The Federation/Starfleet As They Should Be

[Captain Picard's Hair]

So now, it's time to rebuild the United Federation of Planets (or is it the United Federation of Rochey ) and its Starfleet from the ground up! As to the Federation, since we know so little about it aside from Starfleet, it's a chance to build it for the first time. What is the character of Fed law, ecomonics, culture?

[Teaos]

I am one of the few who pretty much like it the way it is. Sure there are a few things I'd change but pretty much keep it as it is.

I'd probably diversify the fleet some what and not be such push over in politcal talks (Caradassian war) but as it is they seem to do ok.

The goal of a government is to keep its citizens happy and safe. Generally the Federation does this as well as we can resonably expect of them.

[Mikey]

Politically, I'd institute a more uniform method of accounting for each individual member species' voice to be taken into council. As far as Starfleet - streamline the number of classes, and make a division - admittedly a flexible one - between a majority exploration/science/contact/ambassadorial branch, and a minority war-fighting branch.

[Sionnach Glic]

Government:
Run much the same, I can't really think of any glaring problems with it.

Economy:
The whole pseudo-communism thing goes out the window.

Military:
I personaly go down to Starfleet's ship design team, and beat the crap out of every single member with a baseball bat.
After that, I split Starfleet in two: a civilian agency to handle the science and civilian missions, and a military agency to handle defence and military missions.
I also hire people with brains to design ships, which will now be seriously up-gunned.

A seperate ground army will be created. They will have armoured units.
The design team responsible for the creation of Starfleet's hand weapons will suffer a similar fate to that of Starfleet's ship design team.
I hire people with brains to design guns, along with armour for infantry and vehicles, including tanks.

Other:
The whole "no cloaks" treaty goes out the window. Phase cloaks will be put into full developement, and deployed on our heaviest warships. The Romulans can't do anything to stop me.
Further fortification of the wormhole at Bajor and our borders. Make it clear that any incursion into our territory will be treated as an act of war. Any military vessels from other powers that stray into our territory will be destroyed or seized.
All the old super-tech, like the Genesis Device, gets put back into production.

There's more I can think of right now, but that's the most obvious stuff I'd start on.

[stitch626]

And then the Romulans send in an agent to assasinate Rochey.

[Tsukiyumi]

Out of curiosity, Rochey, what would you replace the "pseudo-communism" with? The "pseudo-fiefdom" we currently have, or did you have something better in mind?

[Graham Kennedy]

Two ways to approach this. Either you're asking how the people of the Federation should reform it and Starfleet, or you're asking how the writers of Trek should have done it over the years. Which is it?

[Tsukiyumi]

Actually, Graham, he's going for door number three: what would you change about the Federation?

[Sionnach Glic]

And then the Romulans send in an agent to assasinate Rochey.

Thus giving me a legitimate reason to curbstomp them in a war and make the Romulan Star Empire just one more province of the UFP.

Out of curiosity, Rochey, what would you replace the "pseudo-communism" with? The "pseudo-fiefdom" we currently have, or did you have something better in mind?

A sort of pseudo-socialism/pseudo-capitalism thing.

[Tsukiyumi]

As long as it's not the current system.

[Graham Kennedy]

Actually, Graham, he's going for door number three: what would you change about the Federation?

Assuming an out of universe POV... I would have made Voyager a much darker, more character driven show. I would have cut back on the technobabble, I would have had a rule that there were no "almost got back to Earth" plots allowed, ever, and I would have had an ongoing tension between Starfleet and the Maquis - with Chaoktay as a totally ruthless manipulator who is playing both sides looking for whichever one will give him the most power. I would have avoided the Borg as much as possible, too.

I would never, ever have allowed Enterprise or any other prequel show to be made.

I would cut the number of Starfleet classes we see drastically. There must be over a hundred ship classes operational in the Federation, which is just insane.

In place of all those Starfleet classes, I would have fielded a few Klingon and Romulan ship classes. The Klingons got precisely two new ship designs in the whole of modern Trek, the Romulans two more up until Nemesis. The Klingons would have got a new BoP design early on; if I could I would never have shown the TOS movie BoP in TNG at all. Ditto with the TOS battlecruiser. The Romulans were just begging for a destroyer and cruiser design to complement the D'Deridex.

I would never have done the redrawing of the warp scale. It was a stupid, pointless idea. The E-D would have had a top cruise speed of Warp 12, with a top emergency speed of Warp 14.

I would have chosen a consistent policy with regards to the "no money" thing, and stuck to it. Most likely, I would have made the Federation some sort of socialist state, perhaps even communist, but I'd have gone about it in a more sensible manner than they did.

I'd have focused somewhat on Federation politics. We saw oodles and oodles of Klingon politics, Cardassian politics, Bajoran politics... but is the Federation President elected? Are the Federation council? How are political issues handled in the Federation? We have absolutely no idea.

I'd be less Earth-centric. A few of the times that Earth has been threatened, I'd have Vulcan or Andoria threatened instead.

[Captain Picard's Hair]

United Federation of Rochey, Indeed

[Tsukiyumi]

All very sensible, GK.

[Sionnach Glic]

As long as it's not the current system.

The current real-life system or the current Trek system?

United Federation of Rochey, Indeed

Damn straight.

[Tsukiyumi]

As long as it's not the current system.

The current real-life system or the current Trek system?

The current real-life system (at least the US system). I'm not a huge fan.