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I don't think there needs to be a happy medium these days. If SNW and LD fill the episodic niche, then DSC and PIC can go bonkers with the arcs.
Only thing is SNW and LD aren't out yet. Once they are, the heat will be taken off DSC and PIC because they won't be the only Star Trek options in town.
Some people think these should be all things to all people. I don't.
To expand any lore, the lore must be constructed first and in a likeable way. Even TOS had its own continuity (ship, crew, Federation) - despite tweaks being made as they went along.
Of course, who determines "likeable"? Everyone has their own show style and preferences. There comes a point where if one doesn't like one of the fruit hanging on the franchise tree that nitpicking it is a waste. But who's seen a tree that grows apples and oranges and limons and skunkglands on it anyway? An overcrowded tree? It's probably why Jerry Springer didn't do episodes (or spinoffs) with 20 people behind at a posh dinner table with three forks and two knives and two spoons and a porcelain dinner set and were all paid to be well-behaved. But I digress, the point is there was a thematic consistency and core values that defined the show.
Then when expending, it has to remain true to the theme of a franchise. Going too far makes it convoluted. Going too far into itself inevitably introduces "small universe syndrome" as well, which is just stupid as in such a big place tripping over something that happens to be in places w, x, y, z, then aa-ww is just a bucketful of freshly-plopped. Going backwards does nothing unless there are burning questions that can be answered satisfactorily to fans while drawing new ones, though casual viewers generally don't give a toss about lore and its complexity, hence their very description as "casual viewers".
Conversely, make a fictional person or species interesting enough and it's just natural to want to see it fleshed out. (then not so much that what was set up earlier isn't tripped over.
The Borg, it started out as a species taking others' technology (not unlike Pakleds) but were said to have children via some form of biological means and technology affixed immediately after birth and also have a collective gestalt mind. Later on, this was altered slightly -- other life forms, fully grown or otherwise, were taken and assimilated to the party (much to the crew's shock). Later, the crew then introduce 'individuality' and the Borg go nuts, and there's a very special episode that had fans and critics saying the episode mocked politicians of the time but not always in the same direction others had but who cares and I digress... but that little 2-fer isn't sure if it's talking about one cube or the entire collective. Later, don't mention that little sect but do shove in a shiny new Borg Queen that coordinates the thoughts... and was there even overseeing "Locutus" because they had a perfect way to tie in this development but tripped over themselves instead... No worries, the Queen, whose surname must be "Nibbles", is killed in dramatic effect but then it's revealed later on that there's another... and another... and another... so despite different actors playing the role is she one queen for all Borg or one-per-cube? (Must be the former and every time a Queen dies one of the drones whips out some Queen Ant food to a special drone who then becomes a shiny new Queen, just like with bees and ants, oh yea!!!) It just snowballs and each new layer adds bigger questions that don't always fit. And they get rendered superficial, flanderized, as well. They say continuity can be changed if it adds something new but eventually the same goal post moving stops working and for the same reason.)
Since the birth of story arcs, which also rely on continuity, the anthology and one-off format of the week becomes a harder sell because people are expecting bigger and more intertwined epics.
For SNW, I wouldn't go to the Well to much for story ideas, but, however, Kind of like the original poster said, have a story, but insert our crew, so If you have a story that needs another ship captain, then insert someone like Commadore Dekker, or Admiral Nogura in that spot, give them a bit more backstory, but them being there serves the story, not the story is About them.
This has also been a creative group that bathes in nostalgia. This week the Enterprise will go to Ardana, then Sarpeidon the next, then Cestus III, then Gamma Trianguli VI another week and so on...
To be fair, it's Trek fans that bathe in nostalgia, Kurtzman, et al., are just giving people what they want.
It seems to be the burden of all mature scifi properties, fans say they want new and original stories, but when you give it to them they bitch because it wasn't how they've fantasized it in their minds.
To be fair, it's Trek fans that bathe in nostalgia, Kurtzman, et al., are just giving people what they want.
It seems to be the burden of all mature scifi properties, fans say they want new and original stories, but when you give it to them they bitch because it wasn't how they've fantasized it in their minds.
This has also been a creative group that bathes in nostalgia. This week the Enterprise will go to Ardana, then Sarpeidon the next, then Cestus III, then Gamma Trianguli VI another week and so on...
I honestly wouldn't necessarily have a problem with that. A lot of those "one-and-done" cultures from TOS were barely explored. If, like, the first episode of SNW is about the Enterprise going on a mission to Tellar, I'd be fine with that, because we've barely explored Tellarite culture. It would not functionally be that different from going to a new planet, and I think it would be very different from going to Vulcan or Qo'noS for the umpteenth time.
I was really bored once and I went through all the episodes of TOS and TNG and marked off what their basic "mission premise" was. It was somewhere around 20% that were actually about the almighty "exploration." Most of the stories Star Trek has traditionally told are rescue missions/distress calls, time travel hijinks, colony check-ups, diplomacy/ errands-of-the-state, standard patrol, and frontier police operations.
Fans love their rose colored glasses about the days when Star Trek was all about exploring space. But, it was simply never true.
Not to mention the only series that was actually about exploration for the sake of exploration was Enterprise, and even then they abandoned that premise by the third season. Hell, even the movies only feature exploration as brief side stories in three out of thirteen films.
I honestly wouldn't necessarily have a problem with that. A lot of those "one-and-done" cultures from TOS were barely explored. If, like, the first episode of SNW is about the Enterprise going on a mission to Tellar, I'd be fine with that, because we've barely explored Tellarite culture. It would not functionally be that different from going to a new planet, and I think it would be very different from going to Vulcan or Qo'noS for the umpteenth time.
Indeed. It sounds like it's rather small world, but in point of fact a lot of the TOS worlds are simply ignored later on. Heck, the only reason we got TWOK was because Nick Meyer did a binge and was like "That Khan guy would probably be angry." Given the comparisons between Vger and the Nomad probe its pretty evident that revisiting past missions was not a priority. So expanding upon interesting concepts would be something I would be onboard for.
Indeed. It sounds like it's rather small world, but in point of fact a lot of the TOS worlds are simply ignored later on. Heck, the only reason we got TWOK was because Nick Meyer did a binge and was like "That Khan guy would probably be angry." Given the comparisons between Vger and the Nomad probe its pretty evident that revisiting past missions was not a priority. So expanding upon interesting concepts would be something I would be onboard for.
Exactly! Like, we have never seen Tellar or Alpha Centauri or the Rigel system onscreen. We only barely got to see Andor -- and the part of Andor we saw was the arctic region of a small reclusive minority group; we didn't get to see what equatorial Andor is like, what Andorian cities are like. There's plenty of room to explore cultures that have been established but not really explored, alongside episodes about worlds we've never seen before at all.
Someone mentioned earlier in the thread that STAR TREK is not about exploration.
This is absolutely false.
It is about the exploration of ourselves, as well as exploring space. While actually exploring space was not done as much as one might think with a starship, EVERY episode explored something about someone.
Watching Kira grow from an angry resistance fighter to a mature leader.
Watching Picard wrestle with various moral and ethical scenarios.
Watching Seven of Nine slowly regain parts of her humanity that was stolen from her as a child.
Watching Tom Paris go from galactic playboy to a responsible husband and father.
Watching Spock try to balance logic against his human half.
Watching Archer go from wide eyed explorer to a battle tested force for bringing races together.
Watching Data explore various facets of humanity in his attempt to be more human himself.
There's no shortage of stories that explore the hearts and minds of people. Exploration means more than just discovering what's just past the next hill or star. It's about finding out what it means to exist.
I'm not interested in exploration. We've had multiple shows and dozens of seasons of it. We just don't need another planet of the week format.
At this distance from TOS it's all about the lore, backstory and legacy. There's still gaps to fill, worldbuilding to be done and political chicanery to enjoy.
I'm not saying there shouldn't be ANY exploration. There will be enough shows soon that some can lean towards arc based stories and some can lean towards the episodic, but the days of the big reset every episode are gone for good.
