I've been enjoying Starfleet Academy so far.

I see plenty of hate, but a lot of it seems to be coming from disingenuous places. Videos that hate stuff are much more likely to go viral than ones from people who are loving the show (or people whose take is "it's pretty mid").

Having deep disagreements over which Trek is best Trek is a part of Trekkie cultural heritage, so I have no problem with people who genuinely do hate the show. What I have a problem with are the people whose criticism is clearly coming from a disingenuous place. An example of what I mean is that I've seen a few people criticise episode 5 as simultaneously being too nostalgic for DS9, but also not nostalgic enough? People are contradicting themselves in their own reviews, and it makes their goal completely transparent.

Besides that, people who have been into Trek for longer than I've been alive have emphasised that this is fairly typical for whenever a new Trek show releases. Initial reactions are often disproportionately negative, because it's different than what people are used to — but then over the years, the series comes to be viewed in a more positive light. I'm too young to have seen much of this play out first hand, but it does resonate with my own experience; TNG was what made me fall in love with Star Trek, and so when I first watched DS9, I hated it — it felt like an affront to Star Trek. Now, years later, DS9 is probably my favourite series, and I feel like it captures so much of what makes me call myself a Trekkie.

I have been enjoying Starfleet Academy, but even if it wasn't my cup of tea, I think I'd still respect it for being bold enough to go where no Trek has gone before. It's trying to do something different, and I appreciate its contribution to the wider conversation of what Star Trek is, or should be. It's been such a long running franchise precisely because of this willingness to adapt with the times, and I am glad to see Starfleet Academy continuing that tradition

I feel like online discourse about media is spoiled by loud fringes. There's a distressing amount of people who don't like women, queer folks, minorities, etc. They won't say that's why they don't like a show. Some of them might not even realize. They just feel unconsciously uncomfortable when there's a woman in charge or two men holding hands, and they reach for a more socially acceptable reason to reject it.