John Harrison 
Khan was married. Who performed the ceremony?
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If you establish an unaffiliated colony on a new planet, you are the law. It's official if whomever is in charge of the colony deems it to be legal. Khan's not going to deny legitimacy to his own marraige.
But isn't this all a bit academic? He thought they were starting a new society in exile with no hope of leaving the planet in their lifetimes, so their marriage is as official or not as they want it to be. I doubt they were too concerned about the proper paperwork being filed.
But isn't this all a bit academic? He thought they were starting a new society in exile with no hope of leaving the planet in their lifetimes, so their marriage is as official or not as they want it to be. I doubt they were too concerned about the proper paperwork being filed.
I mean, that depends on whether or not you view Khan's government as legitimate. If you don't recognize it as a legitimate government, then Khan is just some guy living on a planet with cult members who obey him and not a real head of government. So, like, sure, the Federation could make some argument if it wanted to that Khan's and Marla's marriage was null under Federation law because there was no legitimate government on Ceti Alpha V.
But, also, yeah, this is a fairly abstract argument, since it's not like the Great Khanate of Ceti Alpha V requested diplomatic recognition from the Federation or anything. For all practical purposes, Khan and Marla were married, and Khan himself certainly viewed his regime as a legitimate government with the authority to legally marry his subjects and himself.
Given that Kirk was acting under authority vested in him by Starfleet Command when he presided over the hearing where Khan, the rest of the supermen, and Marla were granted the privilege of founding a colony on Ceti Alpha V and all criminal charges were dropped against them, that would be absurd.
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say Khan didn't give a flying frig if his marrige was sanctioned by the United Federation of Planets or whatever.
As a Star fleet Officer, shouldn't McIver's be the Military Governor of the Tau Ceti Penal Colony?
She would be a prisoner, too. And it's Alpha Ceti.
That all depends if Kirk took the time to court martial Marla, or if Kirk listed Alpha Ceti as a Penal Colony.
If neither happened, then no one is a prisoner, and Marla McIver is still a Lieutenant.
Jim Kirk is not a king,
Every decision and order he commits, is picked apart by those above until his shoot from the hip antics are ratified, or there's a court martial to find out if Jimmy is a little overzealous or a complete tyrant.
Khan is too dangerous to part of the official record.
If neither happened, then no one is a prisoner, and Marla McIver is still a Lieutenant.
Jim Kirk is not a king,
Every decision and order he commits, is picked apart by those above until his shoot from the hip antics are ratified, or there's a court martial to find out if Jimmy is a little overzealous or a complete tyrant.
Khan is too dangerous to part of the official record.
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Since all charges were dropped, Marla was not court-martialed and Ceti Alpha V cannot have been a Federation penal colony.
However, it may have been the understanding of those who launched the Botany Bay that the supermen would, either officially or in effect, establish a penal colony, if they ever made it any place (and the Ceti Alpha star system could even conceivably have been their originally intended destination), being isolated from the rest of humanity as the price of their defeat. That's because the first British colony in Australia was at Botany Bay, and it was originally intended to be a penal colony, but that location was unsuitable for colonization and the location was abandoned in favor of Port Jackson, a few miles to the north [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botany_Bay#European_history_and_later].
If she agrees to the discharge/demotion.
You can argue anything in court.
In Greg Cox's novel, the sleeper ship was stolen from the flat line humans.
So the unfortunate name, was just a coincidence.
You can argue anything in court.
In Greg Cox's novel, the sleeper ship was stolen from the flat line humans.
So the unfortunate name, was just a coincidence.
I was unaware such things are up for discussion.
I don't think there's any evidence the Ceti Alpha V settlement was legally designated a penal colony under UFP law. And even if it were, you'd just be giving her an empty, meaningless title, since there would literally be no one to enforce such a title if it's just her and her "inmates."
I'm pretty sure that under Federation law, the settlement on Ceti Alpha V was just a politically unorganized settlement with no legitimate government or legal structure present.
why would the federation give a shit at all? and what would that mean anyway? lose some tax excemptions? being not allowed to attent mass?
i alway considered the marriage kirk officiates kinda strange to say the least (one of the plot holes you can drive a conny through)
... why would they want to come back*? isn't letting them rott better than being in need of carpet bombing them?
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* in my head canon the concequence of aknowleding they are where they are - those people need help, right? the federation has only two official ways to deal with them
- rehabilitation
- see them as a thread and give them the dalek treatment
- pretent you know zilch about them (thatone is not official and the best course of action as they most likely become extinct in a generation or two anyway)
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So Kirk could go to jail for dumping those "human beings" on a rock, in the middle of nowhere, where there's a fair chance that they will all die?
If there was a record, then Reliant wouldn't be contemplating detonating a genesis bomb in the same star system.
Did Kirk kill a lot of people he didn't like and regard it as a perk?
what's the alternative? to hang them from the yardarm?
Not if marooning convicted criminals is an acceptable sentence under Federation criminal law far away from starbases and Federation worlds.
Why not? As long as it was planned for Ceti Alpha IV instead of V, there'd be no issue.
With Khan's overbearing personality, he performed a ceremony if there even was one.
