> After all, the Federation from Star Trek is pretty much the only well-known case of an utopia that actually works in fiction writing
Eh. I mean, by Voyager/DS9 it has secret police, and _literal mine slaves_ (old-model sentient holographic doctors). And it appears to be _basically_ a military dictatorship; the civil government in practice always seems to be subordinate to Starfleet. It also happily trades away inhabited territory to the Cardassians, who are essentially Space Nazis. And it has a safety culture that would make the Soviet Union blush. Really, the closer you look, the uglier it looks.
We also don’t see that much of how Federation _civilians_ live, and a lot of what we do see frankly isn’t that great.
All the negative sides you’ve described is portrayed after Gene Roddenberry died and he was famously against a lot of those concepts while he was alive. DS9 would never have been green-lit during Roddenberry’s lifetime.
> We also don’t see that much of how Federation _civilians_ live, and a lot of what we do see frankly isn’t that great.
That’s not true. The worlds that aren’t great are planets outside of federation jurisdiction. Those that are part of it are usually portrayed as utopias.
That all said, you’ve hit on a great premise for a Star Trek spin off.
Edit:
> And it appears to be _basically_ a military dictatorship; the civil government in practice always seems to be subordinate to Starfleet.
The partnership is explored in DS9 and was the exact opposite of that you’ve described.
In the DS9 episode I’m thinking of, shapeshifters (“changelings”) had taken over Star Fleet (the military) and were then trying to bypass the Federation to start a war. Basically a military coup lead by a small number of infiltrators. The remainder of the military were against the coup, which is why they were found out and the coup failed.
> In the DS9 episode I’m thinking of, shapeshifters (“changelings”) had taken over Star Fleet (the military)
It was even more interesting than that - they didn't take Starfleet over at all! They bombed a conference and sow some fear in the backchannels, and then sat back to watch as Starfleet panicked. A few well-positioned people tried to pull a military coup, for more-less the same reason the US gave up on many of its freedoms after 9/11, but unlike in real world, they were denounced by the rest of the military, the coup was stopped, and the entire two-parter served as a strong message that it's fear, not attacks from outside, that can quickly destroy the utopia.
Basically, a Star Trek take on "people willing to trade their freedom for temporary security deserve neither and will lose both" - noticed on time and successfully averted.
> DS9 would never have been green-lit during Roddenberry’s lifetime.
Gene would be wrong about this, IMHO. DS9 is the series that makes the utopia seem more real, as it gives it cracks and puts pressure on them, to show how people can overcome them. It makes the Federation seem less like religion, and more like just great future overall.
Eh. I mean, by Voyager/DS9 it has secret police, and _literal mine slaves_ (old-model sentient holographic doctors). And it appears to be _basically_ a military dictatorship; the civil government in practice always seems to be subordinate to Starfleet. It also happily trades away inhabited territory to the Cardassians, who are essentially Space Nazis. And it has a safety culture that would make the Soviet Union blush. Really, the closer you look, the uglier it looks.
We also don’t see that much of how Federation _civilians_ live, and a lot of what we do see frankly isn’t that great.