The USS Defiant (NCC-1764) was one of at least three Federation starships to carry the name.
Built at Tranquility Base, Luna, the Defiant was a Template:ShipClass heavy cruiser that was in Starfleet service during the mid-23rd century. (ENT: "In a Mirror, Darkly" set decoration)
Final mission and loss
In 2268, the Defiant responded to a distress call in an unexplored sector, claimed by the Tholian Assembly. Shortly after entering the region, the Defiant crew began experiencing sensory distortion, and insanity quickly spread throughout the ship. The ship's medical surgeon was unable to determine what was happening, and eventually the insanity induced by the phenomenon led the crew to kill each other.
The Defiant's dedication plaque
Main bridge of the Defiant (2268)
Three weeks later, Starfleet ordered the USS Enterprise to mount a search mission to locate the Defiant. On stardate 5693.2, the Enterprise located the Defiant, only to find it lost between universes in a space warp. The Enterprise's instruments recorded that space itself was literally breaking up, the result of a previously unknown phenomenon known as a spatial interphase. The Enterprise boarding party beamed aboard the Defiant and discovered signs of mutiny – the captain's neck was broken and his crew dead.
At that time the Defiant was visible in the "normal" universe at interphase, then, as a result of a later phaser exchange between the Enterprise and the Tholians, created a hole through the spatial interphase, which was pushing the Defiant to parts unknown, trapping Kirk between universes. Captain Kirk was eventually saved when the Enterprise, encased in a Tholian web, entered the interphase, and, upon utilizing full power, was thrown clear of the region while Kirk was locked in the transporter beam. (TOS: "The Tholian Web")
- The ship may have visited Exo III as a chart of it appeared on the wall in one of its science labs.
Mirror universe
USS Defiant trapped in spatial interphase (2268)
The Defiant emerged in the mirror universe during the 22nd century, where it was discovered that Tholians in that universe had created the interphasic rift by detonating a tri-cobalt warhead within the gravity well of a dead star, and had sent the distress call which had lured the Defiant to the area. The Tholians, soon after, took the ship to a drydock built into an asteroid-moon in orbit around a gas giant in the Vintaak system and began a salvage operation, but were unable to finish because the ship was stolen by Commander Jonathan Archer of the ISS Enterprise. (ENT: "In a Mirror, Darkly")
The Defiant in a Tholian docking bay in the mirror universe
After Enterprise was destroyed in a Tholian web, Archer (now aboard the Defiant) made a desperate attempt to escape by restoring shields and weapons. After the station tractored the Defiant, Tucker was able to restore those systems. The Defiant began firing at the Tholian station and disabled it. At first, the Defiant could only reach speeds at impulse because a Gorn stole one of the key components from the engines (a plasma regulator). The Gorn was killed by Archer, who was able to restore warp drive.
After arriving at the rendezvous point with the assault fleet, Archer found two Andorian battle cruisers, one Vulcan Template:ShipType cruiser, and one Tellarite cruiser were disabling the ISS Avenger. The Defiant destroyed all rebel ships except one Andorian cruiser which Archer intentionally allowed to escape.
Soval and T'Pol tried to sabotage Defiant with Phlox's help, inspired by the discovery that in the United Federation of Planets of the other universe, Vulcans and Denobulans were equal to humans. When Phlox disabled main power, the Defiant was defenseless, and the Avenger, commandeered by Soval and other rebel species, began firing at her. Defiant received heavy damage until Tucker was able to restore main power. With power restored, Archer ordered the destruction of Avenger. The Defiant fired phasers and photon torpedoes and destroyed Avenger's warp regulator. The second barrage of photon torpedoes was targeted at their main reactor and the Avenger was destroyed with all hands.
The Defiant in Earth orbit
After destroying Avenger, Defiant arrived at Earth, now under the command of the self-proclaimed "Empress Hoshi Sato", having poisoned Archer and taken command of the ship. She ordered Admiral Gardner to surrender and stand by for instructions, or she would open fire on Earth. (ENT: "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II")
Personnel
Template:ConstitutionClassStarships Template:StarshipDefiant
Appendices
Background
Origins
While there has been a long line of British naval vessels to bear the name Defiance, including a torpedo school ship and three United States naval vessels, there never was an HMS Defiant in real life. There was a fictional Defiant in the 1962 movie Damn the Defiant! (based on the Frank Tilsey novel Mutiny), which may have been the namesake for the Constitution-class ship.
The registry number NCC-1764 was originally conceived by Greg Jein in an article in T-Negative from 1973. It was subsequently used by FASA and eventually ended up in Michael Okuda's Star Trek Encyclopedia, before finally being seen on screen in "In a Mirror, Darkly" and later in the remastered version of "The Tholian Web". In the same T-Negative article, Greg Jein mentions that the Defiant was known as the "USS Scimitar" in an earlier draft of the script for "The Tholian Web".
Studio model
Original Defiant footage
The studio model of the Defiant in the original series was a reuse of the original Enterprise. The CGI model of the Defiant used in Star Trek: Enterprise was wholly built by Koji Kuramura. Nacelles lighting and certain textures were "tweaked" by Rob Bonchune. The work was done at Eden FX with reference help from Doug Drexler. [1]
According to Bonchune, the location of the aft torpedo launcher on the CGI model of the Defiant, "were from the little round port right between the impulses engines. We tried to make it logical with what existed so we didn't have to make a new hole on the ship. Everyone agreed, except that apparently if you frame by frame it, they actually come from the hangar bay phaser mounts. Someone in the chain ether decided against it or didn't know. Even one of the writers was surprised it hadn't been done as discussed." [2]
Star Trek: Enterprise teleplay writer Mike Sussman noted in his "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II" podcast commentary that the aft phasers and torpedoes that the Defiant possessed indicated a variation from its Constitution-class sister ship, USS Enterprise, which apparently lacks or does not use on screen.
It should be noted, however, that in the original series episodes "Arena", "Friday's Child", and "The Doomsday Machine", verbal reference to the Enterprise's aft phasers can be heard in a stock voice loop. Additionally, reference to starboard banks is made in "Balance of Terror", as well as the port weapons mentioned in "Mirror, Mirror".
Props
Operations division mission patch.
The Defiant's mission patch is an insignia similar to the pennant on the sides of TOS starships and seen as a set decoration on starbases of that era. A stylized version of this shape makes up the 2150s Earth Starfleet insignia. Three Defiant insignia badges; one command, one science and one engineering were sold in the 40 Years of Star Trek: The Collection auction for $550 ($660 with premium). [3]
A busy box shown on the Defiant in "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II" was sold in week 1 of the It's A Wrap! sale and auction for $394.99. [4]
Apocrypha
- In the Star Trek: SCE novellas Interphase, Book One and Interphase, Book Two, the crew of the USS da Vinci rescue the damaged starship Defiant from interphase and the Tholians in the year 2376; the novellas were written before "In A Mirror, Darkly, Parts I & II" were produced, though, interestingly enough, "In A Mirror, Darkly, Part II"'s conclusion does not rule out the possibility of the Defiant being returned to the rift.
- In the DC Comics Special #2 published late 1994, the story "Raise the Defiant" tells of the USS Enterprise working to recover the Defiant from the Tholian rift during the 2280s to recover a classified phase-inverter capable of detecting cloaked vessels.