Age of the Federation....

[Warped9]

Following Trek continuity as estanlished in the later series the Federation is said to have been established sometime mid 22nd century in the early 2160s. But if you go strictly by TOS there is a subtext that seems to imply the Federation isn't that old and might be no more than a few decades at that point.

Onscreen reference to the United Federation of Planets doesn't arise until the latter part of the first season in episodes such as "A Taste Of Armageddon" and "Errand Of Mercy." Prior to that the political authority of the Enterprise is quite vague. There is nothing prior to say there isn't a Federation yet there is nothing definite to say there is either. From the latter part of the first season onward the UFP, along with Starfleet, is firmly established.

In "Balance Of Terror" there is repeated reference to the Earth/Romulan war set a century prior. At this point in the series the Federation doesn't appear to be even an idea as it is something worked out later. But fans have somewhat retconned the (unintended) implication that the war with the Romulans was indeed with Earth (and its allies) and predates the Federation. And this idea has long been accepted in onscreen continuity.

But flash forward to TOS' third season and the subtext seems to get some support, particularly in the episode "Whom Gods Destroy." At that point Kirk makes reference to the Axanar Peace Mission and that it was a dream of statesmen that became a reality and made Kirk and Spock brothers (figuratively speaking). To me that could suggest the Federation was founded even within Kirk's liftetime at the time when he was a newly pledged cadet. That would make the Federation barely twenty years old at that point.

In some of the earlier novels the writers seem to pick up on this subtext because the impression seems to be the Federation was established sometime within the early part of the 23rd century--which would place it within only a few decades of TOS.

Given in the early part of TOS we were hearing references to the United Earth Space Probe Agency, Earth Central, Space Central and the like, yes, we could easily dismiss it as the series not yet having everything fleshed out yet. Or perhaps those are references that could support the idea the Federation was still relatively new.


Thoughts anyone?

 

[Christopher]

I don't give much weight to "Whom Gods Destroy." Even aside from the questionable merits of the episode and the general consistency problems of the third season, the specific "they had a dream" line is ambiguous enough to be read in a number of ways.

Since TOS was made up as it went, without any advance master plan, and since it was largely written by freelancers, there are bound to be isolated references that don't fit with the assumptions of other episodes -- like "The Squire of Gothos" implicitly placing TOS in the 28th century when everything else implied 22nd or 23rd, or "The Alternative Factor" claiming that dilithium powered the ship and antimatter was an extrauniversal phenomenon that could destroy reality, contradicting the previous and subsequent model that antimatter powered the ship and (di)lithium channeled the power. So it's unwise to put weight on a single isolated reference. Only if an idea is corroborated by more than one reference can it be taken as part of the overall working assumptions of the series.

Still, TOS did seem to be pretty vague about the Federation's age. The only reference I can find in the episode transcripts is in "A Taste of Armageddon" where Fox's lines about a treaty port in the sector suggest that the Federation is at least 20 years old. TOS does seem to imply that the Federation is a pretty well-established power with a sizeable number of worlds, suggesting it's been around for a while, but it is quite free of specifics.

On the other hand, the animated series has multiple references to the Federation's age. In "The Infinite Vulcan," Kirk tells Keniclius that the Federation has been at peace for over a hundred years. "The Slaver Weapon" corroborates that, with Sulu saying that the Federation has had weapons more advanced than a simple laser for over a hundred years. "The Lorelei Signal" mentions "Earth Federation" ships disappearing in the sector for more than 150 years, which suggests it's even older than canon later established (maybe Kirk meant to say "Earth and Federation ships"?) So that's one more thing we should give TAS credit for -- it was the first work to establish that the Federation had been around for a century or more before TOS.

 

[BillJ]

The Federation always felt quite young to me in TOS. Maybe only 20-30 years old.

 

[Warped9]

On the other hand, the animated series has multiple references to the Federation's age. In "The Infinite Vulcan," Kirk tells Keniclius that the Federation has been at peace for over a hundred years. "The Slaver Weapon" corroborates that, with Sulu saying that the Federation has had weapons more advanced than a simple laser for over a hundred years. "The Lorelei Signal" mentions "Earth Federation" ships disappearing in the sector for more than 150 years, which suggests it's even older than canon later established (maybe Kirk meant to say "Earth and Federation ships"?) So that's one more thing we should give TAS credit for -- it was the first work to establish that the Federation had been around for a century or more before TOS.

I'd momentarily forgotten about TAS. Then again it is post TOS so it is a spinoff production.

 

[Botany Bay]

The Federation always felt quite young to me in TOS. Maybe only 20-30 years old.

Agreed. After watching Whom Gods Destroy recently, I was thinking the same thing.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Great topic!

The Federation is definitely under 150 years old by TOS. When they meet the 150-years-out-of-his-time Zephram Cochrane in "Metamorphosis", Kirk says they're from the Federation, and Cochrane replies, "The what? Well, it doesn't matter." And when he's introduced to Spock, Cochrane immediately says, "You're a Vulcan, aren't you?", putting first contact with the Vulcans at least that far back.

When Kirk is describing the present day to Cochrane, he says, "We're on a thousand planets and spreading out. We cross fantastic distances and everything's alive, Cochrane. Life everywhere. We estimate there are millions of planets with intelligent life. We haven't begun to map them. Interesting?"

That line could be interpreted as either 1000 planets they've found with intelligent life, or the overall size of the Federation. I honestly like it either way.

In "Balance Of Terror" there is repeated reference to the Earth/Romulan war set a century prior. At this point in the series the Federation doesn't appear to be even an idea as it is something worked out later. But fans have somewhat retconned the (unintended) implication that the war with the Romulans was indeed with Earth (and its allies) and predates the Federation. And this idea has long been accepted in onscreen continuity.

I don't put too much stock in the Okuda Star Trek Chronology's interpretation of that line as meaning there was no Federation back then, if only because early TOS tended to use "Earth" as a basic shorthand for "Us." But I guess it gave them a good rationale for establishing a date for the UFP's founding, so, fine.

But flash forward to TOS' third season and the subtext seems to get some support, particularly in the episode "Whom Gods Destroy." At that point Kirk makes reference to the Axanar Peace Mission and that it was a dream of statesmen that became a reality and made Kirk and Spock brothers (figuratively speaking). To me that could suggest the Federation was founded even within Kirk's liftetime at the time when he was a newly pledged cadet. That would make the Federation barely twenty years old at that point.

IIRC, I don't think that the UFP logo/flag design was established until the third season. It's funny to think that so many of the things we think of as so basic to the ST universe today (like the Klingon ship design) came out of that beleaguered season.

But yeah, I'd say that most TOS episodes imply a shorter rather than a longer time span. But it's interesting to speculate on. That's a lot of what I like about TOS's approach to continuity. It's pretty open to interpretation.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

On the other hand, the animated series has multiple references to the Federation's age. In "The Infinite Vulcan," Kirk tells Keniclius that the Federation has been at peace for over a hundred years. "The Slaver Weapon" corroborates that, with Sulu saying that the Federation has had weapons more advanced than a simple laser for over a hundred years.

That line is corroborated by Carol Marcus in TWOK, when she says, "Starfleet has kept the peace for a hundred years. I cannot and will not subscribe to your interpretation of this event!" And that timeline jibes roughly with "Balance of Terror," where the Romulan War is said to be a hundred years before.

Sulu's line about lasers is contradicted by "The Cage," though, since Pike refers to his weapon as a laser. Maybe the phaser was in existence in the Federation already, but Starfleet was just slow to adopt it?

 

[Timo]

Starfleet had phasers in the backstory of "Obsession" already, so we could do the Okuda thing and decide that phasers were adopted between eleven and thirteen years before that TOS episode. Then again, by accepting "The Cage" as evidence, we're already moving outside the scope of TOS, in which case ENT enters the picture as well and gives us the true date for phaser introduction.

In any case, we can claim that Pike's lasers were the thing that superseded "simple lasers", or a step up that ladder anyway. Although personally I prefer the Swiss Starfleet Phaser interpretation wherein Pike's three-barreled sidearms had a separate laser barrel for heavy cutting work. Much like Archer's team had plasma rifles with a separate phaser barrel.

As for the Earth-Romulan war, UFP members are quite possibly entitled to their own wars. Or at least "Journey to Babel" shows a particularly disunited Federation where separate foreign policies are followed until an issue is forced to a vote.

I'm not sure I can really see signs of the "young Federation" model anywhere in TOS save for "Whom Gods Destroy" specifically. And even that one may simply be suggesting that either Earth or Vulcan was late in joining the venerable organization.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[T'Girl]

Given in the early part of TOS we were hearing references to the United Earth Space Probe Agency ...

The United Earth Space Probe Agency appears on the dedication plaque for the Enterprise B.

I don't think that the UFP logo/flag design was established until the third season

There were two flags present at Spock's courts martial in The Menagerie, one of which could have been the flag of the Federation.

When Kirk is describing the present day to Cochrane, he says, "We're on a thousand planets and spreading out. We cross fantastic distances and everything's alive, Cochrane. Life everywhere. We estimate there are millions of planets with intelligent life. We haven't begun to map them. Interesting?"

Given that Kirk was speaking to another Human, I think the use of "we" means Humans are on that many planets, and it isn't necessarily the numbering of Federation members.

Although the old FASA game had the Federation in the 23rd century at fifteen hundred members.

Whom Gods Destroy

Kirk could have been referring to a significant change in the Federation, and not it's creation. Axanar (sp?) could have been the Federation's "great patriotic war."

The Federation was brought closer together in a way that it wasn't before.

†

 

[Timo]

There were two flags present at Spock's courts martial in The Menagerie, one of which could have been the flag of the Federation.

Yup. Although it appears to have been the flag of Cuba in studio reality, the shade of blue with white stripes is sweet for the classic (that is, TOS movies/spinoffs) UFP flag look - and the triangle of red could be an added streamer, echoing the red banner from "And the Children Shall Lead".

What that light blue flag with gold trim is supposed to represent in retrospect is perhaps the more interesting question... United Earth? It's probably intended to be a dedicated Starfleet flag, with the banana/boomerang symbol peeking from one fold, but we don't see that sort elsewhere in Trek.

Kirk could have been referring to a significant change in the Federation, and not it's creation.

Or then we could take him literally. During the peace mission to Axanar, Cadet James T. Kirk and Instructor S'chn T'gai Spock became brothers-in-arms, even though it would take decades for their paths to cross again. Without that peace mission, both careers might have gone very differently, precluding all later crossing.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Christopher]

Although the old FASA game had the Federation in the 23rd century at fifteen hundred members.Kirk could have been referring to a significant change in the Federation, and not it's creation. Axanar (sp?) could have been the Federation's "great patriotic war."

The Federation was brought closer together in a way that it wasn't before.

I don't care for the assumption that war would be the thing that would bring a society closer together. Generally that turns out to be a myth -- uniting against a common enemy doesn't erase the causes of conflict between groups, it just puts them on hold and lets them fester for a while, and then they erupt with a vengeance once the common enemy is defeated. The US and the USSR were mortal enemies again within a couple of years after the end of their WWII alliance, and the tensions between American racial and religious groups that subsided during WWII became more overt and pronounced once the war ended.

Anyway, from what Kirk said, it wasn't the conflict at Axanar that spread the dream, it was the peace mission afterward. If anything, he seemed to be saying that it reaffirmed the Federation's commitment to peace.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Given that Kirk was speaking to another Human, I think the use of "we" means Humans are on that many planets, and it isn't necessarily the numbering of Federation members.

Could be!

Although the old FASA game had the Federation in the 23rd century at fifteen hundred members.

I'm sure that whoever wrote the FASA module just pulled that number out of their hindquarters.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

I don't care for the assumption that war would be the thing that would bring a society closer together. Generally that turns out to be a myth -- uniting against a common enemy doesn't erase the causes of conflict between groups, it just puts them on hold and lets them fester for a while, and then they erupt with a vengeance once the common enemy is defeated. The US and the USSR were mortal enemies again within a couple of years after the end of their WWII alliance, and the tensions between American racial and religious groups that subsided during WWII became more overt and pronounced once the war ended.

You must've loved the ending to Watchmen, Christopher.

 

[johnnybear]

I thought the conflict with The Romulans is what gave birth to The Federation in the first place? Weren't The Vulcans involved in that as well? Afterwards the surviving planets formed this idea to stave off another attack by other hostile planets!
JB

 

[Timo]

Might be. Or then the Romulans attacked Earth in a desperate attempt to disband the recently formed Federation before it was too late - and more or less succeeded, demonstrating that being part of the UFP meant committing to being targeted by random arch-enemies-to-be, and leaving the UFP weak and disunited. Until Axanar, perhaps.

For all we know, there were multiple wars going on simultaneously: the Earth-Romulus one, the Andor-Romulus one, the Vulcan-Romulus one etc. All parts of the UFP fought, but separately, showing how hollow the union ultimately was.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Christopher]

I thought the conflict with The Romulans is what gave birth to The Federation in the first place?

That's the current idea, but Warped9's point is that it has no precedent in TOS itself. The idea of the Federation hadn't even been conceived yet when "Balance of Terror" was written. So since it was called "the Earth-Romulan War," people concluded later on that it must've been before the Federation was founded, and that led to the idea that the Federation was founded right after the war. TNG established that the Federation was founded in 2161, and the Star Trek Chronology conjectured that the Earth-Romulan War immediately preceded it. And ENT established that the war hadn't begun yet as of 2155. So that narrows it down to sometime between those two years, in keeping with the Chronology's speculative dating of 2156-60 for the war.

Weren't The Vulcans involved in that as well? Afterwards the surviving planets formed this idea to stave off another attack by other hostile planets!

Except it couldn't be that simple. If the Federation were simply a military alliance growing out of war, how did it end up becoming such a peaceful, benevolent civilization? That was the focus of my first Rise of the Federation novel, as indicated by its title A Choice of Futures.

 

[Tomalak]

Might be. Or then the Romulans attacked Earth in a desperate attempt to disband the recently formed Federation before it was too late - and more or less succeeded, demonstrating that being part of the UFP meant committing to being targeted by random arch-enemies-to-be, and leaving the UFP weak and disunited. Until Axanar, perhaps.

For all we know, there were multiple wars going on simultaneously: the Earth-Romulus one, the Andor-Romulus one, the Vulcan-Romulus one etc. All parts of the UFP fought, but separately, showing how hollow the union ultimately was.

Timo Saloniemi

Seemed to me the Federation was supposed to be the UN, not the USA. The references to "Earth Starfleet" and whatnot make sense if you assume each planet is still more or less maintaining their own fleet. Even by the TNG days, it was very ethnocentric. Vulcans seem to like their own ships, as per Intrepid, Hera and T'Kumbra. I could imagine Andorian and Benzite majority Starships too, for example, which would make things more comfortable for their crews. Starfleet ships can't all be set to Earth standard temperature and gravity, can they?

 

[PhaserLightShow]

Starfleet had phasers in the backstory of "Obsession" already, so we could do the Okuda thing and decide that phasers were adopted between eleven and thirteen years before that TOS episode. Then again, by accepting "The Cage" as evidence, we're already moving outside the scope of TOS, in which case ENT enters the picture as well and gives us the true date for phaser introduction.

In any case, we can claim that Pike's lasers were the thing that superseded "simple lasers", or a step up that ladder anyway. Although personally I prefer the Swiss Starfleet Phaser interpretation wherein Pike's three-barreled sidearms had a separate laser barrel for heavy cutting work. Much like Archer's team had plasma rifles with a separate phaser barrel.

As for the Earth-Romulan war, UFP members are quite possibly entitled to their own wars. Or at least "Journey to Babel" shows a particularly disunited Federation where separate foreign policies are followed until an issue is forced to a vote.

I'm not sure I can really see signs of the "young Federation" model anywhere in TOS save for "Whom Gods Destroy" specifically. And even that one may simply be suggesting that either Earth or Vulcan was late in joining the venerable organization.

Timo Saloniemi

Based on new continuity, I believe those "Lasers" were just Phase Pistols and mentions to Phaser Development concerned Phase Weapons in general.

@PhaserLightShow

 

[JonnyQuest037]

That's the current idea, but Warped9's point is that it has no precedent in TOS itself. The idea of the Federation hadn't even been conceived yet when "Balance of Terror" was written. So since it was called "the Earth-Romulan War," people concluded later on that it must've been before the Federation was founded, and that led to the idea that the Federation was founded right after the war. TNG established that the Federation was founded in 2161, and the Star Trek Chronology conjectured that the Earth-Romulan War immediately preceded it. And ENT established that the war hadn't begun yet as of 2155. So that narrows it down to sometime between those two years, in keeping with the Chronology's speculative dating of 2156-60 for the war.

IIRC, you've reversed a couple of things in that sequence, Christopher. I believe that the Okuda Chronology speculated that 2161 was a likely date for the Federation's founding, and they then had Troi "confirm" that in dialogue in an episode of TNG. I guess they just figured it was time to start nailing all that stuff down.

It's very interesting to look back at all this stuff and see how the assumptions were different back in the 60s and 70s when we only had TOS to go on. What year did the Spaceflight Chronology use for the UFP's founding?

 

[Ithekro]

Several states in the United States are very state centric. For example, one could be a Virginian or say a Texan first, an American second. Something like that. It seems more so for some states than others, and varies depending on just how long a family has lived in that state.

The old date form the FASA/Spaceflight Chronology era was 2087. USS Enterprise being commissioned in 2188 and Kirk's Five Year Mission being somewhere around 2207.