BOTF was the last game that Microprose ever made - they were banking on it bringing in money to pay off their debts, but they were soo desperate that they rushed the game out without even playtesting it. The game wasn't well advertised, and the bugs and unfinished state of many of the features meant it just never caught on. Microprose managed to release a patch before they went under, but it wasn't enough to fix the game. It's only now that the community has had time to establish itself and really get to grips with modding and fixing it that the game is truly coming into its own.
After Microprose collapsed, the Trek licence went to Activision, who went on to create the Armada series. "Ownership" of BOTF however went to Atari - in fact, they still technically own it, and even have a (Rubbish) support page for the game on their site. The code for the game was ultimately lost though, (It's probably saved on some lost floppy disk in a forgotten basement somewhere) and since Atari didn't have the licence for producing Trek games, they couldn't do anything with it even if they wanted to. Atari's financial woes over the years and the poor income that Microprose made from the game only served to ensure that Atari forgot about what they had acquired.
Scifi turn-based strategy games are rare now, as most games have gone down the route of real-time strategy. Trek games unfortunately are even rarer to come by, especially if you're looking for a decent game. BOTF was simply an underappreciated, unfinished, and forgotten game in the minds of the big companies. And that's precisely why Supremacy and Birth of the Empires (And the three previous BOTF2 projects that all ultimately collapsed) came into being.
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I've sent Mike a PM about the dock images. You never know, it might be an idea he likes the sound of. 
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