General Order 4 and 24

[trekfan_1]

Has there been any inclings on what General 4 is? All we know ( I believe ) is that it carries the Death Penalty. Did any of the novels explore it? Is it visting Talos 4 ? Which also carries the Death penalty but not actually spoken to be one and the same as General order 4 if im not mistaken..

I'm guessing this order has been unofficially retconned away/ignored.

As for General order 24 ( Justifiable Genocide) my head cannon speculates that it's a bluff order. A way to give Starfleet some optic teeth against its enemies. Officially recognized as an order to the public and Starfleet but senior officers know it is actually a bluff. Possibly never been carried out. And possibley the order may have been discontinued once the bluff was made aware to all. Just my own speculation .

But more likely, just like General order 4, it's essentially been retconned away/ignored. Perhaps these orders were simply decommissioned after TOS but wouldn't be surprised if it's ignored/doesn't exist for the SNW era or before.

 

[fireproof78]

Has there been any inclings on what General 4 is? All we know ( I believe ) is that it carries the Death Penalty.

Transcript:
MCCOY: That's enough. We know what was said.
KIRK: Enough to convict you of conspiracy with mutineers. And you're so charged. The sentence, death. Mister Lemli.
CHEKOV: Starfleet expressly forbids the death penalty.
KIRK: All my senior officers turning against me?
SULU: The death penalty is forbidden. There's only one exception.
CHEKOV: General Order Four. It has not been violated by any officer on the Enterprise.

~Turnabout Intruder

As for General order 24 ( Justifiable Genocide) my head cannon speculates that it's a bluff order. A way to give Starfleet some optic teeth against its enemies. Officially recognized as an order to the public and Starfleet but senior officers know it is actually a bluff. Possibly never been carried out. And possibley the order may have been discontinued once the bluff was made aware to all. Just my own speculation .

I imagine it's a real order but one only to be used in extreme cases.

 

[The Wormhole]

I suspect when writing Turnabout Intruder they made a mistake and were referring to General Order 7, which was prior the then the Federation's only death penalty.