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What are your controversial Star Trek opinions?
- Thread starter Amasov
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I've seen some pieces in the past argue the Federation/United Earth might be some sort of technocracy. Basically, if you've built a society where the betterment of mankind is the motivating force that's replaced capitalism in terms of economics, then that would imply a form of meritocracy where the elites are those that either have technical knowledge (i.e., scientists) or those that can apply that technical knowledge in a way that would make them unique (e.g., the ability to captain a starship and interact with the unknown). So you could make an argument for a version of the Federation where it's not exactly a representative democracy.
Here's an interesting question ... In most of Star Trek, the powers of the Federation and the authority of Starfleet comes from the Federation Council. Are there elections for the people that sit on the Federation Council?
Canon suggest they're NOT elected to those positions, since TOS explicitly says T'Pau is the only person who "turned down" a seat on the Federation Council, implying she didn't stand for election. The wording suggests she was offered an appointment to the Council and said "no."
Jaresh-Inyo in DS9 said his people voted him onto the Federation Council so I'm guessing at least some member worlds have open democratic ballots for representation on the Council.
duh duh-duh duh duh-duh
Actually, they're all at least being listened to, 24/7. The computer is always ready to execute voice commands.
"Court Martial" establishes that they're all being watched at least some of the time, in certain areas of the ship (by why not all the time, everywhere, at least aboard ship?).
I know, because I built it.
Coinbits.
My wife and I have just started watching the show (second time for me, first for her).
We're watching the finale tonight. *sniffle* Third time for me.
Surprisingly few Star Trek actors. Casey Biggs showed up. If Galaxy Quest is the best Star Trek movie then I suppose we can count Enrico Colantoni.
What show are you guys talking about?
Person of Interest
Another one of the zillions of shows on my "started to watch, got sidetracked, need to finish" list.
If you were on board with both of those things it was amazing. If you were there for the procedural it got pretty far out by the end. If you wanted the sci-fi then you probably weren't watching by the time it became your best show.
But if you liked the whole thing and you were mostly there for Michael Emerson (at first anyway)? Whooo doggy what a ride!
Plus it's like "What if Batman was John Wick, only less kill-y." Among LOTS of other things. (Really, given the series' creator it's almost a Nolan Batman companion piece.)
Also if you look closely when Seven is fighting off those pirates at the start of the season, you can see the Mariposa emblem on the medical supplies.
The emblem also shows up on objects on Beverly's ship in S3.
The MCU movies don't show the origin story, he's just already Spider-Man when he first shows up.
I can't remember if it's ever brough up in conversation on how he became Spider-Man.
Huh. I had no idea. I may check it out.
He talks about it with Ned when Ned finds out in Homecoming. (The best Spider-Man movie.)
The Mirror Universe was somehow cosmically linked to the Prime Universe before Kirk’s and Sisko’s interventions. The linkage is the reason they could have wildly altered events but the same people still came to exist in both.
But after Kirk’s and Sisko’s actions, the universes moved apart and the ability to crossover closed because they could no longer be mirror images of each other. The alterations caused by our side became too great in the Mirror Universe for the same people to exist in both universes.
But after Kirk’s and Sisko’s actions, the universes moved apart and the ability to crossover closed because they could no longer be mirror images of each other. The alterations caused by our side became too great in the Mirror Universe for the same people to exist in both universes.
I looked at it as an Elseworlds where Alfred was the billionaire genius and Bruce was the hired muscle but they had to use pseudonyms because a costume was too silly.
The problem, of course, is that technical knowledge is not an indicator of good leadership -- and that leadership in extremely technically-oriented environments like a starship is a totally different skill from leading a sovereign state.
That's really not enough to infer that the Federation Council is unelected. For one thing, it could be that T'Pau was just that popular on Vulcan that her election as Federation Councillor for Vulcan would have been a sure thing. There's a real-life precedent: George Washington was elected* U.S. President, but he was so popular that everyone knew he would be elected in advance.
Another scenario: Sometimes a member of a popularly-elected legislature can be appointed in specific circumstances. Some states in the U.S. allow their Governors to appoint U.S. Senators to fill vacancies in the U.S. Senate, for instance. Federation Councillors may generally be elected, with the exception of those appointed to fill a seat if someone dies in office before the next election.
Third scenario: Some legislatures use different selection processes for multiple chambers. In the Parliament of Canada, for instance, members of the House of Commons are popularly-elected to represent their ridings, but members of the Canadian Senate are appointed by the Governor General on the advise of the Prime Minister. In Germany, the Bundestag is popularly-elected, and the Bundesrat consists of state officials who hold office in the Bundesrat ex officio. So maybe the lower house of the Federation Council is popularly-elected while the upper house consists of unelected officials who are either appointed or hold seats ex officio.
Anyway, we know from DS9's "Homefront" that the Federation Councillor for Grazer is popularly-elected, and we know from "Paradise Lost" that the Federation President is popularly-elected. This is confirmed again in DIS S4's "Kobayashi Maru."
* Well, "elected" by the standards of a 1790s white supremacist slaver classist colonialist patriarchy, anyway.
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