90% of Star Trek science is absolute bullshit. The Q, Prophets, etc being slightly more bullshit doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things.
Star Trek setting runs on "comic book science" -- it's rather "soft SF". Like needing dilithium crystals to use matter-antimatter reactions. There's also all those made-up particles, and of course all the technobabble (especially in VOY) could easily qualify.
The technobabble in particular places Star Trek firmly in the realm of science fantasy. And the second most fantastical thing in the setting is the conceit that human nature has changed.
I wanna believe, though
Given how the franchise utterly jettisoning this concept after years of successfully working with it (by means of mostly non-pozzed deconstruction, examination, and even the occasional reconstruction, along with some good writing here and there) coincides 1000% with the franchise turning to irredeemable shit starting with the last few movies and culminating with the start of the Discovery/Picard era, I wonder if Roddenberry had some kind of mystic vision in the 80s while snorting talcum laced Columbian off a sobbing and naked Wil Wheaton's buttocks, and intentionally steered season 1 of TNG as hard into the "humanity is now super duper perfect and enlightened and special and flawless" schtick as possible just to make sure he could guarantee a decent decade or so of following writers and showrunners having to keep atleast somewhat tethered to the general idea while working on the franchise before it inevitably wound up being dropped and causing the franchise to devolve into a dime a dozen interchangeable "edgy" sci fi properties.
And that's the fundamental change between TOS and TNG. In TOS< Kirk routinely acknowledges that humanity is still a savage race...but we're trying. 80 years later Picard routinely lectures savage aliens about how we used to be just like them. As if humanity will change its stripes in less than a century. It's clearly a conceit Roddenberry had that nobody could talk him out of when TNG was being built and nobody at the network actually cared enough about to tell him "no" and few fans picked up on in those early years of TNG's run.
I think it's a union thing. If I'm not mistaken, they can't give a line of dialogue to some random extra.
Probably right, there is union rules and I think it automatically forces a higher pay for any line spoken. I think it's the nature of a show that takes place on a ship that makes it more noticeable more so than your regular TV show. Voyager was good about having a lot of the same background extras, but it feels strange when they don't interact at all with the main cast when they've all been stranded together for years.
I have sperged bout this before but I legit feel that this retroactively winds up fitting into the franchise's meta well.
Wolf 359 was also an admission that Federation Fleet building doctrine was completely fucked from the ground up. Before then, the Federation built protagonist ships, which works great when the ship is the Protagonist. When they aren't, the Feds would lose them with alarming frequency due to how spread out and isolated those ships are. Losing 5 Connies during detente time borders on the unacceptable, not to mention all the Oberths* that surely ate it when anyone looked at them funny. A hundred years later, the Galaxy-class is built, which is the ship Federation graft built. Objectively, it's a Connie tasked with much more ambitious goals and conservatively requires 2 to 3 times the resources to make. It then has an attrition rate of about half the Connie rate in peacetime. Thus, the Galaxy could never fulfill its stated goal of long-range exploration ship without starbase support and became a mobile embassy. A mobile embassy that would often get hit hard every time they got into an actual fight. "Shields down to 18%!"
I read a DS9 book when I was a kid, where the station was boarded by aliens that had armour that deflected all beam weapons, eventually it dawns on them that projectile weapons will work.
... also meant underpowered shit like the Mirandas, Constellations and Ambassadors remain in operation for much longer than they were built for. Listen, Starfleet Engineering, you can upgrade your USS Miranda (NCC-lolwut) that was built in the late 2260s only so much and expect it to still execute front line assignments during the Dominion War. That's like constantly upgrading torpedo boats that were laid down in the 1880s to be used as frontline destroyers a century later. It's hilarious. It's stupid. It's dangerous and nobody has ever done it.
Shelby is the one that kicked off Fleet modernization efforts in BoBW, so she was probably the one that decided on the Defiant design after using the Nova-class blueprint as a coaster. So, she's probably the one that picked the Intrepid and Akira designs too. Also, the Nova-class itself is actually not that bad for what it is. Yes, it is an Oberth replacement and thus, is undergunned even by the standards of 2370s Starfleet, but considering Ransom was able to keep that ship around for 5 years without Starbase support, that proves it's actually a solid design for most purposes.
Picard almost lost his shit that Worf's human brother saved a small group of
And don't forget his love of 20th century american history!, He's like a Mary-Sue for the sort of nerds that loved Star Trek. the only reason its not called out as much is because the show isn't centered around his character. but he's the ultra amazing white dude who can and does do everything on a ship full of incompetent DEI hires. Doesn't he love repairing "classic cars" and shooting pool and smoking american cigs too. Its like a boomer version of Sonichu at a certain point.
if star trek was written by fans they would have freed these admirals and they'd have played a role in turning the tide of the war, same way on the eastern front anyone that pissed stalin off suddenly became useful and are the sole reason they don't speak german in moscow today.
Maybe I am too military minded for Starfleet, but if I had a say in there, I'd very likely scrap most ship classes, even things like the Nova or Steamrunner. Instead I'd settle on a very tiny amount of classes that are optimised for mass production, simplified logistics and maintenance and a certain room for future upgrades. Pretty much what Starfleet DID with the Constitution and Excelsior classes in the 23rd century. And I wouldn't do it solely for the reason that I anticipate large scale warefare. It's simply much more economical.
no clue about what their boggle is, but the case has been made since DS9 was on that it may be a very nice scifi show in the Star Trek setting, it's not really so much of the exploring new worlds and seeking out new life and trekking the stars and shit like that
I just wouldn't have the Galaxy class at all and it's not hate for the design. It's just that in-universe, the Nebula-class does most of the job it does, but vastly cheaper and more flexible as it's a Franken-ship made by engineers told to weld spare parts together. Even giving it the Wave Motion Phaser-cannon is actually a bad idea. It's a point phaser that can't be used at warp and requires moving the entirety of the heavy ship to aim right. The reason why that refit even existed was because of Admiral Riker being a Boomer about the ship instead of switching over to a modern design. Really, the reason why it was considered a powerful ship during the Dominion War was they could turn that all that extra space into armor plating. What's the point in armor-plating the neck when Nebulas don't have necks to begin with? Sovereigns already function as proper flagships too, so Galaxy-classes don't have a niche post-Fleet modernization.