Icon from a picrew by grgikau. Call me Tir or Julian. 37. He/They. Queer. Twitter: @tirlaeyn. ao3: tirlaeyn. 18+ Only. Star Trek. Sandman. IwtV. OMFD. Definitionless in this Strict Atmosphere.
I love when star trek has alien characters and your first instinct is always to assume their species is just Like That whenever they do something ridiculous and then every time you meet more of the fucking, blorbogians or whatever nobody else acts like that
Spock. Jadzia. Worf. Etc. None of these people are normal for their respective cultures either it’s JUST them
That’s because Starfleet attracts weirdos!
The Federation is a post-scarcity society, so most citizens have near infinite free time to goof around with art, education, or entertainment. But what if you’re not that type? What if you’re a troublemaker, or wayyyyy too into strange bugs, or simply will not shut the fuck up about gaseous stellar phenomenon?
Starfleet’s for you baby!
Starfleet is where parents send their rowdy kids to go break stuff. It’s like year-round summer camp, but also helpful. Starfleet channels all that energy into first contact & protection.
So of course nobody in Starfleet is “normal”.
TRUE it’s because there aren’t any neurotypicals in starfleet. That’d do it
it will genuinely never stop being upsetting to me that Bajoran earrings are against Starfleet dress code but Worf’s baldric (sash) is completely fine and dandy.
both these articles are ways for Bajorans and Klingons to show pride and connection to their culture. for Worf, this need to feel connection is due to the death of his parents and his status as the only Klingon in Starfleet. for Ro Laren (TNG) and Gerron (VOY), this need for connection is due to the fact that the Bajoran people are literally the victims of the Space Holocaust. allowing Bajoran officers to wear their earrings is vital at any point in the franchise’s timeline, but especially at the time of Voyager and Next Gen, because the entirety of DS9 is happening at the same time, with the end goal of Starfleet’s oversight of the station being to bring Bajor into the Federation. the Federation cannot claim it wants to support Bajor while also denying Bajoran officers a very simple display of culture and history.
it cannot be argued that the earrings distract from the cohesion of the uniform, as the baldric is much larger and physically breaks up the lines created by the seams of the shirt. it also cannot be argued that removal of the earrings is for safety concerns (similar to the dress codes of many sports and real-life militaries). the baldric’s size and fit make it much easier to grab and manipulate in order to use against the wearer.
in-canon, the Starfleet dress code’s exclusion of Bajoran earrings is a narrative tool used to explain why the two relevant characters joined the Maquis — and, by extension, the existence of the Maquis as a whole — but that narrative does not make sense when Worf’s baldric exists.
i am fully aware that i am overthinking the entire concept. if that’s not your cup of tea, scroll on by.
truthfully, yeah. and that’s part of the reason it’s upsetting to me. it makes sense in the canon of the show. it makes sense for Starfleet to do this. but I wish Starfleet was better.
Which U.S.S. Enterprise sickbay would you rather visit?
The TOS Enterprise sickbay complex is way bigger than what we saw on TV, which consisted if J, H, D and F on the floorplan above. Not bad at all, but if a crew of 430 get sick all at once, they’d be overwhelmed.
The classic movie Enterprise sickbay section is literally what we saw in movies I and II. Tiny for a crew of 500, a space plague or something and crewmembers will be left dying in the corridors.
The Next Gen Enterprise sickbay is huge, with the ward and office we see on TV taking up only the bottom left. Special quarentine wards for space diseases, and a hospital ward. Still for a crew of 1,012 I wouldn’t want to be caught in an outbreak of lungworms. In TV episodes they talk about converting cargo bays to wards in time of need, so at least they have backup plans. Gotta be the winner.
SOURCES:
The Star Fleet Technical Manual (Franz Joseph, 1975)
Mr. Scott’s Guide to the Enterprise (Lora Johnson, 1987)
Star Trek: The Next Generation Officer’s Manual (FASA, 1988)
Strange New Worlds be like,
We’ll fit everyone just fine in our massive, multistory sickbay😎
(Besides, everyone knows what Star Trek is really about: taking experimental technology whose first successful proof of concept under carefully controlled laboratory conditions was carried out that morning and implementing it on the flagship of your fleet, because workplace safety protocols are for weenies.)
I love how we’re supposed to believe that Starfleet is a shining beacon of enlightenment that signifies humanity’s progress but every admiral who shows up is evil or bureaucratically incompetent
is it just me or has anyone felt that the more trek they watch the less they idolize starfleet?
like in the original series we don’t get much backstory on it but we know about the prime directive and the very strong morals that the show promotes so TOS starfleet is a shining example of the best of humanity and a utopic future
then through the next generation we see how starfleet treats data regarding his autonomy and rights (gifset here from the measure of a man that I really like) and also his daughter’s. in TNG we also see how starfleet displaced entire planets of people near the cardassian border because of a treaty. there’s probably a lot more that I’m missing but these are the only examples I can think of right now
in DS9… oh boy DS9. what immediately comes to mind is sisko/Starfleet covering up how they got the romulans to join the alliance against the Dominion. also the treatment of the augments? not cool. I nearly forgot this next point but the soldiers fighting in the Dominion war? the episode where nog loses his leg and you see all these officers in horrible conditions because Starfleet hasn’t pulled them out in months. and this is just on one planet, imagine how many troops are in the same place in two quadrants??
section 31 needs its own paragraph. although they’re not officially affiliated, section 31 is the dark side of starfleet that they don’t want you to see. before DS9, it was really easy to point at the obsidian order and the tal shiar and say “!! government spy agencies bad and cruel! Starfleet is perfect!”. DS9 adds so many shades of grey to the star trek universe which is why I like it so much
in voyager, my biggest point is the issue of hologram rights. in life line, it’s mentioned that all the mark I EMHs (excluding the doctor) are forced to do menial labour, and it’s later revisited and shown in author, author. this really hits differently if you consider guinan’s quote (the gifset I mentioned earlier) about “a whole race of disposable people” but while she’s talking about data, the same thing applies to sentient holograms. i guess it’s easy to look in the other direction when no one is actively fighting for someone’s rights
I feel like it’s really ironic that Picard says “The first duty of every Starfleet officer is to the truth. Whether it’s scientific truth, or historical truth, or personal truth. It is the guiding principle upon which Starfleet is based”. or maybe it’s not ironic if you look at it in the context that the individuals can be inherently good but system will never be perfect; no organization, however well-meaning, is without flaws
it’s so easy to see the human organizations as the good guys and say “Starfleet would never!” but Starfleet would. Starfleet has, and would again
Calling everyone by “sir” or “ma’am” or their last name all the time so when you finally use someone’s first name it’s a soft and intimate moment that makes butterflies come alive in both your stomachs and you suddenly care for that person all that much deeper
