Imagine this scenario: A massive ship rests in its dock as the crew prepares for departure. Orders are given and acknowledged. A course is laid. Whistles echo through the decks. Dock lines fall to the side, and the ship clears the last mooring. What happens next? Is this a warship cutting through ocean waves headed for the Mediterranean? Or is this a starship disappearing in a warp speed flash of light headed for strange new worlds? Their missions may be entirely different but similarities between today’s military and Star Trek’s Starfleet remain evident. On the program of Creation Entertainment’s Star Trek Convention Las Vegas last month, a panel of veterans presented and discussed military aspects of Star Trek and similarities between Starfleet and the armed forces.

The parallels between Star Trek ships of the fleet and large navy craft are obvious. Starfleet has many similarities to the naval organizations of the real world. Such examples can be found throughout each show or movie of the franchise. Although Star Trek’s prime mission is deep space exploration and research, Starfleet also exists as a peacekeeping and defense organization. Much already has been studied, reported, written, blogged, and stuck on electronic bulletin boards referencing Star Trek’s military themes. It’s almost unfathomable how many levels discussion can encompass the similarities and differences between real world military groups and Star Trek (para)military groups. Trek fans love to compare weapons, vessels, tactical engagement, chains of command, training, ranks, strategies, wars, battles and the characteristics of various groups of enemies.

But the Las Vegas convention panel event, the discussion went “above and beyond….” Panel members explored personal military experiences and personal opinions about Star Trek military themes and situations. Members of the panel were: Jeanne Domenech (US Army Ret.), AJ Kwan (USAF Ret.), Mark Strosin (Active Duty Navy), Michael Nguyen (Army Reserve), and Doug Murray (US Army).

Many questions posed of the veterans on the panel were about their service and similarities to Starfleet. The panel compared training and leadership, decision making, risk calculating, and military realism in Star Trek. The panel members talked about how their perceptions of Star Trek has not only affected their military career but also the effect their military training has had on their views about various aspects of Star Trek for each of the different series, plots, storyline situations, tactics, and technology.

The panel began with a PowerPoint presentation which included a comprehensive military background of Star Trek, starting with the service duty of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry’s U.S. Army Air Corps career and subsequent job as a police officer.

Reports are Roddenberry used military concepts for the initial ideas to create Star Trek. This was furthered by production staff like Robert Justman who served in the US Navy during WWII, and Matt Jefferies (designer of the starship Enterprise) who was a bomber pilot in WWII. The presentation outlined a number of Original Series (TOS) episodes containing military themes. Among these: “Balance of Terror” with its destroyer-submarine similarities; “Court Martial,” “The Menagerie Parts I & II,” and “Turnabout Intruder” with stories focusing on court martial proceedings, “Errand of Mercy” in which fleets of ships stop an invasion force and James Kirk refers to himself as a soldier.

Another segment of the convention panel’s program included a look how the name, Enterprise is used throughout history for military ships. In addition, the name Enterprise has been a motorboat, steamboat, balloon and a U.S Navy training facility. This was followed by a recap of the various Enterprise ships in Starfleet throughout history of Star Trek. Going through this naming convention again is like reviewing a short video take of how aviation evolves into space flight — similar to the video intro to Star Trek: Enterprise. It always has good audience appeal, especially to Trek fans. An entire segment of Star Trek fan culture exists to the study of ships of Starfleet, their structural design, mechanics, power capabilities, living quarters and weapons.