I love SNW, but I think part of the earlier shows success is twentyfive-ish episodes per season. You got so completely random plots once the writers are out of the big ideas. Some of them are really bad, but some of them are pure gold. And all of them dig deeper into characters and relations than strictly necessary for the season plot.
It was probably not as fun for the writers and actors. I wouldnt want to demand they overwork themselves for my entertainment.
I wonder if the use of CGI is part of why this is the case. I love it, don't get me wrong, but when a rescue mission to an asteroid takes months of VFX work because they're swooping through swirling clouds of gas it can make episodes take longer. Heck, even the views out of the windows on SNW are masterpieces instead of christmas lights in front of a black curtain.
With older shows they had the sets and costumes built, so filming a walk-and-talk or courtroom episode wasn't as big of a technical lift. Then there was the desire of just about every show to reach 100 episodes, which meant they could get that sweet, sweet syndication money.
Part of my problem with modern trek is they are leaning hard on serializing the show. What I loved about tng and ds9 is they let characters grow through the seasons yet they aren't serialized. Which allowed the to expirement with episodes.
For those who don't know "the undiscovered country' refers to the famous 'to be, or not to be' speech in Hamlet. Travelling to the undiscovered country is dying. No surprise the Klingons love Shakespeare and claim him as their own.
Trek's full of Shakespeare references. IRC Shatner was Plummer/Chang's understudy for a Shakespeare play. Stewart is obviously a Shakespearian/RSC actor too, the character famously loves a bit of Shakespeare. Brooks/Sisko was a Shakespearean actor, so was Zimmerman. I think they've started including more references in Strange New Worlds.
Also explains the acting you sometimes see in Trek. Most of the big names all started out doing Shakespeare in theaters.
One of the most fun things I like to explain is how many of the series are separated by hundreds of years. That certainly peaks some interest from people who do not follow it.
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