Star Trek Discovery USS Defiant Easter Egg explained: What happened to the USS Defiant?
STAR TREK DISCOVERY aired on Netflix again this week with an episode called Despite Yourself after a short midseason break. The story made reference to the USS Defiant, a ship ingrained in Star Trek history.
Despite Yourself dropped on Netflix yesterday (Monday, January 9) following its US premiere over the weekend.
The episode was directed by actor Jonathan Frakes, who portrayed Commander William T. Riker in Star Trek: The Next Generation.
This latest instalment picked up off the back of Into the Forest I Go in which the USS Discovery ended up in the Mirrorverse complete with doubles.
The crew of the USS Discovery were trying to figure out how to escape the Mirrorverse when Michael Burnham (played by Sonequa Martin-Green) suggested that they needed to gather information on the mysterious USS Defiant.
“It’s unclear but data suggests that in the future, Defiant will encounter a phenomenon that will bring it into this alternative universe’s past,” she told the others.
But what happened to the USS Defiant? Here is the Easter Egg broken down.
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What happened to the USS Defiant?
The USS Defiant first appeared in season three of the original series of Star Trek in 1968 in an episode called The Tholian Web.
The Tholian Web saw Captain Kirk (played by William Shatner) and his crew members searching for the Enterprise’s sister ship Defiant after it went missing and was in the Mirror Universe.
Kirk and the rest of the crew members find Defiant and board it only to find that all the crew went insane and killed each other.
Following their investigations, the crew beam back to the Enterprise but before Kirk can be brought back, the Defiant disappears suddenly.
The aliens known as the Tholians show up and demand that the Enterprise leaves their space, even though Kirk is still missing.
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Spock (Leonard Nimoy) manages to extend their period in Tholian space and it’s a frantic battle against the clock to bring Kirk back.
But the Enterprise crew successfully manage to find their captain’s co-ordinates and bring him back to the ship, shortly after leaving the Mirror Universe.
The second story to reference Defiance was a two-parter from Star Trek: Enterprise called In A Mirror, Darkly from 2005.
In A Mirror, Darkly alludes to the 1968 story and follows evil versions of the main characters of the Enterprise who work for the Terran Empire.
The crew of the Enterprise learns of a ship from the future - the Defiant - has been taken by the Tholians and is getting stripped of it parts.
They endeavour to take the ship back from the aliens as it has advanced technology, however the Tholians again show up and prevent the Enterprise from taking the vessel.
Eventually, the Defiant is used to travel to Earth in the alternate world but afterwards its location was unknown.
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How is the USS Defiant linked to Star Trek Discovery?
Star Trek Discovery is set 10 years before the events of the original series and about 90 years after Enterprise.
Burnham’s explanation would suggest that the Defiant managed to travel to the past to about 100 years before when Enterprise it set.
Defiant is then set to encounter Kirk later on in one of the show’s most intricate time travel webs that’s been woven over three different series of Star Trek.
Speaking about storyline, Star Trek Discovery showrunner Aaron Harberts told Inverse: “My brain still melts when I think about the Defiant. And that temporal anomaly.”
He went on to say: “We have always come at this from the standpoint of let’s tell the best story. What’s the best part about the Mirror Universe?
“And then go to the huge Trek fans that are on our staff who have watched all of Enterprise and say, ‘Okay. Now tell us about the Defiant.’”
Star Trek Discovery is available to watch weekly on Netflix on Mondays.
