this post was submitted on 06 Jan 2024
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There's so much modern Trek at this point I don't even know if that's necessary.
Anyway, I'd say I see a ton of overlap between liking Trek and liking The Expanse, although it's more political and less "alien of the week diplomacy". Still, it goes places, give it a look.
For me and a few other fans Discovery and first 2 seasons of Picard don’t exist. Season 3 of Picard and Strange New Worlds I like.
I don't like any Picard and I do really like all of Discovery.
But even then, there's so much right now that even discarding those there are two animated series and one live action show left. That's still quite a bit of homework. And given that Picard and Disco are divisive but not universally hated, I'd say if you're into Trek you still want to check those out and see if they're for you or not.
No animated stuff for me, live action only. I guess if you enjoyed discovery, new trek has found its audience and it’s time for me to go elsewhere, some good recommendations on this thread.
Up to you. Disco starts a bit rough, and I get why people didn't enjoy the gritty tone and the reworked Klingons in Season 1, although I wasn't as outraged by them (frankly, Disco S1 is no more off-tone than early Enterprise or late DS9, if you ask me). However, by Season 2 they had course corrected hard and later seasons of Discovery mostly just differentiate from Strange New Worlds in that SNW is episodic and Disco does season-long arcs. Otherwise they're pretty much bang-on tonally. I think a lot of the pushback these days comes from people bouncing off early, making it a crusade to hate it and never checking back. Which, again, big Enterprise undertones right there.
But yeah, if you're out there going "nuTrek sucks" to me these days you come across pretty detached. Watch what you like, obviously, but new Trek is all over the place in tone and feel and there's tons of great stuff in there, as far as I'm concerned.
Also, Lower Decks season 1 feels off to me and always has, but it gets pretty good later and depending on your tolerance for watching cartoons meant for younger kids, Prodigy is pretty much just a sequel to Voyager, so if you're more continuity and nostalgia driven you may want to give it a look.
I liked it in general, especially after the first seasn. However, I still get frustrated at how Michael-centric it is (it feels like every time a character has an opportunity to do something cool on their own, they always need help from Michael somehow) and tend to dislike the galaxy being at stake every damn time.
Strange New Worlds delivers on that for me though, so it's good to have different options!
For sure, that's my whole point. There's enough Trek now, and it's all different enough that it's hard to not have at least one or two things you enjoy from the past five years of it or so.
I think the idea of having a Trek show that is following the one character through a season-long story is interesting. The problem Disco has is that the crew and the classic Trek dynamic is just too good, you end up resenting not spending more time with the crew early on. Like every show, though, they course correct and it all ends up being some take on TNG. Which is fine by me.
Picard got that, too. I would have stuck with a Picard-less La Sirena crew for a season. I didn't need the nostalgia trip. And it's telling that in Season 3 everybody just wanted to have Legacy be a thing because the idea of that crew was more interesting than the self-centered nostalgia porn stuff in the rest of the show. Which, hey, it's fine. I think SNW being exactly that is very helpful in allowing the other shows to be their own thing.
As far as New Trek for me,
I really like Lower Decks.
I watched S1 of Picard and really didn't like it. Heard S2 was also terrible but then S3 people like a bit more? Is it worth just skipping to S3 to watch that or nah?
I haven't watched any of Discovery since I heard it wasn't great. Same question: If it gets better later, is it something I can skip to or would I need to watch the earlier seasons since it's got a longer running story?
I watched SNW and... it's... alright I guess. I can see why people say it's getting closer to watch older star trek was, but it didn't really do it for me. Idk if I can really put my finger on it. The characters kind of just feel wrong.
Also, semi-related to SNW, but I've seen this elsewhere (like in the JJ Abrams movies or other pop culture references to Trek): While I don't like TOS as much as the post TNG stuff, one thing I did pull out of it was that Kirk was... a more nuanced character than his later depictions in other media. All of the non-TOS depictions I've seen of Kirk make him out to be some reckless, arrogant fly-boy. But he's just not. Sure, he flirts with aliens or gets campy a lot more than others, and he's no Picard as far as diplomacy is concerned, but for the most part he's played as an experienced captain that has his sense of duty and responsibility to his crew and mission. I get that in the JJ movies and SNW he's younger, but it still just feels like a flanderized version of what people remember him as.
I'm a bad shill for Picard, I am about as down on the whole thing equally. Ultimately I just don't need to revisit old heroes, ever. I hate this future of all our heroes being basically watching our dads grow old and sad and frail. But yeah, people like S3 more because it's more of a fanservice-y thing than trying to tell the adventures of old Picard by himself, so if that sounds appealing to you go for it.
As for Discovery... yeah, absolutely, skip Season 1. Season 2 is the one that ties into SNW, so if you watched that, you can jump in right there and it's almost a stand-alone show that feels a lot more consistent with SNW and a lot less consistent with Season 1. I'd still go back and watch S1 later if you enjoy the rest of it, but skipping that is absolutely a valid watch order if you don't want to do the "trudge through the bad first season" thing of most Star Trek shows. I actually quite like seasons 2 and 4 specially. I'd rank them above all of Picard and just behind SNW, as far as nuTrek is concerned, and I'd rather watch those than most of Voyager and DS9, if I'm being honest.
The TOS Kirk thing is... interesting. I mean, you're not wrong, Kirk was supposed to be just an all-around good guy Mary Sue who's always great and right. It's just that 60s Trek take on that turns out to be almost comedically horny and rash, especially as parsed by Shatner's acting choices, especially when you retroactively compare it to TNG, which, let's face it, is the de facto standard people have for what default Trek is. I think SNW's Kirk splits the difference just fine... but he feels like an entirely different character. I can almost see Pine's Kirk growing into Shatner's more than I can Paul Wesley's. But from the perspective you present? Yeah, they paint him as being more aggressive than Pike, for better or worse, but also mostly just smart and nice rather than a horny hothead. Definitely not doing Shatner, though, and less iconic than either of the other takes, I'd say. Which is fine, it's Anson Mount's show anyway. If anything I'd have liked less Kirk in the two seasons they've done so far. Hell, I'd have taken that cast in a standalone show rather than a prequel.
Shout out to Martin Quinn's Scotty, though. He got like two episodes so far and already he's the one cast member who I can see as the same character from TOS. The others are fine, they're just playing their own take on the character's premise, as opposed to the same character from the original.
I’ve watched 3 seasons of Discovery (quit after 2 but my friend forced me to watch the third one). I think RedLetterMedia perfectly articulates my frustrations with Discovery and first 2 seasons of Picard. Good watch on YouTube.
Of the new Trek, as I mentioned, Strange New Worlds and Picard season 3 left me satisfied. Looking forward to more of that!
You're missing out. Lower Decks is easily one of the best trek shows if you like trek. Also they do a crossover episode with Strange New Worlds.