posted
Later on, during the Dominion War, I think, we hear that Benzar is a member, or such is implied. I'm just saying that, taking into account the officer exchange program, their membership could be very recent, between that episode and DS9.
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posted
That said, whatshisface who looked like whatshisface wore a Starfleet uniform.
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posted
Yeah, they came from the same geo-structure...nothing to do with their treaty status.
Im thinking they were affilitated with the Federation at the point we saw in early TNG where they were allowed to serve in Starfleet, yet still had their own space service. Perhaps by the time of DS9 (6-10 years later) they eventually joined the Federation, as we saw more of them showing up in DS9 during the conflicts with the Klingons and the Dominion.
The Federation seemed to go out (and even go as far as scraping the bottum of the barrel) to beef up their membership body a bit as we saw in the instance of the Evora in Insurrection.
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posted
Though we know (in this case explicitly) that one need not be a Federation citizen to be in Starfleet. In the real world, I think something like three percent of the U.S. military is made up of non-citizens. Maybe even non-residents, I'm not sure.
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posted
Oh, in regards to the lookalike Benzite with the micro-organism spotting issues: I always thought it was kind of weird that he wore a Starfleet uniform, but Riker didn't have to wear a Klingon one.
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posted
According to the Encyclopedia, Benzar did join the Federation. I don't know if this was explicitly stated on screen, but it's good enough for my list.
posted
Perhaps PermaAsthmaInhaler dude asked to wear a SF uniform, out of respect, whereas Will couldn't stand the thought of not wearing the oh-so-sexy skintight jumpsuit for an entire episode. People wouldn't have been able to see his man-tits, and that would have been a crying shame.
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
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posted
Or then the Benzites generally go around naked, and the Starfleet folks got sick and tired of this guy's anatomy and begged him to wear a uniform, any uniform.
That would be so Benzite a thing to do, now wouldn't it? "Hi, I'm Hurdon from Benzar. I have a superior physique. See? I'm sure you will enjoy watching me all the day. Please feel free to compliment."
posted
But the Bentizes weren't Starfleet/Federation members at that time so it wouldnt have been likely that they would be given their own vessel. That would be like Starfleet giving the Klingons a Federation ship of their own. Maybe there is just no explaination for it, unless of course they were conducting some of the first steps of membership which included integrating a few Benzites into the fleet as conscripts or something.
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quote:But the Bentizes weren't Starfleet/Federation members at that time
Where did they say that?
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Registered: Mar 2000
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posted
I never got the impression that Benzites weren't members of the Federation. Also, I do believe that many planets maintain their own independent space fleets, so I don't think that's evidence enough.
quote:But the Bentizes weren't Starfleet/Federation members at that time
Where did they say that?
Actually in my ooold like Omnipedia v1.5, it says the Benzites were a recent member of the Federation as of "A Matter of Honor" (2365). Considering what I said earlier:
Maybe there is just no explaination for it, unless of course they were conducting some of the first steps of membership which included integrating a few Benzites into the fleet....
If going by the Omnipedia that suggests that the Benzites just joined the Federation they may have a slightly more complicated process in integrating fleets and so forth.
Seeing that Mordock in "Coming of Age" (2364) was evidently the first Benzite to go to the Academy, it is possible that Mendon in the later episode, who was participating under the auspices of the Cultural Exchange Program, he was given the honorary/comparable rank of ensign and was there in some initial attempts of integrating the Benzite Fleet into Starfleet.
This, all in all, suggests that there is a good possibility that they joined in c.2365 and this was just a step in the process. Based on given information, this seems to be a concise and logical solution.
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