THE STAR TREK YOU DON’T SEE
For all of you Star Trek devotees out there who really like to delve deeply into the Federation and how it operates in terms of a true-to-life organisation, you may find this interesting.
Have you ever wondered what the United Federation of Planets would actually be like if it existed? Being such a vast structure, it would have to have many different administrative departments all working under the UFP umbrella, each one dedicated to the smooth running of itself for the greater operation of the whole. Correct. But the question I ask is, just who is running the Federation?
It appears that, officially, the UFP is not a military body. It is specifically designed for the exploration and colonisation of other planets and to boldly go... etc, but it is clearly run in a military manner. It has officers, ranks, protocol, weapons and armed starships — all the things associated with the military life. There is no mention of a UFP military navy (as far as I can recall), so it can be assumed that in an armed conflict with an aggressor, the "exploration" starships double as warships.
The Federation seems to control a lot of interstellar space and if it controls the exploration of planets and the diplomacies, embassies, outposts and governments, does this mean that all civilised planets have a Federation government that would be run under Federation policies? The Prime Directive says no!
Surely there could be exceptions to this, perhaps a diplomatic bending of the rules. The Prime Directive has been questioned before. In any case, the UFP controls the government on Earth, explores planets, colonises them and takes them under the Federation wing using Federation laws. Now if this is correct (and I'm not saying that it is), does this mean that all of the parliaments on all the planets in the Federation are run primarily by the military or at least in a military manner? Thus all of the things a government controls, ie. commerce, education, agriculture, economy, foreign affairs etc, is all being run by the military. This would make the UFP a very big, detailed and knowledgeable organisation with its nose hi every aspect of its existence; there would be virtually nothing that the military did not know about in Federation life.
Star Trek shows us the exploration side of the Federation (which is really what the starships are for) and this encompasses the events and stories of Star Trek. The classic series and films focuses on one particular starship and crew while Next Generation is more or less the same ship but a different crew some years later.
So what we see is only a tiny fragment of what the UFP is up to. What about the things we don't see, the politics, the administration, the lesser known parts of the Federation and the real subject of this article — The Secret Service.
Virtually every government of today has its own secret intelligence service. The CIA, ASIO, MIS, the KGB and so on. Now considering the size of the UFP, can you imagine the size of its intelligence network? Star Trek has touched on the topic a couple of times. Star Trek VI was shrouded hi conspiracy, there was the Next Generation episode called Coming Of Age and hi a couple of other Next Gen stories as well.
It is a common theme for espionage writers to have the Secret Services well placed hi the higher echelons of a government,' 'pulling some strings'', as it were. So therefore, who is actually controlling the UFP? I cannot say whether there is a precise study of the Federation hierarchy or of how it works, but I find the idea to be most intriguing.
The United Federation Of Planets Secret Service (hereafter referred to as UFPSS) would have its agents spread out all over the place. Which could mean that there were "turned" Klingons working for the Federation hi the Klingon Empire, the same with the Romulans (hi fact, the Romulans have been shown to have a spy network of their own). This obviously also means that there are people, possibly hi high positions of authority within the Federation itself, who would be supplying secret information to any number of interested parties.
So how would you spot a secret agent? What if Lt Uhura was a Romulan spy, or if Geordi La Forge was secretly being paid by the Klingons — you would never know. One thing is for certain: a branch of the UFP dealing in special intelligence would have to exist, even in peace time, so who can you trust?
I think it is quite rational to say that the UFP is the government of most of the planets and civilisations in the Federation. The UFP is also the military (coming under the heading of Starfleet Command) and its own Secret Service. The UFPSS would have access to top secret information about its foreign affairs and, because of its espionage and infiltration areas, the UFPSS could in fact control enough of the UFP to actually be in control. (Governments rarely know what their Secret Services are doing anyway, to avoid any blame should something go wrong. The UFP would be no exception). The president, ministers and councils of the Federation could really just be figure heads for the real leaders.
The idea of colonising other planets really could be a way for the UFPSS to increase military strength or to gain a strategic foothold over possible enemies or threats (intelligence agencies would be seeing spies in every shadow, threats in every corner. I suppose this is what makes them a tad paranoid). See, if the UFPSS actually controlled the military, it would be doing all it could to give itself advantages over the Klingons and the Romulans, for example.
In Star Trek, Captain Kirk and Captain Picard have said that they want to set up diplomatic connections with new races and to colonise planets. To them, this is the real object of their missions. But is it? If all the other Federation starships are doing the same thing, then the UFP is getting pretty big pretty quickly.
If the UFPSS is behind a lot of this, then I think it possible that they have different intentions in the long run. The starships are doing their job, there is no need to tell them or their crews the true nature of their duty. Which is? To turn the Federation into one gi-normous empire and perhaps to gain so much strength and resources as to completely overpower all possible threats. Can you imagine? THE EMPIRE OF THE UNITED FEDERATION OF PLANETS, all being controlled by the forgotten, yet all powerful United Federation Of Planets Secret Service.
You may say that it is all too far fetched; hard-core Star Trek fans may also say that the Federation could not be corrupted by its own Secret Service and turn it into a virtual military state. Perhaps so, but all I can think of is that it has happened in the past, it is happening now, so why not in the 24th Century. Also, it's a bit like a disease; just because you can't see it, doesn't mean it's not there. Something to ponder?