In-Universe:
The U.S.S. Defiant is forced to defend itself against an attack from the U.S.S. Lakota.
Production:
Glenn Neufeld reused and recomposited a three-second shot of the Defiant from "The Way of the Warrior" for part of the sequence where it fights the Lakota.
But the rest of the battle was all original footage shot with the Defiant model and the studio's eight-foot Excelsior model, back from a stint on Star Trek Generations as the Enterprise-B.
The Excelsior was, in fact, still decked out as the ship, courtesy of ILM, which had done the effects for Generations. "We had to take off all the detailing, the numbers and names, and make new ones," says Neufeld. "[Scenic Art Supervisor] Mike Okuda was instrumental in cutting us new decals and actually showing us how to get the old ones off without destroying the paint job. We did a lot of hand rubbing with water."
- Star Trek DS9 Companion (Page 302)
