4. Why Are There Children On The Enterprise? - Star Trek: The Next Generation
Quite sensibly, the original Star Trek series depicted a ship occupied by men and the occasional woman, though spouses and children were largely never seen. However, in The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine in particular, the ships appear to carry a large number of personnel who are not active members of Starfleet, but actually the families of officers; Hell, J.J. Abrams' Star Trek had Kirk's pregnant mother onboard the U.S.S. Kelvin, and she had to be fired into a shuttle while Romulans attacked Kirk Sr. Doesn't it just seem a tad stupid, given the high risk of intergalactic warfare, to risk the lives of family members on the Enterprise? Though we'd all miss our spouses were they exploring space, the countless dangers associated with it would likely make you want to keep your feet on the ground. It's so unnecessary.