Poll What’s Your Favorite SNW Season (So Far)?

[Starflight]

Again I get the criticism. But season 1 & 2 had the same problems already - remember M'Benga's daughter in the transporter? She did a "Batel" way earlier.

That's a good point of comparison between the two seasons - both are cases of a running plot resolving abruptly (and fairly badly), but the S1 episode at least hinges on some kind of story structure. They go into the nebula (or w/e it is), her thoughts become reality, she and M'Benga both realise she could live more happily with the nebula entity. There's a simple plot there and, though she occurs throughout the season, her story is mostly handled and resolved within that episode.

I'm not sure the same can be said of the Batel arc, which is seeded very awkwardly and bizarrely throughout the season, and comes at the expense of other stories (the Batel-is-Gorn stuff needs to wait til the finale for the payoff - such as it is - and the first episode of the temple expedition with Gamble being possessed similarly doesn't really have a concrete ending because it's all setup for the finale).

Both are disappointing but "The Elysian Kingdom" at least feels like someone trying to write a Star Trek story; the Batel arc just feels like the kind of bombastic, muddled style that defines so much of Discovery and Picard. Again I think the most competent episodes the show has ever done are "Children of the Comet" and "Memento Mori", and I don't think S3 has been able to put out anything resembling either, in tone or in structure.

 

[Firebird]

It was just a very uneven season with too many shitty episodes.

I feel like if the strikes hadn't happened, the scripts might've had a chance to get more love and care and we might not have gotten the underbaked season we did.

Except Four and a Half Vulcans. There was no polishing that turd. That's gonna be the one episode of the series I'm not going to bother rewatching.

 

[Vger23]

Season 1 is far-and-away my favorite. The only real mis-fire there was "Serene Squall" which was really bad. Season 2 is good, but the addition of Pelia in favor of the departed Hemmer is frustrating, and the "very special episodes" like "Those Old Scientists" and "Subspace Rhapsody" completely missed the mark for me.

Season 3 was really pretty dismal. I like "Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail" and "What Is Starfleet?" Everything else was pretty bad.

The one throughline of the series of making Spock the butt of too many jokes/a romcom star is starting to wear thin. It was cute occasionally in S1 with T'Pring. Now it's become more than a bit of silliness.

 

[FederationHistorian]

I lean towards S1. While S2 had a stronger string of episodes with "Those Old Scientists", "Under The Cloak of War" and "Subspace Rhapsody", S1 had more enjoyable episode over the course of the season.

I'll admit S3 could have been good as S1 if a few tweaks had been made.

 

[ichab]

Its quite telling that S1 and S2 are so close while S3 is waaaaaaaaay at the bottom.

 

[ichab]

Season 1 is far-and-away my favorite. The only real mis-fire there was "Serene Squall" which was really bad. Season 2 is good, but the addition of Pelia in favor of the departed Hemmer is frustrating, and the "very special episodes" like "Those Old Scientists" and "Subspace Rhapsody" completely missed the mark for me.

Season 3 was really pretty dismal. I like "Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail" and "What Is Starfleet?" Everything else was pretty bad.

The one throughline of the series of making Spock the butt of too many jokes/a romcom star is starting to wear thin. It was cute occasionally in S1 with T'Pring. Now it's become more than a bit of silliness.

I really wish they would focus less on Spock and more on Una. There is so much new ground that could be covered with her, yet we keep seeing episodes devoted to Spock, a character that has been mined to death since the 1960s.

 

[Khamsin]

Couldn't agree more. Una is such a compelling character with so much potential, and I feel she was noticably underutilized in season 3. Her ark in seasons 1-2 was amazing, I really hope they bring that focus back on her in future seasons.

 

[Farscape One]

Agreed. Una is my second favorite character on SNW. (M'Benga being my favorite.) I'd like some more focus on her in season 4 and 5.

 

[Frontis]

Well I've been blown away by season 1 and 2, season 3 was a bit weaker but still better than Disco or Picard. I hope they get it back in season 4.

 

[ichab]

Well I've been blown away by season 1 and 2, season 3 was a bit weaker but still better than Disco or Picard. I hope they get it back in season 4.

Me too. Season 3 was a bit of a letdown after the high quality of S1 and S2. Hopefully they get it back together because S4 will be the last 10 episode season.

 

[Tosk]

I think fear anyone hoping that season four will be substantially better than three might be disappointed. Four was in the can before three aired, so no lessons can be learned from the public reaction to it.

Of course, they may have internally reacted and been brutally honest with themselves about the quality drop. I truly hope so.

If the puppet ep is the only (sigh) "big swing" of the season I'll be happy. But let's be honest, what are the chances of that?

 

[Nerys Myk]

If the puppet ep is the only (sigh) "big swing" of the season I'll be happy. But let's be honest, what are the chances of that?

It will be the smallest swing.

 

[Farscape One]

It will be the smallest swing.

Wocka wocka...

 

[Mudd]

I think fear anyone hoping that season four will be substantially better than three might be disappointed. Four was in the can before three aired, so no lessons can be learned from the public reaction to it.

Trek may change from audience feedback, but doesn't generally improve from it.

One reason streaming produces so many creative, if short-lived, TV series is the lack of pressure from studios to conform to "audience feedback."

 

[Starflight]

Of course, they may have internally reacted and been brutally honest with themselves about the quality drop. I truly hope so.

I suspect the writers themselves might have been, initially at least, pleased with S3; it more closely resembles the material they've been writing since Discovery (which is to say, big serialised arcs about galaxy-rupturing threats, deliberately reduced plot presence to shift emphasis to characters emoting or having personal revelations, etc.).

The thing I don't get is why the first season started off so strong - I'm not trying to rag on the writers but I think it's fair to say, after nine years of their output, that they have certain styles and tropes they really enjoy and default to, and an episodic plot-driven adventure series is not their preferred mode of television.

It's a theory with no basis but I genuinely wonder if Paramount kept a closer eye on the show for its first few episodes to check it matched their brief, with all the usual buzzwords that were thrown out in pre-release interviews (episodic, "TOS-style", optimistic). After that, they left the writers to it, at which point they set about bringing it more structurally and tonally in line with Discovery/Picard, and saw SNW's unique strength as "we can do meta stories about Star Trek itself or do genre pastiches".

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

There isn't really that much overlap between shows when it comes to writers, as far as I can tell. There's Alan McElroy, who did a lot of Disco, Kathryn Lyn, who did an episode of Lower Decks, Kirsten Beyer, who's done a little of everything, and Akiva Goldsman who worked on Picard. Between them they've worked on a third of SNW episodes, mostly in seasons 2 and 3.

Season 1 was basically all new writers, aside from Akiva.

 

[Starflight]

Goldsman, Lumet, Beyer, and McElroy were the ones I was thinking of (though on closer inspection, Lumet is only credited on the S1 pilot).

I guess blame for the quality of S3 lies in part with whoever came up with the arc about Batel turning into a statue to stop THE EVIL or w/e; I'm not sure who that'd be - I assume the showrunners - but you can see how writers often had to work around it and several plots (zombie planet, ancient temple) just fizzle out in part because of a duty to further the larger arc.

 

[Noname Given]

Goldsman, Lumet, Beyer, and McElroy were the ones I was thinking of (though on closer inspection, Lumet is only credited on the S1 pilot).

I guess blame for the quality of S3 lies in part with whoever came up with the arc about Batel turning into a statue to stop THE EVIL or w/e; I'm not sure who that'd be - I assume the showrunners - but you can see how writers often had to work around it and several plots (zombie planet, ancient temple) just fizzle out in part because of a duty to further the larger arc.

It's clear that after the SAG strike; and the Studios claim that the deal would 'kill streaming' - the SNW showrunners thought SNW S3 would be it (just look at the last episode of S3 and it's 100% obvious) - so they decided to 'wrap up' the relationship underthread they had between Pike/Batel in a way that made it tragic for BOTH of them and 'interesting' for the audience.

If they hadn't gone that route, I was sure Batel was going to end up being the 'mother' to the more Humanoid Gorn we see in TOS S1 Arena; but yeah, they thought S3 was going to be it - so they went the route they did - then got the "Hey, renewed for S4" notice and when told S4 WOULD be it and they'd get a P+ Streaming film (like Section 31) to wrap the series - they pleaded that they couldn't do a good wrap in two hours and in effect got 6 more episodes (as S5) the 'properly' end the series how they wanted to.

 

[Turtletrekker]

It's clear that after the SAG strike; and the Studios claim that the deal would 'kill streaming' - the SNW showrunners though SNW S3 would be it (just look at the last episode of S3 and it's 100% obvious) - so they decided to 'wrap up' the relationship underthread they had between Pike/Batel in a way that made it tragic for BOTH of them and 'interesting' for the audience.

Yeah, I think there's a lot to this right here. So much stuff that they had set up with so much potential in the first season got rushed and unsatisfactory resolutions here. The season 3 premiere probably wasn't originally intended to conclude with the Gorn resolution it had and they would have probably been more of an ongoing threat. The Enemy Mine gimmick episode would have been a nice coda to the Gorn stuff, but was ruined by the Metron.

Likewise with the stuff with Spock and Chapel. It started with such promise and potential and chemistry, and ended with a fizzle. Chapel's thing with Korby came off as rushed and unsatisfying, with that little bit tacked on at the end implying that's the last time they'll ever see each other again kind of just kind of eliciting a shrug. And Spock's hook up with La'An just didn't work for me on any level.

The resolution to the Pike / Batel relationship was convoluted and bizarre and I'm still not entirely sure what happened.

This, along with gimmick episodes that just didn't land for me, combine for my low opinion of this season. It's not just the season itself, it's the unsatisfying resolutions to situations established from the beginning.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Batel giving rise to the Arena Gorn would have been Augment Virus level cringe.