does a TREK movie [I]need[/I] the Enterprise??
 

or space battle for that matter.

a lot of TOS episodes happened planetside with The Big Three and the Enterprise crew seemingly helpless to assist them (Scotty would put in a fair effort, but as my niece once asked "why did Kirk keep Sulu around anyway?? he was never much help!!":lol:)

so I was wondering if a TREK sequel set entirely on a planet would work.
for example, the command crew have to deal with a Klingon threat to a pre-Warp world while trying to figure out just where the Enterprise has disappeared to.

could a movie without the ship work??

It could work for me.

If the story set outwith the ship was involving enough, and if that story didn't require a space battle then I see no reason not to give it a go.

Star Trek IV didn't have the Enterprise. They were on a Klingon Bird of Prey the whole time.

Good point. The story they chose to tell in that film did not require either of the above and worked just fine.

I'd be in favor of a Trek movie without the Enterprise. It was done on a couple of the TV shows, so why not in a film? I wouldn't mind not having a spce battle as well.

ST4 needed the ship for much of the movie but not for space battles of course. Without a ship there was no time travel nor any way to get the whales. They could have come up with some other kind of method but since the idea of using a ship was already established they didnt have to spend the time explaining how a different method would work. Certainly whatever method would have to make sure the whales were always in water. So its either a self-contained vehicle or time travel directly within the ocean.

As for Trek 2011, do some kind of battle in the beginning 15 minutes as a setup but thats it. Solve whatever plot complication without needing the ship except in a minimal way only.

true, put I did mean just the crew without a ship at all.

can anybody think of a story for a planetbound crew or what could be the reason they are without the Enterprise????

Big E destroyed and crew marooned on a planet with a race of bio-mechanical weapons that are at war with each other.

Enterprise has already been destroyed twice the previous movies.

it just needs to be "out of comission" for a while.