YMMV / Star Trek Deep Space Nine S 06 E 22 Valiant

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Has Watters really received orders to spy on this Dominion super-ship and then make the jump to attack it? Or has he been faking this entire mission being sanctioned because he doesn't want to return to life as just a cadet, and he doesn't care about the risks to his crew? Off that, it's arguable whether Watters truly cares for his crew as much as he says, or if he's just using them to fuel his own delusions of being a great captain and leader.
  • Does Collins finally get how awful Watters was as a captain at the end of the episode following Nog's Kirk Summation, or does she keep clinging to those ingrained Red Squad delusions even in her despair?
  • When the assembled crew begins their "Red Squad" chant, the two Vulcan cadets do not join in. Did they consider the chant itself illogical, or were they questioning the logic of Cpt. Watters' plan?
• Base-Breaking Character: Farris; there are almost no fans who actually like her, but some still find her a somewhat sympathetic character who's trying to keep order among the crew and act as a balance to Watters' Glory Hound habits, while other fans think she's just a completely insufferable Jerkass who can't have a console explode in her face soon enough. In what may have been an example of Leaning on the Fourth Wall, a later short story in the Expanded Universe seems to acknowledge the negative fan reaction by identifying Farris as the great-great-granddaughter of Nilz Barris, another insufferable Jerkass who gave Captain Kirk persistent headaches in "The Trouble With Tribbles."
• Epileptic Trees: There's a lot of holes in Red Squad's story and actions that don't make sense on analysis, which is exacerbated by how little is known about the Valiant and Red Squad.
  • Watters claims that the ship has been on a shakedown cruise for eight months, but Worf says that the Valiant was officially reported as missing eight months ago. Was the ship just on a covert mission that Starfleet wanted to keep secret? But if that were the case, why would they trust such a mission to a group of cadets with only seven officers overseeing them?
  • Watters also says that the ship's mission was a three-month long trip around the entire perimeter of Federation space, but a voyage like that would surely take years. Jake takes note that it's unusual for cadets to be placed on a state-of-the-art ship like the Valiant, and it's equally odd that such a long mission would be given to a group of cadets. For that matter, it's odd that the Valiant - a Defiant-class vessel which is designed for warfare - would be given so mundane a mission as charting the Federation's borders.
  • Watters claims that the Valiant encountered a Cardassian battle cruiser and in the ensuing fight, all of the ranked officers were killed, their warp drive was damaged, and Captain Ramirez promoted him to captain before he died. After this, Starfleet transmitted orders to the Valiant to investigate the Dominion battleship, and to maintain radio silence during their search for it. This all seems like a very contrived and convenient cover story to explain why the Valiant would be in the middle of enemy territory under the command of cadets who haven't attempted to return to Federation space or contact anyone yet. It's plausible Watters is lying about at least some of the circumstances of their mission, but why and what the truth is are unclear.
  • For that matter, when Nog was at the Academy earlier in the series, Sisko said he had never heard of Red Squad and Nog told him it was a relatively new idea, they received additional courses and excursions, their membership was supposed to be kept secret, and the only way to join it was to receive a personal recommendation from an officer. It's plausible that Starfleet had formed Red Squad in the first place with intent to use them for some sort of covert mission like what the Valiant was doing. Alternatively, giving them the Valiant mission and sending them on a mission to explore the Federation's borders may have also been a means to get them out of the way for a while after they were exposed as complicit in an attempted coup of the government, which would make the very idea of Red Squad an embarrassment to Starfleet and a constant reminder of what happened.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The episode does this to a scene from an earlier episode where O'Brien discusses naval tradition with Nog, pointing out that whoever commands a ship is called "Captain" regardless of actual rank — but that if Nog, a cadet at the time, is ever in that position, there'll be no one left to call him anything. Which happens very literally and brutally by the end of this episode.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • This episode deconstructs the idea of plucky, young teenagers taking command of a starship and going on space adventures. Two decades later, CBS and Nickelodeon would greenlight an animated Star Trek show (Star Trek: Prodigy) about plucky, young teenagers who aren't even in Starfleet taking control of an abandoned starship and going on space adventures.
  • Before that, Star Trek (2009) had another instance of a state-of-the art Starfleet vessel crewed by cadets going up against an absurdly powerful enemy warship, only this time they actually won. Though it probably helped that the Kelvin timeline's Enterprise did have a few experienced officers on-board (Pike was clearly a veteran captain, Spock and Scotty were also commissioned officers, and McCoy, while a Starfleet newbie, was an experienced medical professional), rather than a bunch of cadets, a recent graduate, and a freelance journalist.
  • Commander Farris, infamous for doing nothing the entire episode but harass people, is literally named Karen (twenty or so years before the meme arose).
• Rooting for the Empire: Given the sheer amount of arrogance and Jerkassery on display by Red Squad, one can hardly be blamed for wanting the Dominion to win in this episode.
• Special Effect Failure: It may just be a case of Technology Marches On, but the visuals of the Valiant strafing and attacking the Jem'Hadar battleship are highly Conspicuous CG. The Valiant's destruction itself is scarcely any better.
• The Woobie: Poor, misguided Dorian Collins. Pining for her home on the Earth moon, but absolutely firm in her belief in Watters and the Red Squad's destiny. Even after all her comrades die right in front of her. Even with the rest of Red Squad being populated by arrogant jerkasses and the occasional outright Hate Sink, she's definitely the character most in need of a hug for the entire episode.

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