The Federation, changing in size as it expands and diminishes over the franchise, spreads over eight thousand light-years at the time of Star Trek: First Contact (the year 2373), and is made up of at least 150 planets. During its peak, this grew to just over 350 planets. While growing in size and adding previous enemies such as the Klingons into the flock, there were only four key founding members in 2161 when the Federation of Planets formed, but who were they?
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Humans
What is there to say about Earth? Things changed when the Vulcans introduced themselves in First Contact after warp drive was discovered. Earth, also known as Sol III or Terra, was inhabited by humans (as well as the Voth, but that’s something for another article). In 2150, they all came together and unified as the United Earth Government, after realizing country segregation was far less of a dividing factor than planetary division, and that humans should band together as one government. Earth is also the capital planet of the United Federation of Planets. It is also the home of Starfleet, the Federation’s military, exploratory, and science service.
While this new united Earth was the dream of the show’s creator Gene Roddenberry, a culture of united humans looking past prejudice and discrimination, it made the planet far less interesting. This is inevitable when presenting a utopia, while still rearing its ugly underbelly from time to time. The problems normally found on earth were simply projected into space. Q, the ever omniciant, ever annoying being, said it best:
The stories so inherently human are now set in space, with crusades on space districts, and alien Inquisitions (there is most certainly a space Nixon parallel too). Regardless of Q’s reservations on Earth and humans, though, they remain a fundamental player in the maintaining of the Federation, and were a key pillar in its founding.
Vulcans
The Vulcans are potentially the next most well-known species and an equally important founding member of the Federation. Originating for the creatively named planet Vulcan, the Vulcans are governed by the Vulcan high command. Their characteristic bold brows and pointy ears are almost as character-defining as their deep philosophical devotion to a path of logic, uninterrupted by emotion. They were not always so reasonable, however.
Once, the Vulcans were a violent and emotional species who were engaged in near-constant warfare, engulfing civilizations with a Borg-like efficiency. As they developed as a culture, their warmongering desires grew too, to the point where they almost wiped themselves out. To avoid this, they devised a new philosophy led by a Vulcan named Surak, which stated that the cause of all suffering stemmed from uncontrolled emotion. He proposed a new way of life-based purely on logic, where emotion was to be repressed. He thus became the founding father of the Vulcans shown within the majority of the franchise.
The Vulcans were the first species to make contact with humans, after their discovery of warp capability. With the knowledge they would eventually deliver them anyway, the Vulcans set about making first contact with any race able to make an interstellar flight. Their introduction to humans took place in 2063, when they detected a warp signature from Earth, created by Zefram Cochrane and his experimental ship the Phoenix. It was a pivotal moment in human history. The two species creating a powerful bond, and led to the founding of a united government and the Federation.
Tellarites
Now for the two lesser-known founding members of the Federation. The Tellarites, from the planet Tellar Prime are a pig-like humanoid race, sporting tusks and often beards. Despite their appearance, they are fantastic politicians, as they possess an uncanny ability to argue. Throughout the galaxy they are known to be impatient, stubborn people, and, in direct conflict to the Vulcans, were deeply emotional. Much like the banterous poetics of Viking humans, the Tellarites considered an argument a form of sport, spouting insults at one another as more of a conversation opener than a sign of aggression or annoyance.
They first appear in the episode “Journey to Babel” from the Original Series, introduced alongside the Andorians, as diplomats being escorted by Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise. Interestingly, these two species were once at war, but nothing more is said other than that the Tellarites “drove those blue demons back into their territory,” still using the contentious terminology towards their now allies. Both the Tellarites and the Andorians appear less often than one would expect for the founding figures of the federation, but this was in part due to Roddenberry’s desire to move away from the creations of the Original Series, and instead focus on introducing new and exciting aliens and cultures.
Andorians
Hailing from the moon Andoria, the Andorians had blue skin and white hair, with two antennae protruding from their head. Their culture is much like the Klingons, highly centered on honor and being a military-focused race. One large part of their tradition is a ritual called the Ushaan, where two combatants fight to the death using an ice miner tool called an Ushaan-tor. Their home world is as hard as they were, an ice world that, in the northern wastes, only reaches temperatures of -28 at the warmest. Due to the below-freezing climate, the Andorians live mostly underground, their vast cities connected by miles and miles of tunnels.
While these inhabitants of Andoria are most known to the federation, they are not the only ones that share the icy moon. Thousands of years ago, the Andorians and their sister species the Aenar coexisted, but after losing contact with one another, the existence of the Aenar descended into mere myth. They were much like the Andoria, but with no hair or skin pigmentation, resulting in a ghostly white appearance. They were also completely blind, but rather than this being a result of a genetic deformation or defect, it was a result of years and years of evolution that had given them incredibly powerful telepathic abilities. They were able to read mind and communicate with one another with ease, even perfecting their image straight into the minds of other races. They no longer needed to see in the traditional fashion, rendering their eyes useless because they were able to “see” using their mind. The two species were reunited in the year 2104, but the Aenar remained secretive and reclusive.
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