Summary
- The USS Defiant had a forgotten holo-filter, used once to deceive Cardassians with a distant disguise.
- Star Trek's Gene Roddenberry initially disapproved of such covert technology on Starfleet ships.
- The Defiant's holo-filter was limited and not very convincing, leading to its one-time use and eventual abandonment.
The USS Defiant, commanded by Captain Benjamin Sisko in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine had a revolutionary new starship feature that the show swiftly forgot about. Introduced in DS9 season 3, the USS Defiant was a starship of many firsts. It was Starfleet's first warship in decades, initially built to battle the Borg threat but deployed to tackle the Dominion. The USS Defiant also had a cloaking device fitted, which was authorized by the Romulan Star Empire for use in the Gamma Quadrant. The Defiant's cloaking device broke Star Trek rules, but it was necessary to tackle the threat posed by the Dominion.
The USS Defiant's cloaking device wasn't the only covert feature that the starship had in its arsenal, however. In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 3, episode 5, "Second Skin", Major Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor) is kidnapped by the Obsidian Order, forcing Commander Sisko to take the Defiant into Cardassian space. With the use of the cloaking device banned outside the Gamma Quadrant, Sisko had to come up with another way to try and fly the Defiant past Cardassian defenses. So, for the first and only time, the Deep Space Nine crew used the Defiant's holo-filter.
Sisko’s Defiant Had A Holofilter That Star Trek Forgot About
The Defiant's holo-filter could change the appearance of someone during visual communications with other ships. In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 3, episode 4, "Second Skin", Sisko used this feature to disguise himself as a Kobheerian freighter captain. As impressive as the technology was, the Defiant's holo-filter was only functional from a distance. Lt. Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell) tells Sisko that if the Cardassian patrol got closer, it would identify the Defiant as a Starfleet warship and not a humble Kobheerian freighter.
The footage of the Kobheerian captain was from the DS9 season 1 episode "Duet", but actor Norman Large was not credited for his appearance.
This is the only time that the USS Defiant uses a holo-filter in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, but it wasn't the last time that the technology was deployed. In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 5, episode 1, "Apocalypse Rising", Gul Dukat (Marc Alaimo) uses a holo-filter to pretend to be a Klingon Warrior while smuggling Sisko and his team into enemy territory. After this point, however, the holo-filter was never used again.
What Happened To The USS Defiant’s Holofilter In Star Trek?
Although a neat feature that would have helped the USS Defiant infiltrate the Gamma Quadrant in the years leading up to Star Trek's Dominion War, the holo-filter was potentially just as controversial as a cloaking device. Gene Roddenberry famously objected to Starfleet ships having cloaking devices because "our guys don't sneak around". It's possible that Rick Berman, the custodian of the Star Trek legacy after Roddenberry's death in 1991, decided that a holo-filter was similarly underhanded.
A one-off use of the holo-filter was probably signed off by Berman because, ultimately, Elim Garak (Andrew Robinson) convinced Sisko to turn it off and confront the Cardassians directly. It was also very limited, only useful from a specific distance. The most likely reason that the USS Defiant never used the holo-filter is the fact that it wasn't all that useful in convincing a Cardassian patrol that Sisko was a humble freighter captain. Which is why "Second Skin" was the one-and-only appearance of the Defiant's holo-filter in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
