XPost: rec.arts.sf.tv   
   From: YourName@YourISP.com   
      
   On 2026-02-11 23:10:30 +0000, Lawrence D´Oliveiro said:   
   > On Thu, 12 Feb 2026 09:34:34 +1300, Your Name wrote:   
   >> On 2026-02-11 07:29:11 +0000, Lawrence D´Oliveiro said:   
   >>>   
   >>> An organization where everybody is an officer, and there are no   
   >>> enlisted personnel!   
   >>   
   >> There areplenty of enlisted personnel ... they were original the   
   >> expendable "red shirts" (until some fool in charge of the shows decied   
   >> to swap the shirt colours around).   
   >   
   > So who does the grunt work now? You’d think they would have more   
   > robots. Lots more robots. Remember what I said about automation   
   > obviating the necessity for large ship crews?   
      
   There are still expendable underlings, but, as in the original show to   
   a lesser degree, their shirt colour depends on which department they   
   work in. Which sort-of brings us back to Spock's science department   
   team - in the original show, the Science and Medical teams wore blue   
   shirts.   
      
   These days, I think it's the blue shirts who are mostly killed off on   
   away missions   
      
      
      
   >>> “Not a purely military forceâ€�, yet they go around in fully-armed   
   >>> warships. If that’s the kind of deadly force they have access to, I   
   >>> wonder what the *actual* “military forceâ€� in that universe is like?   
   >>   
   >> Klingons, Romulans, ...  ;-)   
   >>   
   >>> What about all those times they went into battle against Romulans   
   >>> and Klingons and the Borg and who-knows-what-else? Did they ever   
   >>> get backup from a separate “properâ€� military force?   
   >>   
   >> That's the "peacekeeping" part.   
   >   
   > On the one hand you are saying that the Federation depends on erstwhile   
   > enemies to be the proper “military forceâ€�, yet on the other Starfleet   
   > on its own was able to defeat their ambitions of conquests in the first   
   > place.   
      
   I didn't say they were Starfleet's / Federation military ... just the   
   "*actual* €'military force'€� in that universe". Although, in the later   
   shows the Klingons did of course join the Federation.   
      
      
      
   > Part-time amateur soldiers do not, as a rule, tend to do well against a   
   > professionally-trained fighting force.   
   >   
   >>> Nope. They were it. They *are* the “properâ€� military force. No ifs or   
   >>> buts, no more hemming and hawing about it.   
   >>   
   >> Military do not do usually do exploration (other then for   
   >> reconnaissance purposes) nor diplomacy.   
   >   
   > Which is what I've been saying all along. You need professional   
   > researchers and explorers to do proper research and exploration. You   
   > can'™t entrust delicate work to operatives whose fingers are never far   
   > from some deadly triggers indeed.   
      
   In Star Trek the "trigger" was always meant to be the last resort.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)