It’s a bummer that they got rid of the skant so quickly. I wonder if today’s fashion would be different if Star Trek continued to show all genders wearing pants or skirts during the height of its popularity in the 90s. Maybe it would have been somewhat normalized for men to wear skirts too.
My vote goes to DS9 season 2 which is severely underrated. Althouth I like the latter half of DS9 more – mainly because it had Worf in it, and Worf is the best {{:-) – season 2 lay the foundation for DS9’s later success.
The whole season is a huge step up from season 1 which often felt like TNG on a space station. In season 2 the writers began to really try out new things. It starts with a never-before-done 3-part episode, then does some more great world-building in “Cardassians” and “Necessary Evil”, then slowly builds up a mysterious force in the Gamma Quadrant by the name of “the Dominion”, then achieves the feat of making Bashir likeable in “Armageddon Game” upon which his friendship with O’Brien is built, then does a couple of standalone highlights like “Whispers” and “Blood Oath” (in which Kor, Koloth and Kang return! which in today’s crossover-ridden landscape would be just a footnote but back then it was a huge deal), then lays the foundation for the Maquis on Voyager and also does more with the Maquis then Voyager ever will do, oh and in the same episode spells out the show’s leitmotif “it’s easy to be a saint in paradise”, …
… and we’re still not done yet because the rest of the season is a total banger: “The Wire” is a trip into Garak’s psyche, “Crossover” brings back the mirror universe, “The Collaborator” is a big step in making Kai Winn one of the show’s main antagonists, “Tribunal” is the OG O’Brien-must-suffer episode, and “The Jem’Hadar” introduces the Dominion literally with a huge bang by blowing up a Galaxy Class ship. You know, the ship class that we just spend 7 years with and which escaped countless foes unscathed.
Seriously, never skip season 2 on your re-watch. Don’t listen to anyone who says that “DS9 only gets good once the Defiant shows up”. No no no. This is the real deal.
I agree. The episode isn’t perfect but the first ~35 minutes are decent.
I’ll never understand why it’s considered to be the worst Star Trek episode. Yes, it has a weird ending but Star Trek had plenty of weird episodes (which aren’t considered bad). What I find much worse are episodes like TNGs Code of Honor that are insulting, or episodes that are downright boring like SNWs The Elysian Kingdom.
I grinned like an idiot throughout the first episode because of all the Voyager callbacks but I got the biggest laugh in the second episode when Boimler goes to his new quaters and the room is bright red because of the glowing nacelle. I had to pause because I was laughing so much. For the past ~30 years I always wondered what crew quarters which face towards the nacelles were like. Thank you, Lower Decks.
Yeah. I’m a huge Worf fan (he is and always has been my favourite Trek character) but that scene does not work for me at all. He doesn’t even sound like Worf here. Riker too sounds totally wooden at the beginning. Not sure if it’s the missing post-production but everything about this scene feels off. It’s a good thing this scene didn’t make the final cut.
I love SNW but this show is held back by the low number of episodes per season. With 10 episodes it’s just not possible to develop all your characters and still try out weird storytelling ideas. Although some of that is self-inflicted. Nobody forced them to bring on Kirk and Scotty, when they haven’t even managed to give Ortegas something to do in 20 episodes. By season 4 we’ll probably have a junior Doctor McCoy, Ensign Sulu and Cadet Chekov on board, and then it’ll get really crowded.
But back to the topic: I loved the humorous episodes this season but 3/10 is really the maximum amount of funny episodes. On the other hand, I’d love more thought-provoking stuff like “Ad Astra Per Aspera” and “Under the Cloak of War”. 2 out of 10 episodes was not enough for my taste.
A lot of people criticized Insurrection for being like a two-part episode of TNG (as in: doesn’t feel like a movie). But isn’t that … good? It’s TNG. We got more of TNG. 🤷🏻♂️ I like Insurrection. It’s not my favourite Star Trek movie but it’s a damn good movie for being Star Trek. Except, you know, when Picard beams off the exploding vessel and lets the villain die because that’s what Movie Picard does.
