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What are your controversial Star Trek opinions?

So why is it so bad to be labeled a "Hybrid Organization" vs a Pure Military Force?

What is it about that label that you don't like?

It does include the Military bit inside it as part of it's core duties.

We're not denying it's existence or application.
It's incorrect reasoning.


I know you will understand this: It's like Who's The Boss Season 3 Episode 15, when Geoffory has to decide between reason when his car is destroyed by Angela, or his heart, in wanting to keep a suitable mating partner. He's forcing Tony to be judge and jury on this. Now Tony could simply have relied on his past experiences as a baseball player to give him some kind of authority in this situation that he simply did not have, but that would have been wrong and even more damaging. I don't have to tell you the decision Tony made, of all people, but we can both agree he made the right one. And he didn't reach it by putting false and incomplete facts into the hands of the people who depended on him just to reach a premise that he'd stuck his neck out on already. Be like Tony.
 
But they were on a Scientific Away mission that turned into a Combat Situation. Am I right about that?
No not at all. A Private Little War is a Vietnam allegory. Everything about that episode was militarily and politically themed. There wasn't anything scientific about that episode.
And as I'm typing this, I am realizing we are approaching the 30th anniversary of Learning Curve.
That DS9 episode where Dr. Bashir is in a funk over his thirtieth birthday aired thirty years ago.
 
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I know you will understand this: It's like Who's The Boss Season 3 Episode 15, when Geoffory has to decide between reason when his car is destroyed by Angela, or his heart, in wanting to keep a suitable mating partner. He's forcing Tony to be judge and jury on this. Now Tony could simply have relied on his past experiences as a baseball player to give him some kind of authority in this situation that he simply did not have, but that would have been wrong and even more damaging. I don't have to tell you the decision Tony made, of all people, but we can both agree he made the right one. And he didn't reach it by putting false and incomplete facts into the hands of the people who depended on him just to reach a premise that he'd stuck his neck out on already. Be like Tony.
I watched it as a kid, but not religiously, you know way more about "Who's the Boss" than I do.

If this was "Friends" or "Wings", I can tell you more about it, but that wasn't a show that I followed to the n-th degree.
 
Words have meaning.
I concur.

Starfleet fits the meaning of military.
I agree, StarFleet can easily be classified as a military if you look at it in a simple view based on how it's structured.

But given that Captain Jean-Luc Picard is one of the most important Captains in StarFleet History, second to James. T Kirk.

Shouldn't his assessment of StarFleet during his time carry weight?

You did say "Words have meaning".

Why would the "Poster Captain" of StarFleet say that if there wasn't some truth to what he's saying?

That his statement isn't just his "Personal Opinion", there is some truth, weight, & validity to what he is saying along with why he is saying it?
 
  • KIRK: So, they've broken the treaty.
  • SCOTT: Not necessarily, Captain. They have as much right to scientific missions here as we have.
  • KIRK: Research is not the Klingon way.  
  • SCOTT: True, but since this is a hands-off planet, how are you going to prove they're doing otherwise?


I also found this interesting tidbit re Spock:

M'BENGA: We've no replacements for the damaged organs, sir. If he's going to live, his Vulcan physiology will have to do it for him.

So the organ regeneration pills from TVH don't exist yet, are out of stock, or don't work on Vulcans/Spock's particular damaged organs - replacements or recovery are the only options. Unless by "replacement", he means medical machine assistance. They aren't available/able to regenerate Picard's damaged heart, either.
 
Starfleet Logic:

> ENT-D has hundreds of organic children directly in line of fire by the Borg
> I sleep

> ENT-D gets an inorganic child created by their precious inorganic commander
> "Get that Soong type android in the lab, Warp 10!"

But Lore keeps running free.
 
The overexposure of the Borg is what happened when a series (TNG--that was as about as interesting / exciting as TMP overdosing on a warehouse filled with sleeping pills) needed to mainline great concepts to save itself. TNG's showrunners knew it needed to milk the one, non-sleep inducing concept to death in order to keep viewers from dozing off to the adventures of Captain Tea-drinker, Mr. Adjust-a-Shirt or the "advanced" Mannequin (oh, please--the Old Ones' android technology was far more advanced than Data). From there. it was Borg, Borg, Borg and more Borg, and it will never end.
Not to mention Flint's android.
 
Picard and crew sure doesn't treat it like a military in the Golden Age of the 24th century.

Captain Jean-Luc Picard famously said on Star Trek: The Next Generation episode 'Peak Performance' "StarFleet is not a military organization, its purpose is exploration".

So if Picard, who is very high up in rank, comands the FlagShip of the Federation says it isn't a "Military Organization"?

Then what is it?
See, the problem is that Picard, for all the virtues he definitely has, is rather pompous and often full of shit.

He can claim that Starfleet is not a military organization. However, he also is in command of a ship powerful enough to obliterate a planet. Most exploratory organizations don't have that kind of firepower.
 
So you rather just call it a Military, and be done with it?

You don't like the other labels?

I see exactly what you are saying. Starfleet is primarily an exploration entity. That was their primary purpose in Archers time. They exolore strange new worlds, seek out new life and new civilizations to boldly go where no man
...no one has gone before. They are explorers before military when there isnt a hostile species attacking or looking for war. The phasers and weapons they carry are for defense when exploring. Now if there is war with other species starfleet is the entity that engages the enemy so that makes them a militsry force as well. But during peace time they revert back to an exploratory entity. I always have gotten the feeling even in the time of Kirk that they they think of themselves primarily as explorers and not military even though thsas what they are trained for as well. Kirk has called him self a explorer and soldier before. In TNGs time we get even more of the explorer vibe. This dichotomy started in Archers time. Archer was all wide eyed about exploring early on and was disheartened at how hostile so many species were. Thats why we see MACOS later. Archers crew at the time is clearly not military but has defensive trainiing. The MACOS are highly trained military. By Kirks time we see more military aspects of Kirk and crew but even than they aren't trained on the scale of the MACOS because their prime mission is still one of exoloring. So I see starfleet as primary explorers that are military as well when needed but these crews prefer exploration much more than being a military force. It just happens that space is dangerous and that starfleet has learned from Archers time that they need to be a force to be reckoned with when attacked.
 
See, the problem is that Picard, for all the virtues he definitely has, is rather pompous and often full of shit.

He can claim that Starfleet is not a military organization. However, he also is in command of a ship powerful enough to obliterate a planet. Most exploratory organizations don't have that kind of firepower.

Probably just trying to make himself feel better about the organization he is part of.

Probably left quite the death count in his wake as a starship captain.
 
I also found this interesting tidbit re Spock:



So the organ regeneration pills from TVH don't exist yet, are out of stock, or don't work on Vulcans/Spock's particular damaged organs - replacements or recovery are the only options. Unless by "replacement", he means medical machine assistance. They aren't available/able to regenerate Picard's damaged heart, either.
And McCoy coudln't heal the internal damage to Miramanee, either.
 
See, the problem is that Picard, for all the virtues he definitely has, is rather pompous and often full of shit.

He can claim that Starfleet is not a military organization. However, he also is in command of a ship powerful enough to obliterate a planet. Most exploratory organizations don't have that kind of firepower.
Most Exploratory Organizations aren't dealing with the "Great Unknown" that deal with potential Aliens of the Week that are WAY more powerful than itself.

Despite how powerful his arsenal on the Enterprise-D or Enterprise-E was, many of the Aliens he encountered were far stronger and better equipped than he was with even greater firepower.

You might think it's "Too Dangerous" or "Too Powerful", but what StarFleet has are "Pea Shooters" compared to the potential Aliens they deal with each week.

Probably just trying to make himself feel better about the organization he is part of.

Probably left quite the death count in his wake as a starship captain.
Are you sure you're thinking of the correct Picard?

We're talking about Admiral Picard AKA Captain Jean-Luc Picard that we've all watched and grew up with.

Not "General Picard" of the Confederation TimeLine.
 
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