Why do I like the Founders?

Founders, changelings, shapeshifters, metamorphs... It doesn't really matter how you call them, but for me they are the absolute top of the food chain when it comes to Star Trek universe. Why? Well, they created an aura of secrecy around them which makes them so damn attractive for a good story. Hell, the whole Deep Space 9 series was centered around the Founders and the Dominion War. I even think that it would go down as the first miss in Star Trek history if they hadn't come up with them and started the Dominion War storyline. What makes them so appealing to me, except the obvious ability to change shape, is their orientation towards unification of different worlds through methods of intimidation, political intrigue, espionage, and different treaties. It is not peaceful like the Federation does it, but it is not actually even so violent, unless it is necessary. The race of Founders is simply something new in the Star Trek universe. We are all used to seeing different explorations, anomalies and all kinds of species while watching Voyager, Next Generation or the Original series, but now we were introduced to something completely new - a race of paranoid shapeshifters with an organized strategy to conquer an entire quadrant. Sure, the Borg is/are always trying to assimilate the entire galaxy, but they are machines with no personality who just come and go straight forward, they go "All in" to speak in poker terms. What the Dominion did was full of different bluffs, carefully devised plots, alliances, promises and lies, intrigues, and all of that with a single goal of taking control over an entire galaxy! What makes it even more fun for me is the fact that the Dominion was not defeated in the end. The best that the Federation, Romulans and Klingons could do is to make them go away and return back to the Gamma quadrant. And what will the Founders do after they return? They will breed more Jem'Hadar and continue with their old ways of dominating over hundreds of different worlds of Gamma quadrant. There was none of that moral code Federation so highly values implemented here. Federation Alliance was more than happy just to get rid of these bastards, they did not even think about setting some conditions of freedom for the Gamma species or something like that. What this means for me is that there is a chance they will someday return!

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Why have they done it?

I watched the new Star Trek movie a couple of weeks ago and I was going to write my thoughts sooner, but I just could not get myself to start writing, probably because I disliked the movie so much.
First of all, in my opinion there is only one thing good with this movie and it is the actors, all but Chris Pine, who is simply not cut out to be Captain Kirk. Eric Bana, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg and, of course, the legendary Leonard Nimoy, did a phenomenal job.
Now let's get to the tough part of analyzing what was wrong with the movie. Well, as the title says, I have to ask myself: "Why have they done it?" I always thought of Star Trek as a never ending story, but now I don't know anymore. That is what frustrates me the most. There was absolutely no need to end one timeline and start another, especially with the focus being on destroying Vulcan. They could have done anything with the story they had to continue it. They could have invented another ship with new younger characters, they could have invented another race, they could have created an entire another interesting storyline centered around some new ship... But no, they decided to turn this great adventure into a video game. Enough from me, you all probably understand by now that I didn't like the movie. However, I did watch it and I will watch the next one too, I am just a too big fan not to. Who knows, maybe it turns out good in the end.
Just to end this I would like to say that I am not a professional movie critic, but an ordinary Star Trek fan who loves the story and is a bit dissapointed with what they done with it. I hope the rest of you had a more positive experience.

Son'a battleship

Length: 835 meters
Width: 1,075 meters
Height: 150 meters
I don't know about the rest of you, but I think that the Son'a battleship is one of the best designs of Star Trek universe. Couple of these ships were used in the fight against USS Enterprise in the Briar patch where they proved to be more than a match, but they were eventually defeated. It is known that the Son'a were cooperating with the Dominion during the war, but it is not clear whether they ever faced off any other Federation or Alliance ship in combat. One thing is for sure, Son'a are almost equally technologically developed as the Federation, which means these ships are formidable opponents in combat against any vessel of other major powers. It is also important to point out that Son'a battleships are equipped with sophisticated isolytic subspace weapons, which were outlawed by all major races in the Second Khitomer Accords. Son'a battleships are also sometimes refered to as destroyers or battlecruisers.

Economy of the Federation

Federation economy was built around the large scale production of consumer goods. Replicators fill the need for all material goods and philosophy of self-improvement and helping others provides most labor. The driving force of the Federation was the ensuring of a comfortable standard of living for all it's citizens, rather than the acquisition of personal wealth. Money was very seldom used and not really needed for an average life of a Federation citizen. However, there is still a basic unit of exchange called the Federation credit, which is used in transactions with other governments, allotting government budgets, and access to limited resources. Federation member worlds who posses resources unavailable elsewhere are obligated to provide them in times of emergency.

The Federation itself is often considered a utopia, a condition which is enabled by a state of abundance and absence of war and poverty. While Earth seems like a paradise, other parts of the Federation often use latinum as currency despite the use of credit. The Bank of Bolias for example is a major financial institution, and Bolarus IX, which is a Federation member planet, apparently has a market economy.
Still, it seems that money as we know it began to fade from everyday use in the 22nd century.

On the other hand, while the resources required for basic existence are abundant in the Federation, many other resources are not. These include real estate, services which take up a person's time, starships, transportation between worlds and energy. Sometimes there is also rationing of transporters, replicators and holodecks. Mining and other forms of resource harvesting are also common in the Federation.
It seems that the Federation allocates those resources which do happen to be scarce through some sort of command economy or central system of rationing, or even through the use of previously mentioned credits.

Galaxy class starship

Length: 642.51 meters
Width: 463.73 meters
Height: 195.26 meters
Crew: 1014 officers and enlisted
The Galaxy class was introduced in the late 2350s. It was the largest and one of the most powerful Federation starship classes of its time.
The Galaxy was designed to be a multi-purpose mission platform. It possesses the most advance scientific equipment, laboratories and exploration resources of any Federation starship class, which makes the class ideal for long term exploration missions.
The Galaxy class was also equipped with state of the art weapon and defensive systems when it was launched, along with saucer separation capability. It is equipped with ten phaser banks, located at various points along both hulls. There are also fore and aft torpedo launchers on the engineering section. Every tube is capable of firing at least five photon torpedoes simultaneously, each torpedo capable of being independently targeted.
Before the advent of Federation battleships due to the Borg and Dominion threats, the Galaxy class was the first choice for defending the borders. The class was also designed for diplomatic, evacuation, and first contact missions.
The Galaxy class is also suitable to carry civilians, mostly members of crew families and different civilian science teams. That is why Galaxy vessels were equipped with recreational facilities, holodeck, theater and concert hall, salon, replimat, educational facilities, gymnasium and the Ten Forward, which was sort of a club designed to serve as the social center of the ship. Due to all of these characteristics, one might even conclude that Galaxy class starships were sort of miniature societies made up of many different species and social classes.

Cardassian Keldon class

Length: 371 meters
Width: 192 meters
Height: 70 meters
Crew: 500 officers and troops
The Cardassian Keldon class is roughly based on the Galor class spaceframe. Weapon systems, shield, engines and troop capacity have all been upgraded from the standard Galor class, but the Keldon class still remains outclassed by more technologically advanced Alpha Quadrant power's starships. Upgraded versions of the Keldon class were built by the Obsidian Order in the late 24th century, but they were subsequently destroyed by the Dominion. They are armed with eight or more spiral-wave disruptors and one large aft disruptor wave cannon. These ships were also sometimes referred to as Cardassian battle cruisers or Cardassian destroyers.

Romulan Star Empire

The Romulan Star Empire is a major galactic power. It is known for its xenophobic character and policies of extreme secrecy and territorial protectionism.
The Romulan heritage hails from Vulcan ancestry and rebel fractions that refused the Vulcan dogma of logic brought by Surak almost two thousand years ago. It was S'Task, Surak's student, who led the group to colonize other worlds far from the Vulcan homeworld. They settled on a twin planet, and called themselves the Rihannsu, the Declared. The Federation called the two Romulan planets Romulus and Remus, after the story of the brothers who founded the ancient Roman Empire on Earth. The planet Remus is settled by Remans, the second major species of the Empire. The Romulan Star Empire expanded through military conquest of nearby worlds and spread across large expanses of Beta Quadrant encompassing a highly functional and technically advanced military machine.
The central political body over the Empire is the Senate, the controller of which is the Praetor, and the various Proconsuls. Intelligence services are administrated by the Tal Shiar and the military of the Empire is called the Romulan Guard.
The most noted technology in the Romulan military is the cloaking device. The system involves an energy envelope which surrounds a vessel or object rendering it undetectable, both invisible to the eye and camouflaged to scanning devices and EM sweeps. The power generators of Romulan ships are forced quantum singularities, artificially created gravity wells or micro black holes. These are known to give off abnormal amounts of tetryon radiation, so certain vessels in reasonable proximity can sometimes detect them, even through the cloak. Romulan beam weapons are known as disruptors and they have certain advantages over Federation phasers, mostly due to their destructive power.