I know this is how people in the 80s and 90 imagined the future and a lot of concepts were probably too far fetched for them.
BUT… why arent they using drones to explore planets? why are there not more drone-spaceships? why does enterprise need a crew to begin with? Why is there so little automation? Why so few uses of AI in general?
I am saying this as a star trek the next generation person. I’d also expect them to have full video and sensory streams of any surface mission teams.
In the original series episode I just watched, they reference that they’ve sent out tons of unmanned drones/probes to map out systems and planets, but starships are enormous and better equipped, so they follow up on any readings from the probes that seem interesting. If there’s an in-universe answer that isn’t “it makes better television”, I’d say it’s a combination of:
Space is really, really big, so probes are only covering small areas anyway.
Their mission is to explore and contact new life, which is more likely to be successful with a human touch.
That’s backwards. Probes can always cover a vastly larger area than manned ships, so needing to cover more area is always a reason to invest in more probes rather than dumping resources into a handful of very expensive ships.
Have you met us? ;)
Also, a lot of the niches served by drones are already covered by AI driven holograms. If you’re not worried about bulky hardware and can supply holo-emitters on the cheap via replicators why wouldn’t you?
Andorians and Tellarites: “Are we a fucking joke to you!?”
Vulcans: “We must expend great effort to suppress our feelings of amusement at all of you.”
*Federation civil war begins