evilchumlee
Well-known member
I've been playing with my own take on Star Trek for awhile now, and I figured it could be fun to discuss some things if anyone was interested. My general rule is to try to keep all the names, places, events and such intact although circumstances can be different. Dates are also generally to be used, although exactly what they are can be fudged (for example, my idea for the Eugenics Wars has Kahn "from" 1996... he rose to power in 1992, the height of his power was 96, and the war ended around 2000).
I'm trying to keep the spirit of Trek intact, and this reboot is intended to "very close" but not quite. I want to flesh out some things, especially focusing on how the Federation and Starfleet works. The biggest change overall is that the there is a meta-story that connects everything from the 22nd century on about the Borg. They are THE Big Bad of the universe and begin to come into contact in the 22nd century. The Dominion is also tweaked quite a bit to be a bit more of an explicit "Anti-Federation".
One of my current things on my mind is Starfleet and the existence of other fleets/militaries. I definitely want Federation member worlds to still operate their own defense fleets and have a good amount of sovereignty, with the Federation being more akin the European Union.
I'm torn between keeping Starfleet as the monolithic organization in charge of everything, or potentially creating two differing organizations. In that circumstance, Starfleet would be closer the UN forces, fully integrated with Federation members and tasked largely with peacekeeping and humanitarian missions. The (name can be tweaked) Federation Defense Council would be Space NATO, there to organize the member worlds forces in mutual defense. I'm leaning towards the latter.
I definitely ALSO want Starfleet Marines, but i'm wavering on how they work. Either of my ideas here are somewhat similar, but they're either a full fledged sub-branch of Starfleet with their own command structure and all that, OR going with "monolith Starfleet", they're basically just a division within Starfleet proper. There's pros and cons to both.
I'm leaning towards Starfleet Marines as a sub-branch and the two organization system. My background for that is that at the formation of the Federation, EVERYTHING was a compromise and there was a fairly even split between the desire to have a strong, central government and more of a loose alliance. They get somewhere in the middle, and this extends to the question of a Federation military. The compromise is that member worlds can keep their own forces, but the Federation would ALSO have forces directly under the control of the Federation Council/President. Those forces would focus more on peacekeeping, humanitarian issues, exploration, etc. while the Defense Council focused on straight defense.
Earth was the most vocal in support of a stronger central government, and once the decision was made for the two organizations, Earth basically offered up Starfleet wholesale given that it was already performing very similar duties. The Andorians and Tellarites were happy to let Earth shoulder that burden, preferring to focus on their own fleets. The Vulcans supported both. After both the Xindi and Romulan Wars though, it was clear that even if there was to be separate military forces, Starfleet still needed a ground combat component and the Marines were born.
The early Federation Starfleet, being directly bolted on from Earth Starfleet, was still largely human led. To build up the Starfleet Marines sub-branch from scratch, they looked to their closest comparison in the United Earth Military Administration and Command Organization, recruit many of the earliest Marines directly from the MACO's (the rest staying in defense of Earth and integrated into the Defense Council). Given nearly all the earliest soldiers were MACO's, they imported the rank structure and much of the traditions along with them.
The Starfleet Marines wear essentially the same uniform as Starfleet, just with their own division coloring (with a few divisions within the Corps), rank insignia and badge. They also tend to carry on Earth military tradition with unit patches, usually on the left upper arm. While Starfleet eventually moved away from them, the Marines kept service ribbons and medals as part of their dress uniform.
Aside from the Marines, one divergent thing is the ENT-era. NX-01 exists as is, but Enterprise XCV-330 is in operation at the same time. NX-01 is Earth Starfleet, XCV-330 is US Space Force. United Earth is barely hanging on to authority at the time and there's differing opinions on how space should be handled. The Americans have the strongest national space assets and push hard to simply take over space operations for United Earth. Obviously, not everyone is happy about that. When Klaang crash lands on Earth, it becomes the do or die moment... the Vulcans suggest that, if Earth is going to go ahead and do this, it should be a united effort and suggest NX-01 Enterprise take the mission. The Captain of XCV-330 Enterprise makes a plea to the Vulcans, and they concede that a military ship might prove useful. Both ships go on the mission. NX-01 is faster and takes point, but XCV-330 is usually not far behind. ENT becomes "A Tale of Two Enterprises".
I'm trying to keep the spirit of Trek intact, and this reboot is intended to "very close" but not quite. I want to flesh out some things, especially focusing on how the Federation and Starfleet works. The biggest change overall is that the there is a meta-story that connects everything from the 22nd century on about the Borg. They are THE Big Bad of the universe and begin to come into contact in the 22nd century. The Dominion is also tweaked quite a bit to be a bit more of an explicit "Anti-Federation".
One of my current things on my mind is Starfleet and the existence of other fleets/militaries. I definitely want Federation member worlds to still operate their own defense fleets and have a good amount of sovereignty, with the Federation being more akin the European Union.
I'm torn between keeping Starfleet as the monolithic organization in charge of everything, or potentially creating two differing organizations. In that circumstance, Starfleet would be closer the UN forces, fully integrated with Federation members and tasked largely with peacekeeping and humanitarian missions. The (name can be tweaked) Federation Defense Council would be Space NATO, there to organize the member worlds forces in mutual defense. I'm leaning towards the latter.
I definitely ALSO want Starfleet Marines, but i'm wavering on how they work. Either of my ideas here are somewhat similar, but they're either a full fledged sub-branch of Starfleet with their own command structure and all that, OR going with "monolith Starfleet", they're basically just a division within Starfleet proper. There's pros and cons to both.
I'm leaning towards Starfleet Marines as a sub-branch and the two organization system. My background for that is that at the formation of the Federation, EVERYTHING was a compromise and there was a fairly even split between the desire to have a strong, central government and more of a loose alliance. They get somewhere in the middle, and this extends to the question of a Federation military. The compromise is that member worlds can keep their own forces, but the Federation would ALSO have forces directly under the control of the Federation Council/President. Those forces would focus more on peacekeeping, humanitarian issues, exploration, etc. while the Defense Council focused on straight defense.
Earth was the most vocal in support of a stronger central government, and once the decision was made for the two organizations, Earth basically offered up Starfleet wholesale given that it was already performing very similar duties. The Andorians and Tellarites were happy to let Earth shoulder that burden, preferring to focus on their own fleets. The Vulcans supported both. After both the Xindi and Romulan Wars though, it was clear that even if there was to be separate military forces, Starfleet still needed a ground combat component and the Marines were born.
The early Federation Starfleet, being directly bolted on from Earth Starfleet, was still largely human led. To build up the Starfleet Marines sub-branch from scratch, they looked to their closest comparison in the United Earth Military Administration and Command Organization, recruit many of the earliest Marines directly from the MACO's (the rest staying in defense of Earth and integrated into the Defense Council). Given nearly all the earliest soldiers were MACO's, they imported the rank structure and much of the traditions along with them.
The Starfleet Marines wear essentially the same uniform as Starfleet, just with their own division coloring (with a few divisions within the Corps), rank insignia and badge. They also tend to carry on Earth military tradition with unit patches, usually on the left upper arm. While Starfleet eventually moved away from them, the Marines kept service ribbons and medals as part of their dress uniform.
Aside from the Marines, one divergent thing is the ENT-era. NX-01 exists as is, but Enterprise XCV-330 is in operation at the same time. NX-01 is Earth Starfleet, XCV-330 is US Space Force. United Earth is barely hanging on to authority at the time and there's differing opinions on how space should be handled. The Americans have the strongest national space assets and push hard to simply take over space operations for United Earth. Obviously, not everyone is happy about that. When Klaang crash lands on Earth, it becomes the do or die moment... the Vulcans suggest that, if Earth is going to go ahead and do this, it should be a united effort and suggest NX-01 Enterprise take the mission. The Captain of XCV-330 Enterprise makes a plea to the Vulcans, and they concede that a military ship might prove useful. Both ships go on the mission. NX-01 is faster and takes point, but XCV-330 is usually not far behind. ENT becomes "A Tale of Two Enterprises".