Star Trek

Some advice for TNG. Don't skip seasons 1 and 2. It's popular but misguided advice. I finished TNG this year and generally enjoyed these seasons despite their flaws.

To that effect, here's an optimized episode watch guide for each. Six episodes removed per season to save you 9 hours in total. Return to the skipped episodes later if you're interested.

TNG season 1 is a good start its rough around the edges and if it starts to look like the movie "Coming to America" go ahead and skip that episode. Just watch knowing it's going to get better like Park and Rec but it sets up a lot of storylines that will pay off later and some classic episodes that people forget are season 1 like "Datalore".

FYI not to discourage others from commenting (because everyone has their own opinion) but there is a pretty comprehensive guide in the /c/StarTrek sidebar: https://wiki.startrek.website/books/cstartrek/page/the-cstartrek-where-should-i-start-guide

My main advice is: Don't be afraid to skip an episode if you watch it and you don't like it. Especially the early seasons of TNG, DS9 and Voyager have some episodes which can easily be skipped. You won't lose any context.

Since you've already watched the relevant parts of Discovery, I'd recommend SNW. It spins off directly from Disco season 2, but it's more episodic and has a wider tonal range. Some episodes are dark and serious, some are plain goofy. Overall you'll find it much more light hearted and adventurous than Disco.

Otherwise, I'm a big supporter of starting at the beginning. Give a few episodes of TOS a try. Yes, it's a product of it's time, but it still holds up as great TV. It's also one of the few Trek shows that really hits the ground running quality wise - the '90s series tend to take a few seasons to rev up.

TNG season 3. The first two sessions are pretty rough. Start with 3. If you ever do a rewatch then try starting with season 1. Then try DS9.

TOS is good if you can handle the very low budget look.

You dare defile Lower Decks by calling other stuff “More cannon”! Experience bij, petaQ! 😉

In all seriousness, though, I would say DS9. The first season is much better than TNG season 1 in my opinion - not perfect, but livable. It mostly gets better from there, though like VOY, be prepared for sudden urges for Rick Berman to “accidentally fall out an airlock”, if you know what I mean.

This might be tinted by DS9 being my favorite Trek series, although Lower Decks is putting up fierce competition for DS9’s top spot in my heart.

Echoing move to SNW. It has a higher budget than older Trek and follows the current trend of "mini-series" storytelling. Older Trek follows older TV rules (wanted 26 eps to a season so a lot of filler to make it so). DS9 would be my other rec with a heavy caveat that if you're not feeling an ep skip it and look it up on memory alpha later, particularly for the first season. As it goes on it gets more into the long form storytelling you'd expect with today's shows, but first few seasons can be a bit rough and there can be a long time between plots being revisited (but when they are they make it count). TNG, Voyager and TOS are mainly monster/problem of the week (Voyager kind of weakly straddles longform and episodic leaning heavily towards episodic). Out of them I'd recommend TNG outside of the first two seasons (first season is TOS scifi tales encore, second season I actually like a lot and has some good eps, but general like is a minority opinion and cast gets retooled in third season anyway).

If you don't mind kids shows also recommend Prodigy (kinda like a Trek ATLA imo).

Voyager's got that family feel with the cast that you just enjoy being around.

TNG is best to start after season 1. Not saying season one is bad, but it might be harder to get into for a new comer.

Enterprise is good is you like your uniforms tight.

The original series is great to get a lot of the origin information. I guess it's hard for new comers, but I grew up with it, so has a special accepting place in my heart.

Deep Space 9 is my personal favorite for political sci-fi. However, there is the occasional whatever episode. This is best to watch is order all the way through.

I still think that lower decks and strange new worlds can not be fully enjoyed without some other older trek shown under your belt, but it's only a few episodes so you can finish them both quickly.

I abandoned Discovery after season 2 or 3 (I forget) I hear it got ok later on, but idk.

Picard, just watch season 3. I watched the others and then season 3 came out. I forgot about the others.

I'd say VOY, ENT, TNG, DS9 & SNW, but keep in mind I'm a bit anti mainstream in terms of Trek recommendations.

TNG from the start, but Iimit yourself to the 4 or 5 best rated episodes from Season 1 and 2. Then crack on with most of 3 and 4. 5 onwards starts to have a few more clunkers but by then you should have a good idea if you like it enough to take a chance.

Start with the best episodic episodes of TNG and DS9. Most of us were introduced to Star Trek out of order, it isnt like modern TV. 90s TV and prior was focused on syndication.

My recommendations would be, TNG: Darmok, Tapestry, The Wounded, Inner Light, Cause and Effect, Lower Decks (The episode that inspired the show). For DS9: In The Pale Moonlight, Duet, Trials and Tribbleations, The Visitor (Rest in peace Tony Todd)

I was late to the party, so my initial watch order was all kinds of messed up. I went DIS -> LD -> VOY -> DS9 -> TNG -> VOY (again) -> ENT -> SNW. Sadly, have only seen bits and pieces of TOS (and only GIFs of TAS).

Definitely recommend watching the TNG era in order: TNG, DS9, VOY, ENT and then doubling back to watch Lower Decks again (because why not lol). I also recommend watching Prodigy after VOY since it's basically VOY season 8/9. SNW is a spinoff from DIS, so I'd watch at least seasons 1-2 of DIS before SNW.

Prodigy is a kid's show, but please don't let that turn you away. It's pretty great.