One of the complaints leveled against Star Trek is that Star Fleet personnel <a href='http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MildlyMilitary' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>don't act like they're in the military</a> (WARNING: TVTropes link), or outright claim they aren't, even though Star Fleet is the Federation's de facto Defense Force.
So, take an episode or movie, and describe how the crew would have behaved, and the consequences of same, if Star Fleet were accurately depicted as the USAF <a href='http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ptitlekt6mtovm4vne' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>IN SPACE!</a> (WARNING: TVTropes link), the USN IN SPACE, or some other RL military service IN SPACE (e.g., the RAF motto means 'Through Adversity to the Stars', so that works well, and the Russian Federation already has dedicated military <a href='https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Russian_Space_Forces' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>Space Forces</a>). Please specify the service, and the era you're taking their behavior from, as the 1940s USN, for example, handled things differently than the 1990s USN did. Maybe just use that service as it was when the episode was broadcast, or the movie came out. Hopefully, someone will feel inspired enough to get some fics out of it.
You could also do Starfleet as an international Combined Task Force, with the odd-but-not-implausible factor of crews from several nations on the same base or vessel, which I think is a fairly accurate simulation of what Starfleet could have been. It just would have required greater variety in the uniforms, though I think they'd have wanted to have standardized rank and MOS insignia.
Since I think someone will ask, and it should be addressed, you have two options for the 'families on starships' thing in TNG:
First, it never happened, because its a bloody stupid thing to do.
Second, it was a political decision that practically everyone in Starfleet thinks is a bloody stupid thing to do, but it happened, and they have to deal with the consequences. Either way, Wesley Crusher isn't going to be a bridge officer, or an officer at all, before he's eighteen, and probably not before he's twenty, unless you have a burning desire to show Starfleet as an Age of Sail Navy IN SPACE (in which case, he may get flogged for some of his more foolish decisions). You can fudge his age if you really want him to be an Ensign/Cornet/2Lt./whatever in Season 1. There are RL people who graduated college at sixteen, though I'm not sure how many chose to attend a military Academy after finishing civilian college (AFAIK, he'll still have to be a legal adult, not a bloody fourteen-year-old, though).
There's a related thread on <a href='http://forums.spacebattles.com/showthread.php?t=199250' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>Spacebattles.com</a>.
So, take an episode or movie, and describe how the crew would have behaved, and the consequences of same, if Star Fleet were accurately depicted as the USAF <a href='http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ptitlekt6mtovm4vne' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>IN SPACE!</a> (WARNING: TVTropes link), the USN IN SPACE, or some other RL military service IN SPACE (e.g., the RAF motto means 'Through Adversity to the Stars', so that works well, and the Russian Federation already has dedicated military <a href='https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Russian_Space_Forces' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>Space Forces</a>). Please specify the service, and the era you're taking their behavior from, as the 1940s USN, for example, handled things differently than the 1990s USN did. Maybe just use that service as it was when the episode was broadcast, or the movie came out. Hopefully, someone will feel inspired enough to get some fics out of it.
You could also do Starfleet as an international Combined Task Force, with the odd-but-not-implausible factor of crews from several nations on the same base or vessel, which I think is a fairly accurate simulation of what Starfleet could have been. It just would have required greater variety in the uniforms, though I think they'd have wanted to have standardized rank and MOS insignia.
Since I think someone will ask, and it should be addressed, you have two options for the 'families on starships' thing in TNG:
First, it never happened, because its a bloody stupid thing to do.
Second, it was a political decision that practically everyone in Starfleet thinks is a bloody stupid thing to do, but it happened, and they have to deal with the consequences. Either way, Wesley Crusher isn't going to be a bridge officer, or an officer at all, before he's eighteen, and probably not before he's twenty, unless you have a burning desire to show Starfleet as an Age of Sail Navy IN SPACE (in which case, he may get flogged for some of his more foolish decisions). You can fudge his age if you really want him to be an Ensign/Cornet/2Lt./whatever in Season 1. There are RL people who graduated college at sixteen, though I'm not sure how many chose to attend a military Academy after finishing civilian college (AFAIK, he'll still have to be a legal adult, not a bloody fourteen-year-old, though).
There's a related thread on <a href='http://forums.spacebattles.com/showthread.php?t=199250' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>Spacebattles.com</a>.