The Federation
Notes and Considerations
What exactly is the definition of a "Federation member"? The answer to that is not as simple as we would have liked. A lot of different sources have a different 'list' of members. I will try to motivate my general assumptions here.
Categories
I have divided the potential members into three categories:
- (1) Confirmed members
- Membership of this race is explicitly mentioned on screen.
- (2) Very likely candidates
- Membership is a logical assumption based on Starfleet service. Sources like the Encyclopedia and behind-the-scenes interviews fall in this category, as do alien races that petitioned for membership.
- (3) Possible members
- Questionable sources like the STARTREK.COM website fall in this category. Also includes personal conjecture by me or others.
The Animated Series
Although The Animated Series are not part of the official Star Trek universe, I have included the possible Federation members from TAS anyway. I know there are many people who do accept TAS as part of the Star Trek universe, and I think the majority of episodes could very well have happened. So for the sake of completeness, I have included The Animated Series.
The cat-like humanoids seen in Star Trek: The Voyage Home were allegedly called Caitians by the makeup department, in recognition of the animated character M'Ress. Please note that Lt. Arex' species, the Edoans, were not Federation members, but close allies of the Federation.
Colonies
What kind of status do Federation colonies have? While there are undoubtetly many colonies that are too small to be independent, there must be colonies, especially the older ones, which are fully autonomous with large populations. But wether Federation colonies can actually gain a fully independent status is unknown. If they can, it would be likely some of these planets are in fact full members of the Federation, with representatives to the Council and Ambassadors.
The "Fundamental Declarations of the Martian Colonies" mentioned by Samuel T. Cogley in "Court Martial" (TOS) are the only indictations that Mars might be independent. But even if it is, there's still no evidence that Mars is a full-fledged Federation member.
To avoid any confusion, none of the colonies are listed as Federation members, with the sole exception of Alpha Centauri.
The "Generations" document
A photograph has recently surfaced of the Picard family album from the Star Trek: Generations movie, on display at the Star Trek Exhibition. It shows, among other things, a news article concerning the founding of the Federation. In it, some old speculations dating from the days of fandom are more or less confirmed, and overall, it's a trivia-treasure.
There is more than enough reason to doubt the authenticity of this document though, both from a production viewpoint and a 'Star Trek' viewpoint. First of all, there were actually several different family albums made, and not all of them were used in the movie. Second, even if it might have been used in the movie, we surely never saw, let alone could read, this particular document. In fact, there is no real reason to assume this document is 'canon'. It has even been contradicted already by Star Trek Enterprise, since we now know there is no UESPA in this era.
The reason that I have included information from this document, is that it contains one of the precious few (almost) official facts concerning the beginning of the Federation. It gives some names, and more importantly, it gives some information on the often (strangely) neglected Alpha Centauri, the closest star to Earth, and definitaly an inhabited world.