Is the Federation actually Trek’s biggest retcon?

[F. King Daniel]

The Federation and Starfleet are more changes in terminology. In universe, genetic engineering being fine and the Federation performing it in "Unnatural Selection" versus the retcon that it's been illegal since 1996 raises far more issues.

As do the warp speed scale changes. TOS crossed the galaxy on a whim, Voyager made it a lifelong journey and now we can't really reconcile time and distance in Trek.

Time travel. Every episode has different rules, it's a complete mess and makes zero sense.

 

[The Wormhole]

The Federation and Starfleet are more changes in terminology.

Starfleet maybe. The Federation was something that was definitely created and developed as TOS progressed. Early episodes only mentioned the Enterprise serving "United Earth" as opposed to the Federation.

 

[Sci]

All a retcon is is the idea of "retroactive continuity" i.e. the Federation has always been there. It's always been this way. Darth Vader was always Luke's father.

The Federation is clearly not present early on, but once it is introduced we are to act as though it's always present. That is the nature of a retcon.

It's not good; not bad. It just is, and often a part of stories.

Exactly.

The Federation and Starfleet are more changes in terminology.

Nope. It's a fundamental reconception of just who Kirk and company work for and of just how long they have worked for them.

In the early episodes, the Enterprise is explicitly established to be a United Earth starship in service with the United Earth Space Probe Agency. In later episodes, the Enterprise is explicitly established to be a Federation starship in service with the Federation Starfleet, and to have always been such.

In other words: Not only did the writers change the sovereign state to whom the Enterprise crew owed their allegiance, but that change was conceived as being retroactive throughout all previous episodes. It's not that United Earth joined the Federation and the Enterprise transferred from United Earth jurisdiction to Federation jurisdiction off-screen mid-season; it's that the Enterprise had always been a Federation starship and we the audience were supposed to ignore previous references to it having been a United Earth starship.

In other words -- it's a retcon.

 

[Orac]

If memory serves the first time Kirk referred to the United Federation of Planets was in the season 1 episode A Taste of Armageddon

 

[Henoch]

If memory serves the first time Kirk referred to the United Federation of Planets was in the season 1 episode A Taste of Armageddon

True, but the Federation (which I assume to be shorthand for United Federation of Planets) was first used in Arena.

KIRK: It was a trap. Getting the Enterprise to come to Cestus Three, getting us and our whole crew to come ashore.
SPOCK: Very clever. As to the reason?
KIRK: The reason is crystal clear. The Enterprise is the only protection in this section of the Federation. Destroy the Enterprise, and everything is wide open.​

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

In the early episodes, the Enterprise is explicitly established to be a United Earth starship in service with the United Earth Space Probe Agency. In later episodes, the Enterprise is explicitly established to be a Federation starship in service with the Federation Starfleet, and to have always been such.

So would Spock have been appointed the exchange/liaison officer between United Earth and United Vulcan, given his unique genealogy - the perfect mix of both?

 

[Morpheus 02]

I don't know if I'd say it's the biggest retcon, though I guess it is the most prominent. IIRC, the first definitive reference to the Federation doesn't even come until Arena and even then, throughout TOS it's not presented as anywhere near the peaceful and harmonious union it is in the other shows. I mean, Journey to Babel actually states half the Federation is on the verge of going to war with the other half!

To say nothing of the fact that Conscience of the King to say nothing of the fact that humanity actually conquered Vulcans. Curious the Gene's Vision crowd when arguing that humanity is supposed to be peaceful, evolved and enlightened conveniently ignore the fact that Gene Himself originally wrote humans as conquerors.

Didn't McCoy say that Vulcans were conquered? If so' Couldn't that be easily interpreted as a sarcastic joke... with the reality being the change from Enterprise with Vulcans being in the lead technologically and with space experience, to the TOS period where human population has exploded as has involvement with colonization and space exploration.

 

[Sci]

So would Spock have been appointed the exchange/liaison officer between United Earth and United Vulcan, given his unique genealogy - the perfect mix of both?

Unclear! Spock's position and history wasn't fully developed in those early episodes. There's a reference to Vulcanis having been conquered in "The Conscience of the King" which was later contradict by IIRC "The Immunity Syndrome," but that's all we know. Heck, the idea that Spock is fully half-Human wasn't even developed until S2 "Journey to Babel;" in "Where No Man Has Gone Before," he refers to himself as having a Human "ancestor" but implies he's mostly Vulcan.

 

[Lord Garth]

I wouldn't call it the "biggest retcon", and it happened early.

If anything, I think the definition of "quadrant" is a bigger retcon. It happened in TNG Season 3. "The Price" was the first episode to refer to Quadrants in the way they'd be referred to for the rest of Star Trek. Granted, I think it was a change for the better, but nevertheless.... Also the reconning in of the Cardassian War in general and, in particular, having it end a year before "The Wounded". It would've been easier to have the war end before TNG instead of during, especially when considering the Cardassians were never mentioned even once during the first half of the series. And to make such a change during the middle of the fourth season isn't a case of "Early Installment Weirdness".

 

[Henoch]

Unclear! Spock's position and history wasn't fully developed in those early episodes. There's a reference to Vulcanis having been conquered in "The Conscience of the King" which was later contradict by IIRC "The Immunity Syndrome," but that's all we know. Heck, the idea that Spock is fully half-Human wasn't even developed until S2 "Journey to Babel;" in "Where No Man Has Gone Before," he refers to himself as having a Human "ancestor" but implies he's mostly Vulcan.

Spock being half-human with a human mother from Earth was established very early in Season 1 in The Corbomite Maneuver:

SPOCK: However, it was well played. I regret not having learned more about this Balok. In some manner he was reminiscent of my father.
SCOTT: Then may heaven have helped your mother.
SPOCK: Quite the contrary. She considered herself a very fortunate Earth woman.​

Journey to Babel does flesh out Spock's parents that his mother was named Amanda and married to the Vulcan ambassador, Sarek, and that Spock and his father are not on speaking terms.

 

[Citiprime]

If you’re going to consider “early installment weirdness” as retcon worthy, then I would argue there’s a bigger retcon, since it’s a significant plot element of “Where No Man Has Gone Before”: human psychic powers.

It’s established that humans have the capacity for telepathy and telekinesis, that humanity has the ability to measure a person’s psychic powers scientifically, and there are ratings which classify a person’s potential.

By and large, all of that gets thrown out after that episode. The mental abilities get shifted over to Vulcans and Spock, or by TNG’s time incorporated into the Betazoids. The only time the psychic aspects of “Where No Man Has Gone Before” has been referenced in later canon was DS9’s “The Muse,” where it’s stated that Jake was being affected by “psionic energy.” So whatever was being done to Jake is implied to be a smaller-scale version of how the galactic barrier affected Gary Mitchell.

 

[mb22]

As early as the March 1964 series proposal Spock was described by Roddenberry as "probably half Martian". The Martian location was (fortunately) abandoned, but the parental human ancestry remained -- the dialog in WNMHGB seems to be an anomaly.

 

[Owain Taggart]

The Federation and Starfleet are more changes in terminology.

See, I don't see it that way at all. I don't think they're mutually exclusive. Rather, if we think of the Federation as a sort of U.N-style alliance between nations, which was heavily implied with the United Earth designation, then one can be part of it without being part of Starfleet. One can get protection from the Federation, and even be a member world, but they may have fleets of their own. Take the Vulcans, for example. They are a Federation charter member, but they aren't part of Starfleet. They are highly independent and have a very active fleet of their own, and the collaboration they do is through the Federation.

 

[Annorax849]

Sometimes I wonder if, before Discovery in 2017, there could have been a fan theory that the UFP wasn't actually formed until season 1 of TOS. Basically a merger of the Coalition of Planets and the First Federation. Even in TATV, I think Troi says that the 2061 agreement would "lead to the Federation".

 

[Shawnster]

Sometimes I wonder if, before Discovery in 2017...

Not really. It's been commonly accepted that the Federation formed in 2161
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/United_Federation_of_Planets
The Federation was founded in San Francisco, Earth in 2161. (TNG: "The Outcast"; ENT: "Zero Hour", "These Are the Voyages...")

TNG The Outcast
TROI: All right. This hand, the game is Federation Day.
WORF: What is that?
TROI: Well, the Federation was founded in Twenty One Sixty One, so, twos, sixes, and aces are wild.
WORF: That is a woman's game.
TROI: Oh? Why is that?
WORF: All those wild cards. They support a weak hand. A man's game has no wild cards.

 

[Tango]

Sometimes I wonder if, before Discovery in 2017, there could have been a fan theory that the UFP wasn't actually formed unt

Sometimes I wonder if, before Discovery in 2017, there could have been a fan theory that the UFP wasn't actually formed until season 1 of TOS. Basically a merger of the Coalition of Planets and the First Federation. Even in TATV, I think Troi says that the 2061 agreement would "lead to the Federation".

il season 1 of TOS. Basically a merger of the Coalition of Planets and the First Federation. Even in TATV, I think Troi says that the 2061 agreement would "lead to the Federation".

Back in pre-TNG days I had idly wondered about that - a case for a very recently formed UFP (although not involving the First Federation) might perhaps have been plausible if restricted to circumstantial evidence in TOS only. The episode Whom Gods Destroy in particular got me thinking about it.

 

[Imaus]

Sometimes I wonder if, before Discovery in 2017, there could have been a fan theory that the UFP wasn't actually formed until season 1 of TOS. Basically a merger of the Coalition of Planets and the First Federation. Even in TATV, I think Troi says that the 2061 agreement would "lead to the Federation".

The First Federation? The First Federation are a bunch of snobby 'advanced's who don't even want to look at the UFP for another thousand years, and are probably right before the moment they become Incorporeal beings, which is another weird cultural trend TOS put up.

As for the UESPA thing, Kirk says it once to a guy from the 1960s andthe next time when the Antares blew up.

It doesn't fight the UFP-Starfleet thing at all if you surmise, most logically, that these things have tiers. To the 1960s pilot, it'll be for familiarity - United Earth would be much more easier to swallow than someone saying 'United Federation of Planets Starfleet' - for the Antares, the ship was probably under that department/branch of starfleet.

Starfleet is the combined force of the Federation, the UESPA is most likely the Earth-based branch of it or even its whole exploratory wing, and it probably got reformed or done away with as starfleet reformed itself for a zillionith time.

 

[Citiprime]

Rather, if we think of the Federation as a sort of U.N-style alliance between nations, which was heavily implied with the United Earth designation, then one can be part of it without being part of Starfleet. One can get protection from the Federation, and even be a member world, but they may have fleets of their own. Take the Vulcans, for example. They are a Federation charter member, but they aren't part of Starfleet. They are highly independent and have a very active fleet of their own, and the collaboration they do is through the Federation.

To me, the Federation is not NATO, the UN, or just an alliance. The Federation is more a federal republic along the lines of the United States but gives more autonomy to member states similar to the European Union. Federation membership guarantees rights to citizens with the Federation Charter/Constitution having supremacy over local authority, just like the individual states of the US cannot make laws that violate the US Constitution.

Everything within canon, even TOS once you get past the initial episodes, shows Starfleet as answering to the Federation as a whole. So Starfleet is the equivalent of the US military and the individual fleets of member planets are more akin to individual state national guard units which supplement Starfleet.

Enterprise posits that humanity made the Federation possible because humans and Earth were the only faction that was trusted by all the founding members. That's why Earth's Starfleet became the basis for the Federation's defensive force, since it's implied by the name "Earth-Romulan War" that it was humanity who took the lead in fighting back the Romulans in the war that ultimately moved the founding members to go for something more than just the alliance of the Coalition of Planets.

 

[Owain Taggart]

To me, the Federation is not NATO, the UN, or just an alliance. The Federation is more a federal republic along the lines of the United States but gives more autonomy to member states similar to the European Union.

That's a good way of putting it. Either way, it gives membership worlds some representation and backup should something happen, and we'd like to think they get each other's backs. The fleet question I think comes back to the question of Prime Directive. Starfleet doesn't like to interfere in the development of worlds, until they're shown to be capable of spaceflight.

 

[Shawnster]

The First Federation? The First Federation are a bunch of snobby 'advanced's who don't even want to look at the UFP for another thousand years, and are probably right before the moment they become Incorporeal beings, which is another weird cultural trend TOS put up.

I think you might be confusing The First Federation with another species. Bakok claimed to belong to The First Federation in The Corbomite Maneuver. He could have made it up completely. If it was a legitimate political entity, nothing was revealed about it.

My head canon has the Trill and the Ferengi living in (possibly former members of) The First Federation's territory and that some (like Trill) joined the Federation while others (like Ferengi) did not.

Of course, this idea is shot down by Emony Dax meeting McCoy prior to TOS first season.