Setting aside the fact that they can’t even keep their own continuity straight (as seen in the video, the section of the saucer with the “oldest hull plate” was totally blown away in STD), this got me thinking.
Part of the elegant simplicity of TOS was the simplicity of the storytelling, in that the sole focus of each episode was the plot of the week. The mission of the
Enterprise was the focus of the show, and so the runtime of a given episode was solely devoted to, say, the crew encountering Balok or Apollo or Khan. There were no subplots to speak of, and the characters were developed
within the context of the episodic stories being told. This added to the verisimilitude of the show, because it was all about the mission or adventure of the week, without non-essential detours or filler. People nowadays love to bitch about how the characters’ personal lives were never developed in detail (particularly the secondary players, who were, after all,
secondary players in a plot-driven show with three lead characters). TOS was plot-driven, rather than character-driven, and the characters served as our guides through the science-fiction concepts and themes of each episode. “These are the voyages of the Starship
Enterprise”, not “Let’s get to know these people as they joyride around space”.
Flash-forward to the TNG era, and television storytelling had changed. While TNG retained the episodic format, albeit with some running plotlines that spanned episodes (or even seasons) on occasion, the show became more focused on the now-ensemble cast, and episodes often included an “A” story and a “B” story (or even a “C” story). To cite a random example, the “A” story in “The Icarus Factor” is Riker’s conflict with this father, and the “B” story is Worf celebrating the anniversary of his Rite of Ascension. Sometimes, the “B” stories served to flesh out the characters or provide a break from the “A” story, and other times they were just padding.
The subsequent spin-off shows followed the same format, even as television became more and more character-driven and arc-driven, as with the brilliant, long-form character studies of top-tier modern shows like THE SOPRANOS and BREAKING BAD. STAR TREK only began to dabble with season-long arcs in the late 90s and early 00s.
Flash-forward again to now, and we have what is ostensibly a return to form, with the Not-
Enterprise having episodic adventures…and yet also with pointless padding subplots like “
Enterprise Bingo”, as well as characters like Not-Chapel talking about how she prefers slutting around to having committed relationships.
In 1966, “Shore Leave” placed the
Enterprise crew in mortal danger on a planet that at first seemed idyllic. Even when our heroes tried to get a break, there was still a compelling adventure to be had. If “Shore Leave” was made today, it would be an hour of the characters talking about their feelings and their sex lives.
