DanMcS said:
I agree, they probably have more ships, but mainly of the "defend the sol system" type. Enterprise could be the first deep-space vessel starfleet got, since warp 5 may be the first speed available to make deep space a less than multiyear trip.
But even if Enterprise was the first and only ship in starfleet, they'd probably still call themselves starfleet, just so they could have ranks and spiffy uniforms and parties.
Mmm...I agree with some of this. However, we know, according to a number of episodes, that cargo-carrying vessels with Warp 1 and 2 (and slightly better) capability have been plying the space-lanes for decades, long enough for an entire culture to spring up around them. Military vessels in the real world are generally always much more advanced, and this trend will probably continue into the future. This means that there has likely been quite a few Warp 3 and 4 vessels out and about for decades. Teddy Roosevelt's "Great White Fleet" did an around the world right near the turn of the century, but took, what, a year or two to do so (I can't remember the exact time period)? Ships of earlier ages, say Magellan's, took a number of years for similar trips, (but colonization took place just the same, to address another point from above), while ships of later ages take considerably less time - a US supercarrier can make it across the ocean relatively quickly.
My point is that Earth could well have a large, interstellar sphere of influence, with a large fleet of far-ranging ships. It's just that now (in the timeline of the show) they have a ship that can go places they couldn't before - along the lines of how the US had a large, powerful, relatively far-ranging fleet until the first nuclear sub; the fleet's influence could then be felt deeper, and in places inaccessible before, like the Polar ice cap. Same principle here.
Additionally, it seems Earth has to have a number of colonies out among the stars; otherwise, where are all those freighters hauling their freight? The implications of this is that there could also be local fleets that are part of Starfleet also, built at the colonies, thus extending the arm of Starfleet. Or, additionally, colonies could have bases at which ships from Earth are assigned, far from home, much like the US has carriers based in Japan.
Basically, I'm just trying to show that Starfleet could be a fairly large, far-ranging organization. Enterprise just happens to have extended its range quite a bit.
Or maybe I could make a US Navy/NASA analogy...naw, I've already bored all of you enough...
