I watched this yesterday and it was pretty interesting. A drone version could be a lot smaller, not needing to provide room for crew, not needing to generate oxygen, or at least only needing a very small supply for the one or two occasional service visits or something.
The other route would be to incorporate self sustaining capabilities. Harvest sea water to generate fresh water and grow stuff. Wouldn't probably ever be able to sustain enough to feed the entire crew, especially if it was an all vegetarian crew, but could probably squeeze a few more days/weeks out of each deployment.