It's mostly episodic like the original series and 90s Trek but it has some season long story arcs. But it's modern in its style of telling. It's funny without resorting to being MCU quippy. And the science is closer to modern science fiction rather than TOS' parallel worlds pattern.

That said, it has a mix of action and moral dilemma and politics. There are "needs of the many" stories that don't have clear right or wrong, the psychological impact from the horrors of war stories, even a courtroom episode that rivaled the best ones from TOS and TNG. But there are also flashy fan servicey episodes that are just fun.

I suggest giving the first episode a go. It sets the mood for the rest of the first two seasons. Each episode brings something different, but I think the first episode really speaks to what the series is trying to be.

He old

He invented Al Gore

Mobius: Knock Knock

Brad: Who's there?

Mobius: Brad

Brad: Brad who?

Mobius: That's show business

This is a bit of an old joke but the humour comes from two layers.

The first layer comes from the last two lines. Brad is a famous actor, so probably a household name. So the expectation is that nobody would ask who he was in the same way nobody would ask "Beyonce who?" But Hollywood is fickle and stars today can easily become forgotten tomorrow. Pretending not to know a celebrity is an insult that is associated with this nature of Hollywood. Hence the "That's show business line" where the jokester acts like they're reluctantly agreeing that the celebrity isn't famous anymore. This is extra hurtful since the famous person is the one tricked into saying "...(their own name) who?"

The second layer comes from the expectation of the structure of a regular knock knock joke. Since this joke doesn't follow that structure, it breaks expectations and creates humour.

Mainly it's the first part though.

I'm pretty sure 8ft is less than 2.4km

It's funny how the astronaut is leaning around it

On top of feeling real, it feels true to the characters that the show has developed over the past two seasons. It's not empathetic of her, but this feels exactly like the Christine we've been shown.

On top of that, it's a good lead up into the awkward relationship we got in TOS between the characters. Where Chapel seemed to sadly crush on Spock from afar.

This comment is in reply to a comment I deleted in order to test this theory.

This comment's parent is this comment. And its content is:

This is a comment I plan on replying to and deleting to test this theory

This comment's parent's parent is this comment. And its content is:

My understanding is it has to do with deleted comments not having a placeholder, so the comments you do see look like they're nested strangely

Dungeons and Dragons. With the right group, you can do anything.

I think it's as alien of the week as we can get while still having meaningful character growth. Each episode is pretty well contained and can be enjoyed in a vacuum. Yes, you get more enjoyment from seeing the payoff of character arcs and relationships, but I don't think that's a bad thing. Even classic 90s Trek had season long arcs and rewarded viewers who joined in every week.

Me when I have a migraine

Knowing what the different States are and different cities (for the title text) is pretty important. As someone who is from outside the United States, I wouldn't've been surprised if "Pennsylvania Wiring" was really a standard of wiring.

Well you should get your memory checked out because I don't remember it either and I have a terrible memory.

I guess I was lucky to have first experienced the Gorn in Enterprise. They were treated as scary and dangerous in a way TOS would never have been able to.

In that case, you could skip the first two seasons. Season 3 is really where it starts to get better. It's where the phrase "grow its beard" came from.

Kirk had a face like that too. I've seen him use it with Tribbles.

This is how my driving school taught me to use a roundabout. Though I never see anyone but me do this.

It's the same on Threads. Half the posts are about Twitter and it's exhausting.

I actually knew that. I was just trying to make a funny. But it failed.

I remember reading somewhere that Hollywood picked up on audiences' propensity to be more emotionally invested in the well-being of dogs, even if they're unnamed brand new characters and there are humans dying all around them.