The UFP gets a real army

[Mike DiCenso]

Look up the Trekcore screencap link I provided at the top of the page. It shows the robot/power armor thing in Quark's holosuite.
-Mike

[The Dude]

Looks like someone took armour design hints from the Enclave. ;)

[Mike DiCenso]

Could be a homage, depending on when the Fallout franchise got going and DS9 aired "Business as Usual".
-Mike

[The Dude]

The original Fallout was released in 1997 and Business as Usual aired in the same year. So theres been a fair bit of time for that to take root.

[Mike DiCenso]

"Business as Usual" aired 04-07-1997, which is pretty early in the year, and production and post-production of the episode would have occured much earlier than that. So I'd have to wonder when Fallout was released that year and how far in advance advertising and preview releases went.
-Mike

[The Dude]

No, I mean there's been plenty of time for it to take root in the franchise till now. I'll have to check the Fallout wiki to see how much the armour has changed from one to three.

[Mike DiCenso]

According to Wikipedia, the first Fallout was released 30 September 1997. So I don't think that Fallout had an influence on DS9 as much as it would be DS9 having had the influence on Fallout, if any at all. It's still a pretty amazing coincidence.
-Mike

[The Dude]

According to Wikipedia, the first Fallout was released 30 September 1997. So I don't think that Fallout had an influence on DS9 as much as it would be DS9 having had the influence on Fallout, if any at all. It's still a pretty amazing coincidence.
-Mike

My apologies, I got confused and started arguing for DS9 influencing Fallout.

[Mike DiCenso]

The reality is that neither of them could possibly seriously influence the other. Fallout is likely to have maybe had a better chance, if it's development goes back at least a couple of years and there was a lot of advance release of materials.
-Mike

[The Dude]

Well the FO2 PA is rather hard to make out in the pics but it looks more like Terminator armour from WH40K.

The FO3 armour bears a pretty fair resemblance though.

[Mike DiCenso]

Maybe much later on F3 and later versions could have taken inspiration, but the DS9 armor has a bit more "organic" look, specially around the face, which lacks noticably the Enclave armor's large lens "eyes" and the gas mask-like tubes.
-Mike

[PunkMaister]

I never understood why the UFP doesn't have standard armed forces separate from their scientific and research division which is as it should be like say NASA is separate from the US armed forces instead of the jumbled mess called Starfleet.

[Praeothmin]

I never understood why the UFP doesn't have standard armed forces separate from their scientific and research division which is as it should be like say NASA is separate from the US armed forces instead of the jumbled mess called Starfleet.

Well, this is simple, really:
NASA explores space, where mankind isn't at the moment.
Thus we need no protection, and we encounter no enemies.
In ST, they explore space physically, not using telescopes, but by sending actual people in space, thus they need to be able to protect them should they encounter enemies, which is why their ships have weapons and armor in addition to all the scientific equipment...

[Mike DiCenso]

We actually cannot be entirely certain since as recent as the 2150's, Earth still had it's own military seperate and apart from Starfleet, but the two worked closely together during wartime, and even for a long time thereafter.
-Mike

[The Dude]

I never understood why the UFP doesn't have standard armed forces separate from their scientific and research division which is as it should be like say NASA is separate from the US armed forces instead of the jumbled mess called Starfleet.

Well Kirk was very clear in TOS (and the TOS movies) that they were a military. They were rather akin to the RN of the Napoleonic Period (no surprise because Roddenberry took that idea from the Hornblower series) with civilian scientists often tagging along with the RN.

As a matter of fact he even tells the US Air Force pilot they pick up (can't remember the EP) that they are a "combined service". One could make an argument that the various specialists we see (Khans wife) are civvies granted a temp commission or some such for the duration of their service.

It wasn't until TNG that the "we're not a military" stuff took hold. I've seen the thought floated around a bit that the military arm was reduced after the events of STVI and most of the effort put into scientific exploration. Something that makes crap for sense to me, given that there would still be threats from the Romulans, Tholians, Klingons (occasionally) and the various other nasties nearby.