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One thing I did like about the Defiant, is that it didn't waste space on large crew quarters. Hell, the thing had bunk beds. And I can see why Worf moved onto the Defiant permanently. For a Federation Officer born of a Warrior race, it had to be the ultimate bachelor pad.

Teaos wrote:DS9 needed a ship stationed there. Nothing makes more sense in that roll than a Defiant. Anythung bigger would be a waste and need to much crew. Any ship of similar or smaller size would not be powerful enough to do the missions needed.

Wrong. The Defiant was stationed there BEFORE any knowledge of impending hostilities. At the time that she was stationed there, the runabouts would have been adequate; if not, an old Miranda-class or a frigate/destroyer type would have served the expressed need.

Once the war broke out, then yes; but that wasn't the situation.

Mirandas need to many crew members... and they suck.

When it was first stationed it was pulled out of moth balls so one of its designers (Sisko) could see if he could get it to work.

and they suck.

That's OK - as I've been saying, at the time that a ship was seconded to DS9, they didn't need a ship that didn't suck.

When it was first stationed it was pulled out of moth balls so one of its designers (Sisko) could see if he could get it to work.

OK, that's true. So? Please read:

I wrote:DS9 was the its permanent post until its destruction. That's not a shakedown; that's an assignment.

After O'Brien et.al. fixed it, it should have been given a proper shakedown, and then an assignment that made sense.

I dunno, Khan did pretty well with a skeleton crew and a couple of Starfleet Officers with worms.

I can't remember but at what point did they get the Defiant working to a decent level?

I'm almost certain it was after the wormhole got discovered. In which case the Defiant would have been essental for protecting the entrance to an unexplored area of space.

But that's NOT how it was used.

Yes it was. It went through the wormhole scouting.

Its mere presence at DS9 was a deterant.

And while it did get used as a shuttle a bit it also had one of the most important men in the sector on board... kind of a good idea to keep him safe.

He was aboard because, as Rochey mentioned, he used it as his taxi. The fact that he was safe while aboard is a side-effect at best if he's aboard in order to go drop Jake off at journalism school.

And if they wanted an exploration/scout/science vessel when the wormhole was discovered, there are much better choices of vessels.

True they could have put a Nova there. But as they were exporing areas of unknown space on the other side of the Galaxy it makes sense to have a powerful ship there.

The Defiant had a very good reason for being there. Some of the time it was sitting around waiting for something to do. So the captain took it for a spin to drop off his son... perk of the job.

The wormhole was discovered in the very first episode of DS9 (The Emissary); it was part of the whole setup to the show. Defiant didn't appear until a few seasons in (because the producers felt too limited with just a station and a few runabouts).

For much of DS9 until the war got going full bore, Defiant seemed to spend MOST of it's time sitting docked at the station. That's wasteful for a vessel that's as powerful as almost anything but a Sov.

Not when the damn thing didnt work. As I recall the defiant was sent there out of moth balls at special request of Sisko.

There was PLENTY of time between the repair of the Defiant and the outbreak of hostilities.

Chain of events.

Sisko realised they needed a ship to be at the disposal of the DS9 staff for short term missions and protecton.

Ship needed to be smaller size so as to be easily staffed but also powerful to put up with life in unexplored and possibly dangerous space. There are no other ships that fit this roll well.

He calls up a prototype ship that he worked on that had been moth balled and with his crew over time managed to work all the problems out with it.

As it is stationed at DS9 for their use they can use it how ever they want as it is sitting around for a lot of the time. Perk of the job is Sisko can use it for trips.


It is a little ship that is relativly cheap to build. Why with draw it from a place it is needed when they can just build a new one. Putting something else in its place does not save anything but reduces the capability of that station and staff.

Ship needed to be smaller size so as to be easily staffed but also powerful to put up with life in unexplored and possibly dangerous space. There are no other ships that fit this roll well.

Starfleet hasn't much cared about whether an area was potentially dangerous when sending a research/exploration vessel. That would explain the mighty armament of the Oberth and Nova classes... One of those types, or even a frigate/picket type would require as little staff as a Defiant.

As it is stationed at DS9 for their use they can use it how ever they want as it is sitting around for a lot of the time. Perk of the job is Sisko can use it for trips.

I don't have a problem witht his point. If I were the commander, and I had a ship sitting there, I'd use it as my toy too. The problem I had is that Starfleet left it in Sisko's driveway.

It is a little ship that is relativly cheap to build. Why with draw it from a place it is needed when they can just build a new one. Putting something else in its place does not save anything but reduces the capability of that station and staff.

This is just made-up. You're the one always going on about how much it costs to build a starship, and here we have one that has a non-standard warp core, the latest shipboard phaser technology, quantum torpedoes, ablative armor (which requires REPLACEMENT/ patching after every mission,) its own proprietary brand-new shuttle type, etc.; yet now you claim that it's cheap to build? It can't be. And if thewy were so plentiful and easy to make, why did we see so few of them - ever?