Okay, so this is clearly a stretch beyond anything either franchise will likely ever get to address, but do remember that officially both the X-Men and Doctor Who universe have crossed with the prime Star Trek timeline (in the comics, of course) so anything is possible.

Theory: Star Trek and Farscape take place in the same universe/timeline.

Background:
For those not familiar with Farscape, its a sci-fi space adventure show from 1999 that features a human astronaut named John Crichton that accidentally flies his prototype shuttle through a wormhole and gets spit out on the far side of the universe. There he meets up with a band of escaping prisoners on a living ship. Everyone (but John especially) are being chased by a series of military commanders as the seasons go on for reasons ranging from revenge to the knowledge of wormholes locked away in his head. If you haven't watched it, do so immediately, its still amazing even today thanks to great characters and the EXTENSIVE work of Jim Henson Studios making stellar practical effects for all kinds of aliens.

Point 1: While John frequently says he was thrown across the universe by the wormhole, we never do get any kind of definitive answer as to WHERE in the universe he landed. In fact, given the setting, the limitations of the need for human actors (which was partly alleviated thanks to Jim Henson Studios and their amazing puppetry), Star Trek style humanoid aliens with bits glued on were still commonplace. Which could suggest they were still in our current galaxy, and still being influenced by the Progenitors. Additionally, Farscape also had a race of ancient beings who took humans from Earth and transplanted them to this portion of the galaxy, and recently enough that they still appear human. Trek also has a race of beings that do this, the Preservers, who we never directly see. Could the Eidolons be the Preservers?

We also know that one of the Farscape baddies, Scorpius, did eventually manage to locate Earth. Even without wormhole technology, he threatened to send ships to attack it. Its implied this was going to be one of those "it might take us a hundred years to get there, but we will get there and destroy your home world!" kind of deals, and could have been a bluff (as John wouldn't know if they were capable of following through on it or not). Given the similar speeds of ships between the two franchises, this would indeed potentially put the setting of Farscape in the Gamma or Delta quadrants.

Point 2: While its never directly stated how the ships in this setting move, they are capable of crossing interstellar differences in reasonable amounts of time. There are trading commerce planets, and overall the early seasons heavily imply that getting from one inhabited planet to another is a matter days or sometimes even hours. This is directly comparable to standard warp travel speeds in Trek. Which means the standard Farscape vessels could indeed be using some form of warp engine.

The big stand-out between the two franchises is that the main hero ship in Farscape, Moya, is capable of a maneuver known as Starburst, which allows for incredibly fast travel between locations. It is not instantaneous, however it does leave any other form of pursuer completely incapable of keeping up. Long distance starbursts can put plenty of room between them and anyone chasing, but they can be caught up with while the maneuver basically recharges.

Interestingly enough, when Moya goes into starburst, the configuration of the ship changes during it and reverts to normal during regular flight. This is not actually too terribly dissimilar to proto-warp as seen in Star Trek Prodigy. Only main difference is that the Protostar seems to need to come to maximum warp speed before they can engage the proto-warp, whereas Moya can do it from a standstill. The Protostar's protowarp was powered by a baby star, and the starburst by Moya was supposed to be powered by energy stored as light. Coincidence, or was Moya using an organic proto-warp?

Point 3: Moya is a Leviathan, a kind of biomechanoid living ship that is part natural life form, part synthetic starship. She was brown in color, overall teardrop shaped (minus the appendages that initiated starburst), and while capable of functioning independently preferred to bind herself to a separate living being as her pilot. This general description matches that of a known Trek ship/species almost perfectly, the Tinman. Tinman was said to be ancient and from parts unknown, but was also a bio-mechanical being capable of FTL travel and carrying crewmen inside it's own body. Could Tinman have been a much older cousin of the Leviathans?

Point 4: The weapons and defensive shields in both franchises are remarkably similar. Obviously this is due to there only being so many ways to depict an energy weapon, but the Pulse Pistols and Pulse Rifles from Farscape (along with the larger cannons of the Peacekeeper ships) do share a beam color and overall effect with the pulse phaser cannons used by the Defiant. We also saw that Peacekeeper ships were equipped with shield generators that created spherical bubble shields that were not dissimilar to the bubble shields we see in Trek. We even saw that those shields didn't fully cover a ship by themselves but had to be stacked and layered to give full coverage, not unlike how Trek ships have fore shields, aft shields, starboard shields, etc.

Overall? Farscape was a series that did a really good job at mixing the fantastical elements while trying to also keep itself rooted in reality, much the same as Star Trek does. As such, both series came up with surprisingly similar answers to the same problems (which again obviously comes IRL from the influence Star Trek had on the entire genre), and as such the two universes are not inherently incompatible with each other.

Its possible that Farscape took place in the Trek universe in some far remote corner of the Gamma or Delta quadrants centuries before the Trek timeline as we know it came into play.

How do "days" and "shifts" work on a starship?
Would species who come from a planet with naturally longer days work longer shifts?
Would species that come from a planet with naturally shorter days have shorter shifts?
Do crews tend to get lumped into similar days?

I understand that theres stardates in terms of dating events as every race has their own idea of the dates and years. Hell we have the Gregoran calender thats the earth "standard" but some cultures still use their own calender for a few things. The jewish calendar and the chinse calender come to mind.

But what about days and shift rotations? We understand days as 1 rotation around the sun. As such our natural human cycle is based on 24 hours being a day. Further we have generally divided our life into 8 hours, sleep, work, lessure/rest, which has created 3 shifts for us, day shift (7am to 5pm), swing shift (4pm to 11 pm), and graveyard (11pm to 7 am). We know that generally humans start to wear down after 7-8 hours of work a day. Sure we can push it longer if we need to for a time but that takes a toll on other areas.

Its been noted that Bajorins have a 26 hour day. Do they work for 8 hours and get an extra hour or two to sleep in? Are they expected to work longer on federation ships? Do the humans have their days divided in 3rd to stay with earth time on the station? Or are the told to work an extra 36 minutes every day to keep up with bajorins? Again, what about races that have a shorter then 24 hour day?

NOTE: This review is cross-posted from my Star Trek Substack, with permission from the mods.

When people discuss the classic Star Trek novels, the focus is usually on The Original Series tie-ins from the late 70s and early 80s. Those were the days when giants walked the earth, when writers like Diane Duane and John M. Ford were redefining the basic parameters of the franchise in ambitious novels that have kept attracting readers even after their ideas were “overwritten” by later canonical broadcast material. By contrast, there are relatively few legendary individual titles for Next Generation. While the show was running, authors were constrained to reset to the status quo, and after TNG (and the other 90s tie-ins) ended and the authors gained the same kind of autonomy their TOS-focused predecessors had enjoyed, they used it primarily to set up an intricate continuity known as the novelverse. The best volumes from that era are often too tied up in that sprawling narrative world to be accessible on their own. The window to produce ambitious stand-alone novels independent of the ongoing show basically closed as soon as it opened.

Recently, though, I returned to a novel that has a claim to be the major exception to that rule: Peter David’s Vendetta. It definitely lives up to its self-declared status as a “giant novel,” because it is just jam packed with stuff. David develops unanticipated backstory for the Borg and for Guinan’s people, invents an ancient race that tried to stop the Borg by inventing the Planet Killer (from TOS “Doomsday Machine”), and gives Picard a vision of love that literally haunts him all his life.

Part of what enabled Peter David to swing for the fences was that TNG had finally come into its own. The book was published toward in May 1991, toward the end of the fourth season, which had begun by resolving the cliffhanger of “The Best of Both Worlds,” in which Captain Picard was assimilated by the Borg (and incidentally demonstrated that he can totally rock a turtleneck). After a poorly received first season and an improved but still rocky second, the third season represented a quantum leap in quality that continued unabated in the fourth. While going through this period of TNG in my ongoing rowing machine rewatch, I was excited for almost every episode—and even installments I had forgotten were often surprisingly good. The beginning of season 4 was also, as I’ve written elsewhere, when TNG started to gain confidence that it was “a thing” and therefore to begin following up on its own lore. At the same time, this confidence allowed it to confront themes from TOS more directly, where previously the writers had been over anxious to establish TNG’s autonomy.

Vendetta definitely follows up on both of those trends. David recasts “The Doomsday Machine” as a prequel to TNG’s Borg arc, claiming that it was created as a prototype by an ancient species that wanted to find a way to stop the Borg. While Kirk and friends were understandably concerned that it was headed toward Earth, the crew of the Enterprise-D is in a position to chart its intended trajectory—into Borg space in the Delta Quadrant. Now Delcara, a survivor of a Borg mass assimilation who was adopted as a sister by Guinan and incidentally also appeared to Picard as a young man (and was just so amazingly attractive that it prevented him from ever dating seriously again), has tracked down a more advanced model. Powered by the unmitigated rage of the ghosts of the Borg’s victims—who ironically become their own kind of overwhelming Collective—the new Planet Killer plans to finish the job the first one started, and doesn’t care how many inhabited planets it needs to eat along the way.

David sets up an impressive tangle of conflicts around this plot. The overarching issue here is whether they should let the Planet Killer take care of the Borg once and for all or whether it’s actually somehow even worse than the Borg. This is amazing ambition—David is taking on TNG’s most fearsome creation, and he somehow manages to create something even more powerful, which is convincingly rooted in past franchise lore. This is overlayed with Picard’s conflict with the captain of another ship, who had been his rival at the Academy, along with Picard’s ambivalence about his intense romantic connection to the increasingly mad Delcara.

The idea of forging a pragmatic alliance with the Borg vaguely anticipates one plot arc from Voyager. A more direct parallel is their rescue of a female Borg drone who turns out to be a human named Reannon Bonaventure. In a later novel, Before Dishonor, Peter David goes so far as to have Geordi (who takes her under his wing in Vendetta) claim that Seven of Nine is a riff on this character. I think this is a bit of a stretch, since Reannon cannot readjust to human life and actually winds up committing suicide—a very different arc from Seven’s, to say the least. What may have emphasized the connection in his mind, however, was Gene Roddenberry’s bizarre insistence that a female Borg is inconceivable. So deep was his objection that the novel had to carry a special disclaimer that it was non-canonical (as all novels automatically are). Why the Borg, who abduct entire planetary populations (presumably including the women) and who have babies, would be an all-male race is extremely unclear, and the moment when they “tease” the gender of the rescued Borg is definitely cringe-worthy.

And I’m going to be real with you—there are plenty of other cringe-worthy moments. Picard and his former rival trade barbs along the lines of “yeah, I’m bald, but you’re fat,” which is radically out of character in addition to being in poor taste. Indeed, few of the characters sound or act the way we would expect. We get multiple references to “Bev” Crusher, who seems to act more like her temporary replacement Dr. Pulaski (with whom she briefly shares a scene!). Geordi is fixated on his disability in a way that never happens on the show. In fact, his experience of being cared for despite his blindness is his stated motive to aid in Reannon’s recovery (although later he does confess, much more characteristically, that he had fallen in love with her—or the idea of her). Worf is characterized as a violent monster. I could go on. I know it was still early days for TNG, but surely the characters were too well established at this point to excuse David’s license here. And he definitely watched the episodes, because he absolutely strip-mines the past seasons for lore. My personal favorite was when they say, “Remember when Dr. Crusher got stuck in an ever-shrinking warp bubble? What if we did that on purpose and weaponized it against the Borg?” It doesn’t work (likely a casualty of the need to reset to the status quo and not leave Starfleet with a mega-weapon against the Borg), but I appreciate the effort.

Perhaps the looseness of characterization comes from David’s refusal to treat his novel as subordinate to the source material. In fact, almost uniquely among the novels I have read, David makes a point to bookend his work with scenes that make special use of the affordances of a novel as opposed to a television broadcast. One of the opening gambits has Geordi and Data as Don Quixote and Sancho Panza in a holodeck program—but leaves it to the reader to guess who the characters are, only making it explicit at the end of the scene. More memorable is his portrayal of Delcara’s experience of approaching Warp 10, which amounts to infinite speed. Several chapters in a row repeat the exact same text. Then the repeated chapters are interspersed with the final scenes on the Enterprise while also being gradually shortened, until Delcara winds up stuck in the endless thought: “just a few more minutes.” If there’s a way to capture the same effect as elegantly in television or film format, it’s not jumping out at me.

That is the moment I remember most vividly from the very enjoyable weekend I spent reading Vendetta while supervising my family’s very poorly attended garage sale. Reading it again as an adult, I have no idea how much my 12-year-old self really got out of it, but “just a few more minutes” really blew my hair back—above all because it took me a beat or two to get what he was doing. It was, after all, a cheap paperback with yellow-edged pages, so the idea that it was a misprint or error was not inconceivable. Grasping that it was intentional was one of my earliest memories of appreciating literary form as such—and so perhaps you could say that Peter David helped set me down the path of literary criticism that led me into academia. Not every Trek novel contains that kind of aesthetic revelation, but the best of them do have moments of real artistry that refutes the prejudice that all tie-in literature is by definition disposable trash.

In the Episode "All Good Things" we know that Picard gets a glimpse of the future thanks to Q. This includes the collapse of the Romulan Star Empire. Though never explicitly stated, it is reasonable to assume that the Empire collapsed for the same reason it does in the prime timeline.

We also know that Picard informs his crew about certain events so that they can prevent themselves from growing apart. Even Troi is saved by this information. So we know that Picard wasn't putting much stock in the temporal prime directive. As a result of the changes he made, the Enterprise D doesn't survive to get the third warp nacelle and spinal laser, and Data is killed in a fight with the Romulans.

However some events seem to still proceed along the same course (Picard becomes an Admiral and then an Ambassador and then retires to Chateau Picard, and the Romulan Empire collapses.)

So since this is a common event between the two timelines, why wouldn't Picard warn the Star Empire so that they could either put a plan to work to stop the Hobus supernova, or evacuate sooner? Picard had about as good a relations with the Romulans as anyone up to that point.

I suppose you could argue that he did, and either Star Fleet kept it under wraps because it would eliminate a galactic competitor or (more likely) he tried to warn the Romulan Senate and was ignored. However, even if the Empire didn't believe him, they were very cunning and suspicious. No doubt, they would have investigated Hobus and likely been able to confirm that something was up. So with all that in mind, it seems like Picard didn't bring it up. I'm curious as to why.

We see on the Galaxy class that the arrays can coalesce a beam generated from the entire length of the array into one concentrated beam or fire multiple weaker beams from different sections of the array simultaneously. The longer the array the more powerful the beam that could be fired, a 500m long array would in theory be 5x more powerful than a 100m long one all other systems being equal.

So the question is why does Starfleet seem to go with multiple smaller arrays vs fewer larger ones?

The Ambassador class had its saucer arrays divided into sections, this could be chalked up to arrays were new at the time and that was the largest they could make them. Then the Galaxy came around with its absolutely massive saucer arrays but then they put several small ones on the engineer hull. The 4 at the bottom aft for example could have easily been connected into one unit it would seem. Then once more advanced ships like the Intrepid and Sovereign class came around the primary hull arrays were split into two.

Redundancy doesn't seem like the answer since the array is made of a series of emitters, if a portion of the array is knocked out the rest of it should be able to fire still. It seems like you are gaining nothing and losing the ability to fire one extremely strong beam if needed by breaking up the arrays.

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Starfleet ships are huge. Large rooms, broad hallways. And dozens of decks.

The amount of duct work required to move atmosphere throughout the ship would be extensive. Such a ductwork system would require massive amounts of space.

Would it not make more sense to regulate life support using replicators in each room? Or even specialized replicators? I'm imagining the atmospheric controls would convert any contaminants or other exhaled waste into ideal atmosphere for the crew. As well as temperature control through the same processes.

Moving from a centralized to a distributed life support system would also impede the spread of contaminants throughout the ship.

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Apologies if this question had been asked before, not entirely sure how I'd find it. I'll also say that I'm only familiar with ST through TNG, DS9 and Lower Decks. Love all three of them.

But yeah - as the title says, how would Star Fleet handle an 'always evil species'? Not just a morally repugnant leadership like the Cardassians or the Dominion - something more like the Orks from WH40K who view war as a big game where gunning down civilians is just as much fun as getting into a scrap with enemy soldiers, or for a multi-species variant the Dominion of the Black from Pathfinder who conquer worlds in order to turn them into giant labs at best, or flesh farms at worst.

These wouldn't be like the Borg where individuality is suppressed and each drone is in some ways a victim as well - the individuals of these factions all have free will of their own to varying degrees, and can make their own decisions. It's just that they're all repugnant - unlike the Founders of the Dominion, or other historically hostile polities like the Romulans or the Klingons, even the lowliest foot soldiers of these factions tends to be vile and monstrous. Any moral individuals wouldn't just be a part of a mass of other similar individuals just following orders and keeping their heads down, they'd be genetic / circumstantial anomalies that are one in a billion, or even one in a trillion.

Against these kinds of species, how would Star Fleet handle them? Star Fleet is obviously willing to fight, but how would it try to end the conflict? Try and figure out a way to open diplomacy after beating their opponents down? A retrovirus to try and introduce a 'good gene' of sorts that would allow for traits like empathy and kindness to spread in the enemy population? Or would Star Fleet adopt a policy of extermination and genocide, because these things won't change? Or just simple containment perhaps, hemming them into their core systems and just keeping them locked up in the hopes that they learn a lesson?

And I mean 'Star Fleet' as a whole, as opposed to individual elements of it like Sec. 31. It's pretty clear that not all parts of Star Fleet are as high-minded as the likes of Picard. I'm never quite certain of how 'naive' Star Fleet tends to be, since my own understanding of the series is fairly limited.

Let's assume that these are not an existential threat to the Federation like the Dominion was - they'll cause unspeakable suffering if left unchecked, but Star Fleet doesn't need to get involved. Their hands aren't being forced into it due to desperate circumstances.

Some recent discussion on the prime directive I find myself curious about a hypothetical scenario where Starfleet have to handle some other spacefaring power trying to make first contact with a pre-warp world. Suppose you have a Federation vessel monitoring a pre-warp world and suddenly a ship from the Klingons, or Romulans, or Pakleds, and so on, shows up with the intention of making first contact. How would the Federation vessel handle that situation? Especially if the attempted first contact is non-hostile? Or if the pre-warp planet is not at all prepare for contact?

I figure they would at least try to understand why the other vessel is doing this. But I wonder if they will try anything to stop this and how far they would be willing to go if they try.

How might Starfleet adjudicate the Prime Directive on whether or not to contact a civilization that has a level of technology equal or greater than that necessary for Warp/FTL, but have not developed that techology for travel? I guess the opening episode of SNW had that in a certain way (but not fully, given how the exposure happened), but what if a civilization is even beyond that point? Say they are clearly aware, even if only in principle (observed but have not contacted), of interstellar travel and other civilizations, and maybe they even use warp-adjacent technology to gather information and utilize energy, but they merely have not turned their efforts to travel as such?

I have always viewed the ideals of the Federation as a challenge to be the best version of ourselves. Seeing the best of humanity facing insurmountable odds, by aspiring to greatness. People who will not only selflessly admit their faults, work with others, but even sacrifice themselves in order to make the universe better. This is a recurring theme. In the introduction of the 2009 Star Trek film, Kirk is thrown the gauntlet: “your father was captain of a Starship for 12 minutes. He saved 800 lives, including your mother's and yours. I dare you to do better”.

Do better. It’s important.

Of course, most people, whether it is our contemporary Daystrom participants or 24th century citizens, do not possess the abilities of Picard or Sisko. We may aspire to it in our own way, but we won’t be brokering peace in the Middle East. Even the other captains and “badmirals” we see throughout the series cannot measure up.

Lower Decks has always been about the little people. The unglamorous missions. Until now, I simply thought of the crew as fun, competent but messy, somehow finding themselves in extraordinary situations.

Starbase 80 changed my view of Starfleet.

We see the worst station in the Federation. Derelict and forgotten. It is so unimportant that a post scarcity “empire” is neglecting it. There is no wormhole here, no lives to save. It has an arcade and a hot dog stand.

Yet people show up. They’re not doing great: the gravity is busted. Chad can’t even serve hotdogs without messing up. He’s so unremarkable that he’s named after a meme.

But he showed up and he did his contribution. No replicator? We have Chad and his chill attitude, and that’s ok. People love him for that. These people don’t spend their day looking to leave and to do better. Starfleet is post scarcity not only in an economic sense: its citizens are ok with not having the best, not being the best. They show up and make it work.

Ad astra per aspira. It’s not just for the heroes giving away their lives. It’s also the layperson on the worst space station fixing up the arcade and the uniforms.

Of all the Trek shows, Lower Decks is the one that made me appreciate the simplest of characters in the most mundane situations. One where a plain simple tailor really is just that. And there’s so much to admire in their daily struggles at the edge of the stars.

Normally the Star Trek series is seen aboard a Starfleet ship, in which there are usually many humans and the aliens that are there are used to other species and trained not to have personal conflicts, but what cultural problems could there be between different aliens that have not yet been explored?

+ Vulcans and Betazoids: Vulcans act as if they have no emotions and never lie, but betazoids can sense emotions and can be brutally honest. Would they be considered hypocrites for detecting emotion? How would they get along? Both species have been shown to be able to have children with humans, could a Vulcan-Betazoid hybrid exist? What would it look like? Is there any law prohibiting hybridization between telepathic species? In other subreddits, I read that this possible hybrid would be in conflict between logic and emotions, but couldn't it just act like a human?

+ Ferengi and Orion: Both species are related to business and sexism. The Ferengi are traders or swindlers who discriminated against their women, while the Orions are pirates who enslaved their men. Have these species interacted in any way? What would an interaction between them look like? Would they manage to come to an agreement despite gender, or is conflict inevitable? In the event that two members of their species attempted a relationship, how would they deal with the clash of cultures?

What else can you think of?

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A lot of people float the idea that Picard was special forces during his 7 year gap between his Stargazer and Enterprise commands. So I'm not going to dive into that, only the archeology part.

Picard above all else is an explorer. Archeology is in some ways the purest expression of Star Fleet ideals as it is both a science and a way to explore other cultures. Some of Picard's diplomatic skills comes from this interest.

For Picard as a Star Fleet officer, his archeology cover story helped in 3 ways.

1. Whenever the missions became emotionally too hard, made him question whether he was acting like a Star Fleet officer, he had a way to return to being star fleet explorer via archeology. This would help his mental health and keep him focused.
2. Archeology covers more than dig sites. Picard can visit planets for museums, to consult with experts of a particular area, visit a top college in the field, consult or be consulted, give a speech on the subject, or go to an area for a conference. It gives him numerous reasons to visit a place and discreetly be near site for a mission. Hell, some of these could even act as alibis for Picard. You could use a hologram recording to give a talk while Picard does a mission. So it gives him reason to travel to almost any planet that's ever been inhabited or near them.
3. It helped him continue his public career as a Star Fleet officer. It looks really suspicious if a famous officer is doing nothing. This Archeology work both waylay suspicions and let Picard continue to build his resume without requiring super top secret clearance.

In summary, Archeology is one of the most Star Fleet interest anyone can have. Picard's interest in it helped him cope with dangerous missions, and gave him a reason to visit any place all the while it allowed him to publicly further his career.

What are your thoughts?

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Were the details of how he "cheated" ever explained?

My theory is he knew of a specific but only theoretical vulnerability or exploit of the Klingon starship class in the scenario that few other Starfleet officers (including Spock) would know about, which he picked up from his time during the Klingon War. The simulation had not been programmed to make it possible to use this exploit, so when Kirk was able to access the parameters of thr test, his solution was to patch in that exploit, just in case the circumstances allowed for it.

In fact the specific circumstances of the test in progress permitted Kirk to exploit the weakness and rescue the Kobayashi Maru, and he beat the test.

The admins eventually found out what Kirk did. During post analysis with real-world Klingon technology in Starfleet custody, engineers were able to confirm the exploit was possible under the same rare environmental circumstances that the test accidentally presented. It was a real-world sector of space that was programmed into the simulation and its specific conditions would, in real life, permit the exploit to occur in a real battle.

While he was not supposed to be able to hack the test, they had to admit grudgingly that his gripe about the inaccuracy was legitimate and so he got his commendation for original thinking instead of getting expelled.

No doubt they altered the simulated stellar environment for future tests so that the now-public exploit would never work for anyone else.

If this content is not allowed here, I apologize. I looked over the rules and as it is directly discussing Star Trek works and specifically how it is handled then I don't see it being any different than other posts on the topic beyond maybe my reasoning for asking the questions.

I have read through a bunch of the archives of this Reddit, the Memory Alpha pages on Court Martials, Board of Inquiry and so forth, as well as trying to see whatever else I could find in the topic. I will admit, I have a number of questions about the process as I am looking to create interesting content for a Star Trek Adventures RPG session I will be heading up at some point, as our GM had a few breaks in the schedule to allow others to run episodes if they wanted.

I wanted to try a Trial case A story as the characters who play as command staff get questioned and defend themselves, with a possible B story with the players playing Lower Deckers looking to solve the mystery. All of the questions I am asking is how Starfleet would handle things under their Uniform Code of Military Justice, and thus I try to reference episodes where precedent has been shown on certain actions. In various discussions on the Starfleet Legal System, I have seen people talking about comparing to US Military, given the fact it tends to be based off their Navy. You probably could make the argument to base off British Navy as well and use their Legal system, since there are some noticeable differences.

So, I was figuring it would be a Board of Inquiry to gather facts and render a judgement , which I am understanding this would be a prelude to any Court Martial events. So, would this be the Article 32 hearing? It seems to be specifically mentioned in TOS episode Court Martial, as Kirk was confined to Starbase 11, pending an official inquiry, which was set to determine whether a general court martial was in order for the aforementioned crimes. Other examples of the Board being used as an investigative tool for charges are in the Short Trek The Trouble With Edward and The First Duty where someone died during the events of inquiry, Suspicions has Beverly set up to have one convened for disobeying orders as was Riker mentioned to be appearing before one due to issues in The Pegasus.

Given as this is Command Staff including Captain and XO, I am guessing the panel of inquisitors would need to be Admirals of some level or maybe Captains? I have a fairly decent TV/Movie understanding of Civilian Legal System and while I haven't seen it in a while, I used to watch the JAG series regularly, as well as some of the NCIS spinoffs which seem more action oriented to what I am going for her.

The main questions I am curious about with regards to how Starfleet would handle the inquiry so I can put it to my players and make it as believable as possible, especially as two of our members are actively serving military. Would the Command Staff be housed in the brig, confined to quarters with guards posted, or freely able to go about on the ship or station the questioning is taking place in? Using the Section 31 examination in Inquisition, we see the Command staff confined to quarters and replicators taken offline as security precaution. Would they leave computer access (to non-dangerous sections) so that they can at least do something with their time, like listen to music or read, or are they just left with nothing to do but sit there? I mean, there's very little in the way of actual books and other non-computer connected things to do and judging by the Inquiries we see in series they could be there for hours or days.

Finally, going to the Lower Deck crewmember idea. With the Command Staff being investigated, would Starfleet assign new staff to the ship and let it go out on missions like they did with bringing Jellico for the Chain of Command two-parter. They may need to question the NPCs, review ship's logs and sensor data and so forth so having it leave if they are at a station doesn't make sense but what about having the Admirals come on board, relieve command staff and put in temporary replacements while the ship continues whatever assigned mission it was on the books to do?

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In a recent episode of Lower Decks through some (suspicious) quantum tomfoolery, the USS Cerritos accidentally entered another universe. But it wasn't the mirror universe ala TOS: A Mirror Darkly (goatee Spock), but instead a multiverse-style one, a la TNG: Parallels (feral Riker) or a Rick and Morty style situation.

User majicwalrus brought up a good point: https://www.reddit.com/r/DaystromInstitute/comments/1gb26l3/comment/ltlgpy7/

The mirror universe concept seems to be in conflict with the multiverse concept. The mirror universe concept would seem to indicate that there's just one other universe, while the multiverse would suggest an infinite variations (or near infinite).

I propose that the mirror universe is just one of many, many other universes in a much larger multiverse, but the mirror universe has a special relationship with our universe.

In quantum mechanics there are many aspects that have rotational degrees of freedom, such as the Higgs potential (the Mexican hat analogy). In those degrees of freedom, there's can opposite, or mirror. There's lots of technobabble ways to put it, but there are some equations that have infinite directions to rotate in, and in that type of topology each point will have a polar opposite. In other words, in a multiverse topology with infinite (or near infinite, like 10^120 possibilities) variations, two universes could be at the opposite ends.

Hence, you know, like a mirror.

In this theory, every universe in the multiverse landscape would have its own mirror. And the nature of this special relationship could make traversing the boundary between mirrored universes much easier than traversing the boundary between two arbitrary universes. Not impossible, but much more difficult.

That would go a long way to explain why mirror universe crossings are much more common than multiverse crossings.

In a recent Lower Decks episode, a planet joining the federation is transitioning from a capitalistic society, to a post scarcity one thanks to replicators. This makes me wonder just how common replicators and associated technologies are in the alpha quadrant. We know the major powers have the tech, but smaller entities like that planet don't. It also doesn't appear they would have been able to obtain the tech easily without joining the federation, else, why wouldn't they already have the technology.

This implies that the technology is rare even in the Alpha quadrant at this time despite the impression of their ubiquity in the shows. Which make me wonder how many species we see actually have the tech. Like the Orions in the same episode seem to still value gold and jewels despite replicator explicitly making them worthless.

I realize that obviously in the prime timeline Humans and Romulans are sworn enemies because of a variety of diplomatic reasons (namely the Romulans desire to keep their enemies weakened) but I frequently wonder if, political situations aside, Romulans would be a more natural ally for Humanity than Vulcans?

Although Humans obviously have strong ties to Vulcans in the prime timeline it should be noted that this was developed over the course of several centuries and, initially, Humans seemed to actually harbor a general mistrust or dislike for Vulcans (as seen in early seasons on Enterprise) that continues to persist over several centuries and gives off the feeling that although the two races are no longer at odds as much as during Archers time that the major cultural and emotional differences between them makes natural relations between the two species more difficult or strained.

In contrast, Romulans and Humans have either been at war or at least hostile to each other since largely day one and yet there are a couple good examples of (semi) friendly interactions between them even after several centuries of mutual distrust or warfare.

So in general, political situations aside, would the Romulans have been a more natural ally than Vulcans?

As we look at the situation in the Alpha & Beta quadrants in the 32nd century, something that has come up a lot seems to be the question of, where are the Klingons? Now, I know there may be out-of-universe reasons for not seeing them, but I think their notable scarcity has to be explained in-universe too.

I have a theory that the Klingon Empire was incredibly badly affected by The Burn, and may be on its last legs. My theory takes us all the way from the 22nd century through to the 24th, the evolution of Klingon Culture during that time, and incorporates the Augment virus as well as the disaster on Praxis.

Here we go.

Klingon Civilisation before the stars: honour, but necessary diversity

While it is clear that Klingons have been a warrior race for many centuries and likely even before they reached space, they are obviously also a civilisation capable of growth and innovation, and at the very least either invented warp drive, or were industrious enough to defeat the Hurq and take warp drive from them (which, in itself, would have required some measure of civilisation and organisation).

Indeed, earlier in their history, we do see a more diverse Klingon society. Klingon couriers (Klaang) and merchants, Klingon doctors and scientists (Antaak and Mara), strategists, career politicians, intelligence agents, and the like.

While honour was paramount, it was possible to achieve honour through a non-combat role, with different jobs viewing their work as different kinds of “fights.” Farmers, teachers, bureaucrats, scientists, and industrialists all had their place within the Empire, embodying honour by wrestling with nature, ignorance, corruption, and the challenges of a complex, expanding society.

The warrior caste was still dominated the political class and honourable combat was still a legitimate way to rise through society, but to feed their people, pragmatism was simply a necessary part of growing into a civilisation.

Beginnings of an Empire

As the Klingon Empire expanded into space, they encountered, and conquered, various other species.

I have previously theorised that life as a client species in the Klingon Empire may not be all that bad. You are ultimately led by a Klingon governor and I'm sure planets are expected to pay tribute (in resources, labour, knowledge or agricultural output), but I have a feeling Klingons might be light touch so long as there's no resistance to their rule, and in return, a client species receives the protection of the mighty KDF, warriors who will fight to the death over every inch of territory they consider their own. No rogue pirate raiders are going to bother your world with the Klingons in charge. Essentially, they were shielded by their Klingon masters and their worlds were defended to the death by the Empire’s forces.

We have very few examples of client races appearing on screen, but we do have the Kriosians, who are a conquered planet, but retain much of their own culture, some freedom to engage with outsiders, and some power to conduct their own foreign policy and even low level warfare (such as their conflict with Valt Minor).

I suspect that as time went on, Klingons often assigned the more routine or “mundane” roles of their civilisation, such as agriculture, manufacturing, resource extraction, and even technological research, to their client species.

While they provided tribute in the form of goods, knowledge, or labor, they were also protected and afforded a measure of honour by association with the Klingon Empire.

In return, thanks to the labour and resources provided by these client species, and the need to defend an ever-expanding territory, the Klingons themselves became increasingly focussed, nay obsessed, with the way of the warrior.

Their growing Empire both allowing and demanding every able bodied Klingon to join the KDF, to patrol and defend their enormous territory.

The Augment Virus and the rise of Klingon Fundamentalism

I think that the effects of the Augment virus left a legacy, and also contributed to the rise of ideological 'warrior' Klingons.

It's clear the virus greatly affected the fabric of Klingon society, and led to many Klingons fearing the loss of their traditional identity. A focus on the teachings of Kahless, their spiritual founder, allowed them to push through through this difficult time, but likely left a strong legacy.

Following their recovery, a kind of “Klingon fundamentalism” emerged, where a “return to true Klingon ways” became the rallying cry, not only in the physical sense, but in the cultural sense too.

No other Klingon demonstrates this more than General Chang, an over-the-top warrior obsessed with the martial way and victory at all costs. This new martial doctrine, while it certainly gave the Empire teeth, would continue to contribute to an over-reliance on their Empire and their client species.

When Praxis exploded, we're told the Klingons cannot sustain their own world, due to their enormous military budget. A sure sign that the rot has already set in.

The Praxis disaster

The Praxis explosion was a pivotal event with profound ecological and sociopolitical consequences, which absolutely fits into this trajectory of Klingon reliance on their Empire.

The devastating impact on Qo'noS’s atmosphere and biosphere, pollution of their ozone, death of much flora and fauna, and the resulting pollution, ashen sky and acid rain would force the Klingons to import essentially everything, perhaps even breathable air, and food, due to the Klingons love of live food and associated dislike of replicators.

Praxis was the death knell for any remaining semblance of independence of Quo'nos as a self-sustaining planet, and as the centuries went on, the world and the Klingons who lived upon it became entirely dependent on long trade routes between their stars, reliant on trading ships with dilithium-powered warp cores for almost everything they would need to consume.

Cultural “Flanderisation”

So, what had started as a more balanced society gradually became dominated by the warrior caste, and this in turn led to Quo'nos completely relying on other species for even basic needs.

By the late 24th century, cultural trends had reached its zenith: Klingon culture, language, and daily life were almost entirely defined by warrior values, and the warrior caste became the most prestigious career path, almost to the exclusion of everything else.

While we do see the occasional Klingon scientist, engineer, or chef, it's obvious that the warriors, who are now dominating all aspects of Klingon society, no-longer regard these as noble professions.

This made the Empire militarily powerful but also increasingly dependent on its client species. When the Klingons faced rebellions on crucial worlds like Krios, they put them down quickly, it was a clear indicator of over-reliance on client worlds.

Corruption was rife at the highest levels, as Klingon society was on 'easy street', their vast Empire providing them with everything they needed, but also their own strength resulting in a peculiar kind of stability, where there were very few external threats and ended up turning inwards and engaging in petty civil conflicts, The Great Houses fighting among themselves.

The Burn: A brutal Klingon devastation

Thus, we arrive at the 32nd century and the event that would devastate galactic powers across the Alpha and Beta Quadrants: The Burn.

With the loss of reliable warp travel and severe restrictions on dilithium, the Klingons, who continued their heavily specialised warrior culture, reliant on client species for essential non-combat labor, found itself in a uniquely precarious position.

Federation member planets, such as Earth and Ni'Var, no doubt had it hard, but both had broad enough civilisations with enough resources and expertise to continue their civilisations uninterrupted, if independently. Those worlds were largely self sufficient.

The Klingons on Quo'nos, however, were woefully unprepared to sustain themselves. Without the means to transport food, materials, and resources across its vast territories, the Empire has likely been pushed to near-total collapse, with scores dying on Quo'nos from malnutrition and polluted air.

The Aftermath

I propose that the Empire was decimated, not just fractured, as Quo'nos was left in anarchy and hardship. Without leadership, client species no doubt abandoned the Empire and turned inwards to become self sufficient as well.

The worlds of the Empire, and Qo'noS in particular, turned inwards, and were relegated to the status of a minor power, struggling to regain any semblance of its former glory. Any Klingons elsewhere in the galaxy would be largely compelled to return to the Homeworld to try and save their civilisation, lest the very real possibility of extinction comes to pass.

Rebuilding Quo'nos may take centuries. If the Klingons can adapt, rediscover the value of diverse societal roles, and foster some level of self-sufficiency, they may yet rise again.

But, for now, the Klingon Empire’s over-specialisation and warrior-dominated society have reduced it to a shadow of what it once was, leaving Qo'noS to reflect on the price of honour taken to its ultimate extreme.

I was inspired to turn a pair of comments I made into an actual post, to increase the visibility of it. Wgst inspired me to write this up, was that I saw a comment which said

Starfleet Constitution Class ships in TOS were named after United States air craft carriers from WW2.

So let's take a look at the names of the Constitution-class ships and where they're from.

Constitution-class Starship Names

An explanation of the "Source" column:

• [TOS]: on-screen, in an episode of Star Trek

• [DS9]: on-screen, in an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

• [PIC]: on-screen, in an episode of Star Trek: Picard

• [SNW]: on-screen, in an episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

• [ST:IV]: on-screen, in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

• [Roddenberry]: Gene Roddenberry's original 1964 proposal

• [MST/Fontana]: from “The Making of Star Trek”; D.C. Fontana's proposed list of names, 8 August 1967

• [MST/Justman]: from “The Making of Star Trek”; Robert Justman's proposed list of names, 9 August 1967

• [MST/Final]: from “The Making of Star Trek”; the final/definitive list of names that was used starting in season 2 of Star Trek

• [Okudagram/“Starship Mission Assignments” (TNG & ST:VI)]: The “Starship Mission Assignemnts” okudagram that appeared on the bridge of the USS Bozeman in TNG 5×18 “Cause and Effect” and also on the bridge of the Enterprise-A in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

• [Okudagram/“Operation Retrieve” (ST:VI)]: The “Operation Retrieve” briefing plans from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

• [Okudagram/“Quantum Uncertainty Reach Star Chart” (SNW)]: The “Quantum Uncertainty Reach” star chart from SNW 2×09 “Subspace Rhapsody”

Analysis

The overwhelming majority of the names on the list are ships of the United States Navy — twenty (20) out of thirty-five (35) names or 57% (whilst it's on the list because it's from D. C. Fontana's proposal, I'm not including USS Excelsior).

The next most common origin, are ships of the Royal Navy, at seven names, 20.0% — presuming that USS Defiant is actually named after HMS Defiance.

The Imperial Russian Navy, Kaiserliche Marine, and Imperial Japanese Navy contribute a single name each (Potemkin, Emden, and Kongo respectively).

The remaining five names have no particular thematic connections between themselves or the other names taken from (Earth) naval history. I find it interesting that no names were taken from the Kriegsmarine (Bismarck for instance), Regia Marina (Littorio), Soviet Navy (Arkhangelsk), Royal Canadian Navy (HMCS Bonaventure), or Royal Australian Navy (HMAS Sydney), though exculding the first two do make a modicum of sense.

D. C. Fontana's and Robert Justman's Proposals, and the “Definitive” List

The following table is a summary of which ships were in the three lists in “The Making of Star Trek,” and on which lists the name was present.

Yonder Sails the Constellation

Astute readers will notice that the USS Constellation links to the 1854 sloop-of-war and the 1960 carrier, but the 1797 frigate that first bore the name is excluded.

That's not because the frigate is any less worthy, but because in the 1960s when the original series of Star Trek was being filmed, the myth that the 1854 sloop was either a complete rebuild of the 1797 frigate (or that it made very heavy use of the frigate's timbers, as the 1797 Constellation was broken up in 1853 just a few hundred yards away from where the 1854 Constellation was built) was still firmly entrenched. As such to a writer in the 1960s the 1797 and 1854 Constellations were one and the same.

Definitely Not Ben Sisko's Defiant

There are two possible origins for the name of the USS Defiant, with thanks to u/Makgraf and u/whovian25 for pointing me at the second option:

1. Defiant is a misremembered recollection of the name of the Royal Navy's last wooden ship-of-the-line from 1861.

2. Defiant is named in homage to the fictional ship in the 1962 film H.M.S. Defiant (released in the US as Damn the Defiant!).

Of interest is that in the Franz Joseph technical manual, he lists the ship name as USS Defian__ce__. Given how Mr. Schnaubelt was not connected to the series proper at the time, we cannot infer anything from this — and in any case, it goes against established on-screen canon: the ship in the series is USS Defian__t__ (and it's further confirmed to be such in ENT 4×18-19 "In a Mirror, Darkly").

Is the Constituion-class Named After Aircraft Carriers?

No.

Jokes aside, let's come back to this quote for a moment

Starfleet Constitution Class ships in TOS were named after United States air craft carriers from WW2.

and let's analyze the names to see if there's any truth to the statement.

Ten ships in the list — if we presume the USS Constellation is named after the Kitty Hawk-class carrier, and not the more famous 1854 sloop-of-war — are named after carriers, all of which are US Navy carriers, and all but one (Constellation) are from the Second World War. Those ten ships being:

1. Bonhomme Richard (CV-31)

2. Constellation (CV-64)

3. Enterprise (CV-6)

4. Essex (CV-9)

5. Hornet (CV-8)

6. Intrepid (CV-11)

7. Lexington (CV-2)

8. Saratoga (CV-3)

9. Wasp (CV-7)

10. Yorktown (CV-5)

Including Constellation that's 29% of the ships in the Constitution-class, excluding Constellation it's still 26%, or over a quarter of the known ships.

Looking back at D. C. Fontana's and Robert Justman's propsals, you can see where the idea that the Constitution-class were named after US air craft carriers from WWII:

• D. C. Fontana's propsal lists twenty-two (22) names, of which nine (9) are carriers (41%): Bonhomme Richard, Constellation, Enterprise, Essex, Hornet, Lexington, Saratoga, Wasp, and Yorktown

• Robert Justman's propsal lists eleven (11) names, of which seven (7) are carriers (64%): Constellation, Enterprise, Essex, Hornet, Lexington, Wasp, and Yorktown

Finally if you include the “definitive” list:

• The “definitive” list has fourteen (14) names, of which only five (5) are carriers (36%): Constellation, Enterprise, Intrepid, Lexington, and Yorktown

One can conclude, therefore, that the idea that the Constitution-class are named after carriers comes from D. C. Fontana's and Robert Justman's proposed lists of Constitution-class ship names. But, overall, the class seems more to be named after historic Earth naval vessels in general.

Registry Numbers

Therein lies the road to madness, and thus I refuse to touch the registry lest I go stark raving mad.

Edits and Addenda

• Fixed a missing source.

• Added section on the possible origins of the Defiant's name.

This is the official /r/DaystromInstitute reaction thread for "The Best Exotic Nanite Hotel". Rules #1 and #2 are not enforced in reaction threads.

In the United States, military personnel are not all called soldiers.

If you serve in the army, you're a soldier.

If you serve in the navy, you're a sailor (unless you serve in specialized roles like fighter pilot, you are naval aviator)

If you serve in the Space Force, you're a guardian.

If you want to refer to all personnel in every military branch, you call them military personnel or operators or warfighters.

But you can also call them personnel within their respective branches like: army personnel, naval personnel, air force personnel, etc; or you can call them by their positions like army or navy officers, or army and marine NCOs and navy petty officers, etc.

In Star Trek we hear Starfleet Officers and crewmen a lot through the show, but you can hear those terms in other branches too (*insert branch* officers, crewmen). I don't think we have ever heard them call Starfleet personnel (army personnel, navy personnel, air force personnel, coast guard personnel, etc) by any generic Starfleet specific terminology.

Confusingly, we also hear Starfleet personnel call each other or themselves soldiers sometimes, even though the term *soldier* is specific to the army.

Captain Kirk: "I'm a soldier, not a diplomat"

Tilly calling Ash Tyler a soldier.

Starfleet could be a descendant organization of the Space Force, but we haven't heard anyone call each other Guardians yet. I know Space Force is a brand new branch, so maybe it might need some time for it to catch up? Or maybe the writers want to be on the safe side, since the Space Force could always disband and just be folded back to the air force and navy space command.

Maybe they're literally called explorers not just as a function, but that might be their legally made generic terminology for all Starfleet personnel? They called themselves explorers many times, but maybe they didn't call it that just thematically.

Vulcans, Klingons and Ferengi seem to have significantly longer lifespans than the average human (even allowing for the slightly hazy human longevity on Star Trek); conversely, Ocampa, Jem'hadar and Xindi-Insectoids are a good deal shorter. What races seem to have similar lifespans to humans? On the face of it, Bajorans and Cardassians seem like good candidates.

Like World War Three, the Eugenics Wars are one of those moments in Trek history that we've never seen but still had big impact on the overall lore. When they were first introduced in the Original Series episode "Space Seed" they were said to have occurred in the 1990s, of course in real-life nothing like that happened in the '90s (I say this as a child of the '90s :=), but as time marched on there have been various attempts to retcon the date of the Eugenics Wars, from DS9, where Ronald D Moore is of the opinion that that Spock merely got the date wrong, to Strange New Worlds, where Khan is shown as a child sometime around 2024.

But my question is: are these retcons really the right choice from a storytelling perspective? If the writers hadn't changed the date(s) would have really affected the overall story?

In TNG's Transfigurations, we're introduced to a new alien species, the Zalkonians. They're beyond the bleeding edge of the frontier in 2366, they're presented as potentially being a military match for Starfleet, and they're in the early stages of a major societal shift. They're then promptly never seen or heard from again.

In this post, I'm going to make the case for why they should be a regional rival for the Federation in the late 24th or early 25th century. For this purpose, I'm going to focus on three reasons--the military reasons, the overall political landscape in the Alpha Quadrant at this time, and finally the thematic reasons.

Part One: The Zalkonians are a military match for Starfleet

Based on what we see in Transfigurations, the Zalkonians are most likely a military match for the Federation. The Zalkonian warship in this episode is capable of warp 9.72 (faster than the Galaxy-class's warp 9.72), and based on initial sensor readings, LaForge suspects they're capable of matching the Enterprise in terms of weapons yield and maneveurability.

The biggest advantage the Zalkonians are known to have is their asphyxiation weapon. This could easily become like the Breen energy dampening weapon in the Dominion War, where it's only a matter of time before Starfleet is able to work out countermeasures for it. It also could be that it's similar to cloaking devices where it's a constant race between the Zalkonians building a new generation of the weapon and Starfleet developing more sophisticated countermeasures.

Either way, I think how effective it is would depend on Zalkonian military doctrine. If their doctrine against other powers is largely based around ambush tactics, then it may not matter how sophisticated Starfleet's countermeasures are. It could be a matter of a Zalkonian ship dropping out of warp, hitting an enemy with an asphyxiation shot, and then warping out.

I think the other question marks when it comes to the asphyxiation weapon is how long a Zalkonian ship has to wait before using it again, and what kind of effective range it has. Both of those questions could either mean that it's either a mainstay of Zalkonian battle tactics, or it's something they only bring out in certain situations.

Militarily though, the other factor here is how experienced both Starfleet and the Zalkonian military are compared to each other. Starfleet was a major player in the Dominion War, and most of the captains and admirals are likely to be veterans of that conflict by the early 25th century. It's not really known if any of the less experienced personnel are veterans of any major conflicts, though there probably will have been at least some border conflicts in the 20-30 years between Deep Space Nine and Picard.

Meanwhile, it's not known what kind of military experience the Zalkonian military has. It's possible that the Zalkonians had mostly been focused on internal policing actions since the mid-2360s due to a certain segment of their population ascending to a noncorporeal form.

All of this could mean that while a Zalkonian and Starfleet ship would more or less be a match depending on the circumstances, both would have reasons to want to avoid doing battle. Starfleet wouldn't want to do battle because they'd be worried about going up against the asphyxiation weapon, and the Zalkonians would be worried about going up against an experienced command crew.

This would allow for a lot of tension to be built up over the course of an episode or even a season-long arc. This could allow for some very traditional Star Trek storylines where a large chunk of the tension is based around both sides hoping to avoid shooting at each other, but also knowing it could become inevitable.

Part Two: The overall political landscape

By the closing decade or so of the twenty-fourth century, Starfleet is, in some ways, in the strongest military position it's ever been in. The Romulan Empire has collapsed, the Klingons are probably still largely on side, the Cardassians are likely still rebuilding, the Dominion is still in the Gamma Quadrant, and the Borg are no longer an issue. While the Utopia Planitia shipyards being destroyed is a major setback, Starfleet has other shipyards, and losing Utopia Planitia may not be as devestating as some make it out to be.

While the Zalkonians were well beyond the frontier in 2366, they may not be by 2406 or even by 2396. After the Dominion War, Starfleet probably would have gone back to putting a lot of focus on exploration missions, and the Federation will have continued to expand.

So in this overall context, the Federation wouldn't necessarily have a lot of natural enemies left; especially not any on the kind of level which could really challenge them militarily. Yes, there's always the Breen and the Tholians, but they're both largely isolationist, and it wouldn't be unreasonable for decades to go by without any significant flare up in hostilities.

While there is some hawkishness in Starfleet at this time, it's at least possible that Picard shows this as overblown. There were war hawks in Starfleet even in the TNG era, and Picard was butting heads with them, too. My gut feeling is that Starfleet's hawkishness probably seemed a lot more overt to Picard specifically because he's usually very doveish.

Without any natural enemies in the immediate area, those hawks in Starfleet will undoubtedly look further outwards. That'd mean the Zalkonians could be a fairly natural fit.

Part Three: The thematic defense

There's also a thematic defense for the Zalkonians being the next regional rival, which is primarily that the Zalkonians and the Federation have opposing values. The Federation, for the most part, values democracy, inclusiveness, and civil liberties, while the Zalkonians seem to value authoritarianism and social conformity.

The Zalkonians specifically are also in the middle of some major social upheavals when we first see them in Transfigurations. It wouldn't be that much of a stretch to say this is still an ongoing thing forty or fifty years later. In fact, for an interstellar species such as the Zalkonians, it could be stranger if it weren't still ongoing--some major colony worlds could be significantly behind the times, after all.

That's an easy style of conflict to draw real world parallels to. In real life, right now we have various groups that would like to steer democratic countries towards a more authoritarian path. Because of that, a storyline where the Federation and the Zalkonians are at odds would be a very traditional Star Trek allegorical story.

I think this would also generally fit with the Kurtzman era tendency to bring in a lot of old legacy races to be the current storyline's big bad. The Zalkonians would be an easy species to work with because they were only in one episode and we only get a very limited look at their society, so you could write a lot of things about them without it being contradictory with established canon.

Conclusions

Overall, I think the Zalkonians would make a good fit to be the next regional rival for the Federation. They're a military match for Starfleet, they'd make sense in the in-universe political landscape by the late 24th century, and I think they'd make good thematic sense.

What do you think? Agree, disagree?

Going through my DS9 rewatch, I just got to "Who Mourns for Morn?" Classic DS9 comedy episode in my opinion, but like the best DS9 episodes, left some tantalizing questions on the nature of the setting. In this case, the fact that the plot revolves around Morn leaving his "retirement fund" in the Bank of Bolias, on the Bolian homeworld.

Which immediately set off my sensors - why is there a bank on a member world of the post-scarcity "socialist utopia" Federation? Particularly since the continuation of a bank seems like it might continue to perpetuate the sort of hierarchies that pre-scarcity economies have, even if the economic factors are not longer dominant.

I did a quick browse of Memory Alpha to see if there had been any other Federation banks mentioned. It seems that Harry Mudd claimed to have robbed a Betazoid bank in a Discovery episode; I haven't seen that episode (or the fact that Discovery also seems to imply that Betazed is in the Federation at that point) but I feel like there's potential wiggle room - did Mudd rob it before they joined the Federation? Or from the wording, was it a bank run by Betazoids outside of the Federation?

Likewise, there's a reference to a "Federation Federal" offering "financing" on Nimbus III in Star Trek V, but given the nature of Nimbus III as both a sort of embodiment of the Federation's failings, and a place where Klingons and Romulans could also gather, it maybe makes sense that less than savory types would establish a bank there, or that a very strong informal economy would essentially take root there.

In any case, there are also arguments that post-scarcity wouldn't truly arrive to the Federation prior to the invention of the replicator (the Trekonomics argument). So there's enough flexibility in my mind to hand-wave those earlier banks away. But that doesn't work with the Bank of Bolias.

One potential argument is that the Bank of Bolias only services people outside Federation citizenship (like Quark and Morn in the episode). I can imagine there being some appeal to this - if you're engaged in unsavory cutthroat space capitalism, having your money be protected by the virtuous and disinterested Federation might make it an idea arbiter of financial disputes and safe third party.

Or do banks now just exist not as repositories of money but places to store objects for safeguarding, using the existing infrastructure that's no longer needed for currency?

Or potentially, the last surviving banks in the Federation have been nationalized and serve as a sort of hard currency repository for when the Federation engages in trade with other governments that have not yet abolished money (something akin to the Soviet Union's foreign trade banks relying on foreign hard currency instead of Soviet rubles).

As an aside, I thought the reveal at the end of the episode - that Morn was keeping the stolen latinum in his second stomach for a decade, and it seemingly being responsible for his hair falling out; in other words, that money poisoned him - a striking but probably inadvertent metaphor.