Defiant's emblem from ENT's "IAM,D"

[doctorwho 03]

I think I just had a revelation about this particular ship patch. As we know, Starfleet ships of the 23rd Century had different shirt patches representing that patricular ship; Enterprise had the arrowhead, Exeter had that bar with the black dots, etc. The Defiant had that blocky style arrow thing. However it looks very similar to another symbol that has appeared throughout TOS; on a wall behind some admirals talking to Kirk via subspace, and even on those red lines on the Enterprise herself.

My point is that maybe this symbol and the Defiant patch may be one in the same, and if that is true, then possibly the symbol was used as Starfleets 23rd Century emblem and that Defiant is the Federation Flagship, or was until it got lost in that "interphasic rift" and landed in the Mirror Universe. With Defiant gone, Starfleet decides to make Enterprise the Flagship, and adopts the Enterprise emblem as the new Starfleet emblem by the time of TMP.

What do you all think? Does this theory have some possibility or is this just a sugar buzz from all that Halloween candy?

 

[sbk1234]

I picked up on the similarities, too. In my own mind, I always explained it by saying that the shirt emblems were representative of different fleets. For example, First Fleet may have had Defiant's emblem, Second Fleet may have had Enterprise's emblem, Third Fleed may have had Constelation's, etc. At some point after TMP, Starfleet reorganized into one fleet, so they all adopted the Enterprise emblem.
That explaination always worked better for me than "They wanted to honor Enterprise."
At least that's how I see it.

 

[Matt]

The Defiant was not the flagship.

I'm uncertain if it was ever established on screen, but I believe the Enterprise was the flagship. Other candidates would be the USS Constitution and USS Federation (Both not canon.)

 

[The Old Mixer]

^I don't think they ever referred to the Enterprise as the flagship, or even implied it, in TOS. She was a special ship because she was said to be one of a small class of what was clearly a very impressive ship in that era...but never established as being considered top of that class during the five-year mission.

 

[Forbin]

THE ENTERPRISE WAS NEVER, EVER SAID TO BE THE FLAGSHIP!!

Geez, this needs to be in the FAQ, 'cause somebody says it once a week.

Apart from being one of the 12 capital ships in Starfleet, the Enterprise was never intended to be anything special in its own universe. Kirk was the youngest, least experienced Captain in the bunch, with each other captain we met being older and senior to him. Why would he be in command of the flaship of the whole damn fleet?

 

[Kegek]

I believe Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise stated that the Enterrprise was the only Constitution-class starship to come back in one piece, and when the fleet was refit in TMP it was made the flagship. That's why from TMP on all Starfleet uniforms have the Enterprise delta.

That, too, is non-canon, but at least visually consistent.

 

[A beaker full of death]

doctorwho 03 said:
...the Flagship...

That use of "flagship," the corporate use, didn't start until TNG. The writers of TOS, who had served, knew that there was no such thing as a whole service's flagship.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

sbk1234 said:
I picked up on the similarities, too. In my own mind, I always explained it by saying that the shirt emblems were representative of different fleets. For example, First Fleet may have had Defiant's emblem, Second Fleet may have had Enterprise's emblem, Third Fleed may have had Constelation's, etc. At some point after TMP, Starfleet reorganized into one fleet, so they all adopted the Enterprise emblem.
That explaination always worked better for me than "They wanted to honor Enterprise."
At least that's how I see it.

I like this idea of the insignia being from various fleets rather than individual ships, it goes a long way in explaining why several non-Enterprise personnel had the delta/arrowhead, especially in the earlier episodes such as "Court Martial" (Kirk's friends at the bar) and "The Menagerie" (Mendez's front office secretary). The starburst insignia could then be for officers on starbase duty/administration.

IIRC, Mike Susseman and Mike Okuda debated on whether or not to give the Defiant it's own insignia since the big E's was used in the original episode, just cleverly hidden by either hands or objects. Susseman wanted to go for the same insignia, citing that Decker and Tracey were special cases and cited the same episodes I did. Okuda argued that Thesis, if he had the budget, intended for each ship to have a separate emblem.

However, I still like the idea that it's fleet specific.