destroyed during the Dominion War in the seventh season and replaced with a largely identical ship.

The ''Defiant'' was designed by Jim Martin, Gary Hutzel and Tony Meinger.

==Design and development==
For the first two seasons of ''Deep Space Nine'', stories requiring characters to travel off-station typically involved small [[Runabout (Star Trek)|runabout]] vessels. Producer [[Ira Steven Behr]] and writer [[Robert Hewitt Wolfe]] believed runabouts would be insufficient to confront the adversarial [[Dominion (Star Trek)|Dominion]] introduced in the second season, and they convinced executive producer [[Rick Berman]] of the need for a new ship. Additionally, the ''Defiant'' was intended to solve the problem of cramped runabout sets.

The ''Defiant'' was initially designed by art illustrator Jim Martin, with contributions from visual effects supervisor [[Gary Hutzel]] and modelmaker Tony Meininger. 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]]''<nowiki/>'s titular starship, also beginning with a "V".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tor.com/blogs/2013/10/star-trek-deep-space-nine-rewatch-the-search-part-i|title=Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Rewatch: "The Search, Part I"|access-date=October 18, 2013|date=October 18, 2013|first=Keith|last=DeCandido|author-link=Keith DeCandido|publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers]]|work=[[Tor Books]]}}</ref>

An early screenplay for ''[[Star Trek: First Contact]]'' (1996) called for the ''Defiant'' to be destroyed, but Behr objected and the idea was dropped.<ref name="braga">Braga & Moore.{{full citation needed|date=July 2019}}</ref>

Following the ''Defiant''<nowiki/>'s destruction in "The Changing Face of Evil", the writers had wanted a new type of successor ship but the budget wasn't available. As a result, they replaced the ''Defiant'' with the same spacecraft design for the USS ''São Paulo'' in "The Dogs of War".<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Jones |first1=Mark |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2La2rMJJKzQC |title=Beyond the Final Frontier: An Unauthorised Review of the Trek Universe on Television and Film; Season Summaries, Characters, Episodes, Movies |last2=Parkin |first2=Lance |date=2003 |publisher=[[Contender Books]] |location=London |isbn=978-1-84357-080-6 |pages=269}}</ref> [[Ronald D. Moore|Ron Moore]] said in the ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion]]'' that the new ship was intended to be designated "''Defiant''-A", but it would have been too costly to redo the CG model for one episode because stock shots from earlier episodes had to be used as well for budgetary reasons.

==Depiction==
[[Benjamin Sisko]] helped design the ''Defiant'', which was conceived as a prototype vessel to counter the [[Borg (Star Trek)|Borg]]. Sisko receives command of the ''Defiant'' in 2370 to make contact with the Dominion in the show's third-season premiere. Unlike most [[Starfleet]] ships, the ''Defiant'' is built for combat rather than science and exploration. The ''Defiant'' remains attached to ''Deep Space Nine'' under Sisko's command for the remainder of the series, carrying the crew on missions beyond the space station. It appears briefly in ''Star Trek: First Contact'' under the command of [[Worf]] where it's left badly damaged and the crew has to evacuate to the ''Enterprise''-E after life support fails. The [[Breen (Star Trek)|Breen]] destroy the ''Defiant'' during the show's finale arc. Starfleet gives Sisko command of a new ship of the same class, the USS ''Sao Paulo'', of which he is given special dispensation to change the name and registry to be the same as the previous ''Defiant''. The ''Defiant'' is seen briefly in the ''[[Star Trek: Picard]]'' third season episode "The Bounty", out-of-commission and docked at Starfleet's Fleet Museum.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Baugher |first=Lacy |date=2023-03-23 |title=Star Trek: Picard Season 3 Episode 6 Review - The Bounty |url=https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/star-trek-picard-season-3-episode-6-review/ |access-date=2023-03-24 |website=Den of Geek |language=en-US}}</ref> It's also amongst the ships that fall under the control of the living construct in ''[[Star Trek: Prodigy]]'s'' two-part [[Star Trek: Prodigy season 1|season one]] finale "Supernova."

The ''Defiant'' also appears in numerous spin-off books, comics, and video games.

==Reception==
The ''USS Defiant'' is noted as a powerful spacecraft vessel of the ''Star Trek'' science fiction universe in the late 24th century.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.cbr.com/powerful-star-trek-ships/|title=Star Trek: The 20 Most Powerful Ships In The Galaxy, Ranked|date=2018-12-17|website=CBR|language=en-US|access-date=2019-06-23}}</ref> [[Comic Book Resources|CBR]] compared the maneuverable and powerful ''Defiant'' to the ''[[Millennium Falcon]]''.<ref name=":0" /> [[Space.com]] also noted the ''Defiant'' as one of the more agile science fiction spacecraft, compared to some of the slower, almost-nautical movement of larger spacecraft of ''Star Trek''.<ref name="snowden">{{Cite web |last=Snowden |first=Scott |date=2019-04-19 |title=The ''Star Trek: Discovery'' Finale Leaves a Confusing Conclusion to Season 2 |url=https://www.space.com/star-trek-discovery-season-2-episode-14.html |access-date=2019-06-23 |website=Space.com}}</ref>

The moment when Sisko [[Cloaking device|decloaks]] the ''Defiant'' spacecraft for the first time in "The Search" was rated by [[Geek.com]] in 2015 as one of the top 35 moments in ''Star Trek''; they said it marked a "great start" to the third season of ''Deep Space Nine''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.geek.com/geek-cetera/top-star-trek-moments-1611810/|title=The top 35 moments in Star Trek history|date=2015-01-02|website=Geek.com|language=en-US|access-date=2019-06-23|archive-date=January 4, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150104235022/https://www.geek.com/geek-cetera/top-star-trek-moments-1611810/|url-status=dead}}</ref> The addition of the ''Defiant'' helped the show dig deeper into stories set in the Gamma Quadrant, as well as the long war-saga arc of the show's later seasons.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://screenrant.com/star-trek-deep-space-nine-documentary-reveals/|title=What We Left Behind: Biggest Reveals From The Deep Space Nine Documentary|date=2019-05-15|website=ScreenRant|language=en-US|access-date=2019-06-23}}</ref>

A miniature model of the USS ''Defiant'' sold for 106,000 USD in 2006 at auction.<ref>{{Cite web |title=STARSHIP DEFIANT MODEL |url=https://www.christies.com/lot/lot-starship-defiant-model-4780061/?from=salesummary&intObjectID=4780061&lid=1 |access-date=2021-02-16 |website=www.christies.com}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
*''[[Star Trek: Defiant]]'', comic book by IDW
*''Star Trek: Deep Space 9 and the U. S. S Defiant Illustrated Handbook,'' Eaglemoss Publications Limited, Jan 12, 2021. 192 pages.

==External links==
{{Memory Alpha|USS Defiant (2370)|USS ''Defiant'' (2370)}}
{{Memory Alpha|USS Defiant (2375)|USS ''Defiant'' (2375)}}

{{Star Trek: Deep Space Nine}}
{{Star Trek}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Uss Defiant}}
[[Category:Star Trek spacecraft|Defiant]]
[[Category:Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]
[[Category:Fictional elements introduced in 1994]]
[[Category:Fictional military vehicles]]