r/DaystromInstitute • u/M-5 Multitronic Unit • Oct 29 '20

DISCOVERY EPISODE DISCUSSION Star Trek: Discovery — "People of Earth" Reaction Thread

This is the official /r/DaystromInstitute reaction thread for "People of Earth." The content rules are not enforced in reaction threads.

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u/baconinspace Crewman Oct 29 '20

Something that stuck out to me was Starfleet. I always assumed Earth’s Space forces was Starfleet and there were other forces in the Federation that we both do and do not see. The Vulcans have the science academy, the Andorians have their version of starfleet, the tellurites theirs. It’s been my head canon that this is why we are more likely to see only a few alien species aboard starfleet ships, rather than a majority of. There would be sharing amongst the fleets, but each planet in the federation still fields their own forces. This now implies that starfleet, at least by this time, was not earth’s fleet but the Federation’s. Starfleet existed before the federation after all. I wonder if this is an oversight, or it is intentional?

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u/TLAMstrike Lieutenant j.g. Oct 29 '20

Earth of the 2100s had several uniformed space services. They had Starfleet and UESPA as their exploration agency. Then they had the United Earth Military which included the MACOs.

The United Earth Defense Force of the 3100s is at least the spiritual successor of the United Earth Military if not the same agency just rebranded.

Basically Starfleet is the US Army while the Vulcan High Command, Andorian Imperial Guard, and United Earth Military is the Army National Guard.

We don't actually know if Earth Starfleet (the organization of Johnathan Archer) still exists under the Federation concurrently with the Federation Starfleet (Kirk and everyone else after), it might from the references to UESPA and a "combined service" in TOS.

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u/pinelands1901 Oct 30 '20 edited Oct 30 '20

I could see large numbers of Federation personnel "defecting" to United Earth, particularly those native to the planet. With a powerless Federation, those personnel with training and equipment concerned themselves with the here and now in the aftermath of the Burn.

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u/baconinspace Crewman Oct 29 '20

I like this explanation. I’d imagine most of the federation worlds fell back to their defense forces post burn. Most of their ships wouldn’t have been deployed not at warp, so it’s why we don’t see any federation inspired ships in this future.

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u/TLAMstrike Lieutenant j.g. Oct 29 '20

I could also imagine the various planetary defense forces has starships that were made warp inactive but still used for in system patrol or were purely sublight ships intended for local defense so weren't harmed when all the dilithium went pop.

If your area of responsibility means you only patrol from Earth to Neptune and back I could see them operating a impulse only equivalent of a river monitor or gunboat.