The Defiant, along with the IKS Rotarran, led the Federation Alliance fleet at the First Battle of Chin'toka in late 2374. The crew of the Defiant found a way to disable a deployment of Cardassian orbital weapon platforms protecting the Chin'toka system. ( DS9: " Tears of the Prophets") The USS Defiant then rendezvoused with the remnants of a Terran assault fleet still engaged with rebel forces. Two Andorian battle cruisers, one Vulcan D'kyr-type cruiser, and one Tellarite cruiser disabled the Terran ship ISS Avenger NX-09. Boasting 23rd-century technology from its native universe that outclassed the 22nd-century capabilities of the opposing force, Defiant easily destroyed all the rebel ships except one Andorian cruiser, which Archer intentionally allowed to escape. The USS Defiant was originally named the "USS Scimitar" in an early draft of the script for "The Tholian Web." ( Star Trek Compendium, et al.) This had been confirmed previously by Greg Jein, who owned all the script drafts written for Star Trek: The Original Series. [1]

Ultimately, Martin went to a design he had done for a Maquis fighter for the episode " The Maquis, Part II", and he brought it to the producers, who approved it as the basis for the Defiant-class. After tweaking the design a little, Martin gave the schematic to model maker Tony Meininger who, along with his Brazil Fabrications, was given the nod to bring the design to life. In the video game Star Trek: Encounters, the Defiant appears in 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 Enterprise NX-01 defeat a combined Xindi, Klingon, Romulan, Dominion, and Borg fleet. Eighteen ships of this class participated in Frontier Day celebrations over Earth in 2401. ( PIC: " Vox", " The Last Generation")Most notably, Defiant lays out the earliest moments of Worf’s captaincy in Starfleet, a captaincy that is, in Cantwell’s words, “frayed.” Cantwell points out that Worf’s future in Starfleet was always in question during TNG and DS9, thanks to his “insubordination and his record versus his loyalty and duty.” Although Sisko goes so far as to tell Worf that his actions mean that he will never be a captain in Starfleet, Defiant gives him that chance. The moment when Sisko decloaks the Defiant spacecraft for the first time in "The Search" was rated by Geek.com in 2015 as one of the top 35 moments in Star Trek; they said it marked a "great start" to the third season of Deep Space Nine. [7] The addition of the Defiant helped the show dig deeper into stories set in the Gamma Quadrant, as well as the long war-saga arc of the show's later seasons. [8] From the Star Trek Encyclopedia (4th ed., vol. 1, p. 196), " The Defiant 's registry number, NX-74205, is in honor of Gene Roddenberry's son, our friend Rod Roddenberry who worked with us as a member of the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine art department. Rod's birthday is February 5, 1974." For DS9, a digital model of the Defiant was built by Digital Muse, which was then borrowed by the visual effects artists of Star Trek: Voyager, as and when required. ( Cinefantastique, Vol. 30, No. 9/10, p. 80) A CGI Defiant was also used in DS9's title sequence.

By the end of " The Search, Part II", the writers had given up on the idea of the Defiant using its cloaking device and didn't expect to use it ever again. Director of Photography Jonathan West was even told, " We'll never be cloaked again; this is just for the first show." Ron Moore recalled, " It wasn't until a few episodes later that we decided to say it was still there." ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion (p. 163)) William Riker arrives on Deep Space Nine and proceeds to charm the crew, especially Major Kira. She takes him on a tour of the station and its new ship, the Defiant. Once aboard, he draws a phaser and stuns her, fakes a warp-core breach and steals the ship with Kira aboard.

STAR TREK: DEFIANT #1 will be available in March with several variant covers for fans and retailers to enjoy, including covers by series artist Ángel Unzueta, Malachi Ward, Declan Shalvey, David Aja, and Daniel Warren Johnson.