"Does anyone remember when we used to be explorers?"

[PhoenixIreland]

When watching some of Q-Who I thought to myself it would have been far more interesting if they had kept them on an exploration mission in the unknown. That mission was far more interesting because they had absoloutly NO idea what to expect.

It would have allowed for more shows like Q who and Darmok, Silicon Avatar and Transfigurations.

But I think they wasted so much of the series with snoozefests like ferrying ambassadors around.

Tho Picard said they used to be explorers...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation_episodes

take a look through that list, there was actually very little exploration, whenever people complain that the Galaxy class was so luxurious the rightful responce is it was meant to provide comfort when people were away from home and on long exporations missions that could last years.


Don't get me wrong I think they still should have had arcs near federation space like Redemption but alot more actual exploration would have been better I think.

Thoughts?

 

[Christopher]

Oh, absolutely. TNG got frustrating at times. Its opening narration said "To boldly go where no one has gone before," but it spent most of seven seasons going places where others had gone before.

 

[PhoenixIreland]

Oh, absolutely. TNG got frustrating at times. Its opening narration said "To boldly go where no one has gone before," but it spent most of seven seasons going places where others had gone before.

By the second episode they were ripping off TOS

 

[Sector 7]

This one of the reasons I'm hopeful about the new movie. I want to get back to exploring the unknown again. I agree that TNG fell short on that count, as much as I love the series.

 

[Christopher]

Oh, absolutely. TNG got frustrating at times. Its opening narration said "To boldly go where no one has gone before," but it spent most of seven seasons going places where others had gone before.

By the second episode they were ripping off TOS

So entirely not the point. I mean "they" as in the characters, not the writers, and "places" as in actual physical locations, not story concepts.

 

[PhoenixIreland]

They were not the only series capable of recycling old stories DS9 and Voyager did it lots of times.

Im just surprised that on episode 2 the best they could come up with was a poor copy of a TOS ep.
Its a good thing they survived and were given a chance to go on to develop the masterpeices like Yesterdays Enterprise Darmok and Best of Both Worlds, if they'd be judged on the 1st season alone....


DS9 had a similar exploration failure with the Gamma Quadrant but they made up for it by creating the Dominion which I think is the best enemy ST has ever had.

They should not have even seen earth again until at least the 5 season when they finished their first few years of exploration.

 

[DWF]

They had plenty of first contact situations.

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/USS_Enterprise_(NCC-1701-D)#List_of_first_contacts

Tin Man even opens with them on a surveying mission as a prelude to colonization.

 

[Red Ranger]

To answer the OP, yes, that would've been preferable. But both TNG and TOS had plenty of eps that had nothing to do with strange new worlds, simply encountering races and territory they're familiar with. Then there were others that were purely exploratory. And then there were eps that weren't explicitly exploratory, which delved into little-known aspects of races they already knew, or just the human condition.

Red Ranger

 

[PhoenixIreland]

They had plenty of first contact situations.

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/USS_Enterprise_(NCC-1701-D)#List_of_first_contacts

Tin Man even opens with them on a surveying mission as a prelude to colonization.

Many of those were a result of routine missions that got side tracked not exploraton.

To answer the OP, yes, that would've been preferable. But both TNG and TOS had plenty of eps that had nothing to do with strange new worlds, simply encountering races and territory they're familiar with. Then there were others that were purely exploratory. And then there were eps that weren't explicitly exploratory, which delved into little-known aspects of races they already knew, or just the human condition.

Red Ranger

I'm fine with other types of episodes, and I know TOS was in farmillar territory occasionally

My point is I think TNG didn't do enough of exploring the unknown

 

[DWF]

Many of those were a result of routine missions that got side tracked not exploraton.

What's a routine mission for them? Their job is to explore the unkown that's their mission, now they could spend an hour just mapping star systems and travelling from system to system, but that would get boring all to quickly.

 

[PhoenixIreland]

Many of those were a result of routine missions that got side tracked not exploraton.

What's a routine mission for them? Their job is to explore the unkown that's their mission, now they could spend an hour just mapping star systems and travelling from system to system, but that would get boring all to quickly.

The way I look at it were supposed to think they're doing the boring stuff 2/3 of the time and when they do something interesting we get a look ie and episode

What I meant by routine mission was errands in or near federation space rather than being deep in the beta or upper alpha quadrants exploring the unknown

 

[USS Excelsior]

What could have made it easier is if TNG introduced Transwarp Conduits which would allow them to travel vast distances but only within their already setup network.

They could have used it to travel out into the unknown and be able to quickly return to Federation space for those local storylines. The same goes for when the plot calls for them to travel back to Earth and such in such a short period of time from where they are.

 

[Nebusj]

What's a routine mission for them? Their job is to explore the unkown that's their mission, now they could spend an hour just mapping star systems and travelling from system to system, but that would get boring all to quickly.

I believe the Enterprise's normal missions are the delivering of medical supplies to a planet which we will not reach because the teaser reveals some emergency signal or spacetime anomaly or some other blasted thing which demands our attention until the tag, or else the shipping of dull, emotionally distant people to conferences which are to seal some treaty between planets we've never heard of before and will never hear of again.

 

[Forbin]

Boldly shuttling foreign diplomats back and forth between meetings!

That's why I came up with my USS Grand Alliance "Fast Diplomatic Transport" kitbash. A ship specifically designed to do those things and free up the Galaxy class ships for what they were intended to do.

 

[DWF]

What's a routine mission for them? Their job is to explore the unkown that's their mission, now they could spend an hour just mapping star systems and travelling from system to system, but that would get boring all to quickly.

I believe the Enterprise's normal missions are the delivering of medical supplies to a planet which we will not reach because the teaser reveals some emergency signal or spacetime anomaly or some other blasted thing which demands our attention until the tag, or else the shipping of dull, emotionally distant people to conferences which are to seal some treaty between planets we've never heard of before and will never hear of again.

The Enterprise is a Swiss army knife capable of a large number of mission including warfare, they played a big part in the Dominion war for example, so I don't think the mission of the Enterprise can be narrowed down to one simple mission.

 

[Birdshine]

I think the kind of missions that the TNG crew did was well rounded. They looked into a lot of mysteries. They also encountered a lot of new species, etc. I think its appropriate they shuttled around so many diplomats, as boring as it may of been sometimes. They were the Federation's flagship so whenever they wanted to impress anybody they brought out the Enterprise. I think thats also why there were so many local missions. This is a Galaxy Class ship, its power and size is supposed to be representative of the Federation's strength, so you don't want to send it off where no one is ever going to see it you want it at home where its presence pacifies planets.

Do you guys honestly think the TNG crew didn't ecounter enough of the unknown? If I'd been on that crew I would of been shitting my pants everyday.

 

[T'Cal]

I like the name of this post. I often quote it when I'm driving my family somewhere and I try a new route or when I get us lost.

 

[Ferd Burfel]

I think the kind of missions that the TNG crew did was well rounded. They looked into a lot of mysteries. They also encountered a lot of new species, etc. I think its appropriate they shuttled around so many diplomats, as boring as it may of been sometimes. They were the Federation's flagship so whenever they wanted to impress anybody they brought out the Enterprise. I think thats also why there were so many local missions. This is a Galaxy Class ship, its power and size is supposed to be representative of the Federation's strength, so you don't want to send it off where no one is ever going to see it you want it at home where its presence pacifies planets.

Do you guys honestly think the TNG crew didn't ecounter enough of the unknown? If I'd been on that crew I would of been shitting my pants everyday.

Maybe thats why they transferred you AWAY from the Conn.

But I agree, there were episodes where people the crew did some things we'd seen before, but I also know they did a lot of new things. The other day I watched Darmok, Q Who?, BoBW, Time's Arrow and Masks. All of those were pretty good new life and new civilizations episodes.

 

[I am not Spock]

They were encountering new lifeforms every week!

Nagilum, Gomtuu, various emergent energy beings, the Borg, those extradimensional dudes from 'Schisms', Armus, etc.

 

[jgdst]

The other day I watched Darmok, Q Who?, BoBW, Time's Arrow and Masks. All of those were pretty good new life and new civilizations episodes.

Masks? Seriously?

You're right though, they did do a fair old bit of exploring the unknown, maybe not as much as we would've liked, but that's what Voyager was trying to accomplish (and succeeded to a large degree I think). If TNG hadn't started dabbling with the diplomat / ferrying ambassador stories, it might have been harder for DS9 to pick up in that vein - something I think it did better than exploring the unknown, which fell a little flat I felt (Meridian for example? ).