DS9 Stories/News: DS9 Stories/ News: Odo & Kira Relationship Review (8)

 

“The Abandoned”

Review originally printed in ORACLE

Newsletter July 2011

____________________________________

 

Review written by Mary Shaver

ODO:

 

Is that all you can think about?

Killing?  Isn’t there anything else

that you care about?

 

JEM’HADAR TEENAGER:

 

I… I don’t think so.

 

ODO:

 

But there’s so much more to life

than that… there’s so much for you

to discover… to experience…

 

EPISODE OVERVIEW:

 

Odo learns that not everyone can expand beyond the limitations of their natures.

 

EPISODE SUMMARY:

 

An abandoned baby, discovered in some cargo salvage, turns out to be a Jem’Hadar whose genetic engineering accelerates his growth.  Within a day he is an adolescent and Odo agrees to take the teenager under his wing in an effort to help the youngster grow beyond his warrior nature.  

 

EPISODE ANALYSIS:

 

 

Quark purchases some salvage from a Boslian trader and is surprised to discover a baby of unknown origin hidden in the wreckage. Bashir’s examination of the baby turns up a number of unusual readings, most significantly that the child has an abnormally high metabolic rate. Within hours the baby has grown into a child of 8 or 10 years. Not only is this mysterious child growing at an alarming rate; he also seems to have remarkable cognitive abilities. Without any external stimuli, he has learned language, speech and  has the capacity for reasoning and understanding.  Bashir concludes that this child is the product of genetic engineering that is far advanced beyond anything seen in the Federation. To add to the mystery, the child is missing a key enzyme and without a synthetic substitute, he will die. A culture that is capable of this level of technology surely wouldn’t have overlooked something so basic; it must have been a deliberate omission. Bashir is stymied.

 

“The Abandoned” is the first Odo-centric episode since the devastating events of “The Search.”  Despite whatever internal conflicts he might be experiencing after finding his people and learning that they are the Founders of the Dominion, Odo is soldering on in the humanoid world. And while he finds no common ground with his people as to their philosophy of the universe, Odo did take away some positive things from his encounter with the Great Link, and is beginning to embrace his Changeling heritage.

 

While Dr. Bashir is searching to understand the anatomy of the orphaned child in the Infirmary, Odo, searching for a better understanding of himself, is beginning a journey of self-discovery. The first step in this journey is his decision to move out of the stifling little closet at the back of his Security office that has been his make-shift home since the days of Terek Nor, and take regular crew quarters.

 

We learn this as Kira arrives with a gift for his new quarters – a houseplant. Odo answers the door chime and very deliberately chooses to greet her outside his quarters in the corridor. Unabashedly interested about the configuration of his quarters, Kira at first peers over Odo’s shoulder, trying to get a peek inside the room, and when he closes and locks the door she confesses her curiosity  – and she apparently isn’t alone. According to her, “everyone” is curious to see his quarters. For a painful moment Odo seems to be reliving the sort of curiosity he used to excite while a lab specimen. Kira is blissfully ignorant that her words and actions have caused the Constable some consternation, but Odo quickly recovers and invites Kira in. She looks in wonder at the strange collection of items that populate the room and seem to be scattered everywhere. Somewhat apologetically, Odo explains that he hasn’t finished organizing everything. From his expression Odo appears to be looking for her approval. When he then goes on to clarify the purpose for the objects – to practice and explore his shapeshifting gifts – Odo is acknowledging the next step in his journey. Shapeshifting is no longer something he does simply as part of his job when the need calls for it. His reluctance until now to change shapes arguably has its roots in the things he was forced to do when confined to Mora’s lab and when he was taken out ‘on parade’ for the entertainment of the Cardassians. Meeting his people and learning at the feet of the Female Changeling has altered his thinking and now Odo is beginning to understand what it means to be a shapeshifter. He has discovered that the ability to mimic various shapes, forms, textures and surfaces can be a joyful and pleasurable experience. For a man who has seen so little joy in his life, this has to be something of an epiphany to Odo.

DS9 Stories/News: USS Defiant – Sisko’s Tough Little Ship (4)

Designing the U.S.S Defiant – By Jim Martin

Deep Space Nine’s resident warship was originally going to be based on a runabout-style design, but eventually took the shape of a vessel that had been intended for a completely different episode.

Concept artist Jim Martin was given the job of designing the USS Defiant NX-74205 when the producers of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine decided to introduce a new warship that could take on the Dominion. When designing the Defiant at the end of the second season, the original plan was to make it a ‘beefed up’ runabout. Martin describes designing the Defiant saying, “I started with the cockpit windows, and worked my way out, adding things on top of the runabout, making it look like they were adding systems and weapons to an existing ship.” The runabout design was abandoned after the producers saw Martin’s finished drawings and decided they needed to go a different direction. “After the idea for the runabout was shot down, it was replaced with the writers’ idea that it was going to be a full-fledged fighting starship called the USS Valiant.

“Under the supervision of Herman Zimmerman, I did a first batch of ships. The writers requested a small starship which was designed by the Federation to battle the Borg. I drew some familiar looking Starfleet designs, but also included a drawing of a small, compact ship that I had done for an entirely different episode of DS9. This is the direction that they chose, I think it was because it was so unique.” A second pass at the Defiant refined it further and helped bring it into the design realm of Starfleet, but it remains in the spirit of the initial drawing. Model maker Tony Meininger worked with Gary Hutzel to create the model as we know it.

Looking back, the Defiant is probably Martin’s biggest contribution to Star Trek. The Defiant was first major starship that didn’t have external warp nacelles. Martin recalls, “When you’re in the art department and you’re doing the job from episode to episode, you don’t really think, ‘Boy, this is really going to revolutionize Federation design.’ You’re getting a design out of the way. It’s only after the fact that you think, ‘Wow, that was a different idea.’ I’m glad we took the chance to take a little bit of a departure.” The whole idea of having twin nacalles on outriggers originated in the very first season of Star Trek; they are away from the ship because they are creating the warp bubble that the ship that the ship is inside. We were trapped in the nacelle thought and I remember turning in some things that were a little off the mark; they were runabout-ish, but they were also nacelle-ish. The final design was based on something that Zimmerman had seen tacked about my desk that I had done for a totally different episode. It was originally Sisko’s raider [in 'Crossover'], if I remember rightly.

“I think it’s a unique shape; it’s very different to what they were doing, and I can’t take sole credit on that because a lot of people worked on the Defiant.”

Models of the Defiant have been made by AMT/Ertl, Galoob‘s Star Trek Micro Machines range, and by Furuta. Corgi planned to release a model of the Defiant in 2007, however this was canceled. In 2008, the Japanese toy company F-Toys released a model of the Defiant, as well as a transparent “cloaked” version.

The USS Defiant could be seen in the Discovery Science program Ultra Science (an episode about time travel).

An unused door signage for the Defiant was sold off on the It’s A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay

The USS Equinox, a Nova-class vessel, was designed based on the design of the Defiant “Pathfinder” vehicle, registry NXP-2365WP/T, found in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual.

The Defiant appears in all Deep Space Nine episode title sequences starting with Season 4 and beyond.

Plus the movie, First Contact

The class ship of its type is the only one produced as a compact yet heavily armed escort ship to meet the Borg threat, with no scientific or other extras save what is needed for combat.

Designed partly by Commander Sisko from Utopia Planetia and then mothballed in the Sol system, Sisko returned to Deep Space Nine with it in 2371 to help meet the Dominion.

In the video game Star Trek: Encounters, the Defiant appears in the two levels based on Deep Space 9. In addition, the Defiant appears in the game’s last level where it briefly visits an alternate timeline in which the Romulan Star Empire has conquered the Federation. The Defiant later helps the USS Enterprise-E, the USS Voyager, the USS Enterprise-A, and the Enterprise NX-01 defeat a combined Xindi, Klingon, Romulan, Dominion, and Borg fleet.

Also, the game Star Trek: Legacy features a mission depicting the Defiant‘s shakedown cruise under the command of Lieutenant Commander Benjamin Sisko. The ship encounters Romulan Tal Shiar forces preparing to ambush T’Uerell within Federation space and despite trying to evade them, is captured. The crew and the ship are rescued by a task force led by the USS Enterprise-D.

DS9 Stories/News: USS Defiant – Sisko’s Tough Little Ship (3)

During the planning of the invasion of Cardassia Prime some months later, a new Defiant class starship, the USS Sao Paulo (NCC-75633), is assigned to Deep Space Nine. The Starfleet Chief of Operations grants special dispensation to rename the ship Defiant. Although the USS Sao Paulo commissioning plaque gives a registryof “NCC-75633″, in all exterior shots the new ship has the “NX-74205″ registry. This is because most external shots of the new vessel were reused shots of the old one, and the new CG shots subsequently used the same registry number for consistency.

Ron Moore said in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion that the new ship was intended to be designated “Defiant-A”, but it was prohibitive to redo the CG model for one episode because stock shots from earlier episodes had to be used as well for budgetary reasons. Nevertheless Moore stated that as far as he was concerned, the change did happen.

Courtesy of Wiki

The Sao Paulo dedication plaque used the English spelling, without the tilde, instead of São Paulo

In the DS9 episode Shattered Mirror, a Mirror Universe version of the Defiant is seen, constructed by the Terran Rebellion. A computer readout, barely visible onscreen, gives the ship’s name as the ISS Defiant

Pictures Courtesy of TrekCore.com

The USS Defiant, Moscow, Valiant and São Paulo are selectable on the PC game Star Trek: Legacy in The Next Generation era.

The Defiant class is a playable ship class in the MMORPG Star Trek Online.

The USS Sao Paulo was assigned to DS9 to replace the Defiant after its destruction. Captain Sisko was granted special dispensation by the Chief of Starfleet Operations to rename the Sao Paulo to Defiant. (DS9: “The Dogs of War“)

Courtesy of Memory Alpha.org

Unique Characteristics

Ablative armor

The Maquis attack the Defiant

The Defiant was equipped with an ablative armor coating that was designed to disintegrate under enemy fire at a controlled rate. It dissipated the effects of directed energy weapons, decreasing damage to the main hull of the ship and therefore providing an extra layer of defense. As late as 2372, Starfleet wasn’t informed that the Defiant was equipped in that way. (DS9: “Past Tense, Part I“, “The Way of the Warrior“, “Paradise Lost“, “The Changing Face of Evil“)

Cloaking device

The USS Defiant activating its cloaking device

After the Dominion threat emerged in late-2370, a special amendment made to the Treaty of Algeron allowed the Defiant to be equipped with a Romulan cloaking device. In exchange for providing the cloaking device, the Federation agreed to share all of its Dominion intelligence with the Romulan government.

Additionally, the cloak was only authorized for use in the Gamma Quadrant; although Captain Sisko violated this provision on numerous occasions. Use of the cloaking device was initially supervised by Subcommander T’Rul, although the Romulans later discontinued supervision. (DS9: “The Search, Part I“, “Defiant“, “The Way of the Warrior“)

Because of the amount of power the Defiant used, the cloak did not completely hide the ship from Jem’Hadar sensors during normal operation. (DS9: “The Search, Part I“)

Command Crew

The Defiant’s permanent assignment at Deep Space 9 as a support vessel meant that it had no specific or dedicated crew complement. The vessel was manned by station personnel; its crew complement, as well as their assignments, often varied by mission.

Captain Benjamin Sisko – commanding officer (CO) (2371-2375)
Colonel Kira Nerys – executive officer (XO)/tactical officer (2371-2375)
Lieutenant Commander Worf – executive officer (XO)/tactical officer (2372-2375)
Lieutenant Commander Jadzia Dax – helmsman/science officer – (2371-2374)
Lieutenant Commander Michael Eddington – security chief (2371-2372)
Lieutenant Julian Bashir – chief medical officer (CMO) (2371-2375)
Lieutenant junior grade Ezri Dax – counselor/communications officer (2375)
Ensign Nog – helmsman (2374-2375)
Senior Chief Petty Officer Miles O’Brien – chief engineer (2371-2375)

Although DS9: “Apocalypse Rising” established that Worf was the first officer of the Defiant while Kira was the first officer of the station, there was some inconsistency in this arrangement. Based on DS9: “Sons of Mogh“, DS9: “By Inferno’s Light“, and DS9: “Tears of the Prophets“, it would appear that Kira retained the first officer’s position when the Defiant was operating outside of Federation space, while Worf took the position during operations inside Federation space, although this was not directly clarified on the show so it remains speculation.

The main reason for the creation of the Defiant was that Ira Steven Behr and the writers felt that the Danube-class runabouts would not be able to protect the space station from the Dominion, and that something with more muscle was necessary.

In the second season finale, “The Jem’Hadar“, the Dominion had shown themselves capable of destroying a Galaxy-class starship (the USS Odyssey) and it was felt that viewers would not accept the idea that the Federation‘s first line of defense against such a powerful enemy was three runabouts. As Behr explains, “We had all these plans for this Dominion, not so much the Dominion War yet, but the Dominion as a three-pronged attack, and what were we going to go after them with? Shuttlecrafts? You know, I mean, with the Galileo or whatever the hell those names were? You know, it just seemed ridiculous. So we needed a ship.“

Ira Steven Behr

Similarly, production designer Herman Zimmerman states, “We needed a ship that would give the writers the opportunity to have more direct conflict.” (USS Defiant, DS9 Season 3 DVD special features)

Ronald D. Moore originally wanted to call the Defiant the USS Valiant, but was unable to, as the USS Voyager also began with a “V”. It was three years before Moore was able to name a ship Valiant. The USS Valiant appears in the sixth season episode “Valiant”.

Rick Berman was originally against the idea of the ship having a cloaking device because one of the tenets of Gene Roddenberry’s universe was that Starfleet “did not believe in sneaking around.” However, Behr and Robert Hewitt Wolfe were able to convince Berman that the Defiant was a unique ship in a unique situation and, with the added stipulation that the cloak could only be used in the Gamma Quadrant, Berman agreed. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion)