why is warp travel one of the main things for Federation membership?

[JirinPanthosa]

It’s not clear how advanced Bajor was before the occupation. All we know is they achieved nonwarp interstellar travel 800 years ago and Cardassia knew this and covered it up because it contradicted the narrative of their superiority. We don’t know what else they covered up. All we know is that their weapons technology was behind Cardassia. They could have had warp and not made contact by choice.

I don’t think warp travel is easier than subspace communication, just there’s no reason to invent it before warp.

 

[Kor]

If there was some an advanced society who traveled all around the galaxy via gateways/wormholes/whatever a la the Iconians instead of ships, Picard would probably refuse to make contact with them because the letter of the law says they have to have warp flight capability first.

Kor

 

[SpyOne]

So even if you know of aliens have colonized your home solar system and are just waiting for some breakthrough that will put you outside your solar system the Federation won't even talk to you? Do I have that right?

If there was some an advanced society who traveled all around the galaxy via gateways/wormholes/whatever a la the Iconians instead of ships, Picard would probably refuse to make contact with them because the letter of the law says they have to have warp flight capability first.

Kor

The rules don't say "don't make contact if they don't have warp", they say "if they do have warp, you may make contact".
There are plenty of examples of pre-warp civilizations the Federation has contacted, presumably because they were evaluated and deemed ready, but also possibly because it couldn't be avoided.
But once a civilization has warp, ready or not they are going to start meeting people. Attempting to hide from them is no longer practical.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Now I'm imagining a race that developed superior cloaking technology, including personal cloaks, all for the purpose of upholding their prime directive.

And then they realize that instead of making contact with anyone, all they did was spread the myth of poltergeists across the galaxy.

 

[Mojochi]

That raises an interesting question. If aliens on a slow moving sleeper ship (no warp drive) finally landed on a(n area of), say a moon of Jupiter, that had no Human presence and began peacefully colonizing it, would Starfleet be prohibited from making contact with them, assuming these aliens hadn't detected or tried to contact us yet?

To your premise, I'd say probably yes, if we make this a UFP territory that remains somwhat isolated, but I'd reckon that nothing in the Sol system is nearly isolated enough. The academy alone is ruining drills through the whole area regularly.

Earth's solar system is heavily populated with stations, shipyards, colonies, outposts, ship activity, probably a whole systemwide sensor grid. It would be impossible for somebody to stroll through there undetected, or without detecting some part of it.

In fact, any subwarp vessel traveling intergalactically would have to be a living ship. Some kind of colony of multiple generations etc.. to survive out there. Starfleet would know all about it before it got anywhere near the neighborhood. They'd also probably take action to covertly herd them away from populated space

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Generally the prime directive applies. So non interference principles.
Preferably even the federation’s presence is kept under the lid to avoid cultural contamination.

Once warp capacity is achieved by the alien species, the culture becomes a top priority for evaluating how to make peaceful contact, based on humanity’s own bad experiences with the Klingons which led to decades of hostilities.

Basically the Feds try to spare them this experience of running into difficulties unprepared.

 

[XCV330]

It’s not clear how advanced Bajor was before the occupation. All we know is they achieved nonwarp interstellar travel 800 years ago and Cardassia knew this and covered it up because it contradicted the narrative of their superiority. We don’t know what else they covered up. All we know is that their weapons technology was behind Cardassia. They could have had warp and not made contact by choice.

I don’t think warp travel is easier than subspace communication, just there’s no reason to invent it before warp.

the UFP was handling trade negotiations with the Capellans, who had not even invented the bow and arrow. They seem a bit uneven in how they're willing to handle that directive. Maybe the enforcement of the PD is inverse to how much mineral wealth the system has. And if there is a sentient species on a world, does the UFP back off the entire solar system or help itself to the other planets, minor planet and asteroids they find useful? Where does a non-warp civilization's sovreignty end? The Capellans were willfully uninterested in anything above them at all, though they understood they received visitors from there.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

We don't know what first contact preceded McCoy's earlier visit to Capella IV. Presumably, any nearby planet the Klingons take interest in always attracts Federation attention.

 

[Timo]

And potentially, Klingon interest preempts the PD altogether, as any natives within the Klingon sphere of interest are already acutely aware of space aliens and their death rays...

Stratos may be a Federation member world. It may be a on aligned friendly port of call. There may be political reasons why Stratos could not directly ship the needed zenite.

Well, Kirk directly states that "Ardana is a member of the Federation" - and that Plasus' Council has obligations towards "another member", that is, the planet suffering from the plague, so we can't even readily argue that Ardana would be a member but Stratos would not.

But the rest is indeed speculation. Kirk's ship may be the fastest way to deliver the aid to Merak II, either in terms of travel speed or efficacy of zenite spraying. In this case, Stratos could be well stocked in interstellar vessels, both native and visiting, but those would not enter the discussion.

It’s not clear how advanced Bajor was before the occupation. All we know is they achieved nonwarp interstellar travel 800 years ago and Cardassia knew this and covered it up because it contradicted the narrative of their superiority. We don’t know what else they covered up. All we know is that their weapons technology was behind Cardassia. They could have had warp and not made contact by choice.

Bajor is also ancient enough to have had several Warp Ages after which it may have succumbed to lower levels of technology or higher degrees of isolation. Picard speaks of an urban culture in what amounts to hundreds of thousands of years ago in "Ensign Ro"; that's ten times what it took for humans to go from earliest permanent settlements to warp.

If the push comes to a shove, "Explorers" also gives us leeway of interpretation. What nobody believes in is Bajor/Cardassia contact 800 years before the episode. But Bajor has interstellar fame going back a long time. Is that 700 years or what? Or did Bajorans travel in many directions but allegedly not to Cardassia, before deciding that traveling was for aliens? Bajorans are extreme homebodies, never having settled their lush fifth moon and never having properly surveyed the Janitza Mountains. With such alien thinking, they could have been sitting on transwarp for millennia and considered it an utter waste of their time.

I don’t think warp travel is easier than subspace communication, just there’s no reason to invent it before warp.

Faster-than-light communications would be great for mankind right now - lightspeed holds back our computers. But warp would be great, too, with plenty of weaponizing potential even if nobody cares for the stars. It's difficult to see why a humanlike culture would always skip subspace radio until they build warp, unless there's a technological hurdle there. Then again, I just argued Bajorans are not humanlike at all...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[valkyrie013]

For Contact, the usuall bar is the ability of Warp travel. Though that is just an arbatrary bar, a species can evolve to have antimater reactors,etc and not want to leave there home planet. So then, wed make introductions, and ask if they'd like to be part of the larger galaxy, if they say no, we move on, if yes then we go forward.
For federation inclusion, 1 world govenment, no war,etc to be considered, even then its not automatic, they have to ask. and go through an aproval process.