Valiant (episode)

Template:Realworld

This article is about the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode. For other uses of the word "Valiant", see Valiant (disambiguation).

Fleeing a Jem'Hadar attack aboard a runabout, Jake and Nog are rescued by a Defiant-class ship crewed by the cadets of Red Squad. But the eager cadets may bite off more than they can chew when their captain pressures the crew to take on a much bigger Dominion battleship.

Summary

Nog and Jake are on a trip to Ferenginar to deliver an official diplomatic message from the Federation Council to the Grand Nagus. Even if the ensign won't say anything about its content, his reporter friend suspects it is about something big, maybe even an alliance. Their discussion is cut short when they encounter a wing of six Jem'Hadar fighters. Even if they weren't the original objective, one fighter breaks the formation and attacks the runabout Shenandoah. They are miraculously saved by a ship they first believe to be the USS Defiant, but which turns out to be the USS Valiant.

After the Template:ShipClass ship destroys the enemy fighter, the two friends are taken to the bridge to see the captain and are informed of the Valiant's unique situation. The Valiant's original purpose was to take seven officers and thirty-five cadets on a three month training mission to circumnavigate the Federation. However, they were behind enemy lines when the war with the Dominion broke out, eight months ago. In a battle with a Cardassian warship, in which all the senior officers were killed or mortally wounded, Captain Ramirez promoted cadet Tim Watters to the rank of captain and gave him command of the Valiant. Along with the command of the Valiant came its orders to collect technical data on a new Dominion battleship. Since they were ordered to maintain radio silence, the ship had been cut from the rest of Starfleet since the outbreak of the war. Undaunted, the young captain is determined to carry on the Valiant's mission, and is more than happy to welcome a competent engineer aboard his undermanned ship.

With Nog's help, the Valiant is soon able to go to warp 4 and continue on with the mission. Between an over-zealous crew and an almost inhuman dynamic, the mission finally comes to a successful end. However, since their scans seems to indicate a major flaw in the design of the Jem'Hadar cruiser, Captain Watters proposes to destroy the battle cruiser and return home as heroes. Jake Sisko attempts to appeal to the common sense of the crew and convince them to leave the area with the new information; however, the reward outweighs the risk and Red Squad gladly follows its leader.

In the ensuing battle, the Valiant suffers heavy damage but they are able to launch two modified torpedoes at the battleship's perceived weak spot, the primary support braces for the battleship's antimatter storage system. Karen Farris, acting first officer, manually guides two modified torpedoes that were designed to destroy the support braces, and is successful in hitting the target. The weapons prove to be ineffective when, despite a huge explosion, the battleship continues firing. Watters is about to order a retreat when another impact kills Watters. The battle's conclusion is apparent, and Nog flees for the escape pods.

Only three survivors are rescued by the Defiant: Nog, Jake and Chief Dorian Collins. Jake is asked by Nog if he plans to write about the incident; Jake responds in the affirmative, and Nog asks that his friend write the Valiant had a good crew, but that they followed Captain Watters too blindly. Dorian's opinion is that it was the crew that ultimately failed the captain. Nog asks that Jake include both versions of the events so that people will be able to decide for themselves and tells Dorian that while Watters might have been a great man, he was a bad captain.

Memorable quotes

"If we keep going in this direction, we'll run into Cardassia Prime. And that won't be any fun at all."

- Jake Sisko

"You're in love!"

- Odo, realizing Quark has feelings for Jadzia Dax

"He may have been a hero... he may even have been a great man... but in the end, he was a bad captain."

- Nog, about Tim Watters

Background information

This episode originated in a discussion between Ronald D. Moore and Ira Steven Behr about "a ship that's been behind the lines since the beginning of the war, with a crew that has gotten rowdier and more ragged and embittered - a wild-eyed bunch of crazies that have been lost and out of contact for a long time." Moore then suggested that the crew be composed entirely of cadets, and Behr suggested that they use Red Squad. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion)
Red Squad was introduced in the fourth season two-parter "Homefront"/"Paradise Lost", where David Drew Gallagher also appeared as Riley Shepard.
In Moore's original draft of the script, the USS Valiant is discovered by Jake and Kira. The plot was predominately the same, but as Moore explains, "It didn't work because you couldn't believe that Kira wouldn't kick every one of their asses and take back the ship single-handedly. It occurred to us that if we put Nog in there we'd have a character who could buy into what Red Squad was doing. And Jake was a character who could stand back from it. That worked a lot better." (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion)
Ronald D. Moore had originally wanted to name the Defiant, "Valiant", after the SS Valiant from TOS: "Where No Man Has Gone Before". Due to the development of Star Trek: Voyager however (which was happening at the same time as the development of the design of the Defiant) he was forbidden to use any name beginning with the letter V. While he relented and settled for the name of the ship from TOS: "The Tholian Web" (the USS Defiant), he was finally able to reuse the Valiant name here.
In modern naval protocol, Nog, a commissioned officer, would have immediately outranked the entire crew of the Valiant, all of whom were cadets. However, writer Ronald D. Moore has stated that he based the premise on an 18th and 19th century naval tradition that an acting captain can only be removed from command by a flag officer. [1]
While Nog was brevetted to a lieutenant commander, he appears to be wearing a lieutenant junior grade insignia during his time on the Valiant. This could be because the Valiant was simply so low on supplies and so heavily damaged, rank pips weren't allowed to be replicated. This would be similar to the fact that while the crew of Voyager were clearly aware that Starfleet had updated its uniforms mid-way through the series, they continued to wear the same ones the show had started with.
The LCARS computer displays on the Valiant are seen in reverse order, with the main screen on top and the shorter portion on the bottom.

John Eaves sketch of Jem'Hadar battleship

The Jem'Hadar battleship was next seen in "The Dogs of War", and also featured prominently in the Battle of Cardassia, as seen in the series finale, "What You Leave Behind".
This episode marked the final appearance of the runabout USS Shenandoah.
This episode is a favorite of Aron Eisenberg's, who sees it was critical in the development of the character of Nog; "Nog's dilemma in the episode was, 'Should I do the right thing? Or should I grab the opportunity to do what I've always wanted?' which is to become an officer. When a Ferengi sees what he wants, he doesn't let anything get in his way. He has all these rules for obtaining money, and that's the center of his life. Nothing really deters him from that goal. Nothing clouds that vision. A Ferengi won't allow it. So I applied that same mentality, those same philosophical ideas to Nog's desire to be a Starfleet officer. After he joined Starfleet, I turned all that attention to the one goal of succeeding in Starfleet and not failing, not letting anything deter him from that goal. So I started to play Nog as very, very straight-laced, a perfect military guy. In "Valiant", somebody was offering Nog a chance to be an officer and he could justify it, even if those justifications weren't correct, as Jake pointed out. He wasn't going to listen to anybody except for his captain. That's what made that show so powerful for me - the fact that Nog realizes when it's almost too late that he's made a horrible, horrible mistake. I thought it was great that the writers let him make the wrong decision. But then he was man enough to admit it too. And in the end scene, he gives back his prized possession, the Red Squad pin, which symbolizes what he wanted so badly. I think Nog grew tremendously in this show." (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion)

Nog and Jake onboard Shenandoah — The runabout cockpit set, its forward windows and struts removed for the filming of the teaser battle sequence

In the opening battle sequence aboard the runabout, several camera moves (in particular the sweep where the camera banks sharply to reflect the motion of the runabout) inadvertently disclose the fact that the forward windows have been removed to make filming the scene possible; in the most visible example, a sizable hole can be seen in the center of the piloting console, where the ceiling support strut between the windows usually was.
Colm Meaney (Miles O'Brien) does not appear in this episode.
Several costumes and props from this episode were sold off on the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay, including Grace Bustos' costume. [2]
This episode is comparable to episodes such as TNG: Lower Decks and VOY: Good Shephard in the way that it features an officer (Nog) in contact (during a tense situation) with a group of lower ranking members of Starfleet and because it depicts an onscreen story that follows below command level ranks and shows much of the story from their perspective as was achieved in "Lower Decks". It is also suitable to note that Ronald D. Moore also wrote TNG: "The First Duty" which focused on Nova Squadron and therefore this could be a reason for the similarities.

Video and DVD releases

UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 6.11, 2 November 1998
As part of the DS9 Season 6 DVD collection

Links and references

Previous episode:
"The Reckoning"

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Season 6

Next episode:
"Profit and Lace"

Valiant (episode)

Contents

Summary

Memorable quotes

Background information

Video and DVD releases

Links and references

Guest stars

Co-stars

Uncredited co-stars

Stunt doubles

References

External links

Fan Feed