Eh. It’s still Star Trek. I think the hangup on traveling is silly. The wormhole serves the same role as a narrative device as the warp drive. The original idea, before the Dominion War came along, was that the station would regularly have the same kind of weekly “planet of the week” encounters as other Star Trek shows. And the series does have many episodes like that, episodes like Meridian. I’m referring to bottle episodes, episodes focused on a single novel planet, culture, or ethical dilemma.
The idea was that because the station is at the mouth of a newly discovered wormhole, that the station would get that story mechanic while the characters stay in the same spot. Instead of the entire crew visiting new planets, new planets would effectively come to them. Delegations from new worlds would pour through the wormhole, providing opportunities to explore new cultures and civilizations. And Federation explorers could go through the wormhole and have their adventures shown on-screen or be discussed back on the station. An example of this can be found in Captive Pursuit.
Narratively, a wormhole functions the same as a warp drive. The story just brings the universe to the crew, rather than the crew to the universe. But narratively it makes little difference. You would think Trek fans more than anyone would appreciate that motion is relative in space.
Eh. It’s still Star Trek. I think the hangup on traveling is silly. The wormhole serves the same role as a narrative device as the warp drive. The original idea, before the Dominion War came along, was that the station would regularly have the same kind of weekly “planet of the week” encounters as other Star Trek shows. And the series does have many episodes like that, episodes like Meridian. I’m referring to bottle episodes, episodes focused on a single novel planet, culture, or ethical dilemma.
The idea was that because the station is at the mouth of a newly discovered wormhole, that the station would get that story mechanic while the characters stay in the same spot. Instead of the entire crew visiting new planets, new planets would effectively come to them. Delegations from new worlds would pour through the wormhole, providing opportunities to explore new cultures and civilizations. And Federation explorers could go through the wormhole and have their adventures shown on-screen or be discussed back on the station. An example of this can be found in Captive Pursuit.
Narratively, a wormhole functions the same as a warp drive. The story just brings the universe to the crew, rather than the crew to the universe. But narratively it makes little difference. You would think Trek fans more than anyone would appreciate that motion is relative in space.