Defiant-A?

[Timo]

So, it goes Defiant, Defiant, Defiant-A?

More probably Defiant, Defiant, Defiant, Defiant, Defiant-A - we have no reason to think the TOS ship was the first by that name, and even less reason to think there were no Defiants between the TOS ship and the DS9 one.

Of course, the Enterprise-A is something like the twentieth ship by that name at the very least. We have no idea how many starships by that name preceded her, as nothing establishes Archer's ship as the first Enterprise in the starship category. And if Vulcans can have a ship named Intrepid, then there might well have been a million starships named Enterprise in their respective languages before Archer's ship came along...

It's just that with Enterprise, we know for sure that the UFP Starfleet wants to make a sharp distinction between what came before Kirk's ship and what came after. Nothing of the sort is know about any other starship names, such as Defiant.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[t_smitts]

So, it goes Defiant, Defiant, Defiant-A?

More probably Defiant, Defiant, Defiant, Defiant, Defiant-A - we have no reason to think the TOS ship was the first by that name, and even less reason to think there were no Defiants between the TOS ship and the DS9 one.

Of course, the Enterprise-A is something like the twentieth ship by that name at the very least. We have no idea how many starships by that name preceded her, as nothing establishes Archer's ship as the first Enterprise in the starship category. And if Vulcans can have a ship named Intrepid, then there might well have been a million starships named Enterprise in their respective languages before Archer's ship came along...

It's just that with Enterprise, we know for sure that the UFP Starfleet wants to make a sharp distinction between what came before Kirk's ship and what came after. Nothing of the sort is know about any other starship names, such as Defiant.

Timo Saloniemi

The Vulcans didn't "have" the Intrepid. It was just a Starfleet ship entirely crewed by Vulcans.

There may have been other Enterprises in the past, but we know exactly how many FEDERATION ships with that name there have been.

Regardless, it didn't make much sense, calling a new Defiant an "A" at this point.

 

[Timo]

The Vulcans didn't "have" the Intrepid. It was just a Starfleet ship entirely crewed by Vulcans.

Possibly, possibly not. The one episode mentioning this ship doesn't tell.

There's an Intrepid in "Court Martial", too, but whether that's the same ship, we don't know. Whether it's a Starfleet ship, we don't know. (Not even in the remastered version of the episode, where we do see another Constitution class starship, but not her name or registry in legible font, nor any proof that she would be the Intrepid mentioned in the dialogue.)

Regardless, it didn't make much sense, calling a new Defiant an "A" at this point.

How is this point different from the point when the Enterprise gained the A suffix? Not that that one would have made much sense, either, of course.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[t_smitts]

The Vulcans didn't "have" the Intrepid. It was just a Starfleet ship entirely crewed by Vulcans.

Possibly, possibly not. The one episode mentioning this ship doesn't tell.

There's an Intrepid in "Court Martial", too, but whether that's the same ship, we don't know. Whether it's a Starfleet ship, we don't know. (Not even in the remastered version of the episode, where we do see another Constitution class starship, but not her name or registry in legible font, nor any proof that she would be the Intrepid mentioned in the dialogue.)

Regardless, it didn't make much sense, calling a new Defiant an "A" at this point.

How is this point different from the point when the Enterprise gained the A suffix? Not that that one would have made much sense, either, of course.

Timo Saloniemi

Well, the nice thing is we have the Okudas to confirm all the work they did on the remastered version. The ship we saw in "Court Martial" was indeed the USS Intrepid NCC-1631. And I believe the intention was that the ship consumed in "The Immunity Syndrome" was intended to be a Starfleet ship.

And how would the point be different? It's that the Enterprise-A was confirmed to be the second Federation ship with that name, hence the "A" to distinguish it. The ship formerly known as Sao Paolo was NOT the second Fed ship named Defiant, so it's a little late to add an "A".