Captain of the Defiant?

[Londoner]

Can anyone think of a plausible reason why starfleet would put a ship in service without a captain (or bridge crew for that matter)?

Would it not make more sense, from an organisational point of view (obviously not for a storytelling point of view), to assign a Commander or Lt Cmdr to captain the ship?

 

[Michael]

Would it not make more sense, from an organisational point of view (obviously not for a storytelling point of view), to assign a Commander or Lt Cmdr to captain the ship?

I can't remember if it was mentioned on screen, but I guess I always assumed Worf filled that role. Other than that I never had a problem with Sisko being the commander of the station and the captain of the Defiant.

 

[C.E. Evans]

IMO, when Defiant was assigned to DS9 it became a part of the station's inventory of auxiliary craft. As Station CO, Sisko was the default captain of the vessel, but like a runabout, other officers could take the ship out in his stead or as mission conditions warranted (in most cases, that duty would probably fall to the strategic operations officer).

 

[flemm]

In Sisko's absence, somewhere early in Season 5, I think, Kira and Worf have a disagreement, and Worf states that while she commands the station, he commands the Defiant.

Worf also moved his quarters to the Defiant, so I think we can assume that Worf in effect filled this role, though it was never established formally.

As to why Starfleet would commission a ship without its own bridge crew, it's established when the Defiant is first introduced that this was an experimental design that Sisko had helped develop originally to combat the Borg. Officially an escort ship, unofficially a warship. Kinks in the design had never been ironed out, however, and the ship had never been used, until Sisko is allowed to dust it off by special request for the crew's trip into the Gamma Quadrant to contact the Founders at the beginning of season three.

In other words, I would say the Defiant was not a standard Starfleet vessel, but a special case related to Sisko's command and the sudden strategical importance of DS9.

From a storytelling point of view, the show didn't need more characters, but it needed something more impressive than a runabout for the crew to get around in.

 

[Thestral]

I like Evans theory of it becoming part of the station's inventory and thus chain-of-command was Sisko as base commander then Worf/Kira for Defiant/DS9. Think of Defiant as a Super Rio Grande... a Rio Gigante perhaps?

 

[Red Ranger]

I always thought that Sisko was officially commander of both the station and the Defiant. The Defiant was almost like his personal warship or captain's yacht. As a result, he could then assign command of the ship to any of his officers he felt he could, like Worf, Dax, and Kira. They're the only other three officers I recall ever being in the center seat officially, aside from Sisko. (Of course, Tom Riker hijacked the ship, but that's different.) -- RR

 

[nx1701g]

I like Evans theory of it becoming part of the station's inventory and thus chain-of-command was Sisko as base commander then Worf/Kira for Defiant/DS9. Think of Defiant as a Super Rio Grande... a Rio Gigante perhaps?

Actually that is pretty much what it is because, originally, that was what the Defiant was going to be: a larger military oriented runabout.

If I recall correctly the Defiant is meant to be a mission support ship to Deep Space Nine and that is why it was stationed at Deep Space Nine longterm. Captain Sisko was the assigned commander of the ship with the Senior Staff of Deep Space Nine as serving as the ship's command staff. As was also said above Worf was the Executive Officer following his coming aboard and we've seen this in Homefront/Paradise Lost. Worf is in command and Kira is at Tactical (though we see later that Kira has taken command over Worf during the Dominion War).

 

[Thestral]

Actually that is pretty much what it is because, originally, that was what the Defiant was going to be: a larger military oriented runabout.

Originally behind the scenes you mean?

 

[Praetor]

IMO, when Defiant was assigned to DS9 it became a part of the station's inventory of auxiliary craft. As Station CO, Sisko was the default captain of the vessel, but like a runabout, other officers could take the ship out in his stead or as mission conditions warranted (in most cases, that duty would probably fall to the strategic operations officer).

Si, senor, that was always my take, too.

That said, I'd have been happier if Worf's role had simply been default as Captain of the Defiant (still as a Lieutenant Commander) when Sisko had other stuff to do. "Strategic Operations" always felt a little silly to me.

Actually that is pretty much what it is because, originally, that was what the Defiant was going to be: a larger military oriented runabout.

Originally behind the scenes you mean?

Yep. Jim Martin made drawings of a thing sized like a runabout, cockpit and all, with various different plant-on parts hanging off of it, before they decided to make it a small starship.