Federation Commander

Now, I admit I am not a trekkie, nor any expert, but I thought I had an idea of when fictional things happened in terms of ce and Y timeframes/calendars (forget stardate, please). But now I find I seem to be lost with what the "middle period" might be and when FedCom is currently set.

I thought human/Vulcan first contact was c. 2063ce / Y1.

Accordingly, TOS is set c. 2265-70ce / Y202+.

Looking at the SFB timeline form 1999, though, I find that list ending Y202. Yet, in FC, there are "refits" and "new" warships style warships that appear to postdate the TOS and maybe even the 6 Kirk based movies (and yes, I know Kirk is not in the SFB/FC licening, but provides this player with a base line point of "hisotrical" understanding.

Now there is talk of a "Middle Period" expansion kit to reflect the TOS ships (Yeah!). But when is that in terms of Y years? When are the current vessels (CA) set? When the "new" cruisers? One forum post said FC does not cover Next Generation...


HELP!


I know dates do not really matter when playing the game (except to balance the ship types) but I am an historian and need to have my "fictional history" straight, please.

Rocky
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Smoke kills

Rocky... the Middle or TV Years are roughly Y156 through Y159ish. I am sorry but I never did really figure out what the real Dates by our calendar would be so I will use the Old SFU Timeline Dates.

Some of the things that happen in this time that are TOS related;

Y156 - Second Federation-Klingon War begins. This was actually one episode in TOS. I belive it is the one where they were fighting over the Organians and everyones controls turned red hot on them.

Y157 - Gorn-Federation War this is roughly the Arnea Episode.

Y159 - Klingon-Romulan Treaty of Smarba signed. This is when the Roumulians show up with Kilingon "D" Hull ships as seen in TOS.

These events take place in the time period usually refered to as the Middle Years. In the SFU Timeline it would start around Y130 going through the Y168 which is the start of the General War.

After 168 most fleets start Refitting and new "War" Classes of ships start showing up. This time period in which Federtion Commander is set. iT is also loselly where I have always felt the Movie Era is set.

Hope this helps.

The official SFU Timeline is HERE.

Rocky, I think part of the difficulty in establishing an all-inclusive timeline has to do with the divergences that occurred in the Star Trek franchise after TOS.

The SFU was based on a view of what would happen if things continued from the way they were left when TOS ended. I think part of these ideas even came from TAS. The view of the future from the standpoint of the franchise was splintered to some degree by various novels. Then ST:TMP came out with its refitted CA and limited revelation of the political situation. Succeeding movies revealed little more. Then ST:TNG and the other syndicated TV series painted a more definite picture.

In the franchise view, there was no buildup to a general war between all the various empires, though there were references to at least one limited war between the Klingons and the Romulans in which the Federation aided the Klingons.

The salient point is that the franchise picked the date of 2063 A.D. as the date of the first contact between Earth and Vulcan and the development of a form of warp drive. I don't remember this date ever being nailed down in the SFU (but it may have been for Federation Commander). The SFU also seems to view Earth under some form of unified government. The franchise reveals in First Contact that Earth's political structure is far from unified.

All of this is to say that the SFU and the franchise hold two disparate views not only of what happened after TOS, but also before TOS. Even within the franchise, views of pre-TOS events do not agree.

I minored in history and also have a desire to maintain a rational view of things, even in a totally fictional setting that is the background for a game.

The thing to remember is that the TV/movie story writers do not even try to stick to any coherent universe structure or timeline - or even the original 'physics' rules as laid down by Roddenberry. Nowadays, they make it up as they go along.

Now the SFU creators, SVC and all the other many many writers and scenario designers who have created the Star Fleet Universe as we know it [Jim] - they're a different breed. Steve has been almost anorak in his drive to keep the timeline coherent.

But I like it better that way, don't you?

And it might be worth noting that in the FC take on things, the year of first contact was not 2063, but 2400...

I wondered why the date on my rulebook was 2506 instead of 2306, guess that's why.