[ant6n]

This used to irk me too. And I liked the epic stories that really became mainstream in the 2010s. But the problem is, nowadays the progression in each episode has become minuscule. It’s not an epic told in 15 stories, it’s just one story drawn out in 15 chapters. It’s often just a bridge from one cliffhanger to the next.

For example most of new the Star Trek stuff, none of the episodes stand by themselves. They don’t have their own stories.

[mschild]

I agree, but when rewatching older Trek shows it is also a bit infuriating how nothing really has an impact. Last season of TNG they introduced the fact that warp was damaging subspace. That fact was forgotten just a few episodes later.

I think Strange New Worlds walks that balancing act particularly well though. A lot of episodes are their own adventure but you do have character development and an overarching story happening.

[TeMPOraL]

> when rewatching older Trek shows it is also a bit infuriating how nothing really has an impact

TNG: You get e.g. changes in political relationships between major powers in the Alpha/Beta quadrant, several recurring themes (e.g. Ferengi, Q, Borg), and continuous character development. However, this show does much better job at exploring the Star Trek universe breadth-first, rather than over time.

DS9: Had one of the most epic story arcs in all sci-fi television, that spanned multiple seasons. In a way, this is IMO a golden standard for how to do this: most episodes were still relatively independent of each other, but the long story arcs were also visible and pushed forward.

VOY: Different to DS9, with one overarching plot (coming home) that got pushed forward most episodes, despite individual episodes being mostly watchable in random order. They've figured out a way to have things have accumulating impact without strong serialization.

> Last season of TNG they introduced the fact that warp was damaging subspace. That fact was forgotten just a few episodes later.

True, plenty of dropped arcs in TNG in particular. But often for the better, like in the "damaging subspace" aspect - that one was easy to explain away (fixing warp engines) and was a bad metaphor for ecological anyway; conceptually interesting, but would hinder subsequent stories more than help.

[ben_w]

> VOY: Different to DS9, with one overarching plot (coming home) that got pushed forward most episodes, despite individual episodes being mostly watchable in random order. They've figured out a way to have things have accumulating impact without strong serialization.

I wouldn't say they had any noticeable accumulating impact.

Kim was always an ensign, system damage never accumulated without a possibility of repair, they fired 123 of their non-replaceable supply of 38 photon torpedoes, the limited power reserves were quickly forgotten, …

Unless you mean they had a few call-back episodes, pretty much the only long-term changes were the doctor's portable holo-emitter, the Delta Flier, Seven replacing Kes, and Janeway's various haircuts.

> True, plenty of dropped arcs in TNG in particular. But often for the better, like in the "damaging subspace" aspect - that one was easy to explain away (fixing warp engines) and was a bad metaphor for ecological anyway; conceptually interesting, but would hinder subsequent stories more than help.

That and beta-cannon is this engine fix is why Voyager's warp engines moved.

The Doylist reason is of course "moving bits look cool".

[deltoidmaximus]

The wildest dropped Arc were the absolutely horrifying mind control parasites. But like that the warp core speed limit I see why, you'd have to change the whole tone of the show if you wanted to keep them as a consistent threat.

[olyjohn]

To be fair, there were a couple of times where they mentioned being allowed to exceed warp speed limits for an emergency. Otherwise, they were usually traveling under Warp 6.

[account42]

Many things that episode writers come up with are better forgotten though.

[ant6n]

Agreed about strange new worlds. It’s what makes it the best Trek in 20 years - besides lower decks, of course. It feels like Star Trek again, because the episodic story telling allows to explore, well, strange new worlds.