I feel that part of what makes Trek feel like a behemoth for a lot of people is the excess of episodes in its library. Back in the 90s when you combine DS9 and Voyager, that's 52 episodes per season. In retrospect that's kind of insane in light of a lot of prestige shows today that get 10-15 episodes at most. It's only the old broadcast networks like NBC that's cranking out seasons of shows numbering episodes in the 20s.
DS9 had a huge cast which should make it much easier to film a high number of episodes. What's really impressive is when you think about shows from the 70s like Rockford Files or Cannon where the lead actor was in virtually every scene of a 50 minute show and they were still cranking out 22+ episodes a year. Back to the topic of Trek comedy: I think Trek can do small bits of humor very well. It's just that when they venture into farce (Ferengi episodes) that they struggle. It's a completely different style that just doesn't mesh well with Trek, imo, particularly in a series as dark as DS9.
Mirror Universe episodes we're farcical, and yet one of my favorite moments of the series is when Vic Fontaine runs into the room and everyone exclaims "he's real?!" And then he's shot dead right there. It's absurd. It's dark. It makes zero sense in-universe and they actually acknowledge that.
That's my point, most of television was like that at the time. The only shows that had seasons with less than 20 episodes were usually mid-season replacements like TWIN PEAKS and BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER. DS9 and VOY started off as mid-season premieres TOO, with 19 and 15 episodes respectively (with VOY holding over 4 for next season to save costs).
Your point was that Star Trek was an outlier. For it's day, it produced as many episodes as other shows, network or syndicated. The comparison is specious. Mid-season replacements were shows that lacked the complete confidence of producers and outlets, with some expectation that they would not be renewed thereafter. That was clearly not the case with Deep Space Nine, and was even more true for Voyager. Both were produced with the full confidence of the market without any concern that they would not last the first season.
I never said Trek was an outlier of its time. I mean in comparison to a lot of high concept/prestige shows of TODAY. As in, today, a show like XENA would likely only get 13 episodes. I was only pointing out how those shows having less episodes were an outlier to the standard 26+ episode season, whereas today shows getting only 13 has become more common.
Or less. THE LIBRARIANS got twelve eps this year. THE ALIENIST is getting ten. And Syfy shows like KILLJOYS or WYNONNA EARP have short seasons as well.
Well, I must say, I like some of these DS9 comedy episodes for themselves (not all of them, profit and lace is terrible for example), but I also always thought it was a bit nonsensical to have these 'filler' episodes in the midst of a huge war. Then, Enterprise season 3 came along, and as awesome as the entire Delphic Expanse arc was, I found myself sometimes wanting for a breather, a lighter-themed episode. So apparently such 'comedy' episodes do fill an important role in the telling of the series' larger story. At least for me.
I enjoyed them. It is a dark series that is not afraid to go very dark. And that is when the show is at it's best, dealing with the dark moments. But, you need a little light in the dark. I feel like the audience needed to see that these characters had some silliness in them, some ridiculousness. It makes it easier to root for characters that you can laugh at and cry with.
Watch old movies from the 1940s. Even with a devastating global war going on, you still got silly service comedies featuring Abbott & Costello, the Andrews Sisters, skirt-chasing sailors on shore leave, and zany hi-jinks at the USO . . . . People don't stop getting into funny situations now and then, even during war time.
I don't think that was the original problem with the comedy episodes for me when I started this thread. I guess it just felt odd that when there's only a limited amount of episodes on every series and DS9 used so many to steer away from the main storyline. Feels like wasted potential. Which one you think could be better? Ferengi heavy episode with silly one liners or something about the war, for example a mission with our crew and admiral Ross infiltrating a Dominion base...
Yes. There should be no comedy episodes in that last season anyway. Not entire episodes. You will have a few funny scenes with Quark and other characters getting into a fix from time to time but you gotta pour your creative energies into making your crowning arc work and making it a serious thing. But instead they spent alot of heavy lifting developing Ezri and a few comedy/superficial episodes in that last season. And it hurts that season somewhat. .
Without comedy episodes DS9 would have been monotonous. I don't need a full 26 episode season focusing on just the war. What we got of the Dominion war was enough.
Hardly a ringing endorsement. No, but it was exemplary, and as such, it shows how quickly the constant attention to fighting only would become unbelievable. There were, of course, espionage/undercover stories, which focused on Kira, Odo and Garak. OTOH, the O'Brien story, Honor Among Thieves, has largely been lost over time despite some strong acting..