there are a few things that are bothering me, and apologies in advance if these topics have been covered elsewhere. For one thing the show seems to be acknowledging and ignoring Trek cannon at the same time. Mentions of Q, irumodic syndrome, Maddox, arbitar of succesion are awesome but in the same breath they use money now? A Federation that abandons an entire species? A species that was a crucial ally not 25 plus years earlier in a galactic war and who aided the Enterprise in saving the Earth from a rogue Romulan? I know changes are made for entertainment value but the Federation not helping a race on the verge of being wiped out just doesn't mesh with the Roddenberry vision. I'm hoping we get more of an explanation to this changed philosophy as the show goes on because overall I do like it.
See Pen Pals (TNG) and Homeward (TNG) for examples of where Federation policy leans towards letting races get wiped out.
To be fair, we have seen instances of currency being used or mentioned on TNG, such as Beverly having a bolt of fabric charged to her account on the enterprise in Encounter At Farpoint.
The Roddenberry vision is a pile of coke-fueled 1970s crap. It's about time Trek became real. I find Picard to be the most sincere Trekverse vision of the future to date.
True. it makes me wonder though how he forgot what the spirit of TOS was all about when he made The Motion Picture. TOS showed us the most utopias were stagnant and sterile with no chance for individual growth, then TMP comes along to show us how perfect everything is until big bad v'jur comes along to mess it up.
There's nothing about this that's a "vision of the future" unless one is living in 1950. Like most science fiction involving space ships and aliens it's just an anachronistic fantasy with techie decorations. That said, it's a damned good TV show so far.
True, but I always had the impression that starfleet gave out a stipend to officers when dealing with non federation planets.
Another thing, in the Dominion War Betazed was conquered for crying out loud the Federation was going to lose. Sisko even said it. If not for the intervention of the Romulans it was over. In Picard the current group of admirals would almost all surely be combat vets from the war with memories of camaraderie towards certain Romulans who also served. Surely they would have problems with abandoning former allies like this? I understand for the show to work it had to have happened I would just like a better explanation of why. What happened post Nemesis to have a Federation that would abandon them like this?
If that country had a nuclear meltdown, or was invaded, or had an earthquake, or was hit by a Tsunami we would still send help though.
The Soviets were the first to Berlin in WWII. Didn't make the US and USSR best friends after the war.
these allies @Bad Thoughts wrote about, were invaded the very next day and the US stood by and applauded. No help was sent
You don't have to be best friends but this is still Star Trek we're talking about, and a Federation not sending humanitarian aid, just does not jibe (imo) with any version of the Federation that we've seen before. Sure we've seen the occasional episode with the evil captain or the rogue element, but overall the majority abandoning a species like this? I don't think so. Hell the Klingons have always been the bigger threat and enemy yet in Trek 6 when they were facing similar circumstances the Fed was there to help
The Romulans didn't join the war to do the Federation a favour, they joined because they thought the Dominion had killed one of their politicians. It was an alliance of convenience for them. They were perfectly content to let the Dominion cross through their space to attack Federation ships patrolling the neutral zone. Starfleet Command never trusted the Romulans to maintain the alliance, that's why Admiral Ross had Senator Cretak taken care of, because she was patriot who would have supported a Romulan-Dominion alliance if it was a better option for her people. In nemesis we saw one Romulan Commander come to aide the Enterprise. We saw a lot more support Shinzon's coup. It's entirely possible that the new Praetor was not interested in diplomatic relations with the Federation and that they went back to a cold war.