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Lower Decks S2 teaser trailer

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  • jonsillsjonsills Member Posts: 10,354 Arc User
    You really should have watched the last few episodes of LD, Som.

    Considerable character growth, expansion of a background idea from earlier Trek, and it ended with one major character dead, a member of the Lower Decks squad reassigned (to the Titan, no less!), and a major change to the status quo going forward.
    Lorna-Wing-sig.png
  • jennycolvinjennycolvin Member Posts: 1,100 Arc User
    So far LDS it the only new Trek show I have truly enjoyed, because it has actually felt like Trek. One ship, facing localized challenges each episode, not 'universe ending drama'. It looks like S2 is going to continue the same way as S1, so looking forward to seeing more :)

    Agreed! I can't wait for season 2 to begin. I admit it took me a few episodes to get into it, but then I enjoyed it 'til the end.
    I'd love to have an episode actually explain the whole "Mariner gets her 'supplies' from Riker" thing, because that ought to be hilarious.
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    Not agreeing with someone doesn't give you the right to be an TRIBBLE.

    Ci sono tre tipi di giocatori:
    - quelli a cui non va mai bene niente... e vanno sul forum a trollare;
    - quelli che sono talmente imbesuiti da credere a qualunque cosa i dev dicano, perfino che la luna è fatta di formaggio... e vanno sul forum a trollare;
    - quelli che credono a quello a cui è giusto credere, sono d'accordo con quello con cui è giusto essere d'accordo e sono critici con quello che non va;

    Ai giocatori dei primi due tipi, gratis in omaggio un bello specchio lucente su cui arrampicarsi. E una mazzata in testa per la loro poca intelligenza e compassione verso gli altri giocatori che non la pensano come loro.
    Agli appartenenti al terzo tipo, invece, dico grazie. Anche se non sempre si riesce a mantenere la calma, siete quelli per cui vale la pena incazzarsi.
  • rattler2rattler2 Member Posts: 57,973 Community Moderator
    I think Mariner might have had some character growth though. Her relationship with her mother was pretty cold for the most part, and she pretty much went out of her way to taunt her in most cases. Then I think there was an episode where they had to work together to save the ship, and they managed to at least agree to disagree on some things, so their relationship did improve. Also I think there was that whole episode where Mariner bascially got called out by a holo version of her for her behavior, which did affect her.

    For all intents and purposes, Mariner is a deliquent, but a brilliant one who has her moments. She has command potential, but doesn't want it. And something in her past must have put her on this path because we had a flashback of her on her previous ship, an Olympic class, and she didn't come across as the same character. She seemed more confident and professional than the Mariner we see.

    I may be reading too much into her, especially since I haven't actually WATCHED an episode but have read about several and seen clips on YouTube, but... I kinda feel like Mariner is a lot more complex than the "deliquent ensign on a rampage" she portrays herself to be. Possible backstory material.
    db80k0m-89201ed8-eadb-45d3-830f-bb2f0d4c0fe7.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcL2ExOGQ4ZWM2LTUyZjQtNDdiMS05YTI1LTVlYmZkYmJkOGM3N1wvZGI4MGswbS04OTIwMWVkOC1lYWRiLTQ1ZDMtODMwZi1iYjJmMGQ0YzBmZTcucG5nIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.8G-Pg35Qi8qxiKLjAofaKRH6fmNH3qAAEI628gW0eXc
    I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something CRAZY happens again?!
    The nut who actually ground out many packs. The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
  • thegrandnagus1thegrandnagus1 Member Posts: 5,165 Arc User
    rattler2 wrote: »
    I may be reading too much into her, especially since I haven't actually WATCHED an episode but have read about several and seen clips on YouTube, but...

    LOL! That is one of the all time great forum comments right there :p

    The-Grand-Nagus
    Join Date: Sep 2008

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  • rattler2rattler2 Member Posts: 57,973 Community Moderator
    I admit it. I haven't actually seen Lower Decks. I kinda can't. Don't have that particular streaming service. So I substitute with some reading and some youtube clips. *shrug*

    But the fact remains that we did have a couple episodes that DID address Mariner's behavior in two ways.
    db80k0m-89201ed8-eadb-45d3-830f-bb2f0d4c0fe7.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcL2ExOGQ4ZWM2LTUyZjQtNDdiMS05YTI1LTVlYmZkYmJkOGM3N1wvZGI4MGswbS04OTIwMWVkOC1lYWRiLTQ1ZDMtODMwZi1iYjJmMGQ0YzBmZTcucG5nIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.8G-Pg35Qi8qxiKLjAofaKRH6fmNH3qAAEI628gW0eXc
    I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something CRAZY happens again?!
    The nut who actually ground out many packs. The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
  • phoenixc#0738 phoenixc Member Posts: 5,459 Arc User
    edited April 2021
    Odd as it may sound, Mariner is the lampshade of Kirk. Like Kirk she is a highly charismatic freewheeling scofflaw who only got into Starfleet because of her father's influence, and who gets things done more by a kind of "good guy" grifting as by any other method, with Boimler as her usual tool.

    The difference is that unlike Kirk she is not wary enough to avoid being caught (she is more like the Kelvin version of Kirk in that respect), and as Rattler pointed out, something yet to be reveled must have happened to her to sour her on the idea of command (which is itself an exaggerated version of Kirk's disillusionment with being an admiral and the attitude of "don't let them kick you up upstairs, stay where you can make a difference").

    She also gives the impression that she cares too much, and uses the antics as a distraction to both others and even herself to cover that fact up. She has a lot of potential depth, too much for the kind of instant gratification that TV is so full of nowadays so while she may not appear to develop fast enough for some viewers the future probably holds a lot gradual change, punctuated by occasional reveals from her past similar to the way T'Pol was done but probably slower.
  • rattler2rattler2 Member Posts: 57,973 Community Moderator
    Yea... the fact she actually does care was lit up like a neon sign by her holographic self willing to sacrifice herself for everyone and calling her out on her BS.
    db80k0m-89201ed8-eadb-45d3-830f-bb2f0d4c0fe7.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcL2ExOGQ4ZWM2LTUyZjQtNDdiMS05YTI1LTVlYmZkYmJkOGM3N1wvZGI4MGswbS04OTIwMWVkOC1lYWRiLTQ1ZDMtODMwZi1iYjJmMGQ0YzBmZTcucG5nIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.8G-Pg35Qi8qxiKLjAofaKRH6fmNH3qAAEI628gW0eXc
    I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something CRAZY happens again?!
    The nut who actually ground out many packs. The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
  • legendarylycan#5411 legendarylycan Member Posts: 37,276 Arc User
    You know DvDs and Blurays exist, right? LD has been out on both formats for months now.​​
    Like special weapons from other Star Trek games? Wondering if they can be replicated in STO even a little bit? Check this out: https://forum.arcgames.com/startrekonline/discussion/1262277/a-mostly-comprehensive-guide-to-star-trek-videogame-special-weapons-and-their-sto-equivalents

    #LegalizeAwoo

    A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
    An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
    A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
    A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"


    "It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch."
    "We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
    Passion and Serenity are one.
    I gain power by understanding both.
    In the chaos of their battle, I bring order.
    I am a shadow, darkness born from light.
    The Force is united within me.
  • rattler2rattler2 Member Posts: 57,973 Community Moderator
    *deadpan look*

    No. I'm waiting for it to come out on VHS.

    Of course I know about DVDs! I got 2 seasons of Discovery, all five of Stargate Atlantis, and god knows how many other things on DVD and Bluray! I just haven't had the funds to look into that, or the transportation to get anywhere. And before you suggest Amazon... maybe I WANT to get out of the house!
    *annoyed Fox look*
    db80k0m-89201ed8-eadb-45d3-830f-bb2f0d4c0fe7.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcL2ExOGQ4ZWM2LTUyZjQtNDdiMS05YTI1LTVlYmZkYmJkOGM3N1wvZGI4MGswbS04OTIwMWVkOC1lYWRiLTQ1ZDMtODMwZi1iYjJmMGQ0YzBmZTcucG5nIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.8G-Pg35Qi8qxiKLjAofaKRH6fmNH3qAAEI628gW0eXc
    I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something CRAZY happens again?!
    The nut who actually ground out many packs. The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
  • smokebaileysmokebailey Member Posts: 4,659 Arc User
    jonsills wrote: »
    You really should have watched the last few episodes of LD, Som.

    Considerable character growth, expansion of a background idea from earlier Trek, and it ended with one major character dead, a member of the Lower Decks squad reassigned (to the Titan, no less!), and a major change to the status quo going forward.
    I watched all the episodes, and it had zero character growth
    -Tendi was exactly the same as she was in the beginning. A naive, wide eyed, idiot.
    -Rutherford had a literal hard reset button ending, and was put back to how he was at the beginning of the show.
    -Boimler is exactly the same way as he was at the beginning, an incompetent idiot. Now hes just on the Titan.

    Then there is Mariner. Mariner is the biggest problem with Lower Decks, and really represents what's wrong with Lower Decks as a whole.

    Mariner's whole character was that she constantly stays on the bottom because she breaks all the rules, in a rather poor way. Instead of having actual character growth, where she realizes she should stop acting that way, the last episode instead has her continue to do what she has always done, have the rest of the crew join in on it, have doing that be what saves the day, and then has her mom(the captain of the ship), agree to enter into a secretive conspiracy pact with her to keep doing it because Starfleet's way doesn't work. Mariner had literally zero character growth, and instead was just told to keep acting like she always had been.

    Mariner's arc in Lower Decks S1 is like if in Discovery S1, instead of Burnham getting court marshaled, striped of rank, thrown in prison, and having everyone hate her, and then having to spend the whole season dealing with her mistake, and learning from it, she isntead just got a big pat on the back, kept her rank/position, and at the end, she goes through with blowing up the Klingon homeworld, and then Sarek, Cornwell, and the rest of Starfleet leadership was like "hey this works, lets keep doing this!"

    I honestly think its some of, if not the, worst writing in Trek except those infamously bad episodes like Threshold, or Code of Honor, and easily retroactively soured the series for me.

    The only thing that could possibly save it for me is if it was revealed Mariner was made to be the literal Mary Sue people always say Burnham is, and then have her be the "I have no consequences for my actions" character people straw man Burnham as, as a giant meta joke to people's rabidly stupid arguments against Discovery.


    And what major character died? Angry Bajoran man? He wasn't a major character, he was literally a background character, and we knew nothing about him besides that he constantly said he wanted to blow up warp cores. His death was about as impactful as a regular redshirt death because we knew as much about him as said redshirts.

    I would honestly care more if Owo died in Discovery because they have done more to establih her as an actual character then Bajoran man whose name i can't recall.

    Not all shows NEED character growth. Personally, I'm good with Mariner. Nice to see someone criticize starfleet, the prime directive and so on.



    NO ONE on Discovery I liked.
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  • jonsillsjonsills Member Posts: 10,354 Arc User
    In the season finale, Mariner and her mother finally came to terms with what their mutual problem is. (Mostly, Mom wishes she could just ignore regs the way her daughter does.) And they reached an agreement as well - Mariner gets sent in when a solution must be reached, but Starfleet regs prohibit Capt. Freeman from doing something intelligent. In return, Mariner will probably remain an ensign for most of her career, as the captain will keep using her antics as reason not to promote her.
    Lorna-Wing-sig.png
  • smokebaileysmokebailey Member Posts: 4,659 Arc User
    Not all shows NEED character growth. Personally, I'm good with Mariner. Nice to see someone criticize starfleet, the prime directive and so on.

    NO ONE on Discovery I liked.
    Yes they do, a character that doesn't grow isn't a living person, and thus isn't a character but a caricature, and isn't interesting as a result.

    Its like comparing Worf from TNG to Worf of DS9. TNG Worf was pretty much a non entity. He existed simply to make suggestions that got shot down, and to get beat up to show how strong the badguy was. You could replace Worf with an emotionless robot, even more primitive then Data, and nothing would change 99% of the time.

    Worf in DS9 was a character, who went through pretty big narrative changes, and grew throughout the show as a result. Worf in DS9 was likeable because there was something to like about him because he actually grew as time went on. Without growth your characters have nothing. They are just cardboard cutouts that exist to facilitate the plot. Which was honestly the big problem with TOS and TNG's cast sans Data. And why Ds9 is just so much better then both those shows.

    I liked TOS and TNG.
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  • phoenixc#0738 phoenixc Member Posts: 5,459 Arc User
    edited April 2021
    Not all shows NEED character growth. Personally, I'm good with Mariner. Nice to see someone criticize starfleet, the prime directive and so on.

    NO ONE on Discovery I liked.
    Yes they do, a character that doesn't grow isn't a living person, and thus isn't a character but a caricature, and isn't interesting as a result.

    Its like comparing Worf from TNG to Worf of DS9. TNG Worf was pretty much a non entity. He existed simply to make suggestions that got shot down, and to get beat up to show how strong the badguy was. You could replace Worf with an emotionless robot, even more primitive then Data, and nothing would change 99% of the time.

    Worf in DS9 was a character, who went through pretty big narrative changes, and grew throughout the show as a result. Worf in DS9 was likeable because there was something to like about him because he actually grew as time went on. Without growth your characters have nothing. They are just cardboard cutouts that exist to facilitate the plot. Which was honestly the big problem with TOS and TNG's cast sans Data. And why Ds9 is just so much better then both those shows.

    If you think there was no character development in TOS and TNG then you are not paying attention to the shows enough.

    In TOS the flinty-edged somewhat standoffish and wary Kirk with the chip never very far from his shoulder and only one friend on board the ship, who did not trust fully Vulcans and was unhappy about having Spock as his first officer in Where No Man Has Gone Before mellowed out into the more relaxed, quietly competent Kirk who joked with Spock and McCoy on the bridge by mid series and developed even further as part of the trio who by then meshed so effectively that they fairly quickly saw through Lester's plot by the time Turnabout Intruder happened. And remember, at the time the writers thought they still had two more years to work with in character development.

    In TNG Picard started out a crusty old science captain with ivory tower idealism that was out with the same crew for so long he had almost forgotten how to relate to strangers under his command, and especially children. Over the seasons a lot of the crust fell off, he became a staunch supporter of Wesely in his path to becoming a Starfleet officer, and (though it took the longest) his idealism started fraying at the edges. The machinegun toting genocidal Picard that Lily had to talk down from blowing up the ship to get rid of the Borg would never have been possible had Picard not gone though considerable character development.

    And those are just the captains, others of the main cast had development too though the focus was mainly on the top few people.

    To top it off, the old series were much longer, each season was two to two and a half times longer than streaming "seasons", so the pace of character development did not have to be so unrealistically accelerated (though that fast pace nowadays also has a lot to do with Hollywood thinking the viewers need instant gratification in everything and cannot understand anything subtle).

    Of course, Hollywood may not be entirely wrong in that view. TOS used a format called "control room drama" which was quite common back then but largely fell out of favor over the next decade or so. In that type of drama character development was focused at least as much on the past and how the character got to be the way they are as it was in where the character was going from "the present" of the show. They would do that by flashback, reference, and stories where the past catches up with the character in some way (like how you find out that Kirk is part of a conspiracy to track down Kodos the Executioner in The Conscience of the King along with Riley (which also could explain why he kept that annoying screwup in the crew) along with other Tarsus IV survivors spread throughout the Federation).

    That kind of start in the middle and show development in both directions method would seem to really crawl to those who do not consider the development-to-present part to actually be character development at all.

  • smokebaileysmokebailey Member Posts: 4,659 Arc User
    YEt, I have NOT enjoyed Discovery, nor Picard.

    I would not want to be on the Discovery crew, and Picard's just a sad old coot, now.
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  • rattler2rattler2 Member Posts: 57,973 Community Moderator
    Actually... I think that character development is possible in an episodic series, but it is more difficult. We actually do see this with Picard after Best of Both Worlds. There's a whole episode of him dealing with the fallout of those events, and any time the Borg come up we see an effect on Picard. The problem really stems from the fact that most of the time an episodic series doesn't always reference events from past episodes, because they're supposed to be self contained stories. However have a significant enough event from a past episode, it does have an impact. Hell... Wolf 359 even affected Sisko in DS9 because he was one of the survivors of Wolf 359. While the Borg never appeared in DS9, the events of that battle still affected him to such a degree that its referenced many times. Sisko marrying Yates at the end of DS9 probably took time because of the scars left by Jennifer's death.

    While character development may not be as blatant in an episodic format, it doesn't always mean it isn't there. Most of the time its subtle unless it involves a major event. Other than that... its a lot mroe generalized.
    db80k0m-89201ed8-eadb-45d3-830f-bb2f0d4c0fe7.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcL2ExOGQ4ZWM2LTUyZjQtNDdiMS05YTI1LTVlYmZkYmJkOGM3N1wvZGI4MGswbS04OTIwMWVkOC1lYWRiLTQ1ZDMtODMwZi1iYjJmMGQ0YzBmZTcucG5nIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.8G-Pg35Qi8qxiKLjAofaKRH6fmNH3qAAEI628gW0eXc
    I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something CRAZY happens again?!
    The nut who actually ground out many packs. The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
  • smokebaileysmokebailey Member Posts: 4,659 Arc User
    rattler2 wrote: »
    Actually... I think that character development is possible in an episodic series, but it is more difficult. We actually do see this with Picard after Best of Both Worlds. There's a whole episode of him dealing with the fallout of those events, and any time the Borg come up we see an effect on Picard. The problem really stems from the fact that most of the time an episodic series doesn't always reference events from past episodes, because they're supposed to be self contained stories. However have a significant enough event from a past episode, it does have an impact. Hell... Wolf 359 even affected Sisko in DS9 because he was one of the survivors of Wolf 359. While the Borg never appeared in DS9, the events of that battle still affected him to such a degree that its referenced many times. Sisko marrying Yates at the end of DS9 probably took time because of the scars left by Jennifer's death.

    While character development may not be as blatant in an episodic format, it doesn't always mean it isn't there. Most of the time its subtle unless it involves a major event. Other than that... its a lot mroe generalized.

    'Subtle' is a word hollywood does not have in its vocabulary.
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  • rattler2rattler2 Member Posts: 57,973 Community Moderator
    DS9 was still largely episodic, however it was episodic that contributed to an overall larger story arc. As the Dominion War progressed they drifted away from the episodic style, especially going through abandoning DS9 and the eventual retaking of the station.
    db80k0m-89201ed8-eadb-45d3-830f-bb2f0d4c0fe7.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcL2ExOGQ4ZWM2LTUyZjQtNDdiMS05YTI1LTVlYmZkYmJkOGM3N1wvZGI4MGswbS04OTIwMWVkOC1lYWRiLTQ1ZDMtODMwZi1iYjJmMGQ0YzBmZTcucG5nIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.8G-Pg35Qi8qxiKLjAofaKRH6fmNH3qAAEI628gW0eXc
    I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something CRAZY happens again?!
    The nut who actually ground out many packs. The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
  • phoenixc#0738 phoenixc Member Posts: 5,459 Arc User
    edited April 2021
    If you think there was no character development in TOS and TNG then you are not paying attention to the shows enough.
    There quite demonstrably wasn't.

    Character development requires things that happen to characters to have impact on how they act going forward. The episodic nature of TOS/TNG meant that literally wasn't possible, as every episode had to be consumable by the audience with no prior knowledge of the characters, or anything that happened previously. Kirk in S3 of TOS is the exact same as Kirk in S1 of TOS, because nothing that happens in S1/S2 of TOS actually changes who he is in a noticeable way in later episodes. TNG's caricatures get better in S3 onward, but that was due to the writers getting better, rather then in-universe actions changing them.

    The closest TNG came to character development was with Data, but Data had the same problem that Picard did with his Borg trauma, in that it didn't actually matter 99% of the time, and was only brought out in certain specific episodes. For all other episodes they went back to acting the same way they did before the action occurred.

    "Character development" in these shows is akin to the "character development" of Peter Griffon in Family Guy. Yeah, he may have an episode where he gets close to Meg, and promises to stop treating her so poorly, but the very next episode he is back to his old ways and its never really mentioned again, because EPISODIC SERIES!

    These characters may act differently in later episodes, as a response to fan feedback over how they act. But these changes aren't the result of character development within the narrative of the story, its just the writers writing them differently.

    This is evident in the actions of Picard in First Contact that you mention. There is nothing in TNG that shows Picard would act that way in general. He just acts different because they wanted him to act different for the movie. The total separation of TV series Picard, and action movie Picard, with no real build up or connection between the two, is one of the biggest criticisms of the TNG movies.
    (though that fast pace nowadays also has a lot to do with Hollywood thinking the viewers need instant gratification in everything and cannot understand anything subtle).
    This has nothing to do with nowadays Hollywood. TOS was about as subtle as a brick through a window with how heavy handed and direct its moral messaging was. TNG wasn't any better, and in many cases managed to be even LESS subtle.

    If there "quite demonstrably wasn't" character development in TOS and TNG then why don't you "demonstrate" it? What you have said so far falls short, to say the least.

    First off, you only talk about character development in one direction and seem totally oblivious to the fact that character development is an ongoing process and how they got to be the way they are at the "present" is just as valid as development that goes forward. The "now" of a story is just a narrow moving window on a continuous timeline of events in a character's life.

    In fact, there are shows (mostly dealing with immortals of one sort or another) in which almost all of of the character development is in the past of the story and some of them even spend more time in flashback or other reveal modes than they do in the "present" of the story (though going that far is not necessary either). In the case of TOS, flashbacks themselves were too expensive to use much since they could not use location shooting and had to build everything from scratch, so they had to use less in-your-face methods for the past-reveals like dialog, which seems to fly below the radar of many of today's viewers.

    Then there is the factor that what is exciting and dramatic from the viewer's point of view is often just another Tuesday from the character's viewpoint and just does not realistically have the kind of emotional impact for them that rocks their world and causes them to change on a fundamental level. The kind of rapid and sweeping change that you seem to think is the only valid form of character development is more appropriate for a coming of age story, not a drama about people who have been doing the kind of things shown for many years.

    In TOS, Kirk was the youngest Starfleet heavy cruiser captain ever. That fact alone implies that he has seen and experienced far more than the average Starfleet officer of his age, what makes you think that shuttling around diplomats, poking around the frontier, and a few relatively low key military missions in a ship much more powerful and durable than the one he was in before would be so personal-world rocking that he would change faster than he did in the series?

    TNG Picard was the same way, though he had the "advantage" of being Locutus for a time when it comes to character development, and while some people argue that getting Borged would have had a much more profound effect than the series showed, First Contact makes it abundantly clear that it did actually have that effect and he buried it. And yes, it is perfectly all right for a character to lie to themselves and act like something didn't effect them just like real people often do when they don't want to face something.

    As for how a series is supposed to work, don't just read a one or two line dictionary definition and assume that there is nothing more to it. The "reset to zero" was only ever completely true of a small subset of episode-format series, and those were most often semi-anthologies that usually (but not always) had the same characters but the stories were supposed to be plucked from memoirs in no particular order. Danger Man was a prime example of the memoir type, and the Twelve O'Clock High series was probably the best example of the non-memoir semi-anthology type.

    That semi-anthology and anthology format series setup fell out of favor after that except for a few romantic comedies like The Love Boat with its fixed supporting cast stories that actually revolved around the guests and the true anthology Love, American Style, though it is making something of a comeback in horror genre circles lately. And Star Trek was never an anthology (though the every-season-is-a-separate-movie format DSC uses comes the closest to that of any of the series).

    Most other types of episodic series had at least some character development even back in the 1960s and earlier, and many even had (rather weak by todays standards) story/thematic arcs, they just did not exactly jump out and hit the viewer over the head with them the way they sometimes seem to nowadays. In fact, critics were just as prone to knock a lack of character development back then as they are to do that now.

    And DS9 was never anything other than an episodic show. It had a lot of two-part episodes and even some three-part ones but that does not make it "serial" or any such nonsense. Neither did the strong arcs the show featured, it was solidly arc-episodic format just like Babylon5 (though personally I think B5 did it better).

    Episodic or serial just refers to whether the chunks the show is distributed in have enough lead-in and lead-out to be reasonably viewed as a standalone if need be, or whether it just starts and ends at arbitrary points. While serials are by nature of their lack of those leadin/leadout elements dependent on arcs, that in no way prevents episodes from having strong arcs. In fact, with the "Previously on..." catchup forewords they tack on episodic series nowadays (often in lieu of formal theme intros) they overlap to the degree the two formats often have little distinction anymore when it comes to long-running threads.

    As for the moral bludgeon aspect, I see your brick (which was true enough in a few of the preachier episodes like Omega Glory and Let That Be Your Last Battlefield) and raise you such modern gems as the new Charmed where they literally tied the three main characters to chairs early in the first episode and browbeat them (and by extension the viewers) with exposition about how they are witches (special ones at that!) with moral responsibilities to go with it, ad nauseum, in lieu of the several episodes of self discovery and realization that the original Chamed started out with.

    You seem to be laboring under the false impression that anything old is automatically bad and everything new is better, but that is not how it works, everything has to stand on its own merits not hokey imagined rules of thumb like that.

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