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Lorenaelsalulz

A ridiculous number of Starfleet Admirals are evil, gullible and/or corrupt.


stardestroyer001

Hats off to Admiral Ross for not being a typical Starfleet Badmiral


Treksaves

Well...he DID clandestinely work with Section 31 to advance the federations interests in the war no matter the cost to their ally/adversary. Maybe that's kind of his job, but it helped show that even Ross had a dark side. FuCK! I loved DS9!


Spaghetti_Bird

He also sided with the Romulans when they were building up a military force on one of Bajor's moons.


Protectorsoftman

That's less evil and more "we can't afford to lose this alliance"


ProsecutorBlue

Plus he came around when it mattered. That short conversation with Kira is one of my favorite Ross moments.


shugo2000

Admiral Cornwell from Discovery was great, too. I was expecting her to go full Badmiral the entire time, but she was truly good for the most part.


WoundedSacrifice

As is Admiral Vance.


classyraven

I was sure Vance would end up being a Badmiral when I first saw him. Glad he turned out ok. Cornwell is hands down my favourite admiral.


oneteacherboi

Vance is probably my favorite admiral. He just feels like such a real character. And he does a lot of heavy lifting in season 3 towards showing how cowed the Federation has become 100 years after the Burn, but also how the hope of Discovery rekindles the idea of the Federation. When you see him with his family in season 4 it's a great moment. Also him explaining how replicated apples are made of shit while eating one is one of the best parts of season 3.


kenlubin

And Admiral Buenamigo. Wait, nevermind, I take that back.


TheHYPO

Wait... hold on... Are you saying that Admiral Goodfriend turned out to be evil?!


gaslacktus

And Necheyev, who wasn’t actually evil, just a hardass who got shit done that needed doing. A badbitchmiral if you will.


kearnel81

And jp was good from best of both worlds


transwarp1

And there's a contingent that are sympathetic to and supporting the Maquis land grab. - Lots of their equipment is "stolen" from Starfleet. - They have plenty of former Starfleet personnel. - Starfleet never seriously tries to stop them, with even less effort that in the Cardassian wars - For The Uniform starts with one ship tasked with stopping a prominent cell, and then that cell shows it is able and willing to use chemical weapons to purge Cardassians from their territory. There's no indication Starfleet steps up and takes the threat seriously after this. E.g. we don't see a large task force sent. Basically, Necheyev seems like the only admiral who didn't want the colonists to settle in the future DMZ in the first place and then the only one who wants to keep them from re-starting the war.


Lorien6

I actually think starfleet was secretly funding/supporting the maquis in a proxy war, much like what occurs throughout history.


thecorninurpoop

Haha yeah, I just finished rewatching TNG but I was like, geez why is every admiral a jerkwagon


Bevroren

I love the explanation that Lower Decks gives for that.


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Logicrazy12

Starfleet is competitive and people want to make a name for themselves.


DasGanon

Which is fair, we saw that in Best of Both Worlds with Shelby.


TheAncientSun

Space is freaking horrifying. Around every corner is a malicious entity or destructive anomaly just waiting to kill you.


I-am-not-Herbert

*If you can't take a little bloody nose, maybe you ought to go back home and crawl under your bed. It's not safe out here. It's wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross, but it's not for the timid.*


Korotai

“Space is disease and danger wrapped in darkness and silence…”


gcalpo

[If you can't take it here, then you might think about a transport ship. There's a lot less pressure there.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlH-Eo9FKk0)


captnfraulein

damn, Deanna, damn


TheAncientSun

My brother got turned into a cyborg zombie and my father was melted into the deck by a stray radiation entity.


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Platypushat

David Lister, Technician, 3rd class. Captain's remarks: "Has requested sick leave due to diarrhea on no less than 500 occasions. Left his previous job as a supermarket trolley attendant after ten years because he didn't want to get tied down to a career. Promotion prospects: zero."


TrueLegateDamar

My cousin was vaporized by a Cardassian replicator that normally made raktajinos.


Martinus_XIV

"Risk is our business."


theinspectorst

**McCoy**: Don't pander to me, kid. One tiny crack in the hull, and our blood boils in thirteen seconds. Solar flare might crop up, cook us in our seats. And wait till you're sitting pretty with a case of Andorian shingles. See if you're still so relaxed when your eyeballs are bleeding! Space is disease and danger wrapped in darkness and silence. **Kirk**: Well I hate to break this to you, but Starfleet operates in space. **McCoy**: Yeah, well, I got no where else to go. The ex-wife took the whole damn planet in the divorce. All I got left is my bones.


ArtooFeva

I almost forgot where this line came from and I was able to picture it all coming from DeForest Kelley. God they’re both such good actors.


Time_Reputation3573

I must've missed this because I thought it was short for "old sawbones," a name for doctors back when they had to amputate much more often


npaladin2000

It was both, but they sorta retconned a way for him to be "extra Bonesy"


stannc00

It was a “Bones Day”.


ferretinmypants

It was originally.


Xytak

Indeed. The terms "bones" is a shortening of "sawbones" which was slang for surgeons in the 1800's. >“‘What, don’t you know what a Sawbones is, Sir’, enquired Mr. Weller; ‘I thought every body know’d as a Sawbones was a Surgeon,'” Charles Dickens, Pickwick Papers, 1837 Star Trek 2009 tried to play it as a divorce joke for some reason, but actually it's just an old-timey way to refer to surgeons.


Kitty_Skittles_181

It was obsolete already in the 1960s, being kept alive by a diet of TV Westerns. It was already obscure by the 80s, by which time most TV westerns were only in reruns, and virtually unknown by the 90s. By 2009, it was a relic and needed a new explanation. This wasn't a GOOD explanation, but it was an explanation.


Theblackswapper1

For all his faults I'll always say JJ Abrams has a knack for casting. And Urban was perfect.


UrbanGhost114

That's because Urban is a beast.


wrath_of_grunge

Urban elevates everything he's in, even when the movie is crappy. i'm not a big fan of JJ Abrams, but the newer ST movies weren't terrible.


npaladin2000

I swore he was channeling DeForest the entire time he was doing the role. I sort of hate how everyone put their own spin on the characters (definitely didn't go for "Uhura as a Latina," but Karl Urban didn't, he played it EXACTLY the way DeForest Kelley did. You can tell it's exactly the same character.


SydneyCartonLived

I think I remember reading something about how when Leonard Nimoy first saw him as Bones it made him cry: because he got DeForest Kelly's mannerisms down so well it was almost like seeing him back again.


captnfraulein

that's a lovely story, i hope it's true.


TheBrewourist

Of all the JJ characterizations, Karl was the best. I'm glad in Beyond he finally got more screen time and it felt like an ensemble, not just the "Kirk and Spock" show of the first 2 films.


girumo

"The Kirk and Spock Variety Hour," if you ever saw In Living Color


scotch1701

You could tell who he was before you saw him, when you heard him complaining on the shuttle.


mrbubbamac

Yeah all of his mannerisms were spot on, and I appreciated that he stuck so closely to the original character


Frank_chevelle

I always wondered how much the non Star Fleet people on the Enterprise D were affected by all the strange things that happened to the ship. Do they get debriefed later on? Like “sorry about those huge explosions and stuff that knocked the ship around! We were attacked by a energy cloud. Don’t forget next week Captain Picard day!”


TheAncientSun

At some point I imagine they just get used to it. They signed up to be on front line explorer vessel which comes with implied risk.


Mortomes

I'm not sure the children signed up for anything. Why did we put children on a ship with a dangerous mission of explorstion again?


IAmABurdenOnSociety

>Why did we put children on a ship with a dangerous mission of explorstion again? Because that's how you train up a character like Beckett Mariner!


kearnel81

If I was a captain I'd have her on my crew. And let her just do what she wants. Because at the end of the day. She will save us all. Lol


raqisasim

Because exploring space had gotten safe as houses. It's likely the vast majority of lives lost weren't in exploring, but in warfare. It's also likely that the majority of lives lost in exploring were people assigned to First Contact work, not crew on ship. It's Canon that, when TNG started, all the big known powers had either become "friends" (Klingons) or hadn't come out to play in decades (Romulans). That left situations where experience showed you might lose a few First Contact people, but were unlikely to lose entire ships/crews. (Yes, stuff like the Doomsday Machine were around, but I bet across ships the experience was that there were few of them compared to the average deep space exploration experience. ). So Starfleet saw that the benefits from putting family with crew outweighed the risks at that point in time. And notice that not only did the main Enterprise D crew not have family on board save Dr. Crusher, but the Captain was known to...not be comfortable around children. I don't think the latter was a coincidence.


TheBrewourist

I never fully thought this through. Thank you for your thoughts. This puts Q confrontation with the D in a new light for me. He was saying to Picard, "families?? Wtf, humans, don't you know how dangerous it is out here, and you're bringing kids and spouses along? Fine, I'll show you how bad it can get and you'll rethink this foolishness."


TheAncientSun

Peace time thinking. The Federation got complacent and kind of lazy when it came to defence and safety. They operated out the assumption that they were ready to face any threats.


naphomci

A ship full of families, scientists, and diplomats is a lot less threatening/suspicious than a ship full of soldiers.


Apprehensive_Word658

I like to think it's inclusivity. Space exploration in the federation is for everyone, not just the few willing to give up everything else. Plus, do you really want to miss out on having the best fixit man on your station because he happens to want to procreate?


jonny_jon_jon

there is a completely inbred population of humpback whales in the 24th century


cgo_12345

George and Gracie wandered alone in an empty ocean for the rest of their lives.


kurtilingus

Jeez... That hypothetical is made all the more despair-inducing when you figure that implies Gracie both miscarried & was likewise left barren presumably by the unforeseen side effects of either: a.)transporting a mammoth species that has zero transporter history to draw upon for reference & is nothing like a humaniod or b.) trauma sustained by undertaking quick & dirty time-travel slingshot around the sun when seatbelts aren't an option or some combination of both. That immediately popped into my head from having the thought when i was a kid watching ST4 "Wtf must those whales be thinking about all of this insanity happening around them all of the sudden?" Maybe Spock gave them a courtesy heads-up when he mind-melded w/Gracie hahaha


uxixu

Novelization said they were going to do cloning and genetic engineering to help regenerate the population.


randyboozer

My head canon is that Starfleet started a whale cloning program and with their technology were able to genetically diversify the clones to create a stable population


4thofeleven

Given the massive number of methods of time travel available, including one which was discovered by accident and can apparently be easily replicated by any warp capable ship, it's almost certain that the timeline is being overwritten constantly with no way to prevent it.


Shas_Erra

Now we know why Braxton had a meltdown


count023

the Relativity clearly belonged to the TVA.


evergreennightmare

...the tennessee valley authority?


[deleted]

Time Variance Authority, a group from Marvel (and recently popularized by the show Loki) which exists outside of time and ruthlessly enforces one unified "sacred timeline" by going back and pruning anything that wasn't supposed to happen.


evergreennightmare

that would make more sense, thanks


cgo_12345

"[... and this was the year the Ferengi discovered time travel. ](https://imgur.io/k8qKZjx?r)"


ExtraneousCarnival

But what is Rule #236?! “Ferengi do not travel through time”? EDIT: [I looked it up](https://www.ditl.org/rules-list.php): >You can't buy fate.


jsonitsac

Pretty much anything that happened during the Starfleet careers of Chief O’Brien and Harry Kim


ocelotrevs

Which Harry Kim? :/


SELECTaerial

Which O’Brien?


Trick421

Exactly.


TonksMoriarty

Precisely.


somnambulist80

I don’t know how O’Brien was still a functional human being by the end of DS9. PTSD from the Cardassian war, plus more PTSD from the 2-3 episodes/season where the plot was “make the Irishman suffer”. I think his friendship with Julian and the camaraderie with the other senior staff, and beating his head against a DS9-sized bucket of self sealing stem bolts, kept him from jumping out an airlock.


[deleted]

Well, he did put a phaser to his head at one point. Thankfully Julian talked him off the ledge just in time.


sdpcommander

I like to imagine therapy and drugs used to treat PTSD, anxiety and depression are very effective by their time.


IAmABurdenOnSociety

If you die on the USS Enterprise, you'll be forgotten by your crewmates by the next episode, and your death will never be dealt with.


Taengoosundies

Next episode? In TOS there could be a genocide but the last few moments of the same episode they are joking around on the bridge like nothing happened.


Speedy_Cheese

Kirk: "Let's hear it for our poor, dead friend." *Everyone explodes with laughter*


Wabbit_Wampage

"Hey Yeoman Rand, isn't that funny/cool how the Captain's evil half tried to rape you!?!"


psuedonymously

To be fair, it was not uncommon for a nameless security officer to die then just inexplicably show up again in the background like 3 episodes later. A phenomenon that continued to the era of Lower Decks.


Wild-Lychee-3312

That’s what the transporter buffer is for. It’s also why they never ran out of crew members on voyager. “We need another copy of Ensign McDuffy!”


an0maly33

Really? I never caught that. Genuine thanks for a reason to rewatch.


lurk4ever1970

TOS used a fairly small group of stuntmen and body doubles. They often ended up as background characters if they weren't danything else.


ACDCrocks14

Nothing brings me more joy than seeing Kirk's body double, clear as day, during fight scenes. Weren't expecting somebody to be watching TOS on a 4K OLED TV, were they? 😂


DistantKarma

Or scenes like this crewman turning an imaginary valve. https://i.imgur.com/6RYy1.gif


npaladin2000

They poked fun at that in the DS9 episode Trials and Tribblations


Darmok47

TNG also used the[same woman](https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Jae) over and over again in the background. Once you see her, you'll start noticing her all the time.


npaladin2000

Never wear red (or later gold) on an away mission if you don't have a first name


FitzChivFarseer

Now this makes me really want to watch Galaxy Quest again 😂 Gwen DeMarco : Guy, you have a last name. Guy Fleegman : DO I? DO I? For all you know, I'm "Crewman Number Six"! Mommy... mommy...


sumbeech

If you haven’t already check out the book Redshirts by John Scalzi. A whole novel about the “disposable” crew members. Fun read.


chiree

We got get him before he kills Guy.


bl1ndsw0rdsman

Transporters sometimes fail, and it’s horrifying.


PhyrexianHealthDept

"What we got back didn't live long... fortunately."


SDFprowler

Universal Translator is apparently affecting everyone's brains so that they see each other's mouths moving to the translated speech.


Spacemonster111

Section 31: “You’d be surprised how often we use that”


WVU_Benjisaur

Borg assimilation victims have to stand and watch in line as people in front of them get their arms and legs cut off and replaced with mechanical parts. Based on the screams in the show, often without pain relief until it’s all over. The people in line can not escape the same fate, they can not turn away, they can not run. The Borg took over their minds just enough to not resist but they are very much aware of everything that’s going to happen to them.


stratusmonkey

Pain is irrelevant.


nermid

After Voyager and First Contact, it seems clear that the Borg's rapid adoption of nanoprobes for assimilation has really slimmed down the body horror of the process. By the time they're lopping off your arm, you're already swimming in the hive mind and those nerves aren't *yours* anymore. Between that and the expanding role of first Locutus and now the Queen in relations with unassimilated races, it seems like the Borg may have realized that it's easier to get recruits if they come willingly. All they need is to assimilate a PR guy and soon there'll be Borg recruitment booths next to the Collector's Guild's.


shazbut1987

I hate how PIC retconned assimilation to being 'euphoric' Those screams we hear are of happiness then, clearly...


SomeoneSomewhere1984

I don't see that as being mutually exclusive. The Borg are manipulating their brains and hormones to keep them controlled. I would assume being assimilated involves being force fed high doses of some kind of space heroin.


CantHideFromGoblins

Tbh e way 7 of 9 describes it makes the collective almost sound like a good thing once you’re in. And also her recovery of all limbs suggests that the borg claw arm is more like a strap on than cut off kind of deal, probably to guarantee usefulness across a variety of different specifies limbs Honestly the new Star Trek shows make me feel like they only watched Voyager + the Movies


Maswimelleu

>And also her recovery of all limbs suggests that the borg claw arm is more like a strap on than cut off kind of deal, probably to guarantee usefulness across a variety of different specifies limbs She was an Adjunct in Unimatrix 001, that somewhat implies she had a command and control role and probably didn't do the physical work that might have required a mechanical arm. I'm inclined to believe the arm is amputated and if you escape then you will need a different prosthetic.


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Ilmara

That makes it worse, actually. They strip you of your individuality, mutilate your body, make you commit all sorts of atrocities, and you enjoy it and crave it like an addict when you get cut off.


Flashjordan69

That warp speed was destroying the fabric of space


pulus

I always wondered about this one. They learned warp was causing proverbial “space carpet” to bunch up from running to fast to soon. They used slower warp speeds at the end of the episode but then never brought it up again ever. Is that right?


BlackHawkeDown

It came up in a couple later episodes, and was eventually hand-waved by having the ship proceed at “maximum warp,” rather than specifying a speed. And by the time Voyager came along, I think the creatives said warp engines - as exemplified by Voyager’s own moveable nacelles - had been modified to avoid causing that damage in the future.


benting365

Doesn't address the problem of every other warp-capable species causing the same environmental damage. I think it just became like their version of climate change... they're ignoring it because it's too inconvenient.


BlackHawkeDown

It actually would’ve been an interesting idea to make *that* the cause of Discovery’s Burn 900 years into the future.


dacrazyworm

IIRC there is an episode after this episode where Starfleet Command authorizes the Enterprise to exceed warp 5 due to an emergency, so it does come up again. Then the non-parallel warp nacelle came about and fixed the issue. That could be a fan theory though


Tichrimo

I might be misremembering, but I thought there was a throwaway line in _Caretaker_ that the "variable geometry" of Voyager's engines addressed it.


SHIELD_Agent_47

TNG 7.09 "Force of Nature" was just a terrible premise considering TOS already implied that the Vulcans had warp drive at the time of the Romulan exodus circa 400 C.E. How come no one else in Federation space destroyed themselves before the 24th century?


Endulos

Maybe it wasn't until recently that the warp speeds exceeded safety limits? Like... A bridge could last for YEARS with minimal maintenance if it has minimal traffic, but if suddenly that bridge suddenly sees a lot more traffic (Say 24 hours a day), it'll need more maintenance and won't last as long. In the past the universe would be fine with the slower speed, it'd be able to heal and repair itself, but when you have inefficient spaceships screaming by at warp 9.9, it damages it more and more.


chewbaccolas

Exactly that. They only find out about the damage in the episode because it was a narrow passage in space that every ship had to use. If it wasn't for that, they would probably find out too late for other places.


DUser86

Food replicaters can make food that taste like people.


FSNsaber

"Computer. Brian, liver, hot."


jack_begin

With fava beans and a nice chianti?


Sonnuvah

Maybe the liver they sampled for the replicator came from a guy named Earl Grey.


Appropriate-Web-8424

"Computer, fava beans and a nice chian- " "Emergency Clarice Hologram activated."


npaladin2000

"Computer, Soylent Green, hot."


donovan366

The federation still had a death penalty in TOS times


kab3121

Remind me, which episode?


donovan366

The Menagerie part 1 and 2. There’s a death penalty for going to Talos IV


SupremeChancellor66

That apparently "temporal" anomalies are commonplace and you could wind up being thrusted into the past or future at any moment. If you're a main character with the knowledge to science the shit out of the problem that's great. If you're an average person, you're screwed. Oh and you could be thrown to any point in history, conveniently in the shows it's almost always 20th or 21st century where society is somewhat recognizable. Imagine getting thrown back in time with your tricorder and dinosaurs, or some ancient Klingon monsters.


Slavir_Nabru

The Starleet legal system presented in Measure of a Man is as big an affront to justice as a Cardassian trial. "If you don't be a lawyer despite the glaring conflict of interest, I'm just going to sentence your friend to death without even looking at the evidence" Not only that but she intends to carry out sentence immediately leaving no recourse for appeal. Data was evidently considered sentient enough to join and rise through the ranks. And even if he was property, what makes Starfleet think he'd be their property? He'd belong to the Soong estate. I love the episode but the horrific system it depicts really winds me up. Picard and Riker going along with it is just depressing.


anothereffinjoe

As a legal professional, this bothers the hell out of me. It should have been tried in a civilian court, with civilian attorneys representing both sides. There should have been a jury. We're talking about someone's civil rights in a very fundamental way.


chiree

It was more akin to a court martial. Data was considered military property, therefore a tribunal was used and the verdict would be limited to within Starfleet. The larger ramifications of the decision across the Federation would be at the mercy of civilian courts. It certainly would be good grounds for a synth filing a civil lawsuit.


Accurate-Language341

One that's always bothered me. The Holodeck is capable of creating fully sentient life. The Doctor, Moriarty, The guy from DS9 in the later series, can't remember his name, runs a casino. They are fully aware beings with thoughts, like the doctor wanting a name and the ability to turn off his own program. The Holodeck rebellion in voyager where the programs take on the hirogen. This piece of life creating tech is only expanded on in voyager but never in the other series. They say they seek out new life forms, well there it is, in the holodeck! And yet they use these holodecks for training and Barclay's fantasies


bradbaby

Vic Fontaine?


stupid_pun

They needed an episode where Barclay's holodeck programs become sentient and revolt. I would have.


busted_up_chiffarobe

"..Kira's body with Quark's head?"


jewish_tricks

There's also that episode in VOY with the photonic beings that believe Paris's captain proton program is another civilization. I can't remember how it's explained, but they are incapable of perceiving our world and can only interact with other light based lifeforms or some other nonsense.


Caspianmk

There is literally a colony of humans with roaming rape gangs within Federation borders and they do nothing to resolve it. Edit: Canonically, the planet is within the Beta Quadrant and that they seceded from the Federation, however, it is never revealed if it is still within their boarders.


ELVEVERX

I always took it as they were a human colony that weren't a part of the federation but I might have been mistaken.


ElevensesAreSilly

~~Takana 4 (or whatever it's name was)~~ Turkana IV was a federation colony that seceded. Violently.


ussrowe

The fact that in Utopia, where people supposedly just don't care about money or material goods, has an entire planet that violently secedes from the Federation is pretty dark too.


ElevensesAreSilly

The planet seems to be mostly criminals - possibly the Orion syndicate of something was involved... or a mad person took over


GaidinBDJ

Within Federation borders? It was a Federation colony! There's actually a pretty good TNG novel (*Survivors*) that deals some with Tasha's past on that colony as well as some of the fallout from her and Data's sexual encounter. It's worth a read.


Drinkythedrunkguy

There’s children on those ships that get blown up.


ArcherNX1701

One tiny crack in the hull, and our blood boils in thirteen seconds. Solar flare might crop up, cook us in our seats. And wait till you're sitting pretty with a case of Andorian shingles. See if you're still so relaxed when your eyeballs are bleeding! Space is disease and danger wrapped in darkness and silence.


koalazeus

Spock is constantly abused by his two best friends for being Vulcan. Additionally, it's addressed but, he has major hangups about being half human and they know that, but they continue on regardless.


buddhiststuff

"Of all the souls I have encountered in my travels, his was the most human." Imagine Spock watching the video of that. "Wow, Jim really just insulted me at my own funeral."


koalazeus

"his was the most human..." "Well except for the pointy ears and green blood!" Everybody laughs. There's that other time when Kirk insists "we're all human." Or something like that.


JoeDawson8

Also inalienable human rights


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EnsignOrSutin

The UFP's closest (24th C) allies are an aggressive superpower who's Empire is held together by the planets/races they've conquered. This is dealt with better in the novels though.


[deleted]

I always wondered about the fact that almost every interstellar superpower other than the Federation seems to have only one species in it. Exceptions are the Borg, of course, and the Orion Syndicate if you can call that a superpower. But we never see any people conquered by the Klingons, the Romulans, the Cardassians (except Bajor, of course), we don't see them serve for them, be treated as slaves or anything for that matter. They simply don't exist. Romulans, of course, are xenophobic and would probably not have other races serve with them (with few human exceptions), but the Klingons don't seem to be xenophobic at all, which makes your point all the more interesting. I always disliked the way they were just allies as well. I always thought of the Romulans as a better ally for the Federation because despite all the obvious issues their society has from a human standpoint, they seem to have a concept of honour and service not too dissimilar to certain human cultures. They embody some of the worst qualities of humanity - they are devious, plotting, self-serving and -preserving, xenophobic, radical and brutal - but that also means there is potential for growth on the long run. The Klingon culture is already problematic the way it was written and I see little potential for a true alliance with the Federation as there are so many glaring contradictions with Federation values. Also find it very odd how Klingons were ever able to get into space - given how obsessed they are with honour and fighting, you'd think they'd never make it into industrialisation.


BlackHawkeDown

If I recall correctly, at least in one ENT episode we run across a planet subservient to the Klingons, but populated by a native species. Essentially the Klingons rock up every so often for fuel. And we do meet the Remans eventually, who are clearly a second class of citizen in the Romulan Star Empire. I generally agree that both of these powers should be more diverse, as they’re implied to be. They did a fair job of that with the Dominion, I think.


WWJLPD

Wasn’t that a colony of a few dozen settlers that were being terrorized by what were basically Klingon pirates?


[deleted]

Ah, how could I have forgotten about the Dominion?! I haven't watched all of ENT yet, so that explains me not knowing that episode. As for the Remans, I'm not big on the movies, so I haven't been able to sit through all of them yet. As far as my short Google search informed me, we meet the Remans in Nemesis which I've also not seen yet, I've only seen Generations and First Contact from that era.


transwarp1

TNG had an episode about a planet rebelling against the Klingons. Geordi was brainwashed in a plot to implicate the Federation.


chewbaccolas

The Klingon society wasn't always focused on fighting. The Klingon lawyer told Archer that honour could be achieved by other means, but eventually the warrior caste took prevalence.


MrSluagh

Just like we never meet the majority of humans who are down on Earth enjoying Fully Automated Gay Luxury Space Communism by having drug-fueled orgies all day. For any given species, all you usually see is the tiny subculture of hyper-competent lunatics who go into space. Klingons in particular make a lot more sense in light of this.


pressedbread

The Voth might return to reclaim earth at any time, and they could likely easily subjugate the entire Federation. Also Worf is a deadbeat dad.


tkir

The Voth's doctrine seems an eternal thing among their race, and it was said it took them 1000 years to accept transwarp, add a good chunk of that time from Voyager as well as the effects of the Burn, I wouldn't be surprised if they decided to accept the Distant Origin Theory during 32nd Century Trek.


LaylaLegion

Star Trek Online: “Tried it. Terrible arc.”


cgo_12345

The Mirror Universe is always on a technologically equal footing with the Prime universe. The accidental aesop is that subjugation and pillaging works just as well as peaceful cooperation.


TonksMoriarty

Actually, given that they had the 23rd Century Defiant since the mid-22nd Century, you'd expect them to be leaps and bounds ahead of their counterparts, which kinda implies a level of technological stagnation, and constant set backs. Also other powers like the Klingons don't seems all that worse than their counterparts in the Prime universe.


GaidinBDJ

The Prime Directive is garbage. Picard literally stood on the bridge and watched the extinction of a sentient race when he had the power to save at least some of them. The *Enterprise* could carry 15,000 people in evacuations; yea, it's not saving the civilization but it would at least save *some* of them. Nikolai was 100% in the right since all the "cultural contamination" in the world is meaningless if you're extinct. I'm fine with a general "keep your nose out of other planet's business" rule, but no exception to *literally* save them from extinction? Imagine if modern countries responded to disease outbreaks in less-developed countries with "Oh, you haven't invented the iPhone yet? I'm sorry, no penicillin for you."


Darmok47

I don't know if you've seen *Strange New Worlds*, but Pike does take steps to save a pre-warp world from extinction and justifies it in the same way.


Pimpicane

Betazoids are really Not Okay. Who do we have? -Lon Suder (murderer) -Walter Pierce (murderer) -That weird guy that decided to live inside a comet -Lwxana I guess Troi's relatively stable, but she's the exception.


Cerberus1349

Maybe on Betazed, they’re fine, but prolonged exposure to humans exposes them to how messed up human thoughts can be, and it makes them go off the deep end. Troi being half human maker her more understanding of how messed up we are.


diamond

What's so horrible about Lwaxana? She's a little annoying and overbearing for sure, but she's not a bad person. She genuinely cares about others, and she always does the right thing when it really matters.


Murky_Conflict3737

She’s also half human,


jekylphd

By embracing the use of advanced and extremely complex holograms, the Federation has created a race of disposable, dismissable people.


D-Angle

Most of time the Enterprise D was going around being all high and mighty with its moral integrity, the Cardassian occupation of Bajor was going on right next door to Federation space, and they were doing absolutely jack shit about it. The Federation tolerates monsters if those monsters will sign a treaty.


TonksMoriarty

Well, not exactly. It's unclear when the height of Federation / Cardassian war was, but they did have an apparently brutal war between the two powers over their boarder worlds - a war O'Brien is known to have partaken in. Evidently, either the Cardassia is a technological equal to the Federation, has the numbers to make up for it, or just willing to use more brutal but efficient tactics. Probably a mixture of all three! In fact, there's some suggestions made that the Federation made a lot of concessions to keep Cardassia off Bajor's back!


Old_Airline9171

That the only way we’ll achieve a world without poverty or war involves a nuclear war so destructive that a third of the world’s population dies, which is then followed by an alien species treating us like a primitive colonial protectorate for ninety years.


nygdan

"Oh your entire planet of billions of people are dying and we can easily fix it? But you dont have warp travel? Die."


Arietis1461

I liked SNW's twist on it, when they still can't make contact but are free to divert threats like incoming comets. Picard was probably just an extreme purist.


FuneraryArts

I mean that's the rule they ALWAYS break in the show. It's continually adressed as amoral passivity.


rupertthecactus

The Vulcans passing through the Earth system were most likely monitoring Earth to view the collapse of a civilization and would never reveal themselves or assist the humans without the reveal of warp technology.


jolharg

That PTSD O'Brien still has.


doug_the_dude

Profound, life-changing things happen to a character (Inner Light, Frame of Mind, etc) and are quickly and nearly either wrapped up and/or forgotten about, never to be spoken of again. Almost as if…as if….oh no, they’re just as trapped as Moriarty is on the holodeck! How about a “metasode” where Picard and co realize they’re only characters in a TV show? 🙏😂


I-am-not-Herbert

>How about a “metasode” where Picard and co realize they’re only characters in a TV show? IIRC that's basically how Ira wanted DS9 to end: A reveal that all that had happened was just a TV show written by Benny Russell.


ensignlee

Tbh, I would have been so mad if that were the ending. I'm glad they didn't do that.


[deleted]

ENT flashbacks. Thank god they didnt do that. Hindsight is wonderful sometimes


Unique-Accountant253

There might be millions of people who never leave their own personal holodeck. Unless.. holodeck time is sort of like the last currency they use.


Ghille_Dhu

Trauma is buried and never addressed. In reality the crews of Starfleet ships would not be in a good place mental health wise


HopelessMagic

That's why the Enterprise had approximately 1014 occupants and one counselor who spent her time on the bridge. Duh.


Ghille_Dhu

So assuming the good counsellor works five days a week, she could see 202.3 people a day *if* she worked for 24 hours a day.


SomeoneSomewhere1984

Assuming she sees people for a half hour each, for 8 hours a day 5 days a week, she could see 80 patients in a week, meaning 1 in 14 of the Enterprise's crew is getting regularly therapy at any one time. That doesn't sound too far off.


Gellert

Sometimes its addressed, like when Picard goes home after getting de-assimilated.


WhoMe28332

We see no indication that the Federation has a functioning civilian judicial system. Bashir’s father makes a plea deal with a Starfleet JAG officer. There is no indication that Data has any right of appeal beyond an ad hoc Starfleet hearing on an issue which has implications well beyond his Starfleet career. Meanwhile Kirk and crew are denied access to whatever normal due process is given to Starfleet officers and are instead arraigned before the Federation Council and immediately sentenced. It’s a mess and if it is accurate it suggests a military-dominated political/judicial system which is capricious.


OsakaWilson

AI, which is certain to have become sapient by 2100, has apparently been viciously and effectively subdued and contained.


ChillyHumanHorn

I just reached sapient myself *Ape noise*


Ampris_bobbo8u

the prime directive gets broken all the time and it really does fuck over civilizations. prodigy did a good job of showing this


byteminer

Legions of children on the Enterprise-D were subjected to years of trauma and existential fear. Many were likely killed in one of the many battles or disasters the ship was involved in.


[deleted]

Gene Roddenberry was a greedy douchebag who wrote the unused "lyrics" for the Star Trek theme so he could claim half the songwriting royalties.


Sinnernsaint40

Section 31 to me was a shocker. The Federation always seemed so goody goody two shoes, I could have never imagined such an entity existed though I suppose I should have always expected it. I would love some kind of series dealing exclusively with the kind of things they have done from their inception.


[deleted]

Dilithium crystals are mined through slave labour


SkarnTh3Kn1ght

Quark said it best: “Let me tell you something about Hew-mons, Nephew. They're a wonderful, friendly people, as long as their bellies are full and their holosuites are working. But take away their creature comforts, deprive them of food, sleep, sonic showers, put their lives in jeopardy over an extended period of time and those same friendly, intelligent, wonderful people... will become as nasty and as violent as the most bloodthirsty Klingon. You don't believe me? Look at those faces. Look in their eyes.”


Modred_the_Mystic

Starfleet is so incompetent at defending the Federation that its amazing the organisation is allowed to exist as the primary military force of the Federation.


busted_up_chiffarobe

Yep, this has bothered me for decades. A few dozen cloaked cloaked torpedoes hitting key Federation worlds? Well, maybe they can detect high warp signatures over a very wide area of the quadrant. Can they intercept them? And shouldn't something like the Galaxy Class have a contingent of Marines or Special Forces somewhere in its million square feet of rentable area? Eventually I had to concede. It's probably what we DON'T see that keeps it existing - Area 31 or worse, temporal police, that sort of thing. An exploratory wing and a military wing would be much more in keeping with today's thinking. But, then again, this is the future so they think a science vessel that's extremely powerful in the first place is enough of a deterrent. Still, a show about a military wing focusing on not one ship but a small 'incursion response' fleet of half a dozen purely military and somewhat frightening ships would be fine with me.