But… this isn’t fake?

The original hardware was pretty good, too.

I rewatched TNG in its entirety during peak pandemic. Season 1 is pretty painful, but the rest holds up well. I tried to watch DS9 afterwards and bounced off it pretty hard. It’s got such a different vibe from TNG. Voyager is a little closer to TNG, but missing some of the campiness that I enjoy.

I’m really liking Lower Decks, Strange New Worlds, and Picard Season 3 (avoid Picard Seasons 1&2 at all costs, just skip them as they have nothing to do w/ S3).

Yes. This. But only if you have nostalgia for TNG (bonus points for DS9/Voyager).

Do NOT watch Picard seasons 1 or 2. Skip them entirely. I bailed out a few episodes into season 1 and recently picked up season 3. Aside from the first 5 mins of S3E1, you need to know absolutely nothing about the previous seasons. It’s like they suddenly realized that a show called Picard should actually be about Picard and just jettisoned all the nonsense they had been doing beforehand.