But.... it's a television prequel show. Episodes like that are kind of expected? I get the hate, and yes the prequel that might as well be a remake trope is overused, but almost every prequel show does it.
From an in-universe perspective it breaks immersion, but so do the remake episodes where exactly the same thing just happens to occur with Seven of Nine and T'Pol getting stuck going insane alone on their ships when their crews have to go into stasis chambers because reasons, or the Enterprise crews get "space drunk" because of a virus in their second episodes or any of the others.
TNG S3 is quite easily the winner, followed closely by TOS.
SNW S3 has the misfortune of being the first season of Trek with episodes I simply couldn't finish, or were barely watched.
The Selhat That Ate its Tail is probably the one episode that stands out as memorable in a positive way, even if it reminded me of the time Geordi was in charge of the ship, and nobody believed in him until the end, or when Beverly was in charge and nobody believed in her until the end, or when Data was in charge and nobody believed in him. The twist was good, I'll give them that, and it did show Paul Wesley as a reasonably good captain.
Admittedly, TOS S3 has Spock's Brain, a dumb episode, but it gets a few points for ...originality. Originality was the one thing that was severely lacking in SNW S3, but there was plenty of the dumb stuff.
SNW S3 has the misfortune of being the first season of Trek with episodes I simply couldn't finish, or were barely watched.
The Selhat That Ate its Tail is probably the one episode that stands out as memorable in a positive way, even if it reminded me of the time Geordi was in charge of the ship, and nobody believed in him until the end, or when Beverly was in charge and nobody believed in her until the end, or when Data was in charge and nobody believed in him. The twist was good, I'll give them that, and it did show Paul Wesley as a reasonably good captain.
Admittedly, TOS S3 has Spock's Brain, a dumb episode, but it gets a few points for ...originality. Originality was the one thing that was severely lacking in SNW S3, but there was plenty of the dumb stuff.
For me the Gorn and Ortegas episode of Season 3 is the standout and best episode. I gave it a solid 10 since my only detraction (my actual score was 9.5 but I rounded up) was for something relatively minor but which bugged me, something aesthetic if I can recall.
Was I watching an episode of Star Trek or the Coneheads?
But this episode was light years more acceptable than the damn musical with the dancing D7s.
FTFY
This.
I had this exact thought. My reaction was to put the 10 best episodes of each season/series up against each other. However, that might also be unfair.
The best solution is possibly percentage. The percentage of good season 3 SNW episodes vs [insert series here].
Correct in my view. It's what I try to do and the mix seems roughly the same at times for me.
Completely agreed on this point.
I don't know, my mother never had me tested.
As long as the stories are good, I'm with the type of episodes that @JonnyQuest037 described. Sure, it's all call back and memberberries, but when done well they can be great stories. The Augment arc was awesome, if you ask me. Sure, the Ferengi episode in ENT was pretty bad. You can't have them all. But again, as long as the episode/story/acting/directing was solid, I don't mind.
But a good prequel should be MORE than just callbacks to the previous project. Otherwise, it's just hollow fan service.
Let's look at Better Call Saul, which, for my money, is the best prequel ever done. Yes, it explained things from Breaking Bad, like how Jimmy McGill became Saul Goodman, the backstories of Gus Fring, Mike Ehrmantraut, and Hector Salamanca, but it also gave us a host of NEW characters and plotlines, like Kim Wexler, Howard Hamlin, Chuck McGill, Nacho Varga, and Lalo Salamanca. It wasn't just filling in the blanks from Breaking Bad and saying "...Hey, remember this character?" It told new stories that fit into the previously established world. The callbacks to BB were the icing on the cake, not the cake itself.
SNW, especially in its third season, was more about recycling things we've already seen in TOS, but often showing them in ways that directly contradict what previous Trek shows established. I'm not saying they haven't done good episodes ("Ad Astra per Aspera" is one of my favorite Trek episodes ever), but for this last season, it hasn't been a very good prequel.
Oh I fully agree! Hence why I said if the stories are good and told well. S3 had some amazing things but was, indeed, not SNW's strongest season. Season 2's crossover with LDS was, if you ask me, prequel/memberberries/throwbacks done absolutely spot on. A great mix of all three.
I think SNW has threaded that needle better than most. Season 3 wasn't great but it was still fascinating exploring things previously alluded to in TOS. At its worst it's like ENTERPRISE and too on the nose at least though more enjoyable characters.
Yes, I thought that was a lot of fun, and I've rewatched that episode several times.
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