Missed opportunities in Trek?
- Thread starter Hey Missy
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The weird truth of the matter is that it seems Future Guy's only real agenda was to tell Archer about the Xindi. In fact everything about the TCW episodes in Enterprise's first two seasons seems centred on making sure the NX-01 is ready to fight the Xindi.
We ignore Broken Bow, since Future Guy even states it's too early for humanity to be involved in his plans, and indeed Silik was at first willing to let Archer walk out of the Helix. True, Silik does attempt to kill Archer once Archer reveals he knows stuff about the TCW, but we can write this off as Silik being impulsive and not acting on Future Guy's plans. In Cold Front Future Guy sends Silik aboard the NX-01 specifically to prevent an accident which would have destroyed the ship. In Shockwave the Suliban destroy a mining colony and frame the NX-01, getting it recalled to Earth. Perhaps the intent was to have at, or at least near the Sol system so that it could be deployed to the Expanse in time to stop the Xindi after their first attack? Future Tense is just the NX-01 getting caught in the crossfire between the Suliban and the Tholians, and in The Expanse Future Guy finally tells Archer about the Xindi.
Well, now that the Starfleet is/isn't military issue has been brought up, I'm going to post something I've been mulling over in recent weeks. In TNG we frequently see guys who wear gray outfits who seem to be a civilian science agency in the Federation. You know the guys, the ones we see in Who Watches the Watchers, Devil's Due, Realm of Fear. And although we don't see him wear that outfit, I got the impression this is likely the same organization Nikolai Rozhenko belonged to. They conduct scientific research and observe alien cultures and so on but don't have any kind of rank structure, nor are they armed. So if anything, they seem to be the non-military exploration arm of the Federation, it's equivalent to NASA if you will. While Starfleet is the military. Or sorry, the armed uniform service with rank structure, martial discipline and fights wars, but isn't actually a military just because that was said five times in the past fifty years.
I think the partial consensus on the "Why is there resistance to the idea of starfleet being military?" thread came down on the idea that:
The 'political and constitutional reasons' postulated above in Starfleet's case being 'exploration and humanitarian aid' which are what most of Starfleet's manpower is focused day-to-day by preference.
I think we've got a winner here.
Just as Japan's 'defense force' is basically a polite way to have a military while proposing (for political and constitutional reasons) that you do not have one, so too is Starfleet likely a military-in-all-but-name, to appease those galactic societies that may find the Federation's reach a little scary. Saying they aren't military is a propaganda job as much as anything.
So. Starfleet is a military. But not officially.
The 'political and constitutional reasons' postulated above in Starfleet's case being 'exploration and humanitarian aid' which are what most of Starfleet's manpower is focused day-to-day by preference.
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Military/Civilian?
How about a Federal Police Force.
Chasing down and stopping the 'Bad Guys'?
We're one step away from a police-procedural...
How about a Federal Police Force.
Chasing down and stopping the 'Bad Guys'?
We're one step away from a police-procedural...
Now I'm imagining Picard yelling across his desk that Worf is a loose cannon and demands that he turn over his badge and phaser...Military/Civilian?
How about a Federal Police Force.
Chasing down and stopping the 'Bad Guys'?
We're one step away from a police-procedural...
...and various Klingon knives and swords.
Don't want to forget about the sister series based on everyone's favorite android either: Data, P.I. Where Data and Geordi solve crimes befuddling the police.
I've always wondered how DS9 would have played out if Bashir had been genetically corrected to 'cure' his slowness and only make him normal. You could have ditched all the Khan/Supermen stuff, and instead focussed the storylines on Federation prejudice against genetic engineering as irrational and unjustified, a blind spot in Paradise. And you could have dumped the Jack Pack too.
The millions (according to Picard) killed fighting the Federation/Cardassian war disagree.
The last couple of season of DS9 disagree.
Numorious border wars disagree.
On the contrary, nothing about the above contradicts the idea that Starfleet prefers to spend most of its 'day-to-day' manpower on 'exploration and humanitarian aid', but merely confirms that Starfleet RoE allows them to engage in military operations as needed (generally in response to aggressive actions by others) in defence of Federation interests. I can't recall any examples of Starfleet engaging in proactive military aggression (individual battles within wars don't count), which would be the defining trait that prevents it from being a defensive force.
The Federation continued to send people and armed ships into the Gamma Quadrant and effectively invaded Dominion territory after they were told to stop. For all intents and purposes the Federation invaded the Dominion and were the initial aggressors in that war.
Building the Areo shuttle instead of the Delta Flyer
Oh sweet shit, even today's militaries only engage in combat as needed, there's a whole slew of non-combat activities militaries take part in on a regular basis, including humanitarian aid, and in the past, exploration. Actually even today, NASA has a number of active duty military personnel involved in running missions and flying shuttles.
For sure, this is totally a missed opportunity.
This is one of many situations in which most fans get excessively literal-minded. Starfleet is very clearly shown onscreen doing the job of a military, so they can't simply and literally mean they aren't military. It's that their emphasis is not military. "Enterprise" took all this embarrassingly literally, by showing a separate military.
MACOs I don't have a problem with that. Not everyone on the NX-01 was going to have weapons training, explosive training, tactical knowledge and so on. You also had scientists, linguists(Hoshi), and so on. There basically like military attaches in the colonial era or the bulk of conquistadors in the age of conquest. Their the iron shield that protects earth and Starfleet people and interests.
In the mirror verse they make even more sense given all the power struggles and back biting. With maco units having differing loyalties and perhaps being bodyguards/Mameluke/parallel security forces.
I believe I agreed with you on that point at least once on the other thread I cited, but to summarise a "military" is used (in the territorial sense) to expand the influence of a nation by force (the Romulan and Cardassian militaries and the Jem'hadar are examples of this is in Star Trek, also the KDF for some of Star Trek (despite the name)), whereas a defense force's military operations focus on defence of territory acquired via exploration and diplomacy)
Or if you prefer, we could go with the pre-20th concept that "military" means "army" and "navy" was "navy" (pre-1940 in the UK they had entirely separate chains of command all the way up to Cabinet-level) and that (mostly ground) forces exist separate from Starfleet to do the military-specific functions.
Canada's military sent troops to help in the aftermath of the '98 ice storm.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_1998_North_American_ice_storm
More recently, they're helping out in New Brunswick after their ice storm.
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada...-aid-for-new-brunswick-ice-storm-victims.html
Perfect example. Going to build a new model and set anyway, why not make it the aero shuttle.? It's as if the aero shuttle is not canon.
Absolutely agree, the Voyager Aero shuttle would have been a great addition.
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^That's very cool.
Agreed.
All though it is somewhat amusing that the Aeroshuttle pilots appear to be a Bajoran Militia Command Officer and a Starfleet Eng/Tact Officer in FC-era uniform (at 0:24) rather than VOY uniforms?
Like Voyager's second warp core and second computer core, it isn't.
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