Fool of a Took! If you’re going to post Nichelle Nichols cheesecake, do it right!
A scantily-clad still from the Mirror Universe.
Another, without George Takei getting in the way.
In sickbay and needing comfort; I am sending Elendil’s Heir a continua buggy so he can assist her.
OK, thanks - I’ve got my toothbrush and I’m ready to go!
Economics in Star Trek is also something that is murky. Most of the time there are no financial transactions on TOS. However, it can be argued that most “transactions” are within the ship, and thus monetary exchange is not necessary - such as getting meals.
There are a few incidents with money, like TTWT episode. It isn’t clearly shown what occurs on that planet where Scotty and the gang are watching a belly dancer and applaud with flashing lights on the table (except Scotty, who knows how to applaud - slapping your leg).
I think someone got the impression that there wasn’t money, because there are incidents in Next Gen where they should have finances available of some sort, and claim not to have money. Notably, Riker on some planet has to trade “services” - i.e. he plays “sax”. In that episode, he makes a show of patting his non-pockets to demonstrate he doesn’t have cash. Curious that he didn’t say "I’ve got my credit stick right here (wink wink)".
In fact, much is made of the Ferengi being capitalists, and Quark makes much hey of it on DS9, whining about the Federation and them not using money.
So, if they have credits, there are episodes where they are explicitly stated not to use money. If they don’t have credits, there are episodes where they talk about at least potentially buying things and dealing with businesses that expect to have money.
That’s because Uhura has humility, and doesn’t expect/demand things be given to her just because she’s pretty. She believes she actually has other worth.
In the first place, I was making a joke, not suggesting that the lovely lieutenant ever found it necessary to trade on her loveliness. No, wait, she did once, but that was in the Mirror Universe and in the line of duty and anyway she was mocking Sulu the entire time.
In the second place, I don’t think you mean humility above. What has she to be humble about? She has self-esteem.
In the third place, you forgot to post any cheesecake. For shame!
This came up in a preproduction meeting. It was originally planned that Kirk sign for the check (presumably on one of those iPad-sort of thingies).
It’s been years since I last saw that episode, but it seems to me that bit was cut out, if it was ever actually filmed.
In an episode of Voyager, they talk about “the New World Economy” that came into being a couple of hundred years before. I’m pretty sure Paris specifically said that money had become obsolete.
OF COURSE THEY HAVE MONEY.
There are many explicit references to it, and a lot more that doesn’t make any sense otherwise.
Just the other day I watched “I, Mudd,” which includes references to patents, royalties, profits, and the free enterprise system.
Maybe Starfleet personnel can get by without currency, and some of them harbor some idealistic/deluded notions… but the larger Trekverse, including Federated worlds, unquestionably uses money pretty much as we know it.
The problem with “Star Fleet’s not a military organization” system is that it doesn’t make sense, period. In pt. 1 of the Best of Both Worlds, Lt. Cmd. Fussy Pants specifically told Riker that he was in her way in regards to her career in Star Fleet. In the Q episode where Picard’s heart transplant goes wrong we see how he might have turned out had he not made the mistakes he made as a young officer. The lower ranking Picard talks to the higher ranking Riker and asks about the possibility of a command someday. Riker says something to the effect of “it’s unlikely you’ll ever get a command.” This tells me that Star Fleet has some sort of career path for its officers.
With every work of fiction I can accept certain premises. I can accept faster than light travel, transporters and a bunch of aliens that look like humans with makeup. I have a hard time swallowing everyone being okay with Riker playing second banana to Picard for so many years. He turned down command of his own ship and for some reason was still with Picard even after Wolf 359 when experienced commanders would have been needed for the new ships they were building. It doesn’t totally ruin Star Trek for me but it’s just a silly example of how they dealt with a military that the show claimed wasn’t a military.
Well, that’s a slightly different issue, one that I didn’t address.
That’s simply a cultural prejudice on your part. There’s no reason why, in our world today, or some time in human history or in our future, there couldn’t be a military somewhere in which this would be perfectly normal. While it might not have been true in whatever military organization you are familiar with, there’s absolutely nothing implausible about it as an a priori matter. I mean, come on, in the not to distant past, British Army officers bought and sold their commissions like retirement investments, and that’s real life. How is that less implausible than Riker’s situation?
We’ve got evidence from the show itself that Riker’s refusal of promotion isn’t normal. When Riker is offered his first command he laments that his fellow crew members assume he’s going to take the promotion. Even Picard assumes Riker is going to be leaving and says something like “Your XO on the <whatever> is fluent in 16 languages which will no doubt be useful.” Combine that with Lt. Cmd. Bossy Pant’s statement “You’re in my way” and it’s clear that Riker’s career path has stalled.
Honestly, part of it is simply because of the baloney the TNG writers came up with about Star Fleet. Picard claiming that Star Fleet was not a military organization was just plain silly. The disdain the crew shows for a visitor who arrives to run them through military exercises was silly as well. This is just an area where the TNG writers really dropped the ball.
Their disdain for that guy was because he was an arse, not because he was there to observe military exercises.
We go all the way back to Phil Farrand’s Nitpickers Guild in discussing the “StarFleet is not military” issue.
The claim is: not military.
The reality is: big guns, little guns, gunship diplomacy, militarily organized, wars and peace keeping missions.
Hey, it’s fiction. If we try to explain too much of it, we might miss out on just enjoying it. But, and it’s a big but, nitpicking Trek is major fun, isn’t it
Come on, it’s a bunch of arrogant twats who like to think they’re “evolved” past all their own human baggage. The undercurrent of Denial in their Society is massive. Of course they don’t want to think they’re part of a “Military Organization”, because that would be the big styrofoam finger of death pointing straight at their cognitive dissonance.
I was thinking humility in the sense that she didn’t parade around with the self-absorbed attitude thinking “I am hot, you so know it” and rub it in people’s faces. But I agree, there was also self-esteem that she knew she was worth more than just her pretty face, so she didn’t need to parade around like that.
This is evidence that Riker’s choice might not be usual, because most people would naturally want the promotion, but it is normal. And evidence of that is that the system allows him to make that choice.
That’s not really evidence of any institutional requirement. It’s evidence of her ambition and willingness to step on Riker to get her way.
And, again, to the extent that these expose a flaw, it is a flaw in the execution of the premise, not a flaw in the plausibility of the premise in the first place.
Even the combative James T. Kirk described himself (in “The Squire of Gothos,” I think) as an explorer, not a soldier.
Starfleet was not primarily a military organization, but it certainly had all the trappings of one, including ranks, uniforms, weapons and, when push came to shove, the responsibility of defending the Federation with armed force. Most of the time, though, it was engaged in exploration, diplomacy, scientific study, helping Federation colonies, etc. In a future era when the devastation and suffering of war is even more deprecated than it is today, I can understand why, institutionally, members of Starfleet do not consider themselves military personnel.
True, however…
Their daily lives and activities are very structured compared to any present day civilian profession (except possibly law enforcement):
Uniform clothing and formalized rank titles. Awards and commendations are shown displayed on these [dress] uniforms.
Extensive & comprehensive body of “Regulations” to know and follow by all ranks, with serious consequences for breaching these rules, including (possibly) imprisonment.
A strong, centralised controlling authority that dictates operational tasks, training, and personnel assignments. Discrete organizations are refered to as “commands”, with life or death authority granted upon the duly designated commanding officers.
In some episodes, we see “drills” conducted. The episodes have shown these drills or exercises to have more than just knowing what to do in a crisis: they are used for the purpose of “team building” within a given crew, as well as competitiveness aganst other teams/crews also being employed from time to time. (Competitive sports teams pops to mind as a civilian expression. 
)
It’s quackin’ like a duck…
On Riker: The really irritating thing here is that can, and should, have resolved that issue easily. The Federation suffered a serious defeat and suddenly had no ship to ofer Riker. All they had to do was make Riker Captain of the Enterprise - and promote Picard to Admiral, whose flagship was the Enterprise. There’s no reason being promoted to Admiral means you have to spend all your time on a base doing nothing; they could easily have aded a couple more ships to the Enterprise fleet.
Hell, that’s what a flagship is.
Flagship means, “a ship which carries the flag.” In other words, it’s the centerpeice of a fleet, and can have its own Captain - the Admiral doesn’t have to give orders to the crew. You could have Riker on board, a couple new characters show up over the course of the season with their ships, and it wouldn’t exactly cost a fortune to throw a couple more 3D models onto the few space-bits we got to see.
There could also be tension over this, as Picard wouldn’t be certain he’d even keep his job. Getting such a promotion would be a huge honor, and a sign that the Federation not only didn’t blame him for it, but recognized that he was the one who ultimately won against the Borg.
Bam. Everyone wins. Data could be promoted to First Officer, Riker to Captain, and Picard now has new responsibilites - ll going into the show’s strongest season. Or they could have run out the season with things "normaL’ as Starfleet rebuilds and introduce these elements later on.
I’ll be upfront about hating this point of view, because it’s part-n-parcel of the fact that Starfleet is (a) borderline fascist and (b) in denial. I won’t get into the first part here - not interested in that argument.
Starfleet may not spend all its time fighting wars, but they absolutely are a military organization. it is, whether they openly acknowledge it or not, the sole military arm of the Federation. Military operations are their primary puporse and everything else, period, is what they do when it’s convenient and they’re not needed for active military operations. Theres nothing shameful in this, but to pretend that their self-image is more important than the demonstrated reality gets my goat but good.
The fact is that Starfleet possesses all the guns, fights wars, has its own code of military justice, has ranks of officers and soldiers, can court-martial people anywhere close to its jurisdiction, and is respsonsible for security. This is not a transportation or exploration organization. It is a military which often does other things. And post-Best fo Both Worlds, it became much more realistic and accepting of that fact.
The U.S. Navy doesn’t spend all its time killing people. In fact, it almost never does (it’s arguably a much more peacable organization than Starfleet). It spends almost all its time training, carrying out peacekeeping missions, patrolling for pirates, scouting, and delivering humanitarian aid. The only mission added on that they don’t do is exploration, and that’s only because . Further, you can’t even use that as a good excuse, because it’s never shown that all, or even most of Starfleet spends its time exploring; some of its ships do so.
I would also bring up a constrast to Babylon 5. They absolutely has real explorations agencies, who devoted themselves to doing so. They were not totally incapable of defending themselves, but their mission was principally peaceful exploration. They built ships for that purpose which were not effective warships.*
*OK, given how badly designed the Federation ships were you could argue they weren’t effective warships either. But that’s neither here nor there.
All four of these last posts are valid. And, like I said, have been discussed since we started nitpicking TNG as it was still airing. And TOS at conventions even before that.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m enjoying all the thoughts. Please, keep going.
One of the other things to consider about the question is that perhaps the very concept of military and government has evolved (in 300 years?) along with other human issues.
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