A new beginning OR Star Trek, a Space Odyssey
Well, my long-running (2001-2020) campaign has come to an end. This is the campaign that began with Star Trek Relic, in the Dyson Sphere. Since then the characters, Lt. M'Rel and Ensigns Seth and Tal, have proceeded through the ranks to Captain and Commanders and have had a variety of assignments from exploration of the Sphere, to undercover missions in the Triangle, to post-Dominion War patrols, to detached duty with DTI. It's been a long glorious series of adventures until finally it saw the three of them rescue the long-lost Chandley class Frigate and its crew, defeat an Iconian invasion and with the Starfleet Medal of Honour. What the future holds for them is anyone's guess but they get to ride into the sunset as heroes, having "won" the role-playing game, as it were.
Now, I'm going back to the roots of my Star Trek game with the players' original characters from 1988, and picking up the threads of the old FASA campaign, the USS Excalibur. The characters, Commodore McCurrvey and Captains Thelev and Mercer, have a new ship, the second Excelsior class Exploratory Cruiser, the USS Odyssey NCC-2001 in the newest phase of their careers: Star Trek a Space Odyssey (with apologies to Roddenberry, Clarke and Kubrick). I'm picking up a lot of old abandoned threads and running with them, including the Brotherhood of Federation Patriots, a right wing think tank which is a combination of the NRA and Soldier of Fortune Magazine as the main antagonist with shady ties to Section 31 and the plot revealed in Star Trek VI. Since the guys and I have been playing together fot the past 32 years, we're all on the same page as each other in our taste for Star Trek mixed with political intrigue and the odd trans-dimensional, trans-temporal shenanigans.
Check out the new web page at: http://www.coldnorth.com/owen/game/s...ey/odyssey.htm
NOTE: We've moved to a new ISP and are currently in the process of getting everything back up and running after having been locked out for a year. Memory: ICON and the Star Trek Deckplan Federation will be back up as as possible. - Owen.
Marines in Star Trek - my take.
The following is an opinion piece describing the place of Marines in the Star Trek, a Space Odyssey campaign. It does not prescribe anything for any other campaign just a rationale for what may appear to be (but in fact is not) a reversal on my part.
Introduction
The subject of Marines in Star Trek is a contentious one in fandom. This is in part due to a tendency among some parochial groups of fans to insist that the UFP and Starfleet are the USA on a galactic scale. Thus, the Federation becomes a US-style congessional republic, Starfleet becomes the US Navy and there are Marines patterned after the USMC. Some extreme elements in fandom (one might even say fanatics) even insist that these Marines are a separate service with their own uniforms and a separate command structure.
A Brief History of Marines
On Earth, the first organized marine corps was created in Venice by the Doge Enrico Dandolo when he created the first regiment of ten companies spread on several ships. That Corps participated to the conquest of Byzantium (1203-1204), later officially called Fanti da Mar (sea infantry) in 1550. Later also the Spanish king, Carlos I, assigned the naval infantry of the Compañías Viejas del Mar de Nápoles (Naples Sea Old Companies) to the Escuadras de Galeras del Mediterráneo (Mediterranean Galley Squadrons) in 1537, progenitors of the current Spanish Navy Marines (Infantería de Marina) corps, making them the oldest marine corps still in active service in the world (as of 2020). The third oldest marine corps in the world was founded as the Terço of the Navy of the Crown of Portugal in 1618, predecessor to the modern Portuguese Marine Corps.
The English noun marine is from the adjective marine, meaning "of the sea", via French marin (of the sea) from Latin marinus (of the sea) itself from mare (sea), from Proto-Indo-European móri (body of water, lake) (cognate with Old English mere (sea, lake), Dutch meer, German Meer, all from Proto-Germanic mari).
The word marine was originally used for the marine-type forces of England; however, in many European languages the word marine or marina means "navy" – for example, in Dutch, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Danish, and Norwegian. Because of this use of "marine" to mean "navy", exact one-word translations for the English term "Marines" do not exist in many other languages, which can lead to misunderstandings when translating, with the notable exception of the Dutch word marinier. Typically, marine forces in non-English speaking countries have names that translate in English to naval infantry or coastal infantry. In French-speaking countries, two phrases exist which could be translated as marine, troupes de marine and fusiliers-marins; similar phrases exist elsewhere, e.g., in Portuguese Fuzileiros Navais.
Marines in Star Trek
Evidence for Marines in Star Trek is scant. It is possible that the wounded man on Cestus III in the TOS episode Arena was a marine. He wore a uniform of a different colour from the standard gold/red/blue pallette -- likely a re-use of the tan pilot tunic for Operations; an argument can be made that it is a Marine uniform. The second, and strongest, piece of evidence for Marines however is the character of Colonel West in Star Trek VI, the Undiscovered Country. The rank of Colonel is a ground forces rank, and Starfleet otherwise uses strictly naval ranks. (The fact that he is wearing Command white and admiral's rank insignia we can write off to his being incognito, delivering operational plans for Operation Retrieve directly to President Ra-ghoratreii.) Colonel West is, of course a conspirator in the plot to assassinate Klingon Chancellor Azetbur and the President.
Marines are never mentioned again in Star Trek, only vague references to ground troops. Even when they are shown, in DS9's ...Nor the Battle to the Strong and The Siege of AR-558 they are never referred to as "Marines", nor are they mentioned in Sisko, Adm Ross and Martok's discussion of the seige and invasion of Cardassia Prime -- only ground troops.
In light of this, and the insistence of both Gene Roddenberry and Rick Berman that there were NO Starfleet Marines, but allowing for the very existance of Colonel West, it is my contention that after the assassination of Chancellor Gorkon and the assassination attempt at Camp Khitomer on Azetbur, the Starfleet Marine Corps was disbanded, much the way as was done with the Canadian Airborne Regiment after the Somalia Affair at the end of the 20th century.
Marines in Star Trek, a Space Odyssey
The Star Trek, a Space Odyssey campaign begins in 2290, three years before the Khitomer Incident. The Starfleet Marines are still a valued and respected component of Starfleet. They are not a separate service but rather an integral part of Starfleet Command. Although they use traditional ground forces rank titles, their uniforms and insignia conform to the rest od Starfleet. They are administratively simply considered a department, like Command, Sciences, Operations, et cetera. Their branch colour is commando green, traditionally the colour of commandos going back as far as WWII on Earth. Contrary to some traditions, Marine captains are not "bumped" up a grade when on a ship. Starfleet officers are intelligent and well-trained enough to distinguish between the ranks from context, though in text the rank is written as Captain(M), just as back on Earth in the 21st century, naval captains were denoted as Captain(N).