The Unwanted Blog

With the release last year of “Star Trek,” and its subsequent haul at the box office, it was shown that the Trek universe was able to be massively modified and not be destroyed in the process. In the case of the movie, time travel was used to change established Trek history and create a whole new timeline. Since then, I’ve noticed new “Next Generation” novels have been published; while the novels are not canon (and from my reading of a great many of ’em a few decades ago, they tend to not be all that good, either), they show that the notion of now having two distinct and separate Trek timelines is possible. So it is at least vaguely possible that another Trek movie could be made starring the Next Gen crew, with perhaps some mention of how sad it is that Romulus has been trashed and Ambassador Spock disappeared into a black hole.

This being the case, I propose that its possible to write a novel set in the Next Gen continuity that involves a successful revolution in the Federation. The Fed is described as largely being a product of the human race, and the humans of the 24th century are a product of their history. Their history includes the genocidal Eugenics War and World War III, which led to a one-world government. As shown in “First Contact,” Earth after the mid-21st century WWIII was pretty well trashed, with, apparently, civilization and certainly the planetary economy in a state of collapse.

As history has shown, after major natural or man-made calamities, the survivors can be gathered together and unified around political or religious notions that in saner times would gain little traction. It appears that the post-WWIII humans of the Trek timeline have gathered around fascist/Marxist economic and cultural systems. One really good analysis of this can be found here:

http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Essays/Trek-Marxism.html

My story idea is predicated on the analysis linked above being accurate, and from my own watching of Trek over the years, I can hardly argue against that. Corporations are seemingly non-existent. There are few private transports, and those that are shown are almost invariably used by pirates, black marketeers, criminals of various types. The few times Fed civilians have been shown, they do not seem to live in the lap of 24th century luxury, but in small, meager facilities often enough lit by candles. There’s no Federation Phaser Association; private ownership of weapons seems non-existent. Given the vastness of the Trek universe and the easy availability of transport, few enough civilians ever seem to actually go anywhere; in a world far greater than ours, their lives seem smaller. Hell, in Deep Space Nine the Fed government is almost overtaken by the military on a whim… implying that the military is already overly powerful in Fed affairs, and there was little to no aftermath shown. While the Fed might not be a tyranical dictatorship along the lines of Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union, it seems like 1984 with a smiley face. How is this done? While there is a thriving black market – as there always is whenever the government clamps down on free enterprise – the implications seem to be that the Fed citizenry are largely pretty docile. Even after coming together following WWIII, humanity would have distinct factions, especially several hundred years down the line. So are the citizens programmed? Brainwashed? Humans out on the frontier are generally shown to be more… well, human than the meek subjects of Earth. Sort of a more subtle vision of the world of “Firefly.”

The Federation, at leas the Fed of the Next Gen era, reminds me greatly of that other sci-fi group, the Jedi. Both are touted as being great and wonderful keepers of the peace. But both are substantially nastier and more evil than the propaganda suggest. And like the Jedi, the Fed might well *deserve* to be taken down.

So what I’d be interested in is a novel or series of novels that explore that culture, and eventually lead to a rebellion. Millions of humans on Earth rising up to throw off the Marxist attitudes and free themselves. Perhaps the rebellion begins on a farming “collective” on the Moon, with input from the M-5 computer located there… you know, the one that was a pen-pal to Data, and was Mycroft to Data’s Sherlock… hmmm…

The question would become, what would the various established characters do? Picard is kinda easy to guess… he’d come down on the side of Authority, at least initially. He’s a very patrician sort of guy… you can see him defending the order that has done so well for him. Riker? He might be conflicted. Worf? Oh, hell, he’ll join the rebels.

Virtually *every* interstellar organization in Star Trek has been shown to have a revolt. The Romulans, Klingons, Cardasians, the Dominion, even the Vulcans have all been overturned from within. It’s time for the same to happen to the Federation.