Quote:
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut
I wonder if this is something of a generational thing. Or maybe I'm dumb. I might just be dumb.
I never watched TOS because I'm an 80s kid. I was also fairly young and only gave passing glances to TNG.
So to me, Starfleet was pretty much the new, global Navy. Honestly, it never occurred to me that this wasn't the case until perhaps one of these threads. I always kinda figured that maybe these starships just weren't that impressive if the Enterprise was usually looked at as the big swinging dick among starships.
So I guess it....isn't? These guys aren't out there on the USS Constitution protecting anything, they're going out there doing Magellan shit and just looking around? And while the Enterprise may be the big fish in its own pond, there are probably dozens of ships that would pretty easily annihilate it (I guess that makes sense given how many times they blow the damn thing up).
I mean...I guess that's right there in their spiel, but like I said, I just never gave it much thought. Besides, that makes the concept of Starfleet seem really odd to me, especially given that whole "Fermi Paradox" thing and the fact that perhaps we should probably just not let the whole universe know where we are. Privately funded explorers back in ye olden times made since because frankly, they were funded by profiteers. But Starfleet would appear to be nothing more than a massive public works project whereby we empower people to take heavily armed ships to just go poking stuff with sticks to see what happens.
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Like you, being born int he 80s, I missed a lot of the TOS, except the movies. TNG is really what hooked me in and DS9 cemented the ride. I tried to get into Voyager but was in college for most of it and had other things to do and never really got into Enterprise, though I continued staying up with the movies.
So, what I can tell, is that Starfleet was primarily about exploration post a near-apocalyptic nightmare for earth heightened by the eugenic wars (from where Khan came). The humanity that survived basically evolved to be more explorers and peacemakers than warmongers.
In the movies with TOS crew, there was a mixed tension of exploration and war. A former war with the Klingons basically wound down into a cold war of sorts, impacted by Kirk's hatred for Klingons after they killed his son. Throughout the series and into the movies the Enterprise and crew went from being top of the line to rundown and old with bigger and better ships to follow (the Excelsior for example). The 1701-A seemed to be a refitted Constitution class ship, which was already beginning to be on the way out, given to the crew for legacy sake (whereas the 1701-B ended up being an Excelsior class and therefore regarded as more top of the line again).
With TNG, the 1701-D as a Galaxy class starship was essentially the biggest, baddest, and best of it's time. In TNG, there was the occasional interaction with other such ships, but most were smaller and less capable.
By then, most of the old wars were long past though uneasy truces remained among the Federation, Klingons, and Romulans. The Enterprise was sent out mostly as a vessel of exploration and discovery, but it was still decked out weapon-wise to face any unknown threats (like they would ultimately encounter with the Borg, though it was not advanced weaponry that enabled successful battles but rather the crew's ability and experience). As the top of the line ship, both in weapons and for exploration, the Enterprise would be called to various places to seek peace and engage in battle if necessary.
When DS9 rolled around, they put the space station crew on the edge of federation territory where things were more frontier like, messier, and less peaceful. It took some of the utopian gleam away from the federation.
In the reboots, the 1701 was billed as a top of the line ship. It paled in comparison to the Romulan ship due to it being from the future. In ITD, it paled to the Vengeance b/c that was a special-ops ship designed with the most advanced weaponry they could develop with the help of Khan out of a warmongering attitude toward the perceived threat of the Klingons.
Since Beyond wasn't THAT much further in the future and the Klingon war hadn't manifested, the Enterprise would still be more top of the line. But, yeah, given the existence of the Vengeance at one point and the technological feat of the new space station, it does make you wonder why there hadn't been a greater advancement in some more ships for that universe.
With the "fermi paradox" thing you mention: for the most part the Prime Directive seemed to limit a lot of poking. It's aim was to observe but not engage cultures that had yet to develop warp capability, therefore not to unduly influence the culture's evolution.
That seems to be something they picked up from the Vulcans. In First Contact, the Vulcans had already been explorers for years, yet had no interest in earth until Cochrane made a successful warp test as the Vulcans were passing nearby.
With TNG, Q basically warned Picard and thus the federation that they were poking at some very nasty unknowns, but the response was essentially: "We're explorers and we're up to the risks because the rewards will be greater." Then Q ultimately threw the Enterprise into the hornet's next with the Borg.
All that to say... Yeah, the federation was more Magellan and Columbus like than a war-time Navy, for their main aim was exploration; but they also prepared for possible wars and those wars did come. So, yeah, explorers with really powerful weapons, somewhat poking at things.
