As for DF, I still haven’t forgiven them for their hit job on Homefront and Paradise Lost. A genuinely great (if flawed) two-parter that got treated like a grim autopsy. Those were the worst DF episodes.
This is an interesting reaction to me, because do I ever think that is a dud two-parter. I loved Robbie's analysis, and it was so refreshing to hear someone so clearly enumerate why I have always found it subpar. I totally agree with him that what makes it a particularly egregious failure is that the underlying messages, themes, etc are so important, and the POTENTIAL for that two-parter could not have been higher, but there's just one poor execution decision after another.
I also loved when they put together that what went wrong was that the writers had this episode in their heads for so long, and when that happens the final result can often be overworked. I've been there, I've totally seen that happen!
I think I might like this podcast more because I used to work in entertainment. Even specifically in franchise television. And on all the shows I worked on, this is how the actors engage with the material. So that's what I find so fun: it reminds me of my own time behind-the-scenes, but mostly it gives me that experience with the shows I was so obsessed with as a kid that they were the inspiration to go into entertainment in the first place.
I loved that discussion of "Rules Of Engagement", though I can't stand the actual episode. But I was so fascinated by their central split around the breaking-the-4th-wall device, because that's the way it happens. Again, give me great flashbacks to a show I was on where in the 5th or 6th season suddenly we had an episode that broke the conventions like that, and pretty much that was how all the cast/crew reactions split as we were doing it: everyone either got fixated on how exciting it was to do something new, or pushed back on the whole thing because they rejected the change. Consequently, the episode has so many stupid flaws, because everyone was so focused on the format-break and a lot of the more basic script problems went unresolved.
I feel like many of the complaints on this thread amount to "I don't like it because they don't react like fans", and I've never understood why it would be desirable to have them react like fans. Mission Log already exists. I mean, I love a fan Trekcast too, but we also have plenty of those. It is a very well-serviced niche. Lately I'm into "Shield Population" and old episodes of "Random Trek."
The value of Delta Flyers is its authenticity. They're showing up as who they are, and they're having the memories and the reactions that they have. I'm often just baffled by the premise of many complaints on this thread. When the selling point is authenticity, why complain that their reactions are different than you would have dictated them to be?
