Many of those filler episodes are where the character development for anyone beyond the primary bridge crew happened. And that’s sorely missing from modern Trek.
I’ve gotta say, with the exception of DS9, “traditional” Trek was fairly allergic to character development. Growing and learning were rarely a priority, to put it mildly.
Basically pre-netflix. Cable and syndication, not streaming. Where TV seasons were usually between 23-26 episodes.
I mean yeah, those days are gone and they’re not coming back.
I don’t think there was any “tradition” to it - it was just the dominant model at the time, and is now on its last legs.
Did you just re define tradition in the way everyone else does? 😶
But at least half of those would be slop.
Many of those filler episodes are where the character development for anyone beyond the primary bridge crew happened. And that’s sorely missing from modern Trek.
I’ve gotta say, with the exception of DS9, “traditional” Trek was fairly allergic to character development. Growing and learning were rarely a priority, to put it mildly.
The slop ratio hasn’t gotten better from abandoning that format.
But it’s cheaper for the studios. That’s why it’s here to stay - until something cheaper comes along.