DTI comic series
- Thread starter Yevetha
- Start date
Interesting thoughts. But it has been established (by me in Ex Machina, for instance, and a bit elsewhere) that there is a civilian Federation Security department that might be responsible for such things. Keep in mind that the FBI/DTI analogy is not exact, given the narrow purview of the latter agency. The DTI is a fairly small, specialized organization, officially an organ of the Federation Science Council. Maybe something like the DEA or ATF would be a better analogy than the FBI.
And keep in mind that characters like Lucsly and Dulmur are Special Agents, which is pretty much the top tier in departments like the FBI or ATF. They are trained in enforcement, self-defense, and the use of firearms, they pack phasers, and they have the power of arrest. They're far from toothless if force is needed.
Ummmm... no. Maybe you're thinking of the Starfleet Temporal Integrity Commission from the 29th century. The DTI, again, is a civilian organization, an investigative department within the government. I'm sure it has some government-owned ships at its disposal, just like the FBI has cars and the INS has boats. But it doesn't have a "navy," because a navy is a military organization.
And the DTI doesn't recruit from Starfleet. At least, I haven't established any DTI agents who are former Starfleet officers. They have some Starfleet personnel and resources at their disposal when needed, but those personnel are still members of Starfleet (military), not members of the DTI (civilian).
Interesting thoughts. But it has been established (by me in Ex Machina, for instance, and a bit elsewhere) that there is a civilian Federation Security department that might be responsible for such things. Keep in mind that the FBI/DTI analogy is not exact, given the narrow purview of the latter agency. The DTI is a fairly small, specialized organization, officially an organ of the Federation Science Council. Maybe something like the DEA or ATF would be a better analogy than the FBI.
And keep in mind that characters like Lucsly and Dulmur are Special Agents, which is pretty much the top tier in departments like the FBI or ATF. They are trained in enforcement, self-defense, and the use of firearms, they pack phasers, and they have the power of arrest. They're far from toothless if force is needed.
........
Interesting points, but, if you look at the structure of "smaller" agencies like the DEA or ATF, they also have "special units" who are meant to assist their "street" agents with difficult situations or arrests...and even for the most highly trained and/or experienced "special agents" in the FBI or ATF (or like Lucsly and Dulmur), there are some situations or arrests that require more force than any single (or duo) of agents can respond with. That's why such "special units" exist in those agencies. The goal is to overwhelm the "arrestee" so that they don't have a chance to resist, or they want to minimize his/her/its resistance, so that the individual agents and members of the special units are not endangered as much. And, again respectfully, it seems to me that with an organization like the DTI, no matter how well trained or equipped any one or two agents may be, some of the individuals they have to confront and/or arrest would be just too much for those agents, thus requiring the "special units" I refer too...and that's also partly why the DTI may not want to give Starfleet the chance to get their hands on said individuals or technology, because of the power those individuals have to affect the timestream. And that's part of the system of checks and balances built into our government...you don't want to give either the civilian or military parts access to too much power/resources lest they use that power for improper purposes, as we have seen can and does happen even in the Star Trek universe.
So, I think my point is still relevant...the DTI should have access to "special units" to deal with difficult situations and individuals, when those times are more than the individual street/special agents can handle, and when the situation may be too "delicate" to allow Starfleet to "blunder" into.
OH, and I fully agree that Lucsly and Dulmur aren't "toothless", but neither are the FBI special agents who do most of the grunt work of that agency...the on the street type of investigation that L & D do for the DTI...but there are just times when more resources or firepower/tactics are required for some arrests and confrontations, than the individual street agent can bring to bear. And even with a sometimes overwhelming governmental structure like the Federation, even they want to protect their employees/agents as much as possible, given the amount of time, money/credits, and experience that goes into training and maintaining those agents, and what it would mean to the individual organizations to lose those agents if the proper resources aren't available to support those agents. My point being, the DTI and the Federation would want to do everything possible to protect its employees/agents, and give them everything reasonably needed to let them do their jobs properly and still be protected. That said, as everyone know, what's "reasonably needed" to support those agents varies depends on who's doing the interpreting, so one reason those special units aren't available to the DTI is because someone(s) in the civilian oversight government to the DTI decided they can just use current (Starfleet) resources for support, to save time and money, despite the (sometimes) obvious cross purposes those organizations have. Although since you bring up the civilian Security agency the Federation uses (which I had forgotten about) it seems to make more sense (to me anyway) to have them "backup" the DTI agents with "special units" when the situation requires it, to avoid those cross purposes with Starfleet (and conversely, there are times when Starfleet may be the better choice, for various reasons, which could set up some rather dramatic confrontations between the DTI agent on the scene and the assisting Starfleet captain, when each is operating under different and opposing orders). And using the civilian Security agency for these purposes would allow the DTI to maintain that "small" structure you mention, and still have the proper resources available to do it's job without always involving the military/Starfleet.
(And thank you sincerely for responding so thoughtfully to my post, Mr. Bennett...I was afraid I would step on some toes with my comments and I'm glad to see you seriously thought about them, in relation to the way you've constructed the structure of the DTI!)
I see no reason why the DTI as I've defined it couldn't have such a special unit; it just hasn't come up.
But let's remember this is fiction. The Star Trek audience expects some Starfleet presence, and just about all canonical time-travel incidents involve Starfleet. So choosing to show the DTI interacting with Starfleet in fiction isn't meant to imply that they rely exclusively on Starfleet for all dangerous situations; it's just a choice of focus made for storytelling reasons.
Greg Cox's next trilogy is ruined.
And that's partly what I thought...and that absolutely makes perfect sense. Thanks again for the response!
Yevetha
Commodore
There was some story about a time-traveling Ferengi financial speculator.
Anybody remembers the title?
S.C.E.: Buying Time by Robert Greenberger ?
Sure thing: SCE #23 Buying Time by Robert Greenberger.
Edit: Meh, the one time I'm actually in the I've-read-it position instead of does-anyone-know ...
Yevetha
Commodore
Not the best S.C.E. story, but worth a look in my opinion. Here's my review of the Aftermath paperback omnibus it was part off
To be honest, not particularly so. I am a fan of the SCE series in general, and there's nothing particularly wrong about this one, but it also doesn't really stand out in any way. The time machine is just sort of there without going into it much, the plot is your basic oops-what-did-dicking-around-with-the-timeline-do and as you might expect, some teasing fun is being had with sending female crewmembers naked around Ferenginar. There are some decent character moments iirc, but those are relevant mostly in context of ongoing developments in the series, and even then not really critical. Overall no reason to skip it when reading the series, but also no reason to seek it out otherwise.
