Is the Federation actually Trek’s biggest retcon?

[Space Socialist]

Bear with me a moment, as I haven’t throughly (re)watched TOS in great detail since 2002. I just had a thought: Isn’t the whole concept of the United Federation of Planets actually a huge retcon? I remember unspecified “federation” is only mentioned as few as three times in the entire series, only once by its now-familiar full name sometime during the third season. The implication is also that the Enterprise is under the control of “Star Fleet Command” (itself subservient to “Star Base Command”) which is portrayed an Earth operation with token Vulcan crew members. I know that we didn’t even see the Federation’s familiar United Nations style logo until the first feature film, plus it being finally nailed down that the USS Enterprise is a ship belonging to Starfleet, the Federation’s stellar exploration force/space navy. Presuming that I haven’t made any big factual errors there, could the UFP actually be the biggest retcon in the entire Star Trek franchise?

(Yes, I’ll watch some more TOS to refresh my memory while it’s still available on Netflix.)

 

[Turtletrekker]

Well, the Federation wasn't a part of the show from the very first episode if that's what you're asking. I would hardly call it a retcon. A lot of little details hadn't been locked into place yet.

 

[fireproof78]

Presuming that I haven’t made any big factual errors there, could the UFP actually be the biggest retcon in the entire Star Trek franchise?

Yes, because the Enterprise started out as an Earth Ship, and had a lot of references to vague Earth politics and other planets and colonies. So, in a way yes it is because pre-TOS is now assumed to always have had the Federation for much of Star Trek shows, save for Enterprise, obviously.

 

[Citiprime]

TV TROPES: Early-Installment Weirdness

"Long-running series often have to experiment a little before they find their niche: sometimes there are concepts abandoned early on that were fascinating, either because they were potentially good ideas back then, or they just clash too much with the later tone of the series. In short, the first installment is like a prototype. The first rough draft for a book."​

"This is particularly common in television, where the pilot episode is usually filmed long in advance of a show's actual debut. This gives the studio and creative team a chance to evaluate what worked and what didn't and make significant changes, including replacing cast members. In particularly dramatic cases, a series can undergo something of a Retool between its pilot and the debut episode (if the pilot isn't the debut episode itself of course)."​

 

[The Wormhole]

I don't know if I'd say it's the biggest retcon, though I guess it is the most prominent. IIRC, the first definitive reference to the Federation doesn't even come until Arena and even then, throughout TOS it's not presented as anywhere near the peaceful and harmonious union it is in the other shows. I mean, Journey to Babel actually states half the Federation is on the verge of going to war with the other half!

To say nothing of the fact that Conscience of the King to say nothing of the fact that humanity actually conquered Vulcans. Curious the Gene's Vision crowd when arguing that humanity is supposed to be peaceful, evolved and enlightened conveniently ignore the fact that Gene Himself originally wrote humans as conquerors.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I can easily overlook that the Enterprise was initially referred to as an Earth vessel, because...well, the ship was built and launched from there. In that way, it can be looked at as a specific description that was used for a time before switching back to the more general one (a Federation ship).

 

[Avro Arrow]

throughout TOS it's not presented as anywhere near the peaceful and harmonious union it is in the other shows. I mean, Journey to Babel actually states half the Federation is on the verge of going to war with the other half!

For sure, the TOS version of the Federation was way more "United Nations in Space" than the "United States in Space" that it became in later shows. So much so that the delegates to the Federation Council were called "ambassador", rather than "councillor" or something similar.

 

[Dukhat]

I don't know if I'd say it's the biggest retcon, though I guess it is the most prominent. IIRC, the first definitive reference to the Federation doesn't even come until Arena and even then, throughout TOS it's not presented as anywhere near the peaceful and harmonious union it is in the other shows. I mean, Journey to Babel actually states half the Federation is on the verge of going to war with the other half!

I think you're taking things out of context.

MCCOY: "Sure. A formal reception tonight, a hundred and fourteen delegates aboard for two weeks, thirty two of them ambassadors, half of them mad at the other half, and the whole lot touchier than a raw antimatter pile over this Coridan question."

We have no idea if those 114 delegates, or the 32 ambassadors, are actually all Federation members. Sure, Sarek, Gav and Shras seem to be acting on behalf of their Federation member worlds, but we know nothing about the rest.

To say nothing of the fact that Conscience of the King to say nothing of the fact that humanity actually conquered Vulcans. Curious the Gene's Vision crowd when arguing that humanity is supposed to be peaceful, evolved and enlightened conveniently ignore the fact that Gene Himself originally wrote humans as conquerors.

Again, it's never stated that humans conquered the Vulcans. Only that the Vulcans were conquered at some point in their history.

 

[Sci]

The Federation is absolutely a retcon. The Enterprise was explicitly established as an Earth ship in "The Cage," "Where No Man Has Gone Before," "The Corbomite Maneuver," and other early episodes. For that matter, the space agency was originally the United Earth Space Probe Agency rather than Starfleet. Early TOS was full of retcons.

 

[The Wormhole]

We have no idea if those 114 delegates, or the 32 ambassadors, are actually all Federation members. Sure, Sarek, Gav and Shras seem to be acting on behalf of their Federation member worlds, but we know nothing about the rest.

The whole point of the conference was to determine if Coridan would get Federation membership. Be kind of odd if non-Federation members got a say in that matter.

 

[Forbin]

EUSPA was mentioned twice, I think, early on. By its full name in "Tomorrow is Yesterday," when Kirk is telling Cpt Christopher about themselves, then again later when Kirk mentions sending a report to EUSPA headquarters. I can't recall the first mention of the Federation, but there's that "UFP" flag in "The Children Shall Lead."

 

[Dukhat]

The whole point of the conference was to determine if Coridan would get Federation membership. Be kind of odd if non-Federation members got a say in that matter.

Wasn’t their entire admission based around dilithium mining rights? For all we know, the Federation ambassadors wanting Coridan to join (or not) were just a fraction of the attendees. Maybe even the Klingons were one of the factions interested in the mining rights.

 

[Tuskin38]

I would hardly call it a retcon.

It fits the classic definition of the word.

Retcons don't always alter things, they can also add things.

Like Spock having a brother in STV is a retcon, but it doesn't really alter any existing facts. No one ever said he didn't have a brother before that.

 

[Citiprime]

One aspect that's really important to this discussion. Both the Federation and Starfleet, as institutions within the story of Star Trek, were not creations of Roddenberry or the original production/writing team. Both were created by executive producer Gene Coon when he came onboard almost midway through the first season.

Coon created many of the most recognizable elements of Star Trek, and people like Shatner have argued his influence on what we know as Star Trek and TOS was immense.

• Created/named Starfleet and the United Federation of Planets
• Introduced the Klingons, Gorn, Khan and the Eugenics Wars
• He named/introduced the Prime Directive and Zefram Cochrane

 

[The Wormhole]

He named/introduced the Prime Directive

People always say that, but that's not really true. The Prime Directive was introduced and named in the original script for The Omega Glory, one of the first scripts written (it was a potential pilot, after all).

But otherwise, yes, Gene Coon was the one behind what everyone today considers the essentials of the franchise.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

One aspect that's really important to this discussion. Both the Federation and Starfleet, as institutions within the story of Star Trek, were not creations of Roddenberry or the original production/writing team. Both were created by executive producer Gene Coon when he came onboard almost midway through the first season.

Coon created many of the most recognizable elements of Star Trek, and people like Shatner have argued his influence on what we know as Star Trek and TOS was immense.

• Created/named Starfleet and the United Federation of Planets
• Introduced the Klingons, Gorn, Khan and the Eugenics Wars
• He named/introduced the Prime Directive and Zefram Cochrane

Gene Coon was the better Gene.

Off the top of my head, I'd say that Spock going from the slightly emotional "Vulcanian" with the odd sense of humor who had an ancestor who married a human female to an unemotional half Vulcan whose mother was human is probably the biggest retcon.

 

[maneth]

What counts as a retcon, exactly? During the first season, the writers were still seemingly making things up as they went along. I know there was a writer's guide, but the second edition containing more detailed info about the characters and their backgrounds was written by Dorothy Fontana between the first and second seasons. So I'm taking any statement about a regular character in the first season as a hypothesis that can be either proven or disproven later, and I consider the Vulcanian stuff as disproven by later developments.

 

[WarpTenLizard]

TOS aired in a time when continuity was far less important in TV shows. The entire show was constantly retconning itself, as it figured itself out.

 

[Owain Taggart]

I would hardly call it a retcon. A lot of little details hadn't been locked into place yet.

This. I wouldn't call it a retcon if they hadn't figured out what they wanted to do yet until they decided on a unified concept. They were figuring it out as they went along, and it's why early episodes will get references to United Earth Ships, including the Enterprise itself. The idea of a retcon itself means changing something, which they weren't really doing.

 

[fireproof78]

All a retcon is is the idea of "retroactive continuity" i.e. the Federation has always been there. It's always been this way. Darth Vader was always Luke's father.

The Federation is clearly not present early on, but once it is introduced we are to act as though it's always present. That is the nature of a retcon.

It's not good; not bad. It just is, and often a part of stories.