On Friday, October 11, 2002 Michael Edward Johnson wrote:
I have read Star Charts and it is great. However some included information has once again raised a question in my mind. There is a chart that lists the founding memebers of the Federation as Earth, Vulcan, Andoria, Tellar and Alpha Centauri. Okay what does the “canon” say about this?
Canon is silent on the subject. The five founding members of the Federation are a long-standing fan speculation from the 1970s. I think it comes from Franz Joseph’s original Technical Manual.
Is Alpha Centauri a human colony, populated by descendents
of humans transplanted from Earth (ie Preservers), or a
native non-Human species? Any and all ideas appreciated.
Pre-Star Trek: The Next Generation, the thinking was that AlphaCent A had a Preserver-transplant human society. (Fan lore had them descended from the Greeks, and their distinguishing physical feature was an extra bone and joint in the pinky finger.) Zefram Cochrane hailed from here.
Post-NextGen, the thinking is that AlphaCent has a colony founded by Earth in the post-World War III era. This is where Zefram Cochrane retired to, but he originated on Earth.
Here’s how I put it all together. (And no one needs to buy into my theory except me, since it’s non-canon, and it’s just how I put things together.)
I keep the Preserver-transplant society. I put the human colony in the AlphaCent B system. (This is consistent with Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens’ Federation and Ann Crispin’s Time For Yesterday.) There’s nothing to say that both can’t coexist peacefully. 🙂