panyasan wrote:In 2153, following the Xindi attack on Earth and the numerous firefights that the Enterprise NX-01 had been involved in since its launch in 2151, it was determined that Earth's vessels would begin to carry detachments of United Earth's elite military unit, the MACOs, thus taking a step towards the unification of Starfleet and the military – and of the roles of defense and exploration. (ENT: "The Expanse")
So if I read this correctly, SF is something half between an exploration organization, diplomatic organization and para-militairy organization and the threat of war (Xindi-conflict, Romulan war) made SF move from this to be a more militairy organization.
This kind of development wouldn't take place without discussion - hence the remark by Forrest and Erika "are we okay with become an organization with a strong militairy component."
In Earth's history most explorers were looking for land, took that land from others, made it a colony or their own country and were very interested in using the goods of the country they were exploring for their own wealth. Only to defend the exploreres place of their own: then we get an army. An army is the militairy arm of the goverment of a country, while explorers have ties with their home country and government, but are less controled by that goverment. That can change when a settlement of explorers is being attacked, as we see with Starfleet.
As for the fraternization rules - I think Transwarp said it best. Especially in the militairy or organizations were people work together and risk of being in danger (police), having a personal relationship with your co-worker is a bad idea. Let's put it this way: I work in an office and even there getting involved with your co-worker is a bad idea. And if you do, you sure have to work hard it doesn't effect your work.
What a nice post! But all I have to say is, it's a good thing we don't have to be realistic with that last paragraph with ST. Frat rules are such a pain!
It really is a shame that the writers didn't put the time and attention into their scripts that they deserved. I don't buy the "it's just the way TV writing is" bush, there are plenty of highly successful shows that do show care in their attention to details. The question of frat regs, and SF's status could have been clearly and articulately handled if somebody cared.
Some shows that DO care, Burn Notice much harder, and more expensive to produce. White Collar, the characters are always sticking to their arcs and no huge continuity errors. The West Wing probably the gold standard of writing for a show aired on a major network. And others.
Unfortuately all the Treks have been victims of carelessness at one point or another. But ENT was the most cruely treated.
