How did Starfleet recruit new servicemen following the Burn and before the reopening of Starfleet ac

He could well be; who knows how long human lifespans are by the 32nd century. We already know the average life expectancy in the 24th century was significantly longer than today; Picard was commanding the Enterprise-E well into his 70s, and if humans routinely live to Vulcan-ish ages by the 32nd century then Vance would barely be cresting middle age at 100. (For comparison, Tuvok was a sprightly 106 when Voyager was pulled into the Delta Quadrant, and Oded Fehr is 51 tomorrow.)

 

Yes, I'm well aware of the math. Is there a reason he can't be over a hundred?

 

Could have gone to Ba'Ku Planet before the Burn (SF officers could go for a 5-10 year vacation there, and as we noticed, even staying on the planet a few days can already result in health benefits - its possible some species like Humans can experience regenerative benefits earlier than others [such as the So'Na])... or been there during the Burn. Could have been rejuvenated via transporters (unless its a procedure routinely done by the late 24th or 25th century already - which it really should be as its only a 10-15 seconds procedure), stem-cells, consciousness transfered into a biological android body coupled with holography, rejuvenated with programmable matter perhaps?

Multiple options to consider really... but knowing Disco writers, they will probably discard all of that and just make up something (such as Vance being only 51-ish like the actor playing him - and also knowing Senna Tal from Earth at some point in the past few decades before heading to SF HQ).

 

Vance will be exactly 115 years old, and a Prophet on his father's side.

 

I assume most crew pre SA reopening would have been people who already had experience and joined up to serve the cause. Basically people like Book who wanted something better than mercenary work

 

You forget to mention the Nexus.
In the Nexus it's always Christmas

 

He's got to stay alive as long as possible to prevent the return of the evil mummy Imhotep.

 

The Science officer recruitment pool probably came from UFP planetary science institutes, (we see the primacy of the planetary science institute with Nivar and even the Emerald Chain) as well as Science institute graduates in non UFP worlds that are “true believers” along with Independent scientists that occasionally are convinced by Starfleet to join (though the Emerald Chain would utilize that pool far more effectively then the UFP) but if the UFP impressed the courier scientist enough then they might join Starfleet or become UFP affiliated.(Oppurtunistic independent scientists wanting access to UFP resources for their experiments would need to be kept on a tight leash, though many of those scientists would be forcibly drafted by the Emerald Chain. The fall of the UFP in its pre burn form would lead to many unethical science experiments and projects(either nefarious or just using a different ethical guideline like Book prior to meeting Burnham) so that would limit the pool, though many independent scientists might be UFP believers but Independent out of lack of contact or aid from the UFP.

 

You would think they would have tons of Android and Hologram crewmen. In reality the need for flesh and blood people are less needed I would imagine. What would be a skeleton crew in the past would be a full crew in the present. What might make Discovery unique from other ships is it might be the number of people posted to the ship.

 

I think something to bear in mind is that the collapse of the Federation post-Burn is really more akin to the fall of the Western Roman Empire: a gradual erosion of political centralization and loss of some technological progress, but not a complete breakdown of the social order at every level. There would still be things like planetary science institutes and individual worlds' space forces and space force academies, etc.

 

As Earth demonstrated.

 

Yeah. I think a lot of people took the chaos and impoverishment of the worlds we saw at the far edge of what had once been Federation territory in "That Hope Is You, Part I" and "Far From Home" as indicative of the entire former Federation, but that's really not what S3 depicted. S3 made it clear that there was a variety of levels of wealth and political organization that former UFP worlds maintained after the collapse.

 

Leonard McCoy was 137 and still going strong in Encounter at Farpoint, and that was with medical technology 800 years less advanced then what they have now.

In fact, going by what we saw of medical technology in Voyager, by the 32nd century Humans should 100% be living until they are killed.

 

You would think (and there's no real reason this wouldn't already happen by the time of PICARD series - aka 20 years after VOY with fully established synthetic bodies walking about and consciousness in a hologram for example by the early 25th century), but Disco writers, decided to handwave away most of the tech stuff established in the 24th century for the sake of 'drama' so you won't see 'progress' of any kind there... in fact, without any viable explanation at all, you'll actually see REGRESSION where some aspects of tech are less advanced than what was available in the 24th century - which makes no sense whatsoever.

 

That sounds boring. And McCoy's appearance was dumb.

 

In Wonderlands by Una Mccromack, it is stated that the lifespan of the former UFP border is down to the 60s-70s but yes the LE is likely higher in the former core federation (including Emerald Chain like Orion and Andor)(IMO)

 

Sahil who is in his 60s-70s is treated like an elderly man for example with local players already plotting to succeed him. The UFP former frontier also has programmable matter and other advanced tech so it is unclear if this depiction of old age in the deep Beta Quadrant is accurate.

 

With all due respect to Rene, I would've been fine with Vance or even Kovich revealed to really be Odo, who finally got the human form right after centuries.

 

Which is one of many reasons why Disco writers are just bad at their jobs.

That has to be one of the stupidest things I have heard given they have had replicators for almost a thousand years now...

Makes me really glad those books don't exist in the same continuity as the rest of the novel verse...

 

That they are.
I'd prefer they stop ignoring 24th century technologies, EVOLVE them massively and write a story that fits the new setting while USING the said technology.
Worst comes to shove, a situation of a given nature won't always allow for existing technology to easily solve the problem... which can be explained within the context of the Trek universe WITHOUT unnecessarily disabling it either.

Not only that, but the knowledge and technology they had were intact by the Burn (and I already posited that for an interstellar organisation as large as UFP which has multiple copies of its vast database on every ship, starbase/outpost, planets, etc. would effectively mean its IMPOSSIBLE to have a technological regression - unless you destroyed the UFP in its ENTIRETY - aka, every ship, planet, starbase, etc. - but in that case, it would no longer be Star Trek probably)... plus, it was already confirmed in early S3 that 32nd century SF had access to 23rd century records... so yeah.

32nd century basic medical knowledge would still be massively far more advanced beyond the 24th century... however, as we saw, simple impalement apparently kills people in the 32nd century (Grey died of this and despite medical drones coming virtually instantly... he was still proclaimed a 'lost cause' and the symbiont needed to be put into Adira... the second victim of impailment was that station commander in Season 4 ep1)... meanwhile, Stamets survived an impalement (which was made out to be a pretty big deal) in the last episode of Season 2 (23rd century).

Funny, eh?

Looks like 32nd century medicine ended up even less advanced than what the 23rd century had available it seems... even though plenty of characters mentioned just how FAR technology progressed in the 930 years (this keeps being repeated, and yet we keep seeing instances how technology in certain areas isn't even CLOSE to what 24th century can do).

I smell a consistent contraditiction (at least the show is getting that done accurately).

The pocket books aren't considered canon (never were). Some good stories in there, but some technological downplaying has been happening in there as well to a fairly good extent too.