I officially began my journey through all Star Trek on October 9th...

[Griffeytrek]

Any reason why the Defiant has "NX" in its registry rather than "NCC"?

Is/was this ever explained?

The Defiant was originally an experimental design that Sisco was the project lead on. It was a purpose built Anti Borg ship. Basically to paraphrase Chuck over at SFDebris "It's a set of guns strapped to an engine with a chair in the middle". The Defiant was originally the first and only ship of its kind built and was mothballed before it completed its testing trials. Sisco dusted it off to deal with the Dominion. Because it was commissioned as an experimental vessel it got the NX designation, similar to the US Air Forces "X" plane designation. Somewhere around seasons 3 and 4 Starfleet does begin full scale production of the Defiant design, so we eventually do see several of the ships with NCC designations. There are 2 named and maybe 2 un named that are seen in DS9 and about 4 or 5 un named that appear on screen in Voyager. (2 appear in Eye of the Needle).

Technically the Defiant really should have switched to an NCC registry later in the series as the other ships entered service. Much like the Excelsior did. But some truths of production economics left it as NX. Most of the shots you see of the Defiant are stock shots generated before regular filming on each season begins. They build up a library of such shots over the seasons (hence one of the reasons why the effects get more elaborate over the seasons. They have a deeper library of established shots to draw from and piece together precisely what they want.) But if they change the registry of the ship, they have to throw out and reshoot all of those stock FX shots. TNG ran into a little bit of this when they replaced the 6'1701-D model with the newer easier to work with 4' one. This is also ultimately why Voyager never changes. Why it always resets to status quo in appearance. To do anything else throws out too much expensive effects work. It's the downside to practical model work. Contrast that with the Ron Moore run Battlestar Galactica where the master CGI model of the ship was able to be evolved as the show went on. By the time you reached the last episode every single weapon hit from the pilot onwards was reflected in its skin. They could reskin their animation framework with new graphics.

And you will enjoy the Season 5 finale. Short of the series finale "What We Leave Behind" it's probably the best season ender.

 

[The Old Mixer]

By the time you reached the last episode every single weapon hit from the pilot onwards was reflected in its skin.

All the weapon hits it took during the series combined didn't do as much damage as the Adama Maneuver:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[Griffeytrek]

It's pretty god damn astonishing how much this show has evolved over the last five seasons. From Move Along Home to By Inferno's Light. From If Wishes Were Horses to Call to Arms. Just think about that for a moment.

A great season finale, a great cliffhanger, and an incredibly awesome ending. I wish I could just dive right into season six, but I know Voyager's waiting for me, and to be honest, I'm eager to get back into it.

Five seasons of build-up have finally paid off. The Dominion War has officially begun.

Bwahahaha! If you think it has changed and evolved to get here? The best is yet to come. (OK the worst too... but its really only 1 or 2 episodes of oh so bad mixed in with twenty something of pure awesome.) This is actually a good place to take a break as it somewhat mirrors the story itself. This is not a normal Star Trek "over in a weekend" war. And rest assured whatever Season of Voyager you are up to, season 6 of DS9 will be a pallet cleansing delight. Voyager does actually have some good seasons and some great episodes. (really keep an eye out for Timeless and Year of Hell) but DS9's Season 6 is possibly the single best overall season in the entire Star Trek franchise. (although be warned it does suffer a bit for having DS9's 'WTF did I just watch" episode.)

 

[Tracy Trek]

They almost literally missed the bus just trying to ruin a couple Ferengis' day in the episode I watched earlier.

When Voyager was first announced to be in production and they said it would be set in the Delta Quadrant. I wondered if they would run into those 2 stranded Ferengi from TNG. Maybe it should have happened earlier than season 3.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

They did the Ferengi episode because they could. TNG made them this gift years earlier unintentionally.
It's not the worst episode, it's not the best. I generally enjoy it, even though it brings nothing new to the table about the Ferengi.
The appeal lies in the comedy of the crew and the Ferengi trying to outsmart each other.
Maybe the cli,ax should have been the natives in the end outsmarting and scewong over both of them, I don't know.
The Voyager misses a chance to go home again was silly, of course, but not the focus of the story, so forgovable.
However, if they really wanted to go home they could have just put up camp there and waited for the wormhole to return as it clearly, of a bit unreliably, eventually would within a decade or so at the most.

 

[Seven of Five]

It's an episode I find hard to rewatch really. I can understand why they did it though as it was a nice link back to TNG. The Voyager crew has found a way home! scenario became a trope on the show, with some results better than others.

 

[Tracy Trek]

However, if they really wanted to go home they could have just put up camp there and waited for the wormhole to return as it clearly, of a bit unreliably, eventually would within a decade or so at the most.

I thought something (insert technobabble) happened so that the wormhole would never return to that point again. Or that the Delta quadrant end of it, that it would be impossible to predict where it would show up.

 

[locutus101]

I thought something (insert technobabble) happened so that the wormhole would never return to that point again. Or that the Delta quadrant end of it, that it would be impossible to predict where it would show up.

Yeah, technobabble is a bitch.

 

[Forbin]

Trillions of cubic light years of volume, 70k light years from home, and they happen to run into these two Ferengi. I live 3 miles from the house I grew up in, and in the 40 years since I graduated high school in a class of 425 people, have run into a classmate exactly once.

 

[TonyLeung82]

Trillions of cubic light years of volume, 70k light years from home, and they happen to run into these two Ferengi. I live 3 miles from the house I grew up in, and in the 40 years since I graduated high school in a class of 425 people, have run into a classmate exactly once.

the galaxy is also a bitch :-)

 

[MacLeod]

The Defiant was originally an experimental design that Sisco was the project lead on. It was a purpose built Anti Borg ship. Basically to paraphrase Chuck over at SFDebris "It's a set of guns strapped to an engine with a chair in the middle". The Defiant was originally the first and only ship of its kind built and was mothballed before it completed its testing trials. Sisco dusted it off to deal with the Dominion. Because it was commissioned as an experimental vessel it got the NX designation, similar to the US Air Forces "X" plane designation. Somewhere around seasons 3 and 4 Starfleet does begin full scale production of the Defiant design, so we eventually do see several of the ships with NCC designations. There are 2 named and maybe 2 un named that are seen in DS9 and about 4 or 5 un named that appear on screen in Voyager. (2 appear in Eye of the Needle).

I believe it was "Message in a Bottle" they appeared in, not "Eye of the Needle"

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Basically to paraphrase Chuck over at SFDebris "It's a set of guns strapped to an engine with a chair in the middle".

Itself paraphrasing what is commonly said about the A10 Warthog, "engines designed around a gun."

 

[Griffeytrek]

I believe it was "Message in a Bottle" they appeared in, not "Eye of the Needle"

You are probably correct. I always confuse those two names and episodes.

 

[eyeresist]

Knowing that the peace will not last, Sisko decides to start the war before the Dominion can amass an unbeatable force in the Alpha Quadrant.

Sisko was obviously a big fan of Admiral Marcus.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Which one was that?
I'm not that firm with my Voyager titles.
Is that the one where Janeway goes on a Blitz walkabout to save Kes?

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Yeah. I do not particularly care for that episode either.
I guess it has a nice theme of Janeway taking responsibility for Kes and the rest of her crew and seeminly risking her live for her.
But the "science can not explain everything, embrace woo" message is not my cup of tea.

 

[locutus101]

Yeah. I do not particularly care for that episode either.
I guess it has a nice theme of Janeway taking responsibility for Kes and the rest of her crew and seeminly risking her live for her.
But the "science can not explain everything, embrace woo" message is not my cup of tea.

I didn't much care for the locals that all behaved like a bunch of smug pricks in that episode.

 

[Griffeytrek]

I didn't much care for the locals that all behaved like a bunch of smug pricks in that episode.

Isn't 'Smug Prick Locals" sort of a Trek Trope? I mean by the time of Enterprise did they ever meet anyone that wasn't a Smug Prick to them? (Granted everybody else had reasons for looking down on Archer and his unwanted crew of holistic hairdressers, phone sanitizers and insurance salesmen.)

 

[TonyLeung82]

Pls do not give up, season 4 is coming...

 

[Seven of Five]

I always found season three of Voyager a bit of a slog. Well until the last six episodes anyway.

I'm rewatching VOY now anyway. I always forget I liked a lot of the stuff they were doing at first in season one, but it ultimately went nowhere. Now I'm on season two.

I think growing up with TNG, DS9 and VOY really made it apparent to me when I was younger that VOY wasn't living up to the other two. Watching the show again on DVDs years later though, and now on Netflix, I know what I'm getting myself into. It certainly makes me appreciate what I did like more.