Did they quietly change the way Endeavor XP is handled? I thought the XP spanned the account, but it appears to be character-specific.

I thought I remembered it being shared across the whole account, so you could easily hop characters to finish the tasks as needed.

The mugato was an excellent choice!

The intent behind my original reply was to complain and hope for a change in how dark recent Trek shows have been, except SNW. I know we all have our favorites; I'm just not at all a fan of this trend of the bad guys being cool in Star Trek. Again, in Star Trek. The casts, the acting, the production are all great and I'm glad more Trek exists; I, personally, just wish it was a bit more shiny.

Do I want those shows not to exist in the first place? No. I just don't rewatch them like I do others, thus I don't care to make pumpkins about starring characters who are not the characters I'd want in humanity's future.

That's great! My original en-edited reply congratulated you, but then I thought, "This is the internet. Burrito Trucks can't carve pumpkins...." LOL

My favorite is the Mugato.

Agreed. I'd say that Nemesis theme with Blue Skies is a close second. "A New Ending"

Now I have the ahhh ahhh in my head again. I like the OG opening, but hate the choral part.

So very true. Such a great episode!

I like that idea. It measures the depth/breadth of the world-building that way too.

A fair point. However, I just think this sums up my preferences for Trek shows well and had a feeling that many would agree.

Meanwhile, other people might have an internal measure for their preferences which amounts to "is not animated", eliminating TAS and ST:LD.

To be clear, for everyone reading: I have watched every episode of every Star Trek show; I greatly and sincerely appreciate and value the time, effort, and energy of the production crew, writers, and actors of every show. These media of entertainment are impactful and deeply meaningful. Every show has a message for its current time and future audiences and it is so important that, as a fan, I hear those messages and allow myself to appreciate this art as an audience member.

No arguments for or against these yet? I'll nudge this part of the conversation by pointing out that TOS -- THE original Star Trek show -- seems to have a high percentage of episodes which would "fail" this silly "test".

I agree with and second many of your statements in here. Well said! A couple specific points I want to highlight:

Paul and Hugh

I really enjoyed those plots, especially about loss.

There was also no single overarching plot, so Picard could play a flute and live the life of an alien for a whole episode without derailing any story plans. The “monster of the week” approach also helped inspire some real good moral and philosophical debate that would otherwise never would’ve been written into a single story, but also some of the most cringeworthy TV I’ve seen.

I think this is the core of the issue for what I enjoy and don't enjoy with many Star Trek shows. Surprisingly to me, Expanse does this fine whereas Trek/Who/SG-1 would trip over it and have.

In general, great reply with excellent points. Thank you!

Here's an addendum with a few great episode examples which might pass my "test".

• TOS: "Amok Time", (arguably) "The Galileo Seven"
• TNG: "Brothers", "Lower Decks", "The Measure of a Man"
• DS9: "It's Only A Paper Moon", "Improbable Cause"+"The Die Is Cast", "The Magnificent Ferengi"

Other shows also have great episodes that pass, but I want to stop here for my examples so as to avoid showing my hand (too much) and stating which show(s) I think fail.