Other 5 year missions?

[C.E. Evans]

I always felt that the "5-year mission" was really akin to a standard deployment, particularly for a Constitution-class starship. I think much of Kirk's monologue in the opening credits is much more for the benefit of current-day TV viewers to explain why the Enterprise is otherwise wandering out there every week, and need not necessarily be taken too literally within the context of the show itself. IMO, the Enterprise really seemed to be a multipurpose starship, with exploration being just one of the things she can do.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

The reality is to depict a series with a ship firmly set out on the outer fringes of unknown territory is a fascinating idea, but it's something that would really have to be thought through and planned out to work. It would also preclude certain stories where we would see Federation officials interacing with our crew. A story like "Journey To Babel" or "Elaan Of Troyius" might not fit for a vessel that isn't meant to come back to familiar territory for an extended period.

I think it's also because while the premise of a ship going off to 100% unknown territory is very enticing, in practice, it becomes a lot harder to tell stories when every encounter is a first contact. It's a lot easier just to have an opening log entry where Kirk says, "The ship is in orbit around so-and-so, which the Federation first contacted 40 years ago" and dive right into the story of the week than it is to have our heroes discover literally everything about a planet, ship, or alien race.

Not that that approach couldn't work without a lot of thought, but it would lead to a lot more slower, contemplative stories like "The Corbomite Maneuver" or TMP, where the crew is investigating and more reactive than active.

 

[Timo]

"Federation flagship" was a nonsensical idea that was contradictory to what a flagship usually is.

A flagship is synonymous with a showpiece, and Picard's ship did seem to be quite a showpiece for the UFP. If anything, the episodes failed to show Starfleet making much use of that showpiece: while Picard was sent to do diplomacy often enough, his really big diplomatic breakthroughs came by chance (the Klingon mediation deal arose from Picard having Worf aboard, not from him flying the UFP Flagship; his Q dealings arose from him having done the dreary little audition at Farpoint; his Cardassian connection came because his ship did a mapping survey where Gul Macet happened to prowl). Why did Starfleet not deploy the E-D specifically in missions of impressing the Klingons into diplomatic dialogue, say?

Neither Picard nor Kirk really conducted the mission described in the opening credits - one of going where no man/one has gone before to seek out new life and civilizations. Both did their share of such missions as part of their ongoing diverse service, but that's still in explicit odds with what the heroes (or their actors) say in the credits speech. OTOH, that speech is an in-universe phenomenon, too, a paraphrasing of a speech by Zefram Cochrane. Perhaps it's a Starfleet tradition for every CO to make an inspiring speech at the start of the mission, with an obligatory mangling of Cochrane included, even if it doesn't really apply?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Warped9]

I think it's also because while the premise of a ship going off to 100% unknown territory is very enticing, in practice, it becomes a lot harder to tell stories when every encounter is a first contact. It's a lot easier just to have an opening log entry where Kirk says, "The ship is in orbit around so-and-so, which the Federation first contacted 40 years ago" and dive right into the story of the week than it is to have our heroes discover literally everything about a planet, ship, or alien race.

Not that that approach couldn't work without a lot of thought, but it would lead to a lot more slower, contemplative stories like "The Corbomite Maneuver" or TMP, where the crew is investigating and more reactive than active.

I think this could work with planning yet also with a shorter season along 10-13 episodes. It could be just too hard over a 22 episode season.

Mind you, as goofy as it was, Lost In Space was essentially being out on the fringe with no familiar infrastructure to fall back on. Some of those stories weren't far from being respectable needing only some tweaking, at least during the first season.

 

[Drone]

Agreed. The basic slant throughout the first season, even after Smith's succession had begun, was primarily about a family alone, relying on their own resources, facing a myriad of dangers yes, bur also interpersonal challenges that were in a way as significant as overcoming the show's fanciful versions of The Outer Limits' notorious "bears"/

 

[Warped9]

I actually have LIS' 1st season on DVD and I felt some of those stories might have worked for TOS with some mild rewriting and a more dramatic tone.

 

[Poltargyst]

I'm glad the Enterprise wasn't by itself in unknown space all episode every episode a la Voyager. We needed universe building, so we needed the Enterprise to go places around the Federation as well as uncharted territory. We wouldn't have Journey to Babel if the Enterprise had to spend all its time in new regions of space. They did that sometimes, the fact that they didn't every episode doesn't put their mission at odds with Kirk's/Picard's opening speeches.