If you’ve been longing to turn your office or bedroom into the Office of the President of the United Federation of Planets, you now can with ThinkGeek’s exclusive Federation President rug. This large, impressive, comfortable rug will look great on the floor of your home or office – and how do I know this? Because I’ve got one on mine and I love it!
The thing that stands out most to me about this rug are the colors – the vibrant blue, white, and yellow color scheme really pop. It also stands apart from some of the other Star Trek rugs on the market, whose color schemes lean more heavily towards black and grey. If your home has a lighter color scheme and all that black and grey doesn’t suit you, consider this alternative instead.
The rug is bigger than I anticipated – measuring a full 48 inches in diameter – but is very well made, and comfortable to walk on. Sometimes with licensed products like these they can be more style than substance where the quality of the items themselves can be low, but that is not the case here. You aren’t just paying for the Star Trek logo with this one; for the $119.99 price point you are receiving a high quality, durable product.
The rug is also relatively easy to clean – the usual household debris that accumulated on it over the holidays came off with a quick swipe of a vacuum cleaner. I haven’t yet spilled anything on it, but the instructions are to treat immediately and blot with a paper towel, much like you would any similar product that was not also a very cool Office of the President of the United Federation of Planets rug.
You can really imagine something like this just out of shot during Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country or the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episodes “Homefront” and “Paradise Lost.” The design of the seal of the Federation president is seen in those DS9 episodes, and is only slightly modified in rug form.
When I first saw this item on ThinkGeek, I was surprised and excited by it because in canon there is not much attention paid to the Federation’s political structure. Over the course of the Star Trek franchise, we see only three Federation presidents – an unnamed human in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, an unnamed Efrosian in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, and the first president to receive a name, Grazerite statesman Jaresh-Inyo, in the previously mentioned DS9 two-parter.
(Also, if you choose to accept the biographical data about Jonathan Archer shown on screen in “In a Mirror Darkly,” he too served as President of the Federation later in life.)
We know relatively little about the position and its relationship to the rest of the structure of the Federation government from what we learn on screen. In addition to the Federation president, the Federation Council is seen in The Voyage Home, and frequently referenced throughout the later shows. It is unclear what relationship the president and the Council have – the appearance of the president presiding over the Council in The Voyage Home implies he acts more like a Prime Minister, but in subsequent appearances more like the President of United States would today.
Outside of canon, the Star Trek novels have a more fully fleshed our governance structure for the Federation that resolves these seeming inconsistencies, thanks to Keith R.A. DeCandido and his novel that focused exclusively on the politics of the Federation, Articles of the Federation. The president in that book, Nanietta Bacco, is a fan favorite for followers of the novels, and if that’s something you’re interested in exploring further, I recommend checking it out.
ThinkGeek have carved a niche for themselves as a hub for all kinds of interesting products to suit many fandoms, and their line of Star Trek products gets more diverse, exciting, and fun each year. The Federation President rug is no exception to that, and if you’re looking for some cool Star Trek decor for your home or office to show off your allegiance to the United Federation of Planets, look no further!