The Training Mission

[ghosty]

This is a basic premise for an episode. Please let me have your input.

The crew is sent on a mission to a new member world. Admitted just after the Dominion War. They possess a fairly powerful fleet, part of which they've agreed to hand over to Starfleet temporarily until Starfleet comes up to strength. Their ships are fairly modern and well crewed but of course their commanders have to be schooled in Starfleet procedures and protocols and SOPs. So the crew is sent to train the first batch of serving officers and senior NCOs who will then train the crews for Starfleet.

Of course there will be a number of problems ranging from cultural differences to operational differences. I mean try explaining the Prime Directive...I can barely do it to non-Trekkies so I'll play up such differences...well suggestions comments...

[Capt Daniel Hunter]

Well sounds like an excellent opportunity to create a situation where you have a light-hearted rivalry between the Starfleet crew and the other guys.

Running a few adventures with some mixed crews opens up a lot of possibilities. A difficult Prime Directive-based mission could test the new relationships forged. Especially if the ideological differences between the Federation and this race is deeper than the diplomats realised, putting the different sides in widely opposed philosophical/moral positions.

An mission that expose those differences, and requires both sides to work through them to a conclusion, could lead to some interesting roleplaying. The old 'help primitive planet in despair' plot works well for that sort of thing. Maybe some species that is about to die by natural disaster, and the new guys can't understand why the Federation won't do whatever simple act it would take to save them. OK, not very original, I know.

[Michael Barratt]

I just finished reading "Beyond Varallan" and "Endurance" by Veihl, and there were some great "culture clash" material in there. You could have the new ships perform a minor rescue mission where a third-party alien ship got bombarded by a sort of energy that will kill them without medical aid - and with medical aid it will still leave some of them permanently infertile. After medical aid, those infertile start requesting death from those who aren't. The new race joining the Fed might have very strong views on assisted suicide (in the "against" way), and the Federation would be in the uncomfortable position of saying, "Hands off..." Granted, that was explored with Klingons and handicaps, but...

A Dilithium rich planetoid that is the "holy ground" of some other species, so it cannot be mined by Federation law - but the new aliens need some Dilithium and can't see why the Fed would care about other people's holy ground if they could sneak some off without being noticed...

The "refitting" or "upgrading" of Federation systems onto these ships (I'm sure they'd require at least something that isn't up to Starfleet Code) could be a fun series of episodes in and of themselves, much like those scenes with the Cardassian Lady and Miles O'Brien...

The Doc

[Captain Zymmer]

Another thought is to look at the epsidoe of TNG where Troi went undercover on the Romulan ship. Remember how agressive and difficult the Romulan commander was when she felt her authority was being threatened?

You can set a similar idea with the Captain of one of these ships. He an feel threatened as well.

But the ideal situation would be for something to present itse;f that he wants to do one way, the Starfleeters want to do another and in the end the Starfleeters turn him to their way of thinking and the day is saved by them working together.

Thereby making him realize that the Starfleet way may have some merit to it after all

[ghosty]

Originally posted by Michael Barratt
The "refitting" or "upgrading" of Federation systems onto these ships (I'm sure they'd require at least something that isn't up to Starfleet Code) could be a fun series of episodes in and of themselves, much like those scenes with the Cardassian Lady and Miles O'Brien...

The Doc

Alternatively, maybe they have a piece of tech which is better than the Federation one...a better inertia damper so something. under the exchange deal they're to provide one of the new inertia dampers whilst the Federation gives them something like well to be funny, the EMH software.

WHile their inertia damper works fine...the Starfleet engineers would of course want to monkey around with it to see how it works and well that's when things go down the proverbial blackhole .

OTOH the EMH system is buggy (they replaced the homo sapien hologram) and well it starts mucking up systems on the alien ship...with the usual consequences. THis could turn into a multi-parter. Keep the ideas coming...

[calguard66]

Originally posted by Captain Zymmer
Another thought is to look at the epsidoe of TNG where Troi went undercover on the Romulan ship. Remember how agressive and difficult the Romulan commander was when she felt her authority was being threatened?

You can set a similar idea with the Captain of one of these ships. He an feel threatened as well.

But the ideal situation would be for something to present itse;f that he wants to do one way, the Starfleeters want to do another and in the end the Starfleeters turn him to their way of thinking and the day is saved by them working together.

Thereby making him realize that the Starfleet way may have some merit to it after all

IMO an even _better_ outcome would be for the Starfleet bunch to realize that the local's way of doing things is better. It wouldn't have to be a PD issue... a tactical or diplomatic crisis, evacuation, etc.

Local spaceforces are still professionals, many with hundreds of years of institutional experience and tradition. Starfleet isn't the be-all and end-all of spacefaring.

In a previous campaign I had a recurring non-aligned planet with a small defense force. They were highly trained and motivated, with small, powerful ships and a long tradition of victory.

Within the Federation I doubt that the Andorian Defense Force or the Andorian Astronomical Survey consider themselves second fiddle to anyone.

[ghosty]

Originally posted by calguard66



IMO an even _better_ outcome would be for the Starfleet bunch to realize that the local's way of doing things is better. It wouldn't have to be a PD issue... a tactical or diplomatic crisis, evacuation, etc.

Local spaceforces are still professionals, many with hundreds of years of institutional experience and tradition. Starfleet isn't the be-all and end-all of spacefaring.

In a previous campaign I had a recurring non-aligned planet with a small defense force. They were highly trained and motivated, with small, powerful ships and a long tradition of victory.

Within the Federation I doubt that the Andorian Defense Force or the Andorian Astronomical Survey consider themselves second fiddle to anyone.

I see your point. That could be an interesting twist. I'll keep it in mind. Good show Cal...