Star Trek: 10 Secrets About The USS Dauntless You Need To Know
The name's the same but there are many differences between Trek's two starships called Dauntless.
The starship that wasn't and the starship that could just about keep up with the USS Protostar.
Given there have only been two ships to bear the name Dauntless in Star Trek, the namesake has made a significant impact on the franchise.
Appearing in just one episode right at the end of Voyager's fourth season, the same year that Seven of Nine joined the show, the Dauntless seemed to offer salvation from the Delta Quadrant. With the help of the linguistically gifted Arturis, expertly played by Ray Wise, it seemed to be the quick way home however it would come to be another way home too good to be true.
Skip forward and the name of the Dauntless is revived for the animated Prodigy. It marked its first appearance under the command of Admiral Janeway at the cliffhanger ending to the first half of the season in A Moral Star before pursuing the Protostar and its juvenile crew across the galaxy for the subsequent 10 episodes.
With an instantly recognisable silhouette no matter which version you're looking at, the slipstream powered starship marks a big step forward in the ways of propulsion although it doesn't seem to be as classifed as a certain spore drive or as issue riddled as transwarp.
In either case, both starships Dauntless have a lot more details to give up outside of the engine room.
10. The Numbers
While these figures may well be the work of fiction and specifically Arturis, the Dauntless from Hope and Fear manages to traverse the galaxy (apparently) from Earth to the Delta Quadrant in three months while on auto-navigation.
Launched on stardate 51472 this would place its fictional launch around the time of Voyager's Waking Moments and Message in a Bottle. In terms of DS9 this would line up approximately with its sixth season and Waltz or Who Mourns for Morn?. Given the timeline that's nearer to seven months from commissioning to being located by the Voyager crew. That would allow for the 47 trial runs (a favourite Star Trek number in itself) as well as the lengthy trip. Looks like Arturis did his homework. When the Dauntless does jump to slipstream power for a few moments it takes Voyager two days to catch up.
The reverse engineering wouldn't have to wait until Voyager returned to the Alpha Quadrant as fans would see the crew attempt to make it work in the following season.
Voyager's 100th episode, Timeless would double down on the point made in Hope and Fear that the Intrepid Class ship was not designed for such stresses or navigation, relying on a shuttle flying ahead to make course corrections. Even then it couldn't be sustained.