Praxis wrote:Almost every time the brass from Starfleet appear, they do something bad, something against the prime directive, or are jerks.
These are admirals. They're always arseholes.
It seems that only the Captains believe in the Prime Directive and Starfleet's purpose- the Admirals routinely order the opposite of the so called "right thing to do". The captains usually have to fight the admirals.
There's something wrong with an organisation like that.
Incidentally in TOS there was "The Omega Glory" which showed us what happens when a Starfleet CAPTAIN goes bad. It was really cool watching Kirk and Tracy, cuffed together, fighting each other. That was a badass fight.
But that's just to show that not all Admirals are the villains and not all Captains are virtuous.
1) The Starfleet Admiral in Insurrection, who worked with the So'na
To create a 'youth drug' or something, which of course violated the non-interference directive. So billions of people will have to make do and grow old, while a couple hundred country yokels get to live forever in their selfish existence. Sounds like he was trying to do the right thing to me.
2) The Starfleet Admiral and Head of Starfleet Intelligence in Pegasus, who broke the Prime Directive and the treaty with the Romulans by developing a phase cloak
A treaty which allowed the Romulans to gain a supreme tactical advantage over their Federation opponents, and to do so with virtual impunity in a pre-emptive war (the Romulan attacks on the Narendra 3 and Khitomer outposts belonging to the Klingons were surprise attacks and vicous - what if those had been Federation colonies?).
3) The female Admiral (forget her name) that's always being a snot to Picard and Sisko. In one episode Picard sucked up to her because he knew she hated him, by making her favorite cookies and tea
Admiral Necheyev IIRC. She told Picard off in "Descent" part one, for not taking advantage over the Borg vulnerability to at least trial a WMD against them. Forgetting for the moment the weird neature of this WMD, the fact remains Picard could have and SHOULD have authorised it. Those that opposed it - Crusher, LaForge - should have been relieved of duties. Neither one of them had the moral high ground - how many people died at Wolf 359? How many engineers lost their lives when the Borg used their cutting laser on the E-D's stardrive section? How many people did Crusher have to stitch back together, or zip up the body bags of?
4) The Starfleet Admiral in "Paradise Lost" that was attempted a coup to take over the Federation
Kinda agree. Then again, he was kind of right. Earth was vulnerable and he showed just how vulnerable in a pseudo coup.
5) The top Starfleet Ambassador in "Too Short a Season", who was responsible for a savage 40 year long war on a certain planet
He was also an Admiral.
Either way, this is a good one. As in, good example.
6) The Starfleet Admiral who tried to take Data's daughter away
This is iffy with me. I personally feel Data should have volunteered to assist Starfleet Cybernetics to create more Soong-type androids.
7) The brass at Starfleet who told Odo that if he didn't get progress from the baby changeling soon, they'd take the baby changeling away and do 'tests' on it
I can't remember what you're talking about.
The Admiral who ordered the Defiant not to save Odo and Garak and not to stop Tain when the OO and Tal'Shiar attacked the Dominion in "The Die is Cast"
Good idea. The Romulans and Cardassians were effectively 'declaring war' on the Dominion with their pre-emptive strike. The Dominion, in turn, would declare war on those powers - long time adversaries to the Federation - and leave Starfleet alone.
Or, if the attack would have succeeded then the Dominion would have been decapitated (theoretically - given the decentralised nature of the Dominion it's doubtful the attack would have had the effect Tain hoped for). Why provoke the Dominion when they're going to come out looking for the arseholes responsible and the Federation can turn to them and say "It wasn't us guys - it was
them."
9) The entire Starfleet Command, when they get their minds taken over by oversized cockroaches in "Conspiracy"
They like to eat worms too. That's gross.
But to be fair, they also weren't operating under their own volition.
10) The Starfleet Admiral who tells Ro to offer the Bajoran terrorists weapons from him
Scummy.
Constantly, Starfleet Admirals choose to ignore the suffering of individuals behind a line drawn on a map (case in point: The Maquis, and Bajorans). Picard was sympathetic, but the Admirals weren't.
That's how it is, I'm afraid. The admirals represent the bureaucracy that screws you over. The captains represent the individual who can directly change events by intervening, or by standing by and watching.
Is Starfleet Command the true "bad guys" of Star Trek? After all, while the Federation are the "good guys", Starfleet Command is always telling the Captains to do something they thing is wrong, something they don't want to do, etc, etc...
No, the 'true' bad guys in Star Trek are those fuckers with the latex arse crack painted onto their faces.
Some admirals were definitely scummy. But not all of the examples you gave really merit it as a generalisation.
