But that's just so crazy that smoke eminates from my ears, so let's ignore it, eh?
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Although in all fairness, the poor Junior was never explicitly addressed as the captain of the vessel. For all appearances, he was merely the officer in charge for the time being.
As for where the putative "real captain" would have been at the time, your guess is as good as mine.
posted
It could have been a ship where the commanding staff had been sent on R&R while the juniors got to stay behind and work. And instead of having them do nothing, Starfleet assigned them to DS9's little mission. Thus, Sisko kinda got command
-------------------- Later, J _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ The Last Person to post in the late Voyager Forum. Bashing both Voyager, Enterprise, and "The Bun" in one glorious post.
a) DS9 being out in the sticks and thus an odd errand for an "off-duty" ship - unless the top brass was actually having its R&R at DS9, and
b) it being explicit that the R&R did NOT take place at DS9, since in fact nobody, save nobody, left the vessel during her stay at the station!
It is also possible (if not all that likely) that Seyetlik himself carried rank in Starfleet, and was the captain of the vessel. He just didn't like to wear the usual uniform.
Still, my personal favorite is that the real captain couldn't work in the same environment as the rest of the crew, but was a telepath who could interact through Lt(jg) Piersall.
posted
Everyone was in sickbay following one of Nidell's suppers.
I believe that it was mostly an FX goof, and that the Prometheus was not SUPPOSED to be a Nebula-class ship. In addition to Piersall, O'Brien was speaking of modifying the Prometheus' engines to hit high warp - would a Nebbie NOT be able to achieve that sort of speed on its own, or with its own engineer?
I think the Prometheus was supposed to be an Oberth or some ship class that was small and could be commanded by a mere lieutenant. Unfortunately, we'll never know the real intent, other than to allow Sisko and company not to be upstaged by a REAL captain.
posted
Captain's have to sleep sometime. Perhaps the lieutenant was in charge of the night shift and had command duty at the time Sisko and Seyetik were on the bridge. Ens. Kim of Voyager had charge of the bridge during some night shifts.
posted
Oh, grand. So Seyetik stealing the mission shuttle, ramming it into a dead star, and igniting it is NOT cause to rouse the captain and command crew? I think not.
posted
Bajor is always a nice camping spot at that time of year, and it's close to DS9.
-------------------- Later, J _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ The Last Person to post in the late Voyager Forum. Bashing both Voyager, Enterprise, and "The Bun" in one glorious post.
I've always (well, ever since we first saw more of them) maintained that the Defiant class was intended to serve as fleet/task force escort in squadrons of four, or to escort one or two larger ships in elements of two.
Best example of this is in "A Call to Arms". At the very end, the Defiant swings around into formation with the Federation fleet/task force -- of all possible positions -- right next to the only other Defiant-class ships in the shot. Of which, there were three. The Defiant made four.
Then in "Message in a Bottle", there are two Defiants escorting the Akira.
Yes, I know one or two instances do not a law of nature make, but it's a good starting point, and we have seen nothing to contradict.
--Jonah
-------------------- "That's what I like about these high school girls, I keep getting older, they stay the same age."
--David "Woody" Wooderson, Dazed and Confused
Registered: Feb 2001
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posted
Good observation -- I noticed that too. If a viewer sees only one Defiant, the immediate conclusion is that it's The Defiant because it's still fairly unique. Showing a couple at a time is a simple way of avoiding that.
I researched a bit and found that Ron D. Moore stated during the season six/seven hiatus that he thinks there are "at least a few dozen" Defiants at that point, and that they are in production. That's as authoritative as we're going to get on the issue, given that he created the ship's backstory.
As for their placement, the Defiants, Intrepids, and Sovereigns, along with perhaps Ambassadors, Constellations, Oberths, Novas and a few other classes were probably tasked with the following:
1) Protecting the borders left vulnerable by the absence of the regular Federation fleet (especially the first three extra-powerful designs).
2) Executing scientific and diplomatic missions in support of the war effort. Do you really want to lose Picard in a battle, or do you want him to keep talking his way out of difficult situations?
posted
Well, Picard could of course be reassigned to an Oberth class vessel...
Two potentially novel explanations:
It might be that ships in the Dominion war did not loiter far from the areas where they wee at the beginning of hostilities. There could have been raiding Dominion fleets all over the quadrant, moving fast and unpredictably, so the Feds couldn't afford even a week-long transfer run that would have kept the ships out of action. Thus, save for the few offensive formations the Feds managed to throw together, the ships would stay in their "natural environments". Which for the slow and short-legged Defiants would be somewhere near Mars (or the Beta Antares shipyards, wherever those are).
Or then Starfleet ships are distributed according to the capabilities of starbases. Perhaps there was no yard in the DS9 region capable of processing an Intrepid or an Ambassador, but several optimized for Mirandas and Nebulas?
In any case, the uneven distribution of ship types in the Dominion war is an annoying artifact that will continue to bother us for a long time!
posted
It's pointless to stick to your pre-war formations if you're about to be conquered. This was a war, not a crisis, and one would hope that Starfleet eventually moved every ship to where it would be most useful, rather than made sure that no captain feels homesick. Especially since the main fighting occured around Bajor, and wasn't evenly distributed throughout the Federation.
As for the second one, it's not something we've ever seen evidence for, and certainly not something that the VFX people would want to be bound by in the future. The Enterprise-D can dock in the old spacedock if needed, and DS9 seems to be able to accomodate every possible ship. That's not to say it cannot technically happen, but it cannot be a major concern either.
posted
I'd say mabye a dozen Defiant class ships at the war's official declaration. By war's end there was probably two-three dozen Defiant class ships produced with several having been destroyed in action. If I was in charge of a shipyard, and the war was going badly, I'd be building several Defiant class ships for every one Galaxy. The construction time, materials involved and crew compliments likely work out to a 6:1 ratio. I'd build 6 defiants to patroll my boreders waaay before building a lone Galaxy or Nebula class.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
Based on the glowing performance-and subsequent debris field- of the Odyssey, I'd say not. I was speaking of overall mass of materials and crew requirements. ....but, on the other hand, I can't remember seeing any galaxy's being destroyed after that. Mabye they really upgraded them after that.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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