2y ago

What "third generation" Trek is worth watching?

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.

130 comments

Lower Decks, Strange New Worlds, Prodigy, and The Orville.

Unpopular opinion: I have found even the worst trek to be enjoyable.
First season of DS9? Rough but wouldn't skip it.
Voyager? A little heavy handed with some of the messaging, but still a blast.
Discovery? Yeah, took awhile to find its way, still made me cry once or twice.
Picard? Started a little slow. But it's my last trip with Patrick Stewart (and probably most of them) so I'm not gonna complain.
Cream of the crop: (IMO)
Lower Decks
Strange New Worlds
- I like when somebody else says what I was thinking way better than I ever could. I personally enjoyed each and every one of the new series. I think each one of them bring new and fun ideas to the universe, though I'm not saying they are perfect in any way.

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.
  
  Absolutely. You should fly through all three seasons just in time for S4 later this summer. They are only 22 minutes long.
- 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.
  
  Pretty quickly.
  
  Yes. The character development improves too
  
  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

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.

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.

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...)

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.
  
  Okay, I'll give you Code of Honor.
- I second lower decks, can't wait for the next season
- 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.
- 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...
- 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'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.
  
  @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.

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)

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.

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

@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.

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.
- Do I need to watch Discovery ahead of time? Or is it the classic Star Trek move characters into a new show trick?
  
  I didn't watch Discovery at all, and don't feel like I'm missing anything important in Strange New Worlds.
  
  Nah you can go ahead without watching Discovery. You might miss out on some references but the major plot points are explained.

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.

Personally, I think they peaked with 'Star Trek: Voyager', although I must say I never liked the character 'Q' in any generation, and even now when I re-watch Voyager episodes, I will always skip the 'Q' ones.
- The Q episodes are something different. I liked them in TNG. It really shows how as powerful the Federation compared to non warp planets they are still small compared to the entire universe
- Thanks God there's someone else that has this opinion. I love the actor but I didn't like the Q character at all, and didn't like the general concept of him either.
  Every startrek fan I know IRL disagrees with me and loves Q

Lower Decks and Strange New Worlds are the best.
Parts of Discovery are good... Parts aren't tho.

@dumples I enjoyed the first season of Strange New Worlds. Also, first episode of the second season was pretty good.

I'd also recommend watching The Orville, although not Star Trek, but very star trekky.
- Everyone knows Galaxy Quest is a great Star Trek movie even though it's not Star Trek

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.

I know there was some occasional friction between the fans on the old site, but I'll also throw in a recommendation for The Orville as modern Trek that's worth seeing. It does a great job capturing the spirit of the second-gen era presented for the current gen, with its cautious optimism pricked once a week by reminders of challenges yet to be resolved.
The first season is slightly rough (more proof it's a real Trek show?), as they figured out the ratio of comedy to drama, but by season three it's about as jokey as TNG. Fox did a bad job promoting it, it's definitely not Family Guy in space, which I think was probably what the network wanted it to be.
There's tons of Trek people both behind and in front of the camera, so while there's obviously no ties to the Trek canon, it's the closest anything has ever come, stylistically.
- I've heard good things about Orville. I might check it out. It looks like it's on Hulu in the US so I can watch it but with ads. I hate those ads
  
  Hulu does have a non-ads option if you hate ads enough.
- I know this will be a controversial opinion, but I've enjoyed The Orvill less as it's gotten more serious. I bounced off season 4 because the first two episodes were pretty dark and depressing.

Strange New Worlds episodic nature makes it easy to just drop right in. Technically it starts in Discovery but I think you’ll be just fine without it.
If they dropped the SNW and just called it Star Trek, I’d be okay with that. It’s deserving of the name.

Almost all series of the third generation are serialized, so it's harder to just watch episodes separately. Most are best watched one after the other.
I'm not the biggest fan of Discovery, but still I think that most fans are too harsh with it. It's not the best Trek, but it has its moments and grew better and better. I wouldn't advise to begin with that, though.
Picard was good. The first season is maybe a little too unoriginal, but I'd say that it's a very solid season until the second half of the last episode. The second season is good, and the third is a nostalgia fest (and I loved every second of it). It may be a good entry point.
Lower Decks is fun and offer a very different point of view on Star Trek lore. If you like "classic" Trek but are ready to gently mock it, watch it first. I'm in love with this show.
Prodigy is for children, and its noticeable. It's a good show, but still, a good show for children. If that doesn't bother you, go for it, but pass if it's not the case.
Strange New Worlds is the best one. Simply that. It would be my advice, and, as the show is almost episodic, you can watch it taking your time.

Watch Picard Season 3, Strange New Worlds, Lower Decks and possibly Prodigy.
Avoid all of Discovery and the first two seasons of Picard. They are the worst Star Trek has ever been and seem to exist for no other reason than to pander to the “we need to be represented” crowd.
- @47AlphaTango
  @dumples
  I love Discovery. Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations...Trek should aspire to that. Also...as a queer person I appreciate seeing people like me in Trek.
  
  Discovery forces in representation for representations sake. It’s not relevant to the plot at all. Like did we really need two scenes explaining that there is a non binary character? No, no we didn’t.
- @47AlphaTango @dumples oof bro, you know you're not on Reddit right?

Both Discovery and Picard are good series. Both have ups and downs. They’re different from each other and scratch a different itch.
Other than that, I haven’t seen any of the other new series, like Lower Decks.
- For Picard I would recommend only the third and last season, I found the first two a slog. The third not only was well done, it gave a nice closure for the crew and a big smile on my face.

130 comments