What Happened To The Old Starfleet?

Founder · **Thu Mar 08, 2007 1:56 am What Happened To The Old Starfleet?**

Did anyone else notice the strange difference between the Starfleet of the 23rd century and the Starfleet of the 24th century?

It seemed during Kirk's era the Starfleet crews were not as rigid about the rules. You can especially see that in TNG and VOY. Even on DS9, they were pretty strict about time travel. Do you all remember how the TOS crew not only went back in time, but brought a woman back to the 23rd century and kept her there? What happened, did Temporal Investgations not exist then? Don't get me wrong, TNG/DS9/VOY crews would sometimes break the rules to help others, but it was this HUGE deal. In TOS, it was just another day at work. Picard constantly asked admirals permission just to do anything. How often did Kirk do that? I'm not saying any show or captain is better, but simply, if anyone else noticed these differences.

Tyvek · **Sat Mar 10, 2007 1:30 pm**

Well... In the TNG era Starfleet rules and regulations were followed to strict guidelines based around past events in Kirks era. The starfleet of the TOS era was a lot more lax about way things were done, similar to the laws of the Old West.

ZinnKatau · Freshman Cadet Joined: 10 Mar 2007 Posts: 5

Agreed,... the 23rd century guys were more of a 'gunslinger' style.

And Im sure I've hear refrences from TNG/DS9/VOY to the fact that Kirk & gang messed with the timeline a little too much in TOS.

Also... Kirk seemed to be more of a lone wolf, he hardly ever had relations with other Starfleet personell... it was usually about him and his own crew...

StarfleetCommand74656 · Captain Joined: 22 May 2006 Posts: 653 Location: On STV

UPN wouldnt let Roddenberry do tos like he;d have liked to- in tng onwards style. Also, I think Starfleet does change- there were les splanets in the Federation at the time, it was still a pioneering age

jurgitemvaletem · Crewman Joined: 17 Mar 2007 Posts: 4

It should be noted aswell that the events in the Star Gazer series hint largely to the shift. For those who have not read them, the Star Gazer series takes place right after Picard takes over his first command on the Star Gazer. The admiral at the time who was in charge of directing the entire fleet precided over a change in the way starfleet captains captained.

Before this change a captain was considered to be the extreme authority. Being on their own with virtualy no command consultation from headquaters, only contacted by a higher up in extrem circumstances or to recieve new orders. With the new regulations however, all captains were to report to a specified place in their sector weekly thus imposing a greater authority by starfleet command.

My guess is this is when the shift occured, leading starfleet to become more restrictive.

Jurg

robbiewebster · **Sat Mar 17, 2007 9:25 pm**

I don't really watch TOS, but I did notice it in Enterprise. However, I assume that that is due to the fact that space exploration was still relatively new to starfleet. A lot of times I got the feeling that Archer was kind of making up the rules as he went along.

Sonic74205 · **Fri Mar 23, 2007 7:55 pm**

Yes i have noticed the difference. Janeway also mentions it in "Flashback". The only reason i can think of as to why would be that in the 24th century starfleet had become alot more powerfull and advanced but it also has alot of powerfull enemies/potential enemies. Plus alot more federation members to protect. Maybe more rules and regulations were put in place to ensure things were safer and more controlled.

I guess its a bit similar to cars in that respect. With most cars these days its all about how safe they are, how strong, how many airbags, and how safe it is for someone to get run over by it. I have never seen anything from about 20 years ago do with cars thats like it is today.

Lord Borg · **Fri Apr 20, 2007 10:46 pm**

I think, simply put, the Federation/Starfleet was not as big in Kirks time. At that point, a Deep Space mission meant it'd probably be days before a response could be recived, also the Admiralty wasn't as big then. As weird as it may seem, everything was still new then and to recive command of a Starship (Such as a Constitution heavy cruiser) was a show of faith, and trust in the officer. When TNG came along, the Admiralty was larger, and easier to reach, and there were certainly more captains out there, so it wasn't as huge a deal as it was in the 23rd century.

Times simply changed...

startreknerd · Freshman Cadet Joined: 30 Jun 2007 Posts: 9

well think to the time of the nx-01
i think that on that time not fury muth federation ships are
the federation in that time is not wery big!