I genuinely miss when TV seasons were so long they were allowed to have "filler," like yes let's spend 11 and a half minutes playing poker with the Klingon ambassador, let's have an entire episode where Giles dreams Buffy is a cat

Darmok was a TNG filler episode yet look at its influence today.

I didn't know how much bottle episodes mattered until they were gone.

I do not miss this, it's the reason I never used to watch TV, but I can see the appeal.

IMO, a good 6-10 episode limited series is the perfect length. A series that goes on for multiple seasons inevitably runs out of ideas and jumps the shark.

Filler/old footage is what gave us tribbles!

I have a thing for bottle episodes. The first one that comes to mind is the 'Fly' episode of Breaking Bad

Most of these episodes aren't just filler either. They give the show a chance to build up the lore and expand characters in ways that they normally wouldn't get a chance to without shoehorning important details into otherwise unrelated moments.

Ending a season on a clip show is still the dumbest thing. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shades_...

Part of the genius of Farscape was doing this in increasingly unhinged ways as palette cleansers between moments of emotional devastation.

I hate the idea that those were filler. TNG didn't have an overreaching story, so there was no filler. Every so often there would be connections to previous episodes, and the characters themselves evolved, but there was no grand plan they were working around. I miss TV series just being TV series.