Michelle Hurd has been championing longer seasons of television for the sake of job security. We really just need to accept that 10 episode series are not there to “cut out the bad stuff” but to put the cast and crew in a worse position. Produce less content, if it “flops” then you’ve only spent so much and can cut everyone loose and recoup the loss elsewhere instead of investing jn the future.
I think more episodes of SNW would do the show a lot of good. Right now, the status quo (in my eyes, at least) is gimmick episodes. We’re not getting nearly enough “normal” Trek. Season 2 specifically has mostly been gimmicks, crossovers, and bottle episodes. You really need to construct before you deconstruct, make a status quo before you break it. It would make these big episodes stand out more.
spoilerI don’t mind a little bit of tune in next year but to chop it off like that is totes BS
So…
More episodes would allow SNW to be more things for more people, and try to color outside the lines of traditional sci fi drama. Some people love the quirky episodes, and that’s cool. I am not into musicals; however, if there is one “that time I went to band camp” episode a year that doesn’t fill a 10 ep slot, ok, whatever. 10eps is REALLY SHORT.
Honestly, I think SNW is in a pretty decent position for a larger episode order. Heck, having more episodes to create more space between TOS character guest appearances would probably do the series good.
These two had the misfortune of being in the grey zone between background and supporting characters. It's fine for a show not to focus on the bridge crew (who's at the helm on the Cerritos?) but Detmer and Owosekun got a raw deal because sometimes it seemed like they were gonna have some character development. Like in season 3 that Detmer had this bizarre beef with Stamets out of nowhere, and that was probably the only episode where she got more than a couple of lines.
I'm not surprised that the actresses chose their other projects (they were probably at the bottom of the totem poll of the show in terms of pay).
I probably wouldn't have noticed they were missing, but in episode 3 Michael introduced Rayner to the crew and said "You'll meet Owosekun, Detmer and the rest of the crew in a little bit", and then later Tilly said "I'll send Commander Owosekun in", off screen of course. Lame.
I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but I didn't realize there were conspiracy theories floating around about them being fired or some nonsense. I figured the actual reason was probably pretty benign.
Yeah, I never thought it was anything deeper than that they're working Canadian actors who probably had other projects. I looked both of them up because someone in another group I frequent was chirping about it, and Emily Coutts recently wrote and directed her own short film, and Oyin Oladejo got to play the lead in an indie thriller.
The DS9 set was complicated. You had obstructions and levels. Those would need to be replicated with green screen props and they tend to not bother with those. At best you’ll get uncanny valley like the Romulan Bridge in S1 Picard. Works for a specific scene, but isn’t something to dwell in.
I know it's an incredibly unpopular opinion but my least favorite SNW show to date has been the musical, it was kitchy and waaaay too annoying to follow along with the story when they just kept singing all the time, it pleased the theater kids to no end, but I couldn't even make it through the episode, having said that, SNW is far and away the best Trek in the entire P+ batch yet, and I'm glad it's getting shown the love it deserves for being my sort of Trek. Looks like we got a runner, boys, long may she run.
I’ve talked to some folk who work in TV about just this.
The upshot is that knowing the length of run with enough time creates better episodes whether the run is short or long.
The problem is something getting big and an emergency demand for more episodes after a season has already been planned out. (or that episodes need to be cut for a reduced run).
As for the BBC, we are still very much waiting for the clock to run out on Casualty, Holby City, EastEnders, silent witness…
I’d also argue that even despite a shorter episode length, Sherlock still managed to overstay its welcome.
I had to stop Picard's first episode because I burst out laughing when the superhero jump up the stairs happened.
I finished 2 seasons of Discover before I stopped watching.
I don't think I'll go back and try to finish either series, but I could stand DISC way longer.
I made it to about episode 5 with Discovery (the one with the security officer getting mauled because she walked into that cage with the wild animal unarmed) by actively giving it more chances than it deserved, not sure how you managed to watch a whole two seasons of it.
Lorca got me through discovery for a season or two and then he was gone, I don't think I watched anything beyond it. I hear it's only gotten worse, somehow
For me the first season was arguably one of the worst. I didn't start enjoying it until around S3 with the time jump, but it's been hit or miss since then. I just can't stand how, for lack of a better word, sappy the show can be with the constant "cut to crewperson's face giving an approving nod while Burnham gives a motivational, whispered speech backed by heartwarming music." It all seems so over the top, lazy, and gimmicky. Rather than write better stories, they want to pull on your heartstrings with cheap tropes to keep people watching.
The last season of discovery is the only one I have left and I'm finishing it begrudgingly. I really don't like that show. Huge fan of strange new worlds, but discovery felt like a cw version of a Disney star wars show.
How did it feel rushed? We had a new adventure every week that was largely unrelated to the previous one, and character development was distributed all throughout the season. The only thing I felt was rushed were some of the episodes like the one with the tower (Among the Lotus Eaters) where the resolution to the conflict came very surprisingly and abruptly, but longer seasons wouldn’t have changed that.
The big one is Chapel and Spock. She goes straight from pursuing him to leaving him without much of any actual relationship in between. Pelia doesn’t get to do much as the chief engineer, and Ortegas barely gets any screen time at all.
My feeling watching SNW is that it isn’t getting enough space to breath more and chew on its subject matter more. I’d bet the writers and show runners are voicing the same thing … if they had more episodes they’d totally be able to fill them out with good stuff. In a way, organically growing from short episode counts into greater seasons might be a good way to go. Lots of comparisons to TNG etc here, and in those cases, maybe a shorter first season might have actually worked well.
It took me a few episodes to like Enterprise and now I really enjoy the series. I really wish it when t a couple of more seasons.
The theme song was off putting to me at first. Once I bonded with the cast and characters it somehow became better and now I let it play for most episodes and even sing along.
I think the reason people don't really like the theme song very much is because it isn't the classic instrumental. All of the other Star Treks have been very obviously Star Trek from the opening few tones. Enterprise isn't like that.
Strange New Worlds got this, even though it was a brand new piece of music just the first few notes, you can tell it's Star Trek without even looking at the screen.
Back when Enterprise was airing some fan took the opening footage and added instrumental music to it instead and it was soooooo much better. Worked wonderfully. Really wish I'd saved a copy of it, because I can't find it anymore.
I think it matches with the prequel aspect before Starfleet was really a thing, and it matches up beautifully with the montage of Big E’s evolution. DS9 has the best instrumental but ENT’s intro is great.
I would be very happy to see 15 episodes a year, I think their current cast is great. They’ve expanded the story of some of the characters in season 2, but I feel they could easily add a few more spotlight episodes a year.
Barclay’s actor has become a truly odious person in real life –– I don’t think the TNG cast (Stewart in particular) would have agreed to have him on the show.
Yeah, sadly that’s my impression as well. I really like his acting style and remember him especially for this scene. But it’s not easy to separate the artist from his art.
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