Alright, I should probably open by saying that I'm not an enormous Star Trek fan, but the other day I had a thought that I haven't been able to shake. We're always told that the Federation (that is to say, the United Federation of Planets) is this perfect harmony of billions of people living in a post-scarcity society in which everything is free and easy, and all people have to do is find something they want to do.
At the same time, the vast majority of people we encounter in Star Trek work on spaceships and have attended Starfleet Academy. It's been suggested that this is because the show takes place on an exploratory mission, but let's assume for a moment that there are many ships like the enterprise. After all, it stands to reason, given the size of the Federation, that there would be a great many such ships floating around. Now, picture a society in which billions of people go to various academies all over hundreds of planets, to be trained to go on all manner of exotic jaunts.
Fig. 1: A pattern begins to emerge...
Now, if what we see of the Enterprise's crew is indicative, plenty of those dudes will get killed off in the course of their exploration. So I got to thinking, what if the Federation isn't really the utopian society we're presented with? What if there's only enough to go around as long as people keep disappearing out into the fringes of the known galaxy and not coming back?
Considering the number of fatalities, I thought it was surprising that officers were so willing to:
A) Send down landing parties to every blasted rock they encounter B) Accompany those landing parties themselves so often
After thinking about it for a while, it occurred to me that, if we posit that the whole Starfleet model is built around a "culling" model, then we can imagine that all of the officers we see in Star Trek are people who were either sagacious enough, or lucky enough, not to have been killed on their innumerable away missions.
If we imagine that it's their sagacity that's pulled them through, then it's harder to explain their casting an endless parade through the transporter room to their near-certain deaths. Moreover, they'd need to be aware of the whole business, which makes it seem very unlikely that they'd go through with it.
Instead, it seems more reasonable to assume that the numbers of long term survivors are so low that all you really need to do is cling to life longer than the guy standing next to you to secure that all important promotion. All you'd really need was to be very lucky... That would go a long way toward explaining why people in Star Trek seem to make such odd decisions, as well as how Kirk became a captain in the first place. It would also explain why everything in the ship seems to be wired so badly that any impact has consoles exploding in showers of sparks.
Moreover, if these guys just happened to be very lucky, and perhaps not even particularly bright, it doesn't seem unreasonable to imagine them just failing to notice the pitfalls of sending crew to every planet they encounter.
"Look at me! I went on tons of away missions. Never did me any harm, no sir. We'll send some more security officers, they'll figure it out."
I understand that any serious Trekkie can probably shoot this full of holes in a few minutes, but I felt I should write it up anyway, just in case nobody it hadn't been suggested before.
Napoleon's army was severly culled by the elements and undersupply during his campaign against Russia in 1812, yet a large number of soldiers remained loyal and devoted to the Emperor despite the appalling conditions. You wonder why? Because Napoleon had a track record of winning, bro, and so does the Federation. The red-shirt's faith is strong because they know the Fed never loses!
They have the confidence of zerglings. Sure, they might die, but they know that as a unit, the Federation will succeed. It's up there with death and taxes.
Since you say you are not a big Star Trek fan, you are probably not aware that the topic of "the poor guy in the red uniform" has been discussed to death between trekkies and is a common source of pun. Or you maybe are a Star Trek fan and chose to pretend you are not so that you don't look cheap using this topic, who knows? Anyway, it makes no difference because this is the best take on the subject I have ever read!
If i remember right, in TOS cannon Red denoted security officers. Their job was to take a laser for Kirk and the bridge crew, even in a Utopian society there will always be danger from outside forces.
As said above, trekkies have discussed this to death. If you ever find yourself in a Star Trek episode, make sure you get given a first AND last name and your rank is higher than Ensign, then you are safe.
Oh, I kind of know about the whole redshirt-mortality-rate phenomenon. I was just trying to find some way that it would be at all acceptable for a utopian society to lose so many dudes...
The federation is a society which is without hunger as you say, but the universe is full of civilisations that are not part of the federation, and indeed there is always the background potential for war with Klingons or Romulans, so it's not like it would be totally crazy for there to be so many red shirt guys giving their lives away.
On November 19 2012 23:18 elt wrote: Just out of curiousity, have you read Redshirts by John Scalzi?
I read it a while back. The premise was interesting, and that was what got the deaths wedged in my mind, but it went off in a mad direction and sort of disappeared up its own arse I felt like it could have been a good short story (or maybe two good short stories).
This post only really came together when I happened to catch an episode of the original series just in time to see a guy get shot and I thought, "Y'know... there are probably situations in which you want those guys to get shot."
On November 19 2012 23:18 elt wrote: Just out of curiousity, have you read Redshirts by John Scalzi?
I read it a while back. The premise was interesting, and that was what got the deaths wedged in my mind, but it went off in a mad direction and sort of disappeared up its own arse I felt like it could have been a good short story (or maybe two good short stories).
This post only really came together when I happened to catch an episode of the original series just in time to see a guy get shot and I thought, "Y'know... there are probably situations in which you want those guys to get shot."
Yeah I thought the same about the book. Just that when I read your post that book was the first thing that came to mind.
I have often found myself screaming at the screen when a Star Trek movie or tv show is playing precisely for this reason. During Star Trek First Contact where the Borg are taking over the ship and Picard, Data and Worf lead collection of many different colored shirts against them, I could not help but feel badly. If only one of them had gained some class consciousness, he would have immediately told the others. Let's just let the principles go, they can't/won't die and so they can handle whatever is beyond these doors. I really felt they needed a union in order to set some ground rules for determining a planet where it would be safe for them and one where they would be alien chum.
In The Hitchhikers's Guide to the Galaxy when medical science has cured all but the most serious forms of death, people begin seeking out adventure and danger voraciously. They take "Panic Inducers" so that they can feel simulated stress and work better in an otherwise calm environment.
Perhaps, Sir Jolt, Utopia is boring :o It's like cheating in a rogue-like. If you just hack the best equipment on your character the excitement of the game wears off almost immediately. Perhaps part of what has driven humans to achieve so much is that very desire to put themselves in unfamiliar and challenging situations, in spite of opportunities for comfort.
Shut up! The Federation is perfect!*
*has never watched an episode of Star Trek in his life.
Pretty sure that what we see in the episodes/movies is in no way representative of the common populace. The crew working on the enterprise/voyager are elites picked from the academy, best of their class kind of stuff. Their whole job is to explore, so it's not surprising that they are willing to send people down to planets etc. Now one might feel that redshirts die a bit to easily etc, but let's remember that it's just a show, there needs to be suspense and a sense of danger. One could imagine that of all the explorations the ships have done, the ones shown in the show are the most extreme, which is why there's such a sense of fatality.
As for there being many ships like those, I don't think there are. It's a wierd situation, but the enterprise is a special ship and I don't think there's many like it, with long-term exploration in the fringes as main objective. For example, voyager was never meant to be an exploration ship, but was forced into that situation by circumstance.
Keep in mind that they only make episodes about the stuff that's presumably interesting. There would be many many missions that hypothetically take place just surveying planets and whatnot, where nothing really happens.
Also keep in mind that many starships are just roaming around patrolling Federation territory. Sure, there might be other vessels roaming around on exploration missions, but if you were in Starfleet I'm pretty sure you could find a place of relative safety if hardcore risky exploration wasn't your thing.
And as far as Starfleet goes:
They have qualifying exams to get into Starfleet. Not everyone gets in. Same with being Captain. Not everyone can be captain. While there is a utopian element to the Federation, it definitely isn't a true utopia. Not everyone gets to be exactly what they want. Maybe that's a hole in the underlying Star Trek universe, but that's the way it is.
Unfortunately, your average Star Trek person has an ordinary boring life. But they only focus on the people in Starfleet 99% of the time. You still have your colonists, your architects, your (insert non-Starfleet job here needed by society). You just don't hear about them. That doesn't mean they don't exist.
Well I guess it's some kind of overdone Worf effect since space explorers are the elite of the elite. So the Monster of the week just killed 5 elite space explorers. It must be dangerous! Same as vader's fist is the elite of the elite for storm troops but cannot shoot down a single transportation ship.
P.S.: Please don't get confused by my repeated usage of the word "elite"
In the Star Trek universe, humanity has developed a number of technological advances:
Limitless energy — humans have learned how to manipulate matter and anti-matter in such a way that they can harness usable energy
Limitless food — humans have developed a way to synthesize food from basic elements using replicators; in addition, these replicators can also construct non-food items
Faster-than-light space travel — warp technology has allowed humanity to expand beyond the confines of the Solar System and seek out new worlds for human expansion
Humans have also gone through a number of significant social changes as well:
Global governance — prior to the events of the movie First Contact, and after the global thermonuclear exchange of the third world war, the nation-states of the world had already banded together to form the United Earth.
Interstellar governance — this is the Federation, a unified governance structure for a number of civilizations spanning a number of worlds, with San Francisco being the capitol.
Pretty utopian, you might say, but there are probably reasons why things are the way they are in Star Trek. The Federation fleet is articulated as being primarily for scientific and exploratory purposes, but these are mere sideshows. The Federation fleet is a military structure, and like any military is tasked with handling use of force.
This is because of the fact that while the internecine conflicts seemingly made inevitable by the anarchic structure of nation-states with no overarching global governance structure that can regulate the affairs of states in the modern world has been eliminated by the establishment of such a structure centuries later, and with similar governance established between the worlds and species of the Federation, threats from without (and within) remain ever-present in the Star Trek universe:
Klingons
Xindi
Borg
Gorn
A probe that wanted to hear whale song but almost ended up destroying all life on Earth
Ricardo Montalban
Romulans
Cardassians
The Dominion
The Maquis
The Q Continuum
The Breen
Time Travelers
Mix these threats in with the overarching idea that the soft-power arm of the Federation is, in effect, a colonial activity meant to seek out new worlds for human control, and we are headed for some CONFLICT!
It is this conflict, and the threat of conflict, which remains to threaten what would be a utopian society in just about anyone's books if the society stood alone.
This is why there are red shirts, and this is why they die.
As others have stated, the Federation isn't meant to be the perfect Utopia. More like an enlightened society still striving for it. And the episodes are meant to be made around exciting events, all the routine day to day stuff isn't shown. Kind of like poker hands on tv.
I'd also like to add that there aren't endless fatalities in Star Trek TNG, DS9 or Voyager. It's a very Original series thing.
On November 20 2012 02:30 itsjustatank wrote: In the Star Trek universe, humanity has developed a number of technological advances:
Limitless energy — humans have learned how to manipulate matter and anti-matter in such a way that they can harness usable energy
Limitless food — humans have developed a way to synthesize food from basic elements using replicators; in addition, these replicators can also construct non-food items
Faster-than-light space travel — warp technology has allowed humanity to expand beyond the confines of the Solar System and seek out new worlds for human expansion
Humans have also gone through a number of significant social changes as well:
Global governance — prior to the events of the movie First Contact, and after the global thermonuclear exchange of the third world war, the nation-states of the world had already banded together to form the United Earth.
Interstellar governance — this is the Federation, a unified governance structure for a number of civilizations spanning a number of worlds, with San Francisco being the capitol.
Pretty utopian, you might say, but there are probably reasons why things are the way they are in Star Trek. The Federation fleet is articulated as being primarily for scientific and exploratory purposes, but these are mere sideshows. The Federation fleet is a military structure, and like any military is tasked with handling use of force.
This is because of the fact that while the internecine conflicts seemingly made inevitable by the anarchic structure of nation-states with no overarching global governance structure that can regulate the affairs of states in the modern world has been eliminated by the establishment of such a structure centuries later, and with similar governance established between the worlds and species of the Federation, threats from without (and within) remain ever-present in the Star Trek universe:
Klingons
Xindi
Borg
Gorn
A probe that wanted to hear whale song but almost ended up destroying all life on Earth
Ricardo Montalban
Romulans
Cardassians
The Dominion
The Maquis
The Q Continuum
The Breen
Time Travelers
Mix these threats in with the overarching idea that the soft-power arm of the Federation is, in effect, a colonial activity meant to seek out new worlds for human control, and we are headed for some CONFLICT!
It is this conflict, and the threat of conflict, which remains to threaten what would be a utopian society in just about anyone's books if the society stood alone.
This is why there are red shirts, and this is why they die.
I can see what you're trying to do man, and it's noble, but misguided.
You need to wake up and stop swallowing everything the federation propagandists feed you.
On November 20 2012 02:32 Subversive wrote: I'd also like to add that there aren't endless fatalities in Star Trek TNG, DS9 or Voyager. It's a very Original series thing.
EPT
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/CfXSV.jpg)
I felt like it could have been a good short story (or maybe two good short stories).
