Serious answer. TNG has a lot of shit like this. Leftover plot hooks that completely lack follow-up. Far too many to wrap up in one season of modern prestige TV.
It's just how TV was back then. You wrap the story up in 45 mins. Maybe some things get revisited, if the writers and producers don't forget about them and the actor is available. Serialized stories were the exception not the rule back then.
Honestly I feel like this makes the Star Trek universe seem bigger. Every character has a lot going on and not everything that happens to them revolves around one storyline. There's a whole galaxy out there full of things constantly happening! A lot of these would be followed up in books. Iirc it's mentioned in one that Worf and Jeremy exchange letters regularly and he does visit on occasion. We just accept that this happens off-screen because Worf has a life beyond the brief glimpses into it we see. Modern TV is too tidy, with everything tied to one or two storylines and everything being wrapped up tidily with maybe one or two cliffhangers. It makes fictional settings cough Star Wars cough seem small and insuler.
Modern TV is too tidy, with everything tied to one or two storylines and everything being wrapped up tidily with maybe one or two cliffhangers. It makes fictional settings cough Star Wars cough seem small and insuler.
Well put.
TV before streaming (notably the last ten years), episodes stood alone. You may get a little continuity in the characters, but not in story arcs.
This made it all a (as you put it so well) a "glimpse into each character's life", leaving the viewer the opportunity to ponder "what else is/could there be", which I find far more satisfying than having the answer provided for me.
I must say, I see this as significantly a generational difference (with some personality difference in there too, I know a few boomers who like the tidy story approach).
Serious answer. TNG has a lot of shit like this. Leftover plot hooks that completely lack follow-up. Far too many to wrap up in one season of modern prestige TV.
It's just how TV was back then. You wrap the story up in 45 mins. Maybe some things get revisited, if the writers and producers don't forget about them and the actor is available. Serialized stories were the exception not the rule back then.
Honestly I feel like this makes the Star Trek universe seem bigger. Every character has a lot going on and not everything that happens to them revolves around one storyline. There's a whole galaxy out there full of things constantly happening! A lot of these would be followed up in books. Iirc it's mentioned in one that Worf and Jeremy exchange letters regularly and he does visit on occasion. We just accept that this happens off-screen because Worf has a life beyond the brief glimpses into it we see. Modern TV is too tidy, with everything tied to one or two storylines and everything being wrapped up tidily with maybe one or two cliffhangers. It makes fictional settings cough Star Wars cough seem small and insuler.
Well put.
TV before streaming (notably the last ten years), episodes stood alone. You may get a little continuity in the characters, but not in story arcs.
This made it all a (as you put it so well) a "glimpse into each character's life", leaving the viewer the opportunity to ponder "what else is/could there be", which I find far more satisfying than having the answer provided for me.
I must say, I see this as significantly a generational difference (with some personality difference in there too, I know a few boomers who like the tidy story approach).