As a Trek fan I find myself reading through the novels and slowly losing faith in the direction. It really has nothing to do with the plot ideas - which continue to be creative and excellent, so much as it does the context of the greater metaverse. I'm beginning to think Articles of the Federation in the context of the Destiny Series timeline has somehow distorted the way I find the United Federation of Planets and Starfleet in particular believable anymore. If you have not read Articles of the Federation or the The Destiny Series and are not familiar with the Destiny timeline, the rest of this may not be for you. Here is my issue. If we think through the impact of the Dominion War specifically, which was without question the largest existential crisis the United Federation of Planets as an entity had faced until that point, then throw in the even greater existential crisis the United Federation of Planets faced with Borg invasion in the Destiny series, it is hard to believe the fallout wouldn't be significant and profound on the Federation and specifically Starfleet. The reason I point to these two moments in history specifically is because in the context of Federation history, they would have had the most significant and personal impact on so many citizens. Obviously there are several Star Trek stories of incredible crisis that potentially could have killed everyone in the Galaxy, but those two incidents were personal to people - it happened to citizens broadly, directly. A few examples would be the occupation of Betazed by the Dominion, a peaceful member of the Federation for 100 years before occupied by the Dominion. The books do a fair job of noting how it impacts some politics, but for the most part, there is no evidence the occupation of Betazed has had any impact on Starfleet - even though Starfleet would almost certainly be required to react with significant resource investments to the occupations and homeworld attacks that took place during the Dominion War. But even if it is assumed Starfleet had not had time to react by 2381 when the Destiny story takes place, the massive, widespread attacks and destruction brought about by the Borg would have amplified the problems Starfleet has in protection of Federation homeworlds. It is commonly cited in virtually all David Mack books since Destiny that the Borg left the Federation with 63 billion refugees. Given the time/space/distance factors - like Warp speed restrictions and a massive vacuum of ships - even with the most optimistic fiction there would still be 50 billion refugees by 2386 - which is where the books are today. And still - none of the stories since the Borg attack of 2381 reflect any action on the part of the Federation that there is any sort of lessons learned process. As I think through the lessons learned process, I would identify several significant activities Starfleet would absolutely be forced to deal with. 1) Starfleets ability to evacuate large numbers of civilians is extremely limited. Even the fleets largest cruisers could only ever hope to evacuate 10,000 people, and given time/distance, even if there was somewhere to dump people just one sector over - 20 light years at Warp 9.5 - the best Starfleet could do was move 10,000 people every 6 days per state-of-the-art cruiser. Let's be honest, by 2386 no elected President or Senator is going to agree that's good enough. 2) If we take at face value the presumed devastation Starfleet suffered in 2181 from the massive Borg invasion, then it would be clear the biggest challenge Starfleet would be facing is a lack of experienced senior officers. In that context it is hard to even imagine a senior officer critical to the bridge crew of a starship would be conducting away missions as had been the historical norm. Following the Dominion War and with the rise of the Typhon Pact, does anyone believe the United Federation of Planets Senate would, at any point, tolerate the disjointed nature of Starfleet Command and the various supposed "Federation" planetary military forces like "Starfleet Marines" or even planetary militias. The absence of a dedicated, well trained, and integrated ground force for Starfleet would be slapping the politicians in the face by 2386, because threat matrix and responsibilities would clearly be about a heck of a lot more than fighting major wars and liberating planets. 3) With the introduction and use of quantum slipstream, the implication is United Federation of Planets is finally catching up on the science of subspace that has been evident from opposition parties going back to at least 2369 when the Enterprise chased a Borg vessel (working with Lore at the time) through a subspace gate (transwarp gate?). We have also seen how Noonien Soong was able to successfully utilize subspace to communicate extremely long distances in real time without the use of repeater technology that Starfleet was still using with Project Full Circle. It seems to me in a metaverse driven by science and technology, subspace advancement towards security improvements across the Federation - more than exploration - would represent the political focus of the Federation right now. 4) SO... if you were some Starfleet Captain or Commander part of Admiral Akaar's strategic studies group asked to evaluate lessons learned from the War with the Dominion and post-Destiny actions, in the context of the rise of the Typhon Pact competitor - what would your recommendations for the direction of Starfleet be? To me there is so much material out there, both Canon and Books, related to the two decades from 2361 - 2381, that it is almost beyond belief Starfleet isn't on the verge of producing a strategic document with a focus on the new century that would have significant impact to Starfleet, the types of ships built, the way operations on planets are conducted, and significantly - the posture of Starfleet in regards to protecting the homeworlds from threats in balance with seeking out new life and civilizations. In a democratic society, after so many Federation citizens had personally experienced tragedy and existential crisis, Admiral Akaar would be under enormous pressure to build confidence that Starfleet was capable of defending the homeworlds from future threats - like the Typhon Pact, and guiding Starfleet towards the 25th century. It seems to me that, based on the books as of 2386, Starfleet has somehow failed to conduct a significant strategic review of major existential crisis events over the previous two decades, and the books suggest no evidence at all that Starfleet has a strategic vision looking towards a new century. I have a few of my own related to #4, but I'm mostly interested in how others see things and how they believe Starfleet would be adjusting to the emerging technologies and threats in the context of recent history in the Destiny timeline. If you think an advanced civilization like the United Federation of Planets would simply keep on doing the same things again and again without significant changes after two of the biggest existential events in the organizations history, please explain that position too. I find it impossible to believe there wouldn't be significant changes to Starfleet under discussion in 2386, and because that's where we are in the books timeline - perhaps this is the place to have that discussion.
Yes, I am aware the date in the title is wrong and should be 2386, and again in paragraph beginning #2 should be 2381 not 2181, but apparently a newbie can't edit a mistake.
this is all really interesting stuff. i havent read the destiny books (or actually any of the novels) but i've heard a lot about them. honestly, the darker turn that those books take really intrigues me, because from what i've heard they try and deal with some harder questions than really any other part of trek. i personally dont see the federation as the utopia rodennberry originally envisioned. we never really get a good picture of civilian life is like in the federation (at least, not in the series & movies), and the relatively unchallenged militarism of starfleet leads me to really question how democratic the UFP can be. one of my favorite moments in star trek is when Sisko irradiates a maquis planet in "For the Uniform". like, we have a starfleet captain commit what is ostensibly a war crime on a literal entire planet full of innocent people. at no point is there any civilian intervention, he doesn't report to the commander in chief, and the end result is the federation forcing its military control on civilian life via starfleet. i prefer to read really deep into that, and sorta pull the thread. there are never any consequences for that, the whole team is sorta like, "shit did he rly do that wtf", and nobody ever mentions it again. also on that note, where is the federation news network? we see them for like 5 minutes ever. are they state-controlled media, or independent? if the UFP was really some utopian democracy it would need an incredibly effective, critical, transparent media, especially especially with respect to the military. because at the end of the day, as long as the federation is capable of exerting starfleet's military force, even if it's to defend against "existential threats" as they tend to do, there will be a constructed dominant narrative that paints innocent people as existential threats (as there is today irl)
About the only thing I accept from the Trek novels is the idea that Andorians have four sexes and a complicated way of mating, which is seeing them slowly die out over the generations. Everything else I tend to ignore.
wow i didnt know that haha. thats cool! trek is mostly pretty boring when it comes to sex & gender. there will always be that catastrophic episode in TNG with the j'naii (<3 my people)
It stems from a line in "Data's Day" about Andorians have weddings in groups of four. It's something that does make them a far more interesting and complex species.