Star Trek

as referred to by Captain Pike in STXI?

I have always looked at Star Fleet as an exploratory arm of the United Federation of Planets. This comes from my first exposure to Star Trek in TOS.

It becomes slightly more militant and defensive as a force in latter movies and series. Especially, in STXI where we see no peacekeeping activities displayed.

Just curious as to whether Star Fleet will return to its glory as a decendant of the United Earth Space Probe Agency. Or, will it continue to evolve into a galactic policing agency.

I did a response to a thread like this about a month ago...and discovered that if you look at the % of episodes in TOS that truly focused on EXPLORATION as opposed to other duties (ie: peacekeeping, humanitarian aid, courier duties, millitary duties, and rescue missions) it is about 18-20%...and that was even giving the benifit of the doubt to the episodes that started out with the ship on (for example) a mapping mission, but ended up as some other kind of adventure entirely.

So, I think the whole idea that Starfleet is some idealized exploration organization is a bit misplaced in reality.

I quote TUC:

Spock- "I believe that Captain Kirk feels that Starfleet's mission has always been one of peace."
Kirk- "Far be it from me to dispute my first officer, Starfleet has always been at the forefront..." (is cut off by Chang)

Even Kirk understood that Starfleet is not always about spreading harmony and good will throughout the universe.

I find Pike's statement in "Star Trek XI" to be the most honest and accurate definition of Starfleet in any Trek incarnation.

Just look at who defended the Federation against the Dominion...

Quote (vadic @ Aug. 25 2009, 11:59 am)

as referred to by Captain Pike in STXI? I have always looked at Star Fleet as an exploratory arm of the United Federation of Planets. This comes from my first exposure to Star Trek in TOS. It becomes slightly more militant and defensive as a force in latter movies and series. Especially, in STXI where we see no peacekeeping activities displayed. Just curious as to whether Star Fleet will return to its glory as a decendant of the United Earth Space Probe Agency. Or, will it continue to evolve into a galactic policing agency.

It is both a peace keeping and exploratory force.  The peace keeping is secondary since the federation is still relatively new to space but it does explain why vessels mostly used for exploration are able to go toe to toe with dedicated warships of other factions.

Starfleet is the space police of the alpha quadrant. They do some exploring, some other duties, but first and foremost protect the federation from harm.

Quote (starbase63 @ Aug. 27 2009, 1:46 pm)

Quote (tribblenator999 @ Aug. 27 2009, 1:27 pm) Starfleet is the space police of the alpha quadrant. They do some exploring, some other duties, but first and foremost protect the federation from harm. What is Starfleet's primary mission? "To explore strange new worlds... To seek out new life and new civilizations." The peacekeeping mission is secondary.

Well they'll be doing that now after original spock mentioned those lines. However in the early part of the movie Pike said starfleet is a peacekeeping humanitarian armada.

Quote (starbase63 @ Aug. 28 2009, 11:20 am)

Quote (tribblenator999 @ Aug. 28 2009, 11:11 am) Quote (starbase63 @ Aug. 27 2009, 1:46 pm) Quote (tribblenator999 @ Aug. 27 2009, 1:27 pm) Starfleet is the space police of the alpha quadrant. They do some exploring, some other duties, but first and foremost protect the federation from harm. What is Starfleet's primary mission? "To explore strange new worlds... To seek out new life and new civilizations." The peacekeeping mission is secondary. Well they'll be doing that now after original spock mentioned those lines. However in the early part of the movie Pike said starfleet is a peacekeeping humanitarian armada. I was talking about the prime timeline primarily (no pun ¿intended)... We still have a lot to learn about the new timeline yet.

you can tell when the new Enterprise fired a barrage that packed more punch than the Enterprise-E.

Quote (tribblenator999 @ Aug. 28 2009, 9:34 am)

Quote (starbase63 @ Aug. 28 2009, 11:20 am) Quote (tribblenator999 @ Aug. 28 2009, 11:11 am) Quote (starbase63 @ Aug. 27 2009, 1:46 pm) Quote (tribblenator999 @ Aug. 27 2009, 1:27 pm) Starfleet is the space police of the alpha quadrant. They do some exploring, some other duties, but first and foremost protect the federation from harm. What is Starfleet's primary mission? "To explore strange new worlds... To seek out new life and new civilizations." The peacekeeping mission is secondary. Well they'll be doing that now after original spock mentioned those lines. However in the early part of the movie Pike said starfleet is a peacekeeping humanitarian armada. I was talking about the prime timeline primarily (no pun ?intended)... We still have a lot to learn about the new timeline yet. you can tell when the new Enterprise fired a barrage that packed more punch than the Enterprise-E.

Well to be honest we really have no way of measuring the fire power of the nu-Constitution class against any of the ships in the prime timeline. As far as we know the ENT-C could very easily have taken out the Narada....... we will most likely never know...

Quote (starbase63 @ Aug. 27 2009, 1:46 pm)

Quote (tribblenator999 @ Aug. 27 2009, 1:27 pm) Starfleet is the space police of the alpha quadrant. They do some exploring, some other duties, but first and foremost protect the federation from harm. What is Starfleet's primary mission? "To explore strange new worlds... To seek out new life and new civilizations." The peacekeeping mission is secondary.

SB.

I would have to argue that, dispite the idyllic opening monologue and the proud-sounding words sometimes uttered by Picard and Kirk...

If you look at the % of episodes that show the Enterprise on an exploratory mission vs. a mission that is millitary / rescue / political / administrative, you will find very quickly that only about 20% of the episodes actaully show them exploring. My analysis was GENEROUS considering that I included episodes where the ship START OFF on an exploration mission in my count, even if the episode had the ship getting sidetracked in the first 2 minutes.  

So, "actions speak louder than words" and even though the wonderful and idealized stated mission of Starfleet is to explore new worlds, more often than not they are not engaging in that kind of activity.

All I'm saying is that Pike's statement is actually more accurate that Kirk or Picard's opening monologue.

Quote (Vice_Adm_Baxter @ Aug. 28 2009, 1:46 pm)

Quote (tribblenator999 @ Aug. 28 2009, 9:34 am) Quote (starbase63 @ Aug. 28 2009, 11:20 am) Quote (tribblenator999 @ Aug. 28 2009, 11:11 am) Quote (starbase63 @ Aug. 27 2009, 1:46 pm) Quote (tribblenator999 @ Aug. 27 2009, 1:27 pm) Starfleet is the space police of the alpha quadrant. They do some exploring, some other duties, but first and foremost protect the federation from harm. What is Starfleet's primary mission? "To explore strange new worlds... To seek out new life and new civilizations." The peacekeeping mission is secondary. Well they'll be doing that now after original spock mentioned those lines. However in the early part of the movie Pike said starfleet is a peacekeeping humanitarian armada. I was talking about the prime timeline primarily (no pun ?intended)... We still have a lot to learn about the new timeline yet. you can tell when the new Enterprise fired a barrage that packed more punch than the Enterprise-E. Well to be honest we really have no way of measuring the fire power of the nu-Constitution class against any of the ships in the prime timeline. As far as we know the ENT-C could very easily have taken out the Narada....... we will most likely never know...

no according to countdown nerada>Enterprise-E. new 1701>Nerada>Enterprise-E

Quote (starbase63 @ Aug. 29 2009, 5:19 pm)

Quote (Vger23 @ Aug. 28 2009, 1:56 pm) Quote (starbase63 @ Aug. 27 2009, 1:46 pm) Quote (tribblenator999 @ Aug. 27 2009, 1:27 pm) Starfleet is the space police of the alpha quadrant. They do some exploring, some other duties, but first and foremost protect the federation from harm. What is Starfleet's primary mission? "To explore strange new worlds... To seek out new life and new civilizations." The peacekeeping mission is secondary. SB. I would have to argue that, dispite the idyllic opening monologue and the proud-sounding words sometimes uttered by Picard and Kirk... If you look at the % of episodes that show the Enterprise on an exploratory mission vs. a mission that is millitary / rescue / political / administrative, you will find very quickly that only about 20% of the episodes actaully show them exploring. My analysis was GENEROUS considering that I included episodes where the ship START OFF on an exploration mission in my count, even if the episode had the ship getting sidetracked in the first 2 minutes. ? So, "actions speak louder than words" and even though the wonderful and idealized stated mission of Starfleet is to explore new worlds, more often than not they are not engaging in that kind of activity. All I'm saying is that Pike's statement is actually more accurate that Kirk or Picard's opening monologue. But then take into account... How many episodes would have been all that interesting if all the crew was doing was charting gaseous anomalies and surveying dead moons...?

Exactly. For a comparison I'd ask how many police dramas focus on traffic cops handing out speeding tickets? Just because we're seeing it doesn't mean it's not happening.

/ Also another thought: in Trek we're always seeing capital ships as the main ship and it's only natural they'd be given varied duties because they are more capable vessels. Using GHOSTREK's example of the Royal Navy, it never sent out capital ships to explore the world, it sent smaller frigates. So in Trek it's probably the Miranda's, Oberth's, Intrepid's and Nova's doing most of the exploring.

This subject seems to come up at least once a month.  Star Fleet is a military organization, they fly ships that can level a planet if they wanted too, granted they do not want to but there is a reason they arm these ships to the teeth.

They are trained for combat, numerous episodes in almost all the series mention or show fleet exercises.  The crew goes through survival and ground combat training.  You do not see NOAA requiring this type of training.

Is combat their only mission of course not, but it is what takes priority when the need arises.  All branches of the US military have secondary mission that have nothing to do with combat, but if the dodo hits the fan that becomes their mission.

Plus if Star Fleet is not the military arm of the Federation then who is.  There is no other organization mentioned that can fill that role, excluding in Enterprise with the MACOs, but they seemed to have been absorbed into Star Fleet.

Every series had antagonist that the ship involved in would go into battle with.  Even TNG which is the most PC of all the series had to bring in the Borg.  TOS had the Klingons and the Romalans, DS9 had the dominion, Both Voyager and Enterprise had numerous species they were in conflict with.

Plus as already been mentioned, if the show was simply about exploring space and doing a group hug with the alien of the week the franchise would likely not lasted a season.  Even when they strictly stick with exploring space in an episode, something always goes terribly wrong.  

Do not get me wrong, not every episode should be centered on combat, some episodes center around crew interaction or humor are great.  But you really could not build a ST series centered only on that only and be successful.