Actually... I think Trek did change starting with DS9... but then it kinda fell back to the TOS/TNG formula with VOY... but arguably, the last couple seasons of ENT morphed into a longer running story with mini arcs spanning 3 or 4 episodes, which kinda leads us to DISCO. So.. I see a connection in the evolution of the way stories are being told. And I kinda hear people that really love TOS/TNG kinda say that they don't care for DS9 or ENT... but maybe like VOY a bit more.
I mean, in my opinion DS9 changed Star Trek somewhat but not as much as the 2009 movie did. DS9 remained faithful to the work TNG did in building the 24th Century. DS9 really put it under the microscope.
Where DS9 gave us some thing a little different, Voyager gave us TNG 0.2.
I mean I think for 18 years Star Trek was utterly fantastic. I loved every moment of it and even now I look back and think darn those were some fantastic years of Star Trek. Even the not so great stories like Nemesis and most of Enterprise, they still have an important part to play in my enjoyment of that era.
In a weird way I think everything that has happened since they cancelled Enterprise, has kind of happened needlessly because in my mind, all Star Trek needed was more resources and fresh blood writing stories within the world created by Gene Roddenberry, Rick Berman, Brannon Braga, Ronald D. Moore, Michael Piller, Jeri Taylor and Ira Steven Bher.
We are where we are though. I loved the 2009 Star Trek movie and Im loving Star Trek: Discovery. What both are missing though is the connective tissue that binds them to the franchise we all love. The minutiae explaining the differences and without that, it seems ever so much like Abrams and now Kurtzman arent fully invested in preserving the past, but instead riding rough shot over canon and continuity with vague generic things that kind of connect 2009 and Discovery to the prime timeline and yeah I can see a connection between Enterprise and Discovery if only in a vague sort of way.
Id like to see more Star Trek alumni come into help write and flesh out this show though. Manny Coto and Ira Steven Bher are two names that jump out at me. Rick Sternbach and Doug Drexler are two others and of course who could forget the Okudas.
Discovery is working really well at delivering intriguing characters and great ideas but it is kind of missing some important family members who would be beneficial in helping the series really ground itself within the wider context of where this show is meant to be set.
If your saying that DISCO embraces a more modern way of story telling on TV, then yes I would agree. Of course that format isn't w/o its issues too!
Part of the fun of this type of story telling is you gotta watch the whole thing and trust that the writers are gonna do their job well and give you a satisfying conclusion... because if you invest a whole bunch of time and energy and like... something like "Lost"... then you may feel like you were duped.
We have 3 more episodes to see how this plays out.
And this is why I think Star Trek works best when its episodic and not serialised. Thats where the wagon train comes into it. Star Trek could be both episodic in that the ship would arrive in orbit or encounter some strange new thing and deal with it within the 45/60 minutes of that episode but character development would be ongoing throughout the season(s).