star trek 7th guarantee

Creating the Federation

The Federation is mentioned for the first time in the episode “Arena” of The Original Series , but it remained ill-defined for a long time. Episodes in Season 2 would make reference to an Earth Federation (“Friday’s Child”) and a Federation of Planets (“A Piece of the Action”). The United Federation of Planets was first mentioned in “A Taste of Armageddon” — although Gene Lyons’ character, Ambassador Robert Fox, also refers to a Federation Central in that episode when “Amok Time” had already established the existence of a Federation Council.

Both “Arena” and “A Taste of Armageddon” were written by Gene L. Coon, whom William Shatner credits in his book Star Trek Memories with injecting the concepts of the Federation, Starfleet and Starfleet Command into the show.

The Federation was portrayed as devoted to peace and exploration. “We live in peace with full exercise of individual rights,” Kirk says in “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield”. He describes the Federation more poetically in “Whom Gods Destroy”:

A dream that became a reality and spread throughout the stars.

We learn that the Federation is committed to upholding the autonomy of all planets, members or not. In “The Cloud Minders”, class segregation still exists on a Federation world. In “Friday’s Child”, Kirk tells the leader of non-member planet that the “highest” Federation law “states that your world is yours and will always remain yours.” The Prime Directive, another Coon creation and mentioned for the first time in “The Return of the Archons”, prohibits interference in the natural development of pre-warp civilizations. It is sometimes referred to as General Order 1 or the Non-Interference Directive — and Kirk routinely violates it.

The inspiration was the United States, a federation itself with an historically weak central government and founded, like the Federation of Star Trek , on principles of self-determination and self-government. Lane Crothers argues in “From the United States to the Federation of Planets: Star Trek and the Globalization of American Culture,” published in Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek: The Original Cast Adventures , that the Vulcan philosophy of “Infinitive Diversity in Infinite Combinations” was “an updating of the United States motto, e pluribus unum : out of many, one.”

The only time a United Federation of Planets logo, or in this case a pennant, was seen on The Original Series was in “And the Children Shall Lead”.

The Original Series did not have the budget to regularly feature non-human-looking members of the Federation other than the Vulcans.

“Journey of Babel” introduced two new species that would live large in the imagination of fans: Andorians and Tellarites. Trekkers long speculated that both must have been founding members of the Federation. This wasn’t confirmed until the fourth season of Star Trek: Enterprise .

Writer Mike Sussman, a longtime Star Trek fan, recalled in a 2015 interview with Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection that Producer Brannon Braga had called him to ask which races created the Federation.

What flipped through my mind was that it had never been established, but there had been a lot of fan speculation going back to “Journey to Babel” that many of those races … were among the founding members. For that quarter of a second I’m thinking, “What do I tell him? If I say it’s never been decided, he might make up a couple of new races and that might set certain people off.” So I basically lied to him and said, “Oh yeah, it’s Andorians and Tellarites.” He put it in the script and now it’s canon!

Franz Joseph’s Star Fleet Technical Manual (1975), Star Trek: Star Charts (2002) and a newspaper clipping created for Picard’s family album in Star Trek Generations all mention Alpha Centauri as the fifth founding state. Since the text wasn’t legible on screen, however, fans debate whether this should be treated as canon or not.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture introduced the Federation emblem that would be used, in numerous variations, throughout the rest of the franchise.

Visit Ex Astris Scientia to learn more about the evolution of the Federation emblem .

The movies also revealed more about the inner workings of the Federation.

The Federation Council is seen in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home , where it meets in San Francisco to court-martial Kirk and his crew for stealing the Enterprise .

We may assume that wasn’t the full council, but rather a committee overseeing Starfleet. That would explain why it met in San Francisco in a building that would appear as Starfleet Headquarters in The Next Generation , and it would explain the presence of so many Starfleet officers. (Active-duty personnel surely wouldn’t be allowed to serve as lawmakers while veterans wouldn’t wear their uniforms in civilian roles.)

The Voyage Home also established the existence of a Federation president, whose role was further defined in Star Trek VI as well as the episodes “Homefront” and “Paradise Lost” of Deep Space Nine . The inspiration was again America. The Federation president is simultaneously chief executive of the government, top diplomat and supreme military commander; a lot of power for one person in an alliance spanning 8,000 lightyears (according to Picard in First Contact ) and members with wildly different cultures, norms and forms of government.

The Federation of the movies wasn’t perfect. In The Undiscovered Country , Azetbur (Rosana DeSoto), the daughter of the Klingon chancellor, calls it “a homo sapiens-only club.” The preponderance of humans in Federation service is clearly not an accident. The Enterprise crew are openly racist toward the Klingons to the point where Nichelle Nichols refused to say two lines. One, “Guess who’s coming to dinner?”, was given to Walter Koenig. The other, “Would you like your daughter to marry one?”, was dropped from the film.

The Next Generation

Roddenberry portrayed a more confident and prosperous Federation in The Next Generation , one that was at peace with Kirk’s enemies, the Klingons and Romulans, but also one whose attitudes could border on the arrogant.

The Starfleet of the twenty-fourth century was so committed to the Prime Directive that Picard was willing to let entire civilizations perish in “Homeward” and “Pen Pals” to avoid intervention.

It took two new adversaries, the Cardassians and the Borg, to shake the Federation’s high-mindedness. Conflict with both races gave the show some of its best episodes: “Q Who”, “The Best of Both Worlds”, “Chain of Command”.

After Roddenberry’s death in 1991, The Next Generation darked to explore the darker side of paradise. It showed a renegade Starfleet captain in “The Wounded”, who could not put the war with the Cardassians behind him. It introduced the Maquis, who rebelled against the Federation for signing a peace with Cardassia that left their worlds on the wrong side of the new border. And it explored Picard’s trauma from his assimilation by the Borg in “Family” and First Contact .

The Next Generation gave the impression of a more sprawling Federation, but it revealed only a little more about its politics and laws. A right against self-incrimination, the Seventh Guarantee of the Constitution of the Federation, is mentioned in “The Drumhead”. Picard says in “Attached” that every member of the Federation entered as a unified world, but that episode’s debate about whether to admit one of Kesprytt III’s two nations suggests this might be a convention rather than law.

Deep Space Nine

The fallibilities and shortcomings The Next Generation had hinted at became the backbone of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine .

“Anything where we can have Federation people acting in ways that the Federation doesn’t advise or support is interesting to me,” Executive Producer Ira Steven Behr told Cinefantastique in 1994.

To stay true to Roddenberry’s vision, the show often used the Bajorans and the Ferengi to tell stories about human weakness. (See Creating the Ferengi .) But just like The Undiscovered Country had brought human racism toward Klingons to light, Starfleet personnel on Deep Space Nine could act superior toward both aliens: the Bajorans for their superstitions, the Ferengi for their greed.

The show also didn’t shy away from putting its Federation characters to the test.

The early seasons made eager use of the Maquis. “This turned out to provide a wealth of story material for us on DS9 in the second half of the second season,” Michael Piller, one of the series’ co-creators, told Captains’ Logs Supplemental – The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages .

Writer Ronald D. Moore said in an AOL chat in 1997 that despite the Federation’s justification for hunting the Maquis — their raids on Cardassians put the peace treaty at risk — “Eddington’s statement [in “For the Cause”], that the real problem is that the Maquis have left the Federation and that no one leaves the Federation, has more than a kernel of truth in it. There’s a sense of betrayal associated with the Maquis in the minds of the people in the Federation, regardless of whether that’s an irrational feeling or not.”

The Dominion, and their Changeling Founders, posed an even greater threat. Fear of imposters led to random blood tests, an infraction of civil liberties only Sisko’s father (played by Brock Peters, who ironically also portrayed one of the admirals who plotted to scuttle a peace deal with the Klingons in Star Trek VI ) complains about in “Homefront”.

Even though that episode, and “Paradise Lost”, showed a Starfleet coup against the Federation’s civilian government, trust in authority never seems to wane. Although we mostly see events through the eyes of Starfleet personnel.

The original plan was for the story to take an even worse turn. Vulcan was meant to secede amid fears of Dominion infiltration, almost triggering a Federation civil war.

Moore is quoted in Captains’ Logs Supplemental calling the two-parter “Homefront” and “Paradise Lost” an important show that demonstrated even the best of governments need to be watched.

Robert Hewitt Wolfe, who wrote the episodes together with Behr, is quoted in the same book as saying:

If the United States became a fascist state to fight fascism, would that be worth it? I would say no and most Americans would say no, and that’s a special thing about the United States and a special thing about the Federation. We really wanted to explore the idea of whether or not you would destroy the village in order to save it. We know that the Star Trek answer is no.

Behr was emphatic that, despite all the challenges Deep Space Nine threw at it, the Federation at its core hadn’t changed. “Rick Berman felt very strongly that it is basically a trading alliance,” he told the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion . “A lot of people think of the Federation in basically military terms, but that’s not really what it is.”

I’ve got to wonder, since we never saw a “dress uniform” for the TOS movie era, and since the double breasted jacket is obviously somewhat ornamental, with security and engineers wearing more comfortable and appropriate duty uniforms, if the admiral’s jacket actually becomes a dress uniform of sorts for these events. It’s got its gold trim, many medals and special insignia. I don’t know how common it is in the USA, but in the UK it is fairly common for retired military officers to retain their dress uniform to wear in place of a civilian informal suit or formal tuxedo at events. That’s how I had always read the scene personally, that they were old retired admirals who took the chance to show off all of their commendations on their arm and chest at council events. But of course that’s just headcanon, as it would be just as appropriate for a court martial to actually involve serving admiralty and not the civilian side of the council at all.

I think the court martial or some sort of mixed Federation Council/Starfleet Command committee still makes the most sense. The Federation is modeled on the United States in a lot of ways. Retired US military officers have frequently served, and still serve, in the US government. They don’t wear their old uniforms. Which goes to another argument against the assumption: even more than in Earth countries today, one would expect the Federation of the twenty-fourth century to strictly separate military from civilian.

Also worth noting that Brock Peters who played Admiral Cartwright struggled with the tone of The Undiscovered Country as well. It was the line “bring them to their knees” that he found most troubling and the overall treatment of Klingons that mirrored how Black people have been historically treated.

I had always seen the Federation as modeled after but also learning from mistakes of the US. The Prime Directive seems like a major course correction when you look at US foreign policy that decides how to treat other nations based on shared values, resources they want, or comparative size/military might. As a non-American, it’s something I like about the Federation.

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Published Feb 7, 2023

Star Trek 101: Seven of Nine

Rediscover the ex-Borg before her return for the third and final season of Star Trek: Picard!

StarTrek.com

Seven of Nine returns for the third and final season of Star Trek: Picard , premiering on February 16.

Portrayed by Jeri Ryan , the series regular joins LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Jonathan Frakes, Gates McFadden, Marina Sirtis, Brent Spiner, and Michelle Hurd star alongside Patrick Stewart in the highly anticipated Star Trek original series. Ahead of the series' return, we'll be revisiting the iconic role Ryan portrayed over the years.

Who is Seven of Nine?

"I am no longer Borg, but the prospect of becoming human is... unsettling. I don't know where I belong." — Seven of Nine, Star Trek: Voyager , " Hope and Fear "

Seven of Nine first appeared in the fourth season premiere of Star Trek: Voyager , " Scorpion, Part II ."

The daughter of human Federation exobiologists Magnus and Erin Hansen, the ex-Borg drone was born Annika Hansen on the Tendara Colony. At a very young age, she was captured and assimilated by the cybernetic species known as the Borg, who renamed her Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix Zero One.

Seven was liberated by the crew of the U.S.S. Voyager in 2374. She joined the crew and returned to the Alpha Quadrant with the starship in 2378. After her time on Voyager , she joined the Fenris Rangers, helping instill justice in lawless and dangerous regions of the galaxy.

Seven was assigned as the Borg liaison to Voyager when the Collective formed a temporary alliance with Janeway to defeat their mutual enemy, Species 8472. But you can't just trust a Borg; after they got rid of Species 8472, Seven tried to hand Voyager over to the Collective. Janeway responded by destroying Seven's link to the Borg and removing most of her high-tech hardware.

Seven initially resisted Janeway's attempts to restore her humanity, but eventually she came to accept her new life.

Key Episodes

" Scorpion " - The Borg drone designated as Seven of Nine

" Drone " - Seven of Nine's nanoprobes fuse with The Doctor's mobile emitter.

" Dark Frontier " - The Borg Queen attempts to lure Seven of Nine back to the hive.

This article was originally published on February 14, 2017.

Star Trek 101, co-authored by Paula M. Block and Terry J. Erdmann, serves two functions — succinctly introduce Star Trek newcomers to the basic foundations and elements of the franchise and refresh the memories of longtime Trek fans.

Star Trek: Picard streams exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S. and is distributed concurrently by Paramount Global Content Distribution on Amazon Prime Video in more than 200 countries and territories, and in Canada, it airs on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel and streams on Crave.

Stay tuned to StarTrek.com for more details! And be sure to follow @StarTrek on Facebook , Twitter , and Instagram .

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Starfleet Command's Seventh Fleet

What was before: For almost 20 years, Starfleet Command (out of Baltimore) served as a parent organization for different groups across the United States. Originally it started out as a gaming group, but in the mid 80’s various chapters started up and the gaming group evolved into a fan club organization. One of the primary functions of the fleet was to provide support and information for the ships. However during the late 90’s several challenges came about. The internet became a primary source of information for Star Trek fans, even to the point where chapters were finding out news before the fleet could deliver it. At the time the fleet had not moved onto the internet for it’s business. Some chapters believed they could progress better on their own and voted for independent status. Another issue is that several Admirals on the board had been in the same position for almost as long as the fleet had been in existence and no one had stepped forward to help replace them. A final issue was operational costs. Membership fees were never discussed because it discriminated against those with little money, and they wanted this to be a club for everyone. Because of these and other issues a proposal was sent forth to dissolve Starfleet Command. All Command Bridge Officers were asked to submit a response regarding the proposal. After several discussions and debates a vote was taken on September 1st and two/thirds of the Admiralty Board and more than 50% of the Command Officer approved the proposal. On December 31, 1997, Starfleet Command would be disbanded with a total of 48 chapters. When this was announced the Admiralty board provided information for those chapters to achieve independent status, join another parent group such as The Federation, International Federation of Trekkers, Starfleet International, United Federated Planets or United Federation of Planets International. A final option was go form an alliance with several other local fan clubs.

What is now: Starfleet Command chapters USS Kelly , USS Retributor and USS Ticonderoga joined together with former Starfleet International chapter USS Rendezvous and decided that forming their own fleet would be the ideal route to take. The name Seventh Fleet was chosen because, at the time, the Deep Space Nine episode “ A Time to Stand ” had just aired. In that episode we learned that 112 ships of the Seventh Fleet had engaged Dominion forces at the Trya system. Only 14 survived the encounter. Having just discovered that we were going to drop from a fleet of 48 to 4, we knew exactly how they felt. Another positive sign for the name was the constant use of the number 47 in Star Trek. Something most Star Trek fans are aware of. It has been joked that it is the 42 (see: The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams) of the Star Trek universe. We had four (4) ships forming the Seventh (7) Fleet. Another inspiration was the initials of the groups spelled T.R.KK.R. (Trekker). T.R.KK.R stood for Ticonderoga, Rendezvous, Kelly/Kelly (the class of starship at the time could split into two operational vessels, thus the two KKs) and Retributor. You will notice that we incorporated T.R.KK.R. into one of our symbols.

A proposal was sent forth to the Starfleet Command Admiralty Board and they officially sanctioned the Seventh Fleet with the rights of the name Starfleet Command. Apparently we were the only group that requested such a sanctioning. Another one of the final decisions from the Starfleet Command Admiralty Board was to promote Fleet Captain Dennis Hollinger to the rank of Admiral. On January 1st, 1998 Starfleet Command’s Seventh Fleet was born and Admiral Hollinger received his promotion. It was decided that the Commanding Officers of the various chapters would help the Admiral by participating in the Seventh Fleet Council. They meet on a quarterly basis to discuss fleet issues. Currently the fleet is functioning as a family of Star Trek friends and expanding with quality growth. As of this posting we have several new chapters in training. The Runabout, USS Mystic has formed in the state of Vermont. And in 2003 two new runabouts launched and the USS Hudson had patrolled in the Boston, MA area. When 2004 arrived, the runabout USS Po was launched in Salt Lake City, UT. In 2006, the USS Po graduated to full chapter status and became the USS Ursa Major .  In 2010, the USS Atlantis out of Burley/Rupert, Idaho was voted in as a full chapter of the fleet. The year of 2014 had the launching of the USS Essex in the Bountiful/Downtown SLC area of Utah.  We continued to change in 2015 when the USS Atlantis was drydocked and the USS Valkyrie replaced her as the southern Idaho chapter of the fleet.  2015 also saw the launching of the Chapter-in-Training, USS St. Lawrence in Utah County.  In 2016, the captain of the USS Essex moved to Idaho Falls, ID and took the chapter with him (and started building a new crew).  

In 2018 the fleet celebrated it’s 20th Anniversary.  At the Admiral’s Banquet, Admiral Dennis Hollinger stepped down to take an extended leave of absence for personal reasons.  Rear Admiral Carl Stark was promoted to Vice Admiral and was elected by the Seventh Fleet Council as the next Commander in Chief.  The USS Little Fox launched as a Runabout in Illinois. 

2019 saw the USS St. Lawrence graduating to full chapter status and becoming the USS Pulsar.  What is next? Who knows? The Human Adventure is only beginning.

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A friendly reminder regarding spoilers ! At present the expanded Trek universe is in a period of major upheaval with the continuations of Discovery and Prodigy , the advent of new eras in gaming with the Star Trek Adventures RPG , Star Trek: Infinite and Star Trek Online , as well as other post-57th Anniversary publications such as the ongoing IDW Star Trek comic and spin-off Star Trek: Defiant . Therefore, please be courteous to other users who may not be aware of current developments by using the {{ spoiler }}, {{ spoilers }} OR {{ majorspoiler }} tags when adding new information from sources less than six months old (even if it is minor info). Also, please do not include details in the summary bar when editing pages and do not anticipate making additions relating to sources not yet in release. THANK YOU

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Starfleet 7th Fleet

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The Starfleet 7th Fleet was a military unit , a fleet group of the Federation Starfleet during the Dominion War . The 7th was heavily embattled during the war.

• 2 Fleet Actions
• 3 Starships Assigned
• 4.1 Connections
• 4.2.1 Apocrypha
• 4.3 External link

History [ ]

In the late 24th century , the 7th Fleet was a standing fleet , centered around Betazed and other key Federation members ' homeworlds and colony worlds.

Elements of the 7th fleet made up the forces massed at Wolf 359 to battle the Borg in 2367 . Along with the 3rd and 5th Fleets , the 7th was severely decimated by that confrontation. ( Decipher RPG module : Starfleet Operations Manual )

Three months into the war, the Seventh Fleet was employed to stop the Jem'Hadar in the Tyra system in 2374 , and only 14 ships survived of the original 112 engaged there. ( DS9 episode : " A Time to Stand ", DS9 - The Dominion War novelization : Call to Arms... )

They again took heavy losses at Sybaron , and was still at half strength during the assault on the Tibor Nebula . Benjamin Sisko was on Earth when the Seventh Fleet was attacked by the Dominion . ( DS9 episode : " The Reckoning ", DS9 novel : Hollow Men )

In 2375 , the 7th Fleet, including the USS Destiny , launched an assault on the Kalandra sector , based on intelligence from Elim Garak that the Cardassians forces were weak there. ( DS9 episode : " Afterimage ")

After the Dominion War, the fleet was rebuilt and staffed with rugged survivors of numerous conflicts that had previously left the 7th in ruin. With a high standard of training, this was a prestigious post-war posting. ( Decipher RPG module : Starfleet Operations Manual )

According to intelligence intercepted by the Tal Shiar Listening Post Hephaestus on Khoal in 2409 , the 7th fleet entered the Romulan Neutral Zone as part of a routine series of exercises. ( STO - Cloaked Intentions mission : " Mine Enemy ")

Fleet Actions [ ]

• Borg Incursion of 2366-2367 ( 2367 )
• Battle of Tyra ( 2374 )
• Battle of Sybaron ( 2374 )
• Kalandra Campaign ( 2375 )

Starships Assigned [ ]

• USS Dauntless ( 2365 - 2378 )
• USS Destiny ( 2375 )
• USS Lexington ( 2374 )
• USS Lionheart ( 2374 )

Appendices [ ]

Connections [ ], background [ ], apocrypha [ ].

The RPG The Dominion War Sourcebook: The Fires of Armageddon , published by Last Unicorn Games after they had lost their Star Trek licence, states that the 7th fleet was under the command of Admiral Bellamy and included the USS Kymyr , USS Iberia , USS Shima'van and USS Tyler .

External link [ ]

• Starfleet 7th Fleet article at Memory Alpha , the wiki for canon Star Trek .
• 1 ISS Enterprise (NCC-1701)
• 3 The Chase

Twelfth Guarantee

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Section seven gamma of the Twelfth Guarantee of the Constitution of the United Federation of Planets defined an artist as a " person who creates an original artistic work. "

In 2378 , Lieutenant Commander Tuvok used this defense against Ardon Broht in a legal proceeding regarding the holoprogram Photons Be Free . Based upon Broht's admission that The Doctor had created Photons Be Free , Tuvok argued that The Doctor should be entitled to all rights and privileges accorded an artist under Federation law .

However, the arbitrator of the case noted a flaw in Tuvok's logic : The law said that the creator of an artistic work must be a "person" and the Emergency Medical Hologram did not meet that criteria. ( VOY : " Author, Author ")