UESPA, Space Central and other Starfleet aliases.
- Thread starter retroenzo
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I've become fond of the idea that the Federation wasn't as centralized during TOS, so the Enterprise really was an Earth ship first, and a Federation ship second...and Starfleet, which originated as an Earth contribution to the Federation, did operate under UESPA (like the U.S. Navy falling under the Department of Defense). Star Service could just be a less-used generic term, and Space Central might be the name of a specific Starfleet facility.
In @Christopher's ENT relaunch novels, which detail the early days of the Federation, he suggests that there were indeed various "sub-fleets" within the general mass of Starfleet after the UFP was initially formed.
(The different uniform insignia that were worn in TOS were intended to represent these fleets - meaning, it wasn't a different insignia for each ship, but for each fleet).
It took decades before Starfleet was truly integrated - and before then, the sub-fleets had distinct responsibilities within Starfleet as a whole:
- UESPA (mostly Earth centric) was dedicated to deep space exploration; Enterprise was a member of this sub-fleet
- The former Andorian Imperial Guard became the UFP Starfleet's military defense arm. An example is the Constellation from "The Doomsday Machine".
- The Tellar Space Administration was responsible for UFP's operational support and supply network. Example: The Antares from "Charlie X".
- The Vulcan Space Command took over research and development. The (not actually seen) Intrepid from "The Immunity Syndrome" was one of these. If we had actually seen the Intrepid (or one of the other ships from this sub-fleet), their uniform insignia would be the Vulcan IDIC symbol.
(The different uniform insignia that were worn in TOS were intended to represent these fleets - meaning, it wasn't a different insignia for each ship, but for each fleet).
It took decades before Starfleet was truly integrated - and before then, the sub-fleets had distinct responsibilities within Starfleet as a whole:
- UESPA (mostly Earth centric) was dedicated to deep space exploration; Enterprise was a member of this sub-fleet
- The former Andorian Imperial Guard became the UFP Starfleet's military defense arm. An example is the Constellation from "The Doomsday Machine".
- The Tellar Space Administration was responsible for UFP's operational support and supply network. Example: The Antares from "Charlie X".
- The Vulcan Space Command took over research and development. The (not actually seen) Intrepid from "The Immunity Syndrome" was one of these. If we had actually seen the Intrepid (or one of the other ships from this sub-fleet), their uniform insignia would be the Vulcan IDIC symbol.
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I've read others writings on this idea over the years and have come to like it.
Also like the idea that the Members contribute (or deploy) their starships to Federation duties, but the Federation doesn't simply "take" every new Member fleet away as soon as they join the Federation.
Kirk's Enterprise was (in terms of "ownership") a Earth starship.
Maybe the Members didn't want Starfleet to have overall integration? It could have been a political thing, a wrestling match over separation of powers.
In-universe? No. They've pretty much pretended the Enterprise was refered to as a Starfleet ship from the start. Though UESPA has been folded back into continuity as a pre UFP, Earth based organization in the form of props and art, but I don't know if it's been referenced in dialog. AFAIK, the others haven't been mentioned again
Post UFP as well, the farthest into the 23rd century UESPA was seen was the Enterprise B dedication plaque.
I can't find a Enterprise C dedication plaque, maybe there too?
Last time there was mention of Kirk's Enterprise being a Earth ship was the last episode of season two.
Picard seemed to suggest in the TNG pilot that the Enterprise D also was a Earth ship, depending on how you interpret his words.
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Forgot about that.
As i said, pretty much.
ETA: Not seeing an Earth reference in Assignment Earth. Kirk identifies as being a United Spaceship
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^ From the episode transcript, the very next line after Kirk calls Enterprise a United Spaceship:
SEVEN: Yes, I heard him, Isis. We're aboard a space vessel. From what planet?
KIRK: Earth.
What Kirk means by this can be interpreted in a number of ways. He may either mean he personally considers Earth a "home port", or it could mean the ship is administratively and officially tied to Earth. Or could be something else, who knows?
SEVEN: Yes, I heard him, Isis. We're aboard a space vessel. From what planet?
KIRK: Earth.
What Kirk means by this can be interpreted in a number of ways. He may either mean he personally considers Earth a "home port", or it could mean the ship is administratively and officially tied to Earth. Or could be something else, who knows?
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Ah, I looking for some thing more Kirkish like "I'm Captain James T. Kirk from the United Earth ship Enterprise.".
Some wiggle room though. Kirk answered the question literally. The ship is from Earth.
Yeah, it was (will be) built here. Agreed about the wiggle room. 
wayoung's time travel idea upthread is a reasonable explanation.
wayoung's time travel idea upthread is a reasonable explanation.
Kirk was off his face on space drugs, and couldn't actually remember who he worked for half the time. They shot an intervention episode, which would have aired before "Court Martial", but the footage was lost.
Maybe as a primarily exploration vessel. Earth is the home port?
I think that's a good guess. The movies seem to drive that point home.
If a " primarily exploration vessel" wouldn't the Enterprise's home port be out on the fringes of the Federation, and not basically in it's center?
There's little evidence it was primarily an exploration vessel in my opinion. It spent a lot of time doing "internal" missions for the Federation: Checking on colonists, ferrying diplomats and visiting member worlds.
The writers hadn't come up with the term Star Fleet or the Federation at the time in the earlier episodes and in Tomorrow is yesterday Kirk actually calls it Star Fleet control instead of command, twice and also refers to it as UESPA to Captain Christopher but that could have been as to not give too much away to a man from the twentieth century perhaps!
JB
JB
That makes me wonder....several times in TOS, Kirk refers to 'The Academy'. I wonder if he ever refers to it as 'Starfleet Academy'?
"Space Central" and "Starfleet Control" sound more like he's saying "The Pentagon" or similar to me, ie "contact (our supervising authority) at X location" rather than refering to a department or organisation. Star Service could be the branch within Starfleet that he belongs to (cf SCE, Logistics, JAG, etc), may also have been refered to as Starfleet Exploration and the Deep Space (Exploration) Corps during TNG.
Wasn't there a fifth sub-fleet, or subcommand? I think I read the book (Choice of Futures?), but I can't remember. My memory is so shot these days. (I did a quick Google search but couldn't find anything.)
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