I really don’t think the setting had anything to do with the more involved overarching stories, the writers had clearly been trying to go that direction since the second or third season of TNG and the new series just allowed them to take that a step further.
Good luck. I’m not a big Star Trek fan, but I’ve watched all the pre-Discovery stuff and Voyager is a big step down from TNG and DS9. And let me give you some friendly advice: skip Enterprise. It’s barely acknowledged in any later material, adds nothing interesting to the lore, and is easily one of the worst TV shows I’ve forced myself to sit through. And I watch a LOT of really shitty TV.
Nah, I’m just waiting until I’m in SE Asia later this year. When I was there back in 2018, Discovery was on Netflix, and I imagine CBS will keep that relationship going in the region rather than trying to go international.
Probably not much help to anyone else, though.
From what I saw on the "What We Left Behind" documentary, Paramount
hated the idea of story arcs, and it wasn't as ubiquitous a phenomenon then as it is now. They were more interested in the show being like the other Star Trek shows, where you could miss an episode or two and jump back in without having "caught up." Part of the reason that's less of a big deal now is that people can stream entire series of shows in the 2020s, but at the time it was a radical move. You can't really drop in and out of the last two seasons of
DS9.
Also, all of you are crazy. "Far Beyond the Stars" is the best DS9 episode.
All of the shows had to grow into themselves,
TOS being the possible exception because the characters and the chemistry among the actors seemed baked-in on that show.
TNG had a terrible first couple of seasons, with far too many terrible effects, too much hammy overacting, and way too many plots recycled from the original series.
DS9 started off okay, but it got a lot better (and they definitely should have let Avery Brooks shave his head from the word "go").
Voyager had its moments, but it was always the worst of the series (except for the animated series, which no one remembers).
Enterprise is weirdly underrated. Bakula made a pretty decent captain and the supporting cast were quite good too. Also, the new Andorians were great. There were definite moments where it seemed the pre-
TOS timeline meant that the technology didn't quite make sense.
Discovery suffers from similar issues--it looks like (I'm about halfway through the second series) we're going to get an explanation for why future generations didn't make use of the miraculous, galaxy-spanning "spore drive" before the series ends, but it feels weird that the showrunners can't just work within the confines of how we understand technology to work in whatever century they're choosing to set the fiction within.
off. 
with a 1650 Max-Q 4GB:
