Whatever happened to the Federation in the future...

shouldn't have happened because a single (big) event, but because of a series of smaller events over a really long time.

 

How I love threads that are simply a single statement.

 

I wanted to write just a single statement at the beginning of this thread to keep the discussion about this as open as possible.

 

We'll find out soon enough!

 

Whatever happened to the Federation should indeed not have happened...

because how the hell do you go from Daniels to this?

The Federation of Daniels' era has complete mastery of time travel. There's no way a civilization like that can fall - they should have seen it coming.

About the only thing I can think of is that this is some kind of alternate timeline, one where Daniels and his ilk never existed. Perhaps the timeline will be restored and it'll lead to the future Federation we saw (glimpses of) in ENT.

 

The purpose of the time cops is to monitor time incursions - not to make sure the Federation is a galactic superpower for all eternity.

And it still seems to exist in some form in the century that Discovery is headed to.

 

Just like the Time Lords?

 

Well.. Daniels isn't federation.. At least not Starfleet. He's something else.
So there was no information of what the federation was in the 31st century. Only a monument.
So it could easily have been in the mist of a collapse. Or, something happened during the time in between.
If going from the current events, it's likely that the federation went more and more towards " policeman of the galsxy" and were involved with wars and skirmishes all around the galaxy, or galaxies. And people just got fed up and left the federation because they were sending there kids to far away places to die in some unknown war.

 

I think the federation got infiltrated by some mothers from Facebook who are involved with some MLM marketing business. The Federation then became so annoying to it's neighbours and allies that they all ganged up and turned on the feds.

 

The season 3 trailer implies Burnham spends a year looking through time for an event she could undo in order to fix the future but with no success.

 

It has always been easier to destroy something then to build it. The fall or decline of the Federation can happen either slowly or overnight depending on the situation. The Federation is not and should not been immune to that.

As for Daniels and crew they're clearly not all powerful since they needed help from Archer, etc. They can fail in their mission and even then they're responsible for making sure no one changes time. If the fall or decline of the Federation is a natural process they shouldn't factor into this. As said it's not their job to make sure the Federation last for an eternity. Even then the future is always being rewritten in Star Trek until we get to that point in time. The future Daniels showed could very well have been undone by a number of things and is a non-factor completely.

 

This is what happened to the Federation. Charlton Heston returns through archival footage because no one besides he can properly deliver, "DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!!!!!!!!"

 

They clearly saw it coming, but nothing they did could stop it?

 

Exactly.

A society that has absolute control over time travel, should be able to stop literally any threat. So why didn't that happen?

 

So this is after Daniels then? I was just wondering about that the other day.
How long after Daniels time is the new era for Discovery?

 

DSC S3 takes place in 3187, Daniels' time was in the 31st Century or 3001-3100. So, if Daniels was in the early-31st Century and Discovery is now in the late-32nd Century, they might actually be almost two centuries apart.

 

Daniels was from 900 years in the future...Archer's future, so about 800 years from Discovery and 130 years before Discover S3.

 

They still were fighting battles, so not all threats were completely manageable.

 

What happened to the Federation? They had their own version of Brexit. Planets started closing their borders. Some asshole in charge of the Federation made some really dumb choices that made other races want to distance themselves from it.
That's why there are so few stars left on the Federation flag. It's a reflection of the times we live in.