Let's that be the exception that proves the rule. It was bought up solely as an explanation for the "Bones" nickname and I found it a little strained. How could she have taken him to the cleaner's in a world without money? Remember that Kirk gives away his scooter!
Mrs McCoy got custody of his Federation transporter allowance in the divorce Unpopular opinion - The Federation allowing the Earth based/human dominated organisation Starfleet to be their dominant space fleet and first line of defence is nonsense. Also if there is an in universe United Earth state I doubt the old nation states disbanded their armed forces to join a US based set up.
They did after the United States, possibly with help from the UK and Canada, won WWIII. Maybe the US used "secret alien tech" to survive the nuclear holocaust.
Based on the First Contact movie it looked WWIII was a draw. For what you suggest to happen China and Russia need to be wiped out, do not underestimate their strong sense of nationhood. Its a bit cocky to assume North America and Western Europe won.
Don't let the primitive Montana life style fool you. Cochrane said he invented the Warp Drive for good old hard cash. The U.S. is still a capitalist system with some sort of an economy. We never see any urban/city scenes. Based on the TOS movies and TNG, San Fransisco, New Orleans, Leningrad (St. Petersburg), London and Paris survived intact, so, I assume there are plenty of people living normal-ish life styles in the Western Hemisphere. Additionally, the probability that any nuclear missile silos survive a real nuclear war is slim to none, so, no or limited nuclear impacts at least in the western U.S. I don't think the eastern seacoast was mentioned in TOS or TNG, especially Washington D.C., so, it might be toast. People from China and the Middle East seem least represented in TOS and TNG, so, maybe the U.S. toasted them first.
Am I the only one who thinks the whole idea that it took a nuclear holocost and contact with the Vulcans to get our shit together is kind of depressing and shitty?
Because in TOS they still have a monetary system of some kind. Also, why would Kirk care about his scooter? He is demonstrated to be highly cavalier in his attitude towards most things early on the film. That does not automatically mean "no money!" Nope, I'm with you on this one. I wrote about it in another thread that a clean reboot would allow a change to the timeline that doesn't involve such bleak future events to get us to that point.
So, is it a truly "Unpopular Trek Opinion"? (Note this is a game to present the most unpopular Trek opinions...) If so, then I'm in the lead with my WWIII nuclear war opinion. Yeah.
Unpopular Opinion: "First Contact" doesn't make any sense. If something like the "warp drive" is ever devised it will be by putting together the resources of the whole planet in a thriving economy. But the idea that a group of people in a shantytown could be the place where it could happen is beyond ridiculous. Plus remember that even before he got to warp, he was moving at 30,000 kilometers pers second.!!! At an acceleration equivalent to ten times Earth's gravity, it would take three days to get to that speed!!! what kind of fuel is he using!!!
And knowing human nature it makes more sense, ok its a fictional Earth future but the adults of Cochran's era are being raised by the adults of today... Meditate on that! How many generations does it take to change cultural attitudes, definitely more than one without outside pressure. Also Star trek is an American show based on the premise in the future the rest of the world will socially and culturally be a foreign version of the USA... LOL I guess youtube can help that along. Perhaps the next reboot will read the book Federation for inspiration, its a much better origin story than the FC movie IMO.
Or just one country with a history of innovation, that was largely uninvolved with the world war. I don't thinbk the people in the shanty town weremeant to be the ones building the warp ship, they were more "camp followers" who arrived to supply a bar, mabe a restuarant and a whore house. The professional builders were in the underground support facilities ajacent to the silo. Twenty thousand, which is still ... odd. Maybe they were using the warp drive at a low setting. Or, maybe Riker meant to say twenty thousand meters per second, which is still damn fast, but not stupid fast.[
From what I gather from real warp drive, IE the one that has a small chance of ever being used. Increasing your speed is irrelevant. The ship would not be moving at all, it would be immobile in a warp bubble and it's the warp bubble IE space that would be moving. So increasing your speed is just a waste of energy and counterproductive.
Miles and Keiko union of bliss was stormy at times, and I seem to remember them living apart during one season.
If there's a nuclear holocaust around 2050 (as is said in ST) then it's more than probable that the Earth will revert to barbary for the next decades and not become a utopia. Mad Max kind of stuff.
Only because Keiko was part of a science expedition to Bajor. And she didn't do that because of strife with Miles, it was to further her career as a botanist.
As @Vger23 said how optimistic. Humans get to paradise, after going through hell. It's a version of human based upon evolution. Only the strong get to the Federation paradise.