I heard the tragic news about Robin Williams a few hours ago, and as you might imagine, I was deeply distraught. Although he obviously had his demons and struggled against them throughout his life and up until his death, he was a man of phenomenal talent and will be missed by all of those he brought joy and laughter to in his long and distinguished career. At this time, my thoughts go out to everyone who knew and loved him, and may he rest in peace.
That Wacky Redhead
- Thread starter Brainbin
- Start date
British Republic
Banned
Never thought I'd be saying this: a moment of silence for one Mr. Robin Williams. RIP...in our timeline.
Yep, it was a shame Robin Williams is now dead in OTL, does anyone know if he was a fan of AH? My favourite performances of his were Good Mourning Vietnam and Man of the Year.
His death also reminded me of this thread as well, especially the comments related to it in ITTL.
You know what Brainbin, you should in my view dedicate this thread to those (who played a part ITTL in this TL) who are no longer with us, from TWR, Richard Pryor, and everyone else at the end of it.
British Republic
Banned
I see, who competed with TV-AM over the Breakfast TV contract in OTL?
So you are saying that Grade selling Elstree would save Southern and Westward TV?
An Anderson made Sapphire and Steel? A 80s Captain Scarlet? or something else?
What other ideas did Anderson have at the time?
ITN were the main competitor, which is why they were a bit miffed that Anna Ford was part of the TV-AM bid - so much so that they were unwilling to provide outside broadcast coverage during the bombing of the Conservative party conference in Briton (TV-AM didn't have enough funds to send their own journalists to the conference)
Grade had to sell Elstree because the IBA believed that ATV should be more Midlands based. Similarly, one of the criticisms of Southern was that it didn't have local management. If the IBA wasn't so insistant on having local stations for local people then it would help both companies.
An Anderson made Sapphire and Steel? A 80s Captain Scarlet? or something else?
Well everyone likes to copy success. ITTL Doctor Who has been successful in America and Grade always did have an eye on the US market. So that if ATV decide to make a competitor to Doctor Who ( as they did OTL with Sapphire and Steel ) they're likely to try and produce something similar to the Yank Years Doctor Who, with the best effects they can afford. As Space:1999 showed OTL, Anderson could do some pretty good model effects.
Cheers,
Nigel.
British Republic
Banned
So we could see a ITN Breakfast News with Anna Ford?
What PODs need to happen to make it posibble?
I will think up a idea for a posibble series that Anderson would do after UFO for ATV/ITV of that description.
Looks like it's time to get responding to this backlog of posts! Though nothing having to do with spoilers, of course.
While we're waiting for the next update, I wanted to open to floor to discussing the political structure of a particular government in my timeline, that government being the United Federation of Planets. I've been discussing this one behind-the-scenes with e of pi, and considering the role of The Next Voyage and deuterocanonical material in this TL, it merits some detailed discussion. A lot of what we know about the Federation came from later spinoffs IOTL - what do we know from the show that started it all, and what has been added to that mythos ITTL?
Much of what we know about the statecraft of the Federation comes from one episode: "Journey to Babel". Many people have inferred that the deliberative body which will be convening at Babel is the Federation Council, which is actually not explicitly confirmed in dialogue, but I think it's a given - the Federation Council had been mentioned before this episode (in "Amok Time"). The Federation Council wields considerable legislative power - akin to the US Senate or the UN Security Council. Members are called ambassadors and appear to be appointed by their respective homeworlds. Sarek is the Vulcan Ambassador to the Federation, for example. It seems that each member world appoints one ambassador to the Council. In addition to the UN, this is similar to how US Senators were appointed prior to the passage of Amendment XVII to the US Constitution in 1913, still (barely) within living memory in 1967. Sarek mentions that his government's instructions will be heard on Babel, lending credence to his having been appointed by the government of Vulcan, rather than having been elected by its people. However, liberal democracy is clearly a fundamental ideal of the UN, and the US, and NATO, at least in theory, and a Federation without a directly-elected deliberative body just doesn't seem right. To this end, I propose a second chamber, thus providing the federation with a bicameral legislature (consistent with that of many countries, as well as the UN, if we count the General Assembly in contrast to the Security Council). It would be named the Federation Assembly, and its members, called delegates, would be directly elected, apportioned per member world by population, with the total number of seats in the chamber determined by application of what is today called the Wyoming Rule, as well as the cube root law - that the number of legislators should be equal to the cube root of the population. Therefore, if we assume that the population of the Federation is 100 billion, then the Assembly would have 4,642 seats - far larger than any legislature IOTL, but note that even a country with two billion people would only need a more reasonable 1,260 seats to adhere to this rule.
Obviously a Federation Assembly was never mentioned IOTL, and any mention would also be sparse ITTL. I propose that this is because the Assembly is the lower house - in modern society, the lower house is usually the more powerful of the two... except in the United States, where the upper house wields considerably more power. So the Council has control over the admission of new member worlds, declarations of war, foreign treaties, and basically all of the matters which are pertinent to a starship out on the frontier. The Assembly, on the other hand, handles the appropriations - again consistent with most bicameral systems, this time including the United States. The collective term for both chambers would probably be the Congress - "Parliament" is more widespread (and unambiguous), of course, but these are American writers who will naturally model the Federation on their own legislature first. (The UN is no help - the two deliberative bodies don't have a collective name except as two of six "organs" of the UN.) That covers the legislative branch of Federation government, all the same. The Council (and not the Assembly) would probably have the power to confirm appointments to the judiciary (which I imagine would otherwise work more like the International Court of Justice than the US Supreme Court). Who would nominate these judges?
The President of the United Federation of Planets. We deliberated for a while over this one - we considered an EU-style Presidency (or rather, one of the four EU-style Presidencies), despite it being anachronistic, but considering that there is both a President of the European Council and a President of the Council of the European Union IOTL, we threw up our hands and decided on an American-style executive - who is the Commander-in-Chief of Federation forces (including Starfleet) and who nominates Cabinet Secretaries (remember, Nilz Baris from "The Trouble with Tribbles" is the Under-Secretary for Agricultural Affairs in a specific quadrant of space, presumably appointed by the Federation Secretary for Agricultural Affairs). The predominance of the Council implies that the Presidency is fairly weak - as the US Presidency was for much of the 19th century. The Federation President would probably behave far more like the UN Secretary-General than the US President - heading the Cabinet and serving as a symbol and spokesperson for the Federation. Given that the Council is unelected, we agreed that the President would be directly elected - with a restriction that a candidate must not reside in the same member world as the previous President (to allow for rotation between the major races). In practice, it would probably look something like Human-Vulcan-Human-Andorian-Human, etc.
As the President is the Commander-in-Chief, Starfleet ultimately answers to her - probably through an intermediary in the Cabinet. Given Starfleet's emphasis on exploration and diplomacy, even "Secretary of Defense" (mind the "s" - again, these are American writers) seems too loaded a title, but I can't think of one better, unless anyone has a suggestion. Whatever his title might be, the Chief of Starfleet Operations (let's call him Fleet Admiral E.W. Roddenberry, with a rank equivalent to OF-10) reports directly to him. Vice-Admiral J. Komack (OF-8) would report to the Chief of Starfleet Operations, and Captain James T. Kirk (OF-5) in turn reports to Komack, putting three intermediaries between himself and the President. Starfleet itself functions primarily as a Navy/Air Force/Marine Corps, though no doubt many in the Federation would like to frame it as something like the NOAA Corps (from 1970 on). Each member world would also have a defence force, equivalent to a coast guard/state militia/gendarmerie, which we determined because Starfleet simply doesn't have enough ships to cover core Federation space. These would obviously report to the governments of their respective member worlds as opposed to the President, though there are probably wartime activation clauses which place them under the Starfleet chain of command when necessary (similar to NATO provisions, as well as existing wartime provisions which cover civilian vessels). Then there's the merchant marine, mentioned even in an OTL episode of Star Trek ("The Ultimate Computer") - they'll play a bigger role ITTL. And the merchant marine, in turn, brings us to economics and finance, an area about which we know very little.
We know that the Federation faces scarcity. There are no replicators (the word is never used throughout the entire run of the show) and several episodes involve the Enterprise trying to negotiate for resources, particularly dilithium crystals. Kirk mentions that he is prepared to "compensate" sellers on behalf of the Federation and that Scotty has just earned his "pay" for the week, and of course, there is a unit of currency called the "credit", which crew members apparently have on hand (Uhura was prepared to buy that tribble before it was given to her as a gift). I believe I've mentioned before that I like the idea of the credit being firmly established as a paperless currency. Credit cards were certainly around by the late-1960s, it wouldn't be a huge leap to imagine a debit-like system. In any event, there are several ways that the Federation can cover their expenses. Here is where we can model the Federation on the EU: direct taxation of the people is right out, for all the same reasons it would be right out in the EU. Tariffs might be a possibility, but they're contrary to prevailing (real-world) economic policy at the time, so the most natural solution is that each member world contributes some of their budget to cover Federation expenses. This would include re-investment into "underdeveloped" member worlds - known in several real-world countries as "equalization payments". The rich (have) planets pay into the poor (have-not) ones. Presumably Coridan would benefit from this system after being admitted to the Federation, and it would be a perennial source of disputes.
To summarize:
Government of the United Federation of Planets
Though nothing having to do with spoilers, of course.Thank you! It is well on the wayLooking forward to the update already
I'm the kind of person who'd much rather refine what he's already written than create new material. (That's the main reason I write this timeline one-post-at-a-time as opposed to building up a buffer and releasing material on a schedule - I don't trust myself not to labour over the "finished" posts instead of working on new ones.) Once I've reached 1986, I would much rather return to 1966 and improve any perceived deficiencies (and finally post TWR to the Finished Timelines thread) than forge on ahead to the ever-advancing "present". Besides, this timeline has to end somewhere.
Yes, although ratings took a hit when Michael Billington left to star as James Bond, and it was cancelled shortly thereafter (think about what Diana Rigg leaving did to The Avengers).
Thank you for the offer, but I have the situation well in handBritish Republic said:
Indeed not - no matter how much it might seem like one to some people
Ironically, American investors made Holy Grail a higher-budgeted film ITTL - high enough that Harrison alone couldn't furnish any follow-up with the budget to which the Pythons had grown accustomed.
It will be posted this weekend. My apologies to everyone for the delay, and thank you all for your patience!
While we're waiting for the next update, I wanted to open to floor to discussing the political structure of a particular government in my timeline, that government being the United Federation of Planets. I've been discussing this one behind-the-scenes with e of pi, and considering the role of The Next Voyage and deuterocanonical material in this TL, it merits some detailed discussion. A lot of what we know about the Federation came from later spinoffs IOTL - what do we know from the show that started it all, and what has been added to that mythos ITTL?
Much of what we know about the statecraft of the Federation comes from one episode: "Journey to Babel". Many people have inferred that the deliberative body which will be convening at Babel is the Federation Council, which is actually not explicitly confirmed in dialogue, but I think it's a given - the Federation Council had been mentioned before this episode (in "Amok Time"). The Federation Council wields considerable legislative power - akin to the US Senate or the UN Security Council. Members are called ambassadors and appear to be appointed by their respective homeworlds. Sarek is the Vulcan Ambassador to the Federation, for example. It seems that each member world appoints one ambassador to the Council. In addition to the UN, this is similar to how US Senators were appointed prior to the passage of Amendment XVII to the US Constitution in 1913, still (barely) within living memory in 1967. Sarek mentions that his government's instructions will be heard on Babel, lending credence to his having been appointed by the government of Vulcan, rather than having been elected by its people. However, liberal democracy is clearly a fundamental ideal of the UN, and the US, and NATO, at least in theory, and a Federation without a directly-elected deliberative body just doesn't seem right. To this end, I propose a second chamber, thus providing the federation with a bicameral legislature (consistent with that of many countries, as well as the UN, if we count the General Assembly in contrast to the Security Council). It would be named the Federation Assembly, and its members, called delegates, would be directly elected, apportioned per member world by population, with the total number of seats in the chamber determined by application of what is today called the Wyoming Rule, as well as the cube root law - that the number of legislators should be equal to the cube root of the population. Therefore, if we assume that the population of the Federation is 100 billion, then the Assembly would have 4,642 seats - far larger than any legislature IOTL, but note that even a country with two billion people would only need a more reasonable 1,260 seats to adhere to this rule.
Obviously a Federation Assembly was never mentioned IOTL, and any mention would also be sparse ITTL. I propose that this is because the Assembly is the lower house - in modern society, the lower house is usually the more powerful of the two... except in the United States, where the upper house wields considerably more power. So the Council has control over the admission of new member worlds, declarations of war, foreign treaties, and basically all of the matters which are pertinent to a starship out on the frontier. The Assembly, on the other hand, handles the appropriations - again consistent with most bicameral systems, this time including the United States. The collective term for both chambers would probably be the Congress - "Parliament" is more widespread (and unambiguous), of course, but these are American writers who will naturally model the Federation on their own legislature first. (The UN is no help - the two deliberative bodies don't have a collective name except as two of six "organs" of the UN.) That covers the legislative branch of Federation government, all the same. The Council (and not the Assembly) would probably have the power to confirm appointments to the judiciary (which I imagine would otherwise work more like the International Court of Justice than the US Supreme Court). Who would nominate these judges?
The President of the United Federation of Planets. We deliberated for a while over this one - we considered an EU-style Presidency (or rather, one of the four EU-style Presidencies), despite it being anachronistic, but considering that there is both a President of the European Council and a President of the Council of the European Union IOTL, we threw up our hands and decided on an American-style executive - who is the Commander-in-Chief of Federation forces (including Starfleet) and who nominates Cabinet Secretaries (remember, Nilz Baris from "The Trouble with Tribbles" is the Under-Secretary for Agricultural Affairs in a specific quadrant of space, presumably appointed by the Federation Secretary for Agricultural Affairs). The predominance of the Council implies that the Presidency is fairly weak - as the US Presidency was for much of the 19th century. The Federation President would probably behave far more like the UN Secretary-General than the US President - heading the Cabinet and serving as a symbol and spokesperson for the Federation. Given that the Council is unelected, we agreed that the President would be directly elected - with a restriction that a candidate must not reside in the same member world as the previous President (to allow for rotation between the major races). In practice, it would probably look something like Human-Vulcan-Human-Andorian-Human, etc.
As the President is the Commander-in-Chief, Starfleet ultimately answers to her - probably through an intermediary in the Cabinet. Given Starfleet's emphasis on exploration and diplomacy, even "Secretary of Defense" (mind the "s" - again, these are American writers
) seems too loaded a title, but I can't think of one better, unless anyone has a suggestion. Whatever his title might be, the Chief of Starfleet Operations (let's call him Fleet Admiral E.W. Roddenberry, with a rank equivalent to OF-10) reports directly to him. Vice-Admiral J. Komack (OF-8) would report to the Chief of Starfleet Operations, and Captain James T. Kirk (OF-5) in turn reports to Komack, putting three intermediaries between himself and the President. Starfleet itself functions primarily as a Navy/Air Force/Marine Corps, though no doubt many in the Federation would like to frame it as something like the NOAA Corps (from 1970 on). Each member world would also have a defence force, equivalent to a coast guard/state militia/gendarmerie, which we determined because Starfleet simply doesn't have enough ships to cover core Federation space. These would obviously report to the governments of their respective member worlds as opposed to the President, though there are probably wartime activation clauses which place them under the Starfleet chain of command when necessary (similar to NATO provisions, as well as existing wartime provisions which cover civilian vessels). Then there's the merchant marine, mentioned even in an OTL episode of Star Trek ("The Ultimate Computer") - they'll play a bigger role ITTL. And the merchant marine, in turn, brings us to economics and finance, an area about which we know very little.We know that the Federation faces scarcity. There are no replicators (the word is never used throughout the entire run of the show) and several episodes involve the Enterprise trying to negotiate for resources, particularly dilithium crystals. Kirk mentions that he is prepared to "compensate" sellers on behalf of the Federation and that Scotty has just earned his "pay" for the week, and of course, there is a unit of currency called the "credit", which crew members apparently have on hand (Uhura was prepared to buy that tribble before it was given to her as a gift). I believe I've mentioned before that I like the idea of the credit being firmly established as a paperless currency. Credit cards were certainly around by the late-1960s, it wouldn't be a huge leap to imagine a debit-like system. In any event, there are several ways that the Federation can cover their expenses. Here is where we can model the Federation on the EU: direct taxation of the people is right out, for all the same reasons it would be right out in the EU. Tariffs might be a possibility, but they're contrary to prevailing (real-world) economic policy at the time, so the most natural solution is that each member world contributes some of their budget to cover Federation expenses. This would include re-investment into "underdeveloped" member worlds - known in several real-world countries as "equalization payments". The rich (have) planets pay into the poor (have-not) ones. Presumably Coridan would benefit from this system after being admitted to the Federation, and it would be a perennial source of disputes.
To summarize:
Government of the United Federation of Planets
- Legislature (Congress of the United Federation of Planets)
- Federation Council (Upper Chamber)
- One ambassador per member world, appointed by their respective governments - potentially up to hundreds of members; colonies not represented
- Presided over by the President
- Admits member worlds, imposes sanctions, ratifies treaties, confirms judicial and cabinet appointments
- Federation Assembly (Lower Chamber)
- Total number of delegates are equal to or greater than the cube root of the population of the Federation citizenry resident on full member worlds - potentially up to thousands of members; there must be at least one delegate representing the smallest member world (total size must be at least one delegate per resident citizen population of that member world)
- Presided over by the Speaker
- Handles appropriations and other money bills
- Federation Council (Upper Chamber)
- Executive
- President of the United Federation of Planets
- Commander-in-Chief of Starfleet
- Presides over the Cabinet
- Nominates secretaries and justices
- Elected directly by the people of the Federation (in the only Federation-wide popular election)
- Must not be from the same member world as the previous President
- Cabinet of the United Federation of Planets
- Each Secretary heads a Department and appoints regional undersecretaries and hires other staff as needed
- Starfleet is effectively a Department of the Federation Government; the Starfleet Chief of Staff reports directly to the Secretary
- President of the United Federation of Planets
- Judiciary (Supreme Court of the United Federation of Planets)
- Final court of appeal for every member world of the Federation, its colonies, protectorates, and affiliated entities and organizations
- Justices are nominated by the President, confirmed by the Federation Council
- Each justice must be from a different member world from all the other judges
- Each member species must not have a greater representation on the Court than their proportion of the general population
Man, term limits are going to be a bitch to figure out, given that you're dealing with dozens (hundreds? What is the size of TTL's Federation?) with wildly varying orbital periods and timescales. It's completely conceivable that a member of the Federation Council/Assembly could serve out multiple terms on Earth while still being barely into their first term back home (or vice versa).
Working out the structure of the Federation government, and how it evolved over time, is an old hobby-horse of mine from my SCN days, so I expect I'll have a few comments, but for now here're a couple of quick ones:
1) How is "Member World" defined? In particular, what about colonies? Would Earth colonies be counted for representation under Earth, or independently? Can colonies gain independence and therefore their own representation? Would that imply you could have two human Presidents in succession (e.g. Earth-Human, followed by Mars-Human)? Restricting the Presidency on racial grounds would seem very anti-Trek, even if it is politically practical. I suspect Roddenberry (if he still has influence) would argue that the peoples of the Federation are morally advanced enough to vote for the best candidate regardless of planet of origin.
2) Much as I'd love a self-consistent political structure for the Federation, it's hard to see how this would be established in canon. IOTL the structure grew organically from various writers, hence the drift from a TOS UN-like system to a more US-style system by the time of DS9, simply because that's what the writers were more familiar with. I suspect there'd have to be some sort of significant ret-con event to fix this - perhaps a fully authorised version of OTL's Franz Joseph Tech Manual coming out after TNV, or even the RPG handbook, which goes on to be used as a reference by writers of future Trek episodes (there will be future Trek episodes, right?!!) and licensed novels, etc.
1) How is "Member World" defined? In particular, what about colonies? Would Earth colonies be counted for representation under Earth, or independently? Can colonies gain independence and therefore their own representation? Would that imply you could have two human Presidents in succession (e.g. Earth-Human, followed by Mars-Human)? Restricting the Presidency on racial grounds would seem very anti-Trek, even if it is politically practical. I suspect Roddenberry (if he still has influence) would argue that the peoples of the Federation are morally advanced enough to vote for the best candidate regardless of planet of origin.
2) Much as I'd love a self-consistent political structure for the Federation, it's hard to see how this would be established in canon. IOTL the structure grew organically from various writers, hence the drift from a TOS UN-like system to a more US-style system by the time of DS9, simply because that's what the writers were more familiar with. I suspect there'd have to be some sort of significant ret-con event to fix this - perhaps a fully authorised version of OTL's Franz Joseph Tech Manual coming out after TNV, or even the RPG handbook, which goes on to be used as a reference by writers of future Trek episodes (there will be future Trek episodes, right?!!) and licensed novels, etc.
Thande
Donor
Didn't that book contain an "Articles of Federation" constitution for the Federation, albeit a bit vague in places?
It contained a very detailed copy of the Articles of Federation, but these were pretty much a straight copy of the UN Charter with some names changed. The main difference was a section on Star Fleet, which specified the number of "Class 1 Cruisers" (i.e. Constitution class) to be built (14, IIRC), plus star bases and "Other vessels". Like the rest of the Tech Manual (except some ship diagrams appearing on-screen in STII and III), Roddenberry de-canonised it IOTL after his falling out with Franz Joseph, so was never referred to in Trek.
Presumably also known as the Sweet FA
The use of "Star Dates" implies that the Federation uses some standard definition of time periods not based upon orbital periods of particular planets. Term limits would presumably be based upon those.
Cheers,
Nigel.
I wonder, did the longer run of Star Trek ITTL mean that the writers settled on a consistent format for stardates (as they did for TNG onwards IOTL), or does it stay randomised to avoid the sin of forcing stations to broadcast the syndicated shows in the correct order?
I'd also presume that the Council has a sort of veto/approval of Presidential Candidates to avoid them becoming too independent of the Council
The BBC's Tomorrow's World programme did an item on Computerised Banking and the Cashless Economy in 1969, so the idea was certainly around then.
Cheers,
Nigel.
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Always been my take on it too. I just assume by TNG it had been phased out
Technically (Under-)Secretaries could be a purely bureaucratic position, part of agencies answering to ministers in a cabinet, but as is said, American writers.
In practice I think there's going to be a bit of a 18th-century Royal Navy tendency to Starfleet's function, though it probably wouldn't be a comparison the writers themselves make, just a natural result of writing about a militarish force serving as the sole policemen out on the frontier and exploring new 'islands' without always having the option of contacting headquarters.
In practice I think there's going to be a bit of a 18th-century Royal Navy tendency to Starfleet's function, though it probably wouldn't be a comparison the writers themselves make, just a natural result of writing about a militarish force serving as the sole policemen out on the frontier and exploring new 'islands' without always having the option of contacting headquarters.
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Thande
Donor
Well the original concept sketch for TOS did draw the comparison between Kirk and Horatio Hornblower (before the character was even named Kirk, I think), so I think the writers were well aware of it. I understand the Hornblower novels were pretty popular in the US in the 1960s.
Thande
Donor
I had a look earlier and you're right, it's more detailed than I thought. As you say it's very UN-based, with the Federation Council being modelled on the Security Council.
Nigel has it - the Federation would use a universal calendar and clock from which the Stardate system is also derived.
Our thinking was that a "colony" would have to meet certain criteria to become a full member world of the Federation. The most direct OTL comparison is the development of U.S. territories into U.S. states - in the 1960s and 1970s, this last occurred relatively recently (with Alaska and Hawaii, in 1959) in addition to the many times it had happened previously. If we want to borrow directly from the UN, there are the examples of trust territories and protectorates. Metafictionally, the framework for EU accession might be a good blueprint. Whatever the model, a colony (or protectorate, etc.) must fulfill certain criteria to "graduate" to member world status. Prior to this point, colonies would presumably be under the administration of whatever member worlds sponsored them (consistent with frequent mention of "Earth colonies" on the show) - which could include condominium arrangements (say Earth and Vulcan jointly settle a planet) or perhaps direct Federation settlement.
It's a lot easier (and more common, IOTL) to impose restrictions upon appointed judges as opposed to elected officials (or at least observe conventions pertaining thereto). Like you, I'm inclined to agree that Roddenberry, if asked, would assume that Federation voters are sufficiently evolved so as to be purely meritocratic in their selection. Of course, he'd also insist that they all have the same standards for candidate selection - and therefore would logically all vote for the same candidate, eliminating the need for election. Which is why I'm glad that Coon and Fontana and Gerrold and the rest - all of whom are a good deal more pragmatic and aware of the narrative potential that comes with people actually acting like real people - remain in charge after 1966 ITTL.
As far as I'm concerned, the Federation emerged out of something like both NATO and the UN - the Federation Council probably being the oldest body therein (which never changed even as the bureaucracy formed around it - hence its members being called ambassadors who are appointed directly by the governments of their respective member worlds). At one time, the Council may have been known as the Council of the United Planets (the term United Nations, after all, originally referred to the Allies of WWII) before it was later restructured into a proper Federation (which is when the Federation Assembly was created). To be honest, the Presidency is a sticky point - there has to be a President, to facilitate That Wacky Redhead's role in The Next Voyage, but there are a lot of problems with a directly-elected chief executive in the American mould. The President could, with little trouble, instead be the President of the Federation Council - the de facto symbol and spokesperson for the Federation, and perhaps (to borrow from the Romans this time) someone granted extraordinary powers during wartime, insurrection, or similar.nixonshead said:
You see why nobody takes the Federation Assembly seriously?!Presumably also known as the Sweet FA
Excellent question. The OTL third season ended with the stardates just short of 6000. If we assume that they're at about the same point ITTL, it will likely occur to them (once they're aware that the fifth season will be the last) that "hey, we can end this at 10000.0". Then they'll notice that the stardates began at a little over 1000 - so they'll come to the conclusion (which I've alluded to in past updates) that the Five-Year Mission runs from 1000.0 to 9999.9 or thereabouts. It helps to explain away the unusual "birthdate" of James R. Kirk in "Where No Man Has Gone Before", which reads "C. 1277.1 to 1313.7", using the common (OTL) fanon explanation that the "C" does not stand for "circa" but "command" - that he assumed command on 1277.1. (Assume that the ship was in refit or something from 1000.0 until then, or maybe Kirk was taking his sweet time transferring in from somewhere else, or Pike went overlong in his last mission.) As to how that would look?
- Season 1: 1312.4 - 3289.8 (as per OTL)
- Season 2: 3018.2 - 4770.3 (as per OTL)
- Season 3: 4372.5 - c. 6000.0
- Season 4: 6000.0 - 8000.0 (or thereabouts)
- Season 5: 8000.0 - 9999.0 (or thereabouts)
There are a lot of problems with direct election of the President - whether there's an electoral college (possible, since these are American writers), whether there's some kind of runoff mechanism if no candidate receives a majority of the vote (which is very likely), and (as nixonshead mentions) it's easy to envision humans winning again and again - or all the other species coming together to always block humans from winning (and there has to be at least one human President, Lucille Carter - immediately followed by a Vulcan President, Sarek). It's much likelier for a candidate to consolidate support with the help of a political party - and if the Presidential election is partisan, then it's very likely that the Assembly elections are as well - the Council might be isolated from that by virtue of their appointed membership, but tribalism is certainly insidious among humans, if not the alien species. To be honest, on a metafictional level, I like the wrinkles that this creates - the need to have That Wacky Redhead appear as the Federation President completely throws the conjectured government structure into disarray, leaving the fandom (and possibly others) to pick up the pieces.
That settles it, then! If it was a topic of discussion in the UK by 1969, it almost certainly was in the US as well, and quite possibly for a few years beforehand, at that.
I definitely think there's room to incorporate that to an extent - the Secretary keeps changing even as his Undersecretaries (who theoretically serve at the Secretary's pleasure but are entrenched within the bureaucracy) remain constant. Certainly, Nilz Baris (the highest-placed bureaucrat we ever see) behaves as only someone with unshakable job security would. It's easy to imagine his posting being a fairly quiet one before the Organian Peace Treaty turned everything upside down. Granted, my opinion might be coloured by the delightful bureaucratic satire of Yes, Minister IOTL...
An astute observation - and that's confirmed ITTL in The Next Voyage, with starships representing ships of the line and frigates representing... frigates, eschewing the OTL term "heavy cruiser". Smaller ships like sloops (equated to corvettes in later eras) would probably not serve under Starfleet but instead under the planetary/system "coast guard" fleets.LordInsane said:
You know, I really ought to read Horatio Hornblower...