The Corbomite Maneuver

Watched the first season episode The Corbomite Maneuver yesterday. It is a good early episode that takes place exclusively on the ship. I did notice, when addressing the Fesarius, Kirk identifies the ship as the United Earth Ship Enterprise. How is this explained/accounted for in terms of cannon? Does he do this in any other episodes?

 

I can't explain it. But a lot of early TOS refers to Earth ships and Earth colonies, rather than everything being Federation.

 

Clearly, Earth didn't join the Federation until about the second season of Star Trek. In fact, I bet United Earth joined the First Federation, probably in a deal brokered by Lieutenant Bailey with Balok over tranya.

 

^ Great answer Pavonis! Who knew Ron Howards brother could be so helpful. Did the First Federation ever become part of the Federation in later Trek books or cannon?

 

Snappy answers aside, Patrick, this matter has been explored many times. I suggest you search past threads and Memory Alpha. All you need to know is there.

 

^ I apologize for the redundant thread. I'll reference Memory Alpha more carefully in the future.

 

I don't see why wey can't discuss it again. A lot of topics come up over and over. While search the site and check Memory Alpha might give quick answers, they don't generate discussion.

To my knowledge nothing in canon addresses the issue of the Enterprise being a Earthship in the first few episodes. Just another idea/concept that was abandoned without explanation. (Corbomite Maneuver has more than one )

 

Rather than saying the idea of the Enterprise being strictly an Earth ship was abandoned, is it more correct to say that it was refined or revised?

This is an area of production history that I know almost nothing about, so I'd certainly benefit from some discussion.

 

The early TOS eps were much more Earth-oriented (or Terracentric, if you prefer). Just the notion of a unified Earth in the future was radical enough. The United Federation of Planets was first mentioned by name in “A Taste of Armageddon,” which was episode #23 in both production and broadcast order.

(If you’ll recall, a line about mankind being “banded together in a single federation” was cut from the opening narration of Forbidden Planet.)

 

Semantics. TOS was rapidly evolving over the first half of Season One. A lot of terminology, technology and backstory was abandoned/refined/revised. Sometimes there was even overlap as the stuff they changed was overlooked during rewrites. Which as I understand it, was done under a tight schedule.

 

From a production standpoint, why would the writers or producers decide to have the Enterprise's operating authority change from Earth (which the audience would understand and expect) to a vague "Federation"?

Was Spock's presence on the ship in need of an explanation, perhaps? As an alien, or at least half-alien, serving on an Earth ship, he's an oddity. As an alien serving on a ship that represents a larger galactic community, his presence is more understandable. Of course, he's the only non-human (or incompletely human) crewmember, so the crew isn't very diverse for a multicultural ship....

 

As I said, the concept of Star Trek was changing. The writers/Producers were tossing ideas around to see what stuck. If something didnt work for them they changed it. They weren't really thinking about "the audience" and especially the future audience.

 

So you're saying that when "Arena" was being written the writer just decided to throw in a reference to a random "Federation"?

 

Possibly. Or it might been Roddenberry or Fontana when doing a rewrite. Or it might of come up when plotting. Arena was written by Gene Coon who was also a producer.

 

So the reason for referencing a Federation instead of a United Earth is lost, as is the responsible party. Fair enough, they weren't working with Trekkie historians in mind. Still, I'm as content speculating on Trek production history as I am speculating on any other aspect of Trek.

 

So far, we've covered the production explanation (none known) and could sum up the canon explanation quickly enough, too (none given).

That leaves the question of the in-universe explanation. Star Trek didn't change so radically that the early episodes would have to be accepted as describing a completely different set of heroes. Yet it's quite possible that the heroes went from serving one organization to serving another. Did the Enterprise sail under two different colors in the late 2260s?

Well, literally speaking, we did see two flags being flown in the briefing room...

On two occasions, Kirk brings up the United Earth Space Probe Agency, making it look as if this organization took Starfleet's place in two episodes. In the spinoff shows, UESPA remains an "in-joke" to be inserted in off-focus graphics and the like - until ENT shows us that UESPA existed in parallel with the United Earth Starfleet, sharing heraldic space in a symbol decorating the floor of a meeting room at Starfleet Command, San Francisco.

http://ent.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/4x20/demons_021.jpg

Does the symbol refer to a joint operation between two organizations? Or a hierarchy of organizations? In either case, and assuming that the UFP Starfleet inherited the position of the UE Starfleet here, Kirk might vacillate between telling people that his employer was UESPA or that his employer was Starfleet.

If it's a hierarchy, we could well assume that UE is the lower level and UFP the higher, and that Kirk is being overtly local in considering himself an Earth rep. If it's a joint operation, tho, Kirk might at times be doing scientific missions for a "Space Probe Agency" just like the US Navy might help out NOAA in meteorologic work, or provide Antarctic expedition support.

The latter interpretation has some supporting evidence, if we choose to read it like that. In "Corbomite", Kirk is doing starmaps. In "Tomorrow is Yesterday", his ship has been fooling around with a black star for no obvious reason. In "Charlie X", UESPA is the organization in charge of a transport vessel that for some mysterious reason surveyed a rarely visited planet. Quite possibly a NOAA analogy, then.

Timo Saloniemi

 

I glad I could help generate a little discussion And I would like to thank all of you who answered. I like Timo's answer best. Helps make it jive with ST cannon.

 

Timo Timo Timo... I don't even know where to start arguing against this.

Because I can't!!!! I like this explaination!

 

I don't know if it amounts to an explanation, really.

Yeah, Kirk might be doing "NOAA missions" every time he speaks of being under Earth control. But wouldn't he quickly step out of his UESPA shoes when confronted by a threat like Balok? (OTOH, he would certainly keep those boots on when interacting with Captain Christopher, if only to keep the Earth chap from getting too confused.)

Also, if UESPA is an associate or affiliate of Starfleet, the way NOAA might be related to USN, why is that heraldry on the floor of that particular meeting hall? Why did the representatives of various cultures convene there to essentially discuss joint defense? What does that have to do with the "NOAA connection"?

We would probably have to assume that Starfleet allocated a random meeting room for the conference, in this case one celebrating the UESPA connection and usually being used for joint UESF/UESPA discussions, without sweating the symbolic details. But on something this important, shouldn't the details be sweated? Or did Starfleet allocate that room specifically to show the alien scum that UESF in fact is a harmless Space Probe Agency, or at least associated with one? Probably the wrong message to send when discussing defense treaties...

Timo Saloniemi

 

And as late as the end of the second season with Assignment: Earth (episode #56) Kirk referred to his "space vessel" as being from Earth. Not from the Federation.

In A Taste of Armageddon, the USS Valiant from fifty years ago was part of a Earth expedition, not a Federation one.

The Federation in mentioned in 25 out of 79 episodes, not alway as the organization in charge of what's going on. In most episodes the authority in charge of the Enterprise is just Starfleet. And there are 20 episodes where there is no authority mentioned at all.

So on those episodes who exactly is the Enterprise and her crew working for?

On some missions it's Earth, and on others it's the Federation

CHRISTOPHER: Must have taken quite a lot to build a ship like this.
KIRK: There are only twelve like it in the fleet.
CHRISTOPHER: I see. Did the Navy
KIRK: We're a combined service, Captain. Our authority is the United Earth Space Probe Agency.

Who is Kirk referring to when he says "our?" Just the Enterprise? By the conversation, Kirk is referring to their equivalent of "the Navy."

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