Age of the Federation....

[Ithekro]

Given current UN laws, it would make sense for their to be a UESPA first and no official military organization that is operating outside the national militaries until United Earth gains enough support to get its own military officially. This is done years later. Starfleet could emerge as a sub-division of UESPA that handles anti-piracy duties and the like that are far outside the national governments reaches. Like a pseudo Peacekeeper group of the UN, but with the name Starfleet. This one operates under UESPA as that organization has all the rescources to deal with long distance communications and already has the facilities on various human planets. Basically it is cheaper to use UESPA than to start fresh.

Over time, Starfleet becomes more independent, but the national governments do not what it to take over, so the keep in under the UESPA heading as a political move. By the time of the NX-01, Starfleet is more or less the main force, but still under the UESPA title officially. This might have changed had Enterprise and Captain Archer not been actively trying to form an inter-species Alliance that eventually became the Federation.

After the formation of the Federation, Starfleet is moved out from UESPA to became Earth's part of the Federation military structure using their remaining starships and other vessels from the Romulan War. UESPA continues on until the end of the 23rd century when its duties are rolled up into the enlarging Federation Starfleet. USS Excelsior being one of the last starships to operate under UESPA. UESPA likely goes away as more and more members join the Federation and make it more reduntant than it already was. Earth's contribution to the Federation not needing to be as large as it once was.

 

[Christopher]

Given current UN laws, it would make sense for their to be a UESPA first and no official military organization that is operating outside the national militaries until United Earth gains enough support to get its own military officially. This is done years later. Starfleet could emerge as a sub-division of UESPA that handles anti-piracy duties and the like that are far outside the national governments reaches. Like a pseudo Peacekeeper group of the UN, but with the name Starfleet. This one operates under UESPA as that organization has all the rescources to deal with long distance communications and already has the facilities on various human planets. Basically it is cheaper to use UESPA than to start fresh.

Maybe it was originally the United Earth Space Probe Agency Star Fleet, and that got shortened to United Earth Starfleet.

After the formation of the Federation, Starfleet is moved out from UESPA to became Earth's part of the Federation military structure using their remaining starships and other vessels from the Romulan War. UESPA continues on until the end of the 23rd century when its duties are rolled up into the enlarging Federation Starfleet.

But "Charlie X" and "Tomorrow is Yesterday" established that the Enterprise answered to UESPA, even though Starfleet had been established by the time of the latter episode. So I think it makes more sense to assume that UESPA is a division of the Federation Starfleet, as I have it in the novels, rather than an independent group.

 

[Timo]

"Charlie X" only established that Kirk would report the loss of the Antares to UESPA, probably much like he would inform the Vulcan Science Academy of the loss of the research vessel T'Boldly-Go.

Indeed, assigning the Antares to UESPA while not assigning the Enterprise would help clear up what exactly Ramart's ship ought to be called. Kirk refers to her as a Science Probe vessel exactly once, while speaking of a transport otherwise. Perhaps that's the formal name for all ships operated by the UE Science Probe Agency, rather than a mission description? And since it's Space Probe elsewhere, not Science Probe, Kirk is getting it wrong in one case or the other - which wouldn't happen if his own ship were similarly designated!

And if Kirk is just lying to Christopher to soften the futuro-shock with the name of the first Earth organization he can think of, this is where he might more plausibly get it wrong and it's actually Science Probe. I mean, a log entry is something he could edit and re-edit to perfection, especially if it's one of those "letter to grieving parents" type things.

Given current UN laws, it would make sense for their to be a UESPA first

But the current UN is severely outdated well before our first glimpse at UESPA. Even the rules of the New United Nations in the 2030s appear to be thrown out of the window by 2079, with "United Earth nonsense" abandoned.

The succession of international organizations would probably resign to the fact that space is thoroughly militarized in the early 21st century already...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[SpaceLama]

The original series gave me the impression that the Federation developed some time well after Earth achieved star flight on it's own - that Earth was already trading with other races of similar power, such as the Vulcans, and perhaps their mutual commitment to peace led to a Federal Union developing between them long after.

But the continuity as it exists today is fairly clear:

- The Vulcans made first contact with Earth, but were vastly more advanced
- The peoples of Earth united into a single government
- The United Earth Space Probe Agency, Earth's equivalent of NASA, formed
- Starfleet was the astronaut corps of this organisation
- Earth, Vulcan, Andor and Tellar formed a common union
- Earth's Starfleet became the military of the United Federation of planets
- However the UESPA continued to be an independent body until Kirk's era
- Thus referring to the USS Enterprise as an 'Earth vessel' was correct

This course of events is both good and problematic. In my youth, I thought that Starfleet must be a mutual endeavour; with equal contributions from all Federation members. In hindsight, and with experience reading history, I know that the idea that the UESPA remaining an independent body within a larger union is a distinct and natural possibility (see how France maintains CNES whilst participating in the European Space Agency). But at the same time, the idea that all other states relied on Earth Starfleet alone, is problematic. Earth might have been the leader, and biggest contributor, of a NATO/Delian League, but Vulcan was shown as far more powerful (one of ENT's many problems of course).

A potential solution is that Earth Starfleet became the Federal military, but states like Andor retained their own forces. The novels attempt to explain this by arguing Earth's victory in the Romulan Wars accounts for the disparity of influence - but this seems unlikely, unless Andor and Vulcan were devastated by some Romulan pearl-harbour.

 

[Ithekro]

Vulcan seems to become more pacifistic as time goes on. I wonder if they reduced the size of their fleet in an effort of diffuse the situation with the Andorians and left the Humans to maintain the peace between the two worlds as at least Archer was shown to be fair to Andor while also coming to understand, somewhat, Vulcan. Combined with what was probably a glut of ships from the Romulan War, Earth maintain a large fleet, but technologically inferior to Vulcan and Andor's forces.

Perhaps part of the Federation Charter, or a related document resulted in a disarmament treaty between Vulcan and Andor.

 

[Longinus]

Do you seriously think it would not?

No I don't, apart the fact that there is absolutely no reason to put weapons on spacecraft today.

And that's my very point - the UE Ministry of Defense would be the organization bossing over UESF, not some silly agency with a misleading name.

You're hung up on the name. It is an organisation which purpose has evolved while the name has stayed the same. Not unusual at all.

The logo supposedly is on the carpet of a building that has Starfleet Command symbols on the outside, without any hint of UESPA there.

The building flies a flag that may or may not feature the UESPA text, but it's a flag they don't normally fly. Perhaps they put the carpeting in place for their rare UESPA guests, too?

It is probably on that huge logo on the side of the building as well. Stop bending over backwards in attempt to ignore clear evidence (this goes to your later comment that Kirk was purposefully lying as well.) It may not be clear what exactly is the relationship between UESPA and Starfleet, but it is pretty clear that they're meant to be parts or facets of same organisation.

Why was Ramart?

Why wouldn't he?


If few early TOS episodes would have been the only mentions of UESPA, I would chalk it up to early installment weirdness and just forget whole thing, but the writers haw kept mentioning the organisation, so they clearly intended it to play a part.

 

[Timo]

There seems to be couple of premises or underlying assumptions here that happen to be utterly false.

1) A space research and astronautics agency would evolve into (featuring) a military organization.

It's too late for that, by five millennia at the very least. Militaries are done evolving; they don't need to sprout from other organizations any more. Indeed, they never did that! It's perhaps not possible to completely prove that the war chariot force did not come to existence as a subdivision of the United Egypt Study of Ponies Agency, given how much time has passed since. But we can easily see that air forces did not emerge from aeronautical research organizations; that submarine forces did not emerge from oceanographic research organizations; and that space forces do not emerge from space research organizations. The military is already there, typically preceding civilian research organizations by quite a margin.

For Starfleet to belatedly emerge as the "military wing" of UESPA simply beggars belief. Especially in Star Trek, where Earth's nations by all rights would have had spacegoing battleships in the 1990s already.

2) UESPA would play a role in ENT.

It doesn't. We can count dialogue references to the organization. There are zero of those. We can count characters associated with the organization. There are zero of those. We can count plots and events affected by the organization. There are zero of those.

UESPA appears once in ENT, on a decorative pattern of a carpet! We don't even know whose carpet it is. A Minister is leading the proceedings in which various alien representatives, at least some of them Ambassadors, partake; Starfleet is invited in only in a "glad you could make it" fashion, and watches from afar, awkwardly standing on some stairs. This is a complete reversal of anything that we would have previously witnessed, and it amazes me that anything as absurd as "UESPA is the boss of Archer" could be derived from this.

It is an organisation which purpose has evolved while the name has stayed the same. Not unusual at all.

What you are actually saying is that it is an organization that has usurped the position of a necessarily preexisting one, namely the Ministry of Defense. It would be pretty damn difficult to do that even to the Ministry of Silly Walks, and the Ministry of Defense bears arms!

It is probably on that huge logo on the side of the building as well.

Except it isn't. It's nowhere in ENT, except on that carpet.

It may not be clear what exactly is the relationship between UESPA and Starfleet, but it is pretty clear that they're meant to be parts or facets of same organisation.

Given the extremely minuscule non-role played by UESPA here, for all of two minutes if we are being generous, there's no real difficulty in figuring out how insignificant that organization is in comparison with Starfleet.

If few early TOS episodes would have been the only mentions of UESPA, I would chalk it up to early installment weirdness and just forget whole thing, but the writers haw kept mentioning the organisation, so they clearly intended it to play a part.

And by adding all that damning evidence, they made clear that it was a bit part.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Christopher]

- Earth's Starfleet became the military of the United Federation of planets
- However the UESPA continued to be an independent body until Kirk's era
- Thus referring to the USS Enterprise as an 'Earth vessel' was correct

I don't understand where you get the idea that UESPA is independent of Starfleet, given that the Enterprise was said to report to both bodies interchangeably in season 1. How could it have two independent masters? Doesn't it seem more likely that UESPA is part of Starfleet?

Also, as I've said, I don't agree with the assumption that the Federation Starfleet is the exact same entity as United Earth Starfleet. Again, "Starfleet" is a very generic name, akin to "Navy" or "Air Force." I prefer to treat the UFP Starfleet as a hybrid of all the founders' space exporation and/or defense services. Which doesn't preclude the idea of the Enterprise being an "Earth vessel," if we assume that Starfleet maintains various subdivisions based on distinct homeworlds.

A potential solution is that Earth Starfleet became the Federal military, but states like Andor retained their own forces. The novels attempt to explain this by arguing Earth's victory in the Romulan Wars accounts for the disparity of influence - but this seems unlikely, unless Andor and Vulcan were devastated by some Romulan pearl-harbour.

That isn't at all what the novels have established. The Romulan War novels explained that the Vulcans dismantled their military fleet as part of the pacifist reforms that swept Vulcan after the rediscovery of the Kir'Shara (Surak's true writings). My Rise of the Federation novels have established that the Andorian Guard remained an equally important part of Starfleet to the UESPA fleet, with the Andorians taking the primary responsibility for defense of the Federation while the UESPA division focused more on exploration. (The later decline of Andorian presence in Starfleet is implicitly explained by their reproductive crisis and population decrease as portrayed in the Deep Space Nine novels from 2001 onward.) I established that the Tellarites never had much of a fleet of their own (since the only Tellarite ships we saw in ENT were reuses of pre-existing digital models, suggesting that the Tellarites bought ships from others rather than building their own), so that their role in Starfleet is more in a logistical and support capacity, basically the merchant marine. And Alpha Centauri, being a colony world, never had as big a space force as the others, and mainly serves in a support and financing capacity, like how some of the smaller European Union countries contribute to the European Space Agency.

Combined with what was probably a glut of ships from the Romulan War, Earth maintain a large fleet, but technologically inferior to Vulcan and Andor's forces.

My novels show how the Federation Starfleet combines the technologies of the various member worlds. Keep in mind, according to ENT, the Vulcans and Andorians had technologies Earth Starfleet lacked, including deflector shields and tractor beams as well as faster warp drives. But Federation Starfleet ships have all of these technologies. So it stands to reason that the UFP Starfleet is a combined service, and that, regardless of the outward appearance of the ships, their technologies come from multiple worlds, not just Earth. (And I did offer an explanation in A Choice of Futures for why Earth-style ship designs were better-suited for multifunction exploration/defense ships of the type that became the norm in Starfleet, while Andorian and Vulcan High Command designs were more suited for combat exclusively. Since Starfleet ended up becoming less war-oriented and more exploration-oriented, it tended to favor Earth-style designs outwardly, but combined with technologies of non-Earth origin underneath.)

If few early TOS episodes would have been the only mentions of UESPA, I would chalk it up to early installment weirdness and just forget whole thing, but the writers haw kept mentioning the organisation, so they clearly intended it to play a part.

Well, it was never mentioned in TOS after the first season. Both references to it were in D.C. Fontana scripts, so it was evidently her idea alone, and it gave way to Starfleet by the second season. There were no further canonical references to UESPA until Generations and afterward, and those were exclusively Easter eggs inserted in dedication plaques and other set dressings by the art department, rather than anything actually mentioned in the scripts. So, no, the writers did not keep mentioning the organization. The writers don't create the set decorations and graphics. It's probably Michael Okuda alone, and maybe Doug Drexler, who revived the idea of UESPA.

http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/United_Earth_Space_Probe_Agency

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Well, it was never mentioned in TOS after the first season. Both references to it were in D.C. Fontana scripts, so it was evidently her idea alone, and it gave way to Starfleet by the second season. There were no further canonical references to UESPA until Generations and afterward, and those were exclusively Easter eggs inserted in dedication plaques and other set dressings by the art department, rather than anything actually mentioned in the scripts. So, no, the writers did not keep mentioning the organization. The writers don't create the set decorations and graphics. It's probably Michael Okuda alone, and maybe Doug Drexler, who revived the idea of UESPA.

That's part of what makes those early episodes of TOS so intriguing, to my mind. The writers are trying a bunch of things, and figuring stuff out as they go, and some of the stuff sticks and some of it doesn't. It's the same as what any show does, but a science fiction show has more to figure out than most. A show like M*A*S*H or Friends or CSI doesn't really have figure out the history of the world they exist in, because they nominally exist in our world. They just have to figure out what sort of stories work for them and what character dynamics work best. They're creating a cohesive world for the show, sure, but they aren't burdened with things like figuring out the terminology to use and what happened when.

In the case of developing Mr. Spock's personality and history with his parents, what D.C. Fontana did "stuck." With UESPA instead of Starfleet, not so much.

 

[Kevman7987]

I always felt that the UESPA & Starfleet were two separate organizations. UESPA was a research organization that had Starfleet do science stuff for them while out in deep space. Eventually with the formation of the UFP, the UESPA just asked the Federation to assign their research needs out to the Starfleet to collect for them. The UESPA stayed as sort of a governmental body for Earth's remaining science programs. Eventually (post TOS) they did away with the UESPA as unlike the Vulcans and their Science Ministry, Earth no longer needed to have a science organization separate from the Federation's.

 

[Warped9]

UESPA is mentioned twice early in TOS. We don't have to blow it out of proportion particularly given how prominantly Starfleet Command becomes in terms of being established as the Enterprise's direct operating authority. And when one reads GR's description of the Enterprise's overseeing chain of authority (in his Writer's Guide) there is no mention whatsoever of UESPA.

If we accept UESPA as an Earth centric agency then we have no idea when it was established or for how long it exists into the future. It could well still exist in the TNG era only we've never heard mention of it.

 

[SpaceLama]

I don't understand where you get the idea that UESPA is independent of Starfleet, given that the Enterprise was said to report to both bodies interchangeably in season 1. How could it have two independent masters? Doesn't it seem more likely that UESPA is part of Starfleet?

That's because I didn't say that at all.

I distinctly said Earth Starfleet and the UESPA are the same organisation in ENT.

I speculated that Starfleet was a division of UESPA, but that was a minor detail.

I was referring to their place in the subsequent Federation - the United Earth Space Probe Agency still being occasionally mentioned as the "mission controllers" (if you like) of the NCC-1701 in TOS, despite Kirk being a citizen of a Federal Union of many species. I.E. I am suggesting they remained independent contributors to the Federation's overall spacefaring efforts, rather than being totally eliminated by some grand federal agency that took up all member's spacefaring duties (something that may have eventually happened before TNG). Similar to how an individual space programme might provide mission control for a larger joint mission; NASA/Canaveral acting as exclusive mission controller for a joint NASA-ESA mission maybe. It would explain's Kirk's use of terms indicating he thought of the USS Enterprise as being an Earth vessel, despite this term being so species centric.

I believe either one of the novels, reference books, or perhaps an author contributing here, speculated as much, so I can't claim credit for this logical idea (that fits real experiences of cooperation in a very naturalistic way, as it happens). It might have offended my younger absolutist self that the UFP didn't have a more logically centralised federal structure responsible for all space expeditions (and symbolically respective of all member's equal right to space) - but I don't care so much any more.

(And I did offer an explanation in A Choice of Futures for why Earth-style ship designs were better-suited for multifunction exploration/defense ships of the type that became the norm in Starfleet, while Andorian and Vulcan High Command designs were more suited for combat exclusively. Since Starfleet ended up becoming less war-oriented and more exploration-oriented, it tended to favor Earth-style designs outwardly, but combined with technologies of non-Earth origin underneath.)

What a pity you had to perform such acrobatics, and work backwards to justify an established fact.... ....the fallout of ENT's visual, historical and design choices continues. Rather choosing a primitive Babylon 5-like time of early warp ships using "atomic weapons", we got a Starfleet that already uses the layout of later Federation vessels - and you have to go back and retroactively 'fix' it into the setting, by arguing they are somehow better shaped for exploration than other species general designs, and mere skins over a cosmopolitan internal mechanics. I may appreciate ENT more now, but many fans will continue to lament this aspect of it's contribution. I think before ENT, everyone assumed the Federation was a union of relative equals, who together produced the iconic shapes of the Constitution class via academic collaboration, rather than an adoption of one design aesthetic by everyone.

 

[Christopher]

I was referring to their place in the subsequent Federation - the United Earth Space Probe Agency still being occasionally mentioned as the "mission controllers" (if you like) of the NCC-1701 in TOS, despite Kirk being a citizen of a Federal Union of many species. I.E. I am suggesting they remained independent contributors to the Federation's overall spacefaring efforts, rather than being totally eliminated by some grand federal agency that took up all member's spacefaring duties (something that may have eventually happened before TNG).

But that's what I don't get. Nobody's saying UESPA was "totally eliminated" before TOS, since we're trying to explain the mentions of UESPA in TOS season 1. The point is that the Enterprise was said to report to both UESPA and Starfleet at different times, so doesn't it make more sense that UESPA is part of Starfleet, rather than assuming that a single ship is somehow overseen by two separate agencies?

Similar to how an individual space programme might provide mission control for a larger joint mission; NASA/Canaveral acting as exclusive mission controller for a joint NASA-ESA mission maybe. It would explain's Kirk's use of terms indicating he thought of the USS Enterprise as being an Earth vessel, despite this term being so species centric.

I suppose that's possible, except that VGR: "Friendship One" established that the UESPA logo in the 2060s was the familiar Starfleet arrowhead turned on its side. So the insignia used by the TOS Enterprise and various other 23rd century ships, and later adopted by all of Starfleet, was originally the UESPA insignia. To me, that suggests that UESPA was an integral part of Starfleet.

What a pity you had to perform such acrobatics, and work backwards to justify an established fact.... ....the fallout of ENT's visual, historical and design choices continues. Rather choosing a primitive Babylon 5-like time of early warp ships using "atomic weapons", we got a Starfleet that already uses the layout of later Federation vessels - and you have to go back and retroactively 'fix' it into the setting, by arguing they are somehow better shaped for exploration than other species general designs, and mere skins over a cosmopolitan internal mechanics. I may appreciate ENT more now, but many fans will continue to lament this aspect of it's contribution.

I don't care to be so negative. When faced with a problem, you can either whine and carp about it and get all holier-than-thou, or you can apply imagination and effort to actually address it in a constructive way. And I have no patience for people who think that the former approach is somehow more righteous or legitimate. It's not a pity that I "had to" use my imagination, any more than it's a pity that an athlete has to use her muscles and her dexterity. Fans have the luxury to just sit around and complain uselessly; I'm a professional and it's my job to create and to solve problems. That's not a pity, it's a privilege.

If you'd actually read my books and understood my reasoning, rather than just pre-emptively condemning what you don't understand, you'd realize that my decision wasn't arbitrary. It actually made sense to me. For instance, I believe the disk-based designs favored by Starfleet are more efficient than the long, narrow designs used by the Vulcans and Andorians in the ENT era, because a circular or spherical shape is more compact, so personnel or resources don't have to travel as far to get to any given part of the ship. Also, the more circular plan allows for a greater versatility in arranging internal space, to accommodate different mission profiles as needed. The main advantage of a long, narrow design is that it reduces the forward profile, which is mainly valuable for reducing the silhouette one presents to an enemy. So it makes sense to me that that design would be better suited to combat than to multifunction use. That's why I decided to explain it in those terms -- because, to me, it arose organically from the evidence. Nobody forced it on me. I enjoyed coming up with the explanation, because that's what I've always done even back when I was just a fan. My motto about these things has always been "Don't complain -- explain."

Really, one thing I've never cared for about any Trek incarnation is the randomness of starship design, the way different species' ships have such different structures. Realistically, form should follow function. So coming up with an actual reason why different civilizations favor different ship designs, and a way to explain why different designs are better suited to different requirements, was something I was glad to do.

 

[J.T.B.]

But that's what I don't get. Nobody's saying UESPA was "totally eliminated" before TOS, since we're trying to explain the mentions of UESPA in TOS season 1. The point is that the Enterprise was said to report to both UESPA and Starfleet at different times, so doesn't it make more sense that UESPA is part of Starfleet, rather than assuming that a single ship is somehow overseen by two separate agencies?

I don't think it's that far out. There are operational and administrative chains of command, and they can be quite different for a particular vessel. This is pretty common with combined allied forces, for instance, "back in my day" a US Navy frigate might be "owned" by COMDESRON SIX in Charleston SC, but be operating in the Mediterranean as part of NATO's NAVOCFORMED under an Italian admiral. In the same fashion, Starfleet could "own" the vessel, but UESPA could be in charge of what it's doing.

"Our authority" could be short for operating authority, and could be literally true as well as useful for emphasizing "Earth" for Capt. Christopher's benefit.

Back in the days when the world was still being explored, it was fairly common for naval vessels to be detached for scientific missions, for instance the Challenger oceanographic expedition of the 1870s was organized by the Royal Society but used a Royal Navy vessel and crew.

We might speculate that TOS occurred around a transitional period, when formerly separate agencies and functions were being consolidated under the Federation Starfleet. I have also speculated that the science division "blue shirts" were descended from civilian personnel who handled the research side of things, later to become full-fledged Starfleet members; that might fit with Dr. Dehner's record in WNMHGB which identifies her as "PhD" but without a rank.

 

[Christopher]

^That's a fair point, but I think the UESPA insignia becoming the Starfleet insignia kind of rules it out.

 

[johnnybear]

I like to think that events depicted in Enterprise take place in an alternate reality due to the temporal cold war being waged at the time (forgive the pun) and Berman and Braga definitely had no interest in TOS!
JB

 

[INACTIVEUSS Einstein]

@Christopher - he wasn't condemning you, he was condemning one aspect of an entire show, whilst also praising others.

 

[Warped9]

I like to think that events depicted in Enterprise take place in an alternate reality due to the temporal cold war being waged at the time (forgive the pun) and Berman and Braga definitely had no interest in TOS!
JB

That's essentially how I see it--FC and ENT happened in some other continuity.

 

[Christopher]

I like to think that events depicted in Enterprise take place in an alternate reality due to the temporal cold war being waged at the time (forgive the pun) and Berman and Braga definitely had no interest in TOS!
JB

That's completely not true. The intent of Enterprise was always to lead into the Trek continuity we knew, which is why it did so many episodes setting up elements from TOS and later. The Temporal Cold War was forced on Berman and Braga by the network, over their objections. They wanted to do a straight prequel, but the network was uncomfortable with that and wanted to include elements that went forward from TNG/DS9/VGR. So Berman & Braga tossed in some vague time-war stuff that they didn't really have any investment in or any coherent plan for, then spent as little time focusing on it as they could get away with and eventually ditched the whole thing. Frankly I wonder if they deliberately did a half-hearted job with the time-war stuff so that the network would eventually decide it didn't work and allow them to stop doing it. Because what they wanted, what they intended, was to set up the existing continuity. Any perceived difference in execution is a matter of differences in storytelling style and individual creators' interpretation, just like TOS, the movies, TNG, and the rest all have their own differences in style. Every single followup to TOS has been dismissed by some fans as an alternate reality. Three and a half decades ago, there were people who insisted that TMP and TWOK had to be a separate reality from TOS. After all, they argued, the technology was much more advanced-looking, the Klingons had a totally different appearance, Khan knew Chekov somehow, Starfleet was more militaristic in TWOK, etc. How could it possibly be the same reality with all those differences? But the truth was that the differences were a matter of style and interpretation, as is inevitable in any work of art that comes from multiple hands. They were still meant to be representations of the same continuous whole.

 

[RAMA]

The canon age is 37.5789003 years. The cannon version is 76 shells.

RAMA