Over the last few years my family and I have binged all of Star Trek, then moved on to Star Trek adjacent shows like The Orville and Stargate. At the moment we’re not really watching anything sci-fi. I was wondering if anyone had recommendations for similar shows (or maybe some books) that fill the void left by Star Trek. In particular I really like the episodes that deal with interacting with other civilizations, diplomacy, and exploration more-so than say, an anomaly episode.
As far as New Trek for me,
I really like Lower Decks.
I watched S1 of Picard and really didn’t like it. Heard S2 was also terrible but then S3 people like a bit more? Is it worth just skipping to S3 to watch that or nah?
I haven’t watched any of Discovery since I heard it wasn’t great. Same question: If it gets better later, is it something I can skip to or would I need to watch the earlier seasons since it’s got a longer running story?
I watched SNW and… it’s… alright I guess. I can see why people say it’s getting closer to watch older star trek was, but it didn’t really do it for me. Idk if I can really put my finger on it. The characters kind of just feel wrong.
Also, semi-related to SNW, but I’ve seen this elsewhere (like in the JJ Abrams movies or other pop culture references to Trek): While I don’t like TOS as much as the post TNG stuff, one thing I did pull out of it was that Kirk was… a more nuanced character than his later depictions in other media. All of the non-TOS depictions I’ve seen of Kirk make him out to be some reckless, arrogant fly-boy. But he’s just not. Sure, he flirts with aliens or gets campy a lot more than others, and he’s no Picard as far as diplomacy is concerned, but for the most part he’s played as an experienced captain that has his sense of duty and responsibility to his crew and mission. I get that in the JJ movies and SNW he’s younger, but it still just feels like a flanderized version of what people remember him as.
I’m a bad shill for Picard, I am about as down on the whole thing equally. Ultimately I just don’t need to revisit old heroes, ever. I hate this future of all our heroes being basically watching our dads grow old and sad and frail. But yeah, people like S3 more because it’s more of a fanservice-y thing than trying to tell the adventures of old Picard by himself, so if that sounds appealing to you go for it.
As for Discovery… yeah, absolutely, skip Season 1. Season 2 is the one that ties into SNW, so if you watched that, you can jump in right there and it’s almost a stand-alone show that feels a lot more consistent with SNW and a lot less consistent with Season 1. I’d still go back and watch S1 later if you enjoy the rest of it, but skipping that is absolutely a valid watch order if you don’t want to do the “trudge through the bad first season” thing of most Star Trek shows. I actually quite like seasons 2 and 4 specially. I’d rank them above all of Picard and just behind SNW, as far as nuTrek is concerned, and I’d rather watch those than most of Voyager and DS9, if I’m being honest.
The TOS Kirk thing is… interesting. I mean, you’re not wrong, Kirk was supposed to be just an all-around good guy Mary Sue who’s always great and right. It’s just that 60s Trek take on that turns out to be almost comedically horny and rash, especially as parsed by Shatner’s acting choices, especially when you retroactively compare it to TNG, which, let’s face it, is the de facto standard people have for what default Trek is. I think SNW’s Kirk splits the difference just fine… but he feels like an entirely different character. I can almost see Pine’s Kirk growing into Shatner’s more than I can Paul Wesley’s. But from the perspective you present? Yeah, they paint him as being more aggressive than Pike, for better or worse, but also mostly just smart and nice rather than a horny hothead. Definitely not doing Shatner, though, and less iconic than either of the other takes, I’d say. Which is fine, it’s Anson Mount’s show anyway. If anything I’d have liked less Kirk in the two seasons they’ve done so far. Hell, I’d have taken that cast in a standalone show rather than a prequel.
Shout out to Martin Quinn’s Scotty, though. He got like two episodes so far and already he’s the one cast member who I can see as the same character from TOS. The others are fine, they’re just playing their own take on the character’s premise, as opposed to the same character from the original.