Star Trek: Questions you always wanted answers to

10378539_10153909555710211_8997459079869660838_n.jpg


odd things I notice in HD. Picards odd off screen hand gesture like he's saying 'WTF, you walk away from me without saying anything?'
 
The classic old question: Is Starfleet a military organisation? Gene Roddenberry, the very flawed creator stated it's not, but they still use naval ranks and training as far as depicted. Which is contradict as hell, since he saw Trek as a Horatio Hornblower in space. Nicholas Meyer even proposed the military uniform look, which Robert Fletcher executed brilliantly with the TWOK Monster Maroon.

I see Starfleet consequently as a military organisation, which executes Federation order and does military stuff like patrolling the borders and keeping the peace, with a focal point of exploration and science, not matter what Roddenberry said.
 
The classic old question: Is Starfleet a military organisation? Gene Roddenberry, the very flawed creator stated it's not, but they still use naval ranks and training as far as depicted. Which is contradict as hell, since he saw Trek as a Horatio Hornblower in space. Nicholas Meyer even proposed the military uniform look, which Robert Fletcher executed brilliantly with the TWOK Monster Maroon.

I see Starfleet consequently as a military organisation, which executes Federation order and does military stuff like patrolling the borders and keeping the peace, with a focal point of exploration and science, not matter what Roddenberry said.

I think that it's accurate to call Starfleet a para-military organization that's primarily devoted to peaceful exploration and diplomatic explorations, but in times of war they would serve as the military arm of the Federation. The closest real life equivalent would probably be the US Coast Guard, during times of peace they're a search and rescue and law enforcement organization, like Starfleet their ships are armed, they have small arms, they wear uniforms, and hold military style rank but are not formally part of the military but can and do act as part of the US military during times of war.
 
A good parallel can also be drawn to the Royal Navy of the Regency era. They went out on voyages of discovery to the other side of the planet, out of contact with "civilization" for years. They were expected to be scientists, explorers, cartographers, be handy to help out any colonists who might be near, show the flag, and fight off imperialist adversaries like Spain or Holland, who also had laid claims way out in the middle of (for them) nowhere). "Horatio Hornblower in space" was what Gene liked to describe it as, and reading those books or O'Brien's "Master and Commander" series gives you a good sense of the military-but-also-scholar-and-explorer role the officers on those whips were expected to fill.

--Jonah
 
I want to know about the non use of money. They don't use it I know, they drove that point home in every 5 the episode of DS9
( earthlings that is ) but it has never been explained how it works wold wide. Voyager had to ration everything . replicator rations where transferable so basically became currency .
Which makes sense of course.

But what about someone on earth could you just walk around permanent vacation style. Move where and when you want . not doing a damn thing but surfing like Brody ?
Was it kind of like futuramma they assign you a job?
What if you refuse to do it ?

I could see how it could work with replicators and the like there are basically unlimited supplies and most people would get bored doing nothing at all after a while.

Also is theft illegal ?
I mean replicate another one right ?
Even if you took a shuttle craft it seems like an inconvenience more than anything else .
I would think the main problem is flying without a license, tampering with federation equipment or something .
 
I want to know about the non use of money. They don't use it I know, they drove that point home in every 5 the episode of DS9
( earthlings that is ) but it has never been explained how it works wold wide. Voyager had to ration everything . replicator rations where transferable so basically became currency .
Which makes sense of course.

But what about someone on earth could you just walk around permanent vacation style. Move where and when you want . not doing a damn thing but surfing like Brody ?
Was it kind of like futuramma they assign you a job?
What if you refuse to do it ?

I could see how it could work with replicators and the like there are basically unlimited supplies and most people would get bored doing nothing at all after a while.

Also is theft illegal ?
I mean replicate another one right ?
Even if you took a shuttle craft it seems like an inconvenience more than anything else .
I would think the main problem is flying without a license, tampering with federation equipment or something .
You semi-answer a lot of it. There are two factors -- at least on Earth, its primary colonies (independent or not) and other comparable core member worlds of similar tech level... Replicator technology, which they have, and energy sources to power same, which they also have. When you have more than enough power to make the things that can make all the other things go, you've utterly solved the basic-needs issue. The value of houses, clothes, trinkets, food, etc., plummets. People still have to do the actual work, but by the time replicators are invented, the technology of attaching things to other things is very, very heavily automated, so not as many people are needed to do it.

As for what people would do... It's one of the things that been being studied in the here and now over the last half-century or so. Basic Income. There've been quite a few cities and even small countries that have done pilot projects to see what happens when the government provides the basic essentials -- rent, food money, utilities, transportation, school, etc. The general takeaway so far is: There's a brief period when a lot of people go "oh thank god!" and rest for a bit, but then, yes, they get bored. The most recent study up in Ontario a few years back showed that the only people who worked less were adolescents and pregnant women. Most people always want more and better. Some are content to coast along on the bare minimum, but they're more outliers than the norm. Right now, we're in an extended moment of transition where we're (painfully) learning to uncouple "jobs" from "survival". Plenty of people who know economics and psychology can demonstrate that jobs aren't what makes the economy go, but people having money to spend. One Silicon Valley startup guru has said rather bluntly that 90% of the population could stay home, play video games, and smoke pot, and the economy would do just fine if they were spending money.

But, again, boredom. "The challenge, Mr. Offenhouse, is to improve yourself, to better yourself." I have a feeling it would be a sort of protracted Renaissance, where people were freed up to tinker and experiment and pursue passions and do things because they wanted to, not because they had to. And with replicators, real historical artifacts would acquire that much more of a cache. Restaurants would be run by people who love to cook for other people, unique clothing would be made by bespoke tailors who could provide something the replicators couldn't. And so on.

The tricky part comes in when these societies have to interact with societies that still employ currency. One of the subtle shadings of meaning is that they don't use money, but that isn't the same thing as not having some sort of ephemeral value-based currency that can be drawn on when needed, which most of the time it isn't. Like... Most of the time, a stipend will flow in, and then get tariffed out or whatever, as you go about your business. But there will be a number there than can be drawn on when you need to plunk down for that Ferengi souvenir. Others with even more time to noodle on these things than I have speculated out rough equivalencies from what we've seen, and whether the ephemeral "credits" are used by the government, or if it's just an ongoing book-balancing thing with numbers that don't really mean much internally.

--Jonah
 
Ever wonder why when ships approach each other, they are always the right way up, not sideways or upside down ? :p

the wrath of khan is the only time I remember they slightly touched on that when they were hiding in the whatever without sensors and they were flying around all discombobulated compared to each other . I always assumed the ships sensors let them know and they kind of autocorrected plus it just looks better on t.v. but I always come up with my own excuses for t.v. logic
 
TNG dabbled with the idea of non-oriented ships, especially in "All Good Things" with the triple nacelled alternate future Enterprise blowing away those Klingon ships with its mighty phaser cannon of doom. You also saw it in the First Contact battle with the Borg.

Then DS9 went into it like gangbusters with the Dominion War.
 
TNG dabbled with the idea of non-oriented ships, especially in "All Good Things" with the triple nacelled alternate future Enterprise blowing away those Klingon ships with its mighty phaser cannon of doom. You also saw it in the First Contact battle with the Borg.

Then DS9 went into it like gangbusters with the Dominion War.

But they still, for the most part, think in 2D. I don't know how many times when somebody runs into some sort of barrier in space, be it another race's territory, an asteroid field, etc. and they're at an impasse because it would take too long to go around. What they forget is that they're not on the water, they don't have just go around, they can also go above or below or a combination of above, below, and around.
 
My headcanon is that there's a sort of benefit to travelling in parallel with the galactic plane? Sort of like following currents. The diameter of the milky way is 100,000+ light years and the thickness is only like 10,000 light years. So it is relatively thin.
 
This popped in my head today for some reason. Is there marketing, within the Federation? You can presumably replicate anything you'll ever need, so they really wouldn't need to market any products. I can't remember any examples, other than maybe on DS9, where something was being marketed.
 
are the borg human from origins?

why the question? in Star Trek Voyager "distant origin" the crew meets the Voth wich origins came from earth. so if dinosaur DNA can get to the delta quadrant that long ago why not humans?
 
If the Borg assimilate everything, why are they all basically human cyborgs? Where are all the other alien races that have been assimilated?
 
It always bugged me that all of the races in the galaxy all seemed to be around the same age, galactically speaking.
The Vulcans and Klingons got to space a few hundred years before Humans, but now everyone seems to have the same kinds of technology more or less. Even the Borg aren't that much older and more advanced.
Where are all of the races that are millions of years ahead? Or even a few thousand years ahead with tech more in line with what you see from the 26th and 29th century Federation?

I think the Mass Effect universe does a good job or explaining this trope and uses it as an interesting plot element, but I can't think of a good explanation for Star Trek.
 
If the Borg assimilate everything, why are they all basically human cyborgs? Where are all the other alien races that have been assimilated?

Because the Borg are actually space Nazis(unlike those aliens seen in the end of season 3 of Enterprise), and they are very racist, so they tend to stick with human-like aliens ;)

It always bugged me that all of the races in the galaxy all seemed to be around the same age, galactically speaking.
The Vulcans and Klingons got to space a few hundred years before Humans, but now everyone seems to have the same kinds of technology more or less. Even the Borg aren't that much older and more advanced.
Where are all of the races that are millions of years ahead? Or even a few thousand years ahead with tech more in line with what you see from the 26th and 29th century Federation?

I think the Mass Effect universe does a good job or explaining this trope and uses it as an interesting plot element, but I can't think of a good explanation for Star Trek.


A similar idea was investigated in an episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation." In "The Chase" (Season 6, Episode 20), an ancient alien species called the Preservers was revealed to have seeded many planets with the same genetic material. Over billions of years, similar plants, animals and humanoids developed on a variety of worlds, according to the story presented in the episode.
http://www.space.com/35188-star-trek-alien-evolution.html

http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Preservers

Also advanced aliens that destroy most other advanced races: http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Iconians
 

Your message may be considered spam for the following reasons:

If you wish to reply despite these issues, check the box below before replying.
Be aware that malicious compliance may result in more severe penalties.
Back
Top