"Whom Gods Destroy", FJ and Federation history

[Wingsley]

I recently started a thread over in the TrekBBS Trek Tech forum titled "One big, happy fleet [FJ]" about the starship listings and other techno-historical material found in the late Franz Joseph Schnaubelt's 1975 "Star Trek Star Fleet Technical Manual". (Franz Joseph Schnaubelt = FJ)

One interesting topic kept popping up in the thread: the history of the United Federation of Planets and how it came into being.

Current thinking in STAR TREK cannon and fan circles is based on mentions of the Federation's origins from DEEP SPACE NINE and ENTERPRISE, which strongly point to the Federation being founded in 2161, so the Federation (according to official STAR TREK cannon anyways) was supposedly around for about 105 years as of the beginning of TOS.

But FJ's Tech Manual seemed very divergent from this. He appeared to be lifting references from the TOS ep "Whom Gods Destroy", specifically the Axanar Peace Mission which then-cadet James T. Kirk participated in as a very young man. There is the very loose suggestion that this Axanar event, "which made Mister Spock and me brothers", was either the founding of the Federation or led to it immediately thereafter. This would place the founding within Captain Kirk's lifetime.

But there's a wrinkle in this alternate version of Federation history: how could James T. Kirk have been a cadet at Starfleet Academy if the Federation had yet to be founded? And how could Fleet Captain Garth have won the Battle of Axanar if there were no Federation to deploy a Starfleet of starships?

In my thread, I lifted an idea from ENT to bridge the apparent gap in history to suggest a way to reconcile official cannon with "Whom Gods Destroy". Perhaps Starfleet, as an organization, was already in existence prior to the Federation. In the fourth year of ENT, there is mention of a new alliance between Earth and other friendly worlds called the Coalition of Planets. In my thread, I proposed that the Coalition of Planets was formed in either the ENT era, and that it quickly evolved into a set of institutions (including Starfleet) that became a kind of proto-Federation.

So, in this view of Federation history, Starfleet and perhaps other Federation institutions predated the formal organization of the United Federation of Planets. A kind of proto-Federation called the Coalition of Planets formed the Star Fleet, designated Coalition Starships with the prefix "U.S.S.", among them the ill-fated Valiant that was lost in Star Cluster NGC 321 fifty years before TOS. Starfleet was fully formed as an institution at the time of the Axanar Peace Mission, which resulted in the Coalition of Planets being reorganized as the United Federation of Planets. Starfleet was apparently carried over through this reorganization, and the foundation of the Federation codified the official creation of 14 Constitution-class heavy cruiser starships, two of which were subsequently destroyed. Other Coalition starships may have been retained to sustain fleet strength, but the Connies were apparently the first true "Federation starships".

If you look at the content of TOS in isolation, it seems to quietly support the notion that the Federation could be only a generation old. To be sure, there is nothing in TOS that explicitly states the age of the Federation or that establishes it as being a century old.

 

[Timo]

I don't think a Coalition is needed to explain the existence of Starfleet before the existence of the Federation. After all, ENT already showed us that there existed a Starfleet before there was any sort of unity between any of the familiar species.

Indeed, the less Coalition or Alliance or Compactat there is before this important Axanar event takes place, the more logically the "brothers" thing flows from it. Quite possibly Starfleet was a human-only, Earth-only thing before Axanar, in FJ's interpretation at least.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Gary7]

One interesting topic kept popping up in the thread: the history of the United Federation of Planets and how it came into being.

All we have is what Roddenberry and his hired writers produced and filmed, and unfortunately they never deliberately indulged in any kind of thorough explanation about the history of the Federation or Starfleet. So, the possibilities are wide open for speculation. I think it's an interesting exercise to do, to imagine how the Federation and Starfleet came into being. But I'd just keep in mind that what you're really getting into is purely fan fiction. Thus, you may find yourself in rather lengthy debates about various interpretations of the minuscule evidence we've been given...

ENT crafted it's own interpretation but even still, we weren't given a thorough treatise. And of course, this is way long after Roddenberry. Some people feel rather strongly that ENT isn't canon, because it "unraveled" a number of key elements that were established in TOS and TNG, such as the first "Borg" encounter taking place before Picard--one of the gravest violations. So... this makes whatever ENT came up with speculative in of itself.

 

[Pavonis]

...There is the very loose suggestion that this Axanar event, "which made Mister Spock and me brothers", was either the founding of the Federation or led to it immediately thereafter. This would place the founding within Captain Kirk's lifetime.

Or it could be a literal bonding moment for Spock and Kirk. If Kirk participated, maybe Spock was there, too, and the events that transpired brought the two together in a brother-like bond.

Alternatively, the events at Axanar could've reaffirmed that the Federation was a useful political alliance for the members, somehow.

 

[Wingsley]

Maybe FJ's Tech Manual was the ultimate fan fic that started it all...

 

[Timo]

...Which is the other famous fanfic take on it: the FASA RPG material establishes that a big fight at Axanar involved Klingons on one side, and a bunch of folks frightened by Klingons on the other, and could have led to the dissolution of the anti-Klingon alliance but instead led into the stiffening of resistance and solidifying of unity.

John M. Ford milks on that story in the novel The Final Reflection, describing in FASA (and old Spaceflight Chronology) terms a dissolutionary movement a few decades prior to the Axanar events.

The underlying assumption there is that the Klingon threat unified a pre-existing UFP and its Starfleet. Much like some novels and other "fan" sources suggest the original unity emerged from the Romulan threat. Works well, but perhaps it's a bit repetitive when something more complex could be devised out of the current volume of evidence?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Wingsley]

The 2161 date for founding the Federation works for me, and explains many things in both the TOS Universe and the overall Prime Universe franchise quite nicely. But the FJ-derived notion that Axanar was a second foundational event also holds appeal. It seems much like the early American colonies as the Continental Congress evolved, then they declared themselves "free and independent states", successfully revolting against the Crown, and only years later ratifying the U.S. Constitution to officially create the form of government we know today. So it seems logical that the Federation and Federation starships may also have evolved over a period of decades. It certainly provides added drama to the Federation's history and it makes seem like Archer didn't just snap his fingers in 2161 and whip up a Federation.

Either way works for me, but I enjoy exploring the content of TOS to see if it could give rise to a different path. Call it "Alt Trek" if you want. If Jim Cawley can do it with Phase II, I don't see why it couldn't be done.

 

[T'Girl]

Axanar was a second foundational event also holds appeal.

Perhaps Axanar was the Federation's equivalent of "The Great Patriotic War." It in some way fundamentally changed the Federation, from what it was for the first ninety years of it's existence, into the Federation that was during the TOS years.

From what we saw in The Cage, the construction of the Enterprise would seem to predate the Axanar event, but we don't know how long that event lasted, when it started, it might have lasted for decades.

Prior to Axanar the Federation existed in no more than name, an idea that never really blossomed. The events of the Romulan War might have push the founding fathers of the Federation together. But without the Romulan threat, the members came to see little continuing use for this "Federation" thing. Axanar was too big for any of the individual little star republics, forcing a resumption of the alliance that beat back the Romulan Star Empire. After Axanar, the Federation wasn't automatically a more perfect union, but they had accomplish something very important together, and they were talking again. There was a feeling of "brotherhood" among the members of the Federation.

Kirk and Spock became "brothers."

 

[F. King Daniel]

If we're trying to figure out what was orignally intended, you're ignoring that TOS retconned the name "Starfleet" into the show. Originally the Enterprise operated as part of the "United Earth Space Probe Agency" (you-spa for short) and it was the "Earth Federation"

I'm certain TOS' vague hints were just that - little neat sounding bits of backstory to make the universe seem vast and detailed. But it was made up as they went along. Tidbits dropped in without a plan.

 

[T'Girl]

... and it was the "Earth Federation"

I think (a little universe building here) that there are two separate organizations that use the term "Federation." One is the UFP which is a interstellar association of intelligent species, the other is "The Earth Federation" which is something like the current British Commonwealth. It is composed of Earth, all of Earth's current colonies and the majority of Earth's former (now independent) colonies. There might be a place within it too for worlds that were never a Earth colony, but have significant Human populations, and/or major economic ties to Earth.

And while Earth is a United Federation of Planets member, and some of it's former colonies are too, not all star systems that are in this "commonwealth" are in the UFP.

Again, just some universe building, nothing that actually violates cannon.

I'm certain TOS' vague hints were just that - little neat sounding bits of backstory to make the universe seem vast and detailed. But it was made up as they went along. Tidbits dropped in without a plan.

But that assemble into a whole.

 

[E-DUB]

Or can be made to.