A gimmick episode we would all like for season 5

[Boo-khat!]

Am I the only person who doesn't see 'gimmick' episodes as being different to any other kind of episode?

A gimmick is essentially a hook for a story. That can be a courtroom procedural (The Measure of a Man) or a musical (Subspace Rhapsody).

I suppose folks are using gimmick here to mean 'silly', but honestly I don't even think episodes like Subspace Rhapsody are silly. There was enough dramatic meat in said episode to equal more 'serious' ones.

I think 'gimmick' is just a go-to buzzword people are using to describe about 15 of the last 20 episodes of SNW that do not focus on an overarching storyline or any real character development. And before anyone says "well, that's what TOS did 100% of the time!," well, I'm not talking about TOS.

Let's use nuBSG for example. The show's premise was 'surviving humans trying to find a new home while being relentlessly chased by an enemy who wants to kill them.' Even with its 20+ episode seasons, there was little deviation from that premise. There certainly weren't episodes where the whole crew started singing, or turning into Vulcans, or turning into puppets, or being fucked with by godlike beings who just want to be amused, etc. And when your show only has 10-episode seasons rather than 20+, and you're making 90% of those episodes what we call 'gimmicks,' then what exactly is the point of the show?

Now granted, nuBSG is a very different show than SNW. Grittiness aside, it took itself pretty seriously. SNW, on the other hand, is basically just kind of fluff with barely any premise other than 'crew on ship having weird adventures and love affairs.' Viewed in that light, SNW really isn't 'gimmicky' as opposed to just a show that isn't really about anything, Seinfeld comparison notwithstanding.

(And don't take the above as me trying to diss on SNW. The show is fine as a basic reboot of TOS. But I'm not kidding myself into thinking that the producers think that it's anything deeper than that.)