What the hell, let's go with the history lesson again. In TOS, Starfleet was the military. Contrary to popular belief, TOS was not trying to reinvent the wheel. They knew they needed to present concepts the audience would understand. Making the show about the Space Navy and their adventures is something everyone would understand. Describing Starfleet as some sort of Future NASA which also has defense responsibilities is not. And at the time, military officers engaging in exploration was very common in the science fiction genre in general and on American television as well.
In the 1970s, attitudes towards the military in the US took on a negative light because of Vietnam. When Phase II, which later became TMP began development, they deemphasized the military side of Starfleet because of this attitude, which was also quite common in fiction of the time. Then in the 80s, Roddenberry tried to say Starfleet was never a military, though this only because Paramount removed him from authority over the movies after TMP and he decided to rage against that, lashing out against Bennett and Meyer's more overtly militaristic depiction of Starfleet was just a convenient means of doing so.
When TNG came along, Roddenberry decided he hated the military and strove to present Starfleet as non-militaristic as possible. He even went so far as objecting to novel author Diane Carey dedicating a TNG novel she wrote to a friend of hers killed in military service, claiming this was "glorifying the military" which he would not tolerate in Star Trek and arranged to have her banned from writing any further Trek novels, a ban which would not be lifted until after Roddenberry died. Ironically, a first season TNG episode written by Roddenberry does in fact refer to Starfleet as militaristic, though this often gets dismissed by both sides of the argument since the line was spoken by Q.
Since then the idea Starfleet isn't military has somehow become one of the franchise's holiest commandments even though no one can really square it with how it's been depicted on screen. Indeed, Ron Moore has admitted he's always viewed Starfleet as a military anyway but was always instructed to say it isn't. Now we've got this situation where this topic has become one of fandom's most heated arguments between Canon Literalists and Gene Loyalists arguing "Isn't" and everyone else arguing "Is." Even Lower Decks has made jokes about this. This argument will never be resolved, can never be resolved and will only ever result in heated debates which will tire out everyone involved.
In the 1970s, attitudes towards the military in the US took on a negative light because of Vietnam. When Phase II, which later became TMP began development, they deemphasized the military side of Starfleet because of this attitude, which was also quite common in fiction of the time. Then in the 80s, Roddenberry tried to say Starfleet was never a military, though this only because Paramount removed him from authority over the movies after TMP and he decided to rage against that, lashing out against Bennett and Meyer's more overtly militaristic depiction of Starfleet was just a convenient means of doing so.
When TNG came along, Roddenberry decided he hated the military and strove to present Starfleet as non-militaristic as possible. He even went so far as objecting to novel author Diane Carey dedicating a TNG novel she wrote to a friend of hers killed in military service, claiming this was "glorifying the military" which he would not tolerate in Star Trek and arranged to have her banned from writing any further Trek novels, a ban which would not be lifted until after Roddenberry died. Ironically, a first season TNG episode written by Roddenberry does in fact refer to Starfleet as militaristic, though this often gets dismissed by both sides of the argument since the line was spoken by Q.
Since then the idea Starfleet isn't military has somehow become one of the franchise's holiest commandments even though no one can really square it with how it's been depicted on screen. Indeed, Ron Moore has admitted he's always viewed Starfleet as a military anyway but was always instructed to say it isn't. Now we've got this situation where this topic has become one of fandom's most heated arguments between Canon Literalists and Gene Loyalists arguing "Isn't" and everyone else arguing "Is." Even Lower Decks has made jokes about this. This argument will never be resolved, can never be resolved and will only ever result in heated debates which will tire out everyone involved.
