When was Starfleet first formed? In Star Trek lore, that question might be a bit trickier than you think. Luckily, a new under-the-radar documentary, released by Star Trek Online, is offering new insights into the earliest days of the Final Frontier.
Every hardcore Star Trek person knows that the United Federation of Planets was formed in 2161, and that since that time, Starfleet has been the spacefaring armada, keeping the peace, and boldly going where no one has gone before. But, really, there are two Starfleets: the Starfleet that served the Federation after 2161, and the version of Starfleet that existed before, aka the first Starfleet. In Picard Season 3, when Jean-Luc (Patrick Stewart) and Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes) are asked to celebrate “Frontier Day,” they’re basically talking about the first voyage of Archer’s NX-01 Enterprise, which predates the Federation.
