Star Trek: 10 Secrets Of The First Contact Fleet

Speaking of the USS Defiant, here's an entire listicle and video about Deep Space Nine's tough little ship, but it's worth noting the warship's participation in the Battle of Sector 001. And the battle at Paramount Studios.

According to Star Trek: First Contact's co-writer, Ronald D. Moore, the inclusion of the Defiant in the battle was a necessary plot device to bring Worf from his new home on DS9 back aboard the USS Enterprise. But it was also a controversial one behind-the-scenes at Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

According to Moore, an early draft of the film's script left the fate of the Defiant unclear and became a sticking point when the writer approached DS9 showrunner Ira Steven Behr for notes:

Somehow we had implied that, like, the Defiant was destroyed or something.... We didn't mean to destroy the Defiant. [Behr] just ranted at me for destroying the Defiant and it was really his only note on the whole script. So we went back, we were very careful that the Defiant actually did [survive].

While the Defiant showing up to battle the Borg is a spectacular addition to Star Trek: First Contact and a nice bit of continuity between the motion pictures and television sides of the franchise, DS9 head writer Ira Steven Behr was unconvinced:

I didn't see the point in bringing it on just to kick the crap out of it.