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Quoting from an episode of Community:

Why don't they call it "Planet Trek"? [They] never go to a star. Not one episode.

But I'm fairly sure that in at least one episode they're deliberately visiting a star before something spacey happens to it.

For my purposes, I'll define "go to a star" as "deliberately heading to a star" in particular.

Hopefully there's at least one long distance trip ("There's a star exploding! Let's go watch from inside the blast range!") but the short distance trips ("I can't see anything going wrong if we fly inside a miasma of incandescent plasma.") count as well.

Going to Mars doesn't count as going to Sol, though, nor does drifting or being knocked into a star by mistake. Incomplete trips also count; if they're heading towards a star to take pictures and Q randomly puts them into a game of Minecraft, it still counts.

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    They go to stars quite some times: They even fly in the corona of a star. In DS9 they use a sun to blow up a space station and also it is utilized to blow up a borg cube. Anyhow: It's not a good thing to ask for a list, here. Maybe you want to reformulate your question, to ask for a single incident disproving the "never" visit a star. I would be happy to answer that.
    – Einer
    May 26, 2014 at 13:31
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    I'm fairly certain most planets are in the vicinity of a star.
    – Compro01
    May 26, 2014 at 14:37
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    The title is "Star Trek", not "Trek to Stars". Nowhere does the title actually state that stars are a destination. The formulation of noun + trek generally indicates that the noun is the general environment that the trek takes place in, and not the specific destination. E.g. "ocean trek" is a long journey across the ocean, "mountain trek" is a long journey over a mountain, etc.. The most obvious interpretation of "Star Trek" therefore is "long journey across the stars", and not "long journey to a star". The quote from Community is just a Trekkie pedantry fail.
    – Beofett
    May 27, 2014 at 15:23
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    Bit of a silly question, pretty much all planets supporting recognizable life are orbiting a star (at least one star), that's why they refer to it collectively as a "Star system". Relative distance between star systems and that of planets and their supporting star, is so vastly different that we can safely say...They really are trekking the stars. (I'm using Star Trek definitions here)
    – n00dles
    Mar 23, 2021 at 15:12
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    @n00dles “Bit of a silly question” — it’s almost as if the question was written as a joke in a sitcom.
    – Paul D. Waite
    Mar 25, 2021 at 11:47

5 Answers 5

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In TNG Suspicions the Enterprise flies to a star named Vaytan to facilitate a meeting of guest scientists to learn about a new shield that would allow a vessel to enter a star's corona. They fairly ignore the planets there and are purely focused on the star and on the shield - which seemingly failed. Until it is discovered

that the shield indeed works, but one of the guest scientists rigged a failure and faked his own death so he could steal the technology.

enter image description here

In TNG Evolution they, let me quote from Captains log,

Captain's Log, Stardate 43125.8. We have entered a spectacular binary star system in the Kavis Alpha sector on a most critical mission of astrophysical research. Our eminent guest, Dr. Paul Stubbs, will attempt to study the decay of neutronium expelled at relativistic speeds from a massive stellar explosion which will occur here in a matter of hours.

enter image description here

In TNG The Naked Now they are flying to a unnamed red giant which is about to explode. This proves problematic because it causes the crew to develop symptoms as if they were drunk. They had a hard time escaping

but they made it - thanks to Wesley and Data.

enter image description here

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    In Suspicions, it wasn't the inventor who faked his death, it was one of the other scientists Beverly had brought to witness/evaluate the technology. He also killed (for real) the original inventor.
    – Kevin
    May 27, 2014 at 14:56
  • I also seem to recall an episode where a scientist was trying to bring a dead star back to life...
    – user11521
    Jul 26, 2014 at 4:46
  • @Michael Wasn't that the Defiant? I think the corresponding log-entry was, that it's good for the crew to do something else but war. And there is no ongoing war for the crew of the Enterprise D.
    – Einer
    Jul 26, 2014 at 6:40
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    @Einer: The "good for the crew to do something else but war" aspect sounds a lot like One Little Ship, to me, but the DS9 episode regarding re-igniting a dead star was Second Sight. It predates the Dominion War, but Sisko's opening log entry has him remarking that the project is a welcome distraction from the anniversary of Wolf 359.
    – Lightness Races in Orbit
    Dec 8, 2014 at 21:38
  • @LightnessRacesinOrbit Right, thanks! Got that confused in my memory.
    – Einer
    Dec 9, 2014 at 9:06
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In the episode Tin Man, the Enterprise is dispatched to Beta Stromgren to investigate a ship orbiting that star when it is about to go supernova.

It turns out

the ship is alive and attempting to commit suicide. Tam Elbrun, a Betazoid, has been communicating with the ship telepathically and knows all this.

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In the episode Ship in a Bottle, the Enterprise goes to observe the collision of two gas giant planets -- an event that could cause the formation of a new star. And if the holographic Professor Moriarty doesn't get his way, they could be watching from way too close.

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In the TNG episode "Symbiosis", the Enterprise D goes to the Sun in the Delos system to study its solar flare and magnetic cycle activities.

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STTNG "Allegiance" has the Enterprise approach dangerously close to a neutron star as a specific plot point.

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