Poll Nature of the First Federation?

I've always considered it one of the last two options, but then again it was on the map in TUC...

 

Was it? I must have missed that! Either that or Nick Meyer and the boys didn't think it was simply Balok's own creation!
JB

 

My impression was that it was once a great interplanetary civilisation, which had long since died out/fallen apart/whatever.

But yeah, it could have been Balok B.S. too.

 

The two interesting bits here are that Balok does have a powerful ship (whose "weaknesses" are faked), and that the entity is called the First Federation.

A ship that powerful would make a bit player a very big bit player in no time flat. Yet in the following century, the First Federation doesn't ascend; apparently, it rather descends. So perhaps the time of greatness for Balok's outfit really is in the past, and his ship can no longer be given sisters by that much-diminished outfit.

On the other hand, things generally only get called First by the Second. Is Balok's outfit really so alien that it does think ahead and cares about how those who come after them will view them? Or is Balok's outfit named by the Seconds who have literally made it history already?

Timo Saloniemi

 

I'm going with "Creation of Balok as part of his test." The "First Federation" is only spoken of by Balok's puppet, not by Balok himself. When it's all said and done, we have no reason to suppose that the Enterprise was being conducted to a planet of the First Federation by the pilot vessel for any reason, especially as if there were more than one such planet, and therefore no reason to suppose that the First Federation exists at all.

 

Balok was pretty much a "Federation" of one. I wonder how the Fesarius would have fared against a Borg cube...

 

Yeah, Balok pulled a con on Kirk and co.

Kor

 

I always found Clint Howard's Balok to be more frightening than the puppet version to be honest! I wonder what he did to crewman Dave Bailey after The Enterprise left him on the cube?
JB

 

I saw a user name here called "Crewman Bailey Dissection" (or maybe a different rank) with an avatar of Balok laughing...

 

I was thinking maybe as soon as The Enterprise warped out of the area that Balok took Bailey to the laboratory too! But really back then I'd bet he escorted Bailey to the library and educated him on his race and their history and probably took him to one very big ice cream parlour on Vixnax V later on too!
JB

 

It was all a ploy because Balok craved the meat of sentient species. Lt. Bailey provided enough to last for several weeks, but then Balok had to find some other unsuspecting starship crew to get his next meal from.

Kor

 

I'm split between options 1 and 2. I don't think it was just a ploy by Balok. And judging by the ship and its size/capabilities I think it was built by a more advanced species. Though I wouldn't want them to be hugely more advanced than other A/B Quadrant powers.

 

Just gonna leave this here:

http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/The_Face_of_the_Unknown

 

Balok is a Ferengi merchant.

 

I love this episode-- it's the template for what Trek as real SF should be, I think, having a confrontation with the extremely alien and unknown... more about what's strange out there, rather than characters' careers .... I always feel a fast one is being pulled on us the viewers after this ep is over, and I start trying once again to think through everything we were shown.

Was the Enterprise able to assess the alien ships'weaponry and verify how superior they were? Would Balok have attacked? Without the Corbomite bluff, would the seconds have ticked away, with Balok then saying "Just kidding"? Did the Corbomite thing save them or not?

I don't think the huge ball is anything much other than a prop. Even so, imagine the resources needed to build it at that size. Some state has to be behind it, but as a substitute for space fleets.

When Balok says the small ship has an equal ability to destroy the Enterprise, doesn't it really sound like a clumsy bluff at that point, almost laughable? Though you don't know for sure that it's not true.

There has to be a society behind all this, or there wouldn't be a need or reason for all the elaborate preparations, which are half bluff, half real, probably. One guy tooling around on his own doesn't need to do all that.

 

If you have a main battle tank but not an ammo dump, five ammo trucks, two tankers, a repair van and seventy men to keep your tank running, then your best bet at the toll booth is to bluff...

OTOH, the Fesarius is probably above the threshold size and complexity to survive without a support infrastructure, perhaps for millennia if need be.

Timo Saloniemi

 

Someone somewhere... maybe here... suggested that Trill and Betazed were originally part of the First Federation. When the First Federation was incorporated or joined the UFP, those planets came along.

On some days I like this idea and on other days I like the idea that Betazoids were part of the Federation in the TOS era.

Emony Dax knew Leonard McCoy.

 

I used to wonder if Earth joined the First Federation which became the United Federation of Planets. That idea has been obsolete for decades, but it would explain why the Enterprise was called an Earth ship at first and later called a Federation ship.

And I did once write a story in which Balok went on a long quest and returned in the era of TNG and the hidden truth and real story of many Star Trek episodes and movies was revealed to Balok and the TNG characters, though the TNG characters had their memories of that wiped soon after.

The story did have a brief explanation of why the First Federation guarded its borders so strongly.

 

That's a clever idea. I wonder why I never came across it before.

 

I think the First Federation is a bunch of little baby men. They are very far off and we have not encountered them much sense.