1 and 3 are both great, and I'll go against the grain and say that 4 is pretty mediocre.
None of these “very special message” episodes either
I mean, barring the single best episode of the show.
James Bond, for instance, is a different person from each actor to have played him
That's not canonical, merely a popular theory.
The idea of being able to essentially species change a Klingon into a Human with TOS-era Klingon medical tech sounds impossibly advanced for what the Klingons are known for.
It's also something that literally happened in a TOS episode that almost everyone saw and liked.
It's one thing to do as a one-off gag or a nostalgia bit. It would not have been possible to take seriously for an ongoing series in 2017, except for hardcore fans that don't need to be sold on it.
...That's literally what happens in the Dune books.
I mean... not that much. Daleks have gone through three redesigns just since the show went back. Sontarans went from the world's most unconvincing rubber masks to makeup. And how many eyes do Silurians have-- two, or three?
because apparently Star Trek, unlike every other fantasy and science fiction thing I like, is Forbidden from being treated like a secondary world that should have its own internal consistency.
Nonsense-- other long-running universes encounter retcons and visual redesigns all the time. Quick, how old was Dick Grayson when he first became Robin? What color is Superman's S? How old was Magneto during the Holocaust? What happened to Luke's father? Did James Bond fight in World War 2, or participate the Cold War?
I dug 'em. It was a good experiment in pushing Trek's aliens beyond a forehead and an accent.
>Is there anyone still holding out for a “refit” of the beautiful SNW Enterprise so that it “really” looks like a set from the late 1960s?
Sadly, I can confirm there are.
Another key takeaway from this that I hadn't considered before:
Augments aren't just banned from Starfleet. They can't become doctors either. Speaking as a Jew my people know firsthand that one of the best ways to create an underclass is to restrict the occupations available to them. Are augments systematically kept out of skilled professions, denied the chance to better themselves and their fellow sapients? Very disturbing possiblity.
You know, as a big FF8 booster, this makes me reconsider some stuff.