Vulcan Citizenship/Vulcan's Status In UFP

[Jbarney]

Was just wondering about what the state of both of these are going to be moving forward and several thoughts come to mind.

Will Vulcan still be a UFP member? And if they are still to be a member world, what about votes that happen before their new world is set up? Anybody with a heart would say yes they should maintain their status, but would any new Vulcan colony world really meet the requirements to be a member of the UFP? I imagine there are population requirements or other benchmarks that would need to be met....I just wonder what he implications mean for the future of the Vulcan race.

 

[Count Zero]

I highly doubt the UFP would punish the remaning Vulcans for the genocide that happened to them. I'm sure New Vulcan would be a UFP member. I imagine it would be like the transferral of China's seat on the UN securiity council from Taiwan to China.

 

[kythe]

I don't believe we've seen evidence that population has anything to do with requirements for Federation membership. We have seen that planets must be technologically advanced, at least having attained warp speed on their own. They also must be peaceful and united (no warring factions on the planet, etc).

They only way I can see population factoring in is in terms of what they can provide to the Federation. The Federation protects its members, but I'm sure each member is expected to make some kind of contribution in return. In Vulcan's case, they are established to be among the best scientists in the galaxy. I'm sure this would continue to be true whether there were many or few of them.

 

[Jeri]

As a founding member, Vulcan's billions will certainly be missed. In ENT, we relied on the Vulcans an awful lot.

I'm thinking it might even weaken the Federation some; could be interesting story fodder. It would be a natural conflict to have non-Federations try to take advantage of us having a guy in the penalty box.

 

[Silversmok3]

Cold as this statement may seem,a society structured on logic would be the best choice to experience such a calamity .Most other civilizations would be severely pissed off at having their home destroyed,and would react accordingly.AKA,retaliation.

But Vulcans don't play that game,and I'd imagine they'd become even more powerful within the UFP than before.With their old home vaporized Vulcans would be motivated to discover and refine scientific advances even faster than in the 'prime' reality.

 

[Jbarney]

I don't believe we've seen evidence that population has anything to do with requirements for Federation membership. We have seen that planets must be technologically advanced, at least having attained warp speed on their own. They also must be peaceful and united (no warring factions on the planet, etc).

They only way I can see population factoring in is in terms of what they can provide to the Federation. The Federation protects its members, but I'm sure each member is expected to make some kind of contribution in return. In Vulcan's case, they are established to be among the best scientists in the galaxy. I'm sure this would continue to be true whether there were many or few of them.

I can accept that population numbers may not be a benchmark for meeting UFP membership status, but I still have to wonder what the political implications are going to be.

I keep wondering about scenarios where a key vote is going to be held in the UFP, and lets face it.....its totally logical to assume that a Vulcan Ambassador would NOT be present to vote during the aftermath of the destruction of their planet.

I don't imagine punishing Vulcan would be the way I would describe it, I would rather think it would almost be like non participation for some time. And I wonder about the implications of that.

 

[trampledamage]

I keep wondering about scenarios where a key vote is going to be held in the UFP, and lets face it.....its totally logical to assume that a Vulcan Ambassador would NOT be present to vote during the aftermath of the destruction of their planet.

I think this will make for a good jumping off point for whatever crisis the Enterprise needs to fix in the next movie.

The Vulcans are going to be distracted by setting up their new home, and I can easily see them taking the view that the UFP can manage without them for a few years.

 

[Jbarney]

I guess they could set it up where they still have an Ambassador (Sarek) working with the UFP to make sure that everything is going well with respect to helping Vulcan out....but when you think about the specifics there are a lot of questions.

1. Can a now homeless Vulcan race just transfer their planetary "status" to another world?

2. Does population have any impact on status in the UFP. I discounted it a little before, but this brings up the House vs Senate scenario in our own system of government. Should the worlds with larger populations have more say in the leadership of the UFP. If that is so, Vulcan's voting power was just diminished significantly.

3. In the movie it already says they are working to set up a new world.....Vulcan must have colony worlds already....was it one of them? When does a colony world merit becoming a UFP member and no longer under the government of their original planet? Like Mars?

As you suggest the answers to these questions could be explored in the next movie, but I hope they are really fleshed out in the novels.

 

[Aashlee]

I don't have input on this right now, but I have to compliment the OP's intriguing question! Very thought-provoking, interesting!

 

[trampledamage]

As you suggest the answers to these questions could be explored in the next movie, but I hope they are really fleshed out in the novels.

Oh I can't wait for the new timeline novels to get up and running. I find movie novelisations to be disappointing, so I'm waiting for a new line of original stories.

I guess I'd better start hanging out in Trek Lit again to keep up on the plans!