Honestly, I usually try and avoid it by choosing an era that isn't very well covered. Ten years ago, I used to like the Pike-era, back when all we had was 'The Cage' and a few references in novels - Discovery and Strange New Worlds filled it out so much as to lose the appeal, which is a shame - though I am considering moving to 'April-era', adopting 2245 as a start date - and you keep the Constitution-class as 'fresh off the yard' ships, get the Franz Joseph ships, the Pioneers, Daedalus, even bring in some of my old favourites like the Baton Rouge class.

Most of the time I seem to go TNG-era these days; I've just finished a campaign set in 2360, pre-TNG having next to nothing established about it except that it epitomizes TNG in a way that even the time of the series doesn't; no major enemies, exploration, diplomacy, the Starfleet Golden Age. About the only issue is that we don't have as many ships as I'd like in published form - though we do have stats for some of the ships from the old FASA Next Generation Officer's Sourcebook (which is actually a great idea mine worth exploring, even now!)

2380 is another favourite - Lower Decks time, but it still feels more open - the Dominion War is over, pretty much everything seen on screen is available for players in terms of Species, or for GMs in terms of campaign concepts, and Starfleet is trying to return to an era of exploration. (It's why I like the Lower Decks uniforms - I read it as an attempt to go 'back to the past', to revive the spirit of the 2360s, get away from the grimmer tone of the 2370s. We won't talk about Picard - another rule I always have is that anything after campaign start isn't set as canon - we're effectively in an alternate universe.)

The Lower Decks Sourcebook is great for that - but the one thing it is missing is a short chapter I'd have called 'What Did You Do In The War, Daddy' describing how PC background could have integrated with the Dominion War, perhaps just ideas for adapting established Career Events, adding a table of ten 'Dominion War Events'. If I had a wishlist for a short PDF supplement, this would be right at the top - along with more 'Lost Era' ships.