Spoilers Increased Comedy in Star Trek (SFA spoilers)

[Mudd]

Everything works better in SNW than SFA, including the humor.

Someone thinks swallowing a combadge is funny.

That said, Trek benefits from adopting a tongue-in-cheek tone ala DW or The Orville. It's people dressed in carnival colors pretending to fly spaceships, for gods' sake. Klingons have long since become pop culture punchlines.

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

When they start getting self-conscious about how silly their fantasy looks to people and fail to commit to it, the fantasy starts to collapse and all that's left is a TV show.

 

[Starflight]

Yeah I think there's a distinction between humour arising from characters and situations, and humour arising from the writers winking at the viewer about the nature of the setting/premise.

Recent Trek can sometimes slip into the latter because of the issue that runs through all these shows, which is that they're obsessed with Star Trek as a cultural phenomenon and of the idea that they belong in a wider "canon", hence the constant callbacks and having characters turn to the camera to tell you what Star Trek is about or w/e.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Everything works better in SNW than SFA, including the humor.

None of the humor in Four and a Half Vulcans worked until the end tag. It was quite possibly the least funny Star Trek "comedy" episode ever produced.

 

[fireproof78]

Not as long as there is the Outrageous Okona.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Not as long as there is the Outrageous Okona.

Touche.

 

[Attentive Senpai]

I dunno, humour's always been part of Star Trek. Look at how many episodes of TOS ended on lighthearted notes or friendly jokes at the expense of Spock or McCoy. At least half of Lwaxana Troi's presence on the show was meant to be funny. The strength of Star Trek has been its ability to move between the casual and the serious. More comedy in the modern stuff is fine by me.

 

[Mudd]

None of the humor in Four and a Half Vulcans worked until the end tag.

It worked fine.

... all that's left is a TV show.

That's all they start with.

 

[Emissary of the Prophets]

It’s nice to see comedy coming back to Trek. It has been too serious over the last 30/40 years. If you hark back to TOS, we had episodes which leaned towards comedy in I, Mudd and The Trouble with Tribbles. I know we have had the odd funny line over that period, but nothing as comedic as those episodes. LD is supposed to be a comedy, but I do think SNW has strayed a bit too far into comic territory especially over the most recent season.

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

I can understand if you blocked the Ferengi episodes out of your mind, I wish I could do the same, but DS9 was putting out pure comedy episodes every season. Including a sequel to Trouble with Tribbles!

Meanwhile, did TOS even have 10 comedy stories in its whole run? I, Mudd, Trouble With Tribbles, A Piece of the Action, half of By Any Other Name, Shore Leave maybe? Spock's Brain, though not intentionally.

 

[Smear-Gel]

I couldn't make it through Discovery's third season but, having watched SFA's first couple episodes, the reconstruction era that DSC set up does seem narratively really interesting, lots of opportunity to write stories where a brighter future is reachable but still fragile.

Ive been thinking that it's almost like a galaxy wide version of recovering from WW3 or the Dominion War. A bit of a reset and trying to recover, explore and connect with people again in a time of relative peace. Which means it kinda narratively ends up in the same position as Lower Decks does post Dominion War, which also makes the humour fit.

Could extend the comparison and say TOS is the post WW3 show and is also funnier than say, TNG. But I guess the real post WW3 show would be Enterprise which I havent seen to comment on.

Not as long as there is the Outrageous Okona.

Gonna ruin my rep and say I liked that one.

None of the humor in Four and a Half Vulcans worked until the end tag. It was quite possibly the least funny Star Trek "comedy" episode ever produced.

It reaches so bad it's good level, but somehow does that while still being just bad. But I did also like the Una stuff.