Now imagine if "The Naked Now" was fifteen episodes. Yes, TNG did lean a bit on TOS, but it was the first TV Trek after TOS. Some "look! this is Star Trek!" was to be expected, they were working against the idea that all Star Trek was, was Kirk and Spock. So they had to give those crumbs to long-time fans who were pissed that their Trek was being replaced.
Even if "The Naked Now" wasn't your thing, you weren't locked into it for the entirety of a season. There were 24 other episodes to look forward to.
I honestly don't find it an apt comparison, and I think you may quite misunderstand my point of view on what's wrong with "The Naked Now" (TNG)—if understandably so, because I didn't further elaborate. Allow me to do so now...
To be clear, I don't have
any problem with its connection to TOS whatsoever, in and of itself. My problem with the episode is that it fails almost
entirely to do anything dramatically worthwhile for its
own characters, largely coming off like an empty slapstick pastiche. "The Naked Time" (TOS) gives us glimpses into the characters of Kirk and Spock deeper and more revelatory than nearly any other episode. It's
not just a story about everyone acting wacky and hamming it up, although there
is some of that thrown in for the purposes of exposition and comic relief to offset the heavier elements. Despite (or rather because of) the influence they are under, they are actually acting
more, not less, in-character than usual, let alone entirely out of it.
The most interesting dramatic thread to spring out of "Now" was the Tasha/Data tryst, yet ultimately
only because of how
later stories ended up treating it in retrospect. Even with respect to Picard and Crusher's unspoken mutual attraction, we are offered little to no actual insight here that isn't better illustrated in half a dozen other episodes. And the singular momentary sparkle of actual
entertainment in the whole dreary affair
for me is the gag where Data is bemusedly reciting the limerick and Worf replies he doesn't understand our humor either. In effect,
all the episode is good for (and not very, even in that) is exactly what you outline above: a wholly unnecessary, yet seemingly considered obligatory, disclaimer that "yes, this new
Star Trek show is connected to that old
Star Trek show."
Now,
you may find DSC to fit that description, and that's your own business, and I'm sorry you do. But I
don't. Not remotely. I don't find Burnham to have been defined by her relationship to Spock or to Sarek, but rather by the choices she's made and the consequences that have followed from them. (If anything, it's the reverse, and
they are coming to be further and better defined by their relationships to
her. And personally, I enjoy that, whether it was strictly
needed or not.)
Likewise, I
don't find the usage of the MU to be mere fan service, but rather a subversion of Lorca's convincingly charming and seductive moral ambiguity as presented in the first half of the season, and a timely commentary on how easy it can be to fall under the sway of those who would manipulate us into believing they're merely taking extreme actions as called for by extreme circumstances—as Burnham too believes of herself at the outset, perhaps more rightfully, or perhaps not—yet in reality are acting behind the scenes to pervert and undermine, with devious intent and to their own selfish purposes, the very principles that keep us
all from falling into darkness. (No pun intended there, but obviously there are similar themes to be found in that film as well. I'd say neither manages to present it all perfectly, yet I find DSC's handling of it overall more effective for drawing it out over a whole season, rather than less so. I realize you probably feel differently. And again, that's fair enough; I'm not trying to say otherwise here. I simply can't agree.)
So even if DSC does indeed scream "Look! This is
Star Trek!" rather loudly, I'd say it's earned the right. Because it clearly
is, fully and deeply, all the way through. It's no pale imitation. It's the real deal.
-
MMoM