Meta: Better Know The Federation
May. 16th, 2009 08:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skywaterblueThese are things every schoolchild would know about The United Federation of Planets. I weighted this article with more canon from the modern televised Treks than the Original Series, because TOS is often contradictory - and the new movie seems to put more weight on new canon. I've also included modern book canon, where noted.
BETTER KNOW THE FEDERATION!
1. Zephram Cochrane and First Contact.
Zephram Cochrane was from Montana, on an Earth still recovering from WW3 - which was fought with genetically altered supermen and nuclear weapons. (This is where Khan came from.) He is the inventor of the warp drive - at least, on Earth. The first warp trip happened on April 5th, 2063. A passing science vessel of the Vulcans spotted this warp trip, and as Earth had been under observation by the Vulcans for some time, made First Contact.
Vulcan took Earth under its wing as it was skeptical that Earth was ready not only to refrain from blowing itself up, but also because they were afraid of unleashing Earth on the universe. Zephram Cochrane would later move to the first out-system Earth Colony, Alpha Centauri, and then later again disappear into space.
2. The Founding of the Federation.
All four founding members of the Federation are very close together in space; hours or days from one another by warp ship. In 2155, when the Romulans began to encroach on this area of space, the four species bound together in a mutual defense pact. A four-year war between the alliance and the Romulans was fought, at the end of which the Romulan Neutral Zone was established as a border.
Deciding that the alliance should be made permanent for the defense of all members, the four species merged their governments as The United Federation of Planets. The Federation Charter was signed in 2161 by Andor, Earth, Tellar and Vulcan in San Francisco, Earth, at the UN Plaza.
3. Four Founding Members: Earth, Vulcan, Tellar and Andor.
Although the other founding races would deny, deny, deny, it is commonly accepted by everyone else that it takes humans to keep the Federation running, because the other founding members cannot historically stand each other. However, we're all friends now that we're in the Federation, right? Right?
3a. Vulcans: Vulcans have copper-based blood, and come in the whole spectrum of human fleshtones. Vulcans follow a Confuscianism-like religion based on the teachings of Surak and have had warp engines for millennia. Vulcans had a border war with the Andorans for over a century over a desolate moon. Captain Archer helped topple the government, placing T'Pau in charge of the High Council. Under her leadership, Vulcan re-asserted the values of non-violence in the teachings of Surak, including apparently leaving much of their defense to Starfleet.
3b. Andorians: Andorians are blue, with white hair and antennae on the top of their heads. A subspecies of Andorians are albino, called Aenar: they're blind and see with their antennae, and half-Aenar half-Andorians are a minty greenish color. Andor is actually an icy moon orbiting a large gas giant. Andorians have a military culture, organized by clan. Book canon says there are four genders and all are needed to reproduce, and Andorians are slipping below replacement rate with reproduction.
3c. Tellarites: Tellarites look like dwarves with pig snouts. They're a highly political people who like to argue. Vulcans find them overly quarrelsome. Tellarites seem to have been intergalactic traders prior to joining the Federation, and still continue to run cargo ships. The Andorians used to enjoy hijacking their cargo ships, and Tellarites used to enjoy blowing them up. We don't see Tellarites very often; everyone forgets they exist.
4. The Capital of the Federation: Earth.
Earth is the Capitol World of the Federation, with Paris serving as the seat of government and San Francisco serving as the base of Starfleet Operations. Although Earth itself is still governed by United Earth, which has many member states like the United States of America and the African Confederacy, Federation politics overpower local politics.
5. A Brief Note About Federation Government.
The Federation is governed by a President, elected from within the Federation Council. The Federation Council is a single-body legislature, and each member species of the Federation has one seat on the Council. (Think more like the EU, or the UN, rather than the United States.) The Federation is a socialist society in way that makes some Americans uncomfortable, but which would not be considered odd by Europeans.
Ambassadors: Some Ambassadors serve a planetary government to another planetary government. (Sarek is Vulcan's Ambassador to Earth). In the series we have also seen Federation Ambassadors to foreign powers. (Curzon Dax is/will be Federation Ambassador to the Klingon Empire.)
The Federation seems to count members by species, rather than by planet, except Alpha Centauri, a human-colony world counted as one of the founding worlds.
6. Joining the Federation.
Any planet or empire can join the Federation by application, or invitation. Planets who join the Federation need to already be warp-capable (with some exceptions) and have a peaceful world government that places a high standard on civil rights. Federation exploration ships are always excited to get to make First Contact with planets that seem like they might be good members.
Not every alien you see in Star Trek is necessarily a Federation member, either. The Federation accepts many refugees and new citizens by immigration. Some allied alien species go to Starfleet through cross-cultural exchange, and others by applying for sponsorship from a command-level Starfleet officer.
7. Starfleet.
Pike describes Starfleet as "a peace-keeping and humanitarian armada." This is a pretty good description. The Federation maintains that Starfleet's primary goal is exploration and defense of the member worlds and their borders. No ship in the Federation would be described as a battleship.
In reality, most Starfleet ships seem to spend their time patrolling their sectors of space.
8. Other planets in the Federation.
In Spock Prime's timeline, the Federation has a membership of over 150 worlds and over 1,000 colony worlds. According to the Star Trek website, the new universe's Federation has at least 120 members and 700 colonies.
Other members which are important to canon include: Denobula, Rigel, Cordan, Betazed, and Trill Prime. These worlds are all implied to be close to Earth.
9. All those Colony Worlds.
When a government joins the Federation, their colony worlds are absorbed as well. Earth has dozens and dozens of colonial worlds, some like Alpha Centauri may have a seperate membership in the Federation. Some are very settled, some are still establishing themselves. There are colony worlds for individual cultures (like Native Americans), colony worlds where the colonists have ideological goals (back to nature farming), and colony worlds established for mining or other claims. Although we rarely see it, there are presumably lots of colony worlds of other species.
Federation colonies will probably be cosmopolitan and have a wide range of species living within it.
10. Meet The Neighbors!
By some sort of weird galactic agreement, the Milky Way is generally broken up into four quadrants: Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Gamma. The Sol System is on the border between the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, and much of the Federation straddles the border. For convenience sake, the shows and movies often refer to the Federation and bordering empires as 'Alpha Quadrant Powers'. In this time period, the Delta and Gamma Quadrants are too far away for any Federation member to consider exploring.
So. The three major empires on the border of the Federation are: the Klingons, the Romulans and the Cardassians. Cardassia is on the far border from the Federation and in the 23rd Century neither interact with each other much. They are reptilian-like facists with a frighteningly effective spy network called The Obsideon Order. Romulans are famously, a xenophobic, emotion-driven offshoot of the Vulcans. They're technologically advanced, with their ships being equipped with cloaking devices. Their intellegence force is called the Tal Shiar, the government body is the Romulan Senate.
Klingons are less technologically capable than either of those two, and seem to have little concern for spy networks. Klingons practice warrior based raids of brute force. They stole cloaking technology off the Romulans, but theirs is not as good. Although in the 23rd Century, the Klingons are still hostile towards the Federation, the two empires in Spock Prime's time have mellowed out into peace. Should you meet them, they make excellent coffee, and like theater, especially Shakespeare and Opera.
Minor powers include: the Ferengi, space traders. The Ferengi are only comically militarily-capable - typically just enough to fight off Klingons. Like Ferengi, the Orion Confederacy are space traders - unlike Ferengi, they operate like the mafia, and accept members of other species. Tzenkethi are big cat people. Tholians are crystaline with many legs, and they have a beam weapon which creates a net in space.
ETA: For my own record, I also posted this on the LJ. The comment thread is different. Here
BETTER KNOW THE FEDERATION!
1. Zephram Cochrane and First Contact.
Zephram Cochrane was from Montana, on an Earth still recovering from WW3 - which was fought with genetically altered supermen and nuclear weapons. (This is where Khan came from.) He is the inventor of the warp drive - at least, on Earth. The first warp trip happened on April 5th, 2063. A passing science vessel of the Vulcans spotted this warp trip, and as Earth had been under observation by the Vulcans for some time, made First Contact.
Vulcan took Earth under its wing as it was skeptical that Earth was ready not only to refrain from blowing itself up, but also because they were afraid of unleashing Earth on the universe. Zephram Cochrane would later move to the first out-system Earth Colony, Alpha Centauri, and then later again disappear into space.
2. The Founding of the Federation.
All four founding members of the Federation are very close together in space; hours or days from one another by warp ship. In 2155, when the Romulans began to encroach on this area of space, the four species bound together in a mutual defense pact. A four-year war between the alliance and the Romulans was fought, at the end of which the Romulan Neutral Zone was established as a border.
Deciding that the alliance should be made permanent for the defense of all members, the four species merged their governments as The United Federation of Planets. The Federation Charter was signed in 2161 by Andor, Earth, Tellar and Vulcan in San Francisco, Earth, at the UN Plaza.
3. Four Founding Members: Earth, Vulcan, Tellar and Andor.
Although the other founding races would deny, deny, deny, it is commonly accepted by everyone else that it takes humans to keep the Federation running, because the other founding members cannot historically stand each other. However, we're all friends now that we're in the Federation, right? Right?
3a. Vulcans: Vulcans have copper-based blood, and come in the whole spectrum of human fleshtones. Vulcans follow a Confuscianism-like religion based on the teachings of Surak and have had warp engines for millennia. Vulcans had a border war with the Andorans for over a century over a desolate moon. Captain Archer helped topple the government, placing T'Pau in charge of the High Council. Under her leadership, Vulcan re-asserted the values of non-violence in the teachings of Surak, including apparently leaving much of their defense to Starfleet.
3b. Andorians: Andorians are blue, with white hair and antennae on the top of their heads. A subspecies of Andorians are albino, called Aenar: they're blind and see with their antennae, and half-Aenar half-Andorians are a minty greenish color. Andor is actually an icy moon orbiting a large gas giant. Andorians have a military culture, organized by clan. Book canon says there are four genders and all are needed to reproduce, and Andorians are slipping below replacement rate with reproduction.
3c. Tellarites: Tellarites look like dwarves with pig snouts. They're a highly political people who like to argue. Vulcans find them overly quarrelsome. Tellarites seem to have been intergalactic traders prior to joining the Federation, and still continue to run cargo ships. The Andorians used to enjoy hijacking their cargo ships, and Tellarites used to enjoy blowing them up. We don't see Tellarites very often; everyone forgets they exist.
4. The Capital of the Federation: Earth.
Earth is the Capitol World of the Federation, with Paris serving as the seat of government and San Francisco serving as the base of Starfleet Operations. Although Earth itself is still governed by United Earth, which has many member states like the United States of America and the African Confederacy, Federation politics overpower local politics.
5. A Brief Note About Federation Government.
The Federation is governed by a President, elected from within the Federation Council. The Federation Council is a single-body legislature, and each member species of the Federation has one seat on the Council. (Think more like the EU, or the UN, rather than the United States.) The Federation is a socialist society in way that makes some Americans uncomfortable, but which would not be considered odd by Europeans.
Ambassadors: Some Ambassadors serve a planetary government to another planetary government. (Sarek is Vulcan's Ambassador to Earth). In the series we have also seen Federation Ambassadors to foreign powers. (Curzon Dax is/will be Federation Ambassador to the Klingon Empire.)
The Federation seems to count members by species, rather than by planet, except Alpha Centauri, a human-colony world counted as one of the founding worlds.
6. Joining the Federation.
Any planet or empire can join the Federation by application, or invitation. Planets who join the Federation need to already be warp-capable (with some exceptions) and have a peaceful world government that places a high standard on civil rights. Federation exploration ships are always excited to get to make First Contact with planets that seem like they might be good members.
Not every alien you see in Star Trek is necessarily a Federation member, either. The Federation accepts many refugees and new citizens by immigration. Some allied alien species go to Starfleet through cross-cultural exchange, and others by applying for sponsorship from a command-level Starfleet officer.
7. Starfleet.
Pike describes Starfleet as "a peace-keeping and humanitarian armada." This is a pretty good description. The Federation maintains that Starfleet's primary goal is exploration and defense of the member worlds and their borders. No ship in the Federation would be described as a battleship.
In reality, most Starfleet ships seem to spend their time patrolling their sectors of space.
8. Other planets in the Federation.
In Spock Prime's timeline, the Federation has a membership of over 150 worlds and over 1,000 colony worlds. According to the Star Trek website, the new universe's Federation has at least 120 members and 700 colonies.
Other members which are important to canon include: Denobula, Rigel, Cordan, Betazed, and Trill Prime. These worlds are all implied to be close to Earth.
9. All those Colony Worlds.
When a government joins the Federation, their colony worlds are absorbed as well. Earth has dozens and dozens of colonial worlds, some like Alpha Centauri may have a seperate membership in the Federation. Some are very settled, some are still establishing themselves. There are colony worlds for individual cultures (like Native Americans), colony worlds where the colonists have ideological goals (back to nature farming), and colony worlds established for mining or other claims. Although we rarely see it, there are presumably lots of colony worlds of other species.
Federation colonies will probably be cosmopolitan and have a wide range of species living within it.
10. Meet The Neighbors!
By some sort of weird galactic agreement, the Milky Way is generally broken up into four quadrants: Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Gamma. The Sol System is on the border between the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, and much of the Federation straddles the border. For convenience sake, the shows and movies often refer to the Federation and bordering empires as 'Alpha Quadrant Powers'. In this time period, the Delta and Gamma Quadrants are too far away for any Federation member to consider exploring.
So. The three major empires on the border of the Federation are: the Klingons, the Romulans and the Cardassians. Cardassia is on the far border from the Federation and in the 23rd Century neither interact with each other much. They are reptilian-like facists with a frighteningly effective spy network called The Obsideon Order. Romulans are famously, a xenophobic, emotion-driven offshoot of the Vulcans. They're technologically advanced, with their ships being equipped with cloaking devices. Their intellegence force is called the Tal Shiar, the government body is the Romulan Senate.
Klingons are less technologically capable than either of those two, and seem to have little concern for spy networks. Klingons practice warrior based raids of brute force. They stole cloaking technology off the Romulans, but theirs is not as good. Although in the 23rd Century, the Klingons are still hostile towards the Federation, the two empires in Spock Prime's time have mellowed out into peace. Should you meet them, they make excellent coffee, and like theater, especially Shakespeare and Opera.
Minor powers include: the Ferengi, space traders. The Ferengi are only comically militarily-capable - typically just enough to fight off Klingons. Like Ferengi, the Orion Confederacy are space traders - unlike Ferengi, they operate like the mafia, and accept members of other species. Tzenkethi are big cat people. Tholians are crystaline with many legs, and they have a beam weapon which creates a net in space.
ETA: For my own record, I also posted this on the LJ. The comment thread is different. Here
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-05-17 03:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-17 03:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-17 03:33 am (UTC)This is a great bit of meta!
Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but since Enterprise (the show) is still canon in this timeline too... I read somewhere--I believe, maybe I'm just making this up myself--that the giant-ass canyon thing that Kirk drives that car into is part of the huge swath the Xindi weapon cut into Earth?
no subject
Date: 2009-05-17 03:36 am (UTC)I anon-ly wrote some Emony/McCoy porn a couple of days ago, I should own up to it.
Glad you thought it was helpful! I tend to assume that Xindi thing didn't happen - uh, wibbly wobbly timey wimey?
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Date: 2009-05-17 08:04 am (UTC)meanwhile did enterprise retcon the eugenics wars into being WWIII or something? i'm not up on enterprise canon because i kind of... couldn't stand it, so i don't know! cos space seed definitely places the eugenics wars as happening in the 1990's, and other references to WWIII seemed to indicate it was a separate, later conflict (including first contact, obviously). i know there's that whole problem where we were all alive in the 1990's and didn't notice any eugenics wars -- i think judith and garfield reeves-stevens tried to fanwank that in their book federation by saying it was an "underground war" that most people didn't notice or something. bless.
The three major empires on the border of the Federation are: the Klingons, the Romulans and the Cardassians.
needs moar orions!
no subject
Date: 2009-05-17 09:46 am (UTC)LOL! I'm surprised it took this long for someone to comment. I was so expecting the 'but FASA said...' thing WAY sooner.
meanwhile did enterprise retcon the eugenics wars into being WWIII or something?
I'm pretty sure they did, maybe because by that point 1990 was a long time before?
needs moar orions!
In minor conflicts, bb, 'cause they're not that big a threat! (Plus, new movie has Gaila, so maybe Orion's not even bad anymore.)
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Date: 2009-05-17 10:21 am (UTC)The 1990s date has always struck me as a little odd just because it implies Khan had already been born when the episode first aired in 1966!
needs moar orions!
And Tholians!
(no subject)
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Date: 2009-05-17 09:56 pm (UTC)Although it does make me wonder - are the events of First Contact part of the reboot universe? Because it would be sort of hilarious if there wasn't just a Spock Prime but also an entire Enterprise-D Prime, briefly.
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Date: 2009-05-17 11:50 pm (UTC)Although it does make me wonder - are the events of First Contact part of the reboot universe? Because it would be sort of hilarious if there wasn't just a Spock Prime but also an entire Enterprise-D Prime, briefly.
A really great question! Above, we were wondering if the Xindi attack still happened, and I have to say I'm not sure. If this new movie establishes that every time someone goes back in time, it splits off an alternate timeline, then maybe First Contact didn't happen. (Except that even if it didn't, I still think that Zephram Cochrane is from Montana, not Alpha Centauri.)
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Date: 2009-05-17 05:36 am (UTC)Also, I just got back from Star Trek, and the whole movie, I was like, Where all the Andonians at? Seems like they were all over TOS, but it's true, no one ever remembers Andor.
I didn't even know about Tellar, and I've been a Trekkie since I was wee. They're a bit like the Furlings of Stargate, no?
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Date: 2009-05-17 05:44 am (UTC)Also, I just got back from Star Trek, and the whole movie, I was like, Where all the Andonians at? Seems like they were all over TOS, but it's true, no one ever remembers Andor.
*teeth gnash and wail* I know. The lack of Andorians is something I find distressing.
The book 'verse has a whole book about the Federation's government: Articles of the Federation. It's pretty excellent.
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Date: 2009-05-17 09:06 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2009-05-17 01:46 pm (UTC)Also? #6 made me shout, "NOG!" and that made me very smiley. :)
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Date: 2009-05-17 09:34 pm (UTC)they actually show the Tzenkethi? where and when? i've seen one mention of them in DS9 so far (The Adversary) but no visual yet. i wanna see, dangit. LOL.
and what abt the Caitians? they're cat people too ;)
love this! nice and simplistic for the people who don't know Trek as well as us. :D you should do more of these. :)
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Date: 2009-05-18 12:01 am (UTC)Except obviously, in order to use the Kzinti they have to get Larry Niven's approval. David Hewlitt Wolfe, who wrote the DS9 episode, swears up and down that they're not .really. the Kzinit, but I think we can all call bullshit on that and go home.
I did use their DS9 name, though, because when don't I use DS9 canon, right?
I should have mentioned Cait as an important Federation world! D'oh. I wanted to mention the Horta, but Kirk hasn't found them yet. :)
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Date: 2009-05-18 05:40 am (UTC)I remember years ago, they made a game about Star Trek called 'Birth of the Federation'. One of the cutscenes if you picked the Feds as your civilization said something along the lines of "Scientific Exploration is the primary goal of Starfleet, they have weapons, but most tend to be more research oriented. However, always remember, that Federation ships are designed not to start wars, but to end them."
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