The other side of that is their ship was supposed to be some big super-advance battleship yet every time they took a hit, the shields were almost gone. Not to mention the numerous aliens they meet who bypass the shields altogether and make them all choke or pass out. I always wondered why they only had two kinds of weapons on a big ship like that, but maybe that discussion is for another time.
They got a little more hard-core in DS-9.
The Defiant class ship was an example of what was possible if a Federation ship was nothing but engines, weapons, and minimal crew. IIRC, I've had sex, seen women naked (in person!) and passed on my genes, so my Star Trek-fu is quite weak, but the Defiant has approximately the speed and firepower of an entire Galaxy class cruiser.
They also had an episode where a mass-driver rifle that fired supersonic flechettes and had a micro-transporter that sent it into it's target was being used to assasinate people. It was designed to fight the Borg.
In some of the Star Trek movies they had security/Marines showing up wearing helmets and body armor. And they had Marines on Enterprise.
I always thought a Star Trek series that focused on a company of Federation Marines, and dealt almost exclusively with the "underbelly" of the Federation would have been a cool series.
Ummm Galaxy class starships are explorers.
Starfleet isn't allowed to build battleships.
Now, the Defiant class...
:|
Starfleet had tons of cruisers, battleships and dreadnaughts. There wasn't a separate Federation Navy. Starfleet was it. Although I agree the Galaxy class was a oversized "jack of all trades" variant. And had an oversized saucer section to accomodate it's larger scientific and diplomatic contingent.
