Why is Earth orbit so... empty?

[AlboOfBorg]

Why is it that space around Earth is so... empty? For instance, in ST: TNG "Best of Both Worlds" there isn't a single starbase, satellite or ANYTHING in Earth's orbit when the Borg ship arrives! It's like everyone just packed up and left (maybe there were all scared of something and left...?)! You'd think that there would be tons of ships and orbital stations around Earth and traveling between planets in our solar system! Have these just been oversights by the effects designers, were additional effects too expensive or were they just too lazy? Hell, there was more stuff in orbit of Mars (Utopia Planitia) than of Earth!

 

[scifijunkyuk]

id guess a combo of lazyness and cost-cutting. probably didnt think it was that important and no-one wud notice. they were wrong

 

[Michael]

And I think you maybe underestimate the size of our planet.

Hell, there was more stuff in orbit of Mars (Utopia Planitia) than of Earth!

Utopia Planitia was on Mars. So I don't know what you are getting at.

 

[Cicero]

^ It's also in orbit, as seen in Voyager's 'Relativity.'

 

[Michael]

^ Oops, my bad. Sorry.

 

[BigC]

As seen from approach even the largest orbital station would be invisible. Also perhaps it was on the other side of the planet? As for civilian shipping and routine back and forth traffic it would be the same as seen from a distance.

 

[Basill]

As for civilian shipping and routine back and forth traffic it would be the same as seen from a distance.

Yeah, and most of them probably hightailed it outta there.

 

[Sci]

Even if it was chalk-full of stuff, Earth orbit would probably still look empty. Things that are far away tend to look small, after all.

 

[Anwar]

Most of the defenses are planet-based, and as for Stardock and McKinley Station they were probably on the other side of the planet.

Back during TNG they didn't have the CGI to show us all the stations and space-based stuff Earth should have. And during DS9 and VOY we didn't see enough shots of Earth in space to see that stuff.

 

[RandyS]

The space docks were there, they were just cloaked so we couldn't see them.

 

[PhoenixIreland]

I can accept the size thing in terms of distance seeing starbases.

I'ts inexcusable that the Enterprise was the only ship to engage the Borg Cube in Earth orbit, there should have been ships coming out of those starbases to help.

Were left with the "only ship in range", in the heart of the federation problem again.

not to mention the pissant defences that consisted of the "mars defence peremeter"....what the hell were those three nats? not a defence peremeter anyway!

 

[EmoVulcan]

Earth has only a few sizable bases in orbit. And the orbit of the Earth is HUGE so they could easily be too far away to see (or be one of the stars).

I would think they would have taken down the thousands of satellites that pollute our space today in favor of fewer and more powerful ones.

Also Earth seems way too comfortable with their defenses yet they've been breached too much lately (DS9, FC). So if another series was set in the future of these series I'd expect to see more defenses like... Idunno... phaser turrets or something.

 

[PhoenixIreland]

Earth has only a few sizable bases in orbit. And the orbit of the Earth is HUGE so they could easily be too far away to see (or be one of the stars).

I would think they would have taken down the thousands of satellites that pollute our space today in favor of fewer and more powerful ones.

Also Earth seems way too comfortable with their defenses yet they've been breached too much lately (DS9, FC). So if another series was set in the future of these series I'd expect to see more defenses like... Idunno... phaser turrets or something.

Well as an in universe explanation they must have kept a gaurd of ships near earth after the Borg incident.
The Breen attack was not that successful, a real attack would have destroyed the buildings but they just damaged them, so they must have been intercepted.

http://images.wikia.com/memoryalpha/en/images/f/f7/San_Francisco_attacked2.jpg

 

[EmoVulcan]

Who said they weren't intercepted? We just didn't see 'em. And I wouldn't call that attack unsuccessful.

 

[PhoenixIreland]

Who said they weren't intercepted? We just didn't see 'em. And I wouldn't call that attack unsuccessful.

I think, like the attack on the twin towers and pentagon, and the attempt on the white house/capitol hill (whicheve it would have been), it was more a psycolgical blow.

As Martok said, nobody had done it before, and as we know from Homefront/Paradise lost, Earth folk don't expect to be the target.

 

[EmoVulcan]

Where's the text art Picard with his hand on his head when you need it?

 

[Deks]

Earth's orbit is so empty because when you focus on one show at a time, you focus on just the hero ship and the rest of the Federation doesn't exist.
Oh it's mentioned, but usually, there is no real fleet out there ...

The 'clever' people who did the show conveniently did this same thing.
Even when Voyager was coming home or whenever Earth was on screen ... the Moon was missing.
Ok, I understand the emphasis on the planet, but ignoring stellar bodies and everything else is just plain DUMB.

And begging your pardon but in the 24th century, Earth's orbit should be relatively busy and keeping plenty of defensive systems for one thing along with dozens if not hundreds of drydocks and stations ... with the starbase being the only largest object.

I mean really, even on Enterprise, when the Xindy weapon ship approached Earth in order to destroy it there were NO SF ships.
I mean ... apart from Shran's ship my reaction was: 'what the heck?'

At least the novels have sensibility to describe plenty of stations in Earth's orbit.
And Ds9 (although, the fact that San Francisco HQ was successfully attacked doesn't bode well).
I know most of the fleet was destroyed, but Earth should have prepared for a possible attack at any time (any Fed planet should) because they were at war.
To depict humans as the ones who don't anticipate an attack at all is delusional.

 

[Anwar]

The TMP novelization by Roddenberry explained that Earth's defensive systems are all planet-based, not space-based.

As for ships defending Earth, the ones assigned to defending the planet itself were at Wolf 359 to join with any others that could reach in time (the Borg were coming in too fast to summon thousands of ships).

 

[The Wormhole]

The only time this thing ever annoyed me was in Enterprise's Zero Hour. When the Xindi weapon arrives at Earth, there's no defenses against it. No ships, no satellite weapons, nothing. In fact, the only ship that was near the solar system was Shran's Andorian warship. And yet, at the end of Storm Front Part 2 when the NX-01 returns to Earth there's a huge ass fleet of Starfleet and Vulcan ships in Earth orbit to greet it. Where the hell were they when the planet-destroying weapon was on approach?

 

[USS KG5]

Earth has only a few sizable bases in orbit. And the orbit of the Earth is HUGE so they could easily be too far away to see (or be one of the stars).

I would think they would have taken down the thousands of satellites that pollute our space today in favor of fewer and more powerful ones.

Also Earth seems way too comfortable with their defenses yet they've been breached too much lately (DS9, FC). So if another series was set in the future of these series I'd expect to see more defenses like... Idunno... phaser turrets or something.

Well as an in universe explanation they must have kept a gaurd of ships near earth after the Borg incident.
The Breen attack was not that successful, a real attack would have destroyed the buildings but they just damaged them, so they must have been intercepted.

http://images.wikia.com/memoryalpha/en/images/f/f7/San_Francisco_attacked2.jpg

They WERE intercepted - the 3rd fleet destroyed most of the attacking Breen ships, that much was said on screen.