What do people think of SNW (spoiler free please)
- Thread starter ED-209
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I'm back-and-forth on the "best season ever" thing.
The first year of TOS is the foundation of Star Trek. They built the "universe" and defined what Trek was and would be. We started watching this show, on NBC, with no ideas about Star Trek at all.
At the end of that season we knew what Trek was, and we had expectations.
So, first-year TOS stands apart from the franchise that depends upon it. No one was pre-sold, not even a little bit. Everything was an innovation, within that particular context.
The streaming Trek shows are at the far end of the franchise, with fifty years of nothing but expectations and what folks rather grandiosely call "world building." The vast majority of people who watch Trek now already like most things about it or they wouldn't bother. And they want to see a lot of familiar stuff.
So, what I'll say is that after ten episodes Strange New Worlds stands head-and-shoulders above the second year of TOS - which makes it better than anything since.
I mean, seriously - the last couple of weeks I've been watching bits and pieces of the syndicated revival of Trek from the 80s and 90s, on H&I. No particular plan, whatever's on. Some TNG. A lot of DS9. Just happens to be the time of day I'm in front of the tube, I guess. "Trials and Tribbleations" was on the other night. And there was the one where Jake Sisko gets caught in a hospital in a war zone. There was a TNG about Deanna Troi losing her mental powers and getting them back in an hour. And on and on and on and on...
I think "modern Trek" has dated faster than TOS. Maybe it's just expecting 1950s and 1960s TV to be slow and mannered, but when you see the same thing being done even past the turn of the century it's really glaring.
The first year of TOS is the foundation of Star Trek. They built the "universe" and defined what Trek was and would be. We started watching this show, on NBC, with no ideas about Star Trek at all.
At the end of that season we knew what Trek was, and we had expectations.
So, first-year TOS stands apart from the franchise that depends upon it. No one was pre-sold, not even a little bit. Everything was an innovation, within that particular context.
The streaming Trek shows are at the far end of the franchise, with fifty years of nothing but expectations and what folks rather grandiosely call "world building." The vast majority of people who watch Trek now already like most things about it or they wouldn't bother. And they want to see a lot of familiar stuff.
So, what I'll say is that after ten episodes Strange New Worlds stands head-and-shoulders above the second year of TOS - which makes it better than anything since.
I mean, seriously - the last couple of weeks I've been watching bits and pieces of the syndicated revival of Trek from the 80s and 90s, on H&I. No particular plan, whatever's on. Some TNG. A lot of DS9. Just happens to be the time of day I'm in front of the tube, I guess. "Trials and Tribbleations" was on the other night. And there was the one where Jake Sisko gets caught in a hospital in a war zone. There was a TNG about Deanna Troi losing her mental powers and getting them back in an hour. And on and on and on and on...
I think "modern Trek" has dated faster than TOS. Maybe it's just expecting 1950s and 1960s TV to be slow and mannered, but when you see the same thing being done even past the turn of the century it's really glaring.
There's nothing wrong with slow and mannered.
I'm glad you're enjoying SNW. I'm looking forward to Season 2 of TOS.
After seeing the entire season I still say “Yay.”
10 good or great episodes in a row. The last time that happened in any Trek I had a lot more hair.
And less elsewhere.
And less elsewhere.
To be fair to the other series if you go by IMDb's or Trek BBS's scores and take Elysian Kingdom as the absolute minimum for 'good', Disco season 1+2 and Picard season 1 also have a 10 episode unbroken run of good/great episodes, and Lower Decks and Prodigy have never had a bad story.
I go by Nerys Myk's scores.
Do they give a different result?
I find a lot of agreement with him. He knows his stuff,
What do I think?
I thought the first season of SNW was good, but I'm not raving over it. I really wanted a spin off after Discovery Season 2 and was very happy when SNW was announced. The casting is very good, and I liked a lot of these characters and actors right off. The costuming, production values, etc. are some of the best in Trek, even new Trek (though I still think DISCO is the best-looking Trek series period). SNW feels more like a proper prequel to TOS than ENT or DISCO.
Now that I've seen the first season, I think it's okay. There were some tweaks, changes, or risks, I didn't care for, but at the same time I feel like the first season played it a bit too safe. I think having so many legacy characters onboard limits the storytelling. That said, there is a lot of nice filling in the blanks or adding context or recontextualization to the lore.
I am torn about SNW because I feel that Paramount/CBS did listen to fans, but sometimes they overcorrected or overreacted and there was a lightness in some of the episodes and character interactions that felt forced. It was like they were trying to emulate The Orville.
As it stands, I would watch Season 2, but I'm not waiting on pins and needles to do so. It's almost like comfort food, and there's nothing wrong with that, but I can't say it's super memorable either. DISCO and PIC both took bigger swings (but also had bigger misses). With DISCO I can say I was more curious about where that series was going than I am with SNW, which is even more hemmed in by TOS than DISCO was.
I thought the first season of SNW was good, but I'm not raving over it. I really wanted a spin off after Discovery Season 2 and was very happy when SNW was announced. The casting is very good, and I liked a lot of these characters and actors right off. The costuming, production values, etc. are some of the best in Trek, even new Trek (though I still think DISCO is the best-looking Trek series period). SNW feels more like a proper prequel to TOS than ENT or DISCO.
Now that I've seen the first season, I think it's okay. There were some tweaks, changes, or risks, I didn't care for, but at the same time I feel like the first season played it a bit too safe. I think having so many legacy characters onboard limits the storytelling. That said, there is a lot of nice filling in the blanks or adding context or recontextualization to the lore.
I am torn about SNW because I feel that Paramount/CBS did listen to fans, but sometimes they overcorrected or overreacted and there was a lightness in some of the episodes and character interactions that felt forced. It was like they were trying to emulate The Orville.
As it stands, I would watch Season 2, but I'm not waiting on pins and needles to do so. It's almost like comfort food, and there's nothing wrong with that, but I can't say it's super memorable either. DISCO and PIC both took bigger swings (but also had bigger misses). With DISCO I can say I was more curious about where that series was going than I am with SNW, which is even more hemmed in by TOS than DISCO was.
Having seen all ten episodes, I give it a 10 for the introduction of and development of the characters (both new and previously established) and an 8 for the stories themselves.
At the end of the season, I like all of the characters, and am eager to see more of them next season. I thought they did a great job with Pike, a character whose been with Star Trek from the beginning, but now seems much more fleshed out. As others have mentioned, some characters could have used more attention, but with only 10 episodes someone was bound to be shorted, and overall I like the choices they made. And, to compare SNW season one with TOS season one, with the exception of one SNW character, I think we learned at least as much about each new character as we learned about Uhura, Sulu, and Scotty during TOS season one. And, in the case of two characters we have seen before, we got significant new information and/or new insights which brought new depth to stories we already know.
As for the stories, I liked all of them to some degree or other. At least three rise to the level of the best episodes of any Star Trek series outside of the handful of episodes that I consider to be masterpieces or near-masterpieces of episodic television. I imagine that I'll be rewatching at least some of them fairly soon, and will probably rewatch all 10 close to the season 2 premiere.
What was missing from this season for me was an episode or episodes that seemed truly original - that introduced some brand new idea, theme, character, or plot that had no similarity to anything previously explored in Trek, or depicted an event or turn of events utterly unlike anything we've seen previously in Trek. Too many of the episodes, enjoyable as they were, felt like retellings or variations of familiar tales that we've seen before.
Overall, I enjoyed this season of SNW more than I've enjoyed any season of Trek as a whole since the last season of DS9. SNW is not yet to the level of TOS, TNG, and DS9 (my personal favorites), but I can easily see it getting there. It is already well above the level of VOY and ENT, the two Trek series I could happily live without.
At the end of the season, I like all of the characters, and am eager to see more of them next season. I thought they did a great job with Pike, a character whose been with Star Trek from the beginning, but now seems much more fleshed out. As others have mentioned, some characters could have used more attention, but with only 10 episodes someone was bound to be shorted, and overall I like the choices they made. And, to compare SNW season one with TOS season one, with the exception of one SNW character, I think we learned at least as much about each new character as we learned about Uhura, Sulu, and Scotty during TOS season one. And, in the case of two characters we have seen before, we got significant new information and/or new insights which brought new depth to stories we already know.
As for the stories, I liked all of them to some degree or other. At least three rise to the level of the best episodes of any Star Trek series outside of the handful of episodes that I consider to be masterpieces or near-masterpieces of episodic television. I imagine that I'll be rewatching at least some of them fairly soon, and will probably rewatch all 10 close to the season 2 premiere.
What was missing from this season for me was an episode or episodes that seemed truly original - that introduced some brand new idea, theme, character, or plot that had no similarity to anything previously explored in Trek, or depicted an event or turn of events utterly unlike anything we've seen previously in Trek. Too many of the episodes, enjoyable as they were, felt like retellings or variations of familiar tales that we've seen before.
Overall, I enjoyed this season of SNW more than I've enjoyed any season of Trek as a whole since the last season of DS9. SNW is not yet to the level of TOS, TNG, and DS9 (my personal favorites), but I can easily see it getting there. It is already well above the level of VOY and ENT, the two Trek series I could happily live without.
Well this is handy, the last post in the thread is mostly on a par with how I feel too (though I'm enjoying Voyager now on a proper re-watch).
I'm very happy to have new Trek, but especially happy to have new decent Trek and new TOS Trek at that. The episodes that have been most memorable have been those that used classic TOS tropes and it feels like they're not really exploring that many strange new worlds, but I'm happy and looking forward to S2.
Comfort food I believe is the term.
Mileage will vary if that is a good thing or not.
Mileage will also vary on how comfortable this season was.
Pretty uncomfortable for me. Kind of middle of the road, like that time I added too much soy sauce.
This is the first STAR TREK in a long time to actually leverage the STAR TREK format -- an anthology with continuing characters that can be anything from social commentary to space adventure. But they've taken that format and improved on it with the continuing character arcs, so that the characters don't remain stagnate.
Yay.
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