Star Trek Discovery is not “that bad”. Like Picard and some of the seasons of Enterprise, each season is a self-contained story arc, which I get is not for everyone. It also has a black female main character, which apparently is also not for everyone. IMO, the fifth season was not quite as good as the first four (I actually like the fourth the best), but there was still a lot to like. I do think they did better after they moved to the 31st century so they weren’t as constrained by canon gymnastics. It also (for a single season) gives us our only non-human main ship captain to-date, which I think is a good thing in a series centered on the idea of friendship with other worlds. There are definitely things I would change about the show if I could, but on the whole I think it’s a great addition to Trek.

(Also, Michelle Yeoh, Mary Wiseman, and Tig Notaro each steal every single scene any of them is in. Worth watching for those three alone.)

It’s not awful. In fact it has a lot of great high points. On balance, I would say that if you compared it objectively to the first 65 episodes of TNG, it would compare rather favorably.

I very much enjoyed the start but steadily lost interest.

There’s some good stuff in Discovery all the way through, don’t get me wrong. But they kind of flipped the script in a way I did not appreciate.

Most of classic Trek showed us a future with a largely functional society, mostly full of good people who were ready and willing to deal with occasional corruption.

Lots of newer Trek, and especially Discovery, showed us a future where society is largely dysfunctional and corruption is the norm. Almost everyone in the series who isn’t a main character (plus a couple who are) is a piece of shit. Even the “good guys” frequently encourage or at least tolerate clearly evil behavior as long as it serves their ends. But it’s okay because…friendship I guess?!?

Their heart is in the right place but the writing is generally bad. I think this generation of writers is incapable of imagining a better world, which, sure, is understandable, given how thoroughly corrupt our current society is. But it’s deeply depressing. It lacks soul.

SNW is better in this regard. But you’ll probably want to watch season 1 of Discovery first since there’s some crossover.

It’s fine.

And those that disagree should be forced to watch Star Trek: Section 31 until they can have a reasonable conversation like an adult.

Discovery was so bad I had to stop after season 2 and have written off everything that they’ve set in the 31st century

It’s not very good, but it does have some really good moments, and some really good ideas mixed in with the less-good stuff. It’s worth watching. Just put your fingers in your ears and la-la-la through all the Klingon retconning and inappropriate pathos. There are moments where the emotional storyline are good, but they cry wolf too often.

You need to get passed the first story arc, then it gets really good. It doesn’t really feel Star Trek™ at first, but that changes and it’s worth the journey.

It wasn’t my cup of tea.

My favorite new Trek remains Lower Decks.

It’s fine. It’s probably the weakest of the modern Trek shows, but only because SNW and LDS are so good.

No. Far from it. The First half of the first season sucks, second half gets better, Second Season is really watchable, third season is where it grows it’s beard.

The main problem with discovery is they set it basically in the tos timeline which created all these weird plot things that had to be resolved with weirder plot things. I firmly believe if they had set it a decent amount post voyager that it would have made it much better. I don’t want to spoil but I felt season 2 fit better but having such weird start really messed it up for me.

Most any criticism of the show is true. I will day that it is a good series to watch with people who haven’t watched Star Trek before because it is a little un-Trek-ish and there is less to stop and explain. Also, since the mission is top secret it has little overlap with anything except SNW.

As a Star Trek fan, I was happy to get more Trek, the same as I was happy to get more Picard (that S2 was a pain though!), Lower Decks, Prodigy, and even the Short Treks.

My wife was pulled into the world of Star Trek by Discovery (a full 36 years after I’d started watching the franchise) and now she loves it and wants to watch all of the other series. So, Discovery gets a point for that.

(I haven’t seen Section 31 yet. It is supposed to be very bad.)

I love Discovery. Some of the criticisms are valid; every season has a few dumb moments that make me shake my head. But I love the characters, the actors are all great, Doug Jones in particular is a treasure, and the first contact in season 4 feels more like a proper science fiction scenario than any other in Trek.

One thing to keep in mind is that the tone shifts considerably season to season. It starts off quite grim and gritty, but don’t expect it to stay that way.

Discovery is fine and at the time it was the only modern Trek we had so there’s that, it’s enough for me to like it.

The only problem I had with it is that every season is “OMG we have to save the all fucking universe!”, other than that it’s cool.

Then we had Strange New Worlds so my thirst for “let’s just explore that funny planet and have a drink at the mess” Trek was satisfied.

I still watch discovery because ‘spaceships goes piou piou piou eat my phaser’ and that’s what I want it to be.

Discovery is my least preferred star trek I’ve watched so far, I mean, it’s not “bad” per se, it’s just different from the rest of star trek and has a different formula.

The thing with discovery is that everything happens really fast, there’s always a sense of urgency and hurry, but actual plot development happens really slowly.

Conflict takes a whole season to resolve, instead of standard one episode which you expect from a star trek show.

Also, I hate how the actors mumble instead of talking.

It’s not bad, it’s just not my favourite format.