• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Enterprise Novels

What I get from the relaunch novels is that the nacent Federation (its birth yet to be depicted in the books) will arise out of the ashes of the short-lived Coallition, which fractures during and because of the pressures of the Romulan War. The Federation is born of the lessons learned during the war, and the member worlds' responses to the political and cultural weaknesses the conflict uncovers in their first attempt to unite.
 
Well, for one thing, the memberships are different, aren't they? The Coalition as established in ENT had more members than Earth, Vulcan, Alpha Centauri, Tellar, and Andoria. As seen in "Demons"/"Terra Prime," it also included Denobula, Coridan, Rigel, and possibly a few others. Of course, those become member worlds later, but aren't among the canonical founders of the UFP.
That's right, I forgot about the other races at the conference. I was thinking it was just the Humans, Andorians, Vulcan's, and Tellerites.:brickwall:
 
Yeah, that's actually something else I've been curious about, if they're just going to change the name or if there will actually be some noticeable differences between the Coalition and the Federation.

There's already a major, noticeable difference between the Federation and the Coalition of Planets: To whom the Coalition's members are ultimately loyal.

The people who represent the members of the Coalition are all members of their member governments -- the United Earth Prime Minister, the Vulcan Foreign Minister, the Andorian Ambassador, etc. They aren't loyal to the Coalition, because, for them, the Coalition isn't a state or a government. It's an association of states, a tool to be used by its member states.

In contrast, the Federation is its own state, and its officials work for the Federation, not for its Member States. Just like the United States Congress is not comprised of the State Governors and State Secretaries of State, the Federation government is not comprised of member states' officials.

At the end of the day, the members of the Coalition of Planets are not loyal to the Coalition of Planets. They're loyal to United Earth, or to the Confederacy of Vulcan, or to the Andorian Empire, or to the United Planets of Tellar, or to Alpha Centauri, or to the Confederated Martian Colonies, or to Draylax, or to... But they're not loyal to the Coalition. It is not the Coalition to whom they pledge allegiance.

The Coalition of Planets is more akin to an interstellar NATO than an interstellar federation.
 
Well, for one thing, the memberships are different, aren't they? The Coalition as established in ENT had more members than Earth, Vulcan, Alpha Centauri, Tellar, and Andoria. As seen in "Demons"/"Terra Prime," it also included Denobula, Coridan, Rigel, and possibly a few others. Of course, those become member worlds later, but aren't among the canonical founders of the UFP.

Has it ever been stated in the canon that Andoria, Tellar, Alpha Centauri, Vulcan and Earth were the founding members of the Federation? It sounds a lot like a relic from The Making of Star Trek or Shane Johnson's Worlds of the Federation to me.

In the offchance Daniels said it to Archer, we know for a fact that Daniels isn't from the "prime" Trek timeline - his future includes the colony from "Shockwave" and battles with the Sphere Builders, whereas we got a war with the Xindi.
 
Has it ever been stated in the canon that Andoria, Tellar, Alpha Centauri, Vulcan and Earth were the founding members of the Federation? It sounds a lot like a relic from The Making of Star Trek or Shane Johnson's Worlds of the Federation to me.

Actually it originated somewhere between those, although I forget exactly where. I know that in 1975, Franz Joseph's Technical Manual identified the founding systems as Sol, Alpha Centauri, 40 Eridani, Epsilon Indi, and 61 Cygni, and the final three of those were identified with Vulcan, Andor, and Tellar respectively no later that 1980's Star Trek Maps.

In the offchance Daniels said it to Archer

Daniels did say it, or almost, in "Zero Hour": "You're down there, right now, with Vulcans, Andorians and Tellarites, getting ready to sign the Charter."

, we know for a fact that Daniels isn't from the "prime" Trek timeline - his future includes the colony from "Shockwave" and battles with the Sphere Builders, whereas we got a war with the Xindi.

We don't know that for a fact; it's just one possible interpretation. Given that Daniels came back after dying, it could be that there are multiple Danielses from various timelines. Alternatively, there's evidence that he was able to shift timelines, otherwise he would've been "erased" along with everything else in "Shockwave."

And it's clear that Daniels was concerned with preserving the history in which Archer participated in the founding of the Federation along with the Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarites. Given that he seemed satisfied with the outcome of the Temporal Cold War in that era, it seems likely that Archer's future from that point on was the one that led to Daniels.
 
^Yeah, but as I said, FJ didn't identify them as Vulcan, Tellar, and Andor. That came later.

Well, at least for Tellar and Andor. I've remembered that the first person to identify Vulcan with 40 Eridani was James Blish in his 1968 adaptation of "Tomorrow is Yesterday." It's a safe bet that FJ's use of 40 Eri was based on that.
 
I'll have to dig out my FJ manuel but I seem to recall Epsilon Indi being connected with the Andorians and 61 Cygni with the tellarites somewhere in there. maybe in the text section.
 
^Nope. In fact, the flags and seals shown in the SFTM for 61 Cygni and the misspelled "Epsilon Indii" have distinctly human elements -- Roman numerals and a swan symbol (as in Cygnus) for 61 Cyg and "EI" in the center of a starburst for Eps Indi. So it seems pretty clear that FJ had no such identification in mind. (It's also pretty clear from the titles like "Concordium of Planets," "Star Empire," and "Planetary Confederation" that FJ was imagining a union of five interstellar powers, not just five individual planets.)

I've finally remembered where the identification of Tellar and Andor with those two star systems originated. It was in the 1977 Star Fleet Medical Reference Manual by Geoffrey Mandel, Doug Drexler, Anthony Fredrickson, et al. It also asserted that Klingons were from Epsilon Sagitarii B, the Gorn were from Tau Lacertae V (as in "lizard," ha ha), and the tribbles were from Iota Geminorum IV.
 
So other than Daniels' almost reference, there has not been a canonical mention that the supposed founders were just the usual suspects??

Wasn't there anything in Journey to Babel?

I am quite enjoying the Enterprise Relaunch, with a few caveats.

As to how Trip's death was handled, I thought TATV sucked from beginning to end. What I would have preferred is the original ending to season four, which was the Demons/Terra Prime arc as a trilogy leading to the Coalition of Planets. Then season five could have led up to the Romulan war and the first shots of said war being fired in the season 5 finale.
 
So other than Daniels' almost reference, there has not been a canonical mention that the supposed founders were just the usual suspects??

To the best of my recollection, Daniels's line in "Zero Hour" was the only canonical reference to the Founding Members of the Federation. But I wouldn't call that an "almost reference" -- he was pretty clearly establishing that Humans, Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarites founded the United Federation of Planets.

Wasn't there anything in Journey to Babel?

Nope!

However, for what it's worth, the novel Articles of the Federation explicitly establishes that Earth, Vulcan, Andor, Tellar, and Alpha Centauri are the five founding worlds of the Federation. (Presumably, the names of those worlds are being used as synonyms for the states known as United Earth, the Confederacy of Vulcan, the Andorian Empire, the United Planets of Tellar, and whatever the name is of the Alpha Centauri state.)
 
^Nope. In fact, the flags and seals shown in the SFTM for 61 Cygni and the misspelled "Epsilon Indii" have distinctly human elements -- Roman numerals and a swan symbol (as in Cygnus) for 61 Cyg and "EI" in the center of a starburst for Eps Indi. So it seems pretty clear that FJ had no such identification in mind. (It's also pretty clear from the titles like "Concordium of Planets," "Star Empire," and "Planetary Confederation" that FJ was imagining a union of five interstellar powers, not just five individual planets.)

I've finally remembered where the identification of Tellar and Andor with those two star systems originated. It was in the 1977 Star Fleet Medical Reference Manual by Geoffrey Mandel, Doug Drexler, Anthony Fredrickson, et al. It also asserted that Klingons were from Epsilon Sagitarii B, the Gorn were from Tau Lacertae V (as in "lizard," ha ha), and the tribbles were from Iota Geminorum IV.

I'm now thinking it may have been Geoffrey Mandel's photocopied Trek ref series from way back when. I'll have to dig mine out and see what it says.
 
I've finally remembered where the identification of Tellar and Andor with those two star systems originated. It was in the 1977 Star Fleet Medical Reference Manual

Correct. The "Medical Reference Manual" (edited by Eileen Palestine) attributed the planetary nomenclatures previously mentioned in the Franz Joseph "Technical Manual" to specific TOS races.
 
The Star Fleet Handbook Vol 10 by Geoffrey Mandel

"Andor is a planet of Epsilon Indi, an orange star some 3.5 parsecs from Earth."

I'd give Geoffrey Mandel credit for putting Andor at Epsilon Indi. Still working on the Tellarites but it wouldn't surprise me if that was his doing too.

Dated 1977 but appears to predate the Medical Reference Manual.
http://67.23.2.53/wiki/Image:Starfleethandbook10.jpg
 
Well, Mandel was one of the creators of the Medical Reference Manual (listed as "Associate Editor"), so I think it's safe to attribute the idea to him either way.
 
Dated 1977 but appears to predate the Medical Reference Manual.
http://67.23.2.53/wiki/Image:Starfleethandbook10.jpg

But there was supposedly a fan edition(s) of the "Medical Reference Manual", IIRC, before it was picked up for official publication by Ballantine. So all of these Mandel fanzine elements would be part of what was compiled into the book by editor Palestine. I'm guessing it's the same resource, but in its earlier form.

Remember that the "Medical Reference Manual" came out in 1977, so it would have probably already have been in production at the same time as a fan publication also dated 1977.
 
I doin't have the earlier issues of the series so it might have been mentioned in #1 -8 before mentioned in the article on Andorians.
 
So, our perceptions of the birth of the Federation are based on what a bunch of fanboy kids wrote in the 70's?

Why not? Some of those fanboys (who would've been in their 20s, I think) grew up to become production staffers on later Trek shows. The main artist for the Medical Reference Manual, Doug Drexler, ended up being the chief designer for NX-01, as well as making countless other contributions to the Trek franchise. And other Trek fanboys went on to become writers and producers for Trek, like Ron Moore, Manny Coto, and Roberto Orci.
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top