>They didn't always pull it off, but there was always at least an
>attempt to portray the galaxy in the TOS era as sort of an
>interstellar Age of Sail—it shows in the broad latitude
>Starfleet captains were supposed to have, the occasional attempts at
>showing long-range communications as unreliable and large parts of the
>galaxy yet unexplored, and so forth. The show was sold to the network
>as Wagon Train to the Stars, but from those bits it's clear
>that at least some of the writers were thinking more of Horatio
>Hornblower in Outer Space.
>
>TNG, by contrast, is the age of containerized freight. Ships still
>get lost in storms and meet other misadventures, but somehow it's not
>as romantic even when they do. :)

I've always felt the "Wagon Train to the Stars" sales pitch was more due to the culture of the time (Westerns were still big money) than any intent on the creative staff's part to crib from that genre. There was always a more Age of Sail feel to the series, with more than one comparison of Kirk to Hornblower. That became even more evident with Wrath of Khan, which could have been moved to such a setting without losing much of the story.