Lower Decks, Strange New Worlds, Prodigy, and The Orville.
this post was submitted on 28 Jun 2023
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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
Definetly give Lower Decks a chance. Strange New Worlds is really good too imo. Its worth noting that it is a spinoff of Discovery. Specifically season 2 I think.
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Strange New Worlds, Prodigy, and Lower Decks are my favorites.
The others aren't bad, just unique in their own way.
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.
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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 second lower decks, can't wait for the next season
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.
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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.
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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)
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 enjoyed season 1 of Picard also
Lower Decks is great. I couldn't get into Strange New Worlds but might try again
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.
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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 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.
@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).
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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
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.
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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.
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I mean, some of them are inconsistent but they are all good and all of them are very much in the spirit of star trek.
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