What happened to .... (fill in the blank)

[Smellincoffee]

If the events of Star Trek happened in 'our' world, do you ever wonder how given groups would respond? For instance, when humans began colonizing planets, would an ethnic group like Han Chinese claim a given world and violently repel any other nationals? Would seperatist groups like the Haredim attempt to create their own private society away from the crowds and dangers of Earth? Would governments use newly-accessible planets to export their prisoners?

Have any Trek novels or fanfics begun with the premise that a given colony was settled by a distinct group of Earthers, not just an even mix of people in bad clothing?

 

[Triskelion]

In Trek, it is a post WWIII society making the warp exodus. There seems to be an implication of planetary unification that willingly espouses liberal values and its economic advantages: replicators, transporters, etc. Indeed, there is a distinction embedded in the Federation's First Contact procedures that only warp-capable civilizations are capable of exodus without inflicting more harm than good to themselves and others. IE, our world as we know it today would not be making this trek. In the fiction, economic divisions that define us no longer exist with the same respect to borders and ethnonational competition. What the show featured for humanity's future was typically planetary colonies based on ideologies rather than politics or economics or race.

So it's important to remember two things:
1. Star Trek is not a crystal ball looking into the real future
2. Star Trek's premise is that we pretty much overcome nationalism and racial distinctions, except in rare cases of story antagonists - space nazis, 18th century Irish settlers, etc.

Trek employed socioeconomic handwavium for the purpose of getting to its story premise, so we can do the same to almost any real world group or limiting factor like disease, etc.

 

[USS Triumphant]

Well, we saw a couple of instances of that sort of thing, but they were carried out by the Preservers or by parallel development (apparently), rather than by those cultures themselves - the world of Native Americans that Miramanee lived on, and the world of Romans from "Bread and Circuses".

Aside from those, I don't remember any colonies that seemed racially or nationally exclusionary, per se - but there certainly seemed to be some that showed that like tends to attract like sometimes. Caldos II, for example, from "Sub Rosa" seemed to be Planet Scotland. The colonists on Bringloid V from "Up The Long Ladder" appeared to be dedicated to a primitive lifestyle (although that may have been from circumstance, rather than by intent).

 

[T'Girl]

Star Trek's premise is that we pretty much overcome nationalism and racial distinctions ...

Actually we do see nationalism. Scott, Chekov, O'Brien and Reed all display nationalism at one point or another. During the first season of TNG, Picard speaks openly of his nationalist feeling about being French.

There seems to be an implication of planetary unification ...

There are on screen references to a HMS Lord Nelson in the year 2120 being on a mission of "deep space" exploration and the HMS New Zealand in 2135 undertaking a diplomatic mission.

HMS (Her Majesty's Ship) sound more like a starship registered out of Britain, and not "Earth."

There's also a VK Yuri Gagarin on a colonization mission in 2105, "VK" iirc is Russian.

For instance, when humans began colonizing planets, would an ethnic group like Han Chinese claim a given world and violently repel any other nationals?

I can easily imagine nations (and also private groups) engaging in large scale interstellar colonization following the discovery of warp drive. That said, I've alway had a problem with a group claiming an entire planet base solely on their establishing a colony on the surface. A reasonable area or even a region sure, but not an entire planet. Not that that wouldn't prevent a group from employing violence (or it's threat) to defend their claim.

Would seperatist groups like the Haredim attempt to create their own private society away from the crowds and dangers of Earth?

Sure, groups would leave Earth for a variety of reasons. And not just to travel to "virgin" worlds either, they could go to established (by other species) colonies world, and even to alien homeworlds.

To do the jobs that the aliens don't want to do.

Would governments use newly-accessible planets to export their prisoners?

Penal colonies are a Star Trek tradition.

.

 

[Tracy Trek]

What about the group from earth that wanted to hide away and practice genetic engineering in The Masterpiece Society?

 

[2takesfrakes]

The Masterpiece Society showed a society that was precariously balanced, so that really very little could change, or be altered, without there being some degree of harm. It reminds awefully, of the planet Bethselamin in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:

"A fabulously beautiful planet, Bethselamin is now so worried about the cumulative eroision by ten billion visiting tourists a year that any net imbalance between the amount you eat and the amount you excrete whilst on the planet is surgically removed from your bodyweight when you leave: so every time you go to the lavatory there it is vitally important to get a receipt."

 

[Catarina]

our bodied if we ate replicated food. I think it started with mansanto...