Valiant (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)

"Valiant"
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode
Episode no.	Season 6 Episode 22
Directed by	Michael Vejar
Written by	Ronald D. Moore
Featured music	Paul Baillargeon
Production code	546
Original air date	May 6, 1998 (1998-05-06)
Guest actors
Aron Eisenberg - Nog Paul Popowich - Tim Watters Courtney Peldon - Farris David Drew Gallagher - Riley Shepard Ashley Brianne McDonogh - Collins Scott Hamm - Parton Majel Barrett - Federation Computer Mark Allen Shepherd - Morn

"Valiant" is the 146th season episode of the television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the 22nd episode of the sixth season. It was first broadcast on 6 May 1998.

Jake and Nog, on a visit to Ferenginar, find themselves on board a rogue starship, piloted by members of the Red Squad, a crew of elite Starfleet cadets. Their loyalty and blind obedience to their "captain" lead them into disaster.

Plot

While en route to Ferenginar in a runabout, Jake Sisko and Ensign Nog are attacked by a Jem'Hadar vessel, but are rescued by the USS Valiant, a Defiant-class starship. Jake and Nog find that the crew are all members of the Red Squad, an elite squadron of Starfleet cadets. They were originally part of a training mission to circumnavigate the Federation. However, the Valiant was attacked by the Jem'Hadar, which resulted in the loss of the entire commissioned staff. Before dying, the late Captain transferred command to now-acting Captain Tim Watters. Watters has continued to follow their last directive without any further orders from Starfleet, and has recently learned of a new Dominion battle cruiser. Nog is quickly integrated into Red Squad and the ship's engineering staff thanks to his knowledge of the Defiant warp system, but Jake is seen as an outsider. When Jake attempts to talk to Chief Collins about her personal life, she breaks down emotionally, and Watters orders Jake not to talk to her further.

Watters reveals that they have located the Jem'Hadar battle cruiser and orders the ship to approach it, raising the crew's morale to levels Jake fears are irrational. The crew of the Valiant is able to successfully scan the battle cruiser and discovers a possible weak point. Watters makes plans to attack it. When Jake attempts to warn Nog and Collins that Watters is actually on a suicide mission, Watters has Jake thrown in the brig. The Valiant attacks the vessel, but the Jem'Hadar ship remains undamaged. The Valiant is assaulted by the battle cruiser, which critically damages the ship and kills much of the remaining crew. Nog, Collins and Jake leave the ship an escape pod before the Valiant explodes. The three are rescued by the Defiant, and learn they are the sole survivors. Nog pronounces that the Valiant was a good ship with a good crew, whose only mistake was blindly following Watters's disastrous orders. Despite pleas from Collins that Watters was a great man, Nog replies "He may have been a hero, he may even have been a great man, but in the end, he was a bad Captain."

Arc significance

• Red Squad, an elite team of Starfleet Academy cadets, was first seen in the fourth-season two-parter 'Homefront/Paradise Lost'; in those episodes, they sabotaged Earth's power-grid in an attempted coup d'état by a Starfleet Admiral. Nog had previously expressed an intense desire to join Red Squad.
• Cadet Riley Aldrin Shepard, who served as helmsman on the Valiant, confessed to Captain Sisko in 'Homefront/Paradise Lost' (about two years prior) that he had taken part in the operation to sabotage Earth's power grid as part of a failed coup attempt. In that same episode, Sisko subsequently commented to Odo that he had just "admitted to committing acts of treason against the Federation." However, for reasons that were never explained in the series, Sheperd evidently was not expelled from the academy or from Red Squad.

External links

• Valiant at IMDb
• "Valiant" at TV.com
• Valiant (episode) at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
• Valiant at StarTrek.com