Starfleet is the U.S. Coast Guard
- Thread starter The Green Mushroom
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I think as a "combined service" Starfleet would draw whatever it thought was good from those services into its own practices.
IMO, the OP's notion of new pre-officers touring before going to an Academy and getting to choose what they want to specialize in not only fits with the Starfleet notion of the ranks of crewman and yeoman, but is also just plain cool.
Does that make Starfleet the Coast Guard? Nah. "Combined service."
IMO, the OP's notion of new pre-officers touring before going to an Academy and getting to choose what they want to specialize in not only fits with the Starfleet notion of the ranks of crewman and yeoman, but is also just plain cool.
Does that make Starfleet the Coast Guard? Nah. "Combined service."
What does the Real Life Coast Guard do, though? I thought they broke ice floes in the shipping lanes and harassed drug dealers and that was pretty much it. I don't see any STARFLEET metaphor in that ...
I guess you can read the rest of the thread
They started off as a rescue service being merged with the anti smuggling revenue protection service and becomes part of the USN during wartime. from those three legs they have branched off into all kinds of work
The metaphor comes because while the ships are capable of adding to wartime fleets, war fighting is not the primary mission. Like Starfleet in the primary universe as opposed to Starfleet in the alternate universes.
(TNG) Nth Degree - The Cytherians – “Emotive electrochemical stimulus response with a cranial plate, bi-pedal locomotion, endoskeleton and contiguous external integument”
(nodding his floaty head and grinning) “A hierarchical collective command structure.”
Military or Civilian sectors all operate hierarchical collectives too, in a sense they all wield their own weapons.
The capacity to grow beyond the collective is I think what Starfleet is really all about, finding new life and new civilisations is the first step the Traveller recognised in Wesley his ability to ascend to a new plain of existence where thought and energy combine. Definition of a Q?
That’s where I want to be tbh, carried there by a hierarchical collective command structure or not.
(nodding his floaty head and grinning) “A hierarchical collective command structure.”
Military or Civilian sectors all operate hierarchical collectives too, in a sense they all wield their own weapons.
The capacity to grow beyond the collective is I think what Starfleet is really all about, finding new life and new civilisations is the first step the Traveller recognised in Wesley his ability to ascend to a new plain of existence where thought and energy combine. Definition of a Q?
That’s where I want to be tbh, carried there by a hierarchical collective command structure or not.
You mean one of Earth's nations loaned a squad of their special forces to Starfleet?
I kind of like that, and it would explain Archer's first reaction to be told about the MACOs.
Starfleet = US Coast Guard?..not entirely, heck one could make an argument that Starfleet = the USAF, after all the USAF is used to patrol and safeguard the nation (in fact the Air Force is the North American continent's PRIMARY line of defence from an attacker), patrols fishing grounds, patrols offshore oil fields, conducts experimental research (sometimes into exotic propulsion systems) and even undertakes search and rescue missions. Nahh as was mentioned upthread, it's a COMBINED service, more like US STRATCOM than the Coast Guard..think USAF+Navy+Army+Coast Guard..
At least initially, Starfleet was very clearly conceived as a Space Navy and the original Enterprise as the equivalent of an American missile cruiser, with a dash of old-timey Royal Navy adventure thrown in for good measure*. The writer's bible for the original series made this very clear, and AFAICT the shows bear it out.
(* In some ways the Enterpise is actually reminiscent of a ship like the H.M.S. Beagle -- whose famous surveying voyage with Charles Darwin aboard was, incidentally, five years long --with a combined mission of surveying, naturalism and chipping in to put down the occasional revolt at ports of call. The inspiration for the command officers perpetually beaming down to planets was almost certainly the practices of the Royal Navy, where the captain and ship's surgeon often had to go landside to direct efforts, meet with dignitaries, carry out research and so on.)
(* In some ways the Enterpise is actually reminiscent of a ship like the H.M.S. Beagle -- whose famous surveying voyage with Charles Darwin aboard was, incidentally, five years long --with a combined mission of surveying, naturalism and chipping in to put down the occasional revolt at ports of call. The inspiration for the command officers perpetually beaming down to planets was almost certainly the practices of the Royal Navy, where the captain and ship's surgeon often had to go landside to direct efforts, meet with dignitaries, carry out research and so on.)
I guess you can read the rest of the thread
Perhaps, but ... I do want to thank you for responding!
An interesting post, indeed ...
Starfleet is Age of Sail. It comes close to US Navy when it was created, not today's US Navy.
Original US Navy was an extension of politics where they didn't interfere in other affairs, it was there to protect US territory and shipping.
Six heavy frigates (heavy cruisers in ST universe) were built to help accomplish this goal, US had no Ships of the Line (Battleships) like British Empire.
Very similar philosophies between early US and Federation.
Original US Navy was an extension of politics where they didn't interfere in other affairs, it was there to protect US territory and shipping.
Six heavy frigates (heavy cruisers in ST universe) were built to help accomplish this goal, US had no Ships of the Line (Battleships) like British Empire.
Very similar philosophies between early US and Federation.
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