where main character falls in love for the week and then forgets all about the lover by the next episode
Of those 'aging quickly' episodes, only "DISTANT VOICES" did not have a character actually age, since it was all in Bashir's head.
I'm not a huge fan of "girl (or more rarely, guy) of the week" episodes, though I'll readily concede there have been some good ones on the various Treks. (TOS's "This Side of Paradise," TNG's "In Theory" and VOY's "Counterpoint" come to mind.) To me, they often seem like not much more than a way to give a main character something to do, and a writing shortcut to explain why we should actually care what happens to the guest character. ("Lights of Zetar," are your ears burning?) And sometimes, they just straight-up suck. (I would say, "Think of 'Sub Rosa,'" but asking you to do that would just be mean.)
I don't particularly like episodes where a character has a one-episode romance. And yes, I'm tired of the "holodeck safeties off" trope. The holodeck's safety protocols should pretty much always work, period.
I think a lot depends on whether you like the franchise it's alluding to. For example, I've never had anything with Westerns, and for that reason, to me, a Fistful of Datas always was a yet-another-lame-holodeck-malfunction episode. Yet, I've seen several people on this board describe it as a great nod to Westerns. I like James Bond to a certain (modest) extent because it's all so ridiculous and over the top and therefore, I could also appreciate Take Me Out to the Holosuite, but only to that same degree. I think her becoming nasty was the primary effect, channeling all those negative emotions, and her growing old as well merely a concomitant effect, as the result of the extreme stresses she was subjected to. I think one of the best episodes using that trope was Facets, DS9. Gave a lot of the main cast the opportunity to play a different role for once, and not of the cartoonish villain variety, and not done in the old tired 'hey, x is acting weird .... wait, x is not being herself!' way.
One of the reasons I don't like S2 of TOS as much as the other two is that I actually don't usually like the "parallel Earth" stories. It's all relative, as I'll take S2 of TOS over most other seasons in the franchise...but in terms of episode types that don't resonate with me, that category is one to take note of.
I don't even like this in sitcoms. I like The Goldbergs, but I'd like it A LOT more if it wasn't the same characters (mostly the mom) learning the same lesson over and over and over and over and over and over... Um...huh? It also cements the fact that every one in the Federation should be ageless and practically immortal.
Episodes set up primarily to use existing sets and costumes (the crew finds a planet that’s just like the Wild West/Nazi Germany/Ancient Rome/etc.)
In anything other than TOS (where it was simply part of Kirks daily routine, like washing etc) I'm not a fan of romance episodes. Possibly stemming from the uncomfortable feeling I'd get watching Picard getting it on with Nella Daren whilst my Mum was also in the room but they often feel forced and ultimately pointless. Riker ISN'T going to make a go of it with Carmen Davila and there was NO FUTURE for Janeway and Sullivan what with the whole him-being-a-hologram-and-not-real thing (I mean, how solid are these holograms?). That said, I could buy into the Picard/Crusher will they/won't they and the heartache for Stamets and Culber so I'm not a complete robot.
Arghhh. You are so right. "Take me out to the Holosuite" and "Nightingale" are also appalling examples. Sisko should have understood baseball better, and Harry had had years of tutelage in command under teachers like Janeway, Tuvok, and even Chakotay.