The Defiant, reimagined
Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2016 11:57 pm
A while back I opined on some of the things I don't like about the Defiant. My Blender skills aren't really up to doing a good job on TNG hulls, but I thought I would have a go at depicting what I would have done if I'd been in charge.
The main differences are :
1) Size. The original Defiant never had a really solid size established. Estimates varied from 70 metres or so through to 170 metres (230 - 560 feet), but in truth the ship tended to vary wildly in size on screen according to whether the writers wanted to make it seem overmatched or not. And frankly, I regard all of those sizes as simply being too damn small for a ship that was supposed to comfortably outgun a 640 metre Galaxy class. And I know the justification that Defiant lacked holodecks and big quarters and science labs and all that, but even with all that I considered it too small.
My version of Defiant is 227 metres (744 feet) long, which is still small by Starship standards - but big enough to mount serious power and weapons. In length, it's comparable to real world battleships of World War II.
2) Weapons. The Defiant's famed pulse phaser cannon never impressed me. Look at them in pictures of the ship, they are absolutely tiny! This is especially true of the ventral phasers, which are mounted in small little boxes stuck to the surface. At least the dorsal cannon are built into the hull, so you could picture some structure behind them!
My version has four massive disrupter cannon, each 85 metres (278 feet) long. The look I was going for was kind of a "just enough ship to move the massive cannon around" thing. Why disrupters? Because the Borg adapt to weapons after a few hits, right? And though you can remodulate your frequencies, they will eventually adapt to that, too. So the key to fighting them, I figure, is to have not just big powerful weapons, but as many different types of weapons as you can. They adapt to one, you switch to another.
So as well as the disrupter cannon, I have added no less than a dozen phaser arrays. Standard Starfleet issue, but big and powerful.
Additionally, I have greatly increased the size of the quantum torpedo tubes. I never liked the show's take on quantums essentially being just the same as photons but a different colour. I wanted the quantum torpedoes to be something bigger, more powerful, and more imposing. Four forward tubes, two aft facing tubes.
Also, this version of Defiant is designed to use the "Deflector cannon" idea from TNG; almost the entire output of the warp core can be fired from the deflector as a super-powerful beam.
3) Engines. Defiant has what look like two decent sized impulse engines, one to port, one to starboard. The aft of the ship itself is a flat blank plate. The DS9 TM label the engine-looking things as torpedo launchers and claim the engines are behind the flat plate at the back of the ship. That seems weird to me, but I do think that flat aft plate is the logical place for engines, so I have put them there. And put four of them in - you want all the thrust you can get on a Defiant class ship.
4) Shuttles. Putting the shuttle bay in the underside doesn't make sense to me. So I've put three "shuttle garages" at the back of the dorsal housing.
So that's my take on the Defiant!
The main differences are :
1) Size. The original Defiant never had a really solid size established. Estimates varied from 70 metres or so through to 170 metres (230 - 560 feet), but in truth the ship tended to vary wildly in size on screen according to whether the writers wanted to make it seem overmatched or not. And frankly, I regard all of those sizes as simply being too damn small for a ship that was supposed to comfortably outgun a 640 metre Galaxy class. And I know the justification that Defiant lacked holodecks and big quarters and science labs and all that, but even with all that I considered it too small.
My version of Defiant is 227 metres (744 feet) long, which is still small by Starship standards - but big enough to mount serious power and weapons. In length, it's comparable to real world battleships of World War II.
2) Weapons. The Defiant's famed pulse phaser cannon never impressed me. Look at them in pictures of the ship, they are absolutely tiny! This is especially true of the ventral phasers, which are mounted in small little boxes stuck to the surface. At least the dorsal cannon are built into the hull, so you could picture some structure behind them!
My version has four massive disrupter cannon, each 85 metres (278 feet) long. The look I was going for was kind of a "just enough ship to move the massive cannon around" thing. Why disrupters? Because the Borg adapt to weapons after a few hits, right? And though you can remodulate your frequencies, they will eventually adapt to that, too. So the key to fighting them, I figure, is to have not just big powerful weapons, but as many different types of weapons as you can. They adapt to one, you switch to another.
So as well as the disrupter cannon, I have added no less than a dozen phaser arrays. Standard Starfleet issue, but big and powerful.
Additionally, I have greatly increased the size of the quantum torpedo tubes. I never liked the show's take on quantums essentially being just the same as photons but a different colour. I wanted the quantum torpedoes to be something bigger, more powerful, and more imposing. Four forward tubes, two aft facing tubes.
Also, this version of Defiant is designed to use the "Deflector cannon" idea from TNG; almost the entire output of the warp core can be fired from the deflector as a super-powerful beam.
3) Engines. Defiant has what look like two decent sized impulse engines, one to port, one to starboard. The aft of the ship itself is a flat blank plate. The DS9 TM label the engine-looking things as torpedo launchers and claim the engines are behind the flat plate at the back of the ship. That seems weird to me, but I do think that flat aft plate is the logical place for engines, so I have put them there. And put four of them in - you want all the thrust you can get on a Defiant class ship.
4) Shuttles. Putting the shuttle bay in the underside doesn't make sense to me. So I've put three "shuttle garages" at the back of the dorsal housing.
So that's my take on the Defiant!