I think the modern writers have forgotten that some of those gimmick episodes of TOS happened because they had a shoestring budget and had to reuse whatever cowboy or city set was available.
Seriously, SNW is probably the best trek since DS9, in part because you actually get time to learn about the characters, not just going one cliffhanger after another of a single plot taking the whole season. Star Trek was monster of the week show, right up until Enterprise, when suddenly season spanning arcs were all the rage on TV and Trek couldn't escape it.