Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - 10 Best Episodes Not About The Main Cast
8. Valiant
Valiant tells the story of the ill-fated Red Squad, the elite group of Cadets who had been caught behind enemy lines once the war broke out. The USS Valiant is another Defiant-class vessel, so when Jake Sisko and Nog see it arrive to save them from a Jem'hadar attack ship, they are first elated, then confused.
The episode deals with the hubris of youth and the belief that these people are good, they can't possibly lose a battle. Captain Tim Waters is, of course, completely inexperienced in command, so orders an assault on the far superior Jem'hadar battleship. Jake tries to get him to see sense, which only lands him in the Brig. Nog, at first caught up in the glamour of receiving a field promotion to Chief Engineer, begins to see the error in what's going on around him.
In the end, the cadets' hearts are in the right place but their fatal flaw was in listening to a man who felt the need to seek glory, rather than bring home vital information on the new type of enemy vessel. It is one of the great episodes regarding the Dominion War that shows what some of the other ships in the fleet experience.