The Galaxy class starship was designed with the ability to separate the saucer from the stardrive section, so that the “floating city” part of the ship could be left somewhere safe while the rest of the ship galavants off to do something risky. We see this happen precisely once, in the season one episode Arsenal of Freedom. We also see saucer separation deployed for a handful of tactical and or emergency uses (such as against the Borg in The Best of Both Worlds, or to escape the breaching warp core in Generations).
So, this seems like a useful ability to have, and the Enterprise is constantly being sent into dangerous situations. Why not use this ability more frequently?
Because the special effects required to do it were too expensive for the production company? The Best of Both Worlds separation used footage from Farpoint, I believe.
Yes, I’m pretty sure they used the same footage.
Reminds me of the Klingon bird-of-prey explosion that is used in both Undiscovered Country and Generations.