Divide the crew into groups. Have an episode focused around the command staff, an episode focused around engineering, an episode focused around sickbay, etc. Have the casts be mostly separate from each other barring the occasional cameo appearance or viewscreen conversation. Basically treat it as several shows that happen to take place on the same ship.

[–] reddig33@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That’s what episodic tv used to do.

[–] WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

They'd typically still have a central cast that played a major role in every episode. For instance, on the various broadcast TV Star Trek shows the captain would almost always have a major role. I'm talking about separating things to the point that the different episode-types could have their own cast and crew and film simultaneously.

[–] Hugin@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

They used to do that but in the same episode. Is one of the reasons hour long shows often had an A story and B story.

It also made commercial breaks less jarring as you were already used to bouncing between stories.