Why Star Trek's 'Bottle Episodes' Are More Important Than You Realize

Prior to the franchise's move to streaming in 2017, "Star Trek" abided by the traditional, syndication-friendly episodic storytelling model. Many studios of the 1990s and before preferred that their shows stick to this style of storytelling, as it allowed them to sell a long-running series to local TV stations more easily. With stories that wrapped up by the end of the episode, viewers would be less intimidated and could tune in to any episode randomly without having to know what came before or after. Unless you were making a daily daytime soap opera, larger, years-long narratives and season-long story arcs were discouraged. It wouldn't be until the age of binge-watching DVDs and the subsequent development of streaming technologies that longer arcs would be considered more practical. 

"Star Trek" followed the trend when "Star Trek: Discovery" debuted on CBS All Access in 2017. That series, which ultimately lasted for five seasons, utilized the modern storytelling concept of one story per season, concluding each tale after a broad, complex, 10-episode arc. In the "old days" of "Star Trek," there might have been an occasional two-part episode, or even a three-parter, but "Discovery" was the first time that modern streaming narratives caught up with Gene Roddenberry's sci-fi utopia. It should also be noted that the new era of streaming typically capped off a season after 10 to 13 episodes. The "old days" required a whopping 26 episodes a year. 

"Star Trek" followed arc-friendly storytelling with "Star Trek: Picard" as well, which debuted in 2020. That show lasted three seasons and boasted three stories. However, it should be noted that both "Discovery" and "Picard" are largely bad shows by franchise standards. They were, by dint of their structure, crammed with incident and action, rarely slowing down to catch a breath. Every episode was a climax, and the plots had to be "mysterious" and "momentous." 

Watching those shows brought a "Star Trek" storytelling theory into sharp relief: "Star Trek" requires bottle episodes.

The term "bottle episode," for those unfamiliar, is just what it sounds like. It refers to a story that takes place in a small set of locations — inside a bottle, as it were — usually set on pre-existing sets. With the demand of 26 episodes in a season, and working on a tight budget and a short schedule, bottle episodes were vital for ”90s-era "Star Trek." The limitations often forced writers to become more creative, trying to invent heady and creative sci-fi stories without needing to shoot on location. 

Case in point: the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode "Cause and Effect," one of the cleverer episodes of the series, was about the crew experiencing a time loop. They never leave the ship, and every scene takes place in a familiar location. And yet, it was mysterious and intriguing throughout. 

It's also worth pausing to remember that "Star Trek" is, at its core, a workplace show. It may take place in a utopian future of technological marvels, but the characters are all defined by their roles as Starfleet officers living on board a ship that is part naval vessel and part office building. The main characters on the starship Enterprise are usually seen when they're on the clock, punching buttons, taking orders, and doing their work. There are managers, assistant managers, department heads, and low-level grunts. We love tuning into "Star Trek" because these people just happen to have one of the most interesting jobs in the galaxy. 

And if "Star Trek" is a workplace show, then bottle episodes are going to be that much more vital. If a starship crew is always in panic mode, or they're always dealing with a massive, season-long crisis (like on "Discovery" or "Picard"), viewers will never get a vital sense of what the characters' average workday looks like. With bottle episodes, we do. We see exciting days, but also mundane ones. And if we know what a typical day on the Enterprise looks like, then we can appreciate it all the more when the status quo is shaken up by something dramatic. 

Bottle episodes also provide something that one might not realize is missing in season-long arcs. "Star Trek" is, in addition to being a workplace-centric franchise, a very technical one. A lot of "Star Trek" stories are devoted to the way the U.S.S. Enterprise (or Deep Space Nine, or U.S.S. Voyager) functions. The shows are all replete with complex technobabble, and expert engineers and scientists are always explaining their means of executing strange technological miracles. Bottle episodes often feature those engineers and experts explaining themselves in greater and greater detail over time. If we can live inside the status quo on the Enterprise, then we Trekkies begin to develop a stronger and stronger sense of how the starship actually works.

Indeed, certain nerds will begin taking notes, eventually developing the presumption that they, should they be magically transported there, could operate the Enterprise. It's only in bottle episodes, over long seasons, that the true complexity of a ship like the U.S.S. Enterprise will reveal itself. And if a starship feels huge and complex, it emerges as more real. 

Additionally, watching actors walk around the same sets in bottle after bottle will increase a viewer's sense of spatial continuity. If the showrunners are doing their jobs correctly, viewers will soon get a good sense of a starship's geography. Eventually, we'll know how long it takes to get around a ship like the Enterprise, and how far characters are from one another when they're communicating between, say, Main Engineering and the Bridge. This vital geography will also make the Enterprise feel more real, but also make certain stories make more sense. Why can't we go to Sickbay during this episode's crisis? Because it's too far away. Now we have to be clever. 

Bottle episodes are not the antithesis to interesting "Star Trek" storytelling. Instead, they are the franchise's lifeblood. "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" knows this and has emerged as one of the better "Star Trek" shows as a result.