If we cut out the "military" episodes what would be left?
^ War the song - fought by Bruce Springsteen
Beat me to it...I thought that was Edwin Starr.
Quite the contrary, very little of Star Trek is actually about exploration. Of the TV series the only one which was strictly about exploration, Enterprise, and they abandoned that in the third season. In the movies, exploration has only been shown three times: the Reliant at Ceti Alpha V in TWOK, the Grissom at the Genesis planet in TSFS, and the Enterprise at Nibiru in STID.
Given the context in which he mentioned them, I'd say they're related to oceans. Likely they sail the oceans of Federation worlds and provide an at-sea presence, assistance and aid when it's needed. In fact, they could very well be a futuristic Coast Guard.
Really? The Roman Legions are still considered one of the world's best fighting forces.
Of course they could always ignore things like Starfleet isn't military, or there's no money and other things which exist only because "Gene said so." Roddenberry also said humans didn't practice religion anymore in the 24th century, we even had this established onscreen in Who Watches the Watchers. Yet, the other 24th century shows, and even TNG itself in the later seasons had no problem ignoring this.
That story helps identify as more with the common man
And what of the US Army Corp of Engineers? The USAF and their satellite program, as well as actively working with NASA? What about National Guard members being activated to help fight wild fires? Educational assistance to foreign governments, including medical? Maintaining diplomatic relationships with strategic partners?
Source: https://books.google.com/books?id=n...on combat function&pg=PR5#v=onepage&q&f=false
Hell, I remember one blizzard being so bad where I live the military was called in to plow the roads.
although I don't know where they got that bit.
Well now I'm not sure we're even talking about the same show anymore.
The only mention of the Federation Naval Patrol in all Trek:Memory Alpha says that the Federation Naval Patrol is military
Like I said, the context suggests they're ocean related, and they have nothing to do with Starfleet. I'm not sure there's enough evidence to say if they are or aren't military.
No? In the majority of TOS and TNG the Enterprise is either on a Starfleet assigned mission to investigate, render aid, or transport dignitaries, responding to distress calls, getting into fights, mediating fights between other aliens, or whatever. Go and look through the various episodes and try to find ones from these two shows that are actually about exploration, there's really not that many. DS9 is about the daily dramas aboard a space station which eventually becomes war centred, Voyager is about getting home. Enterprise is the only series in which the ship was just sent out to explore for the sake of exploration, and even then they eventually abandoned the concept.
One could say Voyager was about exploration, since they did explore on the way home. Though the mission that got them on the other side of the Galaxy was a military one
He's not wrong. The opening monologue is more poetry than fact. The TOS Enterprise did more than explore. It transported diplomats, checked up on colonists and scientists, captured criminals and defended the Federation.
I feel like you're just proving my point. Most of those are either explicitly exploration or tangentially related to exploration. A few are military and all of them are unintentional engagements, not directives. Operation Annihilate is not a military episode. Only three are explicitly military operations by directive (Balance of Terror, Errand of Mercy, and kind of Arena), the others are them stumbling into an unintended conflict during an otherwise peaceful endeavor.
My point is the missions are a mixed bag. Exploration is just one aspect and not always at the forefront. And no, most aren't explicitly exploration.
The episode where they have to neutralize an invading force? If that's not a military episode, what the hell is?
No one said most of the episodes were military related, just that very little were exploration related. You're once again assuming non-exploration=military. Sure, very few episodes are actually about the ships on military missions. But the stuff we do see them doing, including exploring are things the military can do and have done in the past.
Exactly so. The missions listed out by @Nerys Myk could all fall under a military organization's purview.
I'm not saying it's not about exploration, just that exploration in the literal sense wasn't always the mission in most episodes. It was more about exploring ideas than exploring space or new worlds. Those ideas didn't need a new planet or species to explore them.
