Strange New Worlds is actually pretty good. Sure there are some weak episodes, some silly ones and so on but don't forget Sisko got trapped in a board game and Picard was Robin Hood.

Xenophobic military propaganda?

Okay, I'll bite on this.

I'll grant that it's been a long time, but that seems like the opposite of the message of both that episode and the season as a whole...

Every first episodes of Star Trek series rather suck.

It's only downhill from there for Discovery.

The exact opposite is true for Lower Decks, I hated it in the beginning, but it ended up being my favourite show in 20 years.

To be fair, Burnham's supposed to be a bit immature and make questionable choices, which in itself is really annoying to a lot of people, but a product of the plot, and another episode or two and it might might sense.

Also, like @ValueSubtracted@startrek.website, I am a little confused by the "xenophobic military propaganda" bit. Maybe it's that you haven't watched the 2nd episode yet, but without spoiling much, Burnham's somewhat xenophobic actions go pretty horrifically wrong the next episode and basically cause much of the season's plot. Also, the Klingons aren't entirely villains throughout the season and show.

My biggest issue is I just dont like any of the characters and I wouldn't want to be on that ship. That to me is the biggest flaw of Discovery.

Every other Star Trek I can imagine it being so cool to get to be there. Discovery would be awful. Being around that crew sounds awful and exhausting.

I tried watching it and got to what I was told was a peak episode in S1E7 and it was still awful and seemed like it would be awful. No charm. I compare it to other episodes in sci fi like it and it has nearly 0 fun and the fun it had was dark and creepy.

In the end, I think The Orville is the best of all the new stuff.

While I think of all non-animated Trek shows, DS9 had the best first season, it still contains a lot of dogs. Move along home, anyone? My point is first seasons are rough. Discovery gets better in S2. I would watch it that far before you start SNW because it's basically the backdoor pilot for that show.

I don't think a mutinous commander is that outrageous a plot line in a universe where Riker once had Q powers, Janeway had warp 10 lizard babies with her pilot, Sisko poisoning a planet's atmosphere on purpose, or where a man like Jonathan Archer was made captain of anything.

Is Disco the best Trek show? I don't think so. I think overall it's better than PIC though. So if you have suffered through that, you stand a good chance of being more delighted by Disco.

Lower Decks is awesome. That and The Orville were some of my favourite "Star Trek" moments in modern times.

By the way, there's a bit of a story arc going on at the beginning of Discovery and some things don't make sense until that gets revealed later on. The show changes some of the tone and atmosphere over time with new seasons. But if you don't like it, maybe it's just not for you. It's not classic Star Trek for several reasons.

The commander disobeing order to the captain in the first and also attacking her?

Not sure why this would surprise you, disobeying orders is a favourite pastime in Starfleet.

Seriously, season 1 is quite grimdark, but it serves its purpose and the story is allowed to progress past it. The show mellows by the middle and becomes positively saccharine by the end.

While all first episodes catch viewers off guard, Doscovery is a big jump, from the 2000s to the almost-2020s

And it definitely tries to do things differently. It's all a connected story, episodes rarely are stand-alone, and moral messages are mixed inside the story

That said, as you go on, you'll find wonderful ideas that would nave been awesome on the 90s too. Surely a few things will seem off, but the concepts are very startrek. At least to me.

The first like three or five episodes of Discovery are basically a different show than the rest. And a couple seasons in they change the whole premise and it's a different show again.

Spoiler: you probably won't like any of the other episodes, ether.

I watched every episode, all the seasons. It does get better over time, and the last season is the best of them (imo). I feel like they started to actually figure themselves out by the last season, but I'd still say it was okay, not "good". I think I would have liked a sixth season to see if it would have become "good".

If we think of Discovery as a drama show that's about people's relationships that happens to be set in a sci-fi universe, I guess it's an okay show. It's just not what Trek or sci-fi fans want: sci-fi. Was it a good choice to make that kind of show? Well, you know, I wouldn't necessarily say "no", but I don't think it should have been "Star Trek". You can have drama shows in space, just call it something else. Trek as a franchise has a certain level of expectation, and disappointment exists in the gap between expectation and reality.

I despise Discovery but having a xenophobic protagonist was an interesting idea if they didn't abandon it to make Burnham the moral center.

No one will ever convince me that Nu-Trek isn’t an alternate universe.

Simply for the fact that Starfleet decided to retrofit the Enterprise with buttons, knobs, and CRT screens before giving it to Kirk? Makes no sense.

STD hasnt been a good series overall, picard is probably slightly better, with snw slighter better than picard. but thats not really a high bar. blame kurtzman for ruining trek.