My recommendation:
Just don’t stop after the first season or two of TNG - Give it a chance!
As someone who loves all the ol’ treks’, TNG is pretty unintentionally goofy in parts of the first one or two seasons. Not all episodes, but quite a few.
Once you get the ST “vibe” though, basically all the old shows become watchable, and the new ones unwatchable(they’re not that bad on their own, but man have they neglected some important aspects of trek…).
My ratings(spoiler-free):
TOS: Surprisingly watchable, once you understand what they’re going for, Gene Roddenberry’s vision and all that. Writing is clever, effects/acing not so much. Kirk and Spock are some great characters.
TNG: One of the favorites, without question. Very good writing for the most part, production is sensible and hasn’t aged much visibly. Acting is on-point. Episodic in nature, for the most part you could probably ignore order.
DS9: Has some of the best written episodes, also builds more cross-episode arcs(less episodic), leading to larger, more epic story. More character focused, IMHO the best character development out of all the treks, and is my personal favorite.
New-ish trek:
VOY: Watchable. Has more action, story/writing/worldbuilding is decent as well. A little more funny, mostly intentional. Janeway is not my favorite captain, but Tuvok and the EMH probably make up for that. A fun experiment, ironically more so than DS9 IMHO, even though that is on a space station.
ENT: Still okay. Writing definitely slipped a little. The enterprise just looks like a submarine from the inside. But at least it’s still roughly aligned with the principals laid out in the other shows, and makes for some interesting episodes explaining why they are the way they are(Shows the early days of the Federation).
“Kurtzman-era” trek(this is where it gets ugly):
DSC: I’m not a fan. They betrayed the principals laid out in basically all the other treks. The federation is basically a meaningless military now. This is trek produced by someone who really wanted to produce Star Wars. Still has it’s moments, and the later seasons get way better.
Probably one of the most beautiful shows production-wise because of the large budget and modern tech, but feels generic. Floaty hologram controls completely not inline with any other ST, fleshy space monsters, etc. An okay to good generic sci-fi show, but a bad ST. Somehow they’ve gone from educational and forward-thinking to preachy. It feels like it’s set in a completely different world.
PIC: Sadly has basically the same problems as DSC. The “big bad thing” is a bunch of stock footage LMAO. Story feels shallow, and basically insults TNGs legacy. They undo soo much… A lot of super generic “space magic”, instead of carefully written technobabel and cool props. Still has it’s moments though.
LD: Named after a TNG episode, surprisingly good! This show at least feels like it’s in the same universe as the older ST’s. Made for a younger audience, shorter episodes. The characters are believable and the setting and writing is intriguing. Bonus points for making fun of Alex Kurtzman. Out of the 3 new treks, this is the one I enjoyed most, even though in a way it is the most different to regular trek. There are still things I would have changed.
