With five (six if you count the animated show) Star Trek series presented on television and 10 movies (11 coming to a theater near you) and the aforementioned series on video, it's hard for anyone under the age of fifty to imagine a time when Star Trek was not on the air. Those of us in our forties, growing up in the Southern California area, remember those reruns on Channel 5 (in the 70s) and Channel 13 (80s) as a window to another world. A frequent "visitor" to that world was a New York-born independent film student and sf-media fan named Jim Terry, Jr.
Jim was an aficionado of both The Original Series and The Animated Series. The character of Spock appealed to him most of all because his unflappable, cool yet charming disposition. His own countenance sported a certain "Vulcan" demeanor, with sharp features and dark brown eyes, and black straight hair (some people describe Jim's tonsorial aspect as "early Jack Lord," the kind of hair that is never out of place unless you bounce a bazooka shell off of it). Jim affected an unemotional personality, eventually creating a character named Serek, who Jim said was Spock's first cousin.
Taking his cue from the role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons then arriving on the scene (1977), Jim created a club called U.S.S. Intrepid II, installing "Serek" as the captain of the starship and recruiting "officers" and "crew" over the next ten years. In meticulous detail, referring to technical manuals and bootlegged gaming modules, Jim outlined a functional crew manifest for a heavy cruiser class ship, something that only a few hardcore gamers and companies had ever or since attempted. Jim could tell you how many science officers, how many technicians, how many yeomen were on this ship at any given time. He also created a format for characters sheets that included past assignments, commendations, date of graduation and Academy standing, even cabin assignments.
Jim eventually recruited over a hundred fifty people for the Intrepid II. Many would come and go over the years, and basically fall out of touch. One of the few who did stick around was a criminology buff and graphic artist named Dave Keller.
Dave had an eagle eye for detail; he could spot the inconsistencies in a fan-made Starfleet uniform from fifty yards ("The piping's all wrong and the boots are too short! And the shirt! What couch did he rip up to get that material?") He designed many of the ship insignias, working with Jim over at his tiny one-room apartment in Beverly Hills that was so small you had to step over the bed to get to the bathroom.
Another frequent habitue of Jim's "closet" (oh, we can hear the jokes now) was a former voice artist and draftsman named Steve Smyth. Steve actually moved in with Jim on two separate occasions, which made it easy for all night brainstorming sessions for the Intrepid II. Steve was the only one of the three who had actually served in the Navy, and so brought a "modern" perspective to the paramilitary structure of Starfleet. Steve eventually designed an original logo for the group.
Steve and Dave both created characters for the Intrepid II. Steve's creation was Cmdr. Aristotle Enfield; a human-descended "Martian" genetically engineered for life on the Red Planet. Originally just the chief engineer, attrition through the loss of other fans caused Enfield's "promotion" to first officer. Steve created a detailed history for Enfield, going back several generations, as well as a future history in which Enfield leaves Starfleet in disgrace before returning in order to save the Federation during a crisis, setting the stage for other rich characterizations to follow in years to come. He also created the U.S.S. Bellatrix, a "non-player" ship set in the same universe to give some background for the Intrepid II. This ship's captain was named Alexander Enfield, Aristotle's cousin. This may have been the first of the "familial" relationships to grace the Intrepid II universe; it certainly would not be the last.
Other ships would be introduced, at least peripherally, into the same universe. A fellow named John Whiting, somewhat recognized at conventions as the guy who wore a fantastic recreation of the environment suit from "The Tholian Web," had established a ship called U.S.S. Sol. This was brought in at least "peripherally" to the Intrepid II universe.
The first of the Star Trek movies merely provided more grist for the mill, as the Intrepid II would eventually gain a future history (initially, Jim was reluctant to bring the Intrepid's universe forward; eventually, however, it became established that Enfield would take command of the Intrepid, which would lead to him being stripped of said command and posted to a ground assignment). Any new material from the Trek universe that could be incorporated into the Intrepid II soon found its way into the fabric being woven by the three stalwarts.
Although Dave had a character (Ensign Jon Marwood) on the Intrepid II, he desired to command his own ship. He eventually selected a ship from the Franz Joseph Star Trek Starfleet Technical Manual (the source for the Intrepid II and eventually several other ships), the dreadnought Star League (a type never seen on the television series or the movies) and created the character of Commodore Jake Caffey (naming the character from an obscure TV-movie about an attempt to start World War III by the Soviets involving the Alaskan pipeline).
Like Jim, Dave began to recruit officers for the Star League from friends and acquaintances, mostly from two sources: a Doctor Who fan club called The Time Meddlers of Los Angeles, and another Star Trek club called U.S.S. Tradition (where a "Captain's Meeting" was held at the apartment of Lisa Wahl, captain of the Tradition, which went "renegade" from Trek International). It was here that they recruited the last of the core members of the group.
Matt Mitchell, ex-journalism student, fan writer and computer typesetter/paste-up artist, probably caused Jim more headaches than anybody else he had recruited in ten years (well, there was that guy that did drugs in Jim's apartment) with his offbeat ideas about characters and situations. However, he was adept at constructing characters that were both archetypal and flawed, and at deconstructing old Trek episodes, reconciling their many inconsistencies with the new Star Trek: The Next Generation television series and into the Intrepid II universe.
Matt created characters on both the Intrepid and Star League, but he eventually decided that having his own ship to command was more fun. After looking over many of the heavy cruisers in the Franz Joseph Tech Manual (Jim and Dave specifically forbade him from using a dreadnought) Matt decided that a destroyer, essentially a saucer section with a single warp nacelle attached to the dorsal section, would be a cool ship to command. With his love of the television series The A-Team to influence him, Matt's choice of ship was obvious: U.S.S. Hannibal.
The character Matt created as the captain of the Hannibal, Francisco Cumberland, was supposedly known amongst his peers as "The Space Case." Regardless, with the addition of the new ship, Jim and Dave decided that simply calling it the Intrepid II universe would not work. They came up with the name Tactical Squadron, and it remained that way for the next several years.
Two other new recruits around this time were Michael Pell and the late Helen Oxford. This husband and wife team had been in L.A. Star Trek fandom for years, and had created Starbase 134 as a member of Starfleet International. However, they would eventually take 134 away from SI and introduce it into the Tac Squad (for short) universe, as the "base of operations" for the ships.
Eventually, Steve Smyth moved back in with Jim, and suggested taking this expanding universe statewide. He suggested the name Starfleet Operating Forces (or SFOF for short). They continued to work on the ships, updating past and future histories for the various characters as the movies continued and the televisions series (TNG and then Deep Space Nine starting in 1992) provided an ever burgeoning background. However, most of the characters continued to be in the "Classic Trek" era, which seemed to be hampering the enthusiasm of potential new members for joining the organization. Jim in particular was reluctant to toss away ten years' work and start over.
Finally, it was agreed that Jim would set a one-year period where if even one member joined during this time, the SFOF would continue to operate in the twenty-third century; if not, then the group would update to the twenty-fourth. It was a long and empty year. Jim spent about two weeks reconciling the eighty-year jump before he declared that the SFOF universe was ready for the twenty-fourth century.
Jim, Dave, Steve and Matt all created new characters and implemented new ships to the new timeline. Jim, through his new Vulcan captain Sershek (Serek's grandson, naturally), assumed command of the U.S.S. Galaxy, a ship whose existence is implied by the fact that the Enterprise-D is a Galaxy-class starship. Similarly, Dave gave his Jon Marwood character a grandson, Edward, who commands the U.S.S. Bradbury, mentioned in the TNG episode "Menáge a Troi."
Initially, Steve, with his character Jacob Conner, commanded the U.S.S. Farragut, which was shown in the final scene of Star Trek: Generations. However, the Farragut was reported destroyed by the Klingons in the DS9 episode "Nor the Battle to the Strong." Needless to say, Steve was rather distraught. Eventually, he recovered enough to have Conner (who survived the ship's destruction) assume command of the Sovereign-class U.S.S. Raleigh. This is the same type of ship as the Enterprise-E, seen in Star Trek: First Contact.
Ironically, the only ship name to cross over from one generation to the next is that of the U.S.S. Hannibal. The new Hannibal is of the Nebula class, seen innumerable times in TNG and DS9. Matt's new commander is a quasi-immortal human with the unlikely name of Ulysses Murdock (another nod to the A-Team).
Recently, the foursome began working on a timeline similar in format to the Trek Chronology done by Michael and Denise Okuda, which even contains original "episodes" dealing with both the Classic and NextGen SFOF characters. Many of these stories specifically deal with "missing" adventures or information in Trek history, e.g. why the Klingons went from smooth-forehead to ridged-forehead...
But that is another story.
