Poll The best Modern Trek Series

[trekfan_1]

This a very old and admittedly unoriginal topic. But with the recent releases of SNW, Discovery ending, and Prodigy S2, I thought it was time for an audit.

In terns of overall, all around quality, vote for what you think is the best modern trek TV show.

As a side discussion, tel me which animated series you prefer between Prodigy and Lower Decks . Again in terms of quality/depth.

 

[Lord Garth]

I won't say "best", that's subjective. I'll say favorite.

My favorite is Discovery. That's how I voted. It's the series that got me back into Trek. And, despite all the changes, still feels like one series. Picard, as much as I like it, feels like three series. The rest didn't hold my interest for more than a season.

With the animated series, between the two I prefer Prodigy. But, so far, in the past month, I've only watched the first episode of the second season and haven't felt a burning urge to go back to it yet. I'll get around to it when I get around to it.

 

[1001001]

I voted Discovery, although I expect SNW will overtake it by the time it’s finished.

I love Lower Decks. Prodigy I gave up on a little less than halfway through.

I didn’t care for Picard at all.

 

[Danlav05]

Picard for me because it gave me what I wanted from a new series

Even though it took 3 seasons to get there!! ( yes I was obsessed right the way through but it frustrated me through 1 and especially 2. I kidded myself that 1 in particular was tng 2.0 even though it wasn’t. Again I only realised after we got 3!)

 

[Cyfa]

As much as I love Strange New Worlds, it's Lower Decks all the way for me. The characters, stories, world building (and expansion), and believability (yes, really) make the show for me, and it's clearly made with love (I'm not saying the others aren't, I just don't notice it as much).
Beautiful though Prodigy is - and with great character development - it's just not up there with LDS, in my opinion. That it's made for a younger audience (which Trek needs) is too obvious to me, which is one of the reasons it doesn't make my cut.

 

[BillJ]

Lower Decks, Strange New Worlds, Prodigy, Discovery, Picard.

Feels weird ranking them, as I haven't been interested enough to finish any of them.

 

[trekfan_1]

For me it would be SNW, PIC, PRO,LD, DIS in that order. SNW being far above the rest. But I'm admittedly bias due to not being a fan the adult humor of LD for example. DISC leaned too heavy on drana and I never got into most of the characters other than Suru and Reno.

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

I'm not going to try calculating which of them is objectively best, but this is my own personal ranking:

1. Lower Decks - I love Star Trek for its characters, its setting, its sci-fi stories and its wit, and this nails all of them. The only flaw for me is that it sometimes gets carried away with the absurd things you can do in animation.
2. Picard - Fantastic production design, and it has other good qualities too! Unfortunately it always sabotaged itself by trying to be edgy and grown up, with everyone murdering people, pulling out eyes, and going to horrible crime planets like Earth.
3. Discovery - Every season had big problems, but they were usually different big problems so there was variety there. It was rare that I outright didn't enjoy an episode, but there was always something 'off' about the show for me.
4. Prodigy - A bit too childish for me at times, but it tried to be a proper Star Trek action adventure and pretty much succeeded. Plus it made season arcs look easy.
5. Strange New Worlds - This is the only one I'm actually not keen on, and it frustrates me that people say that this is the classic style show for the older fans, because I don't see it like that at all. It doesn't take its world seriously enough for that. Plus it's always getting distracted by its ongoing character arcs, with the crew continually getting into doomed romances and singing about them. And then OH NO IT'S THE GORN, THEY'LL GET BLOOD ALL OVER YOUR COLONY AND MAKE ALIENS EXPLODE OUT OF YOU. There's not much chance of me taking those off-brand Xenomorphs seriously any time soon. Also, the continuity issues with TOS are...

 

[trekfan_1]

A little surprised seeing Prodigy leading Lower Decks so far.. Recency bias or is Prodigy more popular that I thought?. Not that Im complaining as I personally would put it higher too.

 

[Lord Garth]

I didn't rank them, but if you put a gun to my head, it would be:

Discovery
Picard
Prodigy
Strange New Worlds
Lower Decks

I just don't find Lower Decks to be funny. It's as simple as that. I don't hate it or anything, but it's just not my style.

As far as SNW, I'll let @Ray Hardgrit do the talking for me.

Strange New Worlds - This is the only one I'm actually not keen on, and it frustrates me that people say that this is the classic style show for the older fans, because I don't see it like that at all. It doesn't take its world seriously enough for that. Plus it's always getting distracted by its ongoing character arcs, with the crew continually getting into doomed romances and singing about them. And then OH NO IT'S THE GORN, THEY'LL GET BLOOD ALL OVER YOUR COLONY AND MAKE ALIENS EXPLODE OUT OF YOU. There's not much chance of me taking those off-brand Xenomorphs seriously any time soon. Also, the continuity issues with TOS are...

That just saved me a whole bunch of typing about Strange New Worlds!

I like Prodigy, I really do, but there's no escaping that it's a kids show. I have to be in the mood for it. But when I'm in the mood for it, I really enjoy watching it.

Picard is tricky. I like Seasons 1 and 3 better than any season of Discovery... BUT we're talking about series as a whole. That's a slightly different animal. Picard isn't really three seasons so much as it's three mini-series. So, on a series level, I think Discovery works better because the throughline is that we're following Burnham and the Discovery crew and their adventures through time, space, and dimension as they try to crack a puzzle each season and both discover the answer and make new discoveries about themselves. Despite changing centuries and showrunners, Discovery still feels like five seasons of the same series. If I'm being totally honest, I can't say the same about Picard.

I love Picard, but I can break it down like this:

Season 1 --> "This isn't a TNG Reunion!!!!"
Season 3 --> "Yes it is!!!!"
Season 2 --> "I'm just going to hang out in 2024 while you two duke it out!"

Picard in a nutshell.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Prodigy, without question. By a mile. The rest are not in the same league. It's my favourite Trek series since the original.

 

[Daedalus]

Prodigy, as it just felt right. Also because I never expected a show aimed at kids to EVER interest me. That in itself is worthy of high praise.

Ranking order:

Prodigy
Strange New Worlds
Lower Decks (This could change)
 Picard
Discovery

In terms of individual seasons:

Prodigy S2 (Whale of a time!)
Prodigy S1 (Live logs and proper)
SNW S1 (What if we just did Star Trek?)
Picard S3 (Those were the days)
Lower Decks 1-4 (Moopsy)
SNW S2 (Rrrrrriker)
Picard S1 (I'm getting too old for this sh**)
Picard S2 (Q you gonna call?)
Discovery S2 (Pike'd my interest)
Discovery S1 (They were elves once...)
Discovery S4 (10-C what I did there?)
Discovery S5 (Hoist by their own Picard)
Discovery S3 (Burn baby Burn)

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

I guess that answers the question of what animated series people prefer.

In fact, Prodigy has a chance to overtake Strange New Worlds here, which is something I didn't expect. Then again, there are only 26 votes so far, so any of them could pull ahead (more votes for Lower Decks plz).

 

[SCE2Aux]

This is a tough one! The responses so far have surprised me because Prodigy is doing better than I expected - not that I'm complaining!

Discovery - I don't talk about Disco much because there's no point in spreading negativity constantly. Suffice to say, I think it had a lot going for it, but it had a few significant flaws that prevented me from fully enjoying the show. I bailed at the start of season 4, but will finish the show off someday

Lower Decks - I feel bad for saying this, but I haven't been able to get into the show at all - the humour doesn't really work for me. I usually love wacky, zany scifi but it left me completely cold . Something else I dislike but isn't as talked about is the animation style - you can do simplified, stylized animation and still make a nice animation (Steven Universe comes to mind), but the way LD is made is, IMHO, awfully crude and uninspiring.

SNW is an enormous amount of fun. The cast is likeable, there are a range of different episode styles from madcap farce to horror. It also has insanely good production design, I mean my goodness does it look great. I don't take it too seriously, but I like having a cool adventurous show to watch at the end of a long day. I am a little concerned that the show could slip into Flanderized characterisation on the basis of that season 3 clip, but nevertheless, SNW is a contender for the top spot.

Picard had an intriguing season 1, with lots to like and a few things to dislike, which isn't bad at all for a first season of a Star Trek show. Then, season two happened. Easily the worst season of Star Trek in the streaming era for me, and maybe in all of Trek. I heard that Covid disruption was a factor in this? Season 3 however, whilst not being groundbreaking, did at least keep me well entertained, and they stuck the landing at the end. PIC is mid ranking for me.

However, Prodigy clinches it: Somehow a show not targeted at me won me over. They delivered a two season arc that is well paced, exciting, and has a satisfying conclusion. The characters are good, and all of them develop over the course of the show, with nobody underutilised. The animation is unbelievable, considering they don't have Disney/Pixar budget levels to play with, and everything is designed brilliantly. As a Starship nerd, the USS Protostar is easily my favourite new ship. Prodigy, from top to bottom is, the most assured and consistently good show of the new Trek shows.

If I was going with my heart rather than my head, then SNW would be number one for me. But you asked about ranking on overall quality, so Prodigy, despite being a kids/family show, manages to succeed at being a kids/family show a little better than the other series do at being what they intended to be.

1 PRO
2 SNW
3 PIC
4 DIS
5 LDS

 

[Mage]

As a show, I feel SNW is certainly the best for me personally. It gives me what I loved about TNG, DS9.
LDS is hilarious and entertaining and I love it.
Discovery seems to be a show people either love or hate. It was really in the middle for me. I enjoyed the storylines and characters, but it never engaged me as much as other Star Trek has done in the past.
Picard.... I really enjoyed season 1, season 2 had some amazing character moments wrapped in a storyline that just went nowhere and made little sense really. Season 3 is one of my all time favorite Star Trek. It is absolute memberberries and fanservice, but in a way I really loved and I think I've watched that season 3 times now.
PRO is something I still need to watch. The trailers never appealed to me, but I hear so many great things about it that I should give it a try.

 

[FederationHistorian]

Simply between live action, then Picard, by a mile.

Simply between animation, then Lower Decks.

Overall, Lower Decks, by a light year.

 

[Jack Wolfe]

Strange New Worlds, full stop. Love it!
S3 of Picard comes a close second, if only for Jean-Luc's carpet joke. S1 & 2 were largely rubbish.
DISCO was a constant disappointment. I didn't even bother with S5.
My only real exposure to LD was the SNW crossover episode, and I wasn't impressed. Way too spastic and annoying.
I'm not interested in PROD at all.

 

[Frontis]

I voted for SNW because it fits best into my personal Star Trek world.

 

[trekfan_1]

I shouldn't feel guilty for liking SNW because it's fullfils my Star Trekian soul. Or Picard S3 because I actually like the TNG gang getting back together . Not everything needs to " push the envelope ". Likes too short. Entertain me with things I like.

 

[fireproof78]

I voted STRANGE NEW WORLD because Pike.