Defiant officers missing in first contact.
- Thread starter Rayleo02
- Start date
Kira and Odo are generally just passengers on the Defiant, not essential to the running of the starship. They aren't Starfleet, after all! While Kira remains Sisko's executive officer, she basically never serves as the XO of the Defiant even on those days when Sisko chooses to become the CO.
In "Starship Down", when Sisko is disabled, Kira settles for holding his hand while Worf takes over command of the ship, say. And when Sisko isn't around, the division of labor is as explicated in "Apocalypse Rising": Worf commands the Defiant, Kira commands the station. Except on extremely rare cases such as "Sons of Mogh" where Sisko briefly hands over the ship to Kira for purely political reasons.
ST:FC is obviously one of those missions where Sisko does not attend. Would Dax, Bashir or O'Brien be aboard? Well, Bashir in DS9 episodes is a unique asset - either the ship goes without a doctor, or then the station does. Bashir might simply have better things to do aboard the station. The others are optional extras. Perhaps they were aboard, perhaps not. Dax wouldn't be friends with the Enterprise folks and might settle for sitting it out; O'Brien might need to be incapacitated in order not to try and contribute. Or then they, too, had better things to do than follow Worf to a battle.
Timo Saloniemi
In "Starship Down", when Sisko is disabled, Kira settles for holding his hand while Worf takes over command of the ship, say. And when Sisko isn't around, the division of labor is as explicated in "Apocalypse Rising": Worf commands the Defiant, Kira commands the station. Except on extremely rare cases such as "Sons of Mogh" where Sisko briefly hands over the ship to Kira for purely political reasons.
ST:FC is obviously one of those missions where Sisko does not attend. Would Dax, Bashir or O'Brien be aboard? Well, Bashir in DS9 episodes is a unique asset - either the ship goes without a doctor, or then the station does. Bashir might simply have better things to do aboard the station. The others are optional extras. Perhaps they were aboard, perhaps not. Dax wouldn't be friends with the Enterprise folks and might settle for sitting it out; O'Brien might need to be incapacitated in order not to try and contribute. Or then they, too, had better things to do than follow Worf to a battle.
Timo Saloniemi
Yeah, Worf took the Defiant out plenty of times without Sisko. The Defiant is technically Worf's command anyway. It is a bit odd no one else tagged along, but who knows? Bashir could have been Changeling Bashir at this point, who could have manipulated things so that he could stay on the station. Maybe the Borg attack takes place some time after The Begotten, in which case, O'Brien could be on a very brief maternity leave, and Dax had to stay behind for reasons.
I never liked the idea of the entire senior staff of DS9 go joy riding throughout the Quadrant while the menials remain on the station. They should've been some protocol where at least one senior officer is in command of the Defiant and have a mix of senior staff and lower staff be assigned. For the many things I hated about First Contact, I thought they got in right with the Defiant's staff.
On a side note: I truly expected the Defiant to perform a lot better than what was seen on film.
Not every mission requires the entire senior staff. About time.
At the time of First Contact, the DS9 gang already had their hands full with all the events leading up to the actual outbreak of war with the Dominion. The Battle of Sector 001 was definitely a Federation-wide emergency, but what Starfleet probably needed more than anything from DS9 was the Defiant. As strategic operations officer, Worf was the best choice to command the mission to assist Starfleet in repelling the Borg attack while Sisko and others dealt with the Dominion military build-up happening at the time, IMO.
At the time of First Contact, the DS9 gang already had their hands full with all the events leading up to the actual outbreak of war with the Dominion. The Battle of Sector 001 was definitely a Federation-wide emergency, but what Starfleet probably needed more than anything from DS9 was the Defiant. As strategic operations officer, Worf was the best choice to command the mission to assist Starfleet in repelling the Borg attack while Sisko and others dealt with the Dominion military build-up happening at the time, IMO.
Risa. All of them.
While it makes sense that only Worf be on board the Defiant (so as not to take screen time away from the Next Gen crew in favor of the DS9 crew), it would have been awesome to see Sisko and Picard arguing over what course of action to take regarding the Borg. Just imagine:
"We've not lost the Enterprise, Mr. Sisko, we're not going to lose the Enterprise. Not to the Borg, not while I'm in command!"
"With all due respect, Captain, I think you're allowing your experience with the Borg to influence your judgement!"
Although, I imagine Sisko was grounded at DS9 by Admiral Hayes, for the same reason Hayes recalled the Enterprise to the Neutral Zone.
"We've not lost the Enterprise, Mr. Sisko, we're not going to lose the Enterprise. Not to the Borg, not while I'm in command!"
"With all due respect, Captain, I think you're allowing your experience with the Borg to influence your judgement!"
Although, I imagine Sisko was grounded at DS9 by Admiral Hayes, for the same reason Hayes recalled the Enterprise to the Neutral Zone.
For being a Wolf 359 veteran? Basically, Worf should count, too, even if he technically missed the specific bit of action.
I'm not sure why we should expect the Defiant to do particularly well here. She was designed to fight the Borg back in the mid-2360s. Not only have the Borg evolved as an opponent since then, but Starfleet apparently considered the design a failure to begin with. On top of that, the fight has been going on for quite some time: any tricks the Defiant would have had up her nacelle would now have been used up and the proper countermeasures adopted...
Timo Saloniemi
I'm not sure why we should expect the Defiant to do particularly well here. She was designed to fight the Borg back in the mid-2360s. Not only have the Borg evolved as an opponent since then, but Starfleet apparently considered the design a failure to begin with. On top of that, the fight has been going on for quite some time: any tricks the Defiant would have had up her nacelle would now have been used up and the proper countermeasures adopted...
Timo Saloniemi
They were all back on DS9, Worf specifically came up with an excuse to use the Defiant. (Although really he wanted to use it to visit his parents on Earth because Keiko was due to give birth to the baby.)
Yeah, that must be it. He wanted to put as much distance between a very pregnant Kira and himself as possible. Better a borgified Earth than having to deliver a second O'Brien baby.
KIRA! That's what I meant. Of course.
Truth be told I almost wrote "Keiko" myself.
Sisko might have sat it out for personal reasons. Perhaps Jake asked him not to go. Jennifer died in a Borg attack after all.
Odo and Kira would not be required. They're not Starfleet officers.
O'Brien may have been in Engineering. Bashir may have been in Sickbay. Perhaps both beamed to other ships to help with repairs and medical needs when the Defiant became adrift.
Dax should have been on the bridge. Her absence was the most notable. Maybe she was injured.
Odo and Kira would not be required. They're not Starfleet officers.
O'Brien may have been in Engineering. Bashir may have been in Sickbay. Perhaps both beamed to other ships to help with repairs and medical needs when the Defiant became adrift.
Dax should have been on the bridge. Her absence was the most notable. Maybe she was injured.
First Contact's stardate puts it some time around "Blaze of Glory" or "Empok Nor" on DS9. So, possibly Sisko was running around with Eddington in the Badlands, while O'Brien had his hands full with the system malfunctions that would eventually necessitate his visit to Empok Nor in that episode.
That would leave Worf as the obvious choice to command the Defiant, and considering they thought a Maquis missile attack might cause the cold war with the Dominion to go hot, maybe they decided between them that Dax would be better staying on the station co-ordinating things with Starfleet.
The only absence that doesn't really make any sense is Bashir. Maybe Section 31 knew that his intellect and genetic engineering made him too valuable of an asset to casually throw away in a battle against the Borg, and arranged things so that he was busy elsewhere when the Defiant went into battle.
That would leave Worf as the obvious choice to command the Defiant, and considering they thought a Maquis missile attack might cause the cold war with the Dominion to go hot, maybe they decided between them that Dax would be better staying on the station co-ordinating things with Starfleet.
The only absence that doesn't really make any sense is Bashir. Maybe Section 31 knew that his intellect and genetic engineering made him too valuable of an asset to casually throw away in a battle against the Borg, and arranged things so that he was busy elsewhere when the Defiant went into battle.
They were all back on DS9, Worf specifically came up with an excuse to use the Defiant. (Although really he wanted to use it to visit his parents on Earth because Keiko was due to give birth to the baby.
Seven months......
Which is actually perfect. Humans carry for nine months, Bajorans for five. Right in the middle, boom! Seven!
Which is actually perfect. Humans carry for nine months, Bajorans for five. Right in the middle, boom! Seven!
I never noticed before but Kirayoshi starts with "Kira". Coincidence or homage?
Sisko and the others were officially assigned to DS9, the Defiant was their support ship, of which Worf was the Officer-in-Charge, so there were probably many instances he commanded the ship without any of the other station senior staff onboard as they had other duties to attend to on DS9. Though Worf does have the excuse of visiting his parents on Earth it's doubtful he'd be allowed to take the Defiant off on a personal trip, unless it coincided with some scheduled servicing or checks the ship was due that could only be carried out at Utopia Planitia--something that wouldn't need the senior staff to be a part of.
Sisko references the recent Borg attack in "In Purgatory's Shadow". My guess is FC happened between "The Ascent" and "Rapture". Stardates make little sense and are best ignored in my opinion.
I just realised Bashir was replaced with a Changeling before "Rapture". The Changeling probably made an excuse not to go on the Borg mission since he had plans to destroy DS9 and Bajor.
Surely intentional. I've always assumed so, at least.
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