#i just rewatched encounter at farpoint

[regalpotato]

11 years vs 22 years

[agent-troi]

rewatching encounter at farpoint and it’s just sooooo funny to me how seriously picard takes Q at first, and by the third time he shows up picard is like 🙄😒WTF DO YOU WANT NOW Q I JUST WANT TO ENJOY MY EARL GREY IN PEACE

[weerd1]

It’s Been a Long Road: Two decades after “Star Trek: Enterprise” I still have Faith of the Heart.

After the click, there are 2300 words of me doing a deep dive on my love for "Star Trek: Enterprise." You have been warned.

When I was in elementary school, I was a year younger than my peers. My mom had decided I didn’t need to go to Kindergarten as I was already reading ahead of my level, so she insisted I be placed at age 5 directly into 1st Grade. In ways she was right; I completed the reading and phonics program in my little Arizona school for the entire first grade before Christmas. To this day though, I am clumsy with scissors, paste, and all the “kindergarten skills” and I spent the rest of my school career smaller, weaker, and less coordinated than everyone in my class. 

This probably all worked out in the end; sure, I couldn’t play sports, but to avoid bullies and getting picked on, I got funny, and that’s worked out pretty well for me. But in those days when I would play a sport such as baseball, the opposing team would step a little closer, the coaches would advise me to take the walk; I was not as good as my peers, so allowances were made for my performance.

That is exactly how I looked at “Star Trek: Enterprise” for years. It was only four seasons, while its powerhouse predecessors all had seven. It wasn’t set in a utopian far future, but rather not too far from now meaning more modern and vernacular language. The science seemed a little spurious, with writers seeming to think the term “Rigel” was just some made-up word from older Trek series rather than older Trek series using actual star names for locations. The knowledge of Trek seemed a little lacking as well, with the first episode citing “Klingon Warbirds” and basing the hero ship on a design introduced in a then recent movie…that was set 200 years later. 

I watched though, as we were coming off of there being CONSTANT Trek on television for the previous 15 years, and this was what we had.

I groused then, a lot. The lack of continuity, the trivia gaffes, the over-sexualization of women characters (ok, that WAS more than a bit overdone, and I still grouse that point).

The theme song. Oh my lord, the theme song.

But eventually, this show won me over, almost in spite of itself. Then there was a major shift in tone for the third season, and it got to be pretty solid, and the FOURTH season was…STAR TREK! Like its predecessors, the show had taken some time to find its footing (c’mon, admit how uneven the first couple of seasons of TNG were), but had pulled itself together, and the show’s future looked bright in 2005!

And then there was a truly terrible last episode and ENT was cancelled and gone. 

Twenty years later, here I am, and though the absence of new Trek only lasted about four years—until JJ Abrams 2009 movie—I felt that absence keenly then. I am glad to report there has been Trek I really enjoy since then…and some marginal entries, but that’s not new either honestly. But with all this new material, I still find myself going back to revisit Archer and his crew. I’ve rewatched maybe two TNG episodes in the last 15 years. Maybe two or three Voyager episodes. But TOS, DS9, and ENT I hit regularly. Why does ENT keep forcing itself to the front of my Trek consciousness?

From the beginning, ENT suffered from some external pressures that weren’t helpful to its development. There was a tension between doing more of the same, successful formula Trek had been delivering since “Encounter at Farpoint” (the TNG pilot episode from 1987) and doing something experimental and new. Viewer fatigue was setting in a bit, but fans were vociferous in what THEY thought Trek meant. Anything that strayed too far would take a beating on the internet message boards. 

DS9 had just finished off their wartime storyline, and though there were adamant Niners, it was only just beginning to truly find its audience with the advent of home video allowing one to actually watch the whole thing. Meanwhile, the less arc-oriented VOY had added the character Seven. There had been a ratings increase, which the producers took to mean any new show needed an attractive woman in a catsuit. Remember also, we were in the midst of the Star Wars Prequel trilogy, so going BACK to a time when the story could be a little looser was floating in the zeitgeist. 

But it was also 2001, and though the visual continuity of the then modern Treks had maintained a history inclusive and accepting of TOS, putting a starship on screen that would look like a century’s LESS development than Matt Jefferies’ design from the mid-1960s was going to be problematic. 

I don’t know this is true, but I also suspect that since the previous shows had a British man, a Black man, and a Woman as captains, someone in Production wanted to make sure there was a white, American man back in the center seat. Maybe I’m wrong, but that’s my gut.

So all of this goes into the show, and honestly it kicks off as a bit of a hot mess. So much seems to be playing it safe. Some fairly cliched storylines that occasionally try something a little new. A few things it does try new are not quite there: That aforementioned over-sexualization of the women in the crew*. Cringy comments about relations with aliens. Archer watching water polo.

There are a lot of forgettable episodes, contradictions. And yet, I kept watching. Yeah, I was on message boards complaining about the tech looking too advanced. I’d gripe about how un-Vulcan the Vulcans seemed. I’d gripe about every violation of what I accepted as canon, that was often really just things the fandom had settled on in the 70s and had no basis on the show. And I was just a complete tool online when the first cloaking device showed up. 

And the theme song, oh my lord, the theme song.

But I kept watching. And before I knew it, I started to appreciate something about this show. I had to make a choice between griping that this modern show that I was actually enjoying didn’t adhere to a single line of dialog written (then) 40 years before for a show that wasn’t expected to last a year. I, a staunch Trek gatekeeper, was having an awakening about continuity and canon, and I had to figure out why. Finally it hit me. 

These characters, these performers, they were more than they should be. These characters were making me love them, even when the stories were mediocre or cliche or counter to what I believed was canon. 

Take Jonathan Archer, played with almost megaton-levels of earnestness by Scott Bakula. Archer’s earnest, do-gooder nature is so extreme…you know how a show like “Family Guy,” does a joke, and it’s ok, and then it keeps going way too long, and you get sick of it. And then it keeps going still, and somehow, this only kinda-funny joke goes so long or so far that it actually manages to somehow loop back around to being not just funny, but hilarious. That’s Archer’s earnestness, his naiveté.  His “oh gosh” nature is interesting and fun compared to Kirk’s bravado. Then, after he oh goshes his way into losing ANOTHER fight, he’s simply grating. THEN you start to think he’s just devastatingly boring. But if you keep watching, then it comes around to this unironic serving of safe-guy that doesn’t blink in how GOLLY he is as a hero and you smile when he all but winks at the camera. And then, in later seasons when he’s faced with some pretty devastating moral dilemmas, you FEEL it!

T’Pol, played by Jolene Blalock: she’s so attractive it almost hurts to look at her, but you realize soon after that while she somehow seems to keep ending up getting rubbed down in decon Jolene is BRINGING the performance. That her delivery, her tone; the micro-expressions which betray her stoic facade for the Vulcan emotions at a full boil underneath…you buy it. You realize her performance is wonderful, and she’s one of the best Vulcans in the entire franchise.

Connor Trinneer as the character I recently described as “Florida Man in Space,” Trip Tucker. He’s a walking cliche, his accent making “warp-field plasma conduits” sound like something you’d serve up with sweet tea and grits. He’s got Himbo energy that rivals the output of his anti-matter reactor, and still it works. His “I don’t really know much about anything, but I’m willing to learn…oh God I’m pregnant” (actual episode) speaks so beautifully to humans DISCOVERING things for the first time, screwing it up, but learning from their mistakes and going back for more! 

I could easily go on about Travis Mayweather, the kid who grew up in space and is both completely knowledgeable and blissfully ignorant of anything that goes on out there. Malcolm Reed, the British tactical officer who if his upper lip was any stiffer, he could use it as a weapon. Hoshi Sato who starts out completely out of her depth, and ends up loving it all. Dr. Phlox, your over-friendly, polyamorous uncle who brandishes optimism like a flame thrower and plays with eels. 

They are all just…TOO. Too this, too that, and in doing so, somehow all circle back to being absolutely perfect. Because as flawed as ENT is in its storytelling at times, and how mired it is in attitudes before #metoo, the IDEA of the show is a great one: How does humanity get from the mess we are now to the icons of TOS or TNG? Enterprise shows us it wasn’t a switch, but a road.  A long road, getting from there to here.

Yes, even the damn theme song, hokey and way too on the nose is EXACTLY RIGHT for what this show means.  

Somewhere along the line, we all knew we had to move in a little closer when ENT comes up to bat, but we all started wishing, hoping, that maybe it would get a home run.

And sometimes, just sometimes, these characters that are great in spite of themselves, and this design, that’s too good for what it should be**, and this show that’s just not on the level of its predecessors does exactly that and knocks one into the stands. Suddenly it’s season four, and Enterprise manages to sum up the humanity Star Trek has been serving up since 1966 better than any show before or since:

Vulcan Ambassador Soval: We don't know what to do about Humans. Of all the species we've made contact with, yours is the only one we can't define. You have the arrogance of Andorians, the stubborn pride of Tellarites. One moment, you're as driven by your emotions as Klingons, and the next, you confound us by suddenly embracing logic.

Admiral Maxwell Forrest: I'm sure those qualities are found in every species.

Vulcan Ambassador Soval: Not in such confusing abundance.

We’re not perfect, we’re not utopian, but we are AMAZING when we give ourselves the chance, and for me, Enterprise takes that idea and runs with it. It often swings and misses, but when it connects, we can smile and clap and let it take its run around the bases, because it makes us feel good. And if it weren’t for Enterprise teaching me how these lessons, these characters are more important that visual continuity or strict adherence to arcane canon, I wouldn’t have accepted the Kelvin timeline. The DISCO Klingons. The Strange New Worlds uniforms, sets, and character interpretations. Because as much as I love what Star Trek means, all of that deeper meaning is nothing if it isn’t entertaining. And Enterprise taught me how important that was. 

I could go on about how much better the show got when Berman and Braga took a back seat to Manny Coto, though there are certainly strong arguments that he got a little too fan-servicey. But in the end, the point is CBS took over and closed down Enterprise just as it found its footing. I hope the wave of nostalgia we’re seeing applied (perhaps TOO applied in shows like “Picard”) to modern Trek means we get more than a passing Lower Decks reference to the show. And if not, well, I’ve got my copies, and my fan fic, and my Tumblr memes. 

Most importantly though, I’ve got (I’ve got, I’ve got) Faith of the Heart.

*I will give the show credit at least that it was pretty willing to flaunt shirtless men as well, and biceps-a-plenty. 

**In regard to things looking more advanced, I will give credit to Brannon Braga for dropping a hint in an interview at the end of season 1 that the Enterprise-E coming back in “First Contact” had subtly altered the timeline, making things a little more advanced. Fans—and I regret to include myself—railed against that online, and it wasn’t really mentioned again. Recently, Strange New Worlds has revisited and canonized the idea that the timeline, even though it is the Prime timeline, DOES go through shifts and changes due to temporal incursions, evidenced wonderfully in the episode “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” when a Romulan time traveler admits to altering time so the rise of Khan happens not at the 1992 date that Spock gave us in the original series “Space Seed” to now to him still being a child 30 years later. It’s in-story shorthand for the fact that when a show goes for six decades some continuity has to change and THAT IS OK. I wasn’t ready to accept it then, but am glad it’s now part of Trek. 

[jonfucius]

Great Star Trek Rewatch - TNG Season 1

Originally posted on Twitter 17 March 2021 - 6 April 2021

Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 1 is up next in my Great Star Trek Rewatch. As with ENT, DSC, STX, TOS, TAS, and TOS FF, mini-reviews will document my progress.

Encounter at Farpoint: TNG's pilot is the weakest of the various series premieres. Saving graces are John DeLancie's fully-formed Q, the McCoy cameo, the visual effects, Patrick Stewart's commanding performance, and the greatest tag line: Let's see what's out there, indeed. 5/10

The Naked Now: This episode would have worked better once we knew our heroes a little better (perhaps after "The Arsenal of Freedom"). Since we're still getting to know them, this rehash of a superior TOS episode is flat on arrival. Fully functional, it ain't. 4/10

Code of Honor: It's a racist piece of dogshit. Next. 0/10

The Last Outpost: Man, these Ferengi that allegedly eat their enemies must be as bad the Klingons or the Romulans! Uh, no. They're bad, but not in the way we've been expecting. The T'Kon Empire is worthy of follow-up. 5/10

Where No One Has Gone Before: TNG’s first great episode. Reality powered by thought is a classic Trek idea. Kosinski and the Traveler are excellent guest characters. I’m not the biggest Wesley fan but I cheer every time he calls out Riker. 8/10

Lonely Among Us: There’s just not enough story here to sustain an entire episode. Also, justice for Engineer Singh, reduced to a wig on a chair in one scene. The Antican and Selay makeup, however, are very well done. 5/10

Justice: 90% of this episode is hot garbage. The remaining 10% goes to Picard’s speech about absolute justice (something governments still struggle with), and Crusher’s grief over losing her son. If the Edo really were this primitive, would Picard have stopped there at all? 3/10

The Battle: Wesley’s smugness (and the weak writing for Crusher and Troi) drags the score down a bit, but this is a fairly good first season effort. Learning more about the otherwise enigmatic Picard through a Ferengi’s quest for revenge works. 8/10

Hide and Q: Q’s return so soon after the pilot tries to do something interesting, but it’s not an engaging story. 6/10

Haven: Lwaxana Troi is a love her or hate her character, and I adore her. Wyatt’s chemistry with Troi makes him a believable rival with Riker for Troi’s affections. The Tarellian ship is a striking design. 7/10

The Big Goodbye: While this episode is responsible (for better or worse) for holodeck malfunction stories, this one has a reasonable amount of tension. The reaction to Whalen’s shooting is an excellent in-universe touch. Redblock is effortlessly malevolent. 8/10

Datalore: I would imagine this was the first time people really took notice of just how damn good Brent Spiner is. Evil twin plots aren’t new to Trek, but this is a good one. Glad to see both villains again at later dates. 7/10

Angel One: It’s a sexist piece of shit. Next. 0/10

11001001: The visuals are striking, as are the Bynars. The holodeck scenes with Picard, Riker, and Minuet are worth the price of admission. A solid mid-season installment. 7/10

Too Short a Season: Fountain of Youth episodes are corny at best. A combination of makeup and casting dooms this one from the start. The Iran-Contra parallels come through loud and clear. 4/10

When the Bough Breaks: The Aldeans' plight is sympathetic. I just get the feeling that there's not enough plot to sustain an entire episode each time I watch this one. It's not objectionable but it's not oustanding, either. It just is. 5/10

Home Soil: Some very subtle commentary on the ravages of colonization gets lost in the "ugly bags of mostly water" scene at the very end. Malencon's death is somewhat gruesome for Trek (at least until the airing of the season finale). 6/10

Coming of Age: An excellent first season effort, with Wesley's exam and Remmick's investigation serving as the impetus for the title. Will we see Quinn and Remmick again? Time will tell. 8/10

Heart of Glory: A strong Klingon episode that sows the seeds for RDM’s sublime “Sins of the Father”. All killer no filler. 8/10

The Arsenal of Freedom: Confining this episode to a soundstage limits the scope and stakes of this one, but I do enjoy Crusher and Picard’s scenes. I especially love the Lower Deckers on the bridge. Some good commentary on the military-industrial complex here. 7/10

Symbiosis: Did Nancy Reagan write this stinker? A bummer that this was one of Merritt Butrick’s final roles before his too-early death from AIDS. It could’ve been a great one, but it’s just mediocre. 5/10

Skin of Evil: The first time a series regular dies…for good. The behind-the-scenes tales are legendary, but aside from the goofy oil slick monster, Yar’s senseless death (randomly, in the line of duty) and touching funeral elevates this episode. 7/10

We’ll Always Have Paris: I don’t know why, but this one works for me. I like the sense of isolation as our heroes track down Manheim; and the time distortions are fun, even if the science doesn’t make sense. 7/10

Conspiracy: This episode's shocking climax still hits hard over thirty years later. The unnerving feel of the episode kicks in from the jump and is sustained through to the chilling tag. A shame that this wasn't followed up in live-action. 8/10

The Neutral Zone: The return of the Romulans is dramatic, but the best scenes for me are in the 5th act and the tag. Picard's speech to the refugees is an inspiring summation of Star Trek, and even after an uneven season, it's hard not to be energized for what's to come. 8/10

And with that, TNG Season 1 comes to an end in my Great Star Trek Rewatch. Final score: 5.84/10. Highest score(s): “WNOHGB,” “The Battle,” “The Big Goodbye,” “Coming of Age,” “Heart of Glory,” “Conspiracy,” “The Neutral Zone.” Lowest score(s): “Code of Honor,” “Angel One.”

[autisticburnham]

Okay, I haven't been liveblogging bc I was eating, but thoughts so far:

It is SO stupid to expect us to believe that a doctor who knew her baby daddy had a genetic disease never ran tests to see if her son had it

I understand that it's to explain what the Dominion War was to returning tng fans who didn't watch ds9, but it's kinda stupid to have a staff meeting to explain what the Dominion War was to a room full of people who, even if they didn't see action, were in Starfleet during the war. They should have thrown Sidney in there at least

I'm so annoyed that it wasn't just a lie while she was undercover and saffi did break up offscreen, fucking again

Happy to see Mica

Showing me clips of Encounter at Farpoint doesn't make me like Picard more, it makes me want to rewatch Encounter at Farpoint

I kinda wish it was actually Moriarty, but either way, a sentient AI running this station in a way where they're unable to communicate is horrifically close to the AI slavery Guinan warned against

Listen, ds9 is my favorite, but it's fucking stupid to act like the Defiant, even as Starfleet's first warship and first ship with a cloaking device, would be more famous than the ship that charted the Delta Quadrant

Even leaving the Defiant out of it, it's stupid to pretend that a ship buff wouldn't know Voyager

And speaking of Voyager, Jack's little line about how we're all stars in the same galaxy but lightyears a part reminds me much more of Janeway's space literally means nothing, the gap between planets, but it at the same time is the thing that binds us all together speech than any of Picard's speeches. Not that I'm trying to draw a parallel between Jack and Janeway, but the throughline with him and Picard really isn't there if he's reminding more of a totally unrelated character

Geordi feels off, but idk if I can verbalize why

[alfvaen]

Cellular Peptide Cake

I don't remember when I first saw Star Trek, but I was definitely quite young, maybe five years old.  I was born in 1971, so only a few years after it went off the air the first time, but still playing in syndication.  The first episode I remember clearly might have been "Operation--Annihilate!", and I imagine I found those plastic fried-egg cell things to be quite scary at the time.  I watched it sporadically for years, and I'm not convinced I saw every episode for a long time. I was also reading James Blish's Star Trek episode collections (and the Alan Dean Foster equivalents for the animated series) from the library, where they were filed down in the kids' section for some reason.  To some extent those books and the actual episodes blended together in my head.  In particular I remember Star Trek 9 and the episode "Obsession", which I never saw for years and years, but I knew how it went.  Some of my favourites were ones that maybe haven't held up particularly well, like "Court Martial" and "Specter of The Gun" and "The Savage Curtain", but in general I watched them pretty indiscriminately, had no concept of which ones were from which season or anything like that.  I did watch some of the animated series too, but not nearly as much.

I of course saw the first movie when it came out, and had the soundtrack album; I started reading the novels that came out afterwards, too.  (I suppose I had read some of the earlier ones, like "Spock Must Die", already as well, but mostly the newer ones.)  I saw most of the rest of the movies too (I still haven't seen all of Star Trek V); Star Trek IV was my favourite.  I also got the book "The Making of Star Trek" which lots of interesting behind-the-scenes stuff about how the series came to be.

And then TNG came out.  I was kind of iffy on it at first.  I missed "Encounter At Farpoint", but luckily a friend had it on tape so I watched it a little while later.  As a "gifted child" two years younger than my classmates, I had some issues with the character of Wesley Crusher, finding him painful to watch most of the time.  I stopped watching it with any consistency and it became an occasional thing. But I gradually became fond of it, and enjoyed most of the episodes I watched, though again I lost track of which ones were new or old.  At some point I got a book which had a list of all the TNG episodes, which helped me fill in some of the gaps.  (There was a period where they had TNG reruns on one channel late at night after Jerry Springer, and I caught up on a lot there.)  I wasn't as fond of the TNG movies, though; "First Contact" was the best, but even that was never a favourite.  I haven't rewatched any of them, though.

Deep Space 9...my wife and I tried it when it came out, watched a few episodes, but I think "Move Along Home" mostly killed it for us.  I've seen about half a dozen episodes since then--the tribbles one, the "O'Brien replicant" one, and some of the mirror universe ones.  One day perhaps I'll make a concerted effort to get back into it. It’s possible I won’t just consider it to be a Babylon 5 ripoff.

But we did try Voyager when it came out, and it may be the only Star Trek series (or, at least, the only post-TOS pre-Discovery series) that we never gave up on. Oh, we did miss most of Season 2 because we lost access to cable channels for a year, but we went right back to it when we could, and watched it to the end.  I don't recall it having nearly as many standout episodes as TNG, but it was a lot more consistent from the very beginning, at least.

"Enterprise" we also tried but it didn't hold our interest.  Not sure if there was any big reason, but one thing that low-key bugged me was always when stuff taking place before TOS didn't feel continuous with it.  Like, TNG and Enterprise both used "offline" a lot.  TOS never did...and yet it was chronologically in between them.  It makes sense out-of-universe that TOS wouldn't have used terminology that didn't exist yet in the 60s, but it felt wrong in-universe.  Same thing with the visible tech level differences between Discovery and TOS later.  (And let's not even mention the periodic Klingon redesigns.)

The "reboot"/"Kelvin timeline" movies were okay but didn't wholly in me over either.  They seemed a little gimmicky sometimes.  The third one actually felt most like actual Star Trek to me.  I haven't rewatched any of those either.

Of the newer series...we watched three seasons of "Discovery" and may have given up on it for now.  At least, it's on hiatus for us.  The series-long arc thing takes some getting used to, the continuity issues do bother me a little, and some of the stuff just seems outlandish.  The spore drive?  The giant tardigrade? (Does it never occur to anyone that you can't just make a tardigrade bigger and expect it to have all the same characteristics?  Square-cube law, anyone?)  I like most of the characters, though, and the Harry Mudd time-loop episode was enjoyable.  We haven't tried "Strange New Worlds", and we only watched one episode of "Lower Decks" before deciding it wasn't for us.

"Picard" we've seen two seasons of, though not the third yet.  Once again with the season-long story arcs, but it is interesting how they pick up some of the dangling plot threads from TNG and weave them into other stuff.

Honourable mention has to go to "The Orville", which is the Star Trek which is the most Star Trek without being Star Trek.  (Like that Firesign Theatre joke: "Benjamin Franklin--the only President of the United States who was never President of the United States.")  It's most like TNG, but with characters who swear more and have more juvenile senses of humour.  Again, I haven't seen the latest season of it, but I enjoyed the first two and will probably get back into it at some point.

But it's TNG that I'm always going back to.  TOS I can't take seriously any more, for some reason; I did just rewatch it, partly in step with listening to the Mission Log podcast about each episode, but for the most part I feel like I'm done with it. The animated series...well, I'm still revisiting that one, but I suspect it's not going to hold up that well either.  TNG...the first two seasons are highly spotty, but after that it gets really consistent.  It is more episodic than modern shows, but that just means that individual episodes can be experienced on their own with greater enjoyment.  DS9...I've heard a lot of good things about it, and I'm sure if I can just get over that initial hump I'll enjoy it just fine.  Voyager...that one does demand more of an in-order watch, and there is that entire season I've mostly missed.  Enterprise...well, maybe, one day.

Right now we're doing a TNG watch-through (skipping the really bad episodes, mostly) with the family.  Looking forward to it.

[softboysoong]

Data: Sorry, sir. I seem to be commenting on everything.

Riker: Good. Don’t stop, my friend.

Data’s surprised and pleased little face after this oh my god. Riker met this funky little android about two seconds ago and his reaction was ‘your rank is honorary, right’ and ‘so you think you’re superior to humans?’ and within the space of ONE FUCKING EPISODE he graduates to ‘this is my friend and if anyone touches him I’ll commit murder.’

Meanwhile Data’s like ‘William T. Riker is the second person ever to call me his friend and this makes me so happy I’ll have a Micro Expression.’

RIKER ADOPTED DATA SO FUCKING FAST Y’ALL THEY’RE A SPACE FAMILY NOW

[annakie]

I couldn’t sleep, and the new Picard episode is up, so I started watching it and I... oh my God...

Big spoilers below.

WESLEY.

WESLEY CRUSHER RETURNS.

I honestly cannot believe it.  I need to go back and rewatch it again.

I cannot believe they finally gave closure to Wesley Crusher.

It was almost everything the character of Wesley Crusher deserved.  A brief explanation of who he was and what he’s doing.  Letting us know he’s OK and happy where he is.  An explanation of why.

He’s probably not going to be in S3 now almost for sure, but who knows.  I wish he could have interacted with Picard (or Beverly next season), that’s what made it almost perfect, but I get why it wasn’t in the cards.  It was still just so damn good to see him and know he was okay. 

Seriously, I’m very emotional here.

I’m like, two years younger than Wil Wheaton and he was my teenage celebrity crush.  Wesley Crusher meant a lot to me not just as a teen crush, but as an “it’s OK to be a smart kid” character.  Fuck the Wesley haters.  He’s meant a lot to me since the day Encounter at Farpoint first aired and my family all gathered around the TV to watch it. I sobbed the day he left the show in season five, and cheered every time he came back.

I never thought we’d get a canon goodbye to Wesley, especially after his scene was cut from Nemesis.  So, even if he’s not in S3 of Picard, that was enough.

Wil Wheaton was also so very good in that scene too, and you could tell he absolutely loved getting to be Wesley Crusher one more time.

I’m going to go rewatch that and finish the episode, and then I’m going to post this again tomorrow but way more coherently.

[centipede-rain]

So, I’m re-rewatching encounter at farpoint and Q is literally such a bastard, I love him

-he absolutely KNEW the correct century for fashion and way of talking, he totally just wanted to show off his cool human cosplays

-he absolutely didn’t need to do any “preparations” for the courtroom, he just wanted to leave to see what they’d do

-following them in a giant glowing ball when they try to flee, but always just an itty bitty bit faster than them, no matter how fast they get? Bastard move

-as they surrender and he traps them in his fence ball thingy, just before transporting them to the courtroom for the first time.. he absolutely didn’t NEED to shake the ship to scare them, but he did it anyway because he’s a dramatic bitch

-as Picard declares that he sees no “charges” against humanity, two of his soldiers put machine guns against Datas and Trois head, not Tashas though because it would be asymmetrical and that’d ruin the cool geometric vibe 😒

[malcolmreeds]

i finished my tos rewatch about eight months ago and was like ill start my tng rewatch straight away and just ...... never did rip - anyway im Finally sitting down to encounter at farpoint ✌️

[tomspizzapalace]

For the ask game, either Janeway/Chakotay or Q/Picard? You can pick! Btw I love your blog, you seem very cool! :D

I'll do both for fun!

Janeway/Chakotay

1. What made you ship it?

Was watching Voyager after trying to watch Season 1 of Ds9 and got bored (dont @ me I'm almost finished with it!) and I got around the scene where J/C was discussing about Spirit Guides and I literally physically screamed "Wait! Wait! Are those two gonna be together?!" and you bet your ass I googled their names together immediately (after I googled what were their names, i am not good with names). From then on, I was hooked. I saw that undeniable chemistry between them. I think I got to a point I cant differentiate canon to fanon between them (character wise and story wise). I also spoiled myself about their ending. Then discovered fanfiction, and here I am.

2. What are your favourite things about the ship?

THE. ANGST. jk. But seriously, their chemistry, their dynamic, how they are so trusting of each other and how Kathryn is afraid that Chakotay is that loyal to her. But really the angst. It just screams wanting more!

3. Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

I love them both as a ship and as characters (although Chakotay could've used some character growth or some personality aside thinking about Kathryn) but separate the characters from the actors. I love Kate Mulgrew with all my heart but no with Robert Beltran. Due to that, I don't want Chakotay back on screen, I'd rather prefer a mention or some passing remarks. And I don't want Chakotay to be back with a different actor or VA. So there's that...

Q/Picard

1. What made you ship it?

May I point you to encounter at farpoint. Jk. I ship them but I am not a super shipper, it's just that their chemistry! I love the annoying one x the straight man trope and I see also the unrequited love trope. But tbh I somehow ship them romantically and at the same time as best bros like Barney and Ted.

2. What are your favourite things about the ship?

Again. The trope. As I am also like that with the people I love (being annoying that is). And how Picard tolerates Q.

3. Unpopular opinion about this ship?

On my first watch, I didn't notice how Q somehow is kind of creepyish? Idk the right word but yeah, noticed it on my rewatch on some episodes.

ps. Awww thank you! ❤️

[the-plural-of-cris-is-crises]

A Very Trekful 10 Days: Day 2

Star Trek: Picard S2 Countdown: 9 days!

Q Rewatch - Star Trek: The Next Generation S1E10 “Hide and Q”

Main takeaway from my Hide and Q rewatch: Not a lot, other than Q loves messing with humanity. It's really cute to see him at the very beginning of his interactions with humanity and how much he does not know them. It will be an interesting contrast to seeing Q when he pops in (as usual) in Picard S2.

Borg Queen Rewatch - Star Trek: First Contact

Main takeaway from my First Contact rewatch: The Post-Atomic Horror Q takes from in Encounter at Farpoint is from 2079. First contact was in 2063. It's surprising that that is still in Zefram Cochrane's future at the time of First Contact. "Kill all the lawyers" and "guilty until proven innocent," I just... It's hard to reconcile these two depictions of Star Trek history, but then there are definitely times when it's baffling how different it can be within the same, or close to the same, time period. I am still wondering what is going to have changed in the past (way before the Post-Atomic Horror, before WWIII, at the year of the Bell Riots -- just two years in our future) in Picard S2, and will it somehow connect it to the Post-Atomic Horror future or does it just have the same color scheme and similar vibe? Beverly said poverty, war, etc. is all eradicated within the next 50 years after First Contact but they still have a bit to get through, apparently. None of that was mentioned to Cochrane, but I suppose they shouldn't anyway.

Picard S1 Rewatch - Star Trek: Picard, S1E2 “Maps and Legends”

Main takeaway from my Maps and Legends rewatch: It's fun watching this right after First Contact because they talk about First Contact day right at the beginning because the synth attack was on First Contact day and they have a flashback to it at the beginning of the episode and I was just like "Hey! I just watched that!"

I always felt like there was more to Narek and Narissa's story we never learned. It definitely feels like they were laying hints to things in these first two episodes that were never touched on again. I also thought that Trill girl might be in it more, but nope. I hope she survived. I wonder if she stayed on Coppelius or arranged to return home, if she did survive?

New Release - Star Trek: Picard “No Man’s Land” Audio Story

Status: 30 minutes left

PicardPositivity Day 22 - Laris & No Man’s Land

[qwertyfingers]

Not to be too forward but please drop your TNG watch order.

okay tng is. complex. here’s how i’d do it I think. I’m jumping about a lot, and I’m also struggling to remember a lot of it because my first watch was 7 years ago and my rewatch w friends we just did Sherlock Holmes and then went straight into chronological order. so this is like, combo of a handful of eps I remember being plot important and just stuff that makes me laugh.

Elementary, My Dear Data (S2E3) and Ship In A Bottle (S6E12). a) introduces you perfectly to the concept of holodeck episodes, which will be important later b) DaForge married gay energy off the charts c) Picard is really fun. the only failing of this as a start is the tragic lack of Guinan

ALL of the Q eps. Speedrun the Qcard nonsense and get a lot of the overall show plot

Encounter at Farpoint (S1E1 and S1E2)

Hide and Q (S1E10) - unnervingly babyfaced Riker. you could skip this one but it lays some good basis for who the Q continuum are, but it’s kind of fun

Q Who (S2E16) - borg introduction! absolute must watch. The insanity of ‘to learn about you is frankly provocative… but you’re next of kin to chaos’ as a line alone, let alone the voice Patrick Stewart gives to it. Iconic episode.

Deja Q (S3E13) - Q getting turned into a human as punishment for being a naughty boy. V funny, must watch

QPid (S4E20 babeyyyyy) - MUST WATCH one of thee funniest episodes and experiencing the QCard speedrun from farpoint to qpid is a very special kind of brainworms

True Q (S6E6) - this one is skippable tbh, but it is pretty fond and I’m personally fond of running a full Q supercut

Tapestry (S6E15) - this one isn’t as fun as most Q eps but it is VERY TNG-ish and therefore a must watch. If you’ll forgive the pun, it really gets at the heart of Picard’s character

All Good Things (S7E25 and S7E26) - as with most Star Trek finales it’s not the best. You don’t have to watch this here but it can be a fun bookend for the Q speedrun

You could also go watch DS9’s Q-Less (S1E6) if you’d like to see Q get punched in the face, it’s really very satisfying

You kind of have to watch The Best of Both Worlds (S3E26 and S4E1). If you’ve seen TNG before, you don’t need to worry about when you watch it. If you haven’t seen any TNG yet, watch it here.

Darmok (S5E2) - THEE most star trek of all star trek’s. hmu if you ever want me to rant about Darmok I have a whole badly-structured personal essay about it ready to go at all times

Disaster (S5E5) - Geordi and Crusher teamup is really fun, and ‘executive officer in charge of radishes’ is the best line in all 7 seasons of TNG

Schisms (S6E5) - you could just watch from the opening until Data’s poetry recital ngl. The ep is decent and I’d personally watch it all but this ep is mostly about Data’s poetry.

Sub Rosa (S7E14) - Crusher fucks a ghost. iconic behaviour

Dixon Hill eps! They’re fun and silly and much like watching TOS’ A Piece of The Action

The Big Goodbye (S1E12)

Manhunt (S2E19) - Lwxana. I’d do anything for Lwxana

Clues (S4E14) - Guinan as Gloria is so much fun I love her and she should have got a full episode!!!!!

The Measure of a Man (S2E9) - important Federation and Data lore. Very emotional.

Yesterday’s Enterprise (S3E16) - Tasha’a back!!!!!!!! Just a very cool ep imo

Hero Worship (S5E11) - Extremely good Data ep, good content about Federation attitude to mental illness

Datalore (S1E12) - another important Data ep, and Lore is laways fun

The Offspring (S3E16) - Data wants to be a dad!!!

I, Borg (S5 E23) - HUGH!!! IT’S ALL ABOUT HUGH!!!!!!!!! (I like to watch this right after The Offspring because it’s direct parallels of geordi and data just wanting to take care of people)

Brothers (S4E18) - more Data (And Lore) content

Descent (S6E26 and S7E1) - not required watching, but Lore is fun and evil

Fistful of Datas (S6E7) - EXTREMELY SILLY GOOD FUN ALLROUND. CAN NEVER GO WRONG W ACOWBOY EP

Sarek (S3E23) - I can’t remember the plot I just know Sarek shows up in a lavender robe and has mad chemistry with Picard. I’m  pretty sure they mind meld really hard??? Lord help me the old men you put on this spaceship to do politics are exploring eachothers’ minds in the most intimate manner possible <3

Unification (S5E7 and S5E8) - Spock attempts to re-unify Romulus and Vulcan. Iconic 2-parter, but definitely the kind of episode that benefits from watching with a friend so you can add commentary

if you like Romulan episodes you could watch the full Sela arc before this one (The Mind’s Eye S4E24, Redemption S4E26/S5E1, Unification)

Face of The Enemy (S6E14) - I can’t remember the entire plot but I’m pretty sure it was good and I love a good Romulan ep

The Host (S4E23) - Trill introduction!!!! So good.

The Game (S5E6) - profoundly stupid but worth it for how funny the graphics for the game are

Cause and Effect (S5E18) - just a pretty cool one

Time’s Arrow (S5E26 and S6E1) - One of TNG’s strongest plots imo

The Inner Light (S5E25) - another banger plot; Picard gets hit by a psychic probe and lives an entire life in a history that has already happened. there’s a really good Spones fic based on this episode and I could read an au like this for any ship I swear

Relics (S6E4) - Scotty!!!! It’s fun

Chain of Command (S6E10 and S6E11) - another one of TNG’s strongest plots. The origin of the ‘there are FOUR lights’ meme.

Birthright (S6E16 and S6E17) - this is an infamous double parter but all I actually remember is Julian Bashir appearing and meeting Data

Ensign Ro’s intro ep Ensign Ro (S5E03) i LOVE her

The Next Phase (S5E24) - cool ep where Ro and Geordi get stuck out of phase and are invisible from the crew, pretty fun

and the end of her arc with Preemptive Strike (S7E24)

I personally love Barclay and just choose to live in a universe where the misogyny wasn’t happening and he was just a weird little man, but if he bothers you, you can skip his arc. Don’t skip Genesis tho it’s good

Hollow Pursuits (S3E21)

The Nth Degree (S4E19)

Realm of Fear (S6E2)

Genesis (S7E19) - perfectly batshit star trek fake science. I love it

Masks (S7E17) - extremely silly and therefore fantastic

after this point I’d go back and watch in order all the way through, or look up a watch order for eps that are actually important plot-wise :’) 

[just-a-donut-who-reads]

What are some of your fave Star Trek episodes? :D

Ooh lovely question thanks @shoot4themoon! Let me sort them by trek series:

TOS: I'm a sucker for Trouble With Tribbles of course - and there's also Operation! Annihilate that I like for some reason... oh and Wolf in the Fold because I watched it with @binguystan and we had some great laughs XD

TNG: Rascals - the crew of the Enterprise become children!!! Such a fun episode :) I also love Ship In A Bottle, the holodeck in a holodeck in a one... Encounter At Farpoint is also a fave but maybe it's just because I've watched it so many times XD

VOY: Unfortunately I haven't seen Voyager in a long time... time for a rewatch, yeah? The episodes that stand out in my mind are for obvious reasons Threshold and Coda, the former for being absolutely batshit crazy and the latter for breaking my heart... oh, and my J/C shipping heart loves Resolutions :)

ENT: I blazed through Enterprise so I can't remember too much off the top of my head... I remember Trip getting pregnant and Hoshi getting kidnapped on some planet I think...? But sorry, I have nothing else. If it helps though, I'm a Faith of the Heart apologist XD

I'm currently watching DS9 but I haven't seen any of the other treks unfortunately- what are your favourite episodes?

[swordsandrayguns]

Riker’s Beard And Family Time: Looking Back At Star Trek: TNG

I write science fiction and fantasy novels… so I am no stranger to things dubbed “nerdy.” The last few months, though, I have been doing something that pushes the boundaries of nerdy even for me. I’m watching all the Star Trek properties in the order of their release. Yup, an epic binge watch covering over five decades of television series, cartoons and motion pictures. Look, I can try to explain and rationalize this a couple ways. Truth is, I travel a great deal and have to fill the time I spent in airports and on planes (preferably with things I can download as oppose to stream). I am also, as an author, studying some of the great examples of “universe building” and epic story arcs. Still nerdy, though; I admit it.

Obviously, I started with the original series and jumped into the animated series. I timed this all so my viewing of Star Trek: The Motion Picture coincided with the the special 40th anniversary showings in theaters. I followed through the next couple of movies into The Next Generation, alternating in movies and even the original series pilot The Cage (which was originally made available to the public as a pay per view offering between the first and second seasons of The Next Generation) as they fell in the original release timeline. I am getting to the end of the fifth season of Next Generation now and very much looking forward to alternating between episodes of The Next Generation, Deep Space 9 and even the occasional film in the near future.

Just in case you are wondering, I am pretty dedicated to sticking to the timeline but I am not strictly adhering to it. As I find myself, for example, in a hotel with channels such as BBC America or the Heroes and Icons channel I will only turn on episodes that have already showed up in my series overview… so no DS9, Voyager or Enterprise (yet) but the adventures of Kirk and company are fair game, as are Next Generation episodes up to season five. On the other hand, I am still watching Discovery’s Short Treks as they come out and I am definitely watching Picard as soon as I get a chance (meaning on my big screen at home instead of streaming it on my laptop over shaky hotel wifi). 

Even though I have not finished the complete rewatch, I find that I already have some new thoughts and ideas about I have seen so far starting with Riker’s beard.

Star Trek The Next Generation has generated a basketful of memes from “Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.” to “I am not a merry man” but undeniably the greatest is “Riker’s beard.” Just as the Internet has given us “jumping the shark,” the phrase to mark when a show is never quite as good again named for a really stupid moment when Fonzie was in Hawaii, it gave us “Riker’s beard” to mark the opposite. To this day, I know people that will immediately turn off an episode of The Next Generation if Jonathan Frakes turns up clean shaven (or if Wesley is in it, but that is a whole different story and, honestly, my harsh view of Wesley softened a bit with this re-watch). My first revelation from my Next Generation binge is that while season two, when the beard shows up, is better than season one, it is not when Next Generation really hits its stride.

First of all, let me defend season one of Star Trek The Next Generation. Twenty one years after the premiere of Star Trek, after three seasons of a pioneering science fiction drama, a year of the animated series and four feature films, Star Trek The Next Generation had to take up the incredibly difficult challenge of continuing one of the world’s beloved stories without a single character from the original series. Even more difficult, the real world had changed. Where the original Star Trek was making a statement by having a Russian, an Asian and an African woman on the bridge The Next Generation would not have made any statements with this type of casting. After all, when Picard met his crew and first face Q at Farpoint the biggest show on television focused on the an upper middle class African American family, something that was absolutely unthinkable when Kirk boldly set forth with his crew. 

The first season of Star Trek The Next Generation not only introduced Q, the Ferengi and Data’s not so lovable android brother Lore it killed a main character. Star Trek The Next Generation took a major step that not only the original series never tackled but most shows avoid. Sure, other shows tease it and even then it was usually on a season ending cliffhanger. Even the original series backed away from the only death of a major character they ever portrayed with an entire movie dedicated to reversing it. Star Trek The Next Generation killed Tasha Yar completely out of the blue with three episodes left in the first season. This incredibly bold move cast a shadow on the entire series, adding a real threat to future episodes. 

Is season one perfect? Oh, no. Not at all. Not even close, but like I already mentioned it had an amazingly difficult challenge facing it. The fans were expecting… well, everything. Next Generation was trying to stay true to the essence of Star Trek while making itself something new. They put families on the Enterprise to emphasize it was a vehicle of exploration, not a military ship. They made sure there was not a Vulcan to be found and put the odd man in a kilt wandering the hallways. They put a Klingon on the bridge! But then they had to deal with it all.

Season two was better. For one thing, the anticipation and the expectations were gone. The show made it through the first season and when it came back with its second season it was coming back as Star Trek The Next Generation not “the new Star Trek.” Ironically, due to a writers’ strike, season two actually started off with a script recycled from the ill-fated Star Trek: Phase II series. In addition to the first officer’s facial hair, the second season brought Whoopi Goldberg on board as the ship’s bartender and saw Diana Muldaur (in her third Star Trek universe role as Dr. Pulaski) taking over the sick bay from Dr. Crusher. Geordi La Forge also migrated from the bridge to take over engineering. It was always a bit odd, somehow, in season one to not have the chief engineer as a major character, if only because the chief engineer would seem to play as an important of a role in the operations of the ship as, say, the ship’s counselor or a teenager doing his after school work study program as an acting ensign.

While season two was an improvement, it had its issues. Dr. Pulaski, playing a role meant, no doubt, to help humanize Data, came across as abrasive and (in my opinion) mean spirited. Gates McFadden had been fired, apparently because the head writer did not like her, but Gene Roddenberry resisted killing her character so Dr. Beverly Crusher merely transferred off the ship. When the head writer left the popular character of Dr. Crusher returned in season three. Whoopi Goldberg, although an interesting character, was the ship’s civilian bartender which is just kind of weird. Did the ship have a food court, too? The season was also shortened, because of the aforementioned writers’ strike, and it actually ended with (of all things) a clip show. A clip show!

As a final defense of season two, it did introduce the Borg, one of greatest science fiction villain races of all times. But was it really that much better than season one? Well, season two saw five episodes get a total of six Emmy nominations and won two (both technical Emmy awards related to the sound department). Season one’s premiere was the first television episode to be nominated for a Hugo Award in 15 years. Another season one episode was the first syndicated television episode to win a Peabody Award and six episodes gathered a total of seven Emmy nominations, winning three (for makeup, costume design and sound editing). If you place your faith in the numbers, it seems season one might have actually been better (at least if you go by its awards).

So by now, if I may be so bold as to make a prediction, you are probably thinking “This guy has put way too much thought into Star Trek The Next Generation” and “Okay, so if season two is not when The Next Generation gets great, when is it?” First, I said as an author I am studying Star Trek so cut me some slack. Second, I am glad you asked.

Star Trek The Next Generation, in my opinion, really hit its stride is the fourth season. Season four swept onto screens with the second part of season finale cliffhanger The Best Of Both Worlds. The Federation was facing the awesome might of the Borg and the crew of the Enterprise was desperately trying to save Picard, who had been taken and turned into Borg mouthpiece Locutus, so the season started with big action and drama. This quickly led to a series of episodes focusing on character relationships, particularly family relationships. 

After he is rescued, Picard is left a broken man and returns to his family’s vineyard in France. Although there had been several stories about Picard’s history, this was the first to address his family and his entry into Star Fleet. Data’s Day not only explored how the android navigated through his duties and relationships, it introduced Chief O’Brien’s new wife Keiko. The O’Briens are the focus in the very next episode, showing not only the natural difficulties they were having adjusting to their new life as a married couple but also O’Brien’s past Star Fleet career and the psychological wounds left by his service in the war with Cardassia. To me, Riker’s beard does not signify when Star Trek The Next Generation really gets good, it is when Keiko O’Brien appears.

Family was a major theme of the fourth season, as Worf discovered he was a father and worked to regain his family’s honor in the eyes of fellow Klingons. Luxanna Troi re-appeared as did the ghost of Tasha Yar when the crew encountered her sister. Data’s brother also made another appearance, as did Data’s creator. Data also grew a great deal, even being shown to try out a romantic relationship with another crew member. The true strength of Star Trek The Next Generation, as of season four, was that it was well established enough as a series to feature stories based on human relationships instead of action or the “alien of the week.”

It should also be noted that season four also brought more episodes which were a part of longer storylines, such as Worf’s dishonor and the political intrigues of the Klingon Empire. There were also many returning minor characters and new characters being set up for multiple appearances. It is only after three seasons Star Trek The Next Generation finally had established enough of its own universe for this to happen. Also, though, by season four plans were in motion for a second live action Star Trek series, one to run concurrently with Next Generation. It could have been that the introduction of multi-episode storylines were a result of the producers consciously attempting to expand the Star Trek universe while starting to differentiate Next Generation from the upcoming Deep Space Nine.

Ironically, season four also marks Star Trek The Next Generation outlasting its predecessor in terms of seasons on the air. While this did not actually influence the formation of my opinion season four is when Next Generation really gets good, it does really make me wonder what Star Trek may have become if it had a season four.

[tanadrin]

@arbitrarygreay​:

@tanadrin​ counterpoint: countries with this model (Korea, Japan) still fail to have any sort of structural discipline. Most of those shows are still a mess. True longform gives showrunners chances to learn and improve. The best seasons are often 3-5. Or would you really have preferred that TNG stopped after 2?   

Episodic drama is a different beast from serial drama. Episodic shows can still jump the shark, but individual episodes are self-contained, so they don’t suffer the problems from a sprawling structure that has to fill up to 24 (worst case scenario) episodes in a US TV season, though some shows with only 10 or 12-episode seasons still manage to drag awfully in the middle. Serial dramas also often have to keep raising the stakes long after the natural arc of the show is concluded. That doesn’t mean episodic shows can’t jump the shark, it just means that good episodes don’t depend structurally on poor ones in the same way. You don’t need to sit through Encounter at Farpoint or The Naked Now to enjoy The Inner Light or The Best of Both Worlds. Part of my frustration with narrative structure in American TV is strongly linked with the rise of serial dramatic structure, even in what should be perfectly good episodic dramas--I watched a couple of seasons of iZombie on Netflix and thoroughly enjoyed the goofy police procedural, but man, the serial drama elements were just... boring. The police procedural is like the classic plot engine for an episodic TV series, where you get to see the same characters in very different situations, and if you’re going to have linked subplots from episode to episode in an episodic format (which a lot of shows do perfectly well, they’re good for showing character growth over time), they need to not crowd out the central episodic structure. Or confine them to separate episodes a la the X-Files so we can ignore them on the rewatch if they suck.

The biggest risks in serial format are, AFAICT, 1) getting stuck in a cycle of endlessly raising the stakes, and 2) feeling like your main characters are never allowed to resolve anything (whether it’s relationships or the central problem of the series) lest you lose all the tension, so they’re stuck on a treadmill forever. The latter often forces writers to have characters do stupid stuff to keep the conflict going. RDM or JJ Abrams-style “we are basing our show around major questions we don’t actually have an answer to, and when we’re forced to answer these questions we’re gonna wing it in the least satisfying way possible” is a slightly rarer but even more frustrating vice.

Not to say that shorter series can’t have all these problems (cough Sherlock cough cough and everything else Steven Moffat has ever touched cough), but they at least make later-season filler episodes less likely. And not to say there aren’t long-running shows that don’t avoid these issues! The Wire ran for 5 seasons, and every season was satisfying as hell. DS9 managed a transition to more serial storytelling and did great (it helped that they never abandoned self-contained episodes, though). But the caliber of production staff you need to pull that kind of thing off in the absence of externally impose structural constraints is rare, and maybe American TV spending a decade or so exploring the narrative space of shorter overall series would help develop the medium in positive ways. After all, formal constraint can often be a terrific generator of creativity, and contemporary “golden age” long-running high-budget TV series kinda lack the interesting formal constraints, or at least the same degree of formal constraint, of past eras of television, of the kind even when 90s TV was being produced. Some of those constraints I’m glad we’re rid of (the new entries in the Star Trek franchise are quite pretty compared to TNG, after all), but I think others forced shows to channel their energy into more thoughtfulness about structure and plot and dialogue, in a way that really benefited the approach to narrative as a whole.