Small complaint about the ending of DS9

Been watching DS9's final chapter and something strikes me. When the Definat is destroyed who does Starfleet give Sisko yet another tiny little ship? I mean, he and Admiral Ross are supposed to be in charge of the Dominion War front, right? So Sisko is effectively a Fleet Captain. In that case, why the hell wasn't the Defiant-A a big meaty Sovereign or Galaxy Class (or a new class to that size and power)? I mean, if he's a Fleet Captain surely he would get a ship that could qualify as flagship material?

The Defiant may be cool, but its nothing more than an overgrown Runabout with big boys' guns.

Just like Kirk got another Constitution Class Enterprise. The fans woulda went crazy if Sisko had been given a Nebula or Excelsior class ship to replace the Defiant.

Yes, but a constitution was, at the time, a pretty decent and sizeable ship, whereas the definate is just a tarted uo shuttle craft. Plus, Kirk wasn't in charge of fleet of ships.

True but the Defiant was warship, specifically built to fight. I'd rather ride off to war in that than a lumbering Galaxy-Class given the events of "The Jem'Hadar"

The Defiant as a "tarted-up shuttlecraft"?

What it was, was basically a warp-capable cannon/torpedo platform built to be highly maneuverable and take a serious beating at close range. More often than anything else, the DS9 crew was taking on Jem'Haddar attack ships and Klingon BOPs. Beating small ships like that at their own game was safer and more efficient than letting them unload on you while you pick them off in your giant cruiser/battleship.

Plus, it probably wasn't practical to give a Sovereign/Galaxy/Nebula that kind of armor over such a massive surface, and you need maneuverability to bring those cannons to bear. They had the station itself for when they needed to dig in and let the enemy come to them. The Defiant was there to be nimble, hunt the bad guys down and make the kill, not to serve as a mobile fortress.

Also consider that the main admiral on that show (Ross?) chose a small, quick vessel for his own command ship. The Intrepid class USS Bellerophon.

Bigger isn't always better.

Phew!

Part of the problem was budget constraints as well. When the show ended, there was something going around that said they wanted to replace the Defiant with the Nova Class, but they had no more money to build new sets, and new models. This was before they decided the Nova Class should be a planetary research/exploration vessel. (VOY: Endgame) I think there is even a picture of the Nova Class specs in the DS9 Companion. (Not sure, would have to check.)

There is actually a lot to complain about the last season of DS9 besides the Defiant. Namely, their overuse of Ezri Dax, their overuse of the Vic Fontaine lounge (which I liked, just not for the last season with everything on the line), and the reused footage of past battles, again, due to budgetary constraints. (The worst one, IMHO.)

IIRC, the Nova class was a rejected design for the Defiant, not a potential replacement.

The season finale of Deep Space Nine made some of the worst use of previous footage of any Star Trek series ever.

Almost as bad as TOS, which often used footage of different versions of the Enterprise filming miniature in the same episode.

The Defiant was basically a bunch of guns with an engine.

Actually, TOS did a great job with used footage.

For instance, The Deadly Years did a fine job of using Balance of Terror footage and Errand of Mercy footage (plus great music) to show the Romulan attack on the Enterprise.

Likewise The Ultimate Computer did an excellent job of stock footage from various episodes (including The Doomsday Machine) to show the battle between the Enterprise and the Hood, Potemkin, Excalibur, and Lexington.

They did an okay job, but they lose points for using stock footage of the various incarnations of the filming miniature within a single episode.

And I'm not just picking on Trek with that, either. Lots of movies have similar continuity errors (Kelly's Heroes being one that immediately comes to mind).

The original Defiant was replaced with another Defiant because Starfleet was in a hurry to get Sisko back in the game, and DS9 only had enough people to man a ship the size of the Defiant while still running the station. Giving Sisko a bigger ship would have meant rounding up more people to run it, and that would have taken time and taken up resources that were already stretched thin as it was.

Besides, being highly placed at that point, Sisko probably got a say in what ship he got next, and the Defiant class was his baby from the beginning.

Ezri was more misused than overused, imo. I liked her character more the second time I watched season seven, but all that shit with Worf needed to go well before it did. I think the last season did a bigger disservice to Dukat's character by making him a religious zelout.

All that said, as an Enterprise fan, I can honest say that it could be a hell of a lot worse. At least everyone got appropriately sent about their way.

I only recall a klingon death scene as being reused.

Anyhow, as ShootER points out, virtually every episode of TOS, and for that matter almost every episode of Trek ever made, has used at least some reused ship shots.

If that is your only complaint about DS9's finale then I would say you don't really have any complaints.

But then, I supposed you don't like DS9 either....

Well, thats what I am getting up. The "tarting up" being the weapons, on what was otherwise a pretty small, little crewed craft.

I disagree with you on Dukat. Dukat was always Sisko's foe, not the crew's. He was Sisko's opposite number, if you will, its therefore fitting that if Sisko was the Emissary then he was the Anti-Emissary (that is to say the Emissary for the Pah-Wraiths) and consequently would wind up with the same fate as Sisko, just on the opposite side.

Being as its war, are you telling me that there were no survivors from other ships that had either been destroyed or were out of action through damage? Starfleet simple had no other officers who could report for duty within a couple days for active duty. For that reason alone I don't buy your explanation for why a bigger ship couldn't have been commanded.

Hell, Sisko could even have taken command of an already existing ship and had it's captain reassigned for the time being. I seem to remember an Admiral doing that once...........

Sisko developed the Defiant, knew the Defiant, developed tactics for the Defiant class, was experienced with the Defiant. The best use of Ben Sisko during a war was to give him a Defiant and let him use it.

Yeah, the Defiant was an experimental warship intended to fight the Borg. The original problem with it was that it's engines were so overpowered it created stress fractures in the hull. It had all sorts of improvements, including the aforementioned cloak, ablative armor, it was the first ship to use quantum torpedoes, and it had the unique pulse fire phasers which seemed to be considerably more powerful than those on mainline ships.

As Forbin mentioned, Sisko was the one who designed the class and knew it better than anyone, as 14th Doc mentioned he likely would have requested another, and the show mentioned that there were a shortage of Starfleet personnel due to the massive casualties in the war.

Plus rounding up another crew isn't something that is the most efficient use of resources. It takes time for a new crew to jell, and that was one thing they didn't have.

Overall, they did a fine job in story of explaining why the Defiant. It was a damn good ship, and certainly saw more combat and destroyed more enemy ships than any other Trek ship we've seen.

I'm sure Sisko went to SF Command and asked for one, for all the reasons mentioned above. I imagine the conversation went something like this-

Sisko: I want another Defiant class starship, and I want one NOW!

SF Command: ...

Sisko: If you have something to say to me, then SAY IT!

SF Command: Request approved. Carry on.

I guess it made sense when you think about it, but while it was happening, it just seemed like a giant reset button, which most Niners complain about with the other inferior ST series doing often. They should've changed the upholstery or colors, or something, just enough to let people know this was not the original Defiant that came to DS9 in S4.

If you missed the episode where the original Defiant gets destroyed, and you tuned in a few episodes later, you would not have known it was the new one. And it certainly lessened the gravity of the first ship being destroyed.

Honestly, I think that the problems of having to find a larger crew that would mesh in wartime is the best explanation.

And that it is a tough little ship.

It was kinda pointless to blow it up in the first place, considering it just kinda came right back.

It was only destroyed for shock value. Seeing the indestructible Defiant blown away so easily was designed to make the Breen appear badder than they were. If you take away their 'energy dampening' weapons, their ships were pretty shit.

Actually, I think the carpeting on the bridge may have been different.

Not far off. Having just watched the eps the changes were that the Captain's chair had different consoles and there was a new purple stripe on the workstations.

I think Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is vastly overrated by Star Trek fans.

Because they have the fading years of ST:TNG and the horrible Voyager to compare it to directly.

DS9 basically had three GREAT seasons (4,5, & 6). The other four were not that remarkable.

That said, the twenty best Deep Space Nine episodes are almost certainly better (by a wide margin) than the twenty best of ST:OS and ST:TNG