Was TNG serialized when Lore came back again and again?
Is this show less serialized than you thought it would be?
- Thread starter eschaton
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Was TNG serialized when Lore came back again and again?
If his actions in an episode were a reaction to something that had happened before then yes.
To be a pendent, yes, you're right. But when I raised the point that TNG (unlike TOS) was a semi-serialized show with recurring guest characters, internal continuity, and character arcs, people disagreed with me.
Regardless, TNG-like serialization is a very low bar to reach in the modern era.
saw this article today
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https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/13/17005524/star-trek-discovery-season-finale-look-back
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Why can’t Star Trek: Discovery commit to serialized storytelling?
https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/13/17005524/star-trek-discovery-season-finale-look-back
In the context of the time those episodes came out they were largely thought of as sequel episodes rather than arcs as we've come to know from later shows like DS9, X-Files, Buffy, etc. Something like "Datalore" was originally just a stand alone with no plans, as Lore was originally disintegrated via transporter, before "Brothers" retconned that into simply him being beamed out into space. Heck, a lot of S4 episodes were sequel episodes. I think Worf's arc was the only actual arc conceived as such from the beginning with "Sins of the Father" being very open ended, which was a first for Trek.
Discovery is serialized pretty much to what I expected. A season long story consisting of smaller arcs and hints of the standalone. Not surprised by what we received.
And now I want to be surprised.
I want to go into season 2 and watch 5 standalone episodes in a row for no reason at all except "why the f*** not".
I want old Star Trek and new Star Trek.
I want to be surprised.
And now I want to be surprised.
I want to go into season 2 and watch 5 standalone episodes in a row for no reason at all except "why the f*** not".
I want old Star Trek and new Star Trek.
I want to be surprised.
It's about as serialized as what I expected, but how the serialization was proportioned wasn't. I expected it to be split between the Shenzou, the Klingons, and the Discovery. It was mostly split two ways but what those ways were shifted.
It started off split between the Shenzou and the Klingons, then the Discovery and the Klingons, then everything seemed to be on Discovery, then it was Mirror Universe and split between the Shenzou/Charon and Discovery, before finally going back to the Prime Universe with just the Discovery.
It was all an interwoven story and they managed to work in more plot than expected. I also like that they weren't afraid of time-jumps to allow for more to happen in-universe. Enough time passed for Burnham to have served at least some time and there was enough time for the Klingons to make a good foothold.
The ending of the Klingon War might seem abrupt but threatening to destroy Qo'noS would bring the 24 Houses in line pretty fast. No matter what their differences between each other are, they don't want their Homeworld destroyed. And I'm guessing this isn't the last we'll see of the Klingon Arc anyway, even if the War is finished, so this was a good stopping point.
It started off split between the Shenzou and the Klingons, then the Discovery and the Klingons, then everything seemed to be on Discovery, then it was Mirror Universe and split between the Shenzou/Charon and Discovery, before finally going back to the Prime Universe with just the Discovery.
It was all an interwoven story and they managed to work in more plot than expected. I also like that they weren't afraid of time-jumps to allow for more to happen in-universe. Enough time passed for Burnham to have served at least some time and there was enough time for the Klingons to make a good foothold.
The ending of the Klingon War might seem abrupt but threatening to destroy Qo'noS would bring the 24 Houses in line pretty fast. No matter what their differences between each other are, they don't want their Homeworld destroyed. And I'm guessing this isn't the last we'll see of the Klingon Arc anyway, even if the War is finished, so this was a good stopping point.
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I should say my viewpoint of the series shifted since I posted this thread to begin with. Act 2 was much, much more heavily serialized than Act 1. There was basically a four-part MU arc, and a two-part closing arc which directly followed it.
I do feel like, ultimately, the show suffered in part because the writers didn't commit to serialization fully enough however - particularly in terms of character development. If you look at modern serialized drama, it's often the case that entire episodes are given over mostly to quieter scenes which help to "set the table" - basically characters just sitting in rooms and talking. Discovery wanted to keep the action quotient high, which meant even during the "high serialization" arcs there were throwaway B plots which didn't do that much to actually draw the season as a whole to a close.
I do feel like, ultimately, the show suffered in part because the writers didn't commit to serialization fully enough however - particularly in terms of character development. If you look at modern serialized drama, it's often the case that entire episodes are given over mostly to quieter scenes which help to "set the table" - basically characters just sitting in rooms and talking. Discovery wanted to keep the action quotient high, which meant even during the "high serialization" arcs there were throwaway B plots which didn't do that much to actually draw the season as a whole to a close.
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