The Prometheus Problem... - YouTube

I'm not watching 15 minutes of autism unless it's about the Star Trek Starfleet Technical Manual. That's all we needed in the 1980s.

On the topic of saucer separation, Roddenberry etc. when planning TNG intended it to be something that happened commonly. (Note that it's already introduced early in the pilot.) It was intended as a way to get the children out of harm's way so that the adults didn't seem like psychos bringing their kids into battle.

Unfortunately it didn't turn out to be that useful in practice. If you always left the ship combined then you could keep reusing your special effects shots in later episodes. This gets more difficult if some shots show the saucer section, some the battle section, and some both.

Probably even more importantly, it was sure to slow down the show. Are you going to show the bridge crew getting into the turbolift and going to the battle bridge every time? That would waste time and be repetitive. But wouldn't it be too abrupt otherwise? In a 44 minute story you can't afford to waste 30 seconds and disrupt the pace.

The TNG writers came up with an ingenious solution to their problem: If an episode involves going into battle or some similar danger, you just don't mention kids. It's remarkably effective.