The Enterprise and now Voyager (as shown on Discovery) have legacy ships which retain their serial numbers with letters added. Do you think the Defiant does as well? Ronald Moore wanted the USS Defiant (2375) to be the Defiant A, but the cost was prohibitive for just one episode to make it happen. If it ends up being confirmed that the USS Defiant (2375) was the Defiant A, what would future Defiants be like?
Spoilers USS Defiant Legacy
- Thread starter Ketrick
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If there is a new Defiant in the new century, I hope that it is NX-74205, no letter. Hopefully, a portrait of Sisko is on the side, either wearing shades or giving the bras d'honneur. And I want it to be badass.
NX designates an experimental design, doesn't it? So it would not be appropriate on a later ship that was part of an established class.
Anyway, yes, I think as soon as the ex-Sao Paulo gets a paint job it ought to be designated as -B. A later Defiant, if any, should be -C. And I hope there are.
Anyway, yes, I think as soon as the ex-Sao Paulo gets a paint job it ought to be designated as -B. A later Defiant, if any, should be -C. And I hope there are.
USS Dread Pirate Roberts?
Something to look forward to seeing changed when DS9 finally gets it's much deserved HD upgrade someday.
Jason
Something to look forward to seeing changed when DS9 finally gets it's much deserved HD upgrade someday.
Jason
I doubt that will be changed. Too much would have to be deleted and altered. Not only that, personally, I think it was very fitting that the USS Sao Paulo was renamed the Defiant. The only thing I hope is changed in the HD upgrade is that -A is added to the USS Defiant (2375)'s serial number which would be relatively easy compared to eliminating the references in the final episodes to the new Defiant.
If anything, the first DS9 Defiant should have been -A for the one seen the The Tholian Web. Harrumph.
You can retcon it as it was wartime and Starfleet was in a huge rush to get the Sao Paulo out to the fleet and keeping the name and number was an afterthought. With peacetime they can relax a little and fix the registry number.
(In the age of sailing ship navies, the number was called the penant number because flag signals would be prefaced with the penant number as it was shorter than the name.)
(In the age of sailing ship navies, the number was called the penant number because flag signals would be prefaced with the penant number as it was shorter than the name.)
When the BBC was making Warship each Leander class vessel used as HMS Hero was repainted as F42 (in reality the pennant number of HMS Phoebe, which was originally used as Hero). Apparently it massively confused Soviet intelligence as the same ship was in the Mediterranean one day and off Hong Kong soon after.
Starfleet should dump the entire 'letter' system entirely. It's stupid and serves no logical purpose while undermining the entire point of having registry numbers.
Use a new Defiant with a new registry number (and a new Enterprise with a new registry number).
Use a new Defiant with a new registry number (and a new Enterprise with a new registry number).
Which could be argued as still being experimental, as that ship class gets all the cool new toys first (phase cannons, photonic torpedoes, phase pistols, transporters, etc.) before use becomes widespread.
And the first Defiant seen on DS9 should have been technically Defiant-A, and the replacement the Defiant-B. Since the TOS era Defiant was the first one.
Why does it "undermine" anything? It's a unique identifier, albeit alphanumeric. I don't really see the difference between NCC-1701-A and NCC-17011.
Here's my unrequested 2 cents.
Ideally, I'd like the '75 Defiant to be the USS Defiant NCC-74205.
That would do the job of keeping the 'identity' of the original, while also allowing easy differentiation.
But then, I'm not sure how subsequent ships would be suffixed.
For what it's worth, besides the '75 Defiant, another ship of the same name is in service in the early 25th century in STO, the USS Defiant NCC-75633-C. Source: https://memory-beta.fandom.com/wiki/USS_Defiant_(NCC-75633-C)
And in a STO short story, a Nachthexen-class USS Defiant-C takes part in the Battle of Procyon V in the 26th century. Chronologically, this is the latest appearance of an USS Defiant. (No Profit But The Name link: https://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/10091123 )
Btw, the NCC-1764 captured by the Terrans remains in service long enough to catch up with its own year again.
Ideally, I'd like the '75 Defiant to be the USS Defiant NCC-74205.
That would do the job of keeping the 'identity' of the original, while also allowing easy differentiation.
But then, I'm not sure how subsequent ships would be suffixed.
For what it's worth, besides the '75 Defiant, another ship of the same name is in service in the early 25th century in STO, the USS Defiant NCC-75633-C. Source: https://memory-beta.fandom.com/wiki/USS_Defiant_(NCC-75633-C)
And in a STO short story, a Nachthexen-class USS Defiant-C takes part in the Battle of Procyon V in the 26th century. Chronologically, this is the latest appearance of an USS Defiant. (No Profit But The Name link: https://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/10091123 )
Btw, the NCC-1764 captured by the Terrans remains in service long enough to catch up with its own year again.
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The problem is that the registry numbers mix metaphors. The US Air Force puts X and Y into its aircraft designation system to show planes that exist to test concepts (X) or planes that are early versions (Y) that are intended to be improved upon in production. Unless the Defiant were a one and done deal, like a plane, it would be NY, not NX. On the other hand, the US Navy doesn't use hull classification to denote experimental sea craft. There is no DEX or CCX. It's simply too expensive to build a full ship solely for the purpose of experimentation. It would simply go into service.
I tend to agree with this. A new ship should have a new registry number. The registry numbers should be a quick way to identify at a glance what class and contract the ship was probably constructed under. By all means, reuse the name as a tribute to a previous ship, but give it a current number.
However, that's not what Starfleet decided to do...
The 2370 USS Defiant is NCC-74205, the 2375 USS Defiant should therefore either be the NCC-74205-A or retain the registration of the USS Sao Paulo, NCC-75633.
This is not necessarily wrong, as this would designate the third successor to the second (24th Century) USS Defiant, but seems odd, either a new reg again or NCC-74205-C would be preferable IMO.
They do sometimes use such labels for projects, for instance the cancelled Next Gen Cruiser project (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CG(X)) but typically redesignated once they enter the fleet.
This is did happen previously with the Excelsior, which was redesignated NCC-2000 in it's later appearances.
I would argue that it's not that usual to start with a short-run of only a few hulls initially for testing purposes isn't unusual, the Zumwalts and Freedom/independence-class LCSs seem to have had something like this timeline.
Projects, maybe, but not ships, and it does not seem that they do so as a matter of course. The afforementioned Zumwalt, made under the DD(X) project, was built upon the DD-21 program: no X.
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