DS9: Fillers done right

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Not just episodes, but moments in an episode that linger on seemingly unimportant details.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

I’ve never thought of it as being a pejorative used to express that an episode somehow ‘doesn’t matter’.

I wouldn't have thought that, but Kurtzman claimed just last year that newer Treks are better for lack of filler.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

I wouldn't have thought that, but Kurtzman claimed just last year that newer Treks are better for lack of filler.

Did he, though?

 

[Tosk]

Kurtzman:

"...it’s funny, you even talk to old writers of old Trek series, and they’re like, ‘Man, we were...there’s a bunch of filler episodes in there. We were just trying to get to 22 a season,’ you know, and we all know which those episodes were, we know the ones that were truly stellar from the ones that felt like they were kind of spinning their wheels. And so I think what ten episodes a season forces you to do is really make sure that every story counts as much as it possibly can. And I like that, you know. I like that. I like what that affords us now.”

I guess that's why every single ep of NewTrek is a winner, huh?

Edit: Corrected quote from article version to what was actually said in the filmed interview.

 

[Farscape One]

Kurtzman:


I guess that's why every single ep of NewTrek is a winner, huh?

Edit: Corrected quote from article version to what was actually said in the filmed interview.

Yeah, that interview never sat right with me. It gave the impression of bashing on the older shows to help elevate the current ones. Have enough confidence in your shows that they can stand on their own merits without having to slap down what came before. While that might be his personal opinion, as the head of the franchise, it's not a good idea to be saying something like that for two reasons. First, you risk alienating a part of your fanbase. Second, you risk people not bothering to watch more of the franchise you are caretaking by discouraging what came before.

 

[Paul Weaver]

If Kurtzman wants to pick 16 episodes of DS9 season 5 to get rid of, that's his business.

I'm just glad he wasn't in charge then.

Based on the "most disliked" thread from last year, that would be

"LOOKING FOR PAR'MACH IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES"
"THE ASSIGNMENT"
"THINGS PAST"
"THE ASCENT"
"RAPTURE"
"THE DARKNESS AND THE LIGHT"
"THE BEGOTTEN"
"BY INFERNO'S LIGHT"
"DOCTOR BASHIR, I PRESUME"
"A SIMPLE INVESTIGATION"
"BUSINESS AS USUAL"
"TIES OF BLOOD AND WATER"
"FERENGI LOVE SONGS"
"SOLDIERS OF THE EMPIRE"
"BLAZE OF GLORY"
"EMPOK NOR"


I think that says it all. He's wrong.

Even the "dregs" of the season (according to that thread)

"DOCTOR BASHIR, I PRESUME"
"A SIMPLE INVESTIGATION"
"BUSINESS AS USUAL"

have great progressions of the dozens of storylines in DS9, be it Odo coming to terms with being a solid, Quark as a Ferengi who is slowly accepting it's not all about profit to him, and of course the good Doctor -- sure it's controversial, but making him genetically enhanced was certainly significant.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

I guess that's why every single ep of NewTrek is a winner, huh?

If Kurtzman wants to pick 16 episodes of DS9 season 5 to get rid of, that's his business.

It was ballsy to say. He directly oversaw the most controversial season of Star Trek, a good portion of which reflected poor pacing and strange narrative choices.

 

[Frontis]

I'm glad DS9 was made before Kurtzman's time.