The humble shuttlecraft has taken many forms over the years, from the tiny inspection pods that got used in the movies because there was an effects budget that needed eating up, through to the runabouts that DS9 got lumbered with before the writers realised how impractical it was to have the show's key stronghold protected by something with the military fortitude of a garden shed. Like potato waffles, shuttles are awfully versatile - and yet, like potato waffles, they're almost always overlooked as a valid alternative. Do you have somewhere you really need to be, but the transporters have been taken offline by an enemy attack? Not a problem shuttles contain emergency transporters, used most notably in The Best of Both Worlds when Worf and Data indulge in a spot of Borg-napping. Theyve also got warp engines, independent life-support and even limited weaponry. The cream of the shuttlecraft crop is the Captains Yacht, which finally gets an outing in Star Trek: Insurrection and proves the key to victory a mere twelve years after someone designed the thing. Yet as useful as they are, shuttles are clearly disposable in the minds of Starfleets greatest. Voyager went through so many, its a wonder Chakotay wasnt pulling double shifts on a 3D printer to manufacture the replacements. In Star Trek: Nemesis, Data throws himself into space rather than deign to visit the shuttle bay. Every single starship has a fleet of fly-by-wire, antimatter-powered attack drones at their disposal, and what do they use them for? Driving Wesley to school and keeping Tom Paris distracted so that he doesnt start drawing on the walls.
