I started with Star Trek after watching the Star Trek (2009) movie in college. After that I went wild watching everything I could since I was young with loads of time. I watched most of TOS, all of TNS, all of DS9, all of Voyager, all of Enterprise and all of the movies. I then stopped since I didn’t have the time and wasn’t ready to download a new app to watch Discovery.
I am interested in watching some of the new shows from Discovery onwards but don’t know where to start and what are worth watching. I no longer have hours to watch TV or movies anymore and want to prioritize series on an easy to find streaming service. What is worth watching and what is worth skipping? Is it worth while to watch them all the way chronically or just watch one series and then another one.
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Lower Decks, Strange New Worlds, Prodigy, and The Orville.
Strange New Worlds, Prodigy, and Lower Decks are my favorites.
The others aren’t bad, just unique in their own way.
Discovery season 1 is must watch Trek. Season 2 is also worth watching if you like the first
Lower Decks, no question. It doesn’t seem all that great at first, but when the show gets into its groove and finds voices for its characters, it becomes much more compelling. The first episode is meh, but by the time you get to the end of the first season, you’ll be a fan.
Star Trek Prodigy is also good for its intended audience, and arguably better than the first animated Trek. (Certainly more of a treat for the eyes.) It was cancelled on Paramount Plus, but there are rumors it will come to a different streaming service.
I’ve powered through 4 episodes of “Prodigy” and I’m really struggling. The main kid Dal is so extraordinarily annoying. I mean, I know they did this with (sorry for the cross-realm reference) Ahsoka in “Clone Wars”, so I just need to hear that there’s some character growth coming, because I can’t stand him.
Yes and it starts before too much longer.
Dal’s growth is very satisfying to see, not long to wait too if you’re at EP 4 already
Lower Decks. Absolutely.
It looks like its on Paramount+ here in the US. I actually have that service so I will watch it all. Is this a watch straight through series?
All of the Star Trek stuff should be on Paramount+, although they’re pulling some bullshit with Prodigy and removing it.
I hate that. I have paramount + so I’ll watch it
Absolutely. You should fly through all three seasons just in time for S4 later this summer. They are only 22 minutes long.
I love a 22 minute show. I need a new show so I might start with that
Give it a couple of episodes (like everything Trek). I was initially unimpressed with the first episode, but then rewatched it and a few more and were hooked. And I second the suggestions to watch Strange New Worlds and deprioritize Discovery and Picard.
It usually takes a show a few episodes to get the set up plot out of the way then it gets good
Indeed, I almost stopped watching after the first four episodes or so because it felt like it was going to be “the Mariner show” and Mariner was really rubbing me the wrong way, she was a very annoying character. But the show course corrected over time, it brought several other main characters up to equal prominence and more importantly it started filing the annoying edges off of Mariner to make her a more well-rounded character that I actually kind of like now.
Now it’s my top recommendation for modern Trek. And for Trek in general, really. The people making Lower Decks are clearly deeply in love with the setting and its history as a show.
Do the characters on Lower Decks eventually stop yelling every line at each other? That’s what put me off after the first couple of episodes.
Yes. The character development improves too
Pretty quickly.
No, not really. That’s pretty consistent through all the seasons.
IMO, all of it.
In terms of general agreement, Lower Decks, Strange New Worlds, and season 3 of Picard are generally the most well-regarded projects to date.
I agree! I have enjoyed all new Trek. I think some shows, like Strange New Worlds are better than others, but overall it’s all been worthwhile for me.
Me too.
That’s good to hear
I enjoyed season 1 of Picard also
Lower Decks is great. I couldn’t get into Strange New Worlds but might try again
As a purist, I’d say watch them all and in release order, but if you really have to be choosy with your time, here’s a list of things you can skip (in my opinion):
- Star Trek Into Darkness
- Discovery (whole show)
- Picard S1 and S2
- Short Treks
I know suggesting skipping Discovery outright is going to be seen as… extreme, but I suggest doing so only if time is a crucial factor. It’s a dizzyingly uneven show with the lowest points of quality in all of Trek. However, it also has some incredible highs and some truly great characters, so if you find the time to watch it, you should. And I know I’m in the minority on this, but I found Short Treks to be unwatchable.
On the flip side, Lower Decks is incredible, and Strange New Worlds is good. The third season of Picard is excellent. Prodigy is a little weird but it’s got a lot of strength. Star Trek Beyond is also a surprisingly good movie.
It’s a dizzyingly uneven show with the lowest points of quality in all of Trek.
Dude I’ve seen TNG season 1 and Enterprise seasons 1-2. I know we both know it can get worse.
TOS also has some truly awful episodes, but it’s pretty easy to ignore them.
I think the low points of DSC and PIC stick out for two reasons:
- Recency bias. It’s been 15 years since I last watched Code of Honor, and I rarely even think about it except when it’s time to make memes about season 1.
- Serialization. You can watch TNG, skip bad episodes like Code of Honor or Sub Rosa, and not really lose out on anything. But if you watch DSC and skip a bad episode, you blow a giant gaping hole in the over-arching story.
@beefcat @dumples @tymon @LibraryLass That last point is one of the problems with arc-centered shows
Okay, I’ll give you Code of Honor.
I second lower decks, can’t wait for the next season
I would say Discovery season 2 is worth watching - it’s the show’s strongest season, it’s fairly self-contained, and it sets up Anson Mount’s depiction of Pike ahead of the excellent Strange New Worlds (including explaining the specific context for SNW’s first couple of episodes).
I enjoyed Star Trek Beyond and was ambivalent about Into Darkness so I agree with that. I think Lower Decks might be the first to watch. I have heard good things about it here. I love weird things so I think Prodigy might be next. From the initial ads Picard seemed like it was a nostalgic cash grab but if there is an excellent season I would watch it all the way through. I might watch Discovery last if you think it is skippable. It depends on how much I enjoy the rest and if I can still find it streaming by then.
I think I’m much too old for Prodigy or something because one episode was too much.
But Lower Decks is absolutely amazing, it’s really nice to have a legitimate comedy within the honest-to-god Star Trek universe so they can just actually make fun of Riker by name.
I like Strange New Worlds alright. It’s better than Discovery, and I liked Discovery fine.
Picard was great until the S1 twist and I refused to watch further. Maybe that’s not fair, I found it a bit Disney-ish but wow that ending. I just have to head cannon a more respectful ending and I imagine I’ll get around to it.
Though I have somehow never managed to get around to Enterprise…
Agree with this, especially skipping Picard S1 & S2. I feel the showrunner(s) definitely agree too, as S3 is a standalone story and ignores many of the developments introduced in the previous seasons. While I also didn’t completely love Season 3 it sits head and shoulders above the first two in every way.
I think Picard S1 was watchable. It had some neat stuff in it. But it is not a high point for the franchise by any means. It felt like an adaptation of some Arthur Clarke doomsday short story or something but stretched out until the breaking point.
S2 left a bad taste in my mouth. It was just kind of pointless and dumb. I enjoyed the characters very much, but the actual story was pretty damn rough. Storylines involving any kind of time travel are nearly universally awful across the whole genre and the mirror dimension getting played for anything other than camp makes me a bit queasy. At some point, I wondered if they were just trying to undo some of the damage Voyager did to the Borg lore, but they were actually spending more time doubling down on it so that can’t be it.
Also, the world felt SO small. Star Trek always makes the galaxy feel smaller than it means to just because of the natural limits of casting, writing, and fandom, but Picard S1 and S2 are both excruciatingly tiny universes with so few important players. As a result, I haven’t watched S3. I’m hearing it’s way better, but I have to work myself up to giving it another try.
Both share a flaw with Discovery: it just doesn’t feel like Star Trek. All three shows are trying to be big, dramatic, high-tension, cliffhanger-ending space epics for binging. Modern streaming shows, basically. And the best of Star Trek is nothing like that. My sibling could never get into Star Trek. Started with TNG. Their complaint was that it felt like watching stage plays at the local theater. That they were constantly aware of how this was just a bunch of people talking at each other on a set. There was all philosophy and cerebral-ness and drama and very little action, and the plotlines often resolved without an unambiguously right answer. They’re totally right, and that’s what makes me love the show and why I don’t feel strongly about Picard and Discovery.
All of the best episodes are about strange or philosophical concepts about what it means to be human. It is mostly some talking with a single concept holding it together. I enjoy some action but only in small doses. That is what TOS did the best
I’m on the last seasons of Discovery.
I avoided it for a long time because of reviews.
The portrayal of toxic relationships is interesting and even rewarding at times, it’s just not why I watch star trek.
Trek is great with big hard concepts but work best with philosophy concepts instead of personal relationships
Man. Very well put. Very, very well put. I’m so sad that Discovery was as it was. It’s not Star Trek to me. I was excited to see how it started out. Things I wanted to see ever since I was a kid. And then it just doesn’t do what Star Trek is supposed to do.
To me in each episode (or episode arc) we need an internal and external problem that have no apparent solutions and are worked out towards the end of it all. Self-Contained episodes with ongoing character changes and evolution. Not… “dark gritty” whatever the heck this is.
I’d also strongly suggest watching The Orville @dumples That’s the most Star Trek show in the past few years, despite being a bit more light hearted. Heck, even Avenue 5 is worth a watch to scratch some of that Star Trek itch.
@AlteredStateBlob @dumples @tymon also despite it being a Seth McFarlane product, The Orville is very much not “Family Guy In Space” and while it is pretty hilarious, it can go into some REALLY heavy territory, especially in S3.
I also, speaking as a trans person, really don’t like how it handled its allegorical trans character plotline, especially relative to how Discovery, Prodigy, and SNW have handled actual trans and nonbinary characters.
Absolutely, yeah. I like the levity of it and the recurring jokes, but they do tackle a whole lot of really difficult topics and do it really, really well. That’s how it’s very Trek like and why I love it.
Not to mention: It’s actually nice and bright. I always loved that about old Star Trek. Why does modern Star Trek insist on everything looking like the inside of Darth Vaders helmet?
@AlteredStateBlob @dumples @tymon The Federation is what makes the show Star Trek. The moral standing of the characters is established by how they follow or break federation rules. The move to the future removed the soul of the show. It was a cowardly decision likely made to avoid criticism. First 2 seasons were great.
I get why they want to show the “The federation isn’t flawless either” argument, but it is being done in the most hanfisted way possible.
The most recent episode of Strange New Worlds was an okay take on it, highlighting some hypocrisy in it all, but we really don’t have enough information on the legal system to understand if any of it even matters.
I agree. The Federation as a well established monolithic structure around exploration, peace and dialogue helps frame everything else that happens in the show.
Throw that out of the window and what are we left with.
Maybe it is just a symptom of this whole “This is THE HERO” thing that popular story telling has shifted towards. Picard was undoubtedly an important and great captain. He certainty had those “everything hinges on what he and his crew do next” moments, but there were always others out there alongside him. Losing Picard was a blow to the federation when he became locutus. But it didn’t break them.
Now watching more modern Star Trek it feels like the only people worthwhile in the entire federation are the people on screen right now and their renegade shenanigans.
@AlteredStateBlob @dumples @tymon @actualeyes
This feels like an overly broad take. I agree that Discovery has some tone issues that make it feel heavy handed, but it has strong characters outside of the crew that represent a healthy Federation.
Strange New Worlds has been if anything very episodic and light, with the exception of the arrest and trial of Una, which was really the writers picking up a thread that has been hanging there since DS9.
Discovery, to me, is simply action SciFi. But what makes Star Trek Star Trek to me, isn’t present at all. No self contained little adventures with moral conundrums, etc.
I’m simply not the target audience for that show, so to what I want out of Star Trek, it’s not good but rather terrible. If it were simply some random SciFi Action thing, maybe, okay.
That’s a tough one. I think Strange New Worlds is the must see of new star trek. Unfortunately the plot lines for SNW S1 are linked with stuff that happened in Discovery S2 and of course Discovery S2 is linked to S1 a bit as well. Maybe try watching an episode or two of discovery S1, but the greatest pieces of new trek writing are Disco S2 and SNW in my opinion, well worth the watch. I think the only way to watch them is the paramount+ streaming service, but I could be wrong.
The context of The Cage / TOS The Menagerie 1&2 provides the foundation.
I’ve been watching Strange New Worlds recently and I kinda like it even though some of the episodes have made me angry at how dumb everyone is acting. I also kinda wish that they could cut the budget of SFX by half and instead make twice as many episodes if they can be written well too? Maybe I’m just still spoiled by 20+ episode seasons that the older series used to have, but just 10 episodes doesn’t feel enough somehow.
Dunno about discovery, I agree with other users that it’s not that good, but I can tell you that it’s not required to understand SNW even though there’s some story overlap there.
The 10 episode seasons are to satisfy Anson Mount, who didn’t want to commit to more than that per year.
It’s a terrible handicap for the writers. Not enough to easily do character development. Cramming too much action into episodes. Horrible choice. It was especially bad in Picard.
Well, he’s barely had to show up for work so far this season!
Also, seems an odd decision to cast your captain then schedule your show, rather than the other way around. Voyager profited from unexpectedly recasting the captain after shooting began! (And if anyone doesn’t know that story, you should look it up… there are videos…)
A lot of people in these comments sleeping on Prodigy. I think it’s very good and would probably put it behind only Strange New Worlds. For me, the start of the season is just meh and feels more Star Wars Kidsy, but the season just grows and grows and has a real heart, real drama, and action.
Strange New Worlds is great! That’s the best one! I also enjoyed Picard, especially S3.
Yes, I’ve enjoyed both of these and enjoyed them on their own unique merits vs basing it on what “star trek should be”. (which drives others to hate it)
If you’re going to start a new Trek, I seriously recommend The Orville.
It’s a love letter to TNG, VOY, DS9 era Trek. Better in many ways.
It starts as a goofy comedy and the first few episodes are kind of… okay. But by the third episode they find their footing and it just gets better and better.
The third (and possibly final) season is up there with the best of Trek. No bad episodes, and a much more serious tone. The show even has actors from ST series like Penny Jerald (Kassidy Yates in DS9) as main cast, cameos from Robert Picardo (Doctor on VOY), Tim Russ (Tuvok), John Billingsley (Dr Phlox from ENT). Also Brannon Braga produces/writes on it and Jonathan Frakes directs some episodes.
If you want to continue with TNG/VOY/DS9 era - Lower Decks is my personal favorite new Star Trek property. It’s a cartoon geared to a more adult audience, very funny - and very well written.
Strange New Worlds is the best of the new live action series. It’s episodic ‘alien of the week’ kinda vibe. It’s a spin-off from Discovery. It’s a prequel to TOS.
Discovery is a different approach. It’s season-long story archs and follows one main protagonists’ journey. It does become more about the crew later on. It had a very weak first two episodes - way too much lens flare and shaky cam. It gets a little better after but Season 1 was fairly weak. Season 2 is a huge improvement (and is the precursor to Strange New Worlds). You could start there if you read up about the characters and plot points.
Season 3 is their best - and is practically a whole different show. They flip the entire setting and premise and introduce some new characters. You could also start here if you do some light reading. Season 4 is a continuation of Season 3 - not as strong, but still solid.
Picard is pretty much fan fiction.
Some of the new characters are fun (I like Rios a lot), but the writing doesn’t do any of them any justice. Season 1 and 2 are pretty bad. If you don’t have time to kill, skip it.Season 3 is actually the show many fans wanted. It’s pretty much like a long-format TNG sequel mini series. It has some plot holes, but it’s a real joy to watch and puts a nice bow around the series. And around TNG.
I’m not a big fan of DIS S1 but I’d still watch it for context. Plus I absolutely loved the performances from both Michelle Yeoh and Jason Isaacs - Isaacs in particular makes S1 for me.
I’m going to as far as saying don’t watch either the first or second season of Discovery. The first season is just bad, and the entire second season is them fixing all the continuity holes they created in the first one.
Then they send the ship away and let it do its own thing in a different timeline and all of a sudden it becomes pretty good.
@dumples so far, Strange New Worlds is the best of the New Trek, so far it’s been all killer no filler
Both Picard and Discovery have high highs and low lows, so your mileage with them will vary
Strange New Worlds is the best show, but Picard season 3 is by far the best single season. Picard season 3 can also be watched without needing to see season 1 (which is decent) or season 2 (which is mostly dire).
I think I will wait on Picard and Discovery then. I would love to get hooked and the good shows first and then fill in
I’m gonna go the other way and recommend Discovery before Strange New Worlds. Canonically, SNW happens after Discovery and even refers to it at times. Also, people like to hate on Discovery but I found Discovery so much better than most modern Trek. It brought dramatic cohesion to the ST universe and abandoned the silly episodic crap that had no ties with the episodes before or after it.
By and large episodic is what Star Trek fans want. At least to some extent.
I would definitely recommend Strange New Worlds. It has a great cast and the return to an episodic format allows for a lot of variety in conflicts and dilemmas faced by the crew. Next up I would recommend The Orville. I hate Family Guy, Seth MacFarlane’s humor is very off -putting to me so I was skeptical, but really the show was delightful and felt a lot like TNG era Star Trek to me. The show has some crass elements still, but they aren’t overbearing. Honestly, Lower Decks is a lot worse on that front than The Orville and feels way more juvenile to me. People say Lower Decks is supposed to get better in season 2 but I watched some season 2 episodes with my roommates and still found it unbearable. If you like Family Guy/Rick and Morty, you might enjoy it more than I did since most people do seem to love that one.
The other new Trek shows are too busy facing overly big, galactic apocalypse-level threats throughout each entire season to delve into much real philosophy or analysis of the human condition and the crushing threats are so extreme that even when the shows do focus on the human side and try to look at something personal, you start to wonder why people are stopping to have a long discussion about their emotions and relationship struggles in the presence of immediate danger to their lives. Even when the discussions are good, the timing is bad enough for it to not make sense. A lot of details like that are very immersion breaking for me as a viewer.
Picard season 3 was a well balanced nostalgia trip. It was a lot more relatable than seasons 1 and 2 and has some really great human(oid) moments dealing with pride, regret, grief, belonging, and passing the torch to the next generation. It was fan service done well. It still does the new Trek thing of a big, impending threat but does a better job of keeping that threat at arm’s length enough for the interpersonal discussions to feel more impactful and logical in the moment. I was so disappointed in seasons 1 and 2 that I almost skipped 3, but now I am rooting for a spin off from season 3 with the new characters they introduced.
I’d say strange new worlds and the 3rd season of Picard is worth watching. You could try the first few episodes of the rest to see if it’s your kind of thing .
The third season of Picard is recommended multiple times. So I will add it to the lists but likely after Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks
