Starfleet Is Clueless About the Military

[The Wormhole]

You sit down and watch TOS (particularly in the first season) you can see tat Starfleet is very much meant to be the military. There's just no other way to intrepret it. The whole "Starfleet isn't military" thing that ahs existed since TNG is just stupid. Surely the Federation needs some sort of dedicated armed force for defensive purposes? So where are they. How come they're never around when the Borg or the Dominion attack? Why is defending the Federation from these threats left to the Not-A-Military Starfleet?

The article is an entertaining read even if it's just stuff I've seen bitched about constantly over the years on this very forum. Still, the "things change over 300 years. Doesn't work as an excuse at all. Now in regards to the points they make:

1) Seriously, if you live near a navy dockyard, you'll likely notice more than one boat there at any given time. So it does seem odd that there is only one starship within the Sol system.

2) This is a good point. If Starfleet feared Picard was a liability, why didn't they just relieve him, give command to Riker and let the Enterprise go into battle? Technically, it was Riker who defeated the Borg last time anyway.

3) I can not imagine things changing significantly enough within the next two hundred years that a third year cadet can skip seven ranks and take command of the flagship. Seriously, is there no one qualified in Starfleet that you have to turn to a cadet?

4) Wesley's "Acting Ensign" status could have been easy to accept if he were just helping out, like we saw him occasionally doing in engineering with Geordi and Data. Having him piloting the ship and at one point giving orders to actual officers is something I can not see happening.

5) Yeah, Starfleet being officers only is odd. Sadly, the attempts to introduce enlisted personnel was sloppily handled, but I guess that's better than no attempt at all.

6) I have no comment to make about the Prime Directive.

7) I thought the Enterprise A was a renamed USS Yorktown?

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

In my time, we've evolved beyond the need for safety.

In my time, we've evolved beyond the need to worry about Romulan invasions OH SH-

 

[EmperorTiberius]

#2 is a little annoying. Did people not watch the movie or something? Enterprise would have made no freakin difference to the battle.

 

[T'Girl]

Enterprise would have made no freakin difference to the battle.

But Picard knowledge of the cube's "sweet spot" would have made a freakin difference if targeted sooner. Ships and lives would have been saved.

 

[Phily B]

I think after the events of TUC Starfleet moved away from a more military approach as it was a period of relative peace, which is why Picard is insistent that Starfleet is about exploration and scientific study these days. Then Wolf 359 happens, the return of the Romulans, and the Dominion War.

 

[The Wormhole]

I think after the events of TUC Starfleet moved away from a more military approach as it was a period of relative peace, which is why Picard is insistent that Starfleet is about exploration and scientific study these days. Then Wolf 359 happens, the return of the Romulans, and the Dominion War.

Just look at the period between TUC and TNG and you'll see the Federation still had its share of armed conflict. There's the Tomed Incident, with a loss of life in the thousands. Hostilities between the Federation and the Tholians were serious enough that Starfleet cadets took part in battle simulations to fight Tholians, and the Tholians even destroyed a starbase. Add to that border skirmeshes between the Cardassians and the Tzenkethi. There was enough going on that Starfleet would have as much defending as exploring.

 

[Anwar]

Enterprise would have made no freakin difference to the battle.

But Picard knowledge of the cube's "sweet spot" would have made a freakin difference if targeted sooner. Ships and lives would have been saved.

That weak point wasn't something that was always there, it was something that developed due to the damage the Cube took after hours of battle.

 

[captcalhoun]

^you forgot the Galen Border Conflict with the Talarians. alright, the UFP apparently outclassed them, but shit still went down and Feddies died.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

Starfleet's a pseudo-military "humanitarian and peacekeeping armada" with a boner for exploration and cataloguing stuff.

That Captain Archer had to bring a platoon of MACOs (explicitly described as military) on board the Enterprise when things got rough ("The Expanse" etc) is pretty much an admission that Starfleet isn't really cut out for that kind of thing.

Wrong Starfleet

Enterprise would have made no freakin difference to the battle.

But Picard knowledge of the cube's "sweet spot" would have made a freakin difference if targeted sooner. Ships and lives would have been. saved.

That weak point wasn't something that was always there, it was something that developed due to the damage the Cube took after hours of battle.

And yet Picard was the guy who found the weakness.

 

[Deks]

Picard only found the weakness because he's part of the main cast.

In-universe wise, any other Trek crew would be smart enough to figure that out and concentrate their fire power on that damaged section.

At least Voyager could have gotten away with it because they were alone in the DQ with no backup, but in the AQ where you have the fleet at your back and all, it makes other captains look 'pathetic' to say the least.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Wrong Starfleet

They shut down Starfleet and opened a totally new space force which just happened to also be called Starfleet, headquarted in the same place, with the same ranks, the same positions, the same ships, the same uniform colour-coding....?

Give me a break.

 

[Anwar]

Starfleet's a pseudo-military "humanitarian and peacekeeping armada" with a boner for exploration and cataloguing stuff.

That Captain Archer had to bring a platoon of MACOs (explicitly described as military) on board the Enterprise when things got rough ("The Expanse" etc) is pretty much an admission that Starfleet isn't really cut out for that kind of thing.

Wrong Starfleet

But Picard knowledge of the cube's "sweet spot" would have made a freakin difference if targeted sooner. Ships and lives would have been. saved.

That weak point wasn't something that was always there, it was something that developed due to the damage the Cube took after hours of battle.

And yet Picard was the guy who found the weakness.

Did you watch the film? Picard only knew about the weak point that had developed because he could "Hear" the Collective still when he was close enough to them. There was still a residual psychic link (or there was something in his brain that couldn't be removed).

 

[Starbreaker]

TL;DR

But Starfleet is supposed to be an exploratory group... so, whatever.

 

[The Wormhole]

But that gets back to my point: if Starfleet is just an exploration service, then where is the Federation's military? Why are the Federation's wars fought by its explorers?

 

[Gary7]

The writer of that blog got so many facts wrong it's pitiful.

Agreed. It's so "off" that one would just do best ignoring it completely.

 

[T'Girl]

Where was he "so many" times off? The only glaring error was his believe that the Enterprise-A was going out of service following Kirk's departure.

 

[Anwar]

But that gets back to my point: if Starfleet is just an exploration service, then where is the Federation's military? Why are the Federation's wars fought by its explorers?

It's a futuristic combined service that incorporates military actions with exploratory missions. It's not meant to be 100% 20th Century stuff.

 

[The Wormhole]

Where was he "so many" times off? The only glaring error was his believe that the Enterprise-A was going out of service following Kirk's departure.

I've noticed the following errors in the article:

"This worked so well that an unfit Enterprise was sent off on life-or-death missions in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, and Star Trek: Generations."
In TWOK Starfleet did not send an unfit Enterprise into a life or death situation. It sent the Enterprise off to determine why they lost contact with a science station. True this turned out to be a life or death trap, but Starfleet was unaware of this.

Yes, the only ship that survived a Borg encounter is off cruising around while the rest of Starfleet gets decimated.
There are two Starfleet ships which survived encounters with the Borg prior to First Contact: the Enterprise D and the USS Endeavor. The Enterprise D has since been destroyed, and it is the Enterprise E featured in First Contact.

By the time of Generations, there’s an Enterprise-B being given a sendoff by Kirk himself. He’s been in retirement for eight years, according to the movie.
Generations does not indicate how long Kirk had been retired. Besides, based on the "78 Years Later" caption when we jump ahead to the TNG portion of the story, the TOS portion takes place in 2293, the same year TUC took place in.

 

[YARN]

But that gets back to my point: if Starfleet is just an exploration service, then where is the Federation's military? Why are the Federation's wars fought by its explorers?

It's a futuristic combined service that incorporates military actions with exploratory missions. It's not meant to be 100% 20th Century stuff.

"Combined Service" means that in addition to other things it's a military service. Denying on grounds of combination would be like trying to deny that someone is a "pimp" because he is also a "postal worker."

The 20th century hasn't cornered the market on what it means to have a military.

If it is a hierarchical social organization operating under the legitimate authority of a state (or confederation of states) that is used to project coercive force on outside societies, and to defend against similar uses of force, it is a military.

 

[Anwar]

The 20th century hasn't cornered the market on what it means to have a military.

Opinions here state otherwise. Apparently, if you're a military you have to be exactly like a 20th Century one and you can't be different in any way possible.