Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 Is Almost Upon Us! Discuss What You Want

[Ruin Explorer]

DS9 had plenty of humour.

The "Weekend at Bernies" Ferengi one is a real all-timer for Star Trek too - I think it's The Magnificent Ferengi. Just incredible.

The other Treks have seemed to lose their sense of humour over the years and it was refreshing to see a couple of “silly” episodes.

I think it's more that, specifically, Enterprise tried to do humour, and was just really, really, really bad at it. Like, the writers just weren't good at comedy, and thought stuff was funny that just wasn't - particularly anything involving Trip (I mean, not uncommon in the early 2000s, man there were a lot of comedy misses on US network TV back then). And then we didn't have any Trek shows until Discovery, and Discovery was trying way, way too hard to be Dark and Serious and Grown-Up in the way only a show produced by people who are insecure about that sort of thing can be. Instead of actually being those things it generally just ends up Edgy and Po-Faced (not that it was without charm but...).

DS9 does a ton of humour and does it well though. Suggest a re-watch, stat! Indeed I'd say it was better at humour than TNG.

And SNW is pretty solid at humour and has some basically humour-focused episodes. It does occasionally stray into po-faced "WE'RE BIG BOYS WRITING BIG BOY THEMES!" territory like Disco, but relatively rarely.

Re: parody, LD intentionally toes the line between parody and not, but I think overall, especially after S1/2, it comes down on the "not parody" side of things.

There's also of course The Orville, which starts out as a nearly straight comedy, and gradually just starts taking itself more and more seriously, which shockingly, turns out to be an extremely good thing. I think by the end of S3 we've got to the point where the "jokes/shenanigans per episode" counter is probably lower than some episodes of DS9/TNG.

 

[Hussar]

Yeah. I can see that. Perhaps satire might be the better term than parody. Note, again, satire does not have to be mean spirited. Again, though it’s not a huge deal what the specific term is.

Now me, I found I enjoyed earlier Orville, at least after a few episodes, then totally bounced off of it once it tried to take itself seriously. Totally lost interest halfway through the last season. It’s still languishing at the bottom of my watch next pile.

 

[Ryujin]

Yeah. I can see that. Perhaps satire might be the better term than parody. Note, again, satire does not have to be mean spirited. Again, though it’s not a huge deal what the specific term is.

Now me, I found I enjoyed earlier Orville, at least after a few episodes, then totally bounced off of it once it tried to take itself seriously. Totally lost interest halfway through the last season. It’s still languishing at the bottom of my watch next pile.

That's a pity. What started as satire became an homage, that dealt with issues every bit as weighty as the best of Trek.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

That's a pity. What started as satire became an homage, that dealt with issues every bit as weighty as the best of Trek.

Heavier, and less prone to hiding the message in allegory.

 

[Saracenus]

Frankly the Lower Decks/Strange New Worlds crossover was a highlight for me (the other one being the fairy tale episode). I will forever shout, "Riker!" when I get on the saddle of a horse from now on.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

That’s funny, because I would shout “Help! Get me off this big scary animal!”

 

[Hussar]

Frankly the Lower Decks/Strange New Worlds crossover was a highlight for me (the other one being the fairy tale episode). I will forever shout, "Riker!" when I get on the saddle of a horse from now on.

Yeah. Thinking about it more. I said "humour", but, maybe it's a bit deeper than that. A lot more ... I don't know the right word... sense of wonder? Sense of ... optimism? That the future, while scary and sometimes horrific, is going to be better.

I'm not finding the right words but, whatever that feeling is, I like it and I think that Star Trek really is best when it embraces it.

 

[MarkB]

Leaked release date of August 1st, take it with a pinch of salt.

 

[Umbran]

And SNW is pretty solid at humour and has some basically humour-focused episodes. It does occasionally stray into po-faced "WE'RE BIG BOYS WRITING BIG BOY THEMES!" territory like Disco, but relatively rarely.

Unsubtle morality plays have been the core of the franchise from its inception. Kind of late to use that as a critique

That's a pity. What started as satire became an homage, that dealt with issues every bit as weighty as the best of Trek.

It was never a satire. Comedic, yes. Poking fun at some tropes, sure. But, "About a Girl" is Episode 3, for crying out loud.

McFarlane loves aspirational, episodic, allegorical sci-fi. Back in 2015 (before Discovery was announced) he asked CBS to allow him to take a crack at a new Trek series. After CBS turned him down, one of the Producers on Enterprise (David Goodman) told McFarlane to make his own show.... and he did.

 

[Thomas Shey]

It was never a satire. Comedic, yes. Poking fun at some tropes, sure. But, "About a Girl" is Episode 3, for crying out loud.

McFarlane loves aspirational, episodic, allegorical sci-fi. Back in 2015 (before Discovery was announced) he asked CBS to allow him to take a crack at a new Trek series. After CBS turned him down, one of the Producers on Enterprise (David Goodman) told McFarlane to make his own show.... and he did.

My own feeling is that, given what he's known for, he didn't expect anything but a humorous pastiche to be accepted out the gate, so that's where he went--with, as you note, some pretty serious themes wove in over time. Then he gradually lead people to the current version of the show, still a pastiche of Trek with some humor, but leaning far, far more into the things he really wanted to do with that kind of show.