jecxjo

jecxjo , 10 months ago

Ugh.

I was hoping the ST revival with all these shows would produce just one Alien of the Week shows like TOS and TNG. No season long arcs, no dramas where the events in the episode are less important than the character development. One show out of all of them where it can be tossed into syndication and I can catch a random episode and not have to remember anything else in the series.

SNW was supposed to be that and yet we get this kind of nonsense. /facepalm

jecxjo , 10 months ago

I think you’re missing that TOS and TNG were written as an episodic show and not typically as a serial. Aside from the faintest of arcs, that came via arc specific episodes, you could pick a random episode in syndication and it wouldn’t matter if you could name the previous or next episode as there wasn’t no need to connect them together. Many episodes were written by single episode writers who had the faintest notion of the show and that was all the was needed.

I don’t agree about the payoff for arcs in shows like SNW because the arc is both too controlling of the episodes while also never really being the point of the episode. If you’re going to do an serial drama then do that. Picard was that, you must watch in order and not miss any.

The arcs of TNG were sooooo faint you only knew about them if you chose to dig in deep to a handful of episodes in the season that specifically pushed the arc along. Otherwise you could take the middle 80% of episodes and scramble their order and absolutely nothing would change. Instead with SNW every other episode drops a new plot point for Pike’s dooms day, or Spok’s love life or what character died or went to another dimension, etc.

Character development in TNG was more about us learning about them than it was about having the characters grow. Again, you don’t have to see all the episodes in order to understand the intricacies of a character to understand why they acted the way they didn’t in a TNG episode. At best the growth was seasonal but even then it wasn’t massive. In SNW the character development is probably the biggest tie back to previous episodes.

The reason why I wanted another episodic ST was that I feel none of these shows have any rewatch abilities. We can binge the seasons before the next season starts but I don’t think it’s ever be sitting in a hotel room and turn on the TV and find an episode of SNW and care to watch it on its own. Though I guess that type of TV just doesn’t exist anymore. Maybe it’s just me who likes to flip on the TNG station on Pluto or turn on cable when I’m visiting my parents and watch a random episode and enjoy it without all the extra baggage. I need to finish the last season of Picard and I doubt I’ll ever watch it again. Same with Discovery.

jecxjo , 10 months ago

You are absolutely correct in it being personal preference. I agree I’d definitely watch a random SNW over some of the others. Honestly i think (and this probably goes for everyone else with my view) it’s more about just missing 90s TV. 30 episode seasons that you dont have to schedule your life around. There are TNG, TOS, VOY episodes i watch all the time and some it’s been years since i last saw. Same goes for pretty much anything from that time period that i rewatch now. I think that’s the underlying issue, no one makes episodic shows anymore unless it’s a reboot. Just wish this reboot was the same.

jecxjo , 10 months ago

Yeah I kept hoping when they said that they meant more like VOY or TNG but now that we get half as many episodes it’s just a natural result that the arcs are more prevalent. Sadly that was not the case.