Finally got around to star Trek Discovery and feels like it's not star trek with a overlay on it.
First like 5 episodes they already have sexism, and ableism, as well as referencing Elon musk as well as capturing a creature and using it for there own agenda, like wtf is this? Does it ever become less shitty or should I just skip it?
The last season is the best season, but that's not really saying a lot. They didn't know how to write with all the constraints of canon and (spoiler alert) ended up throwing the ship the furthest into the future of any Star Trek show by centuries. Once they could ignore all canon (everything was so far back in time so as to be irrelevant), it got okay. Not good, just okay. But at least not terrible.
Anyway, there are some likeable actors and a few likable characters, (I love Michelle Yeoh and Jason Isaacs, and Saru is the best), if you care for that.
It's terrible, which is a shame because there were arrive nice characters in the doctor and stamets, I like the.. danger fish guy (but being able to sense danger at warp speed is bullshit magic)
The spore drive.. I mean just make a new TV show at this point.
The Klingons.. meh.
Main character didn't do it for me.
Mudd was a highlight but underused.
And then throw in loathed time travel (where's Lt Daniels when you need him?)
I think it's season 3 where something happens across the galaxy and the cast see it in real time. Because we have live telemetry of every part of the delta/gamma quadrant.
Oh and the red angel.. awful.
JJ Abrams writing.
It was all so bad I gave up on it and it soured me on trying SNW too.
It stopped me from watching Strange New Worlds too. But it's actually a good one. It starts off like every star trek trying to find it's place but by the season 2 it's awesome
You should skip it because it leans harder and harder into the things you don't like in a Star Trek show.
I watched the first two episodes to give it a chance. Only kept watching it because my wife wanted to watch it together. Made it to the end of season 3 before she lost interest.
A few ensemble characters were memorable, but the writers did a terrible job of making the main character's arc understandable or plausible. A character who doesn't follow the rules either needs to be right most of the time to show they are a foil for authority's mistakes or learn they aren't as smart as they think they are by facing consequences. Michael just ignored orders and failed up the whole time while learning nothing. She did get motional about it, but didn't actually change her behavior. The actress did a fine job with what she had to work with, I blame the writing.
Since the main character's story is the primary focus of nearly every episode, this really dragged down the side character stories, which were mostly good to great.
I've never felt like finishing the show, but from what I've heard (and what the IMDB ratings show) it gets worse as it goes. Maybe try a few season 2 episodes before you skip the rest, I remember it having a little bit different feel than the first.
If you want to watch modern Trek, I think Strange New Worlds is much closer to the classic shows. Although it's definitely not perfect, I've enjoyed it quite a bit.
Regarding your issues with season 1. Keep watching. I don't want to spoil anything but there's a reason that specific character seems to be wholely evil and out of place in a post scarcity gay space communist utopia.
Don't get me wrong, it isn't good Trek, honestly I'd almost argue it's bad Trek, but if you're looking for some high production value star Trek in an alternate dimension (finale of LD recanonized Disco as alternate universe content) then it can be worth a watch. The show (imo) is not worth continuing after they make their jump through the wormhole (you'll know, it slows down to a crawl and turns the grimdark up to 11)
DS9 is peak Star Trek. Its far from perfect, but so is TNG. It's the last Trek series to truly have vision. Subsequent writers unfortunately took the wrong lessons from the show, but we can hardly blame DS9 for that.
The TNG films and Voyager are what began Star Treks downward spiral. Poor creative decisions and studio meddling doomed the TNG Films. Meanwhile, sloppy writing and a flawed premise that was poorly executed combined to make Voyager the most mediocre 90s Trek show.
ENT was just the final nail in the coffin. A complete regression of the series that nobody asked for. A desperate attempt at revival by a creative team that was out of ideas.
unfortunately it really should never have been put in the tos era. season 2 it moves to the future and that helps it out a lot but I think it would have worked out much better if they had placed it after voyager and not shoehorned in spock.