I regret to inform you that you are now obligated to sing this during Klingon karaoke at every convention you attend that has such an event for at least the next year.
Lower Decks captures a lot of that Gene Roddenberry “all the characters are good guys” style better than anything since Voyager as far as I’m concerned.
The Orville is on up there too, but I agree Lower Decks is better.
Somebody ought to ask Garrett Wang what he thinks about that. (Remind me 11 months from now and I’ll do it at next year’s Dragon Con if I get the chance.)
Yes, of course you should watch Star Trek! That goes without saying, regardless of your interest in Lower Decks.
(But yes, Lower Decks does make a lot of in-joke references. I imagine it’s still funny without them, but you’ll be missing quite a bit.)
BTW, Lower Decks is only one of three(!) animated Star Trek series now (with the others being Star Trek The Animated Series from the '70s, and Prodigy). I’ve only seen the first episode of Prodigy, but I get the impression that it might be less self-referential and thus might be a better introduction. Also, everybody says it’s really good.
Hot take: you don’t fully appreciate Q until you’ve watched all the episodes he’s in. That includes the ones in Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.
Fun fact: copyright in the US originally had a term of 14 years, renewable once for an additional 14. Under the standard the Framers intended, TOS ought to be in the Public Domain by now anyway.