For me, it's also 2-1-3, but I think seasons two and one are very similar in quality. The season one finale is still my favorite episode so far, although, as everyone knows, I really liked the season three finale too— as is obvious from my username.
Poll What’s Your Favorite SNW Season (So Far)?
- Thread starter Michael
- Start date
Come for the retcons. Stay for the puppet show.
As of now (which has remained my opinion since season 3 ended), my order from best to worst is...
1, 2, then 3.
Season 1: The only rather weak episode of season 1 was "The Serene Squall. Despite what so many say, I think "The Elysian Kingdom" is a really good episode: it was a lot of fun, and the ending was just so emotional. Very, very solid season, especially for a first season of a show.
Season 2: the duds were "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" (Christina Chong's performance was the only saving grace of the episode) and "Subspace Rhapsody" (terrible because it's a musical). "Under the Cloak of War" is one of the best episodes of the entire Kurtzman era, so that helps cancel out the absolute disaster that was the musical... otherwise, season 2 would be last for SNW, just for the existence of that episode.
Season 3: overall, definitely the weakest. "Wedding Bell Blues", "A Space Adventure Hour", "Four and a Half Vulcans", and "New Life and New Civilizations" ranged from weak to simply terrible. Just by sheer numbers of weak or bad episodes (4 in one season vs. 3 from two seasons combined), it's a terrible average. Particularly when the seasons are so short, having that many duds is a luxury a series just can't afford to have.
I sincerely hope seasons 4 and 5 are an improvement from season 3. I want SNW to go out on a high note. (Like every other show in the Kurtzman era has managed to do, with the obvious exception of DISCO.)
1, 2, then 3.
Season 1: The only rather weak episode of season 1 was "The Serene Squall. Despite what so many say, I think "The Elysian Kingdom" is a really good episode: it was a lot of fun, and the ending was just so emotional. Very, very solid season, especially for a first season of a show.
Season 2: the duds were "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" (Christina Chong's performance was the only saving grace of the episode) and "Subspace Rhapsody" (terrible because it's a musical). "Under the Cloak of War" is one of the best episodes of the entire Kurtzman era, so that helps cancel out the absolute disaster that was the musical... otherwise, season 2 would be last for SNW, just for the existence of that episode.
Season 3: overall, definitely the weakest. "Wedding Bell Blues", "A Space Adventure Hour", "Four and a Half Vulcans", and "New Life and New Civilizations" ranged from weak to simply terrible. Just by sheer numbers of weak or bad episodes (4 in one season vs. 3 from two seasons combined), it's a terrible average. Particularly when the seasons are so short, having that many duds is a luxury a series just can't afford to have.
I sincerely hope seasons 4 and 5 are an improvement from season 3. I want SNW to go out on a high note. (Like every other show in the Kurtzman era has managed to do, with the obvious exception of DISCO.)
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I think Subspace Rhapsody is one of the top 20 episodes in the entire franchise, but for pure entertainment value, the vitriol that the "I hate musicals" crowds throws at the episode rivals any episode of Star Trek.
Its true. It does generate its own entertainment long after the episode aired.
Season one by a long shot, the first six episodes are pretty much a constant string of decent-to-great stuff and easily my favourite stretch of Star Trek made in the last 20+ years. "Children of the Comet" and "Memento Mori" are both fairly typical Star Trek episodes, but they're executed brilliantly; the former is still my favourite episode of the whole show by a wide margin. The season drops off in the last third, but even then I don't mind "Elysian Kingdom"; the real low points for me are the last two episodes.
I don't like the bulk of season two in retrospect; "Subspace Rhapsody" is exhileratingly fun but the others are all flawed at best. I think "Lost in Translation" is my favourite outside "Subspace", but even then it's not exactly a great episode, just a watchable, well-acted one.
Season three fell totally flat for me, for reasons many have already stated. It discarded some of what made SNW tonally distinct from Discovery and Picard and the tropes and narrative voice of those series started to arise in a big way. The flagship "fun" episode, the holodeck one, didn't land for me and just felt sort of depressing. The script quality was all over the place, a few episodes just ambled around and didn't go anywhere, and the running plot with the ULTIMATE EVIL was terrible. The pick of the season is probably "The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail" but even that's a very average episode.
I don't like the bulk of season two in retrospect; "Subspace Rhapsody" is exhileratingly fun but the others are all flawed at best. I think "Lost in Translation" is my favourite outside "Subspace", but even then it's not exactly a great episode, just a watchable, well-acted one.
Season three fell totally flat for me, for reasons many have already stated. It discarded some of what made SNW tonally distinct from Discovery and Picard and the tropes and narrative voice of those series started to arise in a big way. The flagship "fun" episode, the holodeck one, didn't land for me and just felt sort of depressing. The script quality was all over the place, a few episodes just ambled around and didn't go anywhere, and the running plot with the ULTIMATE EVIL was terrible. The pick of the season is probably "The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail" but even that's a very average episode.
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(jumps up theatrically) "We should write a musical about that!" I exclaim. (starts 4/4 on piano) "It seems the ones we most engage, are those who disparage..." What do you think, guys?
James Kirk: it's a good
It wasn't that it was "bad", it was just very "been there, done that, saw the movie, bought the novelization".
Sometimes one can get to the point where they've seen too much Star Trek.
One can? Fascinating.
It's like the old guy in my town said one Christmas: "some days ya just outgrew presents."
I'm not sure I'm there yet but now I've got a goal
It isn't that one wants to outgrow it, it just happens. We're constantly in motion as we age, things change.
I watched "11001001" the other night. Good episode, hit the Trek spot. Thought about watching another and thought, "nope, I'm good". I'm to that point with Trek, "I'm good". I have access to what is important to me, everyone else have fun.
Of course one doesn't want to. But, the foundational aspect of life is change. To hold on to something past it's time causes grief.
Conversely, new Star Trek is one of the few things in this world I still get genuine enjoyment out of.
While I eagerly await S.4 of SNW, in terms of other Trek, I'm content at the moment with whatever TOS ep MeTV is showing on Saturday night. There's literally hundreds of hours of Trek a mere bandwidth and a click away, I just don't need to watch all of them like I used to half a lifetime ago.
I feel much the same way. New Star Trek content is one of the only things I have to look forward to, there's a couple other TV shows but not many and a smattering of new game releases but even they start to get rarer in terms of ones that trule excite me.
Beyond that there's little to look forward to, plenty of older stuff to re-enjoy ad infinitum of course but sometimes you want new stuff too and the butterflies you get leading up to it.
The jury is out on if I can still say this because all the shows got canned and I really didnt like the latest SNW season much but setting that aside I agree. Doctor Who has been floundering for years delivering good individual episodes but not good seasons, Im a big animation guy but most things never get the chance to last very long unless you're airing on a Sunday night on Fox, and I dont watch Star Wars, so the only thing I'm consistently watching year to year is Star Trek. It really was my yearly comfort food, even for shows I liked less like Discovery.
Season 1 for me. Since I finished it before watching the cliffhanger/premiere two-parter, Season 2 is great as well, giving us one of the best comedy stories in the mainline entries ("Those Old Scientists"), the opening of the Rah storyline, Una on trial and the further return of the proper Klingons in the wake of Worf's return in Picard season 3, but it does have an achilles' heel in "Subspace Rhapsody"*, the overhyped, overrated musical that kicked off the influx of shameless gimmick plots that would plague the show in its third season. Season 1 features great standalone stories, solid overarching subplots, and one of my favourite Trek stories in the excellently sad "Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach".
*No joke, I watched "Subspace Rhapsody" twice and I was baffled as to why it has a devoted fan following.
*No joke, I watched "Subspace Rhapsody" twice and I was baffled as to why it has a devoted fan following.
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