I realized not too long ago that trek isn’t really my thing, even though it has a reputation of being at least mildly leftist. So I’m probably a bit more dismissive than I should be. But it’s kinda like if the EU made it to space…

OG trek is really quite liberal: “power of ideas”, especially humanism, type stuff. There’s a particularly bad episode on race relations (the people are black on left or right, and white on the other side) and it’s just terrible, especially when you consider it came out in 68/69. But it’s wild to watch media from 50-60 years ago, so as an “art” it’s quite unfamiliar and kind of amazing for that reason. Especially the weird lighting/framing, and how long some of the shots last

TNG is the flagship at this point, so it’s required watching. It’s really the “gen 1 Pokémon” of Star Trek. It’s perfectly good entertainment, although I’m not sure I can recall many leftist themes

DS9 has ferangi, who act as caricatures of greed, allowing the show to throw in actual leftist catchphrases here and there. But aside from that, the ferangi have some of the best actors playing the best characters. Bell riot lore also originated in DS9. Probably my favorite Star Trek

Voyager I mostly forget. Never figured out what’s up with the whole bajoran rebels thing, I don’t think there were too many worthwhile ideas there

Enterprise is the best Star Trek because it’s the most American, and thus the most honest with itself. Literally did a “9/11 in space” episode lmao. I don’t remember any character except Scott bakula; if I try to think of more, I just confuse it with Stargate

New trek (discovery, Picard) I really had a hard time watching. Imo they rely on ratcheting up tension. That’s a “form” criticism, but because of the form I couldn’t really get to the content. Unless the content was just “dramatic situations”

Lower decks is fine, though they kinda frame it as “not really the utopian future TNG portrayed itself as, huh?” which is pretty jarring as the overall theme