TOS was pretty goofy— ya know, when it wasn’t pure sci-fi horror. it was also gruesome and scary as shit sometimes! SNW does a good job of capturing the goofy tone specific to TOS, although Trek has always had a pretty goofy streak. You can easily find it in every series!
The wife and I are loving SNW. Particularly in relation to Discovery. I could have done without the singing in the latest but I can still appreciate what they’re doing, I just don’t like musicals. And you’re right, the original series was often goofy as hell.
From the various series in between:
- “Ménage à Troi” (TNG S3E24)
- “A Fistful of Datas” (TNG S6E8)
- “The Magnificent Ferengi” (DS9 S6E10)
- “Take Me out to the Holosuite” (DS9 S7E4)
- “Bride Of Chaotica!” (VOY S5E12)
- “Babel One” (ENT S4E12)
Several I’ve omitted throughout, not counting the low hanging fruit of LD, but clearly Trek as a whole is steeped in plenty of silly episodes.
not a bad list. Bride of Chaotica! was about as hammy as hammy gets, and it was hilarious, mostly because of how serious Kate Mulgrew’s Janeway was. I love that episode!
“Babel One” is a comedy episode for you? Shran’s girlfriend died in that one…
SNW does a good job of capturing the […] tone specific to TOS
I think that’s a point that a lot of people miss. SNW is much closer in tone to TOS than it is to the Berman era of Star Trek. 90s Trek was much more stiff and serious compared to TOS. And SNW brings back that lightheartedness and playfulness of the original Star Trek. Not just in its comedy episodes but in general.
“Bermaga”-era Trek, as I like to call it, had a lot of warmth, too, but it was certainly more serious. they really tried to formalize Trek much more, especially with the lore and the tech. It did come off as stiff a lot of the time, but it had its own goofy moments, too. It was certainly different in tone, though, especially DS9, which was pretty dark in its portrayal of Trek at the edges of and sometime outside of the Federation. The whole idea, though, was to portray a much more mature Federation and Starfleet, and I think they did a good job of that.
It’s also what PIC S1 and S2 missed— the human connections, the warmth, that were present in the Bermaga-era Trek shows. That, and the good writing, directing, and acting. The characters weren’t believable and Trek was presented as some action series set in a dystopian future that certainly seemed alien to Trek viewers. No wonder everyone hated it. It’s also why S3 was such a hit: it was a return to everything that made 90s-era Trek great: excelled, character-driven storylines with clever tech problems that everyone had to work together to fix using science and cleverness.
I love how SNW has hit its stride this season, has broken out of the DSC formula, and is hitting all the right notes (no pun intended).