Do you prefer the shorter, more focused seasons?

[eschaton]

"Filler" means nothing other than "I didn't like that one." The idea that shows produce filler episodes is the same kind of Internet Stoopid that invents notions like "head canon."

It's undoubtedly true that writers are under tight deadlines, and sometimes a script they know is shit is greenlit.

That said, this can happen with a series of any length.

 

[Vger23]

it would have been a tragedy if TOS season one had been only 10 episodes.

Conversely, I doubt season three would have been great even had it only been 10. Water finds it level.

Hey season three has its moments. Very few but it does

I find S3 to be no more or less brilliant than either of the other two.

And even a weaker season of TOS is still better than 95% of all other television ever produced.




In my most humblest of opinions, of course.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I prefer a collection of stories I like. 4, 13, 20...whatever.

 

[Vger23]

"Filler" means nothing other than "I didn't like that one." The idea that shows produce filler episodes is the same kind of Internet Stoopid that invents notions like "head canon."

Never watched Kim Bauer trying to avoid a mountain lion during a world-threatening terrorist plot on "24," or a bunch of idiots traipsing through the Georgia woods aimlessly for 43 min on "Walking Dead?"

I don't agree here. I think there are times when writers need to prolong an arc to fill a pre-defined schedule, or producers need to contain storytelling due to budget reasons or whatever.

That's "filler."

 

[eschaton]

I find S3 to be no more or less brilliant than either of the other two.

And even a weaker season of TOS is still better than 95% of all other television ever produced.

In my most humblest of opinions, of course.

There were only a handful of Season 3 episodes which exceeded mediocre: The Enterprise Incident, Is There In Truth No Beauty, The Tholian Web, Day of the Dove, and All Our Yesterdays. Most of the season was unbridled shit.

That said, I'm glad it was made, because without a third season it's pretty unlikely TOS would have been syndicated in the 1970s, and we never would have gotten the rest of Trek.

 

[Vger23]

There were only a handful of Season 3 episodes which exceeded mediocre: The Enterprise Incident, Is There In Truth No Beauty, The Tholian Web, Day of the Dove, and All Our Yesterdays. Most of the season was unbridled shit.

That said, I'm glad it was made, because without a third season it's pretty unlikely TOS would have been syndicated in the 1970s, and we never would have gotten the rest of Trek.

I don't agree. In fact, I much prefer the tone and originality of S3 in many cases to the endless "Parallel Earth"'stories or "time travel to Earth's past" stuff that plagued S1 and S2.

Episodes you listed are classics. There are others that explored some great, unique sci-if concepts:
World is Hollow...
The Empath
Wink of an Eye
That Which Survives
Requiem for Methuselah
Cloudminders
Lights of Zetar

Looked at the characters in unique ways:
Paradise Syndrome

Straight-up Fun Adventures:
Savage Curtain
Specter of the Gun
Elaan of Troyus

...all of those are above-average outings when compared to a typical franchise offering.

And then there was crap:
Spock's Brain (which I actually also like)
And the Children...
Way to Eden (which I also like in a weird way)
Turnabout Intruder

...which was below average from the typical franchise offering, but still mostly not amongst the worst.

EDIT:
"Unbridled Shit" is Alternative Factor, Mudds Women, Code of Honor, Angel One, Datalore Aquiel, Imaginary Friend, Descent (both parts), Move Along Home, Threshold, 1/4 of Star Trek: Voyager and the episode Tripp gets pregnant. Most all of S3 is far above this kind of crap, with the exceptions of Plato and Turnabout, which are shit.

 

[Gabriel]

"Filler" means nothing other than "I didn't like that one." The idea that shows produce filler episodes is the same kind of Internet Stoopid that invents notions like "head canon."

You know something there’s a saying if you have nothing nice to say don’t say anything at all
And there are filler episodes because do you really think the writers put in the full effort every episode. Like us they sometimes slack off and make an episode that’s not so great but it fills their requirements.

 

[Burning Hearts of Qo'nos]

You know something there’s a saying if you have nothing nice to say don’t say anything at all
And there are filler episodes because do you really think the writers put in the full effort every episode. Like us they sometimes slack off and make an episode that’s not so great but it fills their requirements.

But then some people would never have anything to say, and that's no fun either, lol.

However, filler episodes are totally a thing. Anyone who watches any long anime knows this.

 

[Gabriel]

But then some people would never have anything to say, and that's no fun either, lol.

You’re right about that

 

[Donker]

Too few episodes frankly, the pacing of discovery is one of it's biggest issues, the episodes are too short already and there are too few episodes to properly even establish and explore all the plots they cram in let alone do any real exploration of the characters. It doesn't help that Discovery seems to have the same syndrome as "lost" when it comes to plot writing.

I've watched mostly serialised show's my entire life and the serialised story is usually broken up into two "cours" (sort of half seasons) of 13 episodes each with a total of 26 episodes to tell the entire plot, explore the characters etc.

 

[Rusty0918]

Well, the less "filler" episodes, the better. I don't see the shorter seasons as a bad thing, in my opinion. You don't want to overdo or do too much.