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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kobold Stew" data-source="post: 9562804" data-attributes="member: 23484">I finished a re-watch of SNW just last night. It remains consistently strong.Are there weaker episodes? Sure. The light addiction (1.03) and the child who saves a planet (1.06) don't work for me, and the story about the aliens in the fuel (2.06) had been done at least twice before in other ST series, but for the most part they're solid. Even the silly episodes are responsibly silly -- they are consistently fun, even when they don't play into a larger story. On the re-watch I came to appreciate M'Benga much more than I did before, and indeed that there's some very tight writing for many of the crew.The episodic approach is way more satisfying (for me) than Discovery, and it means they can change the tone confidently week-by-week. On paper, the storybook episode should be terrible (1.08), but the gift that it gives Anson Mount playing his cowardly character not only is great comic relief, but it also reinforces what agreat captain he is everywhere else. I didn't like the story of M'Benga's daughter, but when in season 2 (2.08, with its remarkably ambiguous ending) we learn that his technique for keeping her alive had been developed during the Klingon War, that's a really cool payoff.I was also struck by how often they were just riffing on other SF. It didn't matter that it wasn't original -- putting ST characters (whom I like) into the different situations was a good payoff by itself. In a way that starts at the end of Discovery 2.14, when Michael gets her 2001 moment. But introducing the Gorn as a riff on Aliens is pretty good (1.09), or having an Empire Strikes Back moment (2.10) even if they call it a Zombie movie trick, is satisfying. And when they evoke music from TOS, they show they know that they are cheering established fans. (I mean, they pulled off a crossover with Lower Decks, and it was one of the funniest Time Travel stories I've ever seen.)I'm really looking forward to season 3... can't come soon enough.</blockquote>

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