By far the worst 4th Season would be ST:TOS.... 'cause... there wasn't one! ... even bad Trek is better than none at all...
*STO*Its mission: To destroy strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations... and then kill them, to boldly annihilate what no one has annihilated before!
I don't know if TAS should be counted as TOS' fourth season. On the one hand, Roddenberry disavowed it. On the other hand, I don't think that even matters, and TAS had all of the principal cast and most of the supporting reprise their roles. There are some good episodes in TAS, and I'd love to see it remastered to be honest. Replace the animation entirely and it might just be good.
But ok, let's ignore it. That leaves every other trek show.
TNG's fourth season's overriding theme was relationships. Almost every episode had something to do with this. But it was also when TNG began to stop doing episodes focused on exploration in favour of episodes that dealt with the characters having personal issues of some kind. This wasn't THAT big a problem but it would grow and turn into the 7th season, which was a season where TNG became really self-absorbed. Nevertheless, TNG had a lot of good episodes in this season.
DS9's Way of the Warrior was a strong opening to the season, it continued the third season's Big Events narrative and how you can't just warp away from a problem at the end of the episode like TOS and TNG (and Voyager) frequently did. The klingons became the antagonists, the Dominion were (temporarily) put on the backburner except for the mid-season Homefront/Paradise Lost two-parter and the final couple of episodes in the season ('To the Death', 'The Quickening' and the finale). Bringing Worf in was a great touch, and I loved that it wasn't just gratuitous, they actually developed the character a great deal. I was a bit pissed off at what happened to Kurn and how they 'resolved' that issue. That, quite frankly, was bull**** and Ron Moore should be criticised for it.
Voyager's fourth season was when the show really got off onto its feet, the inclusion of Seven was a fantastic addition to the cast. I wasn't sad to see Kes go, I always thought her character was dumb and the actress was boring. Seven was an outsider and she was the show's Spock, basically. Her PTSD from being a drone was interesting and really gave the character and the show a cool dynamic. There were a lot of good episodes this season as well.
Enterprise's fourth season is often remarked as being its best. I don't know, I've only ever seen 'A Mirror Darkly', but I liked that duo. Can't say much else for the rest of the season.
So for me it's between TNG, DS9 and Voyager. I'd probably argue TNG wins it, because it was the start of the 'let's have an episode where one of the characters is the focus' trope and I hated it. It infected the rest of the Trek franchise and as a trend it would continue to worsen. All the other shows had it, to a lesser or greater extent but it was in this season where it really began and took hold. EDIT But this was more of a 'less good' contest.
I don't know if TAS should be counted as TOS' fourth season. On the one hand, Roddenberry disavowed it. On the other hand, I don't think that even matters, and TAS had all of the principal cast and most of the supporting reprise their roles. There are some good episodes in TAS, and I'd love to see it remastered to be honest. Replace the animation entirely and it might just be good.
I'd actually be very interested in seeing TAS with more modern animation. It had decent work for it's time, but that wasn't really good work by modern standards.
Comments
Yes.
But Biller was responsible for season 7 of VOY. And for Twisted. And Tuvix. And Unimatrix Zero.
He also wrote "Genesis" from TNG where the crew "de-evolved." Nevermind that the word is actually "devolved."
The really sad part is that they let him be an EP on the new Cosmos...but at leas they have real scientists to make sure that that's accurate.
Careful, some of us consider TAS to be the 4th season of TOS.
No... not really. I found it rather torturous to watch every time it was on.
I thought it was hilarious. And Frakes flipped the camera the bird as well.
But ok, let's ignore it. That leaves every other trek show.
TNG's fourth season's overriding theme was relationships. Almost every episode had something to do with this. But it was also when TNG began to stop doing episodes focused on exploration in favour of episodes that dealt with the characters having personal issues of some kind. This wasn't THAT big a problem but it would grow and turn into the 7th season, which was a season where TNG became really self-absorbed. Nevertheless, TNG had a lot of good episodes in this season.
DS9's Way of the Warrior was a strong opening to the season, it continued the third season's Big Events narrative and how you can't just warp away from a problem at the end of the episode like TOS and TNG (and Voyager) frequently did. The klingons became the antagonists, the Dominion were (temporarily) put on the backburner except for the mid-season Homefront/Paradise Lost two-parter and the final couple of episodes in the season ('To the Death', 'The Quickening' and the finale). Bringing Worf in was a great touch, and I loved that it wasn't just gratuitous, they actually developed the character a great deal. I was a bit pissed off at what happened to Kurn and how they 'resolved' that issue. That, quite frankly, was bull**** and Ron Moore should be criticised for it.
Voyager's fourth season was when the show really got off onto its feet, the inclusion of Seven was a fantastic addition to the cast. I wasn't sad to see Kes go, I always thought her character was dumb and the actress was boring. Seven was an outsider and she was the show's Spock, basically. Her PTSD from being a drone was interesting and really gave the character and the show a cool dynamic. There were a lot of good episodes this season as well.
Enterprise's fourth season is often remarked as being its best. I don't know, I've only ever seen 'A Mirror Darkly', but I liked that duo. Can't say much else for the rest of the season.
So for me it's between TNG, DS9 and Voyager. I'd probably argue TNG wins it, because it was the start of the 'let's have an episode where one of the characters is the focus' trope and I hated it. It infected the rest of the Trek franchise and as a trend it would continue to worsen. All the other shows had it, to a lesser or greater extent but it was in this season where it really began and took hold. EDIT But this was more of a 'less good' contest.
Nope. I thought the whole episode was moronic.
My character Tsin'xing