Star Trek The Next Generation always had one flaw.

[Doctor Amadeus]

With the announcement of a new Star Trek series centered around Jean Luc Picard arguably the greatest Star Trek Captain ever. There is one glaring flaw with the series never addressed, and no I don't mean the lack of bathrooms

But the problem is this, I know that the Galaxy Class Starship is a ship of exploration, nevermind the fact it's armed to the teeth, but why the hell are there family members on board?

They didn't have that on Kirk's ship, so the question begs, who thought it was a good idea to put unenlisted, women and men along with children on Star ship that although was on a peace mission was armed, and routinely sent into harms way along the neutral zone to deal with such conditions as with the Klingons or Romulans or even The Borg

[Nevcairiel]

The primary reason was crew morale. If you design a ship thats supposed to go on exploration/research missions for several years at a time, a good way to help morale is to actually keep their families with them.

In the early seasons, they would also drop the saucer-section off, which has all the living quarters, and only take the stardrive-section into combat. Although for some reason they eventually stopped doing that.

Starfleet didn't routinely build targeted "war ships" (exceptions apply), so when a conflict arose, sending their most powerful exploration ships was the best they could do.

If you want to be strict about it, one has to keep in mind that we don't get to see the days, weeks, months or even years of exploration and research. Any story teller will only tell you about the interesting events, not the routine.

[yetgdhfgh]

thats the biggest flaw of TNG?

FFS we had Q that is god

We had the Borg that completly contradicted itself and turned itself into a joke in later episodes and then in a movie

and your problem is family's aboard the Enterprise?

[Solitare-sp]

The enterprise-D was the flagship of the Federation, so it was designed for pretty much everything in mind.

Besides, the seperation bit was in place, so they could do that, even if the nigh on never bothered.

[Kyphael]

Oh, I thought it was because it had no Spock.

[Highelf]

With the announcement of a new Star Trek series centered around Jean Luc Picard arguably the greatest Star Trek Captain ever. There is one glaring flaw with the series never addressed, and no I don't mean the lack of bathrooms

But the problem is this, I know that the Galaxy Class Starship is a ship of exploration, nevermind the fact it's armed to the teeth, but why the hell are there family members on board?

They didn't have that on Kirk's ship, so the question begs, who thought it was a good idea to put unenlisted, women and men along with children on Star ship that although was on a peace mission was armed, and routinely sent into harms way along the neutral zone to deal with such conditions as with the Klingons or Romulans or even The Borg

Wait there's a new Star Trek series being developed? Hopefully better than the new dumpster fire one that is Discovery.

[Vaelorian]

I am just talking about of my ass here... But I thought we (the audience) just had to imagine the starship separating the saucer section everytime the ship encountered something dangerous. If you look at the footage of any battle or dangerous situation, I never see any civilians flowing into outer space or dying, while regular crew members did. Separating the saucer section was kind of a drag to watch after the 2nd time.

[bloodwulf]

Long range\Long time frame exploration. The ship was staffed with a crew and their family to provide morale. Just like our (US) military when you assigned deployment somewhere relatively safe but long term (my experience southern germany), you can take your family. The Enterprise was firstly exploration, it was not a warship like the Defiant or the Prometheus. It has some weaponry but no where near the comparisons of the warships of the federation.

[Deleted]

But the problem is this, I know that the Galaxy Class Starship is a ship of exploration, nevermind the fact it's armed to the teeth, but why the hell are there family members on board?

Its a exploration ship not a warship. Hence they have the family members on board. They did have a consept of Enterprise splitting up in a battle-part and a civilian-part (that retreat) at risk of combat. But it was to expenisive to do it routinely becuse of the cost of the special effects. Hence they only do ths split two? time in the serie, and one time in the movie....

[Ausr]

I thought it was Wesley.

[draynay]

They had a built-in solution with the saucer separation they just didn't bother with it either due to cost or lack of interest. So they wrote it in a way that made sense, then abandoned it.

[Doctor Amadeus]

Their mission is one of exploration, not one of war. They also are stationed on the ship for an extended period and would have been separated from their families for years at a time. As such, the families go with. It's honestly not that different from families deploying to Germany or the like with whomever is the military member of the family. The bases are armed to the teeth, but they still have families living on them.

There is no way they can say that as the series went on, in fact more specifically once the borg were introduced, the Enterprise was routinely sent into military conflict. I can see how the show started out, but how that was never revisited seems odd. The Enterprise historically and through the duration was constantly in danger, that is not conducive of supporting unenlisted innocent women and children.

[SinR]

I thought the flaw was "Wesely Crusher Saves The Day For the 29th Time"

[Zapanth]

The whole issue of the Galaxy-class Enterprise carrying families is moot after the Enterprise D was destroyed years ago. I think the developers learned from their mistake, as evidenced by the Enterprise E not having civilians and families and Voyager not having family units aboard at the time of its departure.

[Weeps]

Also something many failed to mention:

Many, I’d say the majority, are parents that are in starfleet with children aspiring to be a Starfleet member.

Biologist mom and engineer dad, for example. We see the same in DS9

[Kokolums]

Star Trek purists view Trek as superior science fiction because it is uplifting with a positive view of the future. In this future, we don't send warships into space but scientific vessels with a military crew. These ships bring their families along. Purists view late Trek as an abomination that are Trek in name only, instead filled with action scenes, explosions, death, and war. Purists would read the OPs complaint and collectively bury their heads in their hands at how the OP completely missed the point of Trek idealism.

[s_bushido]

There is no way they can say that as the series went on, in fact more specifically once the borg were introduced, the Enterprise was routinely sent into military conflict. I can see how the show started out, but how that was never revisited seems odd. The Enterprise historically and through the duration was constantly in danger, that is not conducive of supporting unenlisted innocent women and children.

It was a TV show. They're not going to have 99% of the episodes revolve around them delivering supplies, scanning cosmic anomalies, and ferrying passengers. Obviously.

The ship was so heavily armed precisely so that those on board were safe from the vast majority of the danger their missions would put them in. And there's no reason we couldn't assume that the families disembarked at a starbase before the ship was sent on more dangerous missions (to patrol the neutral zone or whatever).

[RampageBW1]

Oh, I thought it was because it had no Spock.

Spock was in a few episodes.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

If the purpose of the Enterprise-D was to be long term deployment far from home, ie deep space exploration, then bringing family along makes sense as it'd raise crew morale and they could leave people behind to start colonies. However, given the sheer amount of incidents a Star Fleet vessel gets into on a weekly basis (and how many casualties that rack up over the years, even when they're not at war!), realistically Star Fleet shouldn't have allowed it.

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

The problem is not that there are families aboard the Enterprise...the problem is that, for a Starship with the mission to "seek out new life and new civilization" and "boldly go where no one has gone before", the 1701-D spends far too much time around already known civilizations and not nearly enough time "boldly going".